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The Newspaper Carrier

Yang K'uci

Translated by Robert Backus

CCA h, Here's my chance!" I was being all but crushed under the weight of adversity

when that thought broke from me in a wave of relief, as if someone

had taken a great load off my back. Let me explain. It had been about a month, more or less,

since I had come to Tokyo. During that approximately one-month period, from early morning to late evening each day, I stood in every employment agency in the city, I marked off sections of the city from the center to the suburbs and combed the city by foot in search of employment, and yet so far had not been able to find a single establishment that would give me work. On top of that, the nventy yen I had brought with me had dwindled to six yen, twenty sen, and the ten yen I had left with my mother, who was taking care of my three siblings, would be running out now, after about a

month's time. Discouraged enough already, I was dismayed to see a news

report of three million unemployed throughout the nation, when I noticed a placard behind the glass of the newsdealer's door adver-

tising the job of newspaper carrier. I jumped for joy. "Here it is, the first step on my road to success." No wonder I was so happy; I had gone from hell to heaven.

With pounding heart, I ran to the newsdealer's door and opened it.

Fiction 59

"Hello ... " I said politely, nodding my head. It was three in the afternoon, apparently just when the evening edition had come, for the room was filled with people busily whisking the consign- ment into folded newspapers. Alone, amid a crowd of workcoats and seated in a chair facing a desk, hair neatly parted and attired in a high-quality suit, .was a man who passed a cigar from hand to mouth--evidently the proprietor-and snapped out a gruff "Whad- dya want?" together with a puff of smoke.

"Uh ... your ad for a newspaper carrier ... " I began, pointing

at the placard on the door. "You mean you wanna try?" His voice was stern. I felt myself

overborne; I could not get the words out. "Uh ... yessir, I'd like a chance to work." "Okay. Go and read the rules. If you consent, come on over

here." He pointed to a set of regulations on a big sheet of paper spread out on the back wall. As I read them-Article I, Article II, Article III-my eyes opened wide in surprise. Article IV required a deposit of ten yen. I could read no further; my eyes were swim- ming. The proprietor looked around after a while and saw me gaping. "Well, what about it? Do you consent?" he asked.

"Uh, yessir. I consent to every one, but I'm short about four yen for the deposit."

'When the proprietor heard my answer he took some time to look me over from head to foot. ''A fellow can't help but feel sorry for the way you're dressed, so I can't say no. But you gotta do something for me; work twice as hard as everyone else! Okay?"

"Yes, sir! I sure will. Thank you, sir." I thanked him again, bowing deeply to the points of his shoes.

Then I took out the five-yen bill that I had in reserve, buttoned carefuIIy in my shirt pocket, along with one yen, twenty sen from my pants, and reverencly offered them before the proprietor.

"I thank you very very much,,, I repeated once again. The proprietor slipped the money into a drawer.

"Come in and wait," he said. "You'll be taken care of by a man named Tanaka. Be sure you listen to what he tells you.,,

"Yessir." I bobbed my head respectfuHy and took a seat nearby. I felt happy from the bottom of my heart.

I wondered what Mr. Tanaka was like. Wouldn't it be nice, I

60 Taiwan Literature

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\\C;.~crcJ. if he w.u th.u fr icthily· \l1liki11t~ prr~on over there in the: sr::~c:H·s umform?

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• t J · · pnctor 1a • .:--:t-,.i up tnc nk llr.n,·crs. .m~i w.\s. t-onc. No one was left in the "'.;:n:J Jdcrship .. hi,lcntly 1hc proprietor's residence was else-

'' ::er c. Before lon~ someone in an employee's work~·o:it returned, then

rwo others. ~nd the whole huildint--which had for a \\;hile been s:lcnt-hrokc into a noi'>y tumult. l W3S concerned ab~ut that r.un Tlr'llkl. rn l ~r.lhhCli one of them and asked, -.,T~naka?'; ·in- !!<Jd of rc<pomlinf:. the nun looked upstairs and shouted for Tanaki.

~\'flllt is it? \\,.ho's c1Hing,?'' . . ..~ , .I\< he spranf: down the stairs, he did not look lik~ a Very bO.d fd~

low 10 me-and sure enough. he was wearing a studeitt's.Unifofffi. "Ah. ~Ir. ·r, naka? I've ju st started here, ~;.,d_. the propri~tor

told me to t:ikc instructions from you. I'm ready for work if you'll

show me: what to do." · \\'hen I asked him so earnestly with a polite nod of my head:- ,_.

he: flushed crimson and looked aside ·. · ' · · ·· · "Oh, so you're a new man. W;'\l be working together." He ·/);

"""' probably embarrassed because he had never been treated to

such a polite introduction before. "Come on upstairs," he said and clattered up the steep stair-

w:ly himself. 1 followed him up. This was not an ordinary upstairs; it was a loft where you could not stand without your head hitting the roof.

I had been staying in a flophouse in Honjo. One evening a group of students on a study tour from some university went around observing the quarters where we slept, and you could hear their comments as they passed through. "What a terrible place! So many

people sleeping in this small place!" However, when it came to the upstairs of this neWs dealership,

you had a place ten times worse than that flophouse. All the tatami floormats were missing covers and were worn down to the straw; you slept right on the straw. Besides that, it was as black as coal.

Fiction 61

_/ 2liZ auamazauaamwwwww

~ . : : : :'. t .\i' .. ~ ,,.. .

; There were some peo~le ~hatd~g in .groups of two or three but most were already burted 1n their qudrs. From what I I'

- · · OOud see, the people were covered at the rare of three per quilt a d I

. . . fi h n ay '. packed tightly _in s.uccessive rows ~tartmg rom t e opposite wa]J.

As I looked around the room m a daze I was surprised co hear somebody crying. Ir turned out co be a lad of about fourteen or fifteen, who was sniffiing in a corner behind me. A man next to him seemed co be comforting him in a low voice, but I could nor hear what he was saying. Since it was my first time here, I did nor ha\·e the nerve to intrude on something like this; even so. I felt uneasy.

What exactly was rhe boy sniveling about now when I was so happy at finding a job?

So in the end I imagined that rhe boy was crying because he was young, and that he was probably missing a parent or some- body. And with char I was content.

While I was muddling around like chis rhe clock struck eight and a bell started ringing. I was taken by surprise again.

"It's time to go to bed," Tanaka instructed me. "We begin early tomorrow. The paper comes between two and three so we all have to be up by then."

I noticed that the heads of the people side by side at the opposite wall had increased row by row until the room was full. Tanaka brought out a quilt, and I lay down under it with him and one other man named Saro. We were packed so tightly we c~uld not move. This was not a case of having even a fraction of an t.nc.h in between, as when you pack ceramic ware in a box; rather, It 15

far more correct to call it "packed in like sushi." In rhe country I was used to having plenty of room ro sle.ep.

The house in the country was poor, but I had the habit of deaning things up all the time. Fleas were something I could not stand. you see.

But this newspaper dealership was a veritable nest of fleas. They attacked all at once over your legs, over your hip, over your thighs, over your chest; and the itching was unbearable. The flop- house in Honjo was no less a nest of fleas either, but ar least we

62 Taiwan Literature •·,· .· ~· ·,.. ..

-

L

were nor plcked in as tightly as chis. so that I could get up from rime co cime lnd pick the fleas off.

\\'hen ic came co this lofr, it was plcked like sushi, where you could neither sc.rat:h nor move. so all I could do was steel my ner\'es and bear IC. Even so, when I considered that I had gotten a job ac la.st, a thing like this ... well, it was nothing.

I \Vas exciced by the thought that I would work twice as hard as e\·eryone else and study twice as hard. This excitement and the flea attacks kcpc me awake. and the clock struck nine, then ten, and I was still un:ible co fall asleep.

l ran out of things to think about, so I counted heads. I counted cwency-ninc people including myself. By the count I made in the daylight the next d:ly, this room had twelve tatami mats on the floor, which gave a ratio of about two and a half people per mat.

Eventually I llld co urinate. Unfortunately, I lay squeezed berwcen Tanaka and Sato, so that I had a hard time sitting up. You sec, I did not want to wake them by moving the quilt when they were both sleeping so soundly, and if I tried to slip out headfirst, the head in the next row was waiting for me about an inch away

from my own. I skC\ved myself to one side, raised myself on my hands, and

carefully (it must have taken me five minutes) tried to work myself out. Bue still I bumped Sato and he turned over. Fortunately he

did not wake up. So I did get up. But it was another hard job for me to get to

the stairway. Since we were no more than an inch apart at the head, there was no place for me to step; however, the men's feet took up less area than their bodies, so I had some space on the side. But since all the feet were under quilts, I had no idea whatso- ever where the feet were and where the spaces were. I would grope ahead co find a place co step and then take. a step forward and, in chis fashion, I finally got as far as the stairway; but ~n the ';'ay there I stepped on somebody's feet and he jum~ed up m surpns~.

When I came back after urinating, I expenenced another big difficulty. The difficulty I had in making it back to ~y bed was no d

. rr t:: h I was going but when I made it back there I lrrerent rrom w en •

h S - h had turned in his sleep because I had bumped

saw t at ato, w o

Fiction 63

~--------.. :a•a .. r~

: ·}~'.'. . ;:'.;; '~··~~:· i' '

him slightly when I was ge~ing up, .had now completely occupied my space. . .

