Chinese Stories in English
Opposite Shore (Page 2)
Stories printed in《彼岸花》作家网*选编|冰峰*主编
Original text at page noted after each story; translated from the webpages cited below.
1. A Promise 3. Giving Away Peaches 4. Salt-Baked Chicken
2. The Boundary River 5. Crazy for Opera
1. A Promise (一诺)
Suzhou Swimmer (Zhang Lixin) [苏子游 (张礼新)]
Success Yu used to wear his soft, black hair long. He parted it down the middle and combed it back behind the ears so that it hung down behind his head, in the manner of an artist. It lay on his collar without a hair out of place, just like the poems he wrote. Yes, he liked to write poems, liked to express his emotions, and liked to recite into the wind; then, unable to control his emotions, his tears would start to flow. He remained flighty even after he found a wife and had children. He could have lived his entire life like this, or turned his life into a poem, but a vehicular accident brought him crashing back to the world of money, food, clothing, and shelter.
Of course, he wasn’t the one who had the accident. It was his older brother and his sister-in-law, both of whom had jobs in the city. He never knew where they were going on that bus that snowy morning. The bus flipped over in a ravine in the suburbs. Only a few passengers survived, unfortunately not including his brother and sister-in-law. It was already afternoon by the time he got the news and hurried to the scene. The bodies of his brother and sister-in-law had been placed on the slope of the ravine and covered with a white cloth. When he lifted the white cloth, his brother's eyes were open.
He held Pillar, whom he’d picked up from day care, in his arms. Pillar reached out to wipe the tears from the dead man’s eyes, but the eyes opened again after his little hand was withdrawn. Success wiped a handful of his own tears on his brother's eyelids, and said in front of all the relatives, "Brother, I promise that I’ll raise Pillar to adulthood. You can go with peace of mind."
His brother's eyes closed.
Pillar is Success's brother’s only child. At that time, Success's son Doggie had just been born and his wife, Precious, was still in her “sitting month” of rest after giving birth, so he took Pillar home. Success had no sisters and his parents had already passed, so if he didn't raise the child, who would? Precious understood this.
The two children were close to the same age. After a couple of years, they were both in their “terrible threes” and they often quarreled with each other. Precious loved Pillar, but she felt that the older child should give way to the younger, so she always took her own son’s side. Success disagreed, and the children’s quarrels gradually turned into disputes between the adults. These conflicts eventually became more and more intense. One time Precious hit Pillar, and Success couldn't stop himself from slapping her. She gave no quarter and asked for a divorce. Success wanted to avoid the hassle, so he agreed.
So Success raised Pillar alone, while Precious took Doggie back to her parents' home. Success of course had to pay child support every month.
Success was an electrician in a mine. He didn’t make much and lived paycheck to paycheck. Friends introduced him to several women, but they all thought a man with a small child would be too much of a burden, so he stayed single.
He didn't worry about it and returned to poetry for solace. He wrote volumes of poetry and got them published in newspapers and magazines. He wanted to publish a collection of his poems, but the mine ran dry and shut down, so he had to put that idea on the back burner. He found a new job as a hauler at a construction site. He hadn't wanted to do such taxing work but couldn’t find anything easier, and he really needed the money. Pillar was in high school and Doggie was in junior high by that time.
Pillar was a competitive young boy and very sensible. He knew that his uncle had lost his wife and child because of him, so he never made Success worry about his studies. He was an all-around good student and was admitted to a prestigious high school in the city. His teacher said that if he kept it up, he’d have no problem getting into Tsinghua University or Peking University. This gratified Success and made the daily grind of carrying cement and gravel around construction sites feel lighter. He’d even recite his poems while he worked. But his once flowing long hair became messy, gradually turned gray and began to fall out.
Success once again thought about publishing a collection of his poetry. Pillar was studying at Peking University by that time, however, and he had to give up his dream so that the boy could study for a master's degree. When Pillar got his master's, he didn’t continue on for a doctorate. He knew that his uncle couldn’t afford it, so he found a job as soon as possible instead.
