Lenin's Kisses (15 page)

CAO’ER SINGS:

The sun of the seventh day is already upon us.

Purple clouds and rose-colored dawn.

The gates to heaven are open.

And I have no dark thoughts.

If I step forward I will be as fortunate as the eternally flowing eastern sea

But if I step back I will endure a sea of endless bitterness.

I have already seen the smiling bodhisattvas standing at the gate.

The gate to heaven is brightly illuminated,

The gold-paved road is broad,

And the silver-plated walls are bright.

I can already see various spirits standing next to the bodhisattva

With their long sleeves, broad belts, and benevolent expressions.

Young boys happily welcome me with dimpled cheeks,

and jade-like girls with long braids laugh.

If I advance, there is the road to heaven,

But if I retreat, there is the road to hell.

If I advance, there is the gate to heaven,

But if I retreat, there are the depths of hell.

If I advance, there is eternal happiness,

But if . . . But if . . .

But how can I bear to see my blind husband enter the kitchen

Handling the spring planting and autumn harvest all alone?

Harvesting the grain alone,

Tears stream down his face as he cuts the beans.

Who could help him sharpen his sickle?

Who would help him wash his clothes?

How can I endure this, how can I endure?

How can I bear watching my deaf-mute son walking alone along the street,

Wanting to ask for directions, but having no voice?

When other people speak to him, he merely stares in confusion.

How can I endure this? How can I endure?

How can I bear to watch my daughter lying paralyzed in bed?

Struggling to crawl forward,

When she tries to close the chicken cage, she is unable to walk over to it,

When she tries to feed the pigs, she is unable to lift even half a pail of scraps,

When she tries to feed the horse, she is unable to cut the hay,

When she tries to lead the horse, she cannot untie the bridle,

When the dog is hungry all she can do is stay in the doorway,

And when the cat can’t find its way home she simply cries her eyes out.

My home, my sweet home!

Although this thatched hut may be dilapidated and run-down,

It is still my home.

The chicken coop and pigpen are also my home.

How could I forget? I don’t dare forget.

The blind, crippled, deaf, and mute are still my family.

I am my husband’s wife and my children’s mother.

Whatever fortunes heaven might hold, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy them.

The roads are paved with gold and silver but I cannot see their brilliance.

Difficulties and travails I would willingly enliven.

The endless sea of bitterness is my fate.

(She suddenly turns, and shouts loudly)

—Oh, my husband, my children, my ox, horse, pigs, goats, and chickens!

Further Reading:

1)
Flatbread.
Dumplings, but because they are flat, they are called “flatbread.”

3)
Balou tunes.
A kind of local theater popular in the Balou mountains. It is a hybrid of Henan opera and drama, but with more emphasis placed on singing than on acting, and therefore does not lend itself to being performed by large groups.

5)
Higher-ups.
This refers to upper-level agencies and organizations. These upper-level agencies and organizations are called higher-ups by the people of Liven, of the Balou mountain region, and even of the entire province, and they elicit a feeling of awe among the common people.

7)
Directors.
This is what the residents of Liven call village cadres or people who would use a cadre’s authority to resolve problems.

9)
Special skills.
Special technique. The residents of Liven and of the Balou mountain region all refer to technique as a kind of skill. Mixed technique, therefore, becomes mixed skills, and artistic technique becomes artistic skills. Special skills, accordingly, are really a kind of special activity practiced by those who happen to possess an unusual ability.

11)
Xiangfu tunes.
An antecedent of Henan opera. Originally, these tunes developed in the Xiangfu township of Henan province, and therefore they are called “Xiangfu tunes.”

13)
Stage-step.
Stage stairs.

15)
Middle Shadows.
This refers to the legendary region between light and shadows. After passing through the Middle Shadows, one reaches the Shadowy Region.

C
HAPTER 7:
C
AO’ER DEPARTS,
AND PEOPLE’S AFFECTIONS
TURN TO
C
HIEF
L
IU

Chief Liu felt strangely furious.

By the time Cao’er finished singing
Seven Head Turns
, her voice was completely hoarse. The real Cao’er sobbed as she sang, soaking two handkerchiefs with her tears, but the fictional Cao’er had spent her entire life blind and crippled, deaf and mute. It would have been very easy for her to have simply died and gone to heaven, but in the end she couldn’t bear to relinquish her mortal life, and therefore when she arrived at the silver and golden gates of heaven, she looked back at the mortal world, resolving to resume her former life of bitter toil. How could this performance not bring the disabled inhabitants of Liven to tears? When Cao’er finished singing, the crowd was a teary mess, and everyone—the blind, the deaf, the crippled, and the otherwise disabled—was sobbing inconsolably. After everybody finished crying, the audience thunderously applauded as Cao’er stood at the front of the stage for her curtain call.