We had only just met and I could not tell what hts disposi- tion was like, so I hesitated to rouse him and, for a while, could do nothing but sit there and wait. Then little by little, gently enough so as not to wake him, I nudged Sac6 over; it took a good half hour but I finally gained enough room to squeeze my hips in, and so I immediately seated myself between the heads of the two sleeping men, stuck my feet under the quilt, and even sweating in the cold December night, I was at last able to recover my spot.

I was still wide awake when the clock struck twelve and had not slept a wink.

I awoke to someone roughly shaking my shoulder and found the room in an uproar, like a battlefield. The bell that had announced bedtime at eight o'clock the night before was clanging furiously. When it stopped, the clock downstairs struck two. I had not slept even two hours, it seemed. My head was heavy with drowsiness.

The men put the bedding away and clattered down the stairs. I followed them down, rubbing my heavy eyelids.

Downstairs some of the men had begun folding newspapers, some ~ere wiping their faces with wet towels, and others were cleaning their teeth with their fingers. There were no washbasins, there was no tooth powder. Of course, I did not have such luxuries on hand either. I did not even have a towel, so I splashed cold water from the faucet on my face and wiped my face with my sleeve. Then I hurried up beside Tanaka, who was folding papers, and began my lesson in newspaper folding with some papers chat Tanaka shared with me. The first ten or so were slow because of my inexperience, but after chat I was able to fold them right along with everybody else without falling much behind.

"Swish swish slap.' Swish swish slap."' I brightened as I picked up the rhythm of the work, and my sleepy, heavy head cleared.

The people who finished early disappeared in ones and rwos as they went out to make their deliveries. Tanaka and I were chird to depart.

64 Taiwan Uterature - r I.'~

Outside, the snow chat ha<l fallen in the last two or three days had piled up knee-deep and had not yet melted completely, so with the glow it , ... ·as not very dark although the hour was still

before three in the morning. A cold wind whistled past my ears and scabbed me in the

face. I had come out wearing a knit sweater over a lined kimono and three shires (which were all the clothing I owned), and my ceech chattered in the cold. \X'hat caused me the most suffering, though. was tlut puddles of ice water had formed under the melt- ing snow and the soles of my slip-on tabi were almost all holes becJusc I h:id been walking continuously all month, so, inasmuch as I was practica.lly walking barefoot on ice, I did indeed suffer. I hJd not gone many steps before my feet froze solid.

E\'en so, when I considered that month-long trek fruitlessly hunting for a job, or my mother who must be at her wits' end by now caking care of my three siblings, or the three million unem- ployed throughout the nation, my own sufferings were nothing in comparison. I whipped up my spirits, took heart, and walked. I stepped firmly. with all the strength I could muster in my legs.

Ahead of me Tanaka also stepped firmly with all the strength he had in his legs and, walking with a comical gait, each time he put a newspaper through a door he told me the customer's name.

Thus we proceeded from street to street, through lane and

side street, until we had delivered all of our two hundred and fifty- odd newspapers, by which time the sky had brightened. .

We hurried to get back. Our stomachs were empty and nipped us with the pangs of hunger. I had lost my six yen, ~ency s~n the night before, all taken by the proprietor as a deposit, and m the end got nothing to eat; also in the morning and noon of the day before, in fact for the last several days, as I looked at my money diminishing. I had become so discouraged that I had not been

able to cat my fill even once. . . When I thought that there would be a breakfast of nee w1th

. · · r n rny return and that I would fragrant m1so soup wa1tmg ror me o - . .

b . c:. ll mouth watered just as 1f 1t were there

soon c eaung my 11 , my served before me. . Th h h - · r I uld eat my fill 1n peace. e t oug t

This ume ror sure wo

Fiction 65

~----.......... ,.. .,~

was invigorating as if I had forgotten all at once the cold of my feet, the shivering of my body, and the pangs of my stomach.

However 1

Tanaka did not take me toward the dealership but entered a side street a little before we got there and stopped in front of a cafe on the corner. I was mystified and had not the slightest idea what w~ going on, for I had assumed that I would be fed at the dealership. But now Tanaka had brought me to a cafe. On top of that, I was now penniless.

"Tanaka," I called after him as he stood with his hand out- stretched ready to open the door. "Tanaka, I don't have any money. The six yen, twenty sen that I had yesterday, I handed it all over to the proprietor as a deposit."

Tanaka let his hand fall at the door and stood for a while looking at me blankly; then, as if he had made up his mind, he spoke: "Well, let's go in. I'll pay for you." He put his hand back on the door and gave it a good tug to pull it open, then motioned me to go tn.

My high spirits all at once were gone ... When at last I expected to eat my fill in peace, chis had to

happen. I was unhappy. Bur now chat I was working like this I should be able to pay

him back So I thought it over and forced myself to cheer up, and at last ~ managed to cram in half a stomachful.

"Hey ... Is that all you want? It's okay. Eat up!" Tanaka was a kinder, more considerate man than I had expected.

That is what he said to me by way of encouragement when he saw that I had put down my chopsticks without eating even half of what he had eaten in spite of the fact that I had such a large body.

But I felt sorry for Tanaka and could not bring myself to eat any more. I was still hungry, but I said, "No, thank you," and looked away from him. You see, I felt sorry for him and could not bear the sh~me that came over me when I looked at him.

Evidently fellow workers all ate at this place. Several people had come and were eating, and others had eaten and were on the way out, and still others kept coming one after another. When I looked at them I saw a lot whom I thought I had seen before.

After Tanaka had paid the biJI, I followed him out. He had eaten twelve sen worth and I eight sen. Outside, I went to thank

66 Taiwan Literature

him Jpin. but on noticing his demc::inor (not a bit of pride in it, bur restless emb:urassment from a dislike of being thanked), I fell silent. He walked along in s.~lcnce coo.

BJck at che newspaper dealership, upscairs I found that seven or eighc of the e:irly people had recurned. Some were on their way (0 school. some were re;iding, and others were chatting; two or

chrce hld gotten the quilcs out again and were buried under them. \\'11en I saw people going to school I was filled with a desire

to go co school myself without waiting any longer. However, I was dejected to chink of what_ my· meals would cost me until I received

1 .

my wages-I doubted chat I could depend on Tanaka to pay for me indcfinicdy. 1 learned char Tanaka was in school too; '.Since he' would have a lot of expenses; it was a question ·how much: I could.:, expect him to pay. · . .. 'J · "'< ·"·' '1 ' -

As 1 sac against the wall troubled like this and watched'passers-: by out the windov·1, Tanaka, who had gotten ready for school; held: out a fifty-sen coin between_ his fingers and said, ·'.'Hey, I'm .lend-.

ing you this. Keep it and get something to eat. I'd be wofr}~d ·if : you didn't... · · ·. ·' ':. ·"' · 1 •:-~ '_>:. ·: · -.

I could not refuse it, but I did not have-the courage to put my hand out right away either. I stared.at it. .., ::~ (, --. -~.-·.,,,.'; ..

"Uh, okay?" I stammered. ' .. · :.: : i -' · < · · ? -:.· _ • ' . · , "It's okay. Keep ic." He dropped·d-ie' coin in:my ~afi and hur-

riedlv clattered down the stairs.· . "'. · . . . , .. ,. , I quickly picked it up and, grasping it firml-y; n.irned. t? look

· db T: ak' ympathy that out the window again. I was so move .Y · a!'1 as

5 /• . ..

tears welled up in my eyes .. · , · · · '. ·: ·. • · •-- ·. -· .. ' ' . : ·:-, If I could manage to make a living; I had to_ do_ ~~~e~hmg to

thank him. · · - ··· ,-.: -·; ·. :,·, · - - ·. . . - b h" i· k · h · t" when I heard somebody

I was thmkmg a out t mgs l e t a . _ . . . . _ ; . . · d · d· · . rise ·I saw that it was the

sniffiing again, and curne aroun in surp ·- . . . : · . h · fi·e, ·· · h. · h d been crying the ntg t

boy of about fourceen or uteen w o ~, _ .. , . :: ., ..

befor~e had relll~~~ntly ifl~d~ Up ·a bu~die ~nd V{e~~ down the stairs still sniveling as _befohr~. :_ ·~ '~r- 50-~~~hi~g~- So I assumed

He must be missing is paren s. ~·-·· .. _ · .. ' . h t fi th as I had done- the. night before and ~urneci a~~y w~~ h~u ~kier

. d A moment later. I saw _ 1m w ng thought to look out the _win ow. . - · .,. .

... · -r-'.'"f:ion 67 ~ .::.:· ·~ ..

' . .

w aaax.cauaccam:

down che road farther and farther, growing smaJler and smaller, and looking back time and again.

Something about him made me fed sadder than I can say.

And so I followed Tanaka again for the delivery of the evening edition on this day and, starring with the morning edition the next day, I carried the papers myself and delivered them. Tanaka followed me and corrected me each time I made a misrake.

This day was extremely cold. The water on the streets had frozen into stinging ice, which hit me exceptionally hard with my bottomless tabi. My hands, since I could not keep them tucked in front all the time as I had done the day before, froze and hardened. It was downright misery inserting newspapers through slits in outside doors.

