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The Anecdotes of Section Chief Maimaiti (II) (1984)

Author Information
Writer: Wang Meng (1934 - )
Writer's Country: China
Original Language: Chinese
Genre: Essays
Event: Chinese History

V. Why Didn't Section Chief Maimaiti Shut the Door at Night?

In the ranks of the evil gang, Maimaiti was the one whose bed was next to the door. When other people closed the door, he'd always push it back open. People would then tell him that the class struggle was penetrating and complex, and that one couldn't say for sure whether there might be criminals, thieves, or robbers in the vicinity. Moreover, though their social position was that of an evil-ganger, most of them nevertheless wore wristwatches and had money and ration tickets in their pockets. Because of this, while sleeping at night it would presumably be best to shut the door tightly and latch it securely.

Maimaiti took exception to this argument, saying, "Criminals, thieves, and robbers are people, but we are demons" (the Uighurs translate cow ghosts and snake spirits as Satan the arch-demon). "How could it be that people would not fear demons, while demons would fear people?"

When an overseer caught wind of Maimaiti's words, he called the Uighur in for an upbraiding.

OVERSEER: You've been spreading poisonous ideas!
MAIMAITI: I wouldn't dare!
OVERSEER: You aren't satisfied with your gang being labeled cow ghosts and snake spirits!
MAIMAITI: No, I'm satisfied; my heart's content.
OVERSEER: You're reactionary!
MAIMAITI: Therefore I'm a demon.
OVERSEER: You've always been reactionary!
MAIMAITI: I've always been a demon.
OVERSEER: Why are you so reactionary?
MAIMAITI: (Lowers his head and mumbles in a secretive and pitiable tone) I fell under the influence of Liu Shaoqi.
OVERSEER: (Suddenly breaks into a smile upon hearing Liu Shaoqi's name) That's the way to make a clean breast of things! There's leniency for those who make frank confessions. By cleaning up your own problems, you can hasten the day when you return to the ranks of the People!
MAIMAITI: I certainly yearn after changing from a demon back into a person as soon as possible.
OVERSEER: Then think for awhile,--- What problems are you concealing? If there are serious ones, as long as you don't flee from them you'll get off easy. We'll certainly be lenient about any voluntary confessions.
MAIMAITI: (His head dropping and his hands fumbling nervously with the edges of his clothes, he is the very picture of a victim of intense ideological conflict).There's a problem so serious that I don't dare mention it.
OVERSEER: (His eyes lighting up). Say it, go on and say it! If you come out with it, I guarantee that we won't seize on your mistakes, pin you with a label, or get rough with you"
MAIMAITI: I think I started both the First and Second World Wars. What's more, I'm now preparing to start World War Three.

Credit: Excerpted from The Anecdotes of Section Chief Maimaiti: Uighur 'Black Humor.' by Wang Meng. Translated with an annotated introduction by Philip F. Williams. Journal of Asian Culture 8 (1984): 1-30.

Biography:

Wang Meng was born on October 15, 1934 in Beijing. Nurtured by his father who taught philosophy at a university, he read avidly during his childhood. While a student in high school, he took an active part in the revolutionary movement led by the underground organization of the Chinese Communist Party, which he eventually joined in 1948. Soon after the founding of the PRC in 1949, he was assigned to work at the headquarters of the Communist Youth League of China. In 1953 he published his maiden work titled "Long Live the Youth." Two years later, he wrote "The Young Newcomer in the Organization Department," a realistic portrayal of the clash between youthful and idealistic revolutionaries and older and entrenched party bureaucrats. He was labeled "rightist" in 1957 and sent down to labor on a farm in Xinjiang Province for seven years, where he learned to speak, read and write in Uighur. A member of the Chinese Writers Association, Wang Meng has many publications. In 1985, he became a member of the Central Committee Party, and later he was appointed Culture Minister, an official post from which he resigned in 1989 because he refused to criticize the students and workers who protested for democracy at Tiananmen. He is now vice chairman of the CWA.

Bibliography:

The Stubborn Porridge and other stories, Trans. By Zhu Huong, New York: George Braziller, 1994.

Bolshevik Salute, Trans. by Wendy Larson, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1989.

Snowball, Trans. by Kathy Silber and Deirdre Huang, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1989.

The Strain of Meeting, Trans. by Dennis C. Mair, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1989.

The Butterfly and Other Stories; Beijing: Panda Books, 1983.

From the Afterword by P. Williams:

The Anecdotes of Chief Section Maimaiti "might be called a satiric pastoral. It is an example of Northrop Frye's satire in the low norm," for it "takes for granted a world which is full of anomalies, injustices, follies and crimes" (Anatomy of Criticism, p 226). The objects of satire are everywhere, including everything associated with the excesses of the Cultural Revolution as well as the group of Uighurs' alternately clumsy and ingenious means of dealing with those excesses...

Wang Meng seems to exalt down-to-earth rural pragmatism over the self-important and idealized conceptualizations all too common in urban culture. Finally, as a somewhat exotic outsider (in terms of Chinese society), Maimaiti is able to satirize Chinese ideological excesses with more impunity than that available to either the Chinese intellectual, who cannot appeal to linguistic barriers as a justification for misconstruing unpalatable ideologies, or the observer from the industrialized West, whose complaint that Chinese ideology has often obstructed socio-economic amelioration may seem condescending."