Wang Li - Part 2
Wang Li was in a class of 20 students, all English majors. This class of 14 women and 6 men would stay together through their four years of college.
The women lived together in two large rooms and the six men lived together in a similar room. The rooms had bunk beds on one side of the room; their clothing and belongings were in luggage or boxes below the beds. On the other side of the long room were small desks with chairs. There were three light bulbs suspended on long cords from the high ceiling. There was no hot water or heat in the dormitories. The electricity was turned off at 11:00 P.M. every night, and everyone was awakened at 7:00 P.M. by martial music. Hot showers were available only at certain times of the day, and the shower building was perhaps one mile away from the dorms.
The classrooms building, also made of cut stone, had no heat either. In the wintertime the students often opened the windows because it was warmer outside. The climate was similar to that of Atlanta, Georgia.
All the students were clean and neat. The women were especially well dressed and groomed. Like students everywhere, they made their own entertainment. They had no television. Chinese movies and American movies with Chinese subtitles and ballroom dancing on Friday and Saturday nights were popular events. The men would play cards by candlelight after 11:00P.M. Romance on campus was taboo and any demonstration of attraction for the opposite sex had to be beyond the sight of any official. There was a student appointed by the Communist Party for each class of 20 students to look after things for the Party.
It was evident from the beginning of my teaching this class that Wang Li was very lonely and sad. She was not included in their social bantering. I have a group picture of the l4 women. Thirteen look in one direction, and she at the end of the row looks away from the others. Mary and I became concerned for her, not only because of what we observed, but also because of her writings for me like those that were in part I in last week’s article. The remainder of this week’s article is another example of her work that shows her despondency.
YinYin, Why She Commits Suicide
This story happened about three years ago. At that time, I returned to my hometown – a little backward village, to spend my winter holidays. There was a great, sad thing in our village. Miss YinYin had died just a half month ago by drinking DDVP. She was only seventeen years old. How could she? People pointed out to me her grave stone on that small mountain ridge. It was true! There was a new grave lying in the winter wind.
YinYin was regarded as the prettiest girl in my hometown all the time. She had once studied in the same school as I, and we had been pleasant childhood pals. Now she was gone!
I knew YinYin had a father working in a great city far away, and she had been proud of him, hoping to go there sometime. She had a stepmother and a stepfather. Was this the cause of her death? Neighbors said no, since she had been living with them for ten years.
The fact was that YinYin stayed with her father the last whole year, attending a child. She was expecting to succeed her father who would retire soon. But later her stepbrother took her place. She had to come back to this backwoods place in the summer, a few months before.
Since then she led a very painful life. She often made herself up and then went to town to play with many young men. Her stepmother tried to prevent her but failed. She got even more wanton before long by seeing films in town evenings and coming home very late at night.
Her stepmother had to leave the door open for her before going to bed. One night after her return, her stepmother said she was very ashamed of her, and that she would lock the door if YinYin kept doing so. The next night YinYin came home at the same late time, and found the door locked. She shouted and cried, but no one came to her. At last, a neighbor came and told her. “YinYin, your mother has given the key to one room of yours to me. Here you are.”
YinYin thus opened the door. In about a half an hour, her mother heard a bottle crack on the floor. Now she got up nervously and came to YinYin’s room. She found her girl lying on the floor foaming. Neighbors were called to help. They carried her to the hospital, but she died on the way. Her stepmother, still grieving for her dead girl just like many other villagers, said, “YinYin never wanted to live in the countryside.” She didn’t want to be a farmer at all. But it is almost impossible for a farmer’s girl to leave the ground.
I understood YinYin when I recently read some news in a national magazine which told about a few country girls jumping into the river together and dying after their return from the big metropolis. YinYin was just like them. She didn’t want to be tied to the ground. She wanted to go far away to live in the city like her father.
To be continued
– Percy