Fanshen; a documentary of revolution in a Chinese village by Hinton William

Author:Hinton, William [Hinton, William]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Tierra Tenencia, Derecho de, Land reform, Land tenure
Publisher: New York, Monthly Review Press
Published: 1967-03-15T06:00:00+00:00

As part of his self-criticism, Yu-hsing made a surprising admission. "Halfway to the field I got hungry. I ate one bun. I delivered 35 instead of 36. I will pay for it."

Instead of welcoming his frankness, the delgates were exasperated by his obtuseness. What good would it do to pay for one bun? The damage could not be measured in money. The whole aid group had fallen apart.

"You must examine your thoughts," said Old Pao. "Look at the harm you did. This trifling bun created such hard feeling. What were you thinking of?"

"I stole the bread," repeated Yu-hsing. "I had no purpose in mind. I was just hungry."

This was probably the truth, but the delegates refused to believe it. They began to shout at him.

"Plenty of people get hungry." "Tell the truth." "Speak what was in your mind."

"If you don't want to talk, we'll leave your case and go on to someone else," threatened Team Leader Hou in anger.

"I ate it, I ate it, I will pay," Yu-hsing yelled back, quite angry himself now.

"Why are you so stupid now, but so cunning when you stole the bread?" asked Delegate Spokesman Yang.

"He only began to recognize one piece of money from another last year," exclaimed Old Lady Wang in disgust. "Now he wants to resist us by keeping silent just like a dead pig who is not afraid of scalding water."

They decided to hold him over until the next day.

With the examination of so many persons already successfully completed, the peasant delegates began to feel more and more confident, and so did the Party members. The atmosphere in the meeting hall relaxed. There was a growing tendency to laugh when something funny was said, and to enjoy sharp repartee when it was clever. The gulf which existed between the Party members and the delegates at the beginning of the campaign gradually disappeared and was replaced by a growing camaraderie between those who had passed the gate and had consequently been restored to full citizenship and the delegates who had allowed them to pass.

There was far more humor than anger when Meng Fu-lu came before the meeting. He was almost twice as old as any other Party member and looked it. His broad face was weathered and wrinkled like the skin of a dried persimmon. This man, who had been in charge of education in the branch, said he joined the militia because he thought his brother was going to be attacked as a landlord.

"My attitude toward the masses was bad, wasn't it?"

He asked the question in such a quizzical way, as if he needed the assurance of the delegates that he was bad, that everyone burst out laughing.

A little later he was asked, "Why did you quarrel with your wife?"

"Because I have another woman—only one though," he added, as if this meager number made the affair reasonable.

This produced a second wave of laughter.

"Ch'un-fu's mother's grave is in your field. Whenever you plow you make it smaller," said Old Tui-chin.

"I wanted more land," admitted Fu-lu.

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