Rich Man, Poor Man, Chinaman
Yuan, Ma & London, Miriam
"Rich Man, Poor Man, Chinaman" Miriam London & Ma Yuan CHINAMAN In the New China, the mendicant arts survive--necessarily. I n the old days before Communist liberation, when China was still...
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...Not only would he p r a i s e the noodle merchant, for instance, and invoke blessings on the stall, but he was not beyond commenting favorably on the noodles: So pleasing to the eye As well as nice to eat And when but 24 taets you buy You get a catty and half complete...
...Ill had at home a peck of rice, I'd not come here to look for you, Ill had at home a peck of flour, I'd not come plague you at this hour, Ill had at home a peck of bran, I'd not come here to make a din...
...Ma Yuan is the p_reudonym of a Chinese colleague...
...For a long time we sold to the Soviet Union, on cheap credit subsidized by the taxpayer, sophisticated computers and other technology that the Soviet Union has used in weaponry against the West...
...The relatives gave them one yuan (66 cents), but they refused to budge until the visitors added four more, just to be rid of them...
...Manor is a retired journalist who throughout a long eureer reported on Nazi, Arab, and Communist terrorism...
...The commune, city and district said they were powerless to do anything...
...More important, we ignore that there is a common ground between Marxist tyranny and international terrorism...
...Iran, of course, is the best example of the West's appeasement: But one needn't refer to the Iranian crisis only, for appeasement and the character of mind to which it appeals long preceded Khomeini...
...Where have the beggars of old China gone, those poor minstrels with their ritual wit and wisdom ? Have they, happily, vanished from the brighter streets of socialist society...
...Before the rich man's door the beggar would review his repertory of auspicious sayings for the deserving household...
...Even as Carter was courting Yassir Ararat, the PLO helped to topple the Shah...
...Miriam London & Ma Yuan RICH MAN, POOR MAN, CHINAMAN In the New China, the mendicant arts survive--necessarily...
...The lords and ladies of this household, he would affirm, were destined to live in a glorious house like this and to have many children and grandchildren...
...The three travelers, however, complained to the Swatow authorities and asked why nothing was done to "solve" these problems...
...Whatever his act, the beggar always began on the upbeat...
...The result was, it was no one's affair...
...I n the old days before Communist liberation, when China was still unprogressive and Heaven regularly visited disaster at will on the country's rice, millet, sorghum, and wheat, a certain number of the peasantry yearly abandoned their stricken lands and went off to beg for their livelihood in the towns...
...9 . . You went to the store, one of them followed you to the store...
...After singing briefly, he stuck out his hand for money...
...They were relieved to observe along the way a "prosperous air" in the agricultural markets, contrasting with the "bleak situation of several years ago...
...Ten to twenty cents was not enough for them...
...Thus, the b e g g a r ' s parting couplet to an ungrateful merchant: You won't give, I won't beg anymore...
...Of course, since one and a h a l f c a t t i e s precisely equaled 24 taels in weight, the beggar was p e r m i t t i n g h i m s e l f a little joke--but with the best intentions...
...His debut was benevolent and premised on the positive in human nature...
...Sometimes they would also resort to verbal abuse, like 'stinking overseas Chinese...
...We have forgotten the lessons of such "compromises" between democracies and Marxists as were attempted at the end of the war in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Balkans...
...The beggar's " s t a g e " might be improvised before some busy noodle stall, where poorer folk went to fill up on a starchy meal, or before the front door of some rich man's household...
...The visitors received not only a musical welcome, but a grand finale farewell...
...Then they held out a broken bowl for money...
...Manor THE NEW WORLD DISORDER If terrorism is war by other means, we aren't even holding our position...
...It has since helped to stir unrest in THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1980 19...
...Washington, for example, pressured by the oil states, has pressed Israel for some time to install on the west bank of the Jordan River an independent Palestinian state that cannot but become the most dangerous addition to a host of states already providing official backing for international terrorism, states like Cuba, North Vietnam, North Korea, and Libya-and now Nicaragua, El Salvador...
...Some would even tug at your clothes to attract attention...
...A little while later, a middle-aged man carrying a six-cornered instrument appeared, accompanied by a child...
...But I'll sfiort with your wife before your own door...
