Part 15 (2/2)

”Do you have a planned-birth policy in your country?”

”No.”

”So how many children can you have?”

”As many as we want.”

”Really?”

”Really,” I said. ”If you want to have ten children, you can have ten. There's no limit. But most people only have two, because that's all they want.”

The woman smiled wistfully, shaking her head. I wondered what amazed her more-that there was a country where birth wasn't limited, or that Americans were so foolish as to want only two children. Many of the peasants I met seemed inclined to go with the second viewpoint, and sometimes they had the same reaction to American farming, which to a Sichuanese peasant seemed to be an incredible combination of luck and incompetence. They found it remarkable that the average farmer in a state like Missouri had 292 acres of land, as well as mechanized equipment and the occasional government subsidy, and yet there were still years when it was difficult to make ends meet. As far as the peasants were concerned, you had to be a particularly bad farmer to ruin a setup like that, just as you had to be particularly foolish to respond to complete procreative freedom by having just two children.

My students were part of the last peasant generation whose fines had been minimal. The second-year speaking cla.s.s had thirty-five students, of whom only two were single children. Those two were free and the rest had cost very little, if anything at all. Diana cost one hundred yuan. Davy's little brother cost three hundred yuan. Rex had a 650-yuan sister, while Julia's brother was only 190. Jeremy was one hundred yuan. He was the sixth child in his family, and the older five had all been girls. That was a very well spent one hundred yuan if you were a Chinese peasant.

Many of their families were like that-a string of girls punctuated by a boy that marked the end of the children. In those days the fines had been minimal, and the peasants still followed the traditional pattern of having children until there was at least one son. The fines, like everything else regarding money were not sensitive subjects. Sometimes I teased Jeremy because he had cost only one hundred yuan. I offered to buy Julia's brother for five hundred, so her parents could double their investment, but she only laughed and shook her head.

MOST OF MY GRADUATED STUDENTS were a.s.signed jobs in the countryside, where they made around four hundred yuan a month-less than fifty dollars. It was very little money but the jobs were secure, and they didn't have to search by themselves. Communist China had no tradition of independent job searches, and the thought of relying on themselves terrified most of my students, who generally accepted the a.s.signments. They also took these positions because they were penalized if they refused the government job. If they chose to find work on their own, they had to repay the scholars.h.i.+p they had received, which usually amounted to around five thousand yuan. During my second year, the authorities began to reform these rules, phasing out the automatic a.s.signments, but my first group of graduated students was still in the traditional system. were a.s.signed jobs in the countryside, where they made around four hundred yuan a month-less than fifty dollars. It was very little money but the jobs were secure, and they didn't have to search by themselves. Communist China had no tradition of independent job searches, and the thought of relying on themselves terrified most of my students, who generally accepted the a.s.signments. They also took these positions because they were penalized if they refused the government job. If they chose to find work on their own, they had to repay the scholars.h.i.+p they had received, which usually amounted to around five thousand yuan. During my second year, the authorities began to reform these rules, phasing out the automatic a.s.signments, but my first group of graduated students was still in the traditional system.

The more aggressive students often paid the fine or found some other way to avoid the a.s.signed job. Five of the boys took teaching positions in Tibet-all of them were Party Members, and they went for reasons of patriotism as well as money. North, who had been one of the cla.s.s monitors, took a sales job with the Wu River Hot Pickled Mustard Tuber factory. Two of the best girl students found teaching jobs at a private school in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Anne, the student whose family lived in my building, wandered southward-first she worked as a secretary in Kunming, in Yunnan province, and then she went to Shenzhen, the special economic zone near Hong Kong.

