by Hua Bai
L opens the door. A haggard, deranged J enters.
J (listlessly): Sister L, I’m sorry to bother you so late at night.
Don’t blame me, for I have no choice but to come talk
with you.
L: You – at this hour of the night you come looking for
me?
J: I’ve come to beg you to return my husband to me.
L (in a sudden rage): What did you say?
J: Please return my husband to me. I beg you.
L: Who has robbed you of your man? Who? How dare you
come to my house to look for your man? I’ll squash that
swinish face of yours. Go ahead, search the place! Where is your man? Do you need to go to court?
J: For your sake and the sake of my husband, let’s not go to court. Better to resolve the matter privately. Sister L, his heart is in your place.
1 7 5
Bai Hua.book Page 176 Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
L: In my place? I’ve never seen it. All his organs, in-
cluding his bowels, grow inside his own body. Go find
him, ask him. Why ask me? Go away! Get out of my
house.
J kneels on the floor and kowtows to L .
J: One’s head should touch the ground only when one dies.
Now I kneel and kowtow to you. Please give him back to
me and to our children.
L (turns her back): You recognize only your own suffering, your own misery. Don’t I suffer, too? Aren’t I mis-
erable? You say his whole heart is in my place. I must
say that not even a tenth of his heart has been given
to me. We’re merely behaving like thieves, hiding like
a pair of wild rabbits. (As she speaks she is overwhelmed by sorrow. She weeps, snivels, and blows her nose with her fingers, then flicks mucus onto her feet). I cannot live without him. Sister J, please give him to me. I beg you. You and he have never lived happily together anyway.
He doesn’t even want to speak to you. Why keep a
mute?
L also kneels.
J: No, no! (Screaming) No! He and I are legally married, companions for life. We have had sons and daughters, and a large part of us is already buried in the earth. Let you have him? No, that will never do. He is mine! No matter
how many criticism meetings I have to endure or how
much you promote proletarian ideology and eliminate
bourgeois thought, he is mine. A husband cannot be
regarded as common property. I am not bourgeois, and he
is not my capital. He is the blood father of our children, and I am their blood mother. You cannot break up our
family, Sister L!
1 7 6
Bai Hua.book Page 177 Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
Kneeling on the floor, both women wail loudly. They move closer to each other on their knees and finally embrace each other, wailing together in heartrending grief.
Serpent (aside): What? Can they possibly be reconciled?
No, of course not. But they have achieved a momentary
sympathy for each other. So the rhythm of the drama
begins to slow down, as in a suffocating storm when the
sky neither clears nor opens up, and it is hard to reach the climax of lightning and thunder. From this point on, the reconciled parties will continue quarreling, pleading,
fighting. The three of them – no, the four of them – will hassle each other to death. This kind of protracted war
can produce fifty TV series and take an audience to the
end of its tether. No, no such dull TV series. What I need are Shakespearean characters, with distinctive personalities and stunning climaxes. L and Y both need seductive
potions number 3 and number 4. Otherwise you, the
merciless audience, will clatter your theater chairs the way Chopin plays his funeral march. One after the other
you will leave, and only a sleeping boy, with a lollipop in his hand, will remain. Because the situation will brook no delay, I must act promptly.
Serpent creeps out from beneath the table and squeezes drops of seductive potions number 3 and 4 into the cup.
L: Don’t cry, sister. Let’s stop crying. We are both victims of Y, Sister J. (As she speaks, she breaks into tears with a new wave of sorrow.)
J: You’re right, Sister L. Let’s stop crying and stand up.
They help each other up. L takes the cup.
L: That cursed man of mine has gone to the city and is not back yet. He didn’t even boil any water for me. Sorry, I 1 7 7
Bai Hua.book Page 178 Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
have to offer you this cold water. Your body fluids have all drained through your eyes. We doctors of Western
medicine are extremely partial to drinking water. Appar-
ently you don’t like water. That’s why you look so old for your age, and why your skin has lost its luster.
J (full of gratitude): Quite true, Sister L. I don’t like water very much.
L: Drink some, then. Wet your throat first.
J takes the cup and has a sip. Then she passes it back to L. L swallows a big mouthful.
J (now coming back to her senses, she feels something wrong with the new relationship between them.) Sister L, I must make my stand clear: my man belongs to me. He cannot be shared,
and his heart cannot be shared, not even a shred of it. Not even the most wretched woman in the world could accept
something like that. Now I must be leaving.
J stamps her feet fiercely and turns to leave.
L: Wait!
Doctor L dashes forward to block the door with her body.
J: Let me go, you shameless woman. Whore.
L: You’re the whore. A whore even pigs or dogs won’t touch, a whore too cheap to be sold…
Playwright’s note. – Because such abusive language will be cen-sored by any government, no matter its ideology, one hundred eight characters are here omitted.
J: You’re the whore, selling pussy openly. You’ve slept with a thousand men, thousands of men.…
1 7 8
Bai Hua.book Page 179 Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
Playwright’s note. – Urgently omit 213 characters.
