One Baby for You, One Baby for Me
Tung, Tung
Tung Tung ONE BABY FOR YOU, ONE BABY FOR ME A story. The following is a slightly edited translation of a Chinese story that appeared in Anti-Revisionism House (Fan Hsiu Lou), a collection of...
...On the other hand, Ch'ien Ssu-ming's wife was pregnant again...
...Otherwise they'd pin a label on me for 'opposing revolutionary new-born things,' for 'opposing barefoot doctors.' So, I got up the strength to follow her into the operating room, I closed my eyes and put myself at her mercy.'' "Well, you seemed to have pulled through all right.'' ''Pulled through ? The worst possible thing happened...
...What...
...He elbowed his way through the crowd and quickly boarded the trolley...
...Ma slapped his thigh heavily with one hand...
...But our class enemy will never give up the ghost...
...Another operation...
...Ma Kuei-ts'ai nudged him with an elbow...
...I feel now like someone deaf and dumb who's taken bitter medicine-I can't even talk out the bitterness," Ma Kuei-ts'ai said, sighing...
...Before the Cultural Revolution, Chiang Feng had been an ordinary cleaning woman...
...Miriam London and Ta-ling Lee The sky was overcast and a whistling north wind slashed at the faces of people waiting, huddled together at the trolley stop...
...Liu in the surgery department...
...Chiang Feng was in a good mood, pleased with the response to her efforts...
...in shock, his mouth fallen wide open...
...Ma Kuei-ts'ai glanced about furtively and then spoke in a low voice directly into Ch'ien's ear: "Little Ch'ien, they forced me to go to a hospital for a vasectomy and guess who did the operation on me-a young girl of 16-17...
...The kick caught those pressing behind him by surprise, tumbling them backward, while Ch'ien Ssu-ming withdrew his entire body into the car...
...Is that right?'' Ma Kuei-ts'ai was rocked by the question...
...Director Chiang, it was all unintentional what I said on the trolley the other day.'' "Unintentional...
...He sat on the edge of the bed...
...The workers got scared and nobody wanted a vasectomy...
...She shouted, "No, a quota cannot be loaned to anyone else...
...Because of poor sterilization...
...Oh, but it's supposed to be for your own good...
...Oh, no...
...After discussion by the masses and review by the Party Committee, it has been decided that the quota will be filled by Comrades Yu Hung-wei and Niu Erh-ch'iang...
...I couldn't stand or sit...
...At the hospital he tiptoed into the ward, where he saw his wife lying in bed, looking ffThis is not a private home telephone, but one on the street near the workers' apartment house...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming is really tops when it comes to producing babies...
...Isn't it enough I make a point of practicing birth control on my own...
...Nothing...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming, however, seemed preoccupied today, unlike his usual sociable self...
...Big character posters will sure to be out tomorrow...
...I'm just a hunk of dough...
...Liu say...
...We don't even know what to do with this one!'' He took it all out on Hsiu-ying: "We won't be able to get her a residence permit and there won't be any ration...
...But, Master Ma, what was it, what happened...
...Where'd you hear that...
...Ma Kuei-ts'ai became visibly more excited as he talked...
...Then, with his right hand, he removed the pancake and fried cruller clenched all the while in his teeth and roared out a command, "Let's go...
...Evidently fearing, however, that Big Dummy Niu might not be able to express himself properly, she interrupted, gently, to ask that he speak slowly...
...Ma Kuei-ts'ai barely got out the words and waved the subject away with a despairing gesture of one hand...
...I wouldn't have a vasectomy, even if they held a knife to my throat...
...It's your tough luck-you've got that 'small businessman' background...
...At that moment, the trolley swerved sharply at high speed, throwing most of the passengers off balance...
...Telephone from home.f f Go to the hospital immediately...
...He just examined me...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming noticed his companion's nervousness and pressed him...
...Embarrassed by the audience's reaction, Chiang Feng quickly cut in, ' 'Ma Kuei-ts'ai, who told you to say this...
...Within days the story of how a barefoot doctor tied someone's urinary canal snowballed through the entire factory...
...And what did Dr...
...Well...
...I hereby announce: From now on, Ma Kuei-ts'ai will be put under supervised labor in the factory...