Pillar got a good job with a high salary in a large state-owned enterprise. He told his uncle to quit working at construction sites. Success already had a bent back and a bald head by that time/
Success's poetry collection was published eventually, paid for by Pillar. The young man was getting married, and he wanted to pass out copies of Success's poetry as a gift to guests at the wedding. He spoke at the reception, saying, "My uncle worked hard for more than twenty years to raise me, fulfilling a promise made when my father died. Now, I’m bringing his promise to a perfect conclusion with this collection of his poems. Also,” he continued, “I’ve invited a special guest here today.” He asked a woman to stand, and Success saw that it was Precious. She also had a full head of white hair.
Pillar and his wife knelt in front of her and apologized. "Aunt Precious, I caused the breakup of your marriage back then. Today I want to return Uncle Success to you." He opened the poetry collection, which included many poems written for Precious, and read them with tears in his eyes. Every one he read received thunderous applause from the audience.
Someone shouted, "The broken mirror is reunited! Double happiness!" Others started to cheer: "Stay together! Stay together!"
Success and Precious sat together on the wedding platform, both in tears. Precious touched Success's bald head and said, "I was the one who let you and Pillar down back then."
"It's all water under the bridge." Success sighed. "I know you've stayed single, too."
Precious blushed. She picked up the collection of poetry and saw two large, gold-plated words on the cover: A Promise.
She looked at Success in confusion.
He chuckled: "Pillar came up with the title and had it printed in gold ink. The idea is: ‘A Promise is Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold.’"
Text on p.121. Translated from 银河阅读 at
http://www.yinheyuedu.com/article/detail/41419
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2. The Boundary River (界河)
An Xiaosi (安晓斯)
They were exhausted when they turned fifty. Old Li told his wife Swallow Bai that they’d been quarreling for thirty years and who knew how much longer they had to live, so they should stop arguing if they could. Swallow agreed with him and said she really didn't want to fight anymore.
They moved back to their hometown in the countryside when they retired. It was only a dozen or so kilometers. There they had a “sunlit home” (as determined by fengshui) with a spacious courtyard. The main hall faced north while a five-room house with a tile roof faced south. The large, wide courtyard was equivalent to a small garden. Like other houses in farming villages, the layout was three large living rooms in the middle, two small bedrooms on the ends and a small kitchen on the east side.
Old Li smoked a cigarette, sipped a cup of tea and sighed. He told Swallow they could avoid quarrels if they each lived in their own rooms, cooked their own meals and spent their own money. They also discussed digging a small ditch down the middle of the courtyard. They could hire craftsmen to build a long pool from bricks, cement and tiles.
Old Li pointed out that, traditionally, left is male, right is female and east is superior, so he concluded that he should take the east bedroom and Swallow could have the west bedroom. He really didn't want to argue any further about it. She said OK. From then on, the long cement pool down the middle of the courtyard served as a “boundary river” between the couple.
Arbor Day came around, and the couple discussed planting a tree in the middle of the entryway for greenery. They agreed that Old Li would walk on the east side and Swallow on the west.
They placed two identical bamboo chairs in the small courtyard on either side of the boundary river. Since the couple often played “Five-Row Go”, Old Li bought a small table and set it up across the boundary. Every day, they passed the time talking and playing Go while separated by the boundary. Sometimes they discussed the unusual things they’d seen on WeChat Moments. When they had to make necessary decisions on household matters but couldn't reach agreement, they’d resolve the issue by doing whatever the winner of a game of Five-Row Go decided. Old Li was the winner most of the time, leaving Swallow to mutter about his cheating. The old couple lived like this, spending day after day in a daze with nothing to mark the passage of time.
Farming families always have a chicken’s nest of dark bricks on the windowsill facing the courtyard. A chicken about to lay an egg will fly up and sit still on straw prepared in the nest by its owner, resting its belly on the owner’s "nest egg". The hen will stare blankly for a long time, then cluck-cluck to tell the owner that an egg has been laid.
One day a black-speckled hen raised by Swallow got hysterical and flew across the boundary river to lay an egg in the nest prepared by Old Li. Swallow, who’d been basking in the sun on her bamboo chair by the boundary, went to Old Li's nest and took the warm egg. Old Li, who was also basking in the sun on his bamboo chair by the boundary, happened to see her collecting the egg. “That’s not good,” he said. “You shouldn’t collect eggs unless they’re laid by a chicken you raised.”
Of course, Swallow didn’t give in. “My black-speckled hen flew to the wrong place and laid an egg in your nest.”
“What’s your evidence?” Old Li asked.
