by Lu Ping 路平
It was like a shock from a thunderbolt — he felt a gold needle bore into his skull. Then a stabbing glare floated itchily above his eye sockets. He shook several times in succession, as though he had wakened from the deepest slumber in his life.
On that day when he floated up from the dark depths to the surface near Lake Michigan’s expansive and misty shoreline, burning lights had also shone on his mottled, phosphorescent corpse. His facial hair drooped like seaweed splitting the sky into several narrow slits. Then again he was buried by the accumulating layers of sediment; and until the light searching here and there again pierced through, he did not know how long … how long … how long it had been since that event had transpired.
Now, through his blurred vision, he sensed human shadows moving back and forth, pushing him into one door after another. It appeared as if the shadowy figures were wearing a kind of uniform. Silently they drifted all around him. Perhaps he was lying down, perhaps sitting up; sometimes he seemed wide awake, and sometimes apparently in dreamland. It did not hurt, nor did it itch. It felt like his insides were being scraped out and then squeezed and pressed. Only after many days did he come to know that they had been repairing and replacing all the organs in his body.
Afterwards, he found himself surrounded by something that appeared to be a radar screen or maybe a large, arc-like video monitor that was divided into many sections with signals flashing all the time. Occasionally, an image would spin weirdly, like several superimposed spheres…. Gradually the human shadows that surrounded him coalesced into solid shapes — white, silent, and expressionless. Once in a while, he pried open his eyelids and caught a glimpse of them. Sometimes he was able to distinguish that, mixed in among the human beings, there were also some robots walking mechanically about.
One morning he tried to open his mouth, making an effort to clear his throat. But what he heard was a few sharp, weak grunts. Only then did he realize how weak he was — he had been lying down the whole day without moving. However, at the same time, he was pleasantly surprised to discover that a little of his hearing had at last been restored.
Slowly he was able enough to get out of bed. One day he rose up in front of the screen. Probably the screen had detected that he was looking at it, for it transformed all of a sudden into a shiny, clean mirror. Aside from the reflection of what was in the room, there stood a strange person in the mirror. (It made him take a step back in fright!) Gradually regaining his senses, he examined himself in the mirror with great curiosity: the thick hair on his forehead, his shining eyeballs, the chest muscles and hair. He could tell that some parts of his body were transplants and some were surgical implants, the latter still brand new and stiff.
He tried to raise his arms; they were heavy and covered with light, shiny blond hair. His palm touched his face. There he discovered something strange: He could feel several lumps on his nose bone. It seemed inharmoniously caved in. He was startled — that sure felt familiar. He continued rubbing his nose, sweat dripping from his fingertips. With his body covered by a stiff and coarse layer of skin, it seemed that only this stubby old nose remained as a link to his original life.
In his mind, except for this moment of insight, all was confused and chaotic. Nevertheless, the Space Era learning process was still able to proceed without any hindrance in his chaotic mind, even in the case of a split subconsciousness. In fact, his learning process had begun very early — that radar-like screen monitoring him all day was also responsible for keeping track of both the rate of his progress and the efficiency of his learning.
For the next several days his progress was quite rapid. (This showed that his intelligence was on the road to recovery.) He was already familiar with the fundamental rules of the Space Era and had progressed to the principles of “Ethics” and “Order”. “Order” in the Space Era, in short, meant nothing other than that labor was divided up according to regions. Thus, the world was no longer demarcated by borders; and concepts like ideology had for a long time ceased to be a problem. Furthermore, the division of labor had to be clear: From the time they were born, people everywhere knew what their work duties were according to the Program. This was simply the principle of “Ethics” that people all over the world had to obey.
Because the learning process was at the peak of its efficiency during the exchange of the subconsciousness and the unconsciousness while a subject was asleep, the florescent screen was never turned off. Undergoing cram courses day and night, he was already able to remember quite clearly the division of labor in each of the regions of the world. For example, the region where he found himself specialized in technology — it was the so-called the “Scientific Region”. Apparently, all of the people there worked on the cutting edge of technology or dedicated themselves to the vanguard of scientific research.
As for himself? He had been picked up by chance and was now also the object of an experiment that aimed at resolving some scientific question. One day when he was stirred from the middle of a dream, his intelligence, which had recently been making rapid progress, had already induced and deduced the following strange story from the continual images on the screen:
The fact was that he had originally been a corpse long forgotten at the bottom of Lake Michigan. At the moment, it was only because outer space exploration had been heavily restricted immediately after the signing of the Cosmos Treaty in the Space Era, and also because ocean oil sampling research had gradually become passe since oil had been replaced by the New Energy, that the study of lake sediments suddenly burst out from obscurity to become the new direction of technological development in the Scientific Region. Thus, it was on account of this that a lake survey team had dredged him up.
