HAN-PING CHIN
426
boots, and he liked to walk on the granite slabs paved in two par–
allel strips. The nails under the soles hit the stone and the clatter
was clear and resonant. Bystanders would stop their talking, turn
their heads and greet him with admiring eyes.
It was from that crowd that I originally heard the encourag–
ing explanation of
The Testament of Premier Sun Yat-sen,
which we
had to recite at all official and school ceremonies after his death
in 1926. The first sentence of his will read, "I have devoted my–
self to our national revolution for forty years." Among the by–
standers, the common understanding of these words was: "In the
fortieth year of the Republic [1911 was the first year], the real
Celestial Son will appear, bringing with him the mandate of
Heaven." They were waiting for the time when peace and hap–
piness would come.
The town was located a short walk from a coal mine which
had closed a few years before. The coal shafts were deserted; the
vents were stuffed with mud and junk. The miners' dormitories
were rented by the residents, my family among them, but no–
body bothered to maintain them. The wooden floors were shaky
and broken. When my younger brother and I had nothing to do,
we would take out the movable pieces and watch how the mice
stored food and tiny items they stole from us. The latrine was
next to the kitchen. The stagnant water in the front gutter, where
wrigglers were swimming, was muddy and stinking.
Under the eaves, in front of the window, was a battlefield
where spiders wove their webs, trapping flies and dragonflies,
while centipedes raced along the wall. Somewhere about this
time I witnessed a splendid spectacle I had never seen before-a
snake swallowed a frog whole and then lay immobile. Every
summer evening, the humming of swarms of mosquitoes domi–
nated the room. Our mothers kept waving their cattail-leaf fans to
protect us drowsy kids, who jerked and scratched to repel the
sneak attacks.
The Japanese invaders had left us susceptible to all kinds of
diseases, so we suffered a real depletion of playmates and family.
My two younger brothers died of smallpox within two weeks of
each other, and the two sisters who lived across the vegetable
garden from us died of tuberculosis. The nine-year-old girl next
door suffered from dropsy and died. I had gone to see her as she
lay in a bamboo chair and felt guilty for once refusing her per-