...All you need is to be shut up in a few study classes* and you'll go along, like it or not.'' "I'm not afraid of that...
...Ordinarily Ma Kuei-ts'ai did not show his emotions readily...
...You're right, I guess...
...Ma Kuei-ts'ai wiped the sweat' off his forehead with his hand...
...very worn...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming stared at the floor...
...I don't give a damn what those jerks have to say about me behind my back...
...He just sat in silence, staring out the window...
...Such encouragement from Director Chiang was a shot in the arm to Niu Erh-ch'iang, who went rattling on: "Comrade Chi'ien Ssu-ming-now he had two daughters in a row and he's really wanted a son...
...At the sound of the quitting bell, everyone ran to the Big Red Roster, quite curious to learn how others practiced contraception...
...I felt burning down there, but I just couldn't piss...
...Director Chiang said, didn't she, that couples with two kids who belong to the four classesf have absolutely got to have a vasectomy...
...Thereupon, she hastily dismissed the meeting...
...Where does it say you got to have a vasectomy after the second child...
...My belly got all swollen, just as if I had a ball inside...
...Presiding over the struggle meeting on the platform was Chiang Feng...
...According to the quota allotted our factory by the higher authorities, we are allowed two child-bearing couples for this year...
...Right, she tied my urinary canal...
...My family are factory workers three generations back and my own record has always been good...
...Squeezed next to Ch'ien Ssu-ming, like sardines in a can, Ma Kuei-ts'ai shook his head and said, "Little Ch'ien, if I hadn't run into you, I'd never have made it...
...Tears rolled from the corners of her eyes onto the pillow...
...Just some rumors...
...The door clanged shut...
...Why so hesitant...
...Head bowed low, Ma Kuei-ts'ai was led on stage by two militiamen...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming was at a loss to understand...
...No, it's just that planned parenthood meeting yesterday...
...Some infection...
...fThe four social categories originally stigmatized during the Mao era were the former "landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries and bad elements" and their descendants...
...it was 1977 and the "Big Red Roster" of planned parenthood for the year had just been posted...
...Niu Erh-ch'iang, a strapping but slow-witted fellow, raised his right hand high for permission to speak...
...And then he sighed and shook his head and ordered me to go immediately to the operating room...
...He stood at one corner of the platform, hunched forward almost 90 degrees, like a jumbo shrimp...
...Well, to tell the truth, Little Ch'ien, stay away from vasectomy if you can avoid it...
...Chiang Feng picked up a large sheet of red paper from the lectern: "Comrades, on behalf of the Factory Party Committee and the Planned Parenthood Office, I now announce the names of couples of child-bearing age in our factory permitted to have children in 1976...
...In addition to the usual information listed after each name-age, class background...
...Never mind, never mind...
...Red-faced, Ch'ien Ssu-ming hopped on his bicycle and quickly rode away...
...There were two reasons, so people said, behind this move to disclose publicly the contraceptive measures used by every couple: to mobilize the masses for exchange of experiences and to enable them to watch over one another...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming asked, full of hope...
...Chiang Feng demanded angrily...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming asked a little impatiently...
...They're going to make me have a vasectomy...
...So, you had no choice...
...versation here implies, however, that Ch'ien Ssu-ming retains a slight distance between himself and the socially "inferior" Ma Kuei-ts'ai...
...Niu Erh-ch'iang had tried his best during the year, but his wife failed him- she did not bear him a child...
...The first operation had been just like a blind man trying to light a candle-a waste of wax...
...Well, uh . . . better not talk...
...Ma Kuei-ts'ai stuttered in his haste to explain...
...All the other patients in the ward watched them silently...
...Yes, Comrade Niu Erh-ch'iang, what do you want to say...
...By the time the Revolutionary Committee was set up in the factory, she became a natural choice for a post on the new staff...
...This is not just some isolated thing...
...uh...
...And, yes, there'll be criticism the minute I return to the factory...
...Finally, I just couldn't hold out any longer...
...The room was still, the bed was still- except for Hsiu-ying's soft sobbing...
...You can tell me, can't you...
...You've got to tell us your real motives...
...Be polite and people take advantage of you...
...I wanted a son just as much as you...
...Niu Erh-ch'iang scratched the back of his head...
