Chenxi and the Foreigner (11 page)

‘Can you do that at your school?' he asked.

‘Chenxi, this is art!' Anna boasted. ‘You can do what you want!'

He nodded to himself, frowning.

Out of the corner of her eye Anna could see Chenxi watching her. She put down her pencil. ‘You know what I think?' she said, feeling confident. ‘I think an artist's responsibility is to show a different world to the viewer. No, not a different world,' she corrected herself, working on her theory as it came to her, ‘the same world, but a different way of looking at it.'

Chenxi was busy sketching the landscape, but Anna could tell he was listening. She went on. ‘It is an artist's responsibility, and I'm talking about writers and musicians too, to take the smaller paths that come off the main road. To go down them and to bring back what they find for those people who never dare to go themselves. Or never have the chance.'

Anna took out a fresh piece of paper and brushed her hand across it. She squinted at the tip of her pencil. ‘You know. If I painted one painting that changed the life of one person, affecting them deeply enough to make them see something in a completely different way—even if only one person—I feel like I would have achieved something. My father doesn't understand that. For him, if it doesn't make money it doesn't count.'

‘You can think like that because you're free,' Chenxi mumbled.

‘What did you say?'

But Chenxi stood up without answering and moved away to begin another drawing.

One afternoon, at the end of the week, they were in a field when the wind blew up and the air grew cool. Chenxi wanted to take Anna home, but she scoffed, not wanting anything to shorten her time alone with him. She insisted that they stay.

It was Chenxi's turn to be triumphant, when, back at his aunt's home, Anna began to sneeze and shiver. His aunt, her face pale, put Anna straight to bed and brought a bowl of steaming chicken's feet soup.

When Anna came down with a fever, they called the local doctor, despite her protestations. He tutted and shook his head and prescribed a dozen foul-smelling dried herbs and some tiny white pills in a paper package. Anna swallowed the pills and pinched her nose to drink the even fouler tasting brew that Yang Wen concocted from the herbs. Chenxi sat by her bed that afternoon and Yang Wen slept with her at night.

The following day, when she woke from a light sleep, Anna found Chenxi gazing down at her. She saw the anxiety in his eyes. He looked away, but she didn't want to let the opportunity slip. She had seen something there.

‘You're worried about me!' she joked. ‘I've only got a cold, for God's sake! Do you think I'm going to die on you or something?'

Chenxi told her off: ‘You think it funny, huh? My aunt worry all the time. If something happen to foreigner in her house, she has big trouble! You understand? She say now I should not bring you here!' He stood up and spun out of the room.

Anna lay back, horrified. She was endless trouble for Chenxi. Below she could hear the family talking as they prepared the evening meal. The words floated up to her like an indecipherable melody, a jarring music that had no sense. A world from which she was shut out. She tried to listen to the tone of their shouting voices, but she found it impossible to know if they were angry, or happy. Were they arguing about her? Anna had never felt so alone. Melbourne and the culture she knew and understood, the place where she fitted in, where she was treated like a normal person, had never felt so far away. Reaching for her journal from her bag, Anna was struck by the ache of homesickness.

21st April, 1989

My whole childhood I was convinced that people were the
same all over the world. That all it would take for world
peace and understanding was a common language. I realise
now that I was wrong. Chenxi and I are nearly the same
age, we have the same passion for art, but there is a gulf
between us that I feel I will never be able to cross. He has
had experiences in his life that in my sheltered existence I
would be incapable of even imagining.

As I blunder my way through each day catching rare
glimpses of who he might be, the gulf only seems to grow
larger and larger, until it becomes a chasm and I stare into
its blackness and wonder how deep it stretches and whether
I dare jump in…

Anna put down her journal. She pulled her jacket around her, slipped on Yang Wen's slippers, and crossed the corridor to see if Chenxi was in the opposite room. She sensed she had an apology to make but she wasn't quite sure why. For being a foreigner?

