by David Hare
Chang Ch’uer We can’t go back.
Pause.
Little Li We must talk.
Hou I think I should decide when we’re to talk …
Little Li It’s a warm night. Look at the stars. I suggest the form is self-criticism, yes?
Hou I don’t think …
Chang Ch’uer Only if it’s honest.
Little Li Of course.
Chang Ch’uer From everybody.
Hou What do you mean?
Chang Ch’uer We can’t go back till we’ve spoken.
Pause. Hou wanders away, serious now, to think what this means. Ch’i-yun speaks very quietly, regretful.
Ch’i-yun You’ve lost the trust of your team. Sit down.
Pause. Hou sits.
Hou Supper?
Little Li After. Criticism first. Ch’i-Yun?
Ch’i-yun I think most of what Ch’en said is true. When I went to Long Bow I did think poverty was everything. I just looked for rags and fleabites, I thought the smellier the better; lice-ridden, shit-stained old men I thought wonderful, I can’t get enough of it, I’m really doing the job. And I believed everything they said, every accusation made against the Party. That was wrong. I lacked objectivity. (She looks round, handing it on like a baton.)
Little Li From the very start we persecuted the …
Chang Ch’uer Criticize yourself.
Little Li From the very start I persecuted the village cadres. I was over-harsh, I assumed everything was true. I kept telling the village they were poor because the cadres had taken all the fruits. But really, how much did they take? And if it were all divided up, what difference would it make to the whole distribution? (He looks at Chang Ch’uer.)
Chang Ch’uer For a long time I’ve been thinking mostly about myself. After I was attacked I was very ill, the medicine the doctor gave me was very expensive. So I asked my neighbours for help, but they just said, you’re a cadre and cadres should serve the people like oxen. Now I’m away from home, from my wife, from my children, and no one is helping me in the mutual aid scheme while I’m away because they refuse to help cadres. All the time, all the time I’m thinking my land is rotting and the people do not trust their leaders … I’m a servant of the people but sometimes … I find the people very hard to like.
Chang Ch’uer looks up, the baton passed. Hou silent.
Little Li Comrade …
Hou I’m not a good leader, I know that. I do try.
Chang Ch’uer Honest, we said, honest.
Hou I know I’m not clever …
Chang Ch’uer We said honest. Not humble. Humble isn’t honest. Humble’s humble. Humble’s a way of not being criticized …
Hou I do try …
Chang Ch’uer Whenever we’ve tried to criticize you, you just say I know it’s terrible, I’m just such a terrible person, you say yes, yes I’m sorry of course I know I’m so weak … but that doesn’t solve anything.
Hou I lie awake at night …
Ch’i-yun That’s just what’s wrong, don’t you see? It’s useless lying awake at night. It’s no help to anyone, it’s subjective. Your work style is undemocratic.
Hou I thought this was to be self-criticism.
Chang Ch’uer We can’t go back if you won’t talk to us.
Hou I took the job on very proud, very confident, then I began to realize it was more difficult than anything I had done in my life. I lost my nerve.
Chang Ch’uer Why didn’t you …
Little Li (stops him) Ah.
Hou I became afraid to consult you. I felt Little Li was just waiting for me to put a foot wrong. I thought I must be strong or they’ll think ill of me. That’s what leaders always think. That’s what leaders are. Do this. Do that. And at the back of the head … what do they think of me? (He smiles.) After Ch’en … after what Ch’en said to us today I realized I’m not suited to the job, I’ve led the team badly and I must resign.
Ch’i-yun Oh no.
Little Li No.
Chang Ch’uer Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Little Li Do you understand nothing?
Ch’i-yun What rubbish.
Little Li ‘I resign.’
Hou I feel …
Chang Ch’uer Always the hero, you … always want to be the hero. ‘I resign.’
Little Li ‘I resign.’
Chang Ch’uer Wonderful.
Hou I’m sure …
Little Li I? I? Who is this I? The I who said I don’t want my decisions questioned?
Silence.
Hou Yes. That I.
Silence.
Ch’i-yun We have to go back tomorrow and set about reclassifying the village. It will not … go down well. No one will light fires for our return. We will have to explain, discuss, report, evaluate, classify, post results, then listen to appeals, explain again, discuss again, classify again, post revised results. How can we do it if we are thinking of ourselves?
