TADPOLE: (with great respect) Gugu, your words are like poetry. You are more than a wonderful woman’s doctor; you are also a natural playwright. The words tumble out of your mouth ready-made for the dramatic stage.
GUGU: What do you mean by tumbling out of my mouth? Every word Gugu says is carefully considered. (points to the manuscript in Tadpole’s hand) Is that your play?
TADPOLE: (modestly) Yes.
GUGU: What’s it called?
TADPOLE: Wa.
GUGU: Is that ‘wa’ as in ‘wawa’ for babies or ‘wa’ as in ‘qingwa’ for frogs?
TADPOLE: For now it’s the ‘wa’ in ‘qingwa’, but I can change it later to the ‘wa’ in ‘wawa’ for babies, or in ‘Nüwa’, the goddess who created mankind. After she populated the earth with people, the character for frogs symbolised a profusion of children, and it has become Northeast Gaomi Township’s totem. Frogs appear as creatures of veneration in our clay sculptures and our New Year’s paintings.
GUGU: Is it possible that you are unaware of my fear of frogs?
TADPOLE: Analysing Gugu’s fear of frogs is the central aim of my play. After reading my play, the complexities will be unravelled, and you may find that you no longer fear frogs.
GUGU: (reaches out) Then hand me your manuscript.
Tadpole respectfully hands the manuscript to Gugu.
GUGU: (to Qin He and Hao Dashou) Which of you is going to take this manuscript out and burn it?
TADPOLE: Gugu, that’s ten years of blood, sweat, and tears.
GUGU: (flings the manuscript into the air, pages flying everywhere) I don’t need to read it. One sniff tells me what kind of fart you’ve just laid. With what little knowledge you possess, do you really think you can figure out why Gugu is afraid of frogs?
Tadpole, Qin He, and Hao Dashou scramble across the stage fighting over pages.
GUGU: (caught up in nostalgic thoughts) On the morning you were born, Gugu was down by the river washing her hands, when she saw a tight mass of tadpoles in the water. It was a year of drought, and there were more tadpoles than the water could accommodate. That got me thinking that no more than one out of ten thousand of them would become frogs; the others would become part of the muddy riverbed. Just like a man’s sperm, except for them, only about one in ten million penetrates the egg to make a child. Gugu was reflecting that a mysterious connection exists between tadpoles and humans in the propagation of species. So when your mother asked me to give you a name, Tadpole was the first word out of my mouth. A good name, your mother said, a perfect name. Tadpole. Children with debased names are easy to raise. Tadpole, you could not ask for a better name.
Tadpole, Qin He, and Hao Dashou stand quietly, listening, each with sheets of paper in his hand.
TADPOLE: Thank you, Gugu!
GUGU: Sometime after that, People’s Daily introduced the ‘Tadpole contraceptive method’, urging ovulating women to swallow fourteen tadpoles in the privacy of their own rooms to forestall pregnancy. But not only did it not prevent pregnancy, the women who used the method gave birth to frogs.
HAO DASHOU: Stop there. Say any more and your illness will act up again.
GUGU: Act up? Not me. They’re the ones who were sick, those who ate frogs. They made women go down to the river and cut the heads off frogs, then skin them, like taking off a pair of pants. Their thighs were like a woman’s. That’s when my fear of frogs was born. Their thighs were just like a woman’s.
QIN HE: Those who ate frogs all paid a price for swallowing them, because they carried parasites that travelled up to the women’s brains and turned them into idiots. In the end, their facial expression was the spitting image of a frog.
TADPOLE: This is an important plot. Those who ate frogs all turned into frogs. And Gugu became the heroic protector of frogs.
GUGU: (painfully) No. The blood of frogs is on Gugu’s hands. Without being aware of it, Gugu was tricked into eating meatballs made of chopped frog. Like the story your great-uncle told of King Wen of Zhou, who was unaware that the meatballs he ate were made from the chopped flesh of his son. When King Wen fled from Chaoge, he lowered his head and retched several meatballs, and when they landed, they turned into rabbits, which sounded to him like ‘son’s bits’. When I came home that day, I had an upset stomach that rumbled with a strange guttural sound, nauseating and intolerable. So Gugu went down to the river, lowered her head, and retched a bunch of little green things, and when they landed in the river they turned into frogs.
The boy in the green stomacher crawls out of the cave, followed by an army of crippled frogs. Collecting debts! the boy cries out. Collecting debts! The frogs behind him produce an angry guttural chorus.
Gugu shrieks and passes out.
Hao Dashou catches her and pinches the groove beneath her nose, the philtrum.
Qin He drives off the boy and the procession of frogs.
Tadpole scoops up all the sheets of paper.
TADPOLE: (takes a red invitation out of his pocket) Gugu, I know exactly why you are afraid of frogs. I also know all the ways you’ve tried over the years to atone for what you view as your sins. Truth is, you’ve done nothing wrong. Those chopped-up frogs are illusions you created. Gugu, it was you who made the birth of my son possible. So I have laid out a grand banquet for you (turns to Hao and Qin) and the two of you.