Even so, I managed to gee the delivery done less than half an hour late.

''You've got a good head on your shoulders! All you had to do was walk the route behind me twice and you hardly made a mis- take with any of the two hundred and fifty addresses."

When Tanaka praised me like chat on our way back, it was enoug~ to turn my head. I had done pretty well at that, I thought, even though I said so myself. It was only at two or three places that he had corrected me where I had gotten a bit lost going around a crossroads.

It was Sunday that day, so Tanaka,s school was out. When breakfast was over, he told me he was going out to solicit new readers and invited me to come along, so I went out with him. The two of us had become good friends and we walked around talking together. I was glad to have made such a good friend as Tanaka.

I aske4 him about school, and then said, "I'd like co go to some school myself soon."

"You would? That's great!" he said. "We'll help each other do b " our est. And so Tanaka went with even less food to pay for me at the

cafe and to lend me the price of a new pair of tabi.

68 Taiwan Literature

... ·5.__, :·~1 ~1·,c rcmcmbcrcJ .ill the pl.Kcs on your route:, h~wc you?" b 1:0~rictor 1•kc.I me when l h.1<! rcrnrnc.1 from <ldi,·erir;g che r.:c::::::i! cJ1tion on 11\\' third d.\\' of work. . . .

·yc-isir~ Rcmcmhcrc\i them .111," l ;1n~..,..,·crcd, full of good cheer ... ::~ k:o:;lnt with l cert.tin prille.

·okJ.y. Then st.irtin~ tcHby you will go out and solicit new s:.:~s.:ril'crs," he orl!erCli. .. T.uu.k~1 c1n do the delivery for the time l-cir:~. But in enc ;inythin~ ~ocs wrong. you'll have to do the cdi\'cry. so lion't for~ct the route." : -~ ~

Ahhout.h I did fed a touch of s:idncss that I would not be ;;,~le to ;,i,·1lk , ... ·ith 'fanJka. l 'ould not expect them to consider only m:• own corwcniencc, and so 1 was resolved to do whatever they

asked of me. . ,·~ ... · ' : -

w\'cs sir'." l ans, ... ·crcd decisively. Anyway, l could be with Tanaka in the mornin~ and evening. ~1orcover, even if they gave me deliv- ery. it , .. ,.ls not possible for both of us to keep walking the route, ~o I did not mind being put to other work. As long as I could eat and send something to my mother I was happy. Besides, ~n. the case of solicitin~ new subscribers. my time was free at night, so there was no reason why 1 could not go to school. · · · · ,' , ·

Thus. starting that day 1 did not go out on delivery but made the rounds soliciting new readers instead. I went out at <:igh~ in the morning, stopped to cat at a cafe on the way at noon, and arrived back at the dealership around six in the evening. But I

barely had six nC\V subscribers signed up. . .. The next day it was eight, the day after that ten~ and after

that between seven and ten each time. · ·. . . . "You always have poor resulcs," che propriecor said. EverY cime

I rccurncd from solicicing l had co puc up with his gla~e ~s he b d l

d d fter I started work-

erate me for the poor resu ts, an ten ays a . . . 1

h "S" n up around fifteen. ing he told me more fierce y t an ever, ig It's no good if you can't get fifteen." . . . . Th . what I was getting now.

Fifteen subscnpuons! at was tWtce .. . . h d I ld with no rest. How on As 1t was, I was working as ar as cou . . . earth could I sign up twice as many!

I began to worry. Fiction 69

The next day I started out before dawn B . . · Ut soli · ·

different from dehvenng; you had to meet people. S c•.ttng was out, it did me no good to go out so early. "Good o, ~ it turned

d d I Id l" evening ,,

would say as I opene every oor cou nnd unt'l I · · · I d d

I ate at . h like a door-to-door salesman an ma e my appeal b nrg t

'• • • , Ut I did have much to show (or 1t. Besides, on cold nights · h. not

" d . , I in t ts seas most places closed up at aroun nine o c ock, and th on, . . . ere was no h 1ng I could do about it. t -

Even so, it was barely eleven that I brought back h" d • t IS ay-

four less than fifteen. But anything beyond this I simply could not achieve, try as I might.

. When I came back on this day all tired ~ut, it was already ten minutes to ~en by the clock. My fellow workers in delivery, who went to bed at eight, had already had a spell of sleep and the proprietor was asleep too. I waited until next morning co make my report to the proprietor.

"Eleven?,, he said with a glare. "You still . . . have to make greater efforts. This is no good!''

Actually on this day I expected to be praised, yet here I stood, met with a glare, and that frightened me. I had nothing to say. How was I any better off than a slave?

There was nothing I could do but \virhdraw humbly with a "Yes sir, yes sir." Of course, I went straight out to solicit subscrip- tions again. This day was perfectly wretched. I was so sad I wanted to cry. I returned to the dealership the same as before, around ten o'clock, and had just six subscriptions. Even with eleven,

1 ha~ gotten hit with a volley of "More effort, more effort." So how coul I report with six? (Later I heard that in such cases fellow wor;ers would gain time by making up ghost subscribers. But they hlal hco

h b . . . kets for a t e

pay t e su scr1pt1on price out of their own poc h d ghost subscribers they made up, so that some of rhern evhen a_ half h

. ak Of rse t e pro t etr wages t en for ghost subscriptions. cou '

prietor had no reason to oppose ghost subscri prions.) . d Th P

necor, an e next day I timidly appeared before rhe pro l in a

h h h ed co or

w en e eard me report six subscribers he chang d k . . . . , , d d the es . towenng rage. With hts face bright red he poun e und? "s· b .b . . , 1 afing aro

ix su sen ers? Where the hell have you been ° hat you D.d ' I k · · · · h fact t 1 n t ta e you ·~ .. out ~~.sy~pathy despite t e

,/ . . ,._ - ,,, ~~

·. ,··-." 1·.

didn'r have enough money to make the deposit? Have you forgot- ten that you promised you'd work twice as hard as anyone else? Go ahead and quit! Your kind are no good for anything! Get out of here!,, Here I was being yelled at on the excuse that I had not made the full deposit.

I stood still and took it, as I again thought of my mother supporting three other children at home, the three million unem- ployed, and how I had tramped around for a month without find- ing a job.

"But I visited as many as five hundred houses a. day from street to street without missing a single one. The ones that didn't want a subscription didn't want one, the ones that did had already bought one, and I went over the whole section you gave me with a fine-tooth comb." That is how I wanted to answer him and should have answered him, but I did not have the nerve to say all that. And, in face, that answer would have meant unemployment. So I could only beg him: "Please let me have another chance. I'll work harder, much harder tomorrow." However, I had no idea what to work harder at. This was proved as soon as I had the results of that

day's soliciting. From then on, the number of subscriptions I secured each day

was three or four, never more than six at most. This was definitely not due to any perverse laziness on my part, for in the assigned sector everyone who was going to buy a subscription was already a subscriber and the three or four subscriptions that I picked up each day mostly came only from people who had just moved in.

"Well, I sympathize with you and I've calculated what you've earned, so take it and get out. We go strictly by the rules around here, and the rule is that anyone who at anytime has been on the job less than a month doesn't get paid. Here is something spe~ial for you. So don't tell anyone, just take it and go ~herever you l

1 1ke.

I'm sorry for you, but there's nothing I can do with a guy who s as

worthless as you!" I had been on the job twenty days. The proprietor summoned

me and rebuked me in that strong language. He then shoved four yen, twenty-five sen in front of me, together with an account of

· d d below. and with that he turned back to my earnings as recor e , his desk as if he had forgotten my existence. I was stunned to read:

~. ' "-

N~ ·~ubscriprions @ 5 sen Total ne\v subscriptions 85

Toral 'earnings 4 yen, 25 sen

If I \vas thrown· out now, whar was I co do? I wondered in surprise. In parc~cula~, 'when I saw chat "4 yen, 25 sen," I was

50

astonished that I could nor open my mouch co ucter a word. I had walked all around from· abo'ut six in the morning to nine ar night; I had done it for.a whole 'ewency days, and all I had gotten for it was four yen twenty-five sen!

Considering. that I had been paid, it was no use saying any- thing, I thought. It could not be helped. However, a mere four yen, twency-five 'sen was probably a mistake.

"Couldn't this amount be a mistake?" I asked cemarivdy; at which the proprietor suddenly turned on me wirh an expression on his face full of rage. < •' < , <

"Whaddya·· mean mistake! Huh? Where's rhe mistake?" he pressed. " . · ..

·~ whole twenty days: · · '·

"What about twenty days.'. ~·· . ·A year, ten years, it's all the same! Where's a guy who doesn't work gonna get money from anyhow, the sky?" .· . · ·

"But I didn't even take a rest ~ . . " "What? No rest? Rather the opposite, if you ask me. No work~" I could think of nothing more to say: I resigned myself. Even this, added to the deposit' I had made of six yen, rwenr)'

sen, would make ten yen, twenry:..five sen; so if I returned che eight yen I borrowed from Tanaka in. the lase twenty days, I would still have two yen, twenty-five sen left, so ·there. was no use quarrel· ing about it, I thought. I had nothing more to say! I wouJd gee che deposit back and go. '·· -

"That'~ that. All right, let me have the deposit back, please." He gave a scornful laugh as if he despised me for a fool. "The deposit? Do you remember you read the regulat!on.s

and agreed to every one of them, except that you said you d1dn r have enough for the deposit? Have you forgotten? Or have you forgotten the regulations? If you have, read them· over again!"

