Ma Jian - The Noodle Maker

‘Humans have powerful herding instincts. It’s no wonder you need to be controlled. You’d be much better off living together like ants, antelopes and moths, rather than shutting yourselves up in separate rooms.’

‘I don’t understand those people,’ I said. ‘They must have lost their minds.’

‘Perhaps other animals are equally indifferent to the suffering of their own kind, but I doubt any of them could find as many ways to inflict pain as men have. It seems to me that man is the lowest beast of the lot.’

By that time, the dog had already lived on the terrace for nearly two years.

‘Look at the secret glee on the faces of the crowd,’ he said. ‘Everyone can see what’s happening, but no one is prepared to put a stop to it. Now you know the evil that lies hidden behind the blank faces you pass every day on the streets. Wherever a street lamp goes out at night, a woman is sure to be raped. Look at all those men down there. It usually takes a lot to make them blush, but they’re so excited now, their faces are bright red. I can smell the blood rushing to their genitals.’

‘This is nothing!’ I cried. ‘When Chairman Mao came out to greet the Red Guards in Tiananmen Square, the crowds were far more excited than this.’

‘What was so exciting about seeing your Chairman?’

‘Just imagine it. We grew up seeing his image plastered over every wall, book, newspaper and film. He was the only thing people ever talked about. So it was only natural that when we were able to see him at last with our own eyes, the emotion would send us into a frenzy.’

‘But when it comes down to it, Chairman Mao was just a human being like any other,’ the dog said.

‘If it weren’t for me, there would be no you. If it weren’t for Chairman Mao, there would be no today,’ I countered. His reactionary ideas were beginning to anger me.

‘And what’s so good about today?’ He puckered his lips and pointed them to the scene unfolding below. The girl had been pushed down again, and was being groped by a sea of hands. Her voice had died, and the tears that drenched her hair had run dry. A gang of youths climbed onto the roof of a stationary bus to get a better view. The men nearest the naked girl pressed her legs down, and kicked each other back as they fought to climb on top of her.

‘I’m sure those thugs come from bad family backgrounds,’ I said.

‘What point does human existence serve?’ the dog asked pompously.

‘That sounds like a phrase from one of the books on my top shelf!’ I snapped. ‘I hope you haven’t been reading those books behind my back!’

A blush rose to the dog’s cheeks, and he turned his face away in shame. He had been lying in the sunniest corner of the terrace all morning, his head resting on a metal pipe, his front leg (which grew from the middle of his chest) stretched lazily forward. When the warm breeze stroked across his shiny coat, a loose hair would detach itself and drift down towards the mob below. By midday the crowd was still growing. A coach became marooned behind the stationary bus, and was unable either to retreat or advance. The girl was now too weak to put up a struggle. When the men who were sprawled on top of her heard the siren of a police car, they jumped up and tried to hide themselves in the crowd, but no space opened for them. The girl wrapped her arms over her thighs and chest as though she were trying to keep herself warm. When her attackers finally managed to make their escape, the crowd closed in on her. Hundreds of hands squeezed and fondled her body. She lay on the road as limp as a dying rabbit, and shuddered convulsively.

‘That young man who just ran off is the girl’s boyfriend,’ the survivor said.

‘How do you know that?’ I shouted. The revolutionary anthem ‘Chairman Mao’s Brilliance Lights Up the World’ was now blaring from the loudspeakers on the flyover.

‘Last month I saw them strolling together down Liberation Street. They continued to Fifth Street, then cut through East Peace Street to West Peace Street. In the early hours of the morning, I spotted them emerging from Friendship Park.’

‘If he’s her boyfriend, how could he bring three men along with him to rape her?’

‘Men possess a trait that no dogs have.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Jealousy,’ he said, scratching his whiskers. The horde of spectators was becoming restless. People were continually pushing in from the surrounding streets and alleys. The policemen climbed out of their car and charged into the crowd. The people they squeezed out of the way soon found new gaps to fill. A melodious tenor’s voice rang through the loudspeakers, singing:

Our beloved Party, you have been like a mother to me. You’ve taught me to love our country and encouraged me to study hard. A joyful tomorrow waves its hand to me, beckoning me onwards …

The noise of the orchestra and the police siren reverberated through the air above the crowd.

‘Are you suggesting she was unfaithful to him, then?’

‘Human beings shouldn’t be allowed to fall in love,’ he said with great feeling.

‘What’s happening below is just a chance occurrence,’ I said, trying to defend the human race.

‘Look how you treated your girlfriend!’

‘She was an exceptional case.’

The survivor smiled. When he smiled, his eyes twinkled and his whiskers quivered up and down.

Another batch of policemen in white uniforms charged through the streets. It was decided that the builders’ cabin on the pedestrian flyover should be converted into the temporary headquarters of the crowd dispersal unit. Four officers hauled a bench into the cabin, and a waitress from a nearby restaurant delivered a tray with tea cups and a thermos of hot water. This was a sign that the town leaders were about to arrive, and sure enough, a few minutes later, two limousines with red flags on the bonnet arrived from the municipal Party committee building, and three black cars with tinted windows turned up from the public security bureau. The vehicles cut a wide path through the crowd and came to a halt below the flyover. The officials stepped out, shook hands and pointed jovially at each other’s bulging stomachs. Then they climbed up to the flyover, and with a great show of ceremony, entered the cabin to discuss how to resolve the situation.

The dog licked his outstretched leg and curled his tongue around the swollen red patch above his claws. The patch was bare. It looked like a wound, although neither of us could explain how he had got it. Leaning his head back again on the metal pipe he said sleepily, ‘It will be another two hours before the police finally get to the girl. She will be as good as dead by then.’

‘But look, they have nearly reached her.’

‘No, they’re not moving. They’re just standing still now, waiting for the leaders in the cabin to come to a decision.’

I took a closer look and saw that the officers were indeed standing still. The crowd appeared to have calmed down a little, although everyone seemed uncomfortable at having to stand so close together. Some men took out cigarettes from their pockets and offered them to the policemen. Then they passed their lighters around and started discussing Tian Gu’s new hairstyle in her latest film, The Happy Revolution.

‘If those hooligans were dogs, how would you deal with them?’ I asked the survivor.

‘The fact is dogs would never commit such a crime.’

‘Still, the committee leaders are doing a fine job. They’ve charged into the thick of things and resolved to sort this matter out in person.’

‘Of course, the editorial of tomorrow’s newspaper will claim that the secretary of the municipal Party committee left his sickbed to rush here and put an end to this hooligan riot. You are lowly creatures, far inferior to us dogs. You try to adopt our civilised behaviour and our sense of morality and justice, but in your hearts all you think about is money and food coupons.’