L: You, you’re one! I – I’m going to split you in two!
L ’s lips turn from livid to white. Slowly she bends over and her hand, like a snake, wraps itself around the handle of the ax by the door. In a flash, the ax is raised high.
J: Ah, you want to murder me? Okay, I don’t want to live any longer. Go ahead, kill me!
J rushes head-long at L , who quickly steps aside. J ’s head smashes against the door. Quick as lightning, L brings down her ax and gashes the back of J ’s skull horribly. Blood splashes all over L ’s face.
The theater lights dim. (Playwright’s note. – Although murder occurs often in our lives, actual murder scenes are not allowed in works of literature and art. Fortunately, the lights on the stage can be dimmed instantly.) The lights come up again gradually. The audience first sees a cup on a square table, and then Serpent ’s head emerges above the cup.
Serpent (soliloquy): L has finally removed the greatest obstacle in her emotional life. Obviously, she knows that what she has done is a crime that makes it less possible for her and Y to be united. But she chose to be a criminal.
Without killing J, she could hardly keep on living. So she killed her. Calmly she cut her archenemy’s body into ten large chunks and put each one into a plastic bag. Then
she cleaned the floor, changed her clothes, and washed her face. She then dumped J’s head into a huge earthen pot to boil for soup. Look, my dear audience!
The spotlight moves to a lighted stove. On the stove is a huge earthen pot. Squatting before the stove, L fans the fire. The spotlight moves back to the desk, illuminating the cup and Serpent ’s head.
1 7 9
Bai Hua.book Page 180
Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
Serpent: She needs some seductive potion number 5.
L (soliloquy): I can’t have him anymore. I can’t have him anymore. No love. No love forever… forever… forever.
(Bursts into hysterical laughter) But I’ve vented my hatred.
People in this world won’t understand: how dare a
woman split another woman with an ax? How dare she
calmly dissect her body into ten pieces? How dare she
carefully clean all the blood off the floor? And how dare she boil the woman’s head in a huge pot for soup? Why
aren’t I paralyzed with fear? Why aren’t my hands shak-
ing and why isn’t my heart beating fast? Why don’t I
even care about the consequences? All these questions are for you fellows. Go think hard about them. Do your
research! Study your sociology! Open your criminology
books! Investigate! Measure out the murder scene! Put
every shred of evidence through chemical tests! Read the fingerprints! Search for the murder weapon! Round up
the witnesses! Cross-examine the criminal – cross-exam-
ine me. Hold a public trial to denounce me.
L empties the cup at one gulp.
L (in a carefree manner): I will not confess. You cannot force me to open my mouth, not even with an iron bar. Without my confession, however, you still can sentence me to death. In order to demonstrate your talent, loyalty, and firm proletarian stand, one by one you climb onto the
platform to expose my crimes born of your imagination.
You will write a tedious court verdict, attributing mur-
der to the vicious tide of bourgeois corruption. (Waltzes around, singing) Tra-la-la…
Q pushes the door open. Sunlight follows him into the room.
L: So you’ve finally come home. Which bitch did you spent the night with?
1 8 0
Bai Hua.book Page 181 Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
Q: Hey, stop talking nonsense. I’m dead tired. Next time, you’d better go with me into town.
L: There won’t be a next time for us anymore.
Q: What?
L (smiles mysteriously): No next time for us anymore!
Q: Why not?
L (laughs loudly): Because I am going be shot. (Imitates the executioner) Ready – aim – fire! Pow!
Q: What nonsense are you spouting, so early in the morn-
ing?
L: Though I do not have the beauty of Chen Bailu, I will recite her lines: “The sun has come out! But the sun is no longer mine. I am going to sleep now.”
Q: Are you mad?
L: I’m perfectly fine, never saner than today! Come see what this is.
She drags Q over to the pot. Q is horrified.
Q: Agh! A human head!
L: You’re the abnormal person here. A human head is a
human head. Why make such a big fuss over it?
Q (his teeth chattering): Who – who – whose – head?
L: Why? Can’t you recognize it? It’s not boiled out of shape yet. It’s J’s head, you know, Y ’s wife.
Q: Why – why – did you – k-kill her?
L: No comment. Wait until the written verdict appears.
Now, your duty is: first, call Y over here; second, report me to the police.
Q dashes out.
L (soliloquy): Who says I am mad? Can a madwoman be so calm as to accomplish whatever she wishes to do? What
I’ve achieved another person would have to overcome ten
thousand obstacles before even trying. Overnight, I dem-
1 8 1
Bai Hua.book Page 182 Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
onstrated a will, a strength, and a talent more powerful than Hitler’s on the eve of his attack on Soviet Russia.