Curtain
Act V
Night. Lamplight shining in from the side turns the stage a golden yellow.
Chen Bi and his dog are curled on the ground beneath a thick column in a corner of the Fertility Goddess Temple. The dog can be played by an actor. A few paper notes and some coins lie in a chipped begging bowl in front of Chen and alongside a pair of crutches.
Chen Mei, all in black and wearing a black gauzy veil, drifts onto the stage.
Two men in black, also wearing black gauzy veils, follow her onto the stage.
CHEN MEI: (howls) Baby . . . my baby . . . where are you . . . my baby . . . where are you . . .
The two men in black draw close to her.
CHEN MEI: Who are you? Why are you all in black and why have you covered your faces? Oh, I get it, you are also victims of the terrible fire.
FIRST MAN: Yes, we too are victims.
CHEN MEI: (alert) No. The victims of the fire were all women, and you are unmistakably men.
SECOND MAN: We are victims of another fire.
CHEN MEI: I’m sorry to hear that.
FIRST MAN: Yes, you can be sorry.
CHEN MEI: Are you in pain?
SECOND MAN: Yes, we are.
CHEN MEI: Have you had skin grafts?
FIRST MAN: (puzzled) Skin grafts, what’s that?
CHEN MEI: They take unburned skin from your buttocks, your thighs, and other spots and graft it onto the burned areas. Did you really not have any?
SECOND MAN: Yes, yes, we have. Skin from our buttocks has been grafted onto our faces.
CHEN MEI: Did they graft eyebrows?
FIRST MAN: Yes, yes they did.
CHEN MEI: Did they use hair from your head or pubic hair?
SECOND MAN: What? Pubic hair can become eyebrows?
CHEN MEI: If the scalp has been burned, they have to use pubic hair. It’s better than nothing, but if you don’t even have that, then you must go without, like frogs.
FIRST MAN: Yes, that’s it, we must go without, like frogs.
CHEN MEI: Have you seen yourselves in a mirror?
SECOND MAN: Never.
CHEN MEI: We burn victims fear nothing more than mirrors, and hate nothing more as well.
FIRST MAN: That’s right. We smash every mirror we see.
CHEN MEI: That’s a waste of time. You can smash mirrors, but you can’t smash storefront windows, or marble surfaces, or reflecting pools; most of all, you can’t smash the eyes that see us. Those eyes react with fear and avoidance; children cry, people call us monsters and demons. Their eyes are our mirrors, so you can never smash all the mirrors, and our best strategy is to hide our faces
.
SECOND MAN: Right, so right, and that’s why we cover our faces with gauzy veils.
CHEN MEI: Have you ever thought of killing yourselves?
SECOND MAN: We . . .
CHEN MEI: From what I know, five of the girls who were injured in the fire have committed suicide. They killed themselves after looking in a mirror.
FIRST MAN: Mirrors killed them.
SECOND MAN: That’s why we smash every mirror we see.
CHEN MEI: I considered killing myself, but I changed my mind.
FIRST MAN: Always choose life. A demeaned life is better than the best death.
CHEN MEI: I stopped thinking about dying once I became pregnant, when I felt a new life moving inside me. I considered myself to be an ugly cocoon with a beautiful life growing inside, and that when it emerged, I would become an empty cocoon.
SECOND MAN: Well spoken.
CHEN MEI: But the baby was born, and I did not become an empty cocoon and die. I discovered that I was in love with life. I wasn’t dried up, I wasn’t withering. No, I was fresh and radiant. There seemed to be a moist quality to the tight skin of my face, my breasts filled with milk . . . the birth of my baby gave me a new life . . . but then they took my baby from me . . .
FIRST MAN: Come with us. We know where your baby is.
CHEN MEI: You know where he is?
SECOND MAN: We came looking for you for one reason – to help you go to your baby.
CHEN MEI: (excitedly) Thank the heavens. Take me there now, take me to see my baby.
The men in black try to spirit Chen Mei off the stage.
Like an arrow off the bow, Chen Bi’s dog jumps up and attacks First Man, biting him on the left leg.
Chen Bi also jumps up and moves across the stage on his crutches, stops, supports himself on one crutch and beats Second Man with the other.
The men in black break free of Chen Bi and his dog and flee to the edge of the stage, where they draw daggers. Chen Bi and his dog stand together.
Chen Mei stands downstage, forming a triangle with Chen Bi and his dog.
CHEN BI: (roars) Let my daughter go!
FIRST MAN: You old derelict, you drunk, you scoundrel, you old beggar, how dare you claim her as your daughter!
SECOND MAN: You say she’s your daughter. Call her and see if she responds.
CHEN BI: Mei . . . my poor, suffering daughter.
CHEN MEI: (coldly) You’ve mistaken me for someone else. I’m not who you think I am.
CHEN BI: (agonising) Mei, I know you hate your dad. I let you down, I let your sister down, and I let your mother down. Your dad caused you all great pain. Your dad is a sinner, a good-for-nothing, a man stranded on the line between life and death.
