Qiailing - Gaixin - Chang'e

[12/08, 07:40] Ma Sivakumar: One of my favourite authors is Liu Zhenyun. 

Recently, I read his masterpiece "Someone To Talk To". 

I won't ask you to read it, I will write about it for you. Will read it again and write to you.

In this novel, Liu Zhenyun uses a distinctive style, taking the style of classical Chinese "linked chapter" novels to offer a wide-angled panoramic view of the complex chain of emotions of several (should say, innumerable) persons to track the life of one girl - 

whose biological father was killed when she was a child, then her mother abandons her and her stepfather, then she gets kidnapped from her step father - change hands through three human traffickers, 

gets adopted in a family, grows up, gets married not to her first love, bears four children, gets close to her grand daughter, and dies at 70 surrounded by her three sons, daughter and grandchild.

All about "Someone To Talk To".

[13/08, 08:10] Ma Sivakumar: Qiaoling aka Gaixin aka Qing'e

In Liu Zhenyun's novel "Someone to Talk To" 

(its Chinese title is "One sentence is equal to ten thousand sentences")

we meet Qiaoling as a five year old girl living in a big family of her father's. Three brothers, their father, mother, the wives of three brothers and their three children all lived under one roof. The family did cotton trade as a household business.

One day the grandfather brings a chicken. The boys, sons of elder brother and younger brother get one leg each. Five year old Qiaoling was playing outside. When she comes home, no chicken legs for her.

She tries to snatch from the younger, 2 year old cousin. Her mother slaps her. A family fight breaks out. Xiaoling's father decides to split up.

Xiaoling's father and mother set up a steamed bun making trade in the share of family property, they receive after split up.

Qiaoling was a naughty girl, breaks things at home and all. Once she falls seriously ill, saved after prolonged treatment in several clinics.

Now, Qiaoling is timid in the outside world, but more mischievous home. She breaks things, disobeys commands, argues with her mother. She is afraid of dark, when she has to sleep alone all lights should be on in the room.

Father gets killed in a petty restaurant quarrel out of town. Widowed mother runs the business and looks to marry again. Wants someone to marry into her family so that she does not lose the family properly to her in-laws.

She marries Moses Yang, who becomes Moses Wu (mother's name). He was originally Yang Baishun and later in life, after Qiaoling was kidnapped, move to another place and becomes Luo Changli, and dies as old man Luo Changli.

We meet Qiaoling for the first time, almost half way through the narrative. Till then we were following Yang Baishun, later Moses Yang. So, we know a lot about Moses and the family circle from which he moved out.

Now, Moses Yang marries into the family and joins the steamed bun making trade. 

Qiaoling is closer to her step father. They can talk to each other. But both can not converse with Qiaoling's mother 

Qiaoling loves to go with Moses when he goes out of town to buy flour. They tell stories to each other.

But Moses was not enjoying selling steamed buns. He doesn't enjoy talking to all those customers. Qiaoling's mother is more ambitious, wants to save money and start a restaurant. 

She pushes Moses to earn more. He is more miserable. Quarrels in the house.

She has an affair with a neighbour and eventually runs away abandoning her daughter with her step father. 

Moses was forced to put a show of searching for her to save face. Qiaoling goes with him. They stay put in an inn away from their home town. Planning to come back after 10 days and say that he searched but could not find the love birds.

Staying in the inn, Qiaoling gets to know a fellow lodger. A old man who sells rat poison in the streets. He is friendly.

On the tenth day, Moses goes out in the night (search), when he returns in the morning, Both Qiaoling and the old man were missing.

The old man had told her that her step-father left for another place and he the old man will take her to her step father.

He takes her away planning to sell her for money.

Now, Moses gets on a real search for his Qiaoling. He travels hundreds of kilometres, goes to dozens of places without finding them.

By accident, he sees his wife and her lover in a railway station living a vagabond life. But he can see that she truly loves her lover.

Then he goes away to a far away place, marries, has children, grand children and dies. One of his offsprings try to look for Qiaoling who has already become Chang'e and an old woman.

How that happened? Who bought Qiaoling? How she grew up? How she married and had three sons and one daughters, then a grand daughter?

(--- to continue)

[14/08, 09:02] Ma Sivakumar: Qiaoling - Moses

Qiaoling will go with Moses when he goes out of town to buy flour for their steamed bun business.

She will ask when they set out in their donkey cart, "we will be back soon, no uncle?"

She was afraid of dark, wants to be home before it is dark.

Moses will tease her "no no, just now we started. We will reach by afternoon. And then buying flour, loading it and starting back - we will start back late".

She will say, " then you should let me go inside the blanket when we return"

Moses would take a blanket for her. He will say, "okay, you can go under the blanket, but you should keep talking to me from there." Qiaoling would agree.

When it becomes dark Qiaoling will crawl under the blanket. The blanket shields her from the surrounding dark of which she was afraid. 

But after exchanging a few sentences she will doze off.

***

Once Xiaoling's mother hits her husband, Moses. 

She married Moses when he was working as the gardener in the county government office. She wanted to associate with a government employee for gaining prestige for her business. 