Swallow took out her cell phone and showed him a photo she’d taken. It showed the black-speckled hen walking away from Old Li's nest just after laying the egg, clucking with her neck tilted back. There was nothing Old Li could say to that, so he nodded.
Swallow went to pick a handful of garlic sprouts from Old Li's small vegetable garden while he was in the bathroom, but when she turned around, he was standing right behind her. Garlic sprouts were expensive that season, so he charged her two yuan, which was a little lower than the market price. He had a WeChat QR code tied to his bamboo chair with a string, and he handed it to her. She scanned the code and paid two yuan with a "beep".
"Insects Awaken" is the twenty-fourth two-week period into which the year is divided under the lunar calendar. One day the couple had nothing to do but chat, and Swallow asked, "What does ‘Insects Awaken’ mean?"
"It means thunderstorms when the air warms up in the spring,” Old Li answered, “which wakes up the insects hibernating underground. A folk proverb says, ‘If you hear thunder before Insects Awaken, the next forty-nine days will be cloudy.’" When Swallow asked if that was true, he laughed and said it was accurate.
The weather did indeed turn stormy that night, with heavy rain, thunder and lightning. Old Li knew Swallow was afraid of thunder, so he took a teapot to her bedroom to sit with her. Swallow's eyes moistened when she saw him come in. “You still remember?” She added boiling water to the teapot and brought out a plate of fruits that her husband liked.
The thunder had stopped and the rain had grown lighter by the time the "Evening News" was over. Old Li stood up from the sofa, picked up his teapot and left. “Go to sleep.” Her tears flowed freely.
On their wedding anniversary, Swallow cut leeks to make dumplings and ate them by the boundary river. She also peeled garlic and poured a small dish of vinegar. Old Li happened to be eating sour soup with wheat leaves (dialect for “noodles”). He’d sprinkled chopped green onions and coriander onto the thin white noodles in the bowl, and sesame oil floated on the surface. The soup glistened in the sunlight. Swallow knew he liked dumplings, so she handed him a few, and he used a ladle to scoop up some sour soup for her.
“Do you know what day it is today?” she asked.
He pretended to be confused. “When you’re happy, every day is a good day.”
After dinner, the two watched the fish they were raising in the boundary river. Swallow’s fish were red and Old Li’s were black. She said it was time to settle the money for the fish food she’d purchased last time, so he used his cell phone to scan the code and pay five yuan. Her cell phone was set to voice and announced, “WeChat payment, five yuan.” Old Li laughed. “It really does sound like an old woman selling fish food,” he said.
The days passed by as peacefully as a brook in the springtime. Old Li and Swallow spent long hours sitting on their bamboo chairs on either side of the boundary river. Grape vines grew vigorously on both sides, the thick old vines winding and climbing all over bamboo racks above the boundary river. The purple and red grapes pleased the eye.
One day they received an unexpected phone call from their daughter. She was about to give birth and wanted Swallow to come to the big city to help take care of the child. The night before she left, Swallow walked over to Old Li's bedroom. “I'm leaving tomorrow.”
In the middle of the night, Old Li walked over to Swallow's bedroom. “I checked and found out it’ll take two hours by high-speed train.”
After he saw Swallow off, Old Li sat by the boundary river and stared blankly at the vacant bamboo chair on the opposite side. He felt empty and inexplicably sad. He got out the Five-Row Go set and placed it on the small table above the boundary. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he said to the empty chair, "Wife, let's play a game of Go. I'll let you win."
His cell phone rang as he was crying. It was Swallow, wanting to video chat with him while she was on the train. He pointed his cell phone camera at the table over the boundary river so that she could see the black and white pieces on the board. Swallow did indeed win that game of Go from the other side of the boundary river.
Text at p. 142. Translated from https://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_670b465d0102zm9w.html
Also at https://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_479d78430102zgsd.html
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3. Can't Give Away Peaches (送不出去的桃子)
Hu Qingfa (呼庆法)
Old Mao looked at the five peach trees planted in his backyard. He felt he’d accomplished something and was quite pleased with himself. The trees had borne so many bright red fruits in their first crop that the branches were bent low. He tasted one and found that the peaches weren’t just large and colorful; they were exceedingly sweet as well.
He picked a full basket of peaches to take to his eldest daughter-in-law; picked another basket to take to his daughter in the neighboring village; and picked a third basket to keep for his second daughter-in-law to pick up. (She was living in the village while taking care of a child going to school there.) But he picked these three basketfuls from just one tree.