Now I see what it means to defy world condemnation, I
recognize what decisiveness is and what composure and
bravery are. The potential daring spirit and strength of a person is usually wrapped up in a cocoon – especially of a woman. If she does not have the courage to defy world
condemnation and act decisively and opportunely, she can never achieve anything outstanding. Take the example of
the First Lady of our strange country. A few years ago, she was known by hardly a handful of people throughout the
nation. Occasionally one might hear, through the grape-
vine, that she was helping a few actors and actresses to reform the old Beijing Opera. Who could expect that one
morning she would expand her rehearsal stage to the
whole land and assign dramatic roles to all its people, big shots and small potatoes alike? No one could escape his
role. In this nationwide tragicomic farce, full of grief and ecstasy, she handily wiped out several old love rivals,
together with those who knew her early private life. But she dared not murder them herself. She finished off her
enemies without getting a spot of blood on her dress, and she never tasted the pleasure of chopping her enemy’s
flesh with an ax. She is no match for me. No match at all.
Y enters as if in a trance.
L: Here you are. Now the obstacle between us is removed.
Look, this is your wife’s head.
Y (covers his eyes): Agh! You – you cruel-hearted beast!
L: Coward! Put down your hands. Open your eyes wide like me and look reality in the face. When you shut your eyes, do you think all the things in the world disappear? Do
you think others no longer see you? Instead of letting ten thousand people stare at you like a blind dog, you might as well fix your eyes on them to beat back their stares.
1 8 2
Bai Hua.book Page 183 Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
Smiling proudly at everything, you will shock them even
more. Let them wake up out of their fog and salute you.
Come on, Y. Now you can hug me without any fear or
worry, right in front of your wife. She cannot peck at you any more. Come on! (Extremely sweet) Come – darling!
L steps to pull Y over to her. Y shrinks back in horror.
Y: Agh, don’t! Don’t come near me!
L: Coward! Why were you always so audacious before? Why
did you seduce me in the first place, if you were going to be so timid today?
Noise is heard outside.
L: They’re coming. I must put on some makeup and wear
my new clothes. I am going to get married again.
Exit L into the bedroom.
Y: Monster! Monster!
Y is experiencing extreme pain and grief. Q rushes in with several policemen. L enters from the bedroom. According to the principle of Three Prominences [positive characters, heroes among the positive characters, and major heroes among them], a ten-thousand-watt stage light should be added.
L is wearing a cotton-print blouse, covered by a thin red-wool sweater. A white gauze scarf is draped over her shoulders. Her well-combed hair is raven black, and she wears a small bunch of nameless wildflowers above one temple. Her carefree manner makes her look innocent; a naive smile is at the corners of her mouth. She strikes a heroic pose.
Tableau, held for a long time. Orchestral music. Blackout.
A spotlight is cast on the square table. Coiled on the table, Serpent holds its head high in triumph.
1 8 3
Bai Hua.book Page 184 Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
Serpent (soliloquy): My dear audience: Before the curtain falls, please allow me to say a few words. I know you all hate me and regard me as the true culprit in this murder case. I understand your feelings. But because I have not yet been prosecuted in court, and also because one cannot find a lawyer in this strange country, I need to present my own defense. My defense is actually a famous quotation that is absolutely convincing: “The materialist dia-lectic shows that the external factors are conditions for change
; the internal factors are the essence for change.
The external factors take effect only through the internal factors. An egg, at a suitable temperature, turns into a chicken, but temperature cannot turn a stone into a
chicken because their essences are different.” That’s my entire defense. In a country where there is no judge, no jury, and no public prosecutor, I can only invite you, my respected audience, to make a fair, appropriate judgment.
Thank you.
The curtain falls. End.
I gaze at her window. In the past, it was pasted over with black paper; now a cloth curtain with tiny blue flowers hangs there.
As soon as we had finished the play, Yunqian complained,
“It’s thrilling, but too exaggerated. And not realistic, not realistic at all.”
“I think it’s extremely realistic. It truly reflects reality.”
“Not at all. If you don’t believe me, read it to other people. If a single person thinks this play is realistic, you win the bet.”
“Unfortunately, I wouldn’t dare read it to anybody else.
But even if I did, I’d still lose the bet.”
“Because the play is unrealistic.”
1 8 4
Bai Hua.book Page 185 Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
“No. It is only because the play is truly realistic that I am bound to lose.”
“Why?”
“Over the past twenty years, millions of people here have acquired a false sense of reality.”
“You are a superman, an exception.”
“I am no exception. The tableau of L before her arrest in the play coincides perfectly with my last image of Liu
Tiemei. The verisimilitude of this art stuns me. Song Lin has accurately captured the spiritual transformation of Liu Tiemei between the clinic and the execution truck. His
artistic representation is concise and convincing.”
“Is that serpent also real? Isn’t it simply a figment of the author’s imagination?”
“Although it is purely imaginary, I believe in its truth.” I gazed at Yunqian in excitement.
“You really are an ideal audience.” Yunqian kissed my
eyes.
I gaze at her window. In the past, it was pasted over with black paper; now a cloth curtain with tiny blue flowers hangs there.
1 8 5
Bai Hua.book Page 186 Friday, October 26, 2001 2:56 PM
Longbu was back on the road with the cara-
van. His posts got farther and farther away from home. Cor-respondingly, Sunamei’s waiting for his return became