Silence.
Right now we are thinking life is easier at home. But that is because we have been badly led.
Hou I …
Ch’i-yun Yes.
Silence.
Why do we live in this world? Is it just to eat and sleep and lead a worthless life? That is the landlord and rich peasant point of view. Enjoy life, waste food and clothes, have children. But a Communist works not only for his own life: he has offered everything to the service of his class. If he finds one poor brother suffering from hunger and cold, he has not done his duty. Comrade.
Silence.
You should talk to us more.
Chang Ch’uer It doesn’t solve my problem.
Ch’i-yun Nothing will solve your problem.
Chang Ch’uer Thank you.
Ch’i-yun Except working harder.
Chang Ch’uer I work eighteen hours a day.
Ch’i-yun Work twenty. You can if you want to. If we make you want to. But Comrade Hou must give us a lead.
Hou Yes.
Silence. He is at the end of his personality.
What should I do?
Ch’i-yun You have just given us a totally inadequate account of your work as team leader. You must make specific accusations against yourself. Only then will we begin to get at the truth. Only then will we begin to work as a team. You must go back over every event. You must tell us how and where and when you went wrong. When you began not to trust us. You must trace back over everything, every detail, every bad thought.
Hou Yes.
Silence.
I have led the team badly.
Ch’i-yun Be specific.
Hou Once …
SECTION TEN
1
Three different households.
Tui-chin is sitting outside his house. Cheng-k’uan is staring into a bucket containing a dead child. And in Wente’s house Hsien-e is working. Meanwhile the work team try to go about their business.
Slogan: YU-LAI AND WEN-TE RETURN TO LONG BOW
Yu-lai and Wen-te walk down the village street, Tui-chin withdraws indoors and prepares to go to bed. As they look around …
Yu-lai What is it?
Wen-te It’s called chewing-gum. Someone gave me it in prison.
Yu-lai Ah.
Wen-te gives him the bit he has been chewing. Yu-lai puts it in. Chang Ch’uer goes to Tui-chin’s house. Yu-lai smiles at Wen-te.
Yu-lai What a place. Why did we return?
Chang Ch’uer Comrade. There is a meeting tonight. Classification.
Tui-chin I’ve been classified.
Chang Ch’uer To help classify others.
Tui-chin I have my own classification, that’s enough. I’m tired and I’m going to bed.
Chang Ch’uer Tui-chin.
Tui-chin Don’t raise your voice, I’ll report you.
Yu-lai sits down outside the house and starts to polish his Luger.
Yu-lai Go and find your wife.
Wen-te goes into the house.
Chang Ch’uer We need to form a new Peasants’ League
.
Tui-chin We’ve got a Poor Peasants’ League.
Chang Ch’uer An official league this time, not a provisional.
Tui-chin Ah.
Chang Ch’uer To carry out a new classification, so we can form a Provisional Peasants’ Association.
Tui-chin We’ve got a Peasants’ Association.
Chang Ch’uer A new Peasants’ Association …
Tui-chin What for?
Chang Ch’uer A new gate.
Pause.
Tui-chin I’m tired.
Tui-chin turns away. Wen-te faces Hsien-e inside the house. Yu-lai still sits outside.
Hsien-e Wen-te.
Yu-lai Tell her we’re hungry.
Wen-te My father says we’re hungry.
Hsien-e There’s corn.
Wen-te She says there’s corn.
Yu-lai Rabbit. In a stew. With garlic. And leeks. Pork. Shrimp. Onions. Tell her. Dumplings with herbs. Beancurd. Tell her. Tell her to ask her friends in the village, tell her to visit their homes, suggest … they give us … their food.
Hsien-e stares at Wen-te.
Hsien-e There’s some corn.
Wen-te smashes Hsien-e hard across the face. Then beats her.
Tui-chin It’s not as if anyone else’ll be there …
Chang Ch’uer That’s not true.
Tui-chin Nobody obeys orders here any more, what’s the point?
Chang Ch’uer Tui-chin.
