The Good Women Of China

by Xinran

  At the time, everyone sought political advantage to consolidate his or her own position in the new Communist order. Before long, a representative from the local army garrison informed Wang Yue that she would have to give a full account of her ‘late husband’, Shilin’s father.

  One night, the headmaster of Wang Yue’s school ran over to their room in a state of high agitation. ‘Both of you must go now – they’re going to arrest you. Run away as far as you can. Don’tcome back to Nanjing whatever you do. They say Shilin is the daughter of a Guomindang general, and you have committed the crime of sheltering a counter-revolutionary. I don’t want to hear your explanations. In these times the less one knows the better. Go at once! Don’t pack anything, they might even seal off the riverbank at any moment. Go, hurry! If you need anything in the future, come and look for me. I have to go. If the PLA catch me, my whole family will be in for it.’

  Ready to weep with anxiety, Wang Yue took the half-asleep Shilin by the hand and walked out of Nanjing. Wang Yue had no idea where to go, but there was no possibility of asking anyone for help. She dared not imagine what would become of them if they were caught. They walked for nearly three hours; the sky was lightening but Nanjing still seemed to be right behind them. When Shilin could not walk any further, Wang Yue pulled her into some bushes by the roadside and sat down. The ground was wet with dew, and they were hungry and cold, but Shilin was so exhausted that she fell asleep immediately, leaning against her aunt. Tired and frightened, Wang Yue eventually cried herself to sleep as well.

  Some time later, voices woke Wang Yue. A middle-aged couple and a tall young man were standing close by, looking concerned.

  ‘Why are you sleeping here?’ the middle-aged woman asked. ‘It’s cold and damp. Get up at once and find a house or some other place to sleep in, or you’ll fall ill.’

  ‘Thank you, but I, we, can’t go any further – the child is too tired,’ Wang Yue replied.

  ‘Where are you going?’ the woman asked, as she gestured to the young man to pick Shilin up.

  ‘I don’t know. I just want to get further away from Nanjing.’ Wang Yue did not know what to say.

  ‘Running away from a forced marriage, eh? Ah, it’s hard when you’ve a child with you,’ the woman said kindly. ‘Wait a moment, I’ll try to work something out with my husband. This is my son Guowei, and this is my husband.’

  The middle-aged man standing to one side looked bookish and kindly. He spoke quickly, but with warmth. ‘No need to talk it over. We’re all in a hurry, so just come along with us. It’s easier to travel in a group. Besides, how could we abandon a widow and orphan like you? Come, let me carry your bundle of things. Guowei can take charge of the little girl. Ting, give her a hand up.’

  On the road, Wang Yue learned the older man was called Wang Duo and that he had been headmaster of a school in Nanjing. His wife, Liu Ting, had been educated in a progressive girls’ school, so she had helped her husband with the teaching and the accounts at his school. Wang Duo was originally from Yangzhou, where his ancestors had taught the Confucian classics in a private academy. The school had been closed during the various wars and general chaos of the last decades, and had become a family dwelling. When Wang Duo married, the family profession and the house had passed on to him. He had wanted to set up a school, but found it difficult to realise his plans in the small town of Yangzhou. Because he wished his only son to have a good education, he had moved the family to Nanjing, where they stayed for ten years.

  In the unsettled times, Wang Duo had faced difficulties setting up his school in Nanjing. He thought several times of returning to Yangzhou to write in peace, but Liu Ting, who wanted Guowei to complete his higher education in Nanjing, always talked him into staying on. Now that Guowei had completed senior school, they were returning to Yangzhou.

  Wang Yue did not dare to tell the truth in return, but only spoke vaguely of some secret that was hard to put into words. At that time, educated people knew that knowledge was dangerous. After the fall of the Qing dynasty, China had fallen into a long period of anarchy and feudal rule. The chaos had been worst in the forty-five years prior to the new Communist government: governments and dynasties had seemed to change every day. No one knew the laws of the new republic yet, so the popular saying went: ‘Keep silent on affairs of the state, speak little of family matters: one thing less is better than one thing more.’ The Wang family did not press Wang Yue for details.