Loads of peaches still waited on the trees to be picked. All the neighbors had peach trees, too, so he couldn't give the fruit away even if he wanted to. So Old Mao thought about which relatives he could give some to. He had two nephews in the county town, and two married nieces who were living elsewhere. They only saw each other during the Spring Festival.
The eldest nephew was a good person, but every year when he came home for the festival, he put the squeeze on Old Mao for several hundred yuan worth of skin care products. Thinking of this, Old Mao took out his cell phone and dialed the eldest nephew’s number.
The young man seemed enthusiastic about getting some free peaches. He said he was busy these days, however, and would bring his children to pick some in a few days when he had some free time.
Old Mao hung up the phone and called his second nephew. This fellow said he was on a business trip and regrettably wouldn’t be back for more than a month, so he might not be able to get there in time to pick any.
What Old Mao didn't know was that his second nephew was in fact at home. After he hung up the phone, he smiled and told his wife, "My uncle asked me to go home and pick some peaches. How could I go back empty-handed? I’d have to bring something for him. I’d have to spend two or three hundred yuan for just a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread."
His wife nodded in agreement. "Right. Peaches are dirt cheap on the street now, but it wouldn’t be cheap to go there and pick some."
Next Old Mao called his eldest niece, who was married and living in another town. He excitedly shouted, "Spring Beauty, the peaches at my place are ripe. Come and pick some when you have the time."
Spring Beauty hesitated on the other end of the call. Eventually she said, "My husband’s sister just sent us a basket of peaches the day before yesterday. The kids don't like them much, and I can't finish them all by myself. Why don't you keep some for my brother?"
"Your brother and his friends can't eat much, either, so, when you have time, you should bring the kids back home to pick some for fun."
“Okay, Uncle, I'll get there as soon as I can." After she hung up, she thought, “It's fifty or sixty miles away, and a basket of peaches wouldn’t be worth enough to cover the gas money for the trip.”
Old Mao called his second niece, Autumn Beauty. She answered eagerly. "Okay, I'll definitely get back there."
A few days passed, and the eldest nephew didn't come; the second nephew didn't come; and Spring Beauty and Autumn Beauty didn't come either. The ripe peaches couldn't wait and they began to fall from the tree, which distressed Old Mao. He was terribly depressed and couldn't sit still, so he called his eldest nephew again. "When are you coming to pick peaches, Nephew?"
"Okay, Uncle, I'll make time today."
After the eldest nephew hung up the phone, his wife asked, "Is your uncle asking you to pick peaches again?"
"Yeah, he’s asked again and again. He’ll be mad if I don't go."
His wife continued, "Your uncle’s only thinking about you picking peaches, and he certainly hasn't thought about it carefully. You’d have to bring a gift for him when you go there. Also, your second uncle lives near there, and you can't not visit him after going to your eldest uncle's house, so you’d have to prepare two gifts to go pick peaches."
"Well, why don't I go there at noon. I definitely wouldn't see my second uncle during the lunch break. I'll pick the peaches and then say I have something else to do in the afternoon, so I can't stay. I’ll be back here early."
The scorching sun shone on the shiny asphalt road as the eldest nephew drove to his uncle's house. He put down a pile of gifts and made a show of picking a few peaches. As he was about to leave, Old Mao finally understood why he couldn’t give away the peaches from his trees.
It occurred to him that he should cut down all but one of the trees after he picked this season’s crop. Next year he wouldn’t call his nephews and nieces to come pick peaches.
Text at p. 191 Translated from Sohu.com at
https://www.sohu.com/a/708583128_120046696
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4. Salt-Baked Chicken (盐焗鸡的故事)
Lin Huicong (林惠聪)
A blind beggar leaning on a cane staggered along Shuidong Street in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. He stopped in front of Mr. Liang’s Restaurant, raised his head and sniffed hard -- what a delicious aroma!
The restaurant’s proprietor, Mr. Liang, knew this man. The man before his eyes, now a beggar, had once been a gang leader who’d committed many crimes. People called him Pockmark Huang. Ten years ago, he’d robbed Mr. Liang of all his money. Later his eyes had been gouged out during gang infighting and he’d been reduced to mendicity.
Mr. Liang invited Pockmark into the restaurant and served him salt-baked chicken. "Please enjoy your meal."