Shenzhen was a sort of promised land for Sichuanese migrants. People made money quickly there, sometimes without guanxi guanxi or education; all you needed was your wits and some luck. There were Shenzhen legends at all of the Sichuan teachers colleges where my Peace Corps friends taught. Students whispered about cla.s.smates who, having been thrown out of school for cheating or failing exams, went south to Shenzhen and were rich within a year, thankful that the college had tossed them. During my first year, an English department student named Don had been kicked out of Fuling for cheating, after which he followed the standard expelled student route and went straight to Shenzhen. But in the booming city he struck out-no money, no job, no or education; all you needed was your wits and some luck. There were Shenzhen legends at all of the Sichuan teachers colleges where my Peace Corps friends taught. Students whispered about cla.s.smates who, having been thrown out of school for cheating or failing exams, went south to Shenzhen and were rich within a year, thankful that the college had tossed them. During my first year, an English department student named Don had been kicked out of Fuling for cheating, after which he followed the standard expelled student route and went straight to Shenzhen. But in the booming city he struck out-no money, no job, no guanxi guanxi. And there was no face for Don the next year, when, after paying a substantial fine, he returned to the college and resumed his studies. That was the other side of Shenzhen-but there weren't so many legends about the people who failed. Sometimes you heard about nice Sichuanese girls who turned into prost.i.tutes after running out of money, but mostly you heard about the ones who had succeeded.

Anne sent Adam and me vivid letters from Shenzhen, describing the ”talent markets” where she had to pay ten yuan to talk with prospective employers. It was a stressful and expensive place to look for a job, and soon Anne, who was there with her sister, had spent all of her savings in the markets. At last they pooled resources to send Anne's sister into the talent markets, where she tracked down an interview for a position that called for English fluency. Anne went to the interview and got the job. She asked for twelve hundred yuan a month; the boss countered with nine hundred; and Anne, who had already been rejected enough times, accepted the offer.

She had never left the Fuling area before graduation, and now suddenly she was working on her own in what was perhaps the most exciting city in China. Not long after she started her job, she wrote me a letter describing her early days at the office: During the first two days, only one girl in our office showed her hospitality; others acted as if they didn't notice my exist. I felt very lonely. I thought of you-you must have felt lonely in your early stay in Fuling. I encouraged myself to try to show my anxiety to make friends with them. My efforts ended in success; I was took as one of them soon.In our office there are only eight people. Except the boss (an old man), others are all young girls. They are from three different provinces. Lulu, Luyun, Xuli, Lily are from Jiangxi Province; Yi Xiaoying from Hunan, Linna from Sichuan. Lulu is the most beautiful, able and shortest girl, who is liked by everyone. Luyun is very kind, who reminds me of Airane [a Fuling cla.s.smate]. Xuli is a cla.s.sical beauty, most private telephones from boys are for her. But I don't like her very much, for her word sometimes hurtful. Lily is the other secretary, who came two days earlier than me. She leaves us an impression of stupid and irresponsible. So she is not very popular in the office. Xiaoying is the fatest girl concerning much about losing weight. She is very good at computer but poor in English. We have an oral contract that she teaches me how to use computer and I teach her English. Linna is the one I can speak Sichuan dialect with. But Sichuan dialect is so understandable by everyone that we don't have a sense of superiority when speaking it.Oh! Till now, you still don't know what our company does. Our company was just moved from Taiwan several months before. It acts in the field of exporting fas.h.i.+on, costume and sh.e.l.l jewelry. My job is keeping touch with our customers by letters or faxes, receiving purchase orders, giving order to factories and finding the best company to s.h.i.+p products to our customers. Since I'm not familiar with my work, Lulu helps me a lot these days.

IF YOU DIDN'T GO TO SHENZHEN, you could make money quickly in the stock market. The Fuling exchange office was next to South Mountain Gate, a huge room with rows of chairs where people sat and watched the stock listings on an enormous digital screen. For a while I used to go there, hoping to practice Chinese with the people, but none of them ever talked. They simply stared at the money as it raced across the boards.

Many of my friends had invested, despite the expensive registration deposit of thirty thousand yuan. This fee was refundable after a certain period of time, but it was an enormous amount and people usually pooled their resources and registered as a group. Teacher Liao had investments through one of her relatives, and the family at the Students' Home had invested money through Huang Xiaoqiang's sister. One afternoon they took Huang Kai to the exchange, because every night the child became excited and shouted ”Stock!” repeatedly when the ticker appeared on television. But when confronted with the market's reality-the crowds of people, the flas.h.i.+ng billboard, the noise and lights and energy of the place-he burst into tears and cried inconsolably until they returned home, where the familiar portrait of Chairman Mao decorated the living-room wall.

