Explore Chapter 6 of '呐喊' with the original Chinese text, English translation, detailed Chinese vocabulary explanations, and audio of the Chinese original. Listen and improve your reading skills.
Mr. N was by nature somewhat eccentric, often getting needlessly upset and saying things that showed a lack of worldly wisdom. On such occasions, I usually let him mutter to himself without offering a word of comment. After venting his thoughts alone, he would let the matter drop.
"What I admire most is the scene in Beijing on the Double Tenth Day. In the morning, the police come to the door and order, 'Hang the flag!' 'Yes, hang the flag!' Most households lazily send out a citizen, who hoists a piece of motley foreign cloth. This continues until evening. Then the flags are taken down and the doors closed. A few households occasionally forget, and their flags hang until the next morning."
The faces of many old friends float before my eyes. Several young men toiled and rushed about for over a decade, only to be killed by a bullet in the dark. Several others failed in their attempt and endured more than a month of torture in prison. Still others, harboring lofty ambitions, suddenly vanished without a trace, their bodies never found.
They lived their lives amid society's cold sneers, vicious curses, persecution, and betrayal. Now their graves have long been gradually flattened and forgotten.
"Old friend, do you know that hair is both a treasure and a curse for us Chinese? Throughout history, how many people have suffered worthless hardships over it!
"Our ancient ancestors seemed to regard hair lightly. According to the penal code, the most important part was naturally the head, so beheading was the supreme punishment. Next came the genitals, so castration and confinement were terrifying penalties. As for shaving the head, it was considered trivial. Yet one can imagine how many people were trampled upon by society their whole lives simply for being bald.
"When we talked of revolution, we made a great fuss about the Ten Days in Yangzhou and the Jiading Massacre, but that was merely a tactic. To be frank, the Chinese resistance back then wasn't really about the loss of the nation. It was about the queue.
"After the stubborn rebels were exterminated and the old adherents died of old age, the queue was firmly established. Then Hong and Yang rose up again. My grandmother once told me how hard it was to be a commoner then. Those who kept their hair long were killed by government troops, while those with queues were killed by the long-haired rebels!
"When I went abroad to study, I cut off my queue, for no other reason than that it was terribly inconvenient. Unexpectedly, some classmates who coiled their queues on top of their heads took a strong dislike to me. The supervisor was furious, threatening to cut off my stipend and send me back to China.
"A few days later, this supervisor himself had his queue cut off and fled. Among those who cut it was Zou Rong, the author of The Revolutionary Army. Because of this, he could no longer study abroad and returned to Shanghai, later dying in a Western prison. You've probably forgotten all this, haven't you?"
"A few years later, my family's circumstances worsened greatly. If I didn't find some work, I would starve, so I had to return to China. As soon as I arrived in Shanghai, I bought a false queue-the market price was two yuan then-and wore it home. My mother said nothing, but others, upon meeting me, would first scrutinize this queue. Upon discovering it was false, they would sneer and accuse me of a crime punishable by beheading. One of my clansmen even prepared to report me to the authorities, but later stopped for fear that the revolutionaries might succeed.
"This incident saddened me deeply, and I still remember it often. When I was studying abroad, I once saw in a daily newspaper an account of Dr. Honda, who traveled through Southeast Asia and China. This doctor didn't understand Chinese or Malay. When asked how he managed without knowing the language, he picked up his walking stick and said, 'This is their language. They all understand it!' This angered me for several days. Little did I know that I would unconsciously do the same, and those people understood it too...."
"In the early years of the Xuantong reign, I served as a supervisor at a local middle school. My colleagues avoided me as if I were poison, and the officials guarded against me as if I were a criminal. I felt as if I were sitting in an ice cellar or standing by an execution ground all day long. And all for no other reason than the lack of a queue!"
"One day, several students suddenly came to my room and said, 'Sir, we want to cut our queues.' I said, 'No!' 'Is it better to have a queue or not?' 'Not having one is better...' 'Then why do you say no?' 'It's not worth it. You'd better not cut it. Wait a while.' They said nothing, pursed their lips, and left the room. But in the end, they cut them off."
"Oh! It was terrible. People were whispering everywhere. I pretended not to know and let them go to the lecture hall with their bare heads, alongside many others with queues."
"However, this queue-cutting disease spread. On the third day, students from the normal school suddenly cut off six queues, and that evening, six students were expelled. These six could neither stay at school nor return home. They dragged on until more than a month after the first Double Tenth Day, when the brand of criminality was finally erased."
"Now you idealists are clamoring again about women cutting their hair, creating many more people who gain nothing but suffer!
"Better to keep it long, marry into a family as a daughter-in-law, and forget everything. That is happiness. If she remembers such things as equality and freedom, she will suffer her whole life!"
"I want to borrow Artsybashev's words to ask you: You promise the coming of a golden age to the descendants of these people, but what do you give to these people themselves?"
"Ah, until the whip of the Creator falls upon China's backbone, China will forever remain the same China, unwilling to change a single hair!"
"Since your mouths hold no venom, why insist on pasting the words 'viper' on your foreheads, inviting beggars to beat you to death? ..."
N spoke more and more bizarrely, but upon seeing my lack of interest, he immediately stopped, stood up, and took his hat.
"Goodbye! Please forgive my intrusion. Fortunately, tomorrow is no longer the Double Tenth Day, and we can all forget."