Pockmark pounced on his food like a hungry wolf and downed it in an instant. He wiped his greasy lips and asked, a bit confused, "We’re not relatives or friends, so why are you treating me to dinner?" Pockmark could never have imagined that, years before, he’d slapped one of his underlings and thus saved Mr. Liang from a life of misery.
A cold wind was blowing outside the window that night ten years before. Only a single lamp was lit inside the room. Mr. Liang picked up a glass of locally distilled liquor and drank it all in one gulp. The alcohol burned as it rushed down his throat. He’d been sitting in the shop for a long time, drinking alone, but the booze he drank was bitter. A variety of goods for daily use had once been piled up in this shop, over twenty square meters facing the street, but now they were all gone. Years of hard work had disappeared in an instant.
The continuous wars in recent years had brought about a decline in people's livelihood and made it difficult to do business. This year in particular, a combination of drought and floods had also plagued the city. A once-in-a-century flood had soaked the shops on Shuidong Street for half a month. People narrowly escaped by squeezing into their attics, and any property that wasn’t water-resistant was damaged. He’d barely managed to survive until the end of the year, suffering losses every month, and now he had to sell out his inventory at a reduced price and find another way to make a living. Sadness overcame him as he looked at the empty shop. The only way to get through this long and bitter final night was to get drunk.
He woke up the next morning feeling dizzy, but gathered his energy to pack his knapsacks, put them on a carrying pole and get ready to set out. When he opened the door, he saw his landlord, Auntie Li, waiting for him. She held a large earthenware jar in her hand.
"I don't have anything else to send you off with, so I made a salted chicken for you to take along," she said in a hoarse voice.
Auntie Li had lost her husband early in life and had no children. She made a living by renting out a storefront owned by her husband's family. She’d treated Mr. Liang like a relative ever since she rented the place to him. She could hardly hide her sadness now that he was leaving.
"It's too much!” Mr. Liang said. “You can't do this. You raised this chicken for your New Year’s dinner."
Huizhou is rich in sea salt, which the locals use to preserve food. But they make salted chicken not just to preserve it, but also as a special local delicacy. The common folks consider salted chicken to be just about the most precious thing they can give as a gift.
"You have to take it. It’s the only thing I have to give you as a parting gift." Auntie Li stuffed the clay jar into Mr. Liang's arms. Her eyes turned red as she spoke.
Since he was unable to dissuade her, he had to accept the gift. He thanked her profusely.
"Be careful on the way. Lots of bandits on the roads these days," she warned.
"Don't worry, Auntie Li. I only travel during the day."
So Mr. Liang bid farewell to Auntie Li and set out on his way to his hometown in the upper reaches of East River. It would take him two days to get there along the riverside path.
Two gangsters disguised as passersby jumped him on a sparsely populated section of the path. They grabbed him and forced him into the reeds on the side of the road, where five or six strong men surrounded them.
Bandits were actually robbing him in broad daylight.
The leader held a wooden stick in his hand. "My name is Pockmark,” he shouted. “Face facts and hand over your property and I’ll let you go."
Mr. Liang was shocked that he had fallen into the hands of the famous Pockmark, but he wasn’t afraid. He knelt right down and pleaded, "My family depends on this bit of money to survive…." Before he knew what was happening, he was hit on the back of his head with a "bang". He dropped to the ground and passed out.
Pockmark waved his stick and snarled, "You dare resist me!" He ordered his men to rob Mr. Liang of all his belongings.
One of his men asked, "Do you want us to take this jar of salt?" Pockmark glared at him and slapped his face. "Stupid! Salt is heavy and not worth anything." He led his gang away.
Mr. Liang came to slowly after who knows how long. He felt dizzy. He touched the back of his head and felt a copious amount of blood. He had to think for some time before he remembered what had happened. He burst into tears and cried, “Why did God let me get beaten half to death?”
He thought back to when he’d been young and vigorous, a country gentleman admired by all, but now he was returning home a worthless good-for-nothing. He didn't know how he could face his fellow villagers after suffering such a disaster. He was too ashamed to face them and decided it would be better to end it all. These thoughts made him feel so humiliated that he stood up and walked slowly to the river, ready to jump in and end his life.