The door was ajar and Anna peeped around the corner. Chenxi's cousin, Zhou Lai, was sitting at his desk doing homework. She tried to slip back out without disturbing him.

‘Anna! I do my English homework. It is very hard. You help?'

‘Sure,' Anna said and sat on a stool near his desk. ‘What are you doing?'

‘I practise for oral examination about “My Family”. It very not easy.'

‘Difficult,' Anna corrected.

‘Yes, it very not difficult.'

‘No…oh, don't worry. What do you have to do?'

‘I have talk about all family. Uncle, aunt, cousin. Because you know now in China, no more uncle, cousin, aunt. Every family must have only one children.'

‘Yes, I know. Let's practise then. I'll ask you a question and you answer, OK?'

‘Oh, thank you. OK!'

Anna pulled her stool closer to the desk and peered down at the exercise book. ‘What does your father do?' she read.

‘My father is teacher of science,' Zhou Lai rehearsed.

‘What does your mother do?'

‘My mother teacher also. She teach small school.'

‘My mother is
also
a teacher. She teaches at
primary
school,' Anna corrected. ‘Your brother's school?'

‘Yes, my mother is a teacher at my brother's
primary
school.'

‘Very good. What does your aunt do?'

‘My aunt is a…how you say?' he flicked through a dictionary. ‘Housewife in America. My uncle own big Chinese restaurant and has many money,' Zhou Lai boasted.

‘My uncle is very rich, you say. What about your other aunt? Chenxi's mother? What does she do?'

‘My aunt working in a factory.'

‘My aunt
works
in a factory. What about Chenxi's father? What does your uncle do?'

Zhou Lai blushed. He fiddled with his pencil then looked up. ‘My uncle is killed.'

‘My uncle is
dead
.'

‘No. My uncle is
killed
. In Cultural Revolution.'

Anna stared at him and felt her blood run cold.

Zhou Lai looked at the door. He shook his head and lowered his voice. He drew in closer to Anna. ‘You know this outside China? In your country? You know this Cultural Revolution?'

‘A little.'

‘It very no good…'

Anna didn't interrupt.

‘He is killed in Cultural Revolution for love. He is marry to Chenxi mother but he love foreign woman. Older woman. His family say he very bad. They say he love foreign woman, he no love China. Chenxi only baby. Chenxi now very do not like his father. He very angry for his father love foreign woman. He no like foreigners, Chenxi. He say they trouble. That why Chenxi not polite with you…'

Anna heard the door behind her open, and Zhou Lai's eyes widened in fright. Anna's heart thudded in her chest. Without turning, she continued to read from the textbook, ‘What does your brother do?'

‘My brother is studying at school…'

15

Mr White stirred the sauce. On his brow pearls of sweat formed. One shook loose and rolled down through his thick grey eyebrows, along the bridge of his nose to the tip where it quivered and plopped into the red bubbles. He dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief. Anna leaned against the kitchen doorway in a bathrobe and head towel, watching his efforts. Mr White was making his special spaghetti sauce as a celebration for his daughter's safe arrival home, suffering no more than a slight cold. Anna picked at her nails.

‘Even with the air-conditioning it gets so hot in here!' Mr White complained.

‘Dad? What was the Cultural Revolution all about?'

Mr White lifted the wooden spoon and gingerly licked the end. Frowning, he reached for the salt and sprinkled into the sauce. ‘The Cultural Revolution was Mao's last attempt to hold on to power. The Communist Party had ruled since 1949 but he'd made such a mess during The Great Leap Forward that people were beginning to doubt his capabilities. So he had to come up with something to make them believe in him again. In 1966 he cleverly manipulated the people into believing that there was a threat to the Communist revolution that could only be stopped by supporting him.' Mr White paused to pick up the spoon and taste the sauce again. ‘Mmm…that's better. Have you heard of the Red Guards?'

‘We had a lesson on it at school, but I don't remember much. Weren't they students working for Mao? But they ended up getting out of control? Our teacher compared them a bit to the Nazi Youth.'