...Soviet-armed terrorists of the "Patriotic Front" be given an equal chance to seize power...
...The adult played and the child sang...
...When it happened, however, that the lords and ladies of the household did not hand over evidence of their virtue, or that the noodle merchant remained unmoved, the beggar literally changed his tune...
...Indeed, we were very proud of the commercial side of the venture: Before Afghanistan, many American politicians sold the idea of detente on the basis of its economic reward, never mind the political consequences_9 At the same time, here at home, money was, and is, freely expended to mobilize the police forces of two countries, Canada and the United States...
...against malefactors like those from a Canadian border town who allegedly shipped conventional weapons to South Africa...
...In some places, beggar children pestered the travelers...
...Beggars, male and female, old and young, blocked you off front and back...
...The reply: There was no one to take charge...
...Their kind hearts would never allow anyone to suffer poverty or starvation...
...We still refuse to recognize the axiom that there can be no common ground between democracy, however imperfect, and Marxist tyranny...
...Recently a party of three Chinese traveled to the Swatow area of Kwangtung Province to visit relatives...
...You went to the restaurant and he accompanied you to the restaurant...
...and Afghanistan...
...it appears to be the ultimate crime when the South African government believes it should defend itself against Russian-armed and KGB-trained terrorists whose principal aim is to deprive the West of strategic raw materials in southern Africa...
...In small restaurants or at food stalls, whenever an overseas Chinese or someone from Hong Kong or Macao is spotted eating, he is surrounded by little beggars demanding money and food...
...All of which is symptomatic of a disposition that has led the West to appease international terrorists of all kinds, especially those on whom we confer some political legitimacy by regarding as real their bogus claims to national recognition, or, as in the case of Iran, to national retribution...
...In such conditions some visitors "actually shut themselves inside the hotel...
...To their dismay, however, they discovered that "not only had beggars failed to diminish in number, but there were more than ever...
...In due course, he would explain his mission, as in these lines from an old Peking beggar ditty: Miriam London is a researcher in Soviet and Chinese studies...
...A particularly vicious one will initiate a surprise attack...
...Something similar is behind the way the West refused to recognize the results of a democratic election in Zimbabwe-Rhodesia when a majority of citizens elected Bishop Abel Muzorewa, who was proWestern_9 Every Western country, with Washington in the lead, insisted that the F.S...
...The departments of overseas Chinese and foreign affairs said they were not authorized to handle such matters...
...Blessings gave way to curses and the script for the denouement switched abruptly from fair to foul...
...Scarcely had a couple of the travelers entered their relatives' house "when an old fellow came to the door with a string instrument made of a coconut shell and began to sing some nondescript [local] song...
...He would never give up until he achieved his goal...
...After one such performance, the child held out his hand for money, reciting auspicious sayings all the while...
...Begging became a tradition, a vocation for some, and e v e n - - i f anyone would only stop and pay h e e d - - a performing art...
...Like a hawk snatching a little chick, he will grab all the chicken or fried bean curd on the table in a single SWOOp...
...There was even a "new breed of presentably dressed highclass beggars" who would "suavely overtake you, walk with you shoulder to shoulder, and then whisper softly, 'Overseas visitor, how about helping me out with 8-9 yuan?' If you gave him less, he would continue walking alongside, pestering...
...The Public Security Bureau said that the commune should be in charge of this...
...We live in a peculiar age...
...For each audience the beggar appropriately varied his act--usually a rhymed chant, which he might accompany, for example, by knocking two pieces of wood together, like castanets...
...There is something to be learned from centuries of beggary...
...xxr7 MVhen you went outside the overseas Chinese building in Swatow," the third traveler reported, "you felt as though you 18 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1980 were fighting your way past five city gates and six generals...
...The preceding details of a travel report were published in the Hong Kong Ming Pao Daily on November 21, 1979--30 years after Mao Tse-tung arrived triumphant in Peking and began a new era in China...
...Two days later, while they were taking leave of their relatives, "along came a trio, one beating a drum, another striking a gong, and a third bearing a large sheet of red paper inscribed with the four characters Kung hsi )Ca ts'at (congratulations, good fortune), which he waved before the door as though introducing an opera performance...
Vol. 13 • June 1980 • No. 6