  Yangzhou is a picturesque riverside town close to Nanjing. The local specialities of steamed vegetable dumplings, dried turnip and stewed tofu sheets with ginger are famous all over China. Girls from Yangzhou are renowned for their complexions and their beauty. Yangzhou’s rural setting and its backdrop of mountains and water have attracted many members of the literati and of the government. The Beijing Opera master, Mei Lanfang, and the famous poet of the New Moon School, Xu Zhimo, are both from Yangzhou, as is Jiang Zemin, the current President of China.

  Wang Duo and Liu Ting’s house was a traditional courtyard house in a western suburb of Yangzhou by Lake Shouxi. Centuries of dredging and the planting of gardens and woods had transformed the lake into one of the most beautiful in China.

  In their absence, the house had been looked after by an old couple, so it was clean and tidy. Though everything about the house was old, there was a pleasant, scholarly air about it. Shortly after they arrived in Yangzhou, Wang Yue and Shilin both came down with high fevers. Liu Ting was very worried, and had hurriedly called the Chinese herbalist, who diagnosed shock and chills from exhaustion, and prescribed some herbal treatments, which Liu Ting brewed for them.

  Wang Yue and Shilin recovered after a week or two, but Shilin was no longer her former lively self, and hid behind the grown-ups when the Wang family took her to see the neighbours’ children. Wang Yue believed that Shilin was still suffering the after-effects of their flight from Nanjing, but would soon get over it.

  Not long after, Liu Ting said to Wang Yue, ‘My husband says you’re a good hand with a pen. If you like, you can stay with us and help us with some clerical work. You can call us Uncle and Aunt, and Guowei Elder Brother. We will help you look after Shilin too.’

  Wang Yue was overcome with gratitude, and accepted immediately.

  The political climate in Yangzhou in the 1950s was much less fraught than in bigger towns. The people in Yangzhou were not overfond of politics, and the cultural tradition there was for everyone to live and work in peace. The sincerity and goodness of the Wang family helped Wang Yue to put the terror and insecurity of the past few months behind her.

  Guowei started teaching at a newly built primary school, where he took Shilin every day. Back with children of the same age, Shilin gradually became less withdrawn and more like her old self.

  Guowei liked his job, for the school had a lively, creative atmosphere, and did not distinguish between rich and poor. Guowei’s commitment was rewarded by the school, which arranged for him to participate in many extra-curricular activities. When Guowei spoke enthusiastically about his work at home, his parents often warned him to be more circumspect. Wang Yue was a keen and faithful listener, showing interest and understanding for Guowei’s passions. The couple fell in love, and were engaged during Wang Yue’s third year in Yangzhou.

  Wang Yue told the Wang family the truth about herself and Shilin on the day of the engagement. As Liu Ting listened, she took Wang Yue’s hand, saying over and over again, ‘You’ve had a hard time, you’ve had such a hard time.’

  Wang Duo said, ‘Shilin is your sister’s child, and she’s our child too. From tomorrow, you are the daughter of the Wang family, so Shilin is the granddaughter of the Wang family.’

  Shilin already addressed Wang Duo and Liu Ting as her grandparents, and Wang Yue as her mother, but it was not so easy for her to address Guowei as her father. She was now ten, and it was particularly hard for her to change her manner of address to Guowei in front of her classmates. At Wang Yue and Guowei’s wedding, however, she call
ed Guowei ‘Papa’ without being prompted. Guowei was so pleased and surprised that he caught her up in his arms and hugged her tightly, until Liu Ting shouted, ‘Put her down, you’ll hurt her.’

  Shilin was bright and diligent, and was guided by her family members, who were all teachers. She excelled at school, and skipped a grade, moving from the third to the fifth year. When she entered the sixth year, Shilin represented the school in the North Jiangsu Regional Essay Competition, and won first prize. She went on to win the bronze medal in an essay competition for the whole of Jiangsu Province. Wang Yue and Guowei were overjoyed by the news – hugging Shilin and paying no attention to the cries of their first baby in their excitement. Everyone in the family was bursting with pride, and their neighbours congratulated them on Shilin’s brilliance.