I was taken by surprise again. At chat time my-whole arrenrion .J',:·>

72 Taiwan Uterature

w.is c:.kc:n up by chc f.1d ch.u l dill not h.1\'C cnou~h for the de- posit. Jnd I did not re.hi them to the end. \\'h.u \VJ.; l in for now? \\'it~ my hc.uc P'-~undinf. l rc.11.l the: rcgul.nions over a{~J.in. I skipped ~he hrst thrcc_.:trrn:le". aml bq~;m wich Aniclc Four. It stated clearly: Only those tn concmuou'> ~cr\'iu: for four months or more shall

hJ\'C: their deposit returned." ~ty hc:Jrt sank. ;11Hi l felt Js if :l.nt,ry su rgcs of blood were

rlmp.1~in~ through my body. As he gbred at me, the proprietor sci!! smiled sJrcuticJll\'.

"\'\"lut about it? Do you still sJy l should return the deposit? Go on, gee out of here! If you keep h~u1ging around you won't get a sen! You muse knew:, now dut you've rcJ.d chem, that Article Se\'en says: 'Anyone who h~s less th:in a month's continuous ser- vice shall nor be pJid ·."

~iy attention lud been sidetracked by Article Four and I had failed to rc:id the: rest once again. \X'hen l turned to look at it, sure enough there it w:ls, word for word just as he had recited it.

1 had gotten special treatment all right! Tears welled up in my eyes as I stumbled out of there. On the

glass of the outside door I noticed the placard was posted again, provokingly plain: "NC\vspaper carrier wanted."

As soon as l left there l took the streetcar as far as the school Tanaka attended and told him what had happened. "I'll give you something like three yen of what I owe you now, and the rest I'll try to pay back later. Let me keep up to one yen, twenty sen for current expenses," I asked; but he declared he would not have me

repay him a single sen. "I never thought it would turn out like this for you. I don't

know if you saw the boy over there-he was fourteen or fifteen- thc day you came in, but he was caught by the same bait as you. He was no good at all at soliciting subscriptions, and in six days

was robbed of his ten-yen deposit and left without a sen. "A really nasty guyl" I said with a show of resolve. We had to

think of some means of resistance to stop it now! After all, we were starving unemployed and were being taken hook, line, and sinker by faith in that placard with a tractive force stronger than a devil's

I parted from Tanaka, deeply impressed by his character. I fish line.

Fiction 73

.. --._,

was also belatedly surprised by such a vivid demonstration of two extreme human types.

On the one hand was Tanab, who had even cur back his own rations to pay for my meals and my nC\ .. ' pair of rabi and, when he heard I was fired, pushed back the money rhac I tried to repay him, saying it was al_J right, he didn't need ic; while on the other was the proprietor of a nC\vspaper dealership wich a bestial heart under human guise, who seized my money and threw it away when I was bad off enough from being unemployed, and would not scruple even at killing someone if ic helped to fatten his purse.

When I thought of chis brute of a man ac che nC'\ .. ·spaper deal· ership, I became so nervous that I even thought of fleeing back home in rhe country. Bue the tickers for che train and ship would have come to as much as thirry·five yen, a huge sum rhac I could not possibly afford even at the cost of my head. I walked avoiding other people on the streets, until I reached Ueno Park, where I sat down on a bench, and I felt so discouraged char I fer\'enrly wepr- oh how I wept!

Before long I gained a certain amount of encouragement from thinking about Tanaka, so char eventually I even fdc it would be hard to part from him. As I lost myself in rhis reverie. I rhought of my mother, whom I had left ac home and who muse now be en- during the assaults of hunger with her rhree ocher children clasped in her arms; and again I felt such a pang of despair, as if my living heart were being wrenched from my bosom.

At the same time I trembled as if I had just discovered char my home village had not changed significancly. Ir was no different from when it threatened us relentlessly like the proprietor of the newspaper dealership, tried to suck our blood, wring our our flesh, and even gnaw our bones until it knocked us down inco these very depths. .

Othe~ise there would have been no need for me to cramp around these parts as I had been doing, and even now I would be enjoying a quiet farm~r's life ~irh my mother and siblings.

Up to my fathers generanon my family had been Iandown· ers, with about two tan [I tan equals less than 1 /4 acre] of paddy and five tan of dry fields. Accordingly we never suffered h · like hard times. anyt mg

7 4 Taiwan Uterature

Ho·,\c\CL ~c\Cr.il yc.H'> .1~:1) :\X. Su~:.1r PcotiU(tion in nw vil- I;;_: tc'''k ''~"""" ,_ 1 w '" to b m· up I.ind to c' ub Ii> h a p\am~t ion. 0: (ours::. ·tor .i \\.htlc ~t the b~1~inni11~ nobody was going to re- 5?•'~d to their ofter~. tor the t.umcr~ \'.1\ucti their tillc:d land as t:;!:!:· 1S their own li\ c\.

Hut it wl~ rnmcthin~ they h.Hi dc(idcd to <lo. The compJ.n)' ccdJ not be cxpcdnl to h.1t:k off in a t:lou<.l of indecision. And so i:l two or three dJys. .1 not i(c (onvcnin~ an assembly. of household b:-. .ds wis. circubtcli throu~h the di.,trict ~11H.l neighborhood house- l:o!,! poups to c\'cry tioor in the vi\\.1bc, without exception, by the ~olicc. Anti on top of tlut w.\\ tht:' ::itldcd injunction: "Have your s1puturc ~c.1\ with you." · · · ·• ,,.

1 wJ.s fifteen .it the time :lnd ;1 fifch-yc~u student i.n the public school. The event took phce about five or six years ago, but it impressed me so deeply that 1 C:ltl rcc;11\ distinctly what it was like cvrn now. The vilbt.c was assaulted by a deep fea~. .

At that time my father was hc:ad of a district household group~ Jnd in the tense :umosphcre before the notice went out, grandfa~ thcrs and grandmothers in his jurisdiction came to my house in· continuous succession to ask nervously with teary faces and in trem- , bling tones: "\\'hat should we do? ... " "What's going to happen?"· ·' "\Vhat's it all about? ... " lt was such a strain at this point that·

three times 1 discovered my father secretly weeping. In such an atmosphere, on the day after the notice circulated,

the meeting opened at 1 :00 p.m. at the Maz.u Temple in the cen- ter of the village. A preliminary announcement had made the rounds that anybody who failed to attend would be severely punished, and so every household head was in attendance. There must have hecn as many as four or five hundred people. The fairly roomy temple was packed full. Since school was closed that afternoon, I hid in a corner co sec what was going on; for my father's tear- staincd face, which I had discovered so often, weighed on my mind

more than 1 could bear. A bell rang to introduce a potbellied baldpate, who mounted

a table and in a pretentious manner spoke as follows:

My company has recently decided to establish a plantation for the benefit of this village on a tract north of this village.

Fiction 75

/

t:e'IQ

And so we are prepared co negori.itc rl bl . } le pure! land, bur alchough w~. pu ts l~d .1 rn.ip ;

1 t~.... lase of your

posted a notice requ1rmg rhos{" \Vho <lays ago and possess I d .

area ro appear ar. the company on!cc \1,·· } 1

~n in tha[ .. ltlt1 .

seals, so far no one has .. appeared. I )c.,r- 1 · c } c~r signature

• ,> • r' c r ie f· I went so far as co inconvenience the r lw r . .lee 1 uc \\·e

. , n.ucn:d co . by going from house to house of rhc: 0 ,..,.nc . ·. rnmittee

. . . . . • •. rs, H .1ppc.-;us h everybody ts parnc1pacmg m a con.,pir.in· .. f . t ar

11 . . • or nor a sin I

person has agreed co se . \X'htle chi" ficc · .d g e " . " . . as cv1 encc of collus1on, che company docs nor w.iru [O iP[ .

.. • erprcc H as such. Therefore, we have asked vou .dl [o chis fll · d · cccing, an in order char everybody can come: ro .in .1pccrncnc hcnceforch we have chosen co ask both che police .rnd chc vill.igc head t~ say a few words. And so, when the nLnccr is scnlcJ. \'OU are all required ro affix your seal co chis p.1pcr. The com.p.rny is prepared ro pay beccer than che going price.

The speaker cleared his throat co sip1{\· chc end of this ora· tion, which the teacher regularly in charge of us fifrh-ycar stu· dents, Chen Xundao, interpreted; and he bid such pJrcicular stress on the terms "collusion" and "conspir:i.c::· rhar he even srarded the villagers, who were so surprised they :ill m rncd ro look at each other.