...Come on, Little Ch'ien, you're past thirty, you're grown up now...
...You should know better than tatty to break a rock with an egg...
...This handful of class enemy has infiltrated the different shops...
...Even before it drew close, people swarmed forward to board...
...Comrades," she began, "we in Shanghai represent the vanguard of our country in the work of planned parenthood...
...Here Big Dummy Niu brought down the house, but he insisted on finishing the last sentence: "I'll wait till the next time to get my quota back and get my own baby...
...However, the term "four classes" came to be applied loosely to all members of an expanding list of ''bad categories.'' %Shih-fu, a polite manner of address for a skilled craftsman...
...What's the trouble, Little Ch'ien...
...The reason was that she not only shared the same surname, but like Chiang Ch'ing, had also a single given name...
...They can make me round or flat, just as they like...
...You got to be tough these days," Little Ch'ien said through a mouthful of pancake and cruller...
...Wow...
...Chiang Feng was between laughter and tears...
...Oh, no...
...This is class struggle...
...Ma Kuei-ts'ai, why are you spreading rumors to sabotage planned parenthood work...
...No, it's all connected with tnat current 'rightest wind to reverse earlier verdicts'-meaning, it's the new direction of the current class struggle...
...My belly was all swollen and painful...
...And besides, it's the state plan...
...21 had reached its last stop...
...But people from the working class just have to be mobilized to get up the enthusiasm, right...
...Why the long face...
...So, with my wage of 30 yuan or so, I barely get by...
...Ch'ien asked, bewildered...
...His face darkened with anger...
...But now he was puffing with rage...
...That barefoot doctor tied the wrong tube...
...State plan...
...It would've been simple if it were only that...
...Hsiu-ying opened her weary eyes, took one timid look at her husband and then silently closed them again...
...In addition to the usual information listed after each name-age, class background,ctory...
...Ssu-ming, how can you blame me...
...Like the other contributors to the book, he has sought to write honestly and accurately about life as he experienced it in the People's Republic of China, using a thin fictional cover...
...With the rise to prominence, however, of Chairman Mao's wife, Chiang Ch'ing, she-Chiang Feng-had also begun a new career at the factory...
...Thus, whenever she spoke ai meetings, large or small, she never failed to mention the name of Chiang Ch'ing...
...number of children, year for which birth was planned, year for which birth was approved, etc.-the Factory Party Committee and Planned Parenthood Office had added a new item for 1977, contraceptive measures used...
...With my bad background, what right had I to speak up...
...Director Chiang, I...
...To hear you talk, it was all so simple...
...Even double insurance didn't help...
...Lately, they've blown up an evil wind in our factory, trying to sabotage the work of planned parenthood...
...Trolley No...
...The practice of birth control as described here has been confirmed by the Chinese Communist press-for example, by the Hong Kong newspaper1a Kung Pao on June 11, 1980, which also disclosed that couples in Kwangtung Province who wish to have a child must now first obtain a "birth permit.'' Nothing-alas, nothing in this story has been exaggerated...
...I'd like to loan my baby for getting born to Ch'ien Ssu-ming and I'll wait till...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming said, shaking his head, indignant and moved almost to laughter at the same time...
...The story is thus based on a true incident in a Shanghai factory...
...Not like me...
...Another girl...
...The canvas "soft section" connecting the two cars fanned out like an accordion, making it possible for the long, awkward conveyance to navigate the turn...
...But what happened...
...Your wife is having a baby...
...After the trolley passed the Ni Ch'eng Bridge, Ma and Ch'ien were finally able to find seats and sit down...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming, young and strong, went into action, applying a long-perfected technique...
...Burying his head in his hands, he talked to himself: "This is the end...
...Oh, good heavens, this is like playing games with human life...
...Being pig-headed will only land you in trouble...
...He was **To "struggle" someone is to interrogate for the purpose of inducing a confession and often involves physical coercion...
...Chiang Feng furiously barked the command...
...You won't have maternity leave and we'll have to pay the delivery and hospital fees...
...On the other hand, the ingratiating Ma adopts the more friendly "Hsiao (Little) Ch'ien" in addressing his companion...
...He gently touched her face with his hand...
...The next...
...Ma said in a pitiful voice...
