Read Online Forbidden City by William Bell - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: William Bell
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glad to get back to the empty suite and enjoy a cold pop.
Tonight we watched it all on the news. Eddie couldn’t believe that the government allowed the TV station to show the demonstration. I mean, some of the posters and banners were pretty critical. Dad was taping the news show to send it back to Canada afterEddie did a voice-over commentary about how the news in China had been so free lately.
It was pretty exciting in the suite that night. Eddie was laughing, typing up a storm. “This is the biggest story since Liberation!” he crowed. Dad was happy as a little kid at Christmas, taping this, editing that. The enthusiasm was catching. I began to get interested too, especially after talking to that student. I thought I’d be the last person in the world to get hooked on politics.
But this wasn’t what we learned in school. This was real.
I was ready yesterday to play reporter. I had my tape recorder with me and something to write on.
It took me quite a while to find the student I talked to last Thursday. I decided to call him Hong, which means “red” in Chinese, because of the red baseball cap he wore. I searched for the red cap as soon as I located the Ren Min Da Xue — People’s University — banner. When I found him he wastalking to the crowd through a loud-hailer, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
When he stopped talking and the cheering died down I tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hi,” I said.
He smiled. “Hello, Canadian friend.”
“I was wondering if you and I could have a talk, and if it would be all right if I tape-record you.”
“Okay.”
Beside him a young woman shook her head and started rattling away in Chinese. He and she talked at each other for a few moments — that’s what it seemed like, because they were both talking at once — then he said, “Okay.”
The press of bodies was on us again. I looked around for a place where we could go and talk more privately and immediately laughed at myself. The sea of people flooded the square completely.
“Well, I was wondering what has happened since I saw you last Thursday.”
“Government has become a little bit reasonable, but not enough. Last Saturday officials had a meeting with student representatives, but it was a phony one. Those so-called students are from the government student unions. They do not represent us. We have formed our own Autonomous Union and officials must speak to us. So far, they refused, so that’s why we are here today.”
“What will you do if the officials still won’t talk to your people?”
A grim look passed over his face. “We have something planned.” The woman beside him nodded and the chattering around us went up a notch. A lot of the students understand English.
“How old you are?” said the woman. She wore jeans and a jean jacket, so I figured I’d call her Lan, which means “blue.”
I didn’t want to lie, so I tried changing the subject. “What do you study in university?” It was a pretty lame question but it worked. She started to talk about university life and Hong threw in a remark now and then.
Lan is twenty and she’s from the Foreign Affairs University where China’s diplomats are trained. Hong is twenty-three, a medical student. Lan told me what subjects she studied and all that stuff, but I was more interested in some other facts. While I listened I thought about Lao Xu, I guess because I was hearing the same kind of stuff that Eddie was telling me about Lao Xu’s life. Everything is controlled. These students were being told how to run every part of their lives. For example, they weren’t supposed to date. They couldn’t get married. They had to go to political study classes every week. And if they stepped out of line there were hundreds of thousands of others waiting to take their spots. No wonder they thought that no one listened to them. No wonder they were here.
We talked a bit longer and then I said goodbye. That night on the news we heard that
Tonight we watched it all on the news. Eddie couldn’t believe that the government allowed the TV station to show the demonstration. I mean, some of the posters and banners were pretty critical. Dad was taping the news show to send it back to Canada afterEddie did a voice-over commentary about how the news in China had been so free lately.
It was pretty exciting in the suite that night. Eddie was laughing, typing up a storm. “This is the biggest story since Liberation!” he crowed. Dad was happy as a little kid at Christmas, taping this, editing that. The enthusiasm was catching. I began to get interested too, especially after talking to that student. I thought I’d be the last person in the world to get hooked on politics.
But this wasn’t what we learned in school. This was real.
I was ready yesterday to play reporter. I had my tape recorder with me and something to write on.
It took me quite a while to find the student I talked to last Thursday. I decided to call him Hong, which means “red” in Chinese, because of the red baseball cap he wore. I searched for the red cap as soon as I located the Ren Min Da Xue — People’s University — banner. When I found him he wastalking to the crowd through a loud-hailer, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
When he stopped talking and the cheering died down I tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hi,” I said.
He smiled. “Hello, Canadian friend.”
“I was wondering if you and I could have a talk, and if it would be all right if I tape-record you.”
“Okay.”
Beside him a young woman shook her head and started rattling away in Chinese. He and she talked at each other for a few moments — that’s what it seemed like, because they were both talking at once — then he said, “Okay.”
The press of bodies was on us again. I looked around for a place where we could go and talk more privately and immediately laughed at myself. The sea of people flooded the square completely.
“Well, I was wondering what has happened since I saw you last Thursday.”
“Government has become a little bit reasonable, but not enough. Last Saturday officials had a meeting with student representatives, but it was a phony one. Those so-called students are from the government student unions. They do not represent us. We have formed our own Autonomous Union and officials must speak to us. So far, they refused, so that’s why we are here today.”
“What will you do if the officials still won’t talk to your people?”
A grim look passed over his face. “We have something planned.” The woman beside him nodded and the chattering around us went up a notch. A lot of the students understand English.
“How old you are?” said the woman. She wore jeans and a jean jacket, so I figured I’d call her Lan, which means “blue.”
I didn’t want to lie, so I tried changing the subject. “What do you study in university?” It was a pretty lame question but it worked. She started to talk about university life and Hong threw in a remark now and then.
Lan is twenty and she’s from the Foreign Affairs University where China’s diplomats are trained. Hong is twenty-three, a medical student. Lan told me what subjects she studied and all that stuff, but I was more interested in some other facts. While I listened I thought about Lao Xu, I guess because I was hearing the same kind of stuff that Eddie was telling me about Lao Xu’s life. Everything is controlled. These students were being told how to run every part of their lives. For example, they weren’t supposed to date. They couldn’t get married. They had to go to political study classes every week. And if they stepped out of line there were hundreds of thousands of others waiting to take their spots. No wonder they thought that no one listened to them. No wonder they were here.
We talked a bit longer and then I said goodbye. That night on the news we heard that
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