The next speaker was Police Officer Bu Jingyc. in charge of the village substation. He stepped up on rhc rahlc with a baleful

th h . d" · · · l · ,, 11 d then b;irkcd: stare at swept over ts au tence in a srng c morion,"

As Mr. Yamamura has j~sc said, the company's pres~~ P~~ respects the good of ch,~ viJlage from cop to hon

30 ·• has

ought to give grateful thanks for chis plan the comp. > • d . d J h" k ./ II I d to rhc compan) ev1se . ust t m ! You are going ro sc an , ,.,,·ill

d h. h \ d he comp.am now ... an at a 1g er price coo. 1 n c 1

. >JJ;igc bl . h d I l . ·11 Then c us 'I • esca ts a mo e p antatJon in chis v1 ;igc. , onlv

·11 d all · ·" · I fi re \V'c can 1 w1 gra u y continue co develop m c ic uru · } . ·illagc 'd · h } l osen c 115 " cons1 e:r at an onor char the company lJ.S c 1 p w a N h I h

of you arc u . . . everr e ess, I ear things like some l wn ab- " . " S h " I " wi1I be s 10 conspiracy. uc unpatriotic peop e solutely no mercy . . . ·d

dao he la1 H

. . L. k Chen Xun no ts Interpreter was Patrolman Lin. 1 e ,, d "be shown

t " . ,, " . . ple an s ress on conspiracy, unpatriotic peo ' _.--;

76 Taiwan Literature

.... ,,..·' ---··- ·-- .. ·- '~ .. : ···-.

~ercy,'.' so that ~verybody turned to look at one another again. For m che1r collecnve memory, the sanguinary event ending in the suppression of the conspiracies of Yu Qingfeng and Lin Shaomao

remained all too fresh at hand. The village head, who, with the gentleness of advanced years,

stood up last and spoke in a soothing tone. "Anyvny, as the police desire, I believe we all had better joy-

fully accept the company's goodwill." That was all, and then he called out people's names. At this the audience turned restless.

The ones who were called first had panic written all over their faces, fearing they were marked as ringleaders of a conspiracy, and

went out trembling. Even when they were told. "You can go home!" they stood

gaping. Only at the sharp command "Go home!" did they come to

their senses and run off. I heard there were even absurdities-like when Wang Zhenyu

ran home and by the time he got there had looked back a hundred and fifty times, evidently worrying that he might have misheard

or that he might be summoned again. About eighty people were called out like this and sent home. And now it was time for the people who were left behind to

be surprised. My father was one of those. They stood in a cluster, shuffling with uneasiness. They stretched their necks, pricked up their ears. Would they also be called? Most fidgeted in expectation

... Would their names be called? Then the village head instructed: "Everybody, produce your

seals. Those whose names are called now will come forward with their seals and affix them. Then they may go home." And the

name he called first was my father's. When I heard my father's name "Yang Ming," I started to

worry ... What was going co happen? I swallowed hard and stood

up, involuntarily clenching my fists. . My father calmly stepped out. When he came before the vil-

lage head he declared flatly, in a tone like the stroke of a hammer on a cracked bdl: "I cannot sdl, therefore I have not brought my seal."

"What? Arent you a district head? For a district head, who should be a model for all co emulate, to become the ringleader of a

. ' '

conspiracy, that is outr~g~~us!" said Officer Bu menacingly, who was standing next to Father and edged toward him.

Father stood silent. . "Take him away! Damned Chink!,, \'V'ith a slap to my father's

face, he gave the order, and five or six men sprang from behind, where they h~d been .assembled for some time. After the firsr two <dragg~d> 1 my father off. the others who remained retired ro the back of the room ..

The villagers, ~ho had seen chis. were really scared now. Many of them affixed ~heir' seals as the vilJage head had ordered and went home without looki~g. back. By the rime everyone was gone, fire men had rejected .. r~e offer with the same determination as my father, and they ~~re all hauled off ro the substation as my father had been. I heard la~er that as soon as I saw my father being taken away, I ran straight home and informed my mother of what had

happened. , .. .. . , .. 1

.,. . .

Mother fainted· when she· heard my report. Fortunately, a kind neighbor ran over immediately to help,

and so there was no immediate threat co her life. But she cried almost all the time and fainted aJI of three rimes during the six days until my father, thin and unrecognizable, came home.

My father, who came home ~ix days lacer, had suffered ex- traordi~ary changes himself. His evenly rounded face was now con- torted, with one cheek terribly swollen, his eyes protruding, and his forehead covered with bumps. His clothes had been shredded to rags. When I was changing chem I saw his body and was so astonished that I shouted out loud, "Oh Dad! You look like a deer!" In fact, welts like the sp~rs pf a deer had appeared all over my father's body. · ' , · ·

My father underwent a complete change after char; In sullen taciturnity he never opened his mouth again. He used to ear chree bowls of ri~e a day, but now could ,not finish even one; and fifty days after he took to his bed, he passed away.

Around the same time, my m.C>t~~r rook co her bed and I had ·-- ~,.. )

1 Angle brackets enclose a lacuna in the p~inted Japanese ,t~t h · h . . _, • w 1c muse re fleet a corresponding gap in the source of the primed, text Th · ·

. e m1ssmg maner is supplied by a Chinese translation evidently of a diffcerent J

. apanese text.

78 Taiwan Literature

chc c.uc of my thr~ siblin~~-onc, three, ~uH.l four years old. Was I i:-.·cr stud~.! h w1s .ill ri~ht. though. bccu1sc an uncle and aunt \hi'Jld (OmC' over ;u rnon as they could spare: some time and take c1rc of UL But if it were not for that, it seemed as if our family ~:~ht well lu\'c ~one completely to ruin.

Thus. the six hundred yen my father slammed on the table \~hen he c.tmc home from the subst~uion (according to rumor, the ~oin~ price w.is about l\\'O thousand yen, but the company had dctmcd six hundred to he a good price) all but vanished with my father's illness. then my mother's illness, and finally, my father's funeral; and when my mother's condition had improved a little, we hld to sell our ox and farming implements in order to eat.

Ry the time I lll<l sec a goal for myself and had come to To- . kyo. we hld sold c\'crythin~-thc ox, the implements, the grounds :.round the house-and had only a little more than seventy yen left.

WSmdy lurd. won't you!" my mother encouraged me tearfully as she saw me off :it the door-a sight I can still see as if it were

before my eyes. This wretched state did not befall my family alone. All fi\'c of the men who were hauled to the substation with my

father suffered the same fate, and the people who had affixed their scJls in silence lost their plow land. The best they could do was work twcl\'c hours a day for about forty sen on the order of three to five dan a month as laborers on the sugar company's plantation. Every ~nc of them had no choice but to eat on the money from the sale ,of their land; and as that money disappeared, far from the promised "development of the village" declared by the leading men of the villa~e, the reality became the "dispersal of the village."

Fiction 79

A I d · 1 n such reminiscences, the sun had set, plung-

.s sat cngrossc . . · l d f U 0

·into darkness and in Yamashita the lights mg t lC woo o en ' .

bl . k d · i· l d'iance Pierced through with the cold, I could m c m a 1vc y ra ·

h l Og er I was hungry, for I had not eaten lunch.

not stay t ere any o · ·1 h I 1 d

· h wide yawn and went down the hi I. w ere I strctc lC wit a eal · h

d l . l ry on a back street and had a m . With t e

enrerc a 1tt e eate . . . . · · « d f

· me animation in my fa1hng sp1nts, I stune hope o a roust ng so . .

f . h · d had a couple of cups of shochil liquor besides.

myse\ wit nee an

/ '~---·----- -·-- - -- -·· ---·-- '·--~--·---

Then I headed for the flophouse in Honjo, which had served

me so often in che past. The proprietor spotted me as soon as I sec

foot inside. "Hey! Is chat you, Taiwan? Ies been a while, huh? Where've

you been all chis time?" I could not cell him that I had gotten a job as a newspaper

carrier, had my deposit taken, was overworked, and chen fired, and

so I said, "Just ... jusr at a friend's." "A friend's ... hmm. You're pretty funny, aren'c you?" he said

doubtfully. "I bet you lifted a radio or something and did time as a guest of the government. Huh? Hoo, ha, ha, ha," he laughed.

''A radio?" I said uncomprehendingly. uWhat's a radio?" When I asked him that, the old man was amused and said

jocularly, "You don't know what a radio is? Hoo, ha, ha, ha. Yep, country people sure are our of it." At the same time he looked quite sorry for me and said, "Okay, go on up. You sure look all tired out. Go up and get some rest.,,

As I was going up he said, "Well, Mr. Yang, did you do chis?" and made a show of putting his hand stealthily into the front fold of his kimono. Clearly he seemed ro chink I had gotten inro trouble with the police. Although I did not know what a radio was then, at that hand gesture I understood very welJ that he was asking me whether I had picked any pockets. I did not have the energy co get angry though, but my face turned red and I denied it point·blank with a touch of panic in my voice: "No sir! I wouldn't do anyching like that!" The old man looked regretful as if he could nor believe me even then; however, he did not seem willing to ask outright, for his face brightened immediately and he was aJI smiles.

In face, I probably looked as if I had just come out of a jail cell. I had taken off my tabi and had starred to go up when he

caJled, "Oh yeah! There's something I forgot. A registered letter c~e for you! ~!nee I ~ad no idea where you'd gone, I kept it ... Wa1t there ... , and with that he went further back into the house.

I wondered where a registered letter for me could have come from.

After a while the old man reappeared with a piece of regis· tered mail in his hand. I was taken aback when I looked at it. It was from my mother!