But, when the political winds changed and the county magistrate who hired Moses as gardener was fired. The new magistrate did not care for gardens and chucked Moses out.

Now, Moses comes fulltime into their steamed bun making business. But, as we saw before he does not enjoy selling steamed buns as it involves talking to the customers.

So, he was not doing business to the satisfaction of his wife and she was upset.

One day, Moses was tired and dozed off while selling steamed buns. Some mischievous boys came, snatched the buns and started running. Moses could not chase all of them, even the ones he caught spit on the buns and threw them on the mud. Almost half the steamed buns were unsold and went waste that day.

He was thinking about different ways of explaining shortage of money to his wife. But, she had already heard about what happened and berated him for not even being able to stand up to boys. She hit him several times, he was angry but did not hit back.

He left the house (steamed buns shop), and went to the warehouse building where he used to work before he became a gardener in the county government office. The warehouse was deserted, as after the new year there was no work and the workers had gone to their villages.

He wanted his wife to repent her unfair treatment of him and come searching for him. But till night no one  came.

As he left the house in a hurry, he did not bring any bedding. He slept on some make shift arrangement that night. In the morning he was hungry, went to the market and ate something on credit.

As the day wore on he had misgivings. At least he had a home and did not go hungry in his wife's house.

Towards evening, there was some sound outside. Somebody is coming. It was Qiaoling.

She said, "you come home".

He thought his wife, Qiaoling's mother stands outside and had sent the girl in.

He wanted at act hard to get "did your mother send you. I want to  talk to her".

"No, no. She told me never to talk to you. I came alone. Come home. I miss you".

Moses took Qiaoling in his arms and went back home.

***

Sometimes, Qiaoling will go to the steamed bun shop with Moses. But, she will be upset as the day wore on and darkness approaches. She will ask Moses to take her home, but he can not leave the shop. She will ask to be put inside a basket and will sleep there.

Some of the customers will pick up and tease Qiaoling, "I will take you someplace and sell for money". She will shriek and sometimes will wet herself. Moses would be angry at the customer but can not scold a customer.

She will allow only the Italian priest of the town to pick her up. The priest will talk to her about the Lord. He will ask

" How old are you?"

She will say "I am five years old".

" then it is time for baptism and to believe in the Lord " the priest is always alive to  his mission.

"What is Lord?".

" When you start believing in Him, He will let you know all about Himself and protect you".

"Moses, you might be a non-believer. But this girl will believe in Lord"

But, the priest was a failure in that town, having only nine converts in his 30 years of service. His church was taken away by the previous Magistrate (who employed Moses as gardener in the county government office), and he lived in an old dilapidated temple.

He dies of pneumonia having being exposed to a cool morning  breeze. He was sleeping the night in the open on the roof of the temple after a hot day. Next day he got drenched in rain and went down with high fever and head cold. He died 5 days later.

Next...- Qiaoling with child traffickers....

[15/08, 09:49] Ma Sivakumar: *Aiguo - son of Chang'e - Chang'e was  Qiaoling in childhood.*

Aiguo has one elder brother, one younger brother and an older sister. I.e. Qiaoling, now grown up and known as Chang'e has four grown up children.

Aiguo has three friends - one a school mate, whose father and Aiguo's father were friends turned foes. They got beaten by their fathers for being friends with the enemy's son. But the friendship did not break.

When Aiguo joined the army and was going away,  his friend arranged for them to take a photo together. After Aiguo returned from army, their friendship continues, but now the friend is married and gets drunk often, so Aiguo can not share intimate secrets with him. He may spill it out when drunk.

While in army Aiguo meets another friend. Aiguo was assigned to the kitchen in his company. His friend gets to drive a truck in *his* company.

They first meet when their companies bivouacked together in a desert town and became thick friends.

Aiguo learns to drive trucks with his army friend. After he is demobilized he earns a living as a truck driver hauling things from place to place or hauling dirt in construction sites.

His army friend lives far away, it takes Aiguo two days journey to meet his friend after they were demobilized. So they can meet only very infrequently.

Aiguo meets his third friend at a construction site. Aiguo was hauling dirt there, and his friend was a cook. They share a meal often and can talk about anything. That friend also quits his job over a quarrel with the foreman who was a relative and returns to his village.

Aiguo and his wife talk very less to each other. After she was introduced by Aiguo's sister, they date for 6 months, get married, have a daughter, then started drifting apart. The wife worked in a factory in the town, while their home was  in nearby village and Aiguo travelled often in his truck hauling things from and in faraway places.

Their daughter is close to neither of them, but to her grand mother, Chang'e who was Qiaoling as a girl, whose father was killed, mother went away abandoning her and her step father, and who was kidnapped from her step father and sold and resold by traffickers.

Now, she is 70  years old with 4 grown up children and 4 grandchildren.

Aiguo's mother starts sharing memories of her childhood with Aiguo. About the time with child traffickers, finally getting adopted by a couple, growing up, getting married to a far away place and now living to tell her tale.

Next:

Qiaoling becomes Gaixin after adoption (and becomes Chang'e after marriage)