‘The Red Guards were young naïve students, your age and younger, who Mao rallied into supporting him. The education system in China has always been strict, so you can imagine, when Mao told the students that they could denounce their own teachers as enemies of the revolution, they went wild! For the students it was pure anarchy! Suddenly they had the amazing power to dress their teachers in dunce hats and parade them through the streets, the power to imprison them and beat them, and all with the support of the government!'

‘Wow! What were people attacked for?'

‘Anything! Anything that could be twisted around into being against Mao and the Communist ideals.'

‘For being involved with a foreigner?'

‘Especially for being involved with foreigners. Foreign companies were ransacked and looted. As were galleries and temples. Anything that was considered bourgeois and elitist and anti-Communist. Thousands of innocent people were tortured and imprisoned, killed, or driven to suicide. Families were torn apart. Students were sent to labour in the countryside and all the schools and universities were closed down. The country completely ceased to function. By the 1970s China's economy and social order were in ruins. But Mao was such a powerful person that it wasn't until he died in 1976 that the people could gain control again. When he died, the Gang of Four—did you learn about them?'

‘I can't remember who they were…'

‘What
do
you learn in schools these days? They were the leaders of the Cultural Revolution and included Mao's wife. They were arrested after Mao died and the country began to return to normal. But enormous damage had been done. Can you imagine? People were left emotionally scarred. Chinese people look on that period as being the worst in recent history.'

‘I can understand,' Anna sighed. ‘Imagine being denounced by your own students!'

‘It wasn't only that! Everyone got into it! People were denouncing and criticising all over the place! Even in their own families!'

‘Would it be possible for a wife to denounce her own husband if she suspected him of being involved with a foreigner?'

‘Of course. In fact it would be very likely. People used the excuse even to settle their own personal disputes! Husbands, wives, children, parents. It was out of control. Anyway, it's good to see you're catching up on your Chinese history, dear…would you smell this sauce, doesn't it smell fantastic? Shall I open a bottle of wine?'

‘If you like, Dad,' Anna said, sitting at the table. Thoughts of Chenxi and his family whirred through her head.

Mr White chose a bottle from the cabinet. An Australian red. As the wine glugged into her glass, Anna smelt the Australian bush.

April 23rd, 1989

Day by day I am piecing together information about
Chenxi that helps me understand him. If I can learn about
his family and his past there is a chance we could have a
future. Now that I know what happened to his father I
understand what he must feel about foreigners. But I'm not
just a foreigner! I can be more to him than that. I want to
know everything about him and he will see there is no need
to be afraid…If only I could make him understand that we
are meant to be together.

‘Please,' said Anna. ‘Not another week of bamboos!'

Monday morning and Anna felt excited at being in class again. Even though Chenxi hadn't turned up yet, the other students were happy to see her. Lao Li hovered protectively and Disco Ding Yue gave her furtive glances and childish grins. Anna was amazed at how quickly these faces had become familiar. She felt embarrassed that, like so many foreigners, when she'd first arrived in Shanghai, all Chinese had looked the same to her.

Her delight that she was perhaps truly becoming a member of the class turned to disappointment when Dai Laoshi approached her with another pile of newspapers. She groaned and stuck out her bottom lip like a sulky child. Dai Laoshi raised his eyebrows.

‘Can't I do what they're doing?' she whined and pointed to the other students bent over their desks, painting on silk.

Dai Laoshi shrugged. He looked towards Lao Li who shrugged in turn.

Anna thumped her chest and pointed to the other students again. She mimicked them, her head down over a piece of invisible silk.

Disco Ding Yue chortled. Lao Li mumbled to Dai Laoshi who pulled at his chin. He mumbled something back in a nervous voice, and then walked to his satchel and pulled out a stack of pictures. Dai Laoshi flicked through them and brought one to Anna. The class watched in silence.

Anna looked down at the small print of a fan. Painted on the fan was a winding landscape disappearing into the mist and tiny fishermen casting a net into the rippling water.