80 Taiwan Literature

\\'i:.lt ~'l\ c.inh unil.i '11r l1r \C'l\litll•' m-- l r ·. 1 l • . !, ... · c~~t~tcrcu c:uc:r ..... ' .• t • I 't'., 1 i I\ t • [ . ' I t \ -'•. w . 1. ,.;, ti > ..,,hl .H.· Hl\i'Cl\\C.

I ('i'C!~ni ll '"1th trrmb\1n•' h m1.\, lll' 1 ,.,.\\l.t l \<l . . . !· · • • ..i • '.)l\Oll ~1ppc:ar 1r.~:~c k:t l monr\' l't1.!cr tor unr hundrni twctlt\' ,. t O · . . en. nee more I .. us s~uprnni-w mui.:h ..,o th \t l l··1\1l i t\ t l i· . . • · ' ' o )C icvc: n1v eyes. \\::a 1:::· km !""111,hn1:. l ""'kn\ tl11011::h mother's difftcu\; hand- "'""'~ "''"! lw '"*I. I w ·" 'l"" kc,! .1! most to the point of mad- r.c5 s. l n.:oJH(IOU'ly l w.t\ ..,hn!liin~~ tc.u\ in from of chc old man . . . . ; : h ~n,·thi II\'. '"" n \'. ,.. the ol<l m .m ".ired at me with an enig-

r. ....... C't'tcrnon. It mll\t h.\vc been bcc1u'>c in all his years he had r.~.cr ~ct"n .rnyhody l'.ry upon rci.:-civin~ monc\', l had heard what b:~ siiLi hut co\llLi nuke no reply. . .

\\'hen 1 ~ot into my ..,\ccpin~ p\.H.:c l slipped into the futon-· - J.r~d howl (ticti~ The ~cn..,c of the letter w:i.s pretty much as follows:

I 1e,civd ynur letter. in which you said Tokyo was in.:'. rcc~sion .ltlli you cou\d not lind ,..,·ork right away. ·I worry-. more th.rn 1 c.rn s.1y when 1 think chat you probably, don't_' h.1,·c the money you took , .... ich you anymore. It is like having. my hem tofll from my hrc.1st 10 think of you with no friCnds, · :

lurd up without hcin~ able to find work, all alone so far· aw.ly. h h;1c; been th is ,..,·ay ever since che plantation got started .ind there\ nothinr, we can do about it. You must not have· my <hour.ht of i;ivinr. up and coming back here. I have sold_ the home for one hundred fifty yen, therefore I am sending. you one hundred twenty yen. Make do with this and find work quickly. study hard so you will be a success, and then come home. Mv hc<llth can't hold out much longer, so I've kept back thirty yen because I would hate to be dependent on anvonc in such a case. Alan and Atie have finally died. I hadn'; wanted to le< you know, but I figured you'd find out anyway, so now I've decided to tell you. Your mother prays for nothing but your success, therefore no matter what happens, don't come home until you are a success ...

Since 1his is my one and only wish, cake care to keep it in mind. If you come home a success. take charge of the only brother you have left. whom I have entrusted to Uncle's care, and take care of him. Make sure to take care of your hcalrh.

Goodbye ...

Fiction 81

/ .\

It read exacdy like a lase will and cescament. I was anxious. She could be dead by now. Such choughcs scuck indelibly in

my mind. "Nonsense! How could char be?" I said aloud, cossing in bed

and shaking my head as I struggled to deny che ominous choughr. But there was nothing I could do.

Thus, I could nbt sleep a wink all nighc, but I never felt a thing from the fleal assaults eicher.

My head was filled with thoughts of my mocher. Inasmuch as she had wricten me such a leccer herself, things

must be awfully bad. I looked at che dace on it and saw chat she had mailed this Jeerer before I had begun co deliver newspapers; and so it had been more than twenty days. When I reflected that I had not received a single letter during char rime-well, I scarred to feel more and more uneasy.

And I also reached a firm decision co go home. Once I went home, would I ever be able co come back? I could nor be sure. Even so, (after seeing my mother's lecrer) I could not sic still.

I would clear the debt that I owed Tanaka before going home. Then I would take the opportunity to thank him for all che help he had given me, and leave him with a few parting words ...

With these thoughts I waited eagerly for the first streetcar in the morning, and never got a moment's sleep.

As I lee the cold morning air blow on my face from the streetcar window, my mind, which was numb with sleepiness and excite· ment, quickly came alive. This might be the last time I would see Tokyo. That thought made me forger even the proprietor of the newspaper dealership and left me with a regret I could hardly bear. Yearning for home had kept me awake all night, and now the remembrance of my mother and little brother, whom I had been wanting so much to see, was shut out by the misery of chat village in its poverty and disintegration, so chat I suddenly felt the desire to return home come upon me with terrific force.

It was true that these mood swings were influenced to some degree by the attraction of my close friend, Tanaka, whom I was on

82 Taiwan Literature

• . r C" I(, llHC Cdll.l lOllC:S{\' wit l its ' ",',',' ·.~ .. · \' 'd \ is! t. I l I" "\'fl\ n .l l l \ t. 11 l l l .l"=:l:,•:l :l) l~~ncr:·-th.H W.l'> the type of hum.m bc:ing i ideJ.lized.

I ::lit l'li .H rhc u.un \tlip •. uhl hy the time l had crossed the [\h' i:,~r HrccU .lthi rc.1.:hn{ the (.lfc· where We used tO eat tO-

~~.:'.:rr. h::- h.t.i tirn\hni hi., p.1pcr rc.)u te .11Hi \o,,·.1s on his way back. \\ c =~~c: h· ..:h.ukc. . ·,

l iii. ml1.1l t.ldturn .,elf. hr: w.1 .. even ~~loomic:r chis morning. H.,·.•.:-.rr. the-re w.n nothing Ill hi., gloom th.u could strike one as J: 1 .:;rrr.l~'!c; r.t.thcr ll m.1dc him ;tppro.H.:hahlc. He was walking s~,, .. d~· rn· ... ·.ird me in .. ilcn(c, .tpp.ucntly deep in thought, his. head s!:;h:l!· l•cnt forw.Hll. ~- .· ~

.111.i .• 1. . • ' ~·1· k , ..

-1 le:.-~ You're c.uly~ \'\'here ti ill you stay last night?" ~ -The t1ophomc in l lonjo, where I stayed before.''· · .. -you dilP l never m;ui;i~cd to hear where you were going

yc1:nd.1Y ... You're c.trh-, aren't you? .. . . . H1~ µYou're c.nly~ .. sounded as if he ,v.;crc asking me whether. I

r.cnicd hir, help. So I hrout,ht up the subject right away 'altho.ugh: I could h.udly mention it, for the idea of parting sadden.ed _m(and" I W.H opprc~'>cd hy ;l t.rowing. sense of londines~.· ,'.' '. i,· ·:_ '.·

.. The fact i\ when I went to· the flophouse yesterday there was mont"\· w.1itin~ for me tlut h:id been sent from home·: .. " As I was

' ' thuo; ~cttin~ to the point he interrupted me. . · .

.. :-.toncy~ ... Didn't I say .rou could take_ your time? You don't h.we :tnv idcJ. when vou can get a job,' do you? You'd better ·· keep it."" . • . . . . , . . ,

··~o. no . . 1 ,..,. 3

-; sent (~uit~ ~ lot. Lat~ron ~e can go to the pmt office." -. , ~ - ·- · h-· - · "A 11 I've come

Thi<. s=tid. 1 w;ts ;lhout to get t~! t e point: crua Y I k

c l · " B · · · hard to say the words, and tot l:lll · you rnr cvcryt Hng., _ u~t tt _v,ras . I hlushcd. -

"'I'} k c l · :i" he ~~id wi-th a wry smile of annoy- 1;in ·s 1or cvcryt ung. : . . , _ _ ,,

:mcc. "If it's the usual flattery. count me out. h al . h "No, no! Actually, a_ letter came froalm hmy mloth er honl~dwak1t

l . . . · bad he t so t oug t t e

the money. It seems s 1e s tn very , '

:i trip home · · ·" ·, · · · · . - d 'h ·1 "Did she tell you He looked up a~ me _and aske un appt y,

to come home?" ··, - Fiction 83

---

"No, no ... She said not"to ~ome home ... Study h h

·1 I' . . •t ard and don't come ome unn m a success ...

"Well then, she can't be that bad off." "No, no ... It seems sh~'s in a pretty bad way. Besides h ,

. , . bl . d ,, t t ere s been no news since. I m tern y worne . . .

"Oh! Wait a minute," he said. "There is a letter. On '; · , e came yesterday after you left. It must be from home. I'll go get it fi you. Wait in the cafe." He ran off in the direction of the newspap~~ dealership~

I immediately entered the cafe and waited. I felr somewhat better after hearing I had a letter from home. But when I thought of what it might say, I was impatient for Tanaka to come back.

The woman who ran the cafe irritated me with her "What can I do for you?"

Before long Tanaka came running back out of breath. Every nerve in my body was concentrated on the letter he broughr. I was anx· ious from the moment he operied ·the door and I realized the letter was not in my mother's handwriting. My heart beat fast. Without waiting for him to come all the ·V{ay in, I got up and hurriedly extended my hand to receive the letter. The signature was not my mother's, it was my uncle's. My face clouded over. My breast throbbed and my hand shook. It was dearly as I had expected. My mother was dead. She had died half a month ago ... and it was by her own hand that the breath of her life had been stopped.