FIRST MAN: Is that what you call a confession? Is there a church nearby?
SECOND MAN: There’s a newly renovated Catholic church twenty li east of here, following the river.
CHEN BI: Mei, your dad knows they tricked you. Your dad’s old friends have cheated you, and I’m going to help you get justice.
FIRST MAN: Step aside, old man.
SECOND MAN: Come with us, Miss. We promise you’ll get to see your baby.
Chen Mei walks towards the men in black. Chen Bi and his dog block her way.
CHEN MEI: (angrily) Who are you to block my way? I want to go see my baby, don’t you know that? He hasn’t had a drop of milk since the moment he was born, and if he doesn’t eat soon, he’ll starve, you know that, don’t you?
CHEN BI: Mei, you hate me, I understand that. You say you’re not my daughter, I can live with that. But don’t go with them. They sold your baby, and if you go with them, they’ll throw you into the river to drown, then make up a story that you threw yourself in. They’ve done that before, and more than once.
FIRST MAN: I think you’ve lived long enough, old man. You can’t smear us like that.
SECOND MAN: How can you spout such rubbish? Murderous, ugly butchery like that does not exist in our society.
FIRST MAN: You’ve been watching too many videos in roadside shops.
SECOND MAN: You’re delusional.
FIRST MAN: You’ve turned socialism into capitalism.
SECOND MAN: Turned good people into bad ones.
FIRST MAN: Turned good will into donkey’s guts, pure malice.
CHEN BI: You’re the donkey’s guts, cow parts, filth vomited by cats and dogs, the dregs of society.
SECOND MAN: How dare he accuse us of being the dregs of society! You’re a pig that feasts on piles of garbage. Do you know what we do?
CHEN BI: Of course I do. I not only know what you do, but what you’ve done.
FIRST MAN: I think we ought to invite you down to the river for a cold bath.
SECOND MAN: Tomorrow morning, people who come to burn incense and choose dolls will discover that the old beggar that asks for alms in front of the temple is not around. Even his crippled dog will be missing.
FIRST MAN: No one will care.
The men in black attack Chen Bi and his dog. The dog is killed, Chen is knocked down. They are about to stab Chen to death when Chen Mei rips off her veil to expose a hideous face; her shriek terrifies the two men, who leave Chen Bi and run off.
Curtain
Act VI
An enormous round table, set for a meal, sits in the yard of a peasant’s house. At the rear of the stage, a banner proclaims: ‘Celebration of Jin Wa’s first month’.
Tadpole, dressed in a glossy silk Chinese-style jacket embroidered with the words (good luck) and (long life), greets guests at the gate.
Tadpole’s elementary school classmates Li Shou and Yuan Sai, plus Tadpole’s cousin, enter, each intoning pleasantries and the traditional words of congratulations.
Gugu, in a deep red gown, enters in the company of Hao Dashou and Qin He.
TADPOLE: (welcoming) We’re glad you’ve come, Gugu.
GUGU: How could I not come when the Wan family has a new son?
TADPOLE: It is only through the efforts of Gugu that Jin Wa has come to the Wan family.
GUGU: You flatter me. (looks around, smiles) No exceptions. (The others seem puzzled.) Except for these two (points to Hao and Qin), all of you here came into being with my two hands. I can tell you how many warts there are on all your mothers’ bellies. (laughter all around) Why aren’t you people seated?
TADPOLE: Who would dare sit down before you?
GUGU: Where’s your dad? Have him come out and take the seat of honour.
TADPOLE: He’s been a little under the weather the past few days, so he’s gone to my sister’s to get over it. He said to give you the seat of honour.
GUGU: I cannot refuse.
EVERYONE: It’s only right.
GUGU: Tadpole, you and Little Lion are both over fifty, and you have a bouncing baby boy. While that won’t get you into the – it’s Guinness, right? – the Guinness Book of World Records, it’s the first time in my five decades of delivering babies. That makes this a joyous occasion.
The other guests join in, some saying Joyous occasion, others saying A miracle.
TADPOLE: All thanks to Gugu’s medical genius.
GUGU: (emotionally) In her youth, Gugu was a dyed-in-the-wool materialist, but now, an old woman, she’s grown increasingly idealistic.
LI SHOU: There ought to be a place in the history of philosophy for idealism.
GUGU: Hear that? There’s a big difference between the educated and the uneducated.
YUAN SAI: We know nothing about idealists and materialists, we’re all coarse people.
GUGU: There may be no ghosts and spirits in the real world, but divine retribution definitely exists. For Tadpole and Little Lion to be blessed with a son in their fifties proves that the Wan family had built up considerable merits in past lives.
COUSIN: Gugu’s medicine also helped.
GUGU: Sincerity can work miracles. (turns to Tadpole) Your mother lived a miserly life, but things are better for your generation. You have plenty of money, and now t
his joyous addition. It’s time to change and show some generosity.