The year was drawing to a close, and the wind from the river pierced through him to his bones. The cold wind had sobered him up during his walk to the riverside. He was famished and decided he shouldn’t die on an empty stomach. He returned to the reeds and found that all he had left was the salted chicken. It’d be an insult to his kind-hearted landlord, Auntie Li, if he didn’t eat it. He found some dead branches and weeds to light a fire directly under the clay jar to heat it.
Soon a refreshing fragrance wafted out of the earthenware jar, an aroma he’d never smelled before. He thought he must be dreaming, so he got closer and sniffed it carefully. It was really aromatic, and the perfume spread everywhere as the fire burned more and more vigorously! He couldn't wait to take the chicken out and gobble it up. It was truly delicious, the most delicious food in the world, something he’d never tasted before!
An idea struck him: why not get into the catering business with this delicacy? He’d be able to make a name for himself, no doubt about it! He forgot his pain and the idea of suicide, and set off to return to his hometown that night. He had nothing to fear now.
He tried several recipes and eventually summed up the best way to make salt-cured chicken: stir-fry some sea salt; wrap the chicken in gauze paper to allow the salt to penetrate while keeping the taste from becoming too salty; add some locally grown galangal ginger to create a wonderful flavor combination; place in a clay jar over a charcoal fire to bake the chicken thoroughly without burning it. Absolute perfection.
Unique craftsmanship created an unparalleled delicacy! The salt-baked chicken is golden in color with crispy skin, smooth meat and aromatic bones. Its unique bouquet lingers in the mouth, leaving a delectable aftertaste.
This is how the first salt-baked chicken was born.
Ten years later, Mr. Liang has become a leader in Huizhou's catering industry. Everyone in the city loves the salt-baked chicken he created.
Text at p. 193 Translated from 腾讯网 at
https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20230310A01TOH00 (3d Story)
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5. Crazy for Chinese Opera* (戏痴)
Meng Xianqi (孟宪岐)
There were several opera troupes in the area known as Jehol prior to 1956. The more famous ones were the Xu Family's Peking Opera Troupe, the Liu Family's Ping Opera Troupe, and the Hao Family's Hebei Clapper Opera Troupe. The latter was the most famous of the three. It had two megastars who were almost household names: Lotus, who sang the part of Moustache, and Evening Star, who sang the part of The Maiden.
Men generally sang Moustache, but Lotus was a woman. She had a wide vocal range, a deep voice and a passionate singing voice. On the other hand, Evening Star was a man, but he had a gorgeous vocal range, a soft voice and a mellow singing voice.
The owner of the troupe back then was Martial Arts Hao, who was once famous in Northeast China for performing the role of Moustache. Lotus was his adopted daughter and Evening Star was his adopted son.
At the time, the troupe's specialty was a traditional play called "Watching the Battle". The role of Jade Qin in that play is none other than the martial iteration of Moustache. The script has the character Complete Wang accompany Jade Qin to watch a battle. Jade shows that he knows he’s in danger and is in an angry mood through difficult and complicated postures, such as “Raised Eyebrows” (walking up to the sky), "Single Leg Walk" (exploring the sea), and "Looking Back Diagonally" (looking over the shoulder).
To do a good job playing the martial Moustache in the role of Jade, actors had to rely on well-trained legs. Without well-trained legs, one could not perform well.
Martial Arts Hao, the troupe owner, had a special skill -- he could do a flip to dismount from four benches stacked one atop the other. No one else could perform this move back then, and no one even dared try. He’d begun learning this move from his master when he was young. The master had played Jade in "Watching the Battle" and was able to do a flip from two stacked benches, which was already an amazing feat.
Martial learned how to flip down from two benches when he was fifteen, but he wasn’t satisfied. Thereafter he practiced secretly, starting with three benches. He flipped to dismount countless times and fell countless times, but finally conquered the three benches. By the time he was twenty, he’d accomplished the miracle of four benches. He stacked them up and flipped down from them through the air, winning thunderous applause from his audiences.
People say that one minute onstage takes ten years of hard work offstage. Martial relied on his ambition and love for opera to bring out the role of Moustache to the fullest. But unfortunately, he was ultimately ruined by his obsession with the role.
Mr. Yao, the richest man in Three Rivers, fathered a son when he was fifty years old. To celebrate, he invited the troupe to perform for three days. Martial was the star of the troupe, and many fans came just to see him. He understood the audience’s desires, so he sang very well the first two days. That night, however, he came down with a fever. He vomited and had diarrhea nonstop through the night. By the next morning his eye sockets were sunken and he seemed like a different person. It was so severe that he staggered when he walked. It’s really true -- even a he-man can't withstand three bouts of diarrhea!