The acid water, having permeated his body over many years, had long ago totally rotted away his skin and organs. What was surprising was that, in spite of this, his skull had exhibited a weak reaction to the strong electric shock. Thereupon, a research group had reconstructed him, attempting to simulate his original memory patterns according to what was left in his skull. The most important question for contemporary science was then whether or not this simulated structure would still be able to retain exactly the same memory. His outside appearance and so on not having been the object of the experiment, they went about their business without much care, and that was why his rough form in the end somewhat resembled that of those who had brought him back to life.
“Since his intelligence hasn’t shown any signs of decay, the recovery of his memory should only be a matter of time,” members of the group behind the screen confidently communicated among themselves using headsets after carefully reading his EEG.
They decided once more to increase his rate of stimulation: The screen immediately was split into millions of moving images flying continuously in front of him. All kinds of things on the screen passed through his pupils from every direction. These were only meant to stimulate distinguished recognition responses: One time, when he saw a large betel-nut tree, the corner of his mouth winced a bit; another time when he eyed a potato-shaped island, he unexpectedly cried out, “Ah, ah!” Thus, his responses were all meticulously recorded into the “ERA computer” and immediately sorted and analyzed. The data were again fed back onto the screen. Flying in front of him, by his side, and in his half-real, half-illusory fantasy were stands of reeds, bamboo, papaya, banana, oleander, magnolia … and more and more familiar things. Gradually these things assembled one by one into a half-real, half-illusory image.
“Hey! Wait a minute! Wait a minute!” The face made by a naughty boy in front of the oleander and magnolia made him break out into a smile. Mumbling and wildly waving his arms, he tried to follow that fading image.
The EEG at that moment was just like the one generated by shocking his frontal lobe with the electric probe — particularly when they did it to his sensitive “pleasure center”. Behind the screen, the scientists all stood up and anxiously scrutinized the rapid fluctuations of the EEG curves. However, such an anomaly in the feedback system was enough to make even more images of children appear on the screen. Sometimes there would be the picture of the soft, fine neck hair of a boy, sometimes a flower-like smile. His excitation grew — his fingertips trembled slightly, his eyelids briefly opened, and out rolled several tear drops. The children on the screen kept on playing and shouting. They seemed to be two brothers. Suddenly, beside the two brothers appeared a woman with charming eyes and cheerful smile … the woman had long, slender fingers and slim, white ankles … treading on the patterned floor, she always made a light shuffling sound … ah!
He listened attentively, following the rustle of her skirt, and then, always pretending to lift his head up absentmindedly, he would glance at her, his ears filling with the pitter-patter … ah! It was that pair of delicate, white feet treading lightly upon the floor, busy doing housework, pitter-patter, pitter-patter… Yes, it was after dinner, she was washing dishes … and then? And then he seemed to become drowsy, his vision fading. Again, he heard the shuffle of feet. Then it sounded this time as though something was falling down … ah! It was her underwear. He felt the woman’s tender skin … there was a lingering scent of her hair … ah! It was not arousing, it was just a very familiar sense of warmth, as if he were once again enwrapped in her most familiar, most private deep darkness, as softly and as tightly as before.
Just when the reading of the sensor pointed nearly to the peak of stimulus, the images abruptly stopped, and the lights came on brightly. He discovered that he was lying stark naked on a cold operating table. It was nothing but an experiment, held in a controlled lab with artificial illusions. This was too much, he covered his face and started crying. He felt ashamed and lonely — the pain of being played with, manipulated, and kicked about. And then, amidst this extraordinary fear, his thoughts gradually became clear: He hated those technicians who were always standing around him — they were so attentive and cautious, but they were also so cold and cruel! Were these people human beings or not? Why did they look upon his pain with so little sympathy?
“Human beings are magnanimous, unselfish, devoted, and ethical. We live according to the principle of the division of labor, contribute what we can, and bring our full capabilities into play for the sake of humankind.” He came upon those principles he had learned during his learning process. Yes, he understood that the experiment had already concluded; his contribution to contemporary science had probably ended there. It was determined that his memories could be restored, but only via those most familiar things, since only those things were able to dredge out his deepest pleasures and emotions….
Behind the screen, the specialists had just quickly converted the results of the experiment into digital data and entered them into the ERA Computer. These might be some help to the study of the dehydration, storage, and canning of memories, and also might aid in the refinement of some “pleasure” component of the mind. As to the emotional portion, that had just occurred by accident during the experiment, it was by all means something passe. The ERA Computer immediately took it and put it into the trash file.
