Cherry Juliana Sudartono
ENC 101
June 3, 2005.
Play-acting: Blessing and Curse
Feeling shame, anger, guilt and fear, he raised his hand, gripping his own
sandal and brought it down hard on his own child’s backside. His wife was
pleading him not to beat his son anymore, but he had to. He felt the burning
accusing stare of the people in the canteen reducing. He has succeeded. This is a
scene taken from the movie “To Live” directed by Zhang Yimou. Fugui, the
father, has just been accused of “teaching” his family to be counterrevolutionaries – someone who tries to disrupt the revolution movement. In order
to defend himself, he needed to act and beat his own son who has caused the
problem. Play-acting could be defined as acting as if one has surrendered or
conformed to the Cultural Revolution ideal. It was one art of self-defense
commonly used during the Cultural Revolution era. It could be found acted
throughout China, mostly by Red Guards, workers and banished intellectuals.
Some of them play-acted intentionally while some of them were just caught in a
situation where they need to play-act for that one time only. One thing that the
people who play-acted have in common is that of the feelings left from Cultural
Revolution which will affect them forever.
. During the Cultural Revolution period, play-acting makes people feel safe, or
at least secure. Red Guards wanted “to be seen as a pure and unquestionable
revolutionary” (qtd. in Zarrow, 178). Even though sometime some might not
agree with the violent ways most Red Guards behaved in, they needed to act that
was to feel as if they were violent and strong. Zhai Zhenhua wrote in her novel,
“If by beating these people from the five [black] categories I cold prove my
political consciousness and my valour in the class struggle, I would do it” (96).
Even though she disliked violence, she knew that by acting brutal she would win
her fellow Red Guard’s respect. This gave her a sense of security when no one
would be able to accuse her of not being involved in the Cultural Revolution
whole-heartedly.
In other cases, play-acting also brought pride to someone who succeeded in
doing so. Fan Shen was transported to Tianjin to teach after he graduated from
College. He soon found out that the place he was transported to was a place not fit
for human being. The water in Tianjin was polluted and many people died due to
high acid count in the water which corrupted their bodies. Fan Shen didn’t want to
resign to that kind of an ending. There, he spent six months pretending to ill, in
order to be deported to another state, he even sent false stools to be examined and
spent nights and days complaining to the officials. His effort was well rewarded
when he was granted an access to leave Tianjin, the only person who had
succeeded to do so in a dozen years (252). “It was an astonishing feat, an
incredibly swift and complete victory” (252). He was swept with pride because
he has succeeded to defy the odds and managed to win the battle against time and
authority.
At times, the Red Guards would feel guilty for play-acting. Rae Yang, author
of Spider Eaters: A Memoir, is a good example of the guilt a Red Guard can carry
due to play acting. One of the original members of Red Guards, Rae Yang joined
the Cultural Revolution with passion and dedication. She believed that she was a
true revolutionary. She supported the revolution ardently and was actively
involved in the act of denouncing the old culture. So, it came as a surprise that
one day she was hailed by another group of Red Guards who told her that her long
braided hair was bourgeois. After she pleaded with them, saying that she would
cut it off once she got home, she hid her hair in her cap (422). She was upset that
in spite of all her efforts in joining the Cultural Revolution, there were faults in
her still. In fact, she felt guilty, because she needed to play-act, to hide her hair, to
show that she was not bourgeois. How ironic it was for Rae to realize that she was
but a member of the bourgeois clan that needed to play-act after all of her work in
the revolution.
Constant play-acting caused many people to be paranoid. Intellectuals that
were banished into the rural area to be re-educated had small chance of going
back into their hometown. The only way to increase that chance was to act like a
peasant. Four Eyes, the son of two denounced writers, fell into the “three-in-athousand” (Sijie, 87) category. This means that among 1000 students that were reeducated there could be only 3 people that could go back to their hometown. He
was so desperate to go back that he always acted like a peasant. He wore
peasant’s clothes and straw sandals. He dare not slack in his work or would even
take a leave of absence when his glasses were broken. “He lived in constant terror
of the peasants’ opinion” (56). It is understandable why Four Eyes became so
paranoid. If he could not work in the village, the villagers would surely think that
he was incapable. This could only make his chance of going back worse. With the
thought of this, the burden of the workload, plus the big secret that he was hiding
– he had a suitcase-full of forbidden books – it is no wonder why Four Eyes grew
to be a big paranoid.