On January 9 of 1998, which was a Friday, my friend Scott Kramer called from New York and warned me that the Chinese stock market was under serious speculation. He worked in emerging markets on Wall Street, and for my sake he always kept an eye on China.

That day I had cla.s.s with Teacher Liao, and I told her it might be a good time to take her money out of the market. She shrugged it off-what did I know?

The following Monday, the Shanghai Index fell 9.1 percent and the Shenzhen Index dropped 7.8 percent. It was one of the worst days in the history of the Chinese markets, and Teacher Liao lost a thousand yuan. The family at the Students' Home lost nearly as much. They told me about it while I ate lunch, and Huang Kai picked up one of the words and babbled it over and over again. ”Diele, diele,” he said. ”It fell, it fell.” Within a week the family had sold all their stock.

The next time I had cla.s.s with Teacher Liao, she grinned sheepishly as she walked into my office.

”You were right,” she said. ”I forgot all about what you said until that Monday, when I got home and watched television. But by then it was too late-they had already closed the market. Afterward I told my husband that you had known it would happen.”

”I didn't know anything,” I said. ”But my friend in America thought it might fall. That's his job and he understands it very well.”

”We should have listened.”

I asked her how much she had lost, and she told me. She said everybody was losing money; two years ago the stocks went up all the time but now there hadn't been a good month all year. I told her I'd keep her updated on Kramer's tips.

ANNE HAD ACCESS TO THE COMPANY PHONES in Shenzhen, and sometimes at night she called Adam or me. One evening she phoned and reported that she had gotten a raise to one thousand yuan, and I congratulated her. As time pa.s.sed, I would find this to be one of the most satisfying aspects of teaching, because former students occasionally called to report milestones of adulthood and independence. Often these benchmarks had to do with money: a new raise, a new apartment, a new beeper. Once a student called to tell me that he had acquired a cell phone. He told me about the cell phone for a few minutes and then he mentioned, in an offhand way, that he had also gotten engaged. in Shenzhen, and sometimes at night she called Adam or me. One evening she phoned and reported that she had gotten a raise to one thousand yuan, and I congratulated her. As time pa.s.sed, I would find this to be one of the most satisfying aspects of teaching, because former students occasionally called to report milestones of adulthood and independence. Often these benchmarks had to do with money: a new raise, a new apartment, a new beeper. Once a student called to tell me that he had acquired a cell phone. He told me about the cell phone for a few minutes and then he mentioned, in an offhand way, that he had also gotten engaged.

I told Anne that now her salary was as high as mine, which made her laugh. But on the phone she sounded a little funny, and finally I asked if something was wrong.

”The company has an agent in Hong Kong,” she said slowly. ”He often comes here to Shenzhen. He is an old man, and he likes me.”

”What do you mean by that?”

Silence. I tried again. ”Why does he like you?”

”Because I am fat.” She giggled nervously on the phone. She was a pretty girl and I knew that she had gained a little weight since graduation, and in some ways this made her even prettier.

”What do you mean when you say that he likes you because of that?” I asked.

Silence.

”Does he want you to be his girlfriend?”

”Perhaps.”

”Is he married?”

”He is divorced. He has small children in Taiwan, where he is from. But he usually works in Hong Kong.”

”How often does he come to Shenzhen?”

”Twice a month.”

”Is it a big problem?”

”He always finds a way to be with me.”

”Will you leave the job?”

”He says he will help me find a job in Hong Kong if I want one. The salaries are much higher there, you know. He says I can make much more money if I go to Hong Kong.”

I breathed deeply and thought about how to handle this. ”That sounds like a very bad idea,” I said slowly. ”If you want another job, you should not ask him for help. That will only cause big problems in the future.”

”I know. I think I would never do that.”

”You should try to avoid him.”

”I do,” she said. ”And I tell my coworkers to always be with me if he is there.”

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