MCLC: Li Chengpeng on the Chinese dream

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: Li Chengpeng on the Chinese dream
***********************************************************

Source: The Telegraph (7/19/13):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10190914/Li-Chengpengs
-essay-translated-watermelon-vendor-died-pursuing-the-Chinese-dream.html

Li Chengpeng's essay translated: watermelon vendor died pursuing the
Chinese dream

At 3am, a watermelon vendor rolled out of bed to pick watermelons in pitch
darkness. At 5am, he loaded the watermelons onto his cart and set off to
town with his wife. At 7am, he arrived town and hawked the fruit by the
street. At 10am, urban management officers confiscated his scale. Fifty
minutes later, the watermelon vendor drew his last breath, his face ashen
grey. His watermelons shone under the sun, lustrous and green.

It takes four seasons for a watermelon to ripen and fall off its stem. It
takes not even a few seconds to claim someone's life.

When the urban management officers ganged up to attack the watermelon
vendor, perhaps it never occurred to them they were dealing with someone's
life. In their eyes, human lives are not too different from watermelons.

Pick one from the vine, and one can walk away with it. It was no wonder
that they said things such as "We might as well beat him to death."

In my dear motherland, every brand-new street has seen the brutality of
urban management officers. How dare you say you have lived in cities, if
you had not witnessed such incidents? Over time, we have become
desensitised. But if you insist on looking for an ironic twist, look no
further than the dead body of the watermelon vendor. Above it, a sign
reads "A Model Street for Urban Management." It is a model to show to all
of you.

Yes, of course the urban management officers did not beat the watermelon
vendor. He just fell onto the ground himself and died. It was just like
the "temporary rape", the "adjusted price hike", the "polite bribe", the
"protective eviction", the "inflationary tightening" and "taking turns
having sex". Yes, the officers did not kill the vendor. The watermelons
did.

Our Constitution clearly says China "is a socialist state under the
people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the
alliance of workers and peasants". The workers lost theirjobs. The
peasants lost their land. They try to cope by planting watermelons, but
they end up losing their lives.
 
When I say such things, some will probably accuse me of being unpatriotic.

But a friend reminded me of a scene in the movie Little Soldier Zhang Ga:
Zhang Ga was selling watermelons, when a chubby Japanese translator
wandered by. Zhang Ga did not run away, nor did the translator shoo him
away.

Nor did he demand fees, or beat Zhang Ga to death and try to seize the
corpse. He only ate Zhang Ga's watermelon by the street. As I look back
now, Little Soldier Zhang Ga definitely seems a counterrevolutionary movie
aiming to glorify our enemies.

Each time when I criticise urban management officers, some people will
counter me by asking "Did the vendor not err by illegally occupying public
space? Did the officers not get beaten as well?" That is our problem.
Since we face such a lawless and ineffectual urban management system,
shouldn't we pursue something more civilised?

The authorities dispatched hundreds of police, trying to seize the corpse
of the vendor. This is in fact a metaphor for today's China, where the
state is seizing property everywhere through a variety of means:
businessmen are losing their enterprises and thrown into prison; an
anonymous vendor is losing his watermelons. Sometimes it's the urban
management officers that seize the property. Sometimes it's the court, or
the bank, or the unpredictable policies.

To those business tycoons who have remained silent, please say something.

In this country, nobody is secure. If you choose to stay quiet today, they
will be seizing your business empires tomorrow like they seized the
watermelons.

To the government officials - give us fewer ostentatiously inspiring
speeches, and more policies that will lead to a better living. Remind
entrepreneurs of the boundary between normal business and theft; let
employees know the standards of promotion, instead of the credit card
number for bribery; show students the door to the recruiting office, not
the bed of their bosses; give farmers the direction to their way home, not
the passage to the underworld. Stop giving grand talks from your offices.
If civilisation has only one sign in this world, it should be inside a
fruit market.

A watermelon vendor named Deng Zhengjia "unexpectedly fell to the ground,
and died". There are too many in this country who have "unexpectedly
fallen to the ground and died". It could be a watermelon vendor. Could it
be a country?

The watermelon vendor, Deng Zhengjia, lived in a mountain near Linwu
County. He wanted to grow sweet watermelons, have a magnificent harvest,
and sell his watermelons quickly, so that he could get home in time for
dinner. This was his Chinese dream. He took great care of his watermelons.

Why didn't you take care of him? Before we sit down to talk about the
Chinese dream, you should protect a watermelon vendor's dream.

Be nice to your people, and to your watermelons. Plant melons, you get
melons. Sow beans, and you get beans.

Don't you understand? Running a country, after all, is not so different
from planting melons.

Translation by Helen Gao