Yan Lianke - Lenin's Kisses

Chief Liu said, “It’s not a good idea to buy my portrait to hang on your wall, and you would be better off buying pictures of the elderly or of the demon chaser Zhong Kui.”

The person replied, “We’ve been hanging pictures of the elderly and Zhong Kui at home for several generations, but they never granted us a good life. Only you, Chief Liu, have made it such that our good life is just around the corner.”

Hearing this, Chief Liu felt a warm, livening glow surge from the center of his being. He was grateful for Secretary Shi’s preparations and felt that, after so many heartbreaking calamities, to have these thousands of people bowing and kowtowing to him was enough. He knew he should be content. And it was worth it. A red blush covered his face as he slowly walked out of the crowd and toward the front of the street. When he was almost at the county government and committee building, he suddenly felt that this stretch of road was actually very short. He regretted having walked so quickly, and that he hadn’t extended this road to make it eight to ten li long, like Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue.

Fortunately, however, in front of the county government and committee building there wasn’t a square but rather a wide street. People were already standing there in a dense crowd, all reverentially holding portraits of Chief Liu rolled up and tied with red string — as though they were bundles of incense sticks. It was as if they were gathered there awaiting his arrival. They were standing on their tiptoes, their heads craned and their gazes fixed intently on him, as though they had been waiting for him for a hundred, or even a thousand, years. Now that he was finally there, they all looked grateful and livened, happy and blissful. They waited for him to approach, and when he arrived at the gate to the county committee and government building, several dozen fifty-something-year-old people from the city and the countryside suddenly bowed down to him in the middle of the street, kowtowing to him in unison, and shouting the same phrases:

“Thank you, Chief Liu! Thank you for granting us this heavenly fortune. . . ”

“May Chief Liu enjoy long life, may he live for a hundred, or even a thousand, years. . . ”

“Chief Liu, the people of Shuanghuai all kowtow to you in gratitude. . . ”

The people shouted these greetings loudly and in unison. Suddenly, the thousands of people assembled there all kowtowed together, as if on command. All of the heads, be they black or colorful, bent down like grain blown by the wind. Everyone lifted their heads, and then bowed them again. The entire world became silent during this process, so much so that the sound of people breathing was louder than the wind. Much louder, and as solemn as when, in the past, the emperor would visit Shuanghuai and stand in front of the county’s tens of thousands of residents. The sky was clear, the sun was blazing, and people could even hear the sound of clouds moving across the sky.

At this point, Chief Liu heard the sound of someone’s forehead striking the asphalt, like a wooden mallet striking the surface of a drum, and tears immediately began streaming from his eyes. He wanted to go over and lift up several of the old people in the front of the crowd, but at the same time he wanted them to finish their three resounding kowtows, to let them finish expressing their gratitude. He knew that whenever people kowtowed, they did so three times, and that only then could they be said to have successfully completed the ritual.

As he was hesitating, and as the thousands of residents were all kowtowing to him, Chief Liu glimpsed over the bowed heads of the populace the county cadres standing in the doorway of the government building. There was also the deputy county chief, who had been responsible for going to purchase Lenin’s corpse but had returned empty-handed, together with Secretary Shi, who had worked with Chief Liu for many years but who the previous night had accompanied Chief Liu’s wife back to her and Chief Liu’s house.

All of the cadres had baffled expressions, and only Secretary Shi had a knowing grin. Chief Liu wiped away his tears and walked over to them.

“Let’s convene a meeting,” he said softly to Secretary Shi. Then he added by way of explanation to the confused-looking deputy county chief’s secretary, “Have the standing committee members come to the meeting room. We are going to convene a standing committee meeting.”

Having said this, he looked back at the thousands of people in the street. He saw that these Shuanghuai residents, after having kowtowed three times, were all still kneeling there and had not yet gotten to their feet. It was like when, in the past, they did not dare stand up until the emperor had spoken.

Chief Liu took a step toward the door. He stood in the meter-high flower bed at the entrance, but because it was winter the basin didn’t have any flowers, and the soil inside had been trampled flat by children who climbed it to play. Standing on the edge of that flower bed, Chief Liu gazed ahead along the rows of heads in front of him, and saw that behind the crowd there were thousands of peasants who had come in from all the villages and towns surrounding the county seat. They were all carrying rolled-up portraits of Chief Liu, like so many bundles of incense sticks. Because there were too many people, they could not come closer to Chief Liu, and instead they started kneeling down there in the street, one after another. It was as if they were lined up to the end of the earth.

Chief Liu knew that the reason everyone was kneeling before him was that they were afraid of blocking the view of the people behind them, which is why they knelt for so long, so as to allow the people who had arrived late to catch a glimpse of Chief Liu. After the latter had seen him, they too would kneel down and kowtow three times.

As these crowds of people surged into the county from the surrounding countryside, and to the street in front of the government building, they stood a li or half a li away, gazing up at Chief Liu. Then, they too knelt down and began kowtowing.

By midday, as the sun began moving west, there was already a sea of people gathered in front of the building, appearing to fill the entire city — and even the entire world — with their kneeling bodies. At this point, Chief Liu smiled silently, as tears of livening streamed down his face and onto the ground.

Further Reading:

1) Fondness.DIAL. Preference, or excessive love.

The people gathered outside the main courtyard were still kneeling when Chief Liu proceeded to the office of the county committee to convene his final standing committee meeting as county chief.

He said, “Regardless of what you may say, I’ve already decided to move to Liven. From this point on, I will be a resident of Liven. Of course, there is a condition for settling down in Liven, which is that you can’t be an able-bodied wholer. If you are a wholer, you can’t become a resident of Liven.”

Chief Liu said, “Now, please agree to permit Liven to withdraw from society — so that from this point forward the village will no longer fall under the jurisdiction of either Shuanghuai county or Boshuzi township. Everyone who agrees, please raise your hand.”

There was a long silence in the room. Apart from Chief Liu, no one raised a hand.

Seeing that no one other than himself was raising a hand, Chief Liu put his own hand down and then said, “How about this — how about everyone who doesn’t agree to let Liven withdraw from society please raise your hand in my presence.”