  The next day, as Guowei was writing couplets on lucky red paper to display for International Children’s Day on 1 June, a girl pupil rushed over to him, gasping for breath:

  ‘Mr Wang, come quickly. The boys are calling Shilin names and she is quarrelling with them. She’s exhausted, but we girls don’t dare help her – the boys say they’ll hit anyone who does!’

  As Guowei hurried towards the small school sports ground he heard the boys yelling at Shilin:

  ‘You hypocrite!’

  ‘Bastard child!’

  ‘Bastards are always the clever ones!’

  ‘Ask your mum who your father was. Was he a drunk she found in a ditch?’

  Guowei rushed forward, pushing the boys around Shilin aside with his fists. He took Shilin in his arms and roared, ‘Who says Shilin has no father? If anyone dares to say another word, they won’t be able to open their mouths by the time I’ve finished with them! If you don’t believe me, try it and see!’

  Frightened, the bullies ran off in an instant. Shilin trembled in Guowei’s arms, white as a sheet, sweat on her brow and blood on her lip where she had bitten it.

  At home, Shilin developed a high fever, murmuring, ‘I’m not a bastard, I have a mother and a father,’ over and over again. Liu Ting and Wang Yue kept watch over her.

  The doctor told the family that Shilin was suffering from shock: irregularities had appeared in her heartbeat. He said that if her temperature was not lowered as quickly as possible, she might become mentally deranged. He wondered how a twelve-year-old girl had received such a great shock.

  Wang Duo said furiously, ‘This country is getting worse by the day. How can little children do such a thing. What they did to her is murder in all but name.’

  Guowei kept apologising to the family for not looking after Shilin, but everyone knew that he was not to blame. Later, Guowei found out how the scene in the sports ground had started. An older boy had wanted to embrace Shilin, but she had rejected him and told him to behave. Angry and ashamed, he had pointed at Shilin and shouted, ‘Who do you think you are? Who is your father? There isn’t so much as a shadow of Wang Guowei in your face. Go home and ask your mother who she slept with to get a bastard like you! Stop pretending to be decent and modest!’ He ordered the younger boys standing about to join in calling Shilin names, threatening to beat up anyone who did not obey him. Guowei was livid: without the slightest regard for the dignity of his position as a teacher or any thought of the consequences, he sought the bully out and gave him a thorough beating.

  Shilin recovered, but she said little, rarely went out, and often stayed at home alone. The middle-school entrance exams were approaching, so everyone thought that she was revising and did not want to be disturbed. Wang Yue was the only one who still felt uneasy. She felt that there was something not quite right about Shilin, but dared not share her conjectures with anyone, lest the family got into trouble. Political movements like the Anti-Rightist Movement were starting to spread in Yangzhou, and many ignorant, uneducated people thought this was the time to narrow the property gap by raiding the houses of the rich and dividing the spoils, a practice that had existed since the Ming dynasty. They started compiling lists of wealthy households, planning to cause trouble under the cover of revolution. The Wang family fell between stools, being neither wealthy nor ordinary, so they could never be sure when someone with a grudge against them might categorise them as a rich household.

  Shilin did not perform as brilliantly in the middle-school entrance exams as she had been expected to before the incident in the sports ground, but her results were still good enough to gain her a place in one of the top schools. The school she chose was not far from home, which Wang Yue found reassuring.

  Shilin remained silent and withdrawn at school, but she became more talkative at home. She started asking Wang Duo about the reasons behind the political movements taking place in China, and about the enmity between the Guomindang and the Communist Party. She often asked Wang Yue about her parents, but Wang Yue knew little about her sister because of the age gap between them. Wang Yue had been very young when her sister left home to go to school in the south, and had been only three or four when she married. Shilin thought that Wang Yue was being deliberately reticent because she did not want her to dwell on the past.