Tui-chin I was among the keenest, comrade. Among the first. Then when you came, you told us to denounce corrupt leaders. And I did. I denounced Yu-lai while he was in prison. And now he’s been released. Do you think he doesn’t know? Do you think he isn’t waiting for revenge? Feel my back. I’m sweating.
Chang Ch’uer We had no choice.
Tui-chin At least before they would have killed him.
He prepares for bed. Ch’i-yun crosses to Cheng-k’uan’s house. Yu-lai calls to Wen-te inside the house.
Yu-lai What does she say?
Wen-te She says yes, certainly, at once, of course, she’s just going, sorry to be so long, are you sure that’s all you want?
Wen-te thrashes wildly at Hsien-e with his belt. She runs out of the house, at great speed and away.
Ch’i-yun Cheng-k’uan. Why is there no one at the meeting? Cheng-k’uan.
Chang Ch’uer We will organize another gate. To bring Yu-lai and Wen-te before the people. Confront them with their crimes. Sort everything out. Will you testify? Will you denounce them before the gate?
Tui-chin Yu-lai and Wen-te are innocent. Of everything. That’s what I’ll say.
Wen-te comes out of the house. Stands beside his father.
Wen-te She’s gone to get the food.
Tui-chin I trusted you. We all did.
Yu-lai throws the chewing-gum to the ground.
Yu-lai This stuff doesn’t taste.
Ch’i-yun I know it’s hard. And it’s tiring, Cheng-k’uan. But you must never give up.
Cheng-k’uan I buried the cord. I was told to bury the cord.
Chang Ch’uer Are you coming to the meeting?
Silence. Ch’i-yun uncovers the child.
I promise, I promise to try and help.
Ch’i-yun Tell me what happened.
Cheng-k’uan Our child was born in a wash-basin six days ago. None of us knew it was coming so it just fell into a dirty basin at my wife’s feet. We had nothing to cut the cord. She was bent forward, the child was filthy, my wife couldn’t move. At first I couldn’t find the midwife. Then after an hour she came, with an old pair of scissors.
Pause. Chang Ch’uer leaves Tui’chin’s house. Tui-chin goes to bed.
Cheng-k’uan How can we go on? I’m tired. Everyone says I’ve fanshened, but what’s changed? Where are the doctors? How I long for money. Doctors. Scalpels. Clothes, clean clothes.
Ch’i-yun They’ll come.
Ch’i-yun turns away. Yu-lai looks up smiling at Chang Ch-uer.
Yu-lai What’s the matter? Can’t get anyone to your meetings?
Chang Ch’uer They’re frightened.
Holding the gun with both hands at arms’ length, Yu-lai walks towards Chang Ch’uer.
Yu-lai Use force.
Chang Ch’uer They’re frightened of you.
Yu-lai steps back. He is genuinely angry. Ch’i-yun has joined them outside. Yu-lai yells at the top of his lungs, red, demented.
Yu-lai Has anyone. In the village. Any charge. Against me. Will anyone. Speak.
A silence. Then Yu-lai laughs and fires his gun in the air. Ch’i-yun turns away. Yu-lai looks up smiling at Chang Ch’uer.
Yu-lai Good night.
Wen-te Good night.
They go into the house.
Ch’i-yun Until finally after many months a young bride led the way.
2
Hsien-e crosses the village at night.
Hsien-e I’ll give evidence at the gate.
Ch’i-yun Hsien-e.
Hsien-e Against my father-in-law Yu-lai. And against my husband Wen-te.
Ch’i-yun Let me light this lamp.
Hsien-e No. If I testify …
Ch’i-yun Yes.
Hsien-e I must never see him again. They’d kill me.
Ch’i-yun Yes.
Hsien-e And I shall want a divorce.
Pause.
Ch’i-yun You must go to the County …
Hsien-e I know. But first I must have the backing of the Women’s Association, you must promise me that …
Ch’i-yun No one has ever been divorced in Long Bow, the men will be against it.
Hsien-e Of course.
Ch’i-yun And the older women.
Hsien-e Wen-te beat me. And Yu-lai. With a mule-whip. Often to within an inch of my life. I must have the backing of the Association. If I am not given a divorce, I will kill myself. (Pause.) What do you say?
