Ma Jian - The Dark Road

‘What about that sweet, gentle man…?’

‘Kong Fanhua? He’s all right. He chopped down the huge tree in his yard and sold the timber to pay off his fine. His wife has gone to work in Guangzhou. He still cycles around the village every morning collecting eggs… Listen, if you do give birth to a son and earn enough money to pay the fine, don’t come back here. Go and live in the county town. The schools are much better there.’

‘How’s Li Peisong, and his son, Little Fatty?’

‘Oh, Little Fatty — he’s in a juvenile detention centre. Granny Kong told him off about something, and he ended up beating her to the ground with a stick. Well, it’s not surprising he’s turned out that way. His parents were left destitute after paying the fine for his birth, and couldn’t even afford to send him or his brother to school…’

As Meili puts a ten-yuan note on the counter to pay for the call, a man behind her says, ‘You’re not local, are you? Where are you from?’

‘Hubei Province,’ she says, counting the change before putting it in her pocket.

‘Do you have a temporary residence card for this city?’

‘No, I haven’t brought any documents with me.’

‘Well, you won’t be able to get a room in a hotel, then. Come with me. I’ll take you somewhere that provides free food and lodging.’

Meili follows the man back to the main road. Growing suspicious, she asks, ‘So, how come the food and lodging are free?’

‘The city authorities pay for it. They know hotels won’t accept flea-ridden peasants like you, and they don’t want you sleeping on the streets, spoiling the city’s image, so they’ve built a guest house where you can stay for free.’

‘Are you trying to say that no one in the city has fleas?’ Meili says indignantly. ‘I can’t believe that’s true.’

They reach a dark doorway. When Meili reads the words CHANGSHA CITY CUSTODY AND REPATRIATION CENTRE on the sign above it, she turns to run, but the man grabs hold of her and drags her inside.

‘This is the fourth one I’ve brought in today,’ he says to a uniformed officer at the front desk. ‘So that’s 120 yuan you owe me.’

‘The child you brought in this afternoon doesn’t count. He was ten years old and mute. We couldn’t have sold him on, so we let him go.’

‘You never told me you don’t take children,’ he says, fingering the loose threads on his shirt where his top button has been tugged off.

‘Well, you’d better read the detention criteria again.’

‘This one’s a peasant. She has no documents.’

‘Let me go, comrade,’ Meili says to the officer. ‘I’ll make my own way to the train station. You won’t need to escort me.’

‘You think you can escape that easily? We’ll only release you if someone pays your bail. Old Wu, give her a body search. When did you arrive in Changsha?’ The officer picks up a pen and takes out a registration form.

‘About an hour ago.’

‘Why did you come here? Where were you planning to stay?’

‘I was just passing through, on my way to the train station.’

‘Education?’

‘Primary school.’

‘Where were you travelling from? Take off your belt.’

‘I’m not wearing one,’ Meili says, slapping Old Wu’s hands as he runs them up her legs.

‘Put all your cash and valuables on the table, then,’ Old Wu says, pointing at her aggressively. ‘If you try to hide anything from me, I’ll fucking kill you!’

‘All I have is the thirty yuan I made from selling eggs this morning. Comrade, can I ask you something?’

‘What?’ the officer behind the desk says, looking up.

‘The sign outside said Custody and Repatriation Centre. So is this a prison? Have I committed a crime?’

‘No, it’s not a prison.’

‘What is it, then?’ Meili says, her voice shaking.

‘It’s a place that houses undesirables like you. We’ve been ordered to evict 300,000 peasants and vagrants from the city before the National Day celebrations next week, and you’ve fallen into our net, I’m afraid.’ He hands her the registration form, tells her to sign at the bottom, then passes her a sponge filled with red ink, two blank sheets of paper and tells her to sign and fingerprint these as well.

‘But there’s nothing written on them. What am I signing for?’

‘None of your business. Just get on with it.’

Meili does as she’s told.

‘Now take her to the warehouse!’ The officer files away the forms, brushes some orange peel from his desk and takes a sip from his mug of tea.

Meili follows a policewoman into a warehouse in the backyard. The interior is dark and cavernous. A single bulb hangs from the high ceiling. There are no beds, just numbered rectangles painted in yellow on the concrete floor. Meili is taken to number 15. A narrow path between the rectangles leads to a large plastic bucket at the far end for the detainees to use as a toilet.

‘Where do we go to make telephone calls, comrade?’ Meili asks a girl with glasses who’s lying on the rectangle next to hers.

‘You’ll have to wait until the morning.’

‘Where do you come from?’ Glancing around her, Meili notices that all the detainees are women. Some are crying, others are eating and chatting, but most are curled up like shrimp on their yellow rectangles.

‘Me?’ the girl says with a look of unease on her face. ‘I’m a graduate. I came to Changsha to find work.’

‘Ah, you must be very knowledgeable then. So can you tell me, is this a prison?’

‘Look at point number 8 of the notice on the wall: “Voluntarily confess your crimes and expose the crimes of others.” So it’s obvious they consider us to be criminals.’

‘I’ve only had one baby out of quota,’ Meili says. ‘Is that enough to get me locked up?’

‘It’s nothing to do with family planning. You’re here because you’re a peasant, and peasants aren’t allowed in the cities unless they have a temporary urban residence permit. Surely you know that?’

A female correctional officer sticks her head round the door and shouts, ‘Shut up and lie down, you scum. The light goes out in five minutes!’

‘I beg you, government lady, let me go home,’ a voice cries out. ‘My son’s alone in the flat. What if he walks onto the balcony and falls over the rails?’

‘You can’t just abduct people in broad daylight and lock them up for no reason,’ another woman says. ‘You’re behaving like gangsters.’

‘I’m not a peasant. I was just having a meal in a restaurant after work. Is that against the law now? Please let me go. Look, I have a train ticket to Guangzhou. It’s leaving in two hours. My uncle will be waiting at the other end to collect me.’ This girl has a fashionable bob and a smart dress and could easily pass for a city dweller were it not for her thick rural accent.

‘It’s strange that they should arrest you — you don’t look like a peasant at all,’ Meili says to the graduate, then scans the room again while the light is still on, breathing the unfamiliar, pungent smells of perfume and unwashed bodies. The graduate looks away, her expression blank. ‘So, when were you arrested?’ Meili asks her.

‘Three days ago,’ she replies. ‘There’s no one in this city who can help me. I warn you, if your family or friends don’t bail you out, you’ll be sent to a labour camp for three months. You must phone someone and ask them to rescue you.’

‘No, I’m a family planning fugitive. If any of my relatives turn up here, they’ll have to confirm my identity, and I’ll be sent back to the village and be forced to pay a huge fine.’

‘To think that we’re illegal residents in our own country!’ the graduate says, sitting up and smoothing her hair back. ‘God, what a stench. This place is a cesspit.’