Ma Jian - Beijing Coma

‘Only the urine of infant boys was drunk in the past,’ Chen Di says. ‘So if they’re drinking Dai Wei’s piss now, perhaps that means he’s returned to his infancy!’

It makes me happy to hear them joke and laugh like this. Chen Di has visited several times before, but this is the first time he’s stayed for a meal. His girlfriend is wearing expensive perfume. She probably works for a foreign company.

Someone switches off the radio. Someone else bumps their knee against the bed. I feel everyone’s gaze move up and down my body.

‘Dai Wei, your old classmates have come to celebrate your birthday,’ my mother says, coming in to collect my urine bottle. ‘You’re very lucky to have so many good friends.’

The room falls silent. All I hear is the sound of people breathing. Then Chen Di says, ‘Dai Wei, if you can hear me, you’ll know who I am. You’ve been lying here for six years — no, seven. It’s your thirtieth birthday today. Confucius said that a man of thirty must take his stand in life. We all hope you’ll be able to stand up again one day. I want to hear you explain all those strange theories you had about plant respiration. I want to see you awarded your PhD.’

‘Don’t make fun of him,’ Bingbing says, turning her back to him.

‘I’m not making fun of him. He was researching plant cell biology.’

‘I hope the government will have reversed its verdict on the student movement by the time you wake up,’ Yu Jin says. ‘We’ll appoint you commander-in-chief of the Square.’

‘Let’s not talk about the past,’ Mimi says, leaning against Yu Jin. ‘We should all just wish him a happy birthday.’

I find it hard to believe that Mimi is going out with Yu Jin. They hardly spoke to each other in the Square. I bet she’ll tell Yu Jin that she saw my penis. How humiliating. My mother has gone back to the kitchen to chop up bean sprouts. Her life has improved a lot since she met Master Yao. He visits her once a week now.

‘Can he hear us?’ Bingbing asks.

‘I’m sure he can,’ Chen Di says. ‘He’s particularly sensitive to women’s voices. When you spoke just now, his eyelids trembled.’ Chen Di is wearing a prosthetic foot. I can hear it squeak when he walks about.

‘He’s probably just excited to have us all here,’ Mimi says. ‘Dai Wei, Yu Jin has bought you a special qigong waist belt. It’s stuffed with more than thirty different medicinal herbs. Apparently it can cure many afflictions. We’ll put it on you in a minute.’

‘Since when did you start believing in Chinese medicine, Yu Jin?’ Chen Di asks.

‘The factory sent marketing agents round to our office. They wouldn’t leave until we bought some.’

‘I bet they were pretty girls,’ Chen Di says. ‘You probably sat them down and gave them cups of tea. How many belts did you buy?’

‘Stop teasing him! Yu Jin may be guilty of many things, but one thing I’m sure of is that he’s no philanderer.’

‘Supper’s ready!’ my mother shouts, laying the chopsticks on the table in the sitting room. ‘Come and sit down.’

‘Let’s give old Chairman Mao here a rest, and go and celebrate his birthday for him,’ Chen Di says.

There’s another knock on the door.

It’s Mao Da and Zhang Jie. They sit at the table without bothering to come in and see me. Wafts of alcohol blow into my room.

‘The Tiananmen Mothers group has made a big impact,’ Mao Da says to my mother. ‘I heard that your leader has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.’

‘The whole world knows about your group now, Auntie. You should be proud of yourselves.’ As soon as Zhang Jie finishes speaking, his pager rings. He gets up and makes a call on my mother’s telephone.

‘Poor Professor Ding has been persecuted relentlessly for her activities,’ my mother says. ‘She’s been sacked from her job, arrested, detained. She’s under constant surveillance now. There’s always a police car parked outside her home.’

‘When my colleagues find out I was involved in the Tiananmen Square movement, they treat me like a leper. No one wants to talk about those events.’

Zhang Jie says into the phone, ‘All right, we know the pros and cons… We’ll need a certificate from the Ministry of Information before we can apply for an internet service licence. We must find someone with high-level connections or we’ll never get anywhere.’ There’s a new tone of confidence in his voice.

‘None of his old professors have ever visited him.’

‘They’d lose their jobs if they did. That Granny Pang downstairs would report them to the police.’

‘Granny Pang’s taken up Falun Gong. It’s completely changed her. She wouldn’t dream of reporting anyone to the police now.’

My mother takes her cassette player out to the yard every day and practises Falun Gong exercises with a few other women in the compound. Granny Pang often comes up for a chat now. She told my mother that she realises it was wrong to pass information to the police, and that from now on she will cultivate truth, compassion and tolerance to ensure she doesn’t come back as an animal in the next life.

‘Get off the phone, Zhang Jie. It’s not often we all get a chance to sit down together like this.’

‘All right, all right. When I bought this pager three months ago, I was told it would give me daily share-price information, but the service still hasn’t been set up. When I ask the girl on the switchboard about it, she always promises to get it sorted, but she never does, of course…’

‘Yes, that girl on the switchboard sounds like she’s on drugs. When I call the number to leave you a message she whines, “Hello. Whoya calling? Got it. Hang up!” in an annoying robotic twang.’ Everyone chuckles at Yu Jin’s impersonation. ‘Why do all young women seem to speak like that these days? Come on now, let’s raise our glasses to our old classmate, and wish him a speedy recovery. Cheers!’

‘Guess who I bumped into yesterday!’ says Chen Di. ‘You could say it was someone from our dorm block…’

‘Little Chan, Liu Gang?’

‘Shao Jian… Dong Rong?’

‘I’d better tell you — you’ll never guess. The drifter! He’s got a job now, working on a construction site. I bumped into him in my local market.’

My mother interrupts. ‘I’ve got a letter here. Perhaps one of you can make out what it says. I found it in Dai Wei’s jacket.’

‘Show me!’

My heart stops for a second. Perhaps at last I’ll be able to find out some news about A-Mei.

‘It looks like a piece of notepaper. The blood has blurred the characters. I can’t read any of them…’

‘It’s a pamphlet. No, it’s a handwritten letter… It was in his pocket, you said?’

‘Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter. I’ve kept this bloodstained jacket all these years inside the box I bought for his ashes. I’ll put it in the furnace with him when he’s cremated.’ She comes into my room and puts the jacket and bloodstained letter back into the box under my bed.

‘Grave plots aren’t that expensive any more. Wouldn’t you prefer to have him buried?’

‘Don’t talk about that now. It’s his birthday. Come on, let’s cut the cake. On behalf of Tian Yi, I’d like to wish Dai Wei a very happy…’

At the place where the moon and sun set is the Mountain of the Moon and the Sun. There is a girl there, bathing a baby moon. This is the twelfth moon she has given birth to.

When I first set eyes on my cousin Kenneth in Yanjing Hotel, I found it hard to believe we shared a genetic bond. Although his hair was jet-black like mine, he had pale skin, round eyes and a big nose. His father was my father’s uncle and his mother was a white American. He didn’t speak a word of Chinese, and since my spoken English was poor, we could only have the most basic conversation. He was in his forties, and played the cello in the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.