The applause was far louder than what had followed the county chief’s opening remarks, and it lasted for longer than a shovel handle. Cao’er came down from the stage and walked over to greet Chief Liu. She had changed out of her performance costume and put on her street clothes, but even then she was still surrounded by applauding people. This made Chief Liu feel somewhat nonlivened.
¹
He was quite certain that the applause for him had not been nearly as long or as loud. However, he was not a wimpy chick-bellied, duck-gutted loser, so he stood in front of the stage and shouted, “Fellow townspeople, my fellow townspeople! You have endured a natural disaster. Everyone should now get in line, and I will issue each of you fifty-one yuan. Everyone come take your money!”

It was true that fifty-one yuan was, in fact, more than fifty. Chief Liu personally distributed to each of the townspeople these allotments of “more than fifty” yuan: one fifty-yuan bill and a one-yuan bill. He sat at a table, and as the head of each household approached one after another, he gave the families their money. If the family had two members, he would give them one hundred-yuan bill and two one-yuan bills; and if the family had five members, he would issue them two hundred-yuan, one fifty-yuan, and five one-yuan bills. In all, there was just enough to give everyone exactly fifty-one yuan.

The field was in turmoil, as outsiders with family in the village accompanied their relatives to eat boiled vegetables from the communal pot, as those who didn’t have relatives in the village bought food from local peddlers, and as those finishing their lunch prepared to go watch the people of Liven perform their specialties. These performances had a different ending from that of the Balou tune
Seven Head Turns
, and rather than making people cry they made them burst out laughing as their jaws dropped in astonishment. For instance, in the back of the village there was someone who had lost an eye, and therefore had to view the world through just one eye. But if you put five needles in a row, he could thread them all in a single try. Of course, everyone who couldn’t thread a needle would simply laugh, while the women and girls in the audience would stare in astonishment. There was also One-Legged Monkey—also known as One-Leg—who was always following Chief Liu around like a shadow. He dared to race against the fastest two-legged men in the village, and as long as he had a good crutch, he could always beat them. And there was also Paraplegic Woman, who could embroider both sides of a piece of cloth with identical images of a cat, a dog, and a sparrow. This was known as double-faced embroidery, and she could even embroider on a tree leaf—as long as it was a large one, such as that of a poplar or tung-oil tree.

These Liven special-skills performances were renowned throughout the Balou region.

As Chief Liu was distributing the money to the residents of Liven, he gave the money to the wholers without any questions, but if the recipient was disabled he would ask, “What kind of special skill can you perform?”

The recipient would smile, and rather than specifying his special skill, he would say,

“Chief Liu, please have Cao’er sing another tearjerker as an encore.”

Chief Liu’s face would harden with displeasure.

A middle-aged blind man walked over. He carefully felt the money Chief Liu gave him, then lifted it into the air, blindly holding it under the sunlight.

Chief Liu said, “You can rest easy. How could I, the county chief, give you counterfeit money?”

The blind man laughed and took the money, then begged him,

“Cao’er sings so refreshingly well, could you please have her sing an encore?”

Chief Liu asked, “Which is more important, money or listening to the opera?”

The blind man replied, “If you can convince her to sing again, I’d be perfectly happy not to take this money.” It was almost as if what Chief Liu had given him was not money to help him survive the spring famine, but rather merely a handful of new bills.

The embroidering Paraplegic Woman came to the center of the village to receive the disaster relief funds for her family. She sat on a wheeled plank, and each time she nudged herself forward the wheels would squeak. Chief Liu said, “You should oil those wheels.” She replied, “I have already cried my eyes out. Please have Cao’er sing a new song.” Chief Liu suggested, “For the encore, why don’t you simply perform your embroidering-leaf specialty.” She responded, “After hearing Cao’er sing, who could bear to watch someone embroider?” She accepted two hundred and fifty-five yuan in disaster relief funds for her five-person family. As she was accepting the money, she didn’t say a word—not thanking the government, or even nodding to Chief Liu—but rather continued staring reverently in the direction in which the costumed Cao’er had departed.

Chief Liu was furious.

He called Cao’er up to him and said, “You performed quite well, but now you are competing with me for the spotlight.” Therefore, he handed her a hundred-yuan bill, and said, “Leave now, and you should be able to be out of the Balou mountain region before nightfall.”