Anyway, the experiment was already over! Near him several robots began tearing apart the screen which had been shut down and started putting back the equipment boxes. After a little while, the acrylic lab was going to be shrunk into several mazes — to be used as an arena for the fights between Digital Mouse and Analogue Mouse in the next experiment.
In the dim light, he was alone, still holding his head and sitting there. Yes, he knew that he still remembered…remembered that he once had a happy family, a wife and two lovable boys, and had lived on that island of eternal spring — it seemed to be a shady green yard, a suburban apartment, in the yard at the bottom grew oleander and magnolia…. Yes, he remembered, he remembered, he could certainly recall it! But, once he lost the intense stimulation from the screen, it was as though he was trapped in the midst of a boundless darkness. He only had that one clear clue, like a strand of seaweed on a reef; a lonely star in the dark night, which he groped for as it merged into and out of his jet-black past. That feeling seemed to take him back to the scene of the accident, and his life-or- death struggle in the freezing water.
“What has happened to me?” he desperately mumbled. “What has happened to me? What has caused me to fall from the peak of happiness?” He waved his arms wildly.
It seemed to be the last moment … the last moment when he was still desperately and involuntarily waving his arms.
But what on earth had happened to him?
The lake water had overcome him and had swallowed up his struggling arms.
He vaguely knew that it had been a hijacking. A hijacking! The negotiations had failed, and the hijackers had blown up the plane!
* * *
He sank quickly to the bottom of the lake, for he had never learned swimming.
In the dimness, he knew it had been Middle Eastern terrorists who had done it!
What a shame he had never learned to swim!
At P.E. class in high school, a row of shaven-haired monks lined up by the side of the pool. Slim as the wick of a candle, he stood shivering and shaking at the edge of the water with his toes tightly clawing the slippery edge of the tile. Following the commands, he stretched out his arms horizontally, raised his heels up a bit, and then called out like a frightened kitten, “Sir, I’m scared!” In some circumstances, he was quite comical, a very timid, little person.
Actually, the target of the hijacking was only the American plane and American citizens. He, a stubby-nosed man of the yellow race (and still a little man even for the yellow race), had become involved for no reason.
Little men were always dragged into troubles for no reason. But this time, he was dragged into the vast deep.
Was it his fault that he had never learned how to swim?
* * *
Who were those terrorists? His brother-in-law, Jingguo, probably understood more clearly than he did.
At any rate, they were a gang of religious zealots! That was a chaotic period by all means!
No wonder, Jingguo would always shake his head and sigh.
As a matter of fact, he originally did not want to go on that errand…. Moreover, after finishing the business in Chicago, there was another meeting in New York to attend. It was really too far away for him.
Truly, once he had left Taiwan, his heart immediately lost all its tranquility. He could hardly understand how some people could fly on international airline routes in the air day after day, just like acrobats on the trapeze. He also could not understand why people would buy foreign real estate and take their family overseas. For him, just as soon as he departed from Taiwan, he began to worry that he might never come back.
“Sir, I’m scared!”
He was always a timid and naive person. Nevertheless, how could he possibly know that his corpse would someday sink to the bottom of some foreign lake?
* * *
Originally, he did not even want to go on that errand.
When he was just about to depart from Taoyuan International Airport, his wife tenderly consoled him, telling him not to worry, she and the boys would soon follow him over.
Who would have thought that this separation would last forever?
In fact, his intention was only to stay in U.S. for about two months; then the summer vacation would come, and his wife could bring the boys to join him. And the most important thing was to take the boys to the place they had dreamed of for all their lives — Disneyland!
The elder, who was six, addressed him with bright shining eyes, saying, “Daddy, there Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are the same size as real people!”
“Yes, son, they can even shake your hand, like this….” he said softly, grabbing the boy by the hand.
“Daddy is going to take us to the world’s biggest amusement park!” the four-year-old chimed in naively.
“Listen to your mother, and she’ll take you and your brother over there!” For the sake of their dreams, he gritted his teeth and held back his tears, then turned toward the departure gate and left.
“Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Disneyland! Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Disneyland! Mickey…” the younger kept on shouting as he turned his back.
“Stupid, say good-bye to daddy!” the elder interrupted.
“Good-bye, daddy!”
So long, daddy!…
* * *
He was a good father and a considerate husband. Every day he took Vitamin E for health; he was so satisfied with his small world.
In his small, small world, he was an employee in a government department, not too low on the totem pole, and was more or less a specialist official. He could write fairly well and there was no one who could process documents as well as he could. The job was easy, he could even lean over his desk and take a short nap after lunch. And he always received an “A” in his performance evaluation.
Although the department and section chiefs shifted jobs about as often as if they were on a merry-go-round, his specialized position was secure. On his off time, he would diligently practice Chinese calligraphy. Once, using his brush to absorb the full amount of ink, he wrote down this short maxim, “LONGEVITY IS PROSPERITY” and posted it upon the wall facing his desk in the office. Looking at it made him feel at ease. The scroll also helped remind him to take his pep pills every day.
Whenever he passed through the park in the morning, he would never forget to stop and take several deep breaths….
Was it or wasn’t it? Was it perhaps because he had taken care of himself so well that his skull not only had a greater storage of some rare metals than the average person, but the activity of some chemical compounds therein were much larger than that of other skulls? The research group said this was why he had been able to come back to life after so long a time. Otherwise, today he would still be a corpse at the bottom of Lake Michigan.
LONGEVITY IS PROSPERITY!
* * *
“What do you want to live long for?” Jingguo, his brother-in-law back then, glared disagreeably at him.
His wife had two elder sisters; and whenever the three brothers-in-law got together, they liked to shoot the breeze. Usually it was after supper, the women chatted as they washed dishes while the men would be busy sipping tea in small cups and competing with the din.
The husband of the eldest sister was actually a very honest and conservative fellow, with the only abnormality probably being that he liked to buy dissident gazettes. And when he came across some underground news, he would lower his voice to show off what he had read to his brothers-in-law.
The other brother-in-law, Jingguo, was the most talented and had the broadest vision, and paid much of his attention to politics and current affairs. He would always shake his head pessimistically every time he got through analyzing world affairs and trends, and sigh out that this world was absolutely hopeless!
On the other hand, he, in the eyes of Jingguo, was an ostrich always sticking his head in the sand and quietly building his own happy household. All he cared about was the thin layer of sand under his feet.
Nevertheless, Jingguo’s insight was correct anyway. In this screwed up world, his little castle, the castle which was built on sand, very easily came crashing down in the turmoil created by those terrorists….
Yes, it was a very confused and turbulent period after all!
His small family, his small happiness, and his small hopes were all destroyed in that big bang!
From then on, his small corpse was buried at the bottom of the big lake — along with a small, shattered dream.
PART II
His heart was as hot as fire and his face full of excited tears as he boarded the “Express Rocket”, which was used in the Space Era to connect any two points on the globe. The trip, from launch to landing, would take just fifteen minutes — but fifteen minutes was still too long! Buckled up well in his safety belt, he did not want to linger even an extra second.
Some travel guides suggested taking the “Intercontinental Shuttle” that pierced directly through the earth’s core because one could enjoy viewing the molten magma along the way. But when he found out that the journey would take forty-five minutes, he did not even consider it since it meant wasting another meaningless half hour!
Strange, hundreds of years having gone by, and now being unwilling to hold off for even a few more minutes. He began to laugh at himself for the impatience as he began to hear the roar of the blast-off.
In fact, ever since he had finally pulled together just a few days ago those bits and pieces of the past that had been floating in his memory, returning to his homeland had become his only desire.
…Once I’m home, then everything will be all right … if only I could go home…. He had kept consoling himself over and over again.
From the moment that his memory had recovered, he was no longer able to tolerate those people who had proclaimed the supremacy of technology. They were all a bunch of plain-faced, scientific weirdos. Peering out the rocket window at a passing meteor shower, he contemplated and shook his head.
Besides being indifferent and emotionless, those scientists were essentially quite haughty and chauvinistic — he could tell that they were obviously proud that their own region was at the cutting edge of technology. And, according to their slightly contemptuous description, the other regions of the world were not as highly developed as theirs. For instance, all of the Asian continent had become an exclusive agricultural and mining zone dedicated to producing all the world’s foodstuffs and devoted to galactic mineralogy and metallurgy. Africa was now covered almost completely by hot yellow sand, with only a few oases becoming natural game reserves. Europe had become the Industrial Region specializing in manufacturing, and the Middle East was still a kind of “powder keg”, responsible for carrying out interstellar warfare.
Outside there was another shiny meteor shower flying by. He pulled the shade down, but what flew through his mind was what on earth had happened over those several hundred years. In fact, he had tried to ask that group of scientists, but they had no idea. Moreover, they would unabashedly reply, “No one wants to study history, because no one wants to use it as a lesson.” It is simply because, according to their beliefs, in the Space Era, everyone operates in accordance with the principles of division of labor among regions, and the possibility of something going wrong is zero.
What had happened to the world over these years? Relying on but a few short days’ observation, he could only vaguely guess. It seems as if a critical change had occurred: Taking technology as an example, although there had obviously been much progress compared with that of the past, technology now seemed somehow moribund and dull — nothing like the technology of his day that was so vibrant, diverse, and full of possibilities. Perhaps it was because most of the mysteries in the universe had been uncovered, but in comparison with what he had known, this future world was no