...21 trolley bus approached the Heng Pin Bridge stop on Szechuan North Road, its two flying-pigtail contact poles now and then spitting blue-white sparks...
...The worst...
...First of all," he began, "I thank the Party for being so kind to give me one of the two births in the quota for the whole factory...
...Ma Kuei-ts'ai tried to smooth things over a bit...
...The following is a slightly edited translation of a Chinese story that appeared in Anti-Revisionism House (Fan Hsiu Lou), a collection of short stories published in 1979 by a group of former Red Guards in Hong Kong...
...but I never spread any rumors," Ma Kuei-ts'ai timidly ventured in his own defense...
...Which central document says you got to have a vasectomy after two kids...
...All this worried Chiang Feng, director of the Planned Parenthood Office at the factory...
...All the characters bear striking resemblance to living persons, who still mingle somewhere with the throng in China's greatest industrial city...
...Director Chiang...
...Before he could go on, Old T'ang, the office messenger, rushed into the crowd and yelled: "Is Ch'ien Ssu-ming around...
...I'm going to die this time...
...The day after the operation I felt something was wrong...
...Every time I think of it I get mad...
...Secretly, he was glad to have been spared a beating...
...But . . . maybe the next...
...The wrong tube...
...This is the trick our class enemy uses...
...We'd wait until our financial situation gets a little better to have kids...
...Today, we're going to criticize and struggle* * a reactionary capitalist-Ma Kuei-ts'ai...
...Infection...
...Others refused, but not me...
...One wicked fellow read aloud: "Ch'ien Ssu-ming, condoms, pills...
...How could they be so shameless to let a young girl do this kind of operation...
...The use of "master" in con- didn't go too well...
...Then why didn't you choose some other time or place ? You picked a time on the trolley when everyone was going to work so they could all hear you...
...So...
...If you don't have your own baby this year, it means you voluntarily give up the quota...
...The author of the story, pseudo-nymously Tung Tung, was formerly a leader of a major Red Guard faction in Shanghai...
...Even more important, she was from Chiang Ch'ing's native province, Shantung-an asset, without a doubt...
...Have a fight with the little lady...
...They're spreading rumors to smear one of the Cultural Revolution's 'new-born things'-the barefoot doctor-in an attempt to put down the accomplishments of the Cultural Revolution...
...So, I went back to the hospital to look up Dr...
...Isn't it true you deliberately tried to sabotage...
...My wife's in the village, you know-she gets not too many work points...
...A long banner stretched the length of the factory mess hall: "Use Class Struggle as the Key Link...
...That barefoot doctor really did tie my urinary canal...
...What could I do...
...Drag Ma Kuei-ts'ai up on the platform...
...Thus the quota was wasted...
...They're stirring up the lower ranks, they're hatching secret plots...
...he asked quickly...
...Slowly the No...
...The crowd burst into laughter...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming was really mad...
...So, the two of us talked it over and we decided not to have kids for the time being...
...Yes, a barefoot doctor just up from Ch'uan Sha County for job training...
...A strange thought crossed his mind: How nice it would be if a T'angshan earthquake hit Shanghai at this very moment, so that he could fall into a crack in the earth, never have to face anyone again or have any worries anymore...
...Take him away...
...The audience roared...
...You've lost all my face for me...
...Hsiu-ying, it's a son, right...
...Oh, you . . . how can you be such a no-good...
...How can this be...
...Resolutely Strike Down Class Enemies Who Try to Sabotage the Work of Planned Parenthood...
...A worker found guilty of ideological sin could be confined to such a class-actually a prison-like room within the factory-under heavy psychological pressure, usually for a period of one week to two months, but in some cases much longer...
...A young girl...
...Then, clutching a side rail with his left hand and jamming his left foot against the closing door, he pulled his slow-moving companion, Ma Kuei-ts'ai, inside with his free right hand and kicked his right foot back once, hard...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming burst ont ' 'Not that...
...uh," Ma Kuei-ts'ai was at a loss to add a single word...
...Ch'ien Ssu-ming stared at Ma incredulously, eyes wide...
...As in the previous year, it was posted on the main bulletin board, right at the front gate of the factory...
...And by the way, Master Ma,$ I heard your vasectomy *A Mao Tse-tung Thought Study Class...
Vol. 14 • January 1981 • No. 1