To my only son, on whom I rest my hopes ... It is too terribly painful for me to go on Jiving, and nor

good for you either. My body is more than half dead already ... My only wish is that you succeed weU enough so chat you can do something to benefit the villagers, who a~e suffering the same as we are. The misery of the villagers is unspeakable. Eight people have drowned themselves in rhe pond outside rhe village since you left for Tokyo. In rhe case of Uncle Arian, the whole family went together and drowned-Uncle, Aunt, and their three young ones. Th~re­ fore, when you come home, come home with the intennon

84 Taiwan Literature -

of rescuing the v~llagers. Don't come home at all until you have confidence m yourself. I don't know what you should do except do your best to help the villagers.

I left a note for Uncle not to notify you of my death right away so that you wouldn't do anything like come straight home and waste the money because of my death. Take care

of yourself. Mother

This was my mother's last will and testament. My mother was a strong-willed woman. She was not a faultfinder who grumbled over every little thing, but where her beliefs were involved she was always firm and businesslike once she had made a decision. One example of this was chat, when my elder brother was ostracized by the villagers for bullying people, she insisted on severing her rela- tion with him and drove him out of the house. The hardship she endured after I came to Tokyo was evident beyond a doubt; but even so, she never considered depending on him-her eldest son and my elder brother-for help. Thus, in the end she lost both my younger brother and my younger sister, and her last remaining child she entrusted to Uncle before committing suicide. That was

the caliber of woman she was. From chis point of view it might be said that my mother did

not have what passes for feminine qualities in the world. But I un- derstood her feelings very well. I liked chem and also respected chem.

As I chink about it now, if there had been an opportunity for my mother to read . . . she would have distinguished herself like Grandmother Zetkin,2 and even when my father had been arrested for refusing to sell his land, she would not have done anything like faint but would have taken some action. But after just now read- ing chis testament of hers, I was very sad-so much so that the

urge to go home overwhelmed me for a time.

Your mother hanged herself tow:ard dawn o~ the -t.h day of the -th month. I intended to mform you 1mmed1ately by telegram, but discovered the testament from your mother's

2 Clara Zed<ln (1857-1933) was a pro~~ent Social Democratic ~crivist and f h

c d· 1 ng members in 19'"- · , e German Communist Parry.

one o t e roun

Fiction 85

. , .. \ ·, ~- ;t ~. •) .·~ ··.~ '\<

hand and ~~de~~·~~~d h·:r feelings, and rherefore postponed informing 'you uncil now, as your mocher wished. In a rescamenr addressed ro me~ your mother describes you as her only son·. woirhy of her hopes. Your elder brother has turned out rhe way he is;· and your younger brocher is still too young for us co know how he will cum our.

Therefore,- as your mocher said, if you were aware of her deach too soon and ruined your fucure by coming home, her death would become meaningless. I am taking good care of your younger brother, so don't worry but scudy hard so as not to go contrary ro your mother's expecracion. Any notion of returning home, get char our of your head. For your mother

is no longer of this world. U11c!t

I would never see my mother's face again. She was no longer of this world. That thought helped me co definitively make up my mind: I had better work as hard as my mocher wished. And I decided not to go home until I could do someching to benefit che miserable village.

Thus, as I read the letter I grew excited and my heartbeat quickened. Meanwhile Tanaka was regarding me steadily, and when he saw me fold the letter and put it in my pocket, he anxiously asked, "What did it say?"

"My mother is dead." "Has she died!" he said with a look of boundless emotion.

"When will you go home?'' 'Tm not going home." '' ...... ?''

"Because it's been half a month since she died. Besides, my mother said nor to come home."

"Half a month ... Does it rake that long ... from Taiwan?" "No, my mother asked Uncle not to let me know immediately.'' "Boy! That's some mother!" Tanaka exclaimed. We ate while we talked, but I was so excited I could not swal-

low the food. I waited until Tanaka had eaten and then paid rhe bill. We went to the post office together, and I cashed the money order. Then, over Tanaka's objections, I returned the money I had

(( '.

_8_6 __ Ta_i_wa_n_L_it:..;;..e...;;,ra-"--tu'---re ___ ,ff~;,,;'.>i:'ij)p·». .-; ,,:' ~:~:.t··-.-~

,--•'"(

~·' 1;' ,' ·~ : ~

.------- ·. ·, .cf:' ..

borrowed from him, after which I jotted down my address for him and went back alone co the flophouse in Honjo.

I was so utterly worn out that I lay down as soon as I entered the building; and stupefied though I was, I found myself wonder- ing how I could do something to benefit the miserable villagers. But no bright idea occurred to me.

I would save money and share it with the villagers, I thought; but now chat I had tried delivering newspapers, now that I had ,.,..alked a fool's errand for over a month only to be still unem- ployed, I could not even be confident of earning my own clothing, food, and shelter, let alone pucting money away. Fatigue came over me all at once, interrupting these thoughts, and before I knew what was happening, I fell asleep as if the weariness of the past two months had overcome me all at once.

From time to time the racket around me raised my conscious- ness to a dim awareness,. like something borne from out of the depths to shallow water, but I could not open my eyes and would only drop back into deep slumber.

"Yang! Yang!" When I heard chis call, again I lay in a state of consciousness

as if on the edge of shoal water; I had a vague sense of somebody calling me, but could not open I my eyes and I was sinking back

into a deep sleep. "Y 'I' ang. This time after another call, something shaking my foot gave

me a start and, I managed at last to open my eyes. But I was still not completely awake. Returning from the dim s_tate of aware~ess to ordinary consciousness felt like standing amid an enveloping

· d h' · l"ft When I returned to consciousness I found mtst an ware mg 1t i · · l T k

· · b 'd waiting for me to awaken. I hurried y ana a sitting es1 e me Th

kicked off the bedding and sat up. I gaped around. t.he room. e old man who ran the place stood at the door ~m1lmg; When he

. fi . he said "You look like you ve taken a saw me in my con usion ' . • l ;>''

l . d h h How many hours do you think you ve s ept.

s eepmg rug, u · . , · h h;>" I was embarrassed. "I guess Its evening, u . h d h

ua ha ha However, t e ate as "No. It's just past noon. n~ , • .

changed " he said, laughing. d · • b d ft r rwelve on the day before, an now 1t I had gone to e a e

Fiction 87

-

/~ ----· llJClll~BtzidilARllP'8P'8~8'!11""1~ ... 111"•M!llltftblDlll'114lll, @1!11,, llll!Ufllll, 'l"lliiilllffDAAQ-~

was about I :00 p.m., he told me. I had slept a full twenty.four hours. I even surprised myself.

When the old man went away, I curned to Tanaka. He ap- peared to be quite tense.

"I'm sorry," 1 said apologetically. "I guess you had a long wair." "Not at all," he replied, and then continued excitedly, ''.Actu-

ally, fm here because something important has happened. An- other man got hooked yesterday by the same placard that brought you in. I have agonized all chis rime since you were kicked our, trying to chink of a way to fight back; but I could chink of noth- ing. Then the ocher man came in, which starred me worrying, and I had him meet me secretly last night to warn him. But all he said was 'Oh, is that the way it is? A dirty trick, all right .. .' nodding his head in time with my words, and wasn't a bit surprised.

"I was peeved. 'So you've found a different job,' I shot back. 'That's fine. Because if you haven't, you're going co be in for some cruel treatment when you lose your deposit and get kicked out

without a penny to your name ... ' "But he was as calm as ever; he put out his hand and gripped

mine. 'Thanks,' he said. 'But can you stay silent when you see a fellow worker being ill treated that way?'

"That irked me, and I replied, 'Look, it's only became I can't stay silent that I'm warning you now. I don't know what else I can do. I've been agonizing over chis, but I don't have the slightest notion what to do.'

"He was very happy to hear this. 'What can you do? If chat's the question, I know the answer. The only thing is, are you guys willing to help?'

''And so with that incentive, I pledged my cooperation. 'I expect that we twenty-eight fellow workers will be in agreement on this matter,' I told him, 'for we all hate the proprietor like

. . poison.

"He then told me some things I had never considered before. Here's the gist of what he said:

The best means for us to fight against a bad ~mployer like him, he said, was solidarity. That is, we should ,all get together and 'strite,' (or something like that-I forget what the word

.1..···

88 Taiwan Literature

I /

~-

w.u). i le uys '"orkcr'> .lrc trc.itcd with contempt because c.1ch on.c l.:tS Jlonc, scp.ir .. ucly. ~hit we ,..,.ould <lc.11 with the pro- pncwr tu~cthcr, .ill with .l !>111~~\c purpn'>C, and in case: we: were not he.mi. we'd ukc united .1ccion. If \\'C did that, we could k·Jt .iny of dw~c p1ys hollow, no m.utcr how bad they are.

'Ilruk.1 tolli it .111. indulling the man's hopes. "Look, Yang, he w.um to meet you. \\'hen I cohl him about you, he said, 'So are there T:iiw.rncsc who h.1,·c been through dut? I'd sure like to meet him. lnuoc..lucc us lS soon :ts possible.'"