Ch’i-yun I say, come in, sleep here, never go home again. We will look after you. Plead your case to the Women’s Association, then appear at the gate. I say that women … are half of China.
The banner unfurls to read WOMEN ARE HALF OF CHINA. An embrace. The scene breaks.
3
Hou To bring before the gate those who have so far avoided it.
Slogan: THE SECOND GATE
This gate is in the church. Present are Wen-te, Hsien-e and Yu-lai. At the side are Comrade Hou and Little Li. Delegates to the gate are Tui-chin, Cheng-k’uan, Hsin-ai and Huan-ch’ao.
Hou Wang Wen-te, son to Wang Yu-lai, suspended Head of Police. You must criticize yourself.
Wen-te I don’t want to … everything. I’ll just list the things. I once beat Hsi-le because he was moaning about fanshen, saying it had been a mistake, so I rapped him about the face a couple of times. That was wrong, I should have talked to him. Also, bitterness. I admit to cursing the work team, when they sent me wrongfully to prison. In public I called them cunts. I said … Comrade Hou was a cunt. That was wrong. Also …
Yu-lai comes into the meeting late. Walks down the aisle. Sits down. Everyone watches him.
Wen-te I once … gave Huan-ch’ao a thrashing because of some silly gossip.
Huan-ch’ao It wasn’t gossip, it was true.
Hou Let him speak.
Wen-te I know that was wrong.
Huan-ch’ao Why did you beat me?
Hou Let him finish.
Wen-te I think that’s all. I don’t think anybody here would have … any serious things to add. I would be surprised.
He looks at them all daring them to speak. Huan Ch’ao rises and goes right up to him.
Huan-ch’ao Turtle’s egg. Donkey’s tool. Your mother’s stinking cunt. (He puts a finger in his face and shouts.) You beat me because I told the truth. I said you beat your wife. That’s why you left me for dead. Because I told the truth.
He tries to strangle him. Hou separates them.
Hou Get him off. Get him off.
Huan-ch’ao (screaming) I was left for dead. (He is dr
agged off. Then looks round.) Why? Why have you stopped me? Am I the only one? Am I the only man in Long Bow? I risk my life to accuse them. And you … when you find my body in a ditch, you will know everything.
He sits down. Yu-lai speaks very quietly.
Yu-lai The man is mad. There’s no case to answer.
Hsien-e stands at once. Her assurance and command are stunning.
Wen-te Not her.
Hsien-e When I was ten, my parents were starving, they sold me to be engaged to Wen-te. In return they got grain and money. I had to go and live in Yu-lai’s home. He starved me, I had to go into the fields to find herbs to stay alive. They gave me only water. When I was fourteen, they made me marry him. After the marriage they often locked me in the house for weeks. Wen-te locked the doors and whipped me with a mule-whip. His father was free with me. I have made up my mind to divorce him, I have the backing of the Women’s Association. Have I said enough?
Hou Did you beat her?
Wen-te looks at Yu-lai. Yu-lai almost nods.
Wen-te Once or twice.
Hou Why?
Yu-lai Because she used to flirt in the cornfield, with other men. She was late with supper because she’d been whoring …
Tui-chin like a barrack-room lawyer.
Tui-chin How old was your wife when you married her?
Wen-te She …
Hsien-e Fourteen.
Wen-te Fifteen.
Yu-lai Sixteen.
Wen-te Sixteen.
Tui-chin How did you get a licence at the district office?
Hsien-e He ordered me to say I was sixteen.
Tui-chin Is that true? (Pause.) Is that true? (He turns to Hsien-e.) Why did you agree to lie?
Wen-te Because she wanted to marry me of course.
Tui-chin Then you admit she lied (Pause.) Why did you agree?
Hsien-e Because they threatened my parents.
Tui-chin How?
Hsien-e They threatened to denounce them as Kuomintang agents.
Huan-ch’ao Anyone who disobeyed them was called a spy.
Hsin-ai Yes, that’s how they dealt with everyone.
Hou What do you say?
Wen-te It’s … very hard to remember. I can’t remember. I can’t remember the answers. (Pause.) Criticize me. While I try to remember the answers.
Slogan: THEY TALKED FOR EIGHT HOURS