Everyone advised him to just flip from two benches for show, and not to attempt four benches. As pale and thin as he was, he shook his head. "If you don't perform, OK, but if you do perform, perform well! I have to live up to the expectations of Master Yao and the audience!"
As a result, he took the bull by the horns and flipped down from a stack of four benches, but his legs weren’t up to the task and one broke when he landed. He didn’t complain and stuck it out to finish the show, but afterwards he could no longer stand up. A famous doctor reconnected the bone, but he became lame and was never able to return to the stage.
He adopted his two children, Lotus and Evening Star, from poor families.
It was a time of great war and chaos. Artists drifted from place to place, homeless and miserable. Life was very difficult for them. In order to keep the troupe alive and allow these dozen people to live better, Martial, as troupe owner, was quite strict with everyone. He had very demanding requirements on everyone's singing, reciting, acting, and fighting. He had a ruler, a small, shiny wooden stick that was eight centimeters thick and two feet long. Everyone in the troupe was familiar with it, especially Lotus and Evening Star, because Martial had used it on all of them to enforce discipline. He wanted to train all his disciples to become folk artists as outstanding as he was.
Lotus had a very difficult time singing the role of a Moustache, so the troupe owner often gave her preferential treatment. But "Watching the Battle" was the troupe's signature play, and since she played the role of Jade, she had to learn the moves. Martial took great pains to teach her to flip down from four benches.
At daybreak, Martial would get out his ruler and call the troupe members out for practice. He’d storm directly into the male actors’ quarters, and if anyone didn't get up, he’d whack their behinds with the ruler. He couldn't barge in on the actresses, though, so he stood at their door and shouted, "Get up! Get up!" continuously until they came out rubbing the sleep from their eyes.
Martial stayed near Lotus when she was practicing the athletic moves. If she rolled down and back up, he helped her get down and back up. If she got so tired from practicing that her waist and legs ached, he also felt pain in his waist and legs.
At first, Lotus was so dissatisfied with Martial’s strictness that she snuck off and ran away. He limped around looking for her, calling, "Lotus, Lotus, come back! I can't bear to part with you!" She hid in the dark and silently wiped away her tears. Her master had been so kind to her that she didn't want to leave. Without him she’d be a beggar child, and how could a beggar perform on stage? So she went back, and Martial was as strict with her as he’d been before. He led her by hand through the moves, and she learned a lot. She became the troupe’s main star and finally understood the care and thought that her father had put into her training.
Martial hated it if he couldn’t turn iron into steel!
Evening Star felt Martial’s ruler even more often than Lotus. He had a failing: he performed differently for different audiences. In the city he was serious and didn’t fool around because he feared the audience would be picky. In the countryside he took it easy -- he’d drone when singing the words he was supposed to sing well, and would be slipshod in performing the movements, as though they didn’t matter.
Once when he was performing in the countryside, an old man criticized him for his mistakes. The man came on stage halfway through the play and asked Evening Star, "How many days has it been since you’ve eaten? Your performance lacks energy."
Evening Star was peeved. "I'm still quite full!"
Without another word, the old man sang the lyrics that Evening Star had just sung. Ha, ha, his voice was so loud and clear, it was incredible. When he finished singing, the fellow went through the movements that Evening Star had just performed. Ha, ha, his expressiveness was so charming and beautiful, it was also incredible. The young man realized he’d met a master, and he no longer dared to be perfunctory in his performances.
Martial beat Evening Star severely with his ruler for this incident. Evening Star was 23 years old that year. He and Lotus had agreed to spend their lives together.
Later Martial took ill and passed away. The troupe relied on the unique skills of Lotus and Evening Star to survive until the Communists won the civil war and the country was liberated.
Lotus and Evening Star were named People's Artists by the Jehol Provincial People's Government. In 1952 they visited Martial’s tomb and knelt down to show their respect. If their father, master and troupe leader knew how their lives had turned out, he’d no doubt be happy for them.
*The translator knows little about Chinese opera and had to guess at some of the descriptions of the art. As always, you’re encouraged to send your corrections and comments to jimmahler1@yahoo.com.
Text at p. 279. Translated from 刊APP下载 at
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