Five Spice Street

After electing Madam X as their representative, the people felt very excited. Now they loved congregating to talk about this. ‘‘Our Five Spice Street is really full of talent.’’ Soon afterward, ‘‘innovative movements’’ began to appear spontaneously on Five Spice Street. One morning, a few young guys coincidentally showed up on the street with wool sweaters wrapped around their heads. That was really a novelty. From a distance, it was as if a large bundle had grown on top of their heads. Someone commented that it ‘‘was as if the neck were weighed down by heavy thoughts.’’ They went back and forth several times on the street. The next day, more than half the people on Five Spice Street wound their sweaters around their heads. Most were young people. They were the nucleus of the new movement. Of course, the old philosopher Dr. A led the movement and in doing so discovered a fatal weakness: this weakness led to certain individuals’ dissociating themselves from people in general. They unilaterally pursued odd and flighty styles and gathered in small groups of three or five, ‘‘as if they were rebels.’’ They had given up winding sweaters around their heads and had begun talking day and night. When their talking reached a fever pitch, someone jumped to the window and ‘‘shouted and screamed,’’ which made all the people on the street very nervous.

Enraptured, Dr. A observed these guys for a long time and finally discovered the sticking point. From the time this phenomenon began, it was clear that its creed was fuzzy. When we elected Madam X our representative, our heads were muddled by a certain blind emotion. We forgot that at present this lady still didn’t share our objective. She was merely a symbol-a gleam of the dawn of the future. The reason we wanted to canonize her was certainly not to serve today, but to serve our descendants hundreds of years hence. So certain people’s blind imitation of her style was absolutely unacceptable. To transplant her style into the context of present life would only create jokes. It was ridiculous.

Dr. A proposed several more discussion meetings. He told everyone clearly: what Madam X does and is today is not at all related to real life. It’s an artificial performance. If we do not understand this, all the positive aspects of our canonization of her will be lost. Dr. A also said this kind of movement could proceed only under his leadership, for it needed a great spirit of risk-taking. If it wasn’t done well, it would become ‘‘rebellion,’’ and that was a capital crime. If he didn’t watch everything strictly every minute and every second and ‘‘correct errors,’’ all kinds of consequences were possible. He was a seasoned person with abundant experience. Ten years ago, he had gone through a similar movement. That movement, not having a leader like him, never developed and finally became a child’s game of hide-and-seek. Now it pained him to think about it, because it represented the retrogression of human intelligence.

At this point, Dr. A remembered the heated dispute he’d had with other scholars over who had taken the initiative. He had mentioned that everyone should pay attention to the meaning of the word ‘‘symbol.’’ ‘‘It’s only a form, a matrix, an indeterminate matrix. There’s nothing more fitting than our electing a woman to be the representative. In this, there are a lot of things worth thinking about.’’

As for Madam X’s remaining a bystander in the election, Dr. A commented: ‘‘She understands her position. What else can a woman do? Especially a woman like Madam X, who has been scrutinized by the crowd. Being a representative is a mere form-an honor generously bestowed by everyone. She should cherish and esteem herself. Apart from improving her skill in turning somersaults, she should make no further changes. If she is overbearing, stops practicing, and lets her skills get rusty, she’ll lose this honor. Honor isn’t inexhaustible capital. If it isn’t handled well, it becomes a burden!’’

11. MADAM X'S STEPS ARE BUOYANT; ON BROAD FIVE SPICE STREET, SHE WALKS TOWARD TOMORROW