Play-acting could also made people feel bitter. The stress of acting like a
peasant and acting like he did not posses forbidden books got the better of Four
Eyes. When Luo and the narrator failed to produce romantic folklore for him,
Four Eyes turned bitter towards his two friends. This astonished the narrator
(Sijie, 80). Four Eyes turned bitter because of his disappointment; he felt that his
hope was crushed with the unsatisfactory mountain song, which he saw as his
ticket to return to his hometown. This shows how Cultural Revolution could bring
the worst out of people
Sadly, not all play-acting was successful. Some of them even bring despair to
people. Most of the intellectuals who were denounced wrote false confessions
hoping to get away from the denouncement session. However, party officials
usually asked for more and more confession, and they ended up tangled in their
own webs of lies. They felt desperate because now they could not find a way out
from their lies. Worse than their feelings of desperation was, party officials now
could charge them for being dishonest and gave them worse punishment. Most
people were desperate enough to kill themselves. I think it was a waste because if
they have a will to try, they could always try to stay alive and try to survive the
revolution and find a better future to live in.
Fan Shen, another Red Guard who was forced to play-act has a sad story. His
parents were two very strict revolutionaries. They were actively involved in
revolutionary activities. However, due to a misunderstanding his father and
mother were denounced. Fan who was brought up to be an ardent revolutionary
soon found out that the Cultural Revolution was meaningless. His parents
however still supported Chairman Mao. Then came a fateful day, Fan made a
terrible mistake, he miswrote a character – ironically, it was just a blot of ink
accidentally dripped from his brush - in his Big Letter Poster, which made it look
as if Fan was denouncing Chairman Mao himself. His mother was told about this
and she became very angry and insulted him and even threatened to denounce
him. Fan felt betrayed by his mother (56). He was disappointed for what she has
done to him, for not protecting him, his own son from the Cultural Revolution.
Somehow, I understood how Fan must have felt. It is amazing how Chairman
Mao’s charisma can still affects someone in the present. My parents were
supportive towards Chairman Mao too. They believed in his ideal and for them to
defy someone with higher authority is a sin. There was this one time when I
thought somebody older and therefore has more authority than I did, was being
unfair to me. I told my parents about what I feel of that someone. Instead of
comforting me, they said that I was being selfish and immature. I was crushed
because I thought they would support me. From then on, whenever there were
things that actually upset me, I acted as if there was nothing wrong because I
couldn’t bear to hear them saying that I was being selfish. This was what
happened to Fan too. His disappointment fuelled him to play-act and to survive
the Cultural Revolution without the help of his parents.
Passion also gave people the will to play-act. Fan Shen loved studying, and he
longed to go to college. However, the only people that was allowed to go to
college, was those who were considered true proletariat. He or she must be one
that has pure “red hearts” (147) – true revolutionary. So Fan Shen started to lay a
plan. He wrote volumes of diaries consisting of his “allegiance” to the party and
so on. Of course his effort was well paid because later on he was granted
permission to take part in the college proficiency exam (147-149). Had it not been
for his passion for knowledge and learning, Fan Shen would not have thought of
acting like a true revolutionary. Passion brings desire and desire brings will. Fan
Shen nurtured his desire and came out with a will. As the saying goes, when there
is a will there is a way. And a way there was for Fan Shen.
People such as Red Guards and intellectuals from the Cultural Revolution
era play-acted so that they would not be accused as counter revolutionaries. It was
one of the best strategies of living through the Cultural Revolution where
reactionary thoughts are sins considered worse than killing someone. However,
play-acting brought dread to people. Wu Ningkun wrote, “I winced at the thought
of reliving those traumatic years” (qtd in Zarrow, 175). Indeed it is not fair for
anyone to revive that traumatic era, but, if it’s the only way for us to learn a new
perspective of life, then won’t that be worth the effort?