  At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, when extra-marital relationships were seen as a ‘counter-revolutionary’ crime, the Red Guards labelled Wang Yue a criminal for having had Shilin before marriage. Pregnant with her second child, Wang Yue was subjected to frequent public condemnations by the Red Guards. Through it all, she did not say a word. Wang Duo, Liu Ting and Guowei were then imprisoned and interrogated in turn, but all three maintained that they knew nothing about Wang Yue and Shilin’s past. One of the Red Guards who conducted the brutal interrogations was the teenager who had tried to embrace Shilin, and had been beaten by Guowei. He humiliated them all mercilessly, and beat Guowei so hard his left foot was permanently crippled.

  The Red Guards forced Shilin to watch from a window as they interrogated and tortured the Wang family. They pulled her hair and pinched her eyelids to keep her awake over several days and nights, as she watched Guowei’s foot bleeding, Wang Yue clutching her belly, Wang Duo and Liu Ting trembling with fear, and Wang Yue’s tiny son hiding in a corner and crying. Shilin’s face remained expressionless throughout, but she was sweating and shivering. Just as the Red Guards were about to smash Guowei’s right foot with sticks and cudgels, Shilin suddenly cried out in a high, inhuman voice, ‘Don’t hit him, don’t hit him! They aren’t my parents. My father’s name is Zhang Zhongren, my mother’s name is Wang Xing, they are in Taiwan!’

  Everyone was shocked into silence for a moment, then the Wang family hurled themselves against the window and shouted, ‘It’s not true! She’s gone mad, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about!’

  Shilin watched them as they shouted their denials, then burst out laughing. ‘I know I’m not a bastard, I have a mother and father of my own,’ she said. Then she started foaming at the mouth, and collapsed.

  The Red Guards pounced on the names Shilin had let slip; based on their confirmation of Shilin’s parentage and other incriminating evidence they claimed to have established, the Wang family was imprisoned. Wang Duo had a weak constitution and was often ill – he died in prison. Liu Ting became paralysed on one side of herbody from sleeping on the prison floor. Wang Yue gave birth to her second child, a daughter, in prison. She was named Wang Yu because the character for Yu (jade) is written by adding an extra dot to the character for Wang, symbolising an addition to the Wang family. They nicknamed her Xiao Yu (little Jade) because she was so small and weak. When they were released from prison ten years later, Guowei could only walk leaning on a stick.

  In the late 1980s, Wang Yue and Guowei ran into one of the Red Guards who had persecuted them. He admitted that, apart from Shilin’s parents’ names and a group photograph of the leaders of the Guomindang, the Red Guards’ evidence against Shilin and the Wangs had been fabricated.

  Shilin was mentally ill, but her condition varied: on some days she was much better than on others. The Red Guards sent her to a village in a mountainous ar
ea of Hubei to be ‘re-educated’ by the peasants. She could not work in the fields because of her unstable mental condition, so she was allocated the relatively light job of cowherd. Soon, the men in the village started to invent excuses to climb up to the remote grassy slopes where Shilin had taken the cows to graze. They had discovered that all it took to send Shilin over the edge was the question: ‘Who is your father?’

  She would laugh and shout wildly, and then faint. While she was confused, the men raped her. If she struggled, they shouted over and over again, ‘Who is your father, are you a bastard?’ until Shilin was so unbalanced that she complied with their orders.

  A good-hearted grandmother in the village found out what had been going on when she overheard a man quarrelling with his wife. She stood in the centre of the village cursing the men, ‘You heartless beasts. Were you born of women? Don’t you have mothers of your own? You will pay for this!’ The grandmother took Shilin in to live with her, but she had lost all awareness of her surroundings.

  In early 1989, Wang Yue and her family found Shilin in the village in Hubei and took her away to live with them. Shilin did not recognise them, and they barely recognised her after her years in the countryside. Wang Yue took Shilin for a full physical examination at the hospital. When she read the results, she fell ill. The report stated that Shilin’s torso was scarred with bite-marks, part of one nipple had been chewed away and her vaginal labia were torn. The neck and lining of her womb had been severely damaged, and a broken branch had been extracted from it. The doctors could not establish how long the branch had been in her womb.