Five Spice Street

Let’s talk first of cooling off outside: this was the most abhorrent thing this couple did. In the summer, we southerners sit outside to enjoy the cool evening breeze, and we do this next to the main street. Small groups congregate until midnight to talk over all the major events, imagine the future, or criticize society. People had to take part, for important decisions were made here. Beginning with the first summer after they arrived, Madam X and her family showed their lack of breeding. As the crowds were enjoying the breeze, they strolled down the main street, eyes straight ahead. Afterwards, they closed the door of their little house and did not reemerge. The woman fiddled with her microscope, and the man ‘‘did who knows what.’’ The young coal worker once went over to Madam X and ‘‘tactfully broached the subject,’’ inviting her ‘‘to take part in a bit of a social movement,’’ but she ‘‘laughed grimly’’ and bent her head again to look into the microscope, as if afraid that the coal worker might delay her even a minute. It was also as though she didn’t recognize him. The coal worker sat in silence for a while, his inferiority complex mounting. When he went home, ‘‘he couldn’t even walk steadily.’’

‘‘Well,’’ he said, oddly embarrassed, ‘‘she was busy with her own work, which is certainly superior. I was almost moved to tears. Her work is unique; we mustn’t importune her…’’

Before he’d finished, the widow spat in his face, and lambasted him: “You’re shameless. What kind of sugarplum did you get from that monkey spirit?’’

Year after year went by, and Madam X and her husband still didn’t participate in the gatherings; they still closed their door tight. Not only this, they attempted in vain to use their occult activities to break down the Five Spice Street community. Because of her, the number of people who came out for the cool breeze decreased a little, and the number who engaged in occult activities with her increased. This delighted her stupid husband: when he ran into anyone, he would say how wonderful Madam X’s ‘‘unique skill’’ was. Once it was put into practice, no traditional custom could withstand it: it simply swept away all obstacles. This husband boasted like a child. Even so, we could see Madam X’s ‘‘pervasive power’’ that others had overlooked.

Besides enjoying the evening breeze, there was another great interest: photography. Our Five Spice Street people thought taking pictures was grand-like celebrating a festival. In addition to taking pictures at home, every year when spring came and the flowers were in bloom, large groups squeezed into the photography studio in the city center for group photos. Then, they took them home as rare keepsakes, placed them in the best frames, and hung them on their walls. No matter whose home you went into, photos covered the walls and filled people with pride. Madam X’s family was an exception. It was okay not to take part in this collective movement, but why make such extremely negative comments against it? She and her husband said that ‘‘there wasn’t any advantage’’ to taking photos, that it was all ‘‘a gloss’’; ‘‘if a person wants to see the reality, a lifelike self, the best method is to look in the mirror,’’ ‘‘if a person doesn’t dare look in a mirror, what does he take photos for? — it’s all selfdeception,’’ and so on. While playing, even their son, Little Bao, often offhandedly said, ‘‘Photos, photos, photos! I’m sick to death of this!’’ There were a lot of other weird things about Madam X’s family-too many to enumerate. They can be summed up, though, in one line: Everything they did was done purposely to destroy Five Spice Street’s social system. They desperately wanted to take this hostility to the grave.

4. MR. Q AND HIS FAMILY

Below a hill in the suburbs was a row of red brick bungalows: our Mr. Q and his wife and two sons lived in a small flat here. Mr. Q and his wife were both about thirty-eight or thirty-nine years old (in private, they adamantly considered themselves forty-five, having already seen everything there was to see in the world). They were affable and gentle-easy to be around. They both worked in government offices. After they returned home from an exhausting day, their tiredness was swept away by their lively sons (ages nine and eleven), who threw themselves at them.