How happy l was to hc;u of their plan to crush the diabolical brute dut h;Hl sunk its teeth into us, sucked dry our life blood, and cist us away. Furthermore, when I heard that the man wanted to mc.·ct me, I w;1s even more curious to hurry and meet him.

1 thou~hc th;u if he knew how to show a miserable newspaper c.uricr and the unemployed the means to fight back against a dia- bolical brute of a proprietor, he might have some advice for the people in my home vilbgc, who were subject to the ruthless con- duct of the sugar compJ.n)' and an unjust village headman.

1 was very happy when Tanaka told me that the man (Ito, I thought his name was) wanted to meet me in particular.

\V'hcn I was living in my home village, I had thought that all Japanese were bad, and l detested them. But when I came here, as I saw it, it <lid not appear that all Japanese were bad. The propri- etor of the place , .. ·here I was staying was a kind man, and Tanaka was more than a brother-indeed, when I think of my present cider brother (a policeman), next of kin are out of the question; even comparing Tanaka to them would be doing Tanaka an injustice.

Thus, we sec that, as there are good and bad Taiwanese, so it

seems there arc good and bad Japanese as well. I immediately left the flophouse with Tanaka to go and meet Ito. We entered Asakusa Park and, as we walked all the way back,

a man who had been sitting in the shade of some trees stepped maight up to me and said, "Good afternoon, Yang." as he gripped

my hand firmly. . . "Good afternoon," I said mechan1cally, but I was mystified. I

had never seen the man before. Bllt I immediately suspect~d from the expression on Tanaka's face, when I turned to look at him, that

Fiction 89

( ~~------.-.. a•a•a•n•.1~1.&11~

-.,_

... 1.~ ~ ~( • \'"' . <~.; •

• l . ! ~ -'. ' ~;· ·~,' i. ~. : ~ ~ ~ ..

it must. be rhe ir6 we had caJked abour. Ac once I was ab1e to speak my mind freely.' . . "".

"I Jived in Taiwan myself for a while. Do you like Japanese?',

he ~sked me point-bla~k'. . . . · . I did not know what co reply. For I had nor met many Japa-

.. : ne~e in Taiwa~ ch;t·I rhough('fcould like, <although now I did like the proprietor of rhe flopho~.~e and Tanaka. Ico himself. who posed such a question, I was able ro like right from che first impression>.

After a ~o~enr's thought I replied, "In Taiwan, I thought every Japanese was bad, bur Tanaka is a very nice person."

"'Thar's right. Most Japanese workers are good people like Tanaka. They oppose che oppression and ill-rreacmenr visited upon the Taiwanese. The ones who bring suffering co the Taiwanese- yes, chese are the diabolical brutes, like char old boss of yours who seized your deposit and then senr'you packing. Ir's mostly men of that type and these devil-brutes' henchmen chat go co Taiwan. Bue the Taiwanese are nor the only ones co suffer at the hands of these devil-brutes; our Japanese p~o~ ·people suffer too (as do the work- ers of Japan). In short, in roday1~ world che people who have money seize the labor of the poor people,' beyond what they already have and oppress them in order to get what they wane more easily."

Each of his words found a response in my brain. I could un- derstand them very well. Ir made no difference char che head of my home village was Taiwanese; d~arJy he stuck wich chose others and brought suffering to the villagers.

I told him all about the viliage and what had happened there. He listened with the greatest actencion, and then said, his face flushed with excitement, "Come! Let's rake each other by che hand! Ir's the same kind of people that make you Taiwanese and us Japa- nese both suffer." ·

With Ito's help, three days after this meeting I was able to find work at a toy factory in Asakusa; and I made good use of my spare time <to work regularly with the people in the Council of Japanese Labor Unions. I got experience in supporting walkouts and participating in conferences, and even leccured at meecings on the sufferings of us Taiwanese>. ·

And so a strike was started several months lacer at the news- paper dealership that had fired me. My heart leaped when I saw

90 Ta;wan Uterature ; ~~:tj~:[3~:;f~"ff f '!;,, ' ~

ch.u ruJd\'-f.1(ctl buck, the proprietor of the <lealersl · · l' . • · . . . • 11p, me me a p.11l1lf torr:hc.1li bdore chc sol1d.u1n· of the c-uriers I 1 d lf . . · . stee e myse J~.i1nst :rn ~ir~r:. co dungc th.it usu:i.1 laugh of his into a whimper ~·uh 3 list tn lm face. But the curic:rs' <lc:m::in<ls, to which he was for..:cJ to .1~rce, were far more meaningful than simply assuaging my resentment. , .

Think oi it~ The pbcud "Carric:r \\'.:incc:d," posted co bait the unemployed,

W.lS torn JO\\'tl~ Accommodation in the dormicory \Vas fixed at an area of two

tJtJmi nuts per sleeper with one quilt, a neighboring building W.ll lcJscd for J new dormitory, :m<l the tatami mats were resurfaced!

The unfair rules were ripped off the wall! ~1c:thoJs for exterminating the fleas were devised! The r;Hc for soliciting new subscribers \.vas raised to ten sen

pc:r rnhscripcion. \\'h.:it do you think of the workers now? These last months were an education! And the way I did it

was faithful to nw mother's will. As l stood filled with this convic- ,

tion on the deck of the liner Horai-inaru, the sea was splendidly distended on the ~urfacc, but I was looking hard at spring in Tai- \\'Jn, where a pinprick would let me see an outpouring of bloody

pus stinking to high heaven. May 1. 1934

First published May 1, 1934. Selected from Kawahara !so, ed. Nihon tachiki TJiwJn bungaku, Taiwan-jin sakka sakuhin shu [Taiwan Literature during the Period of Japanese Rule, Collected Works of Taiwanese Writers], Vol. 1. Tokyo:

Ryokuin Shobi\ 1999, pp. 17-51.

Ying K'uci ( 190(>-1985). originally named Yang Gui, was born in Tainan ·i:unuchi.mr,. present day Hsinhua. At the age of ten, he witnessed the ~itiful J i.mhan i.m 1 nciJem massacre of the resistance army. In 1924, after refusmg to wni the r,irl adopted by his parents for his marriage, ~e ':"ithdrew ~r~m Tainan High School

10 sail east co Japan, embarki~g on smches m ~~manmes and the

arcs at the night school of Nihon Universtry. To pay for cumon and da1~y ex- l rk

·d as a newspaper carrier and a cement laborer by day. This was pcnscs, 1c wo c . . during ihc founding of 1he Japanese Communist Party and a< the height of Marxist thought, which saw the rise of che farmer and labor movements and

Fiction 91

/

. ~~ ,/·!· ~.:;,·_i.?.:r·.j:·ii'; .-t~ '.~f:it 1 · . • :b

proletariat literature. He wrote his first work, "Shinbun haitarsufu" [The Newspa- per Carrier; Chinese, Songbaofu], under these circumstances and experiences, which, along with his upbringing, influenced his creative sryle throughout his life. Yang K'uei was arrested in 1927 while arrending a meeti_ng of Koreans; upon his release, he returned to Taiwan co respond ro the call of the Taiwan Peasants' League Movement. He and his wife, Yeh T'ao, both assumed impor- tant roles in the Taiwan Peasants' League Movement.

In 1934 his representativ~; work, "The Newspaper Carrier" was finally selected in its unabridged form for second place in Tokyo's Bungaku hyoron [Literary Review] (there was no award for first place), after having undergone censorship. Literary creation and activism thus became another movement in which he actively engaged. In 1935 he disassociated himself from the flagship publication Taiwan bungei [Taiwan Literature and Art] of the Taiwan Literary Arts Alliance, and created Taiwan's New Literature Society and its publication, Taiwan shinbungaku [New Taiwan Literature]. After the war, he actively im- mersed himself in the creation of New Taiwan Literature, editing Heping ribao [Peace Daily News] and founding the Taiwan wenxue congkan [Taiwan Litera- ture Series], translating Lu Xun, Ba Jin, Mao Dun, and others inco Japanese for publication. He is considered a key figure in the development of postwar Tai- wan literature. In 1949 he was sentenced to twelve years in prison because of the Peace Promulgation Incident; this interrupted his creation of literary works and activities after rhe war. In addition to "The Newspaper Carrier," other important novels and works include "Gacho no yome-iri" [Mother Goose Gets Married; Chinese, E-mama chujia], "Mu-i son" [ViHage without a Doctor; Chi- nese, Wu yi chunJ, "Doro ningyo" (Mud Doll; Chinese, Ni wawa], "Mebayuru" [Budding; Chinese, Mengya]. The National Cultural Heritage Preservation and Research Center has published Jang Kui quanji [The Complete Works of Yang K'ueiJ in fourteen volumes.

Stemming from what Yang K'uei has characterized as the spirit of a "hu- manistic socialism," coupled with the lessons and experiences of a social activist, his work embodies the essence of new Taiwanese protest literature, serving as a just and candid voice for the oppressed, the enslaved, and the exploited. Liter- ary creations are an extension of his social activism, appropriately illustrating that his literary ouclook can be realized as literary activism.

'.i

92 Taiwan Literature .. //} .. :~:. ··?r··'·.:·;;

y.··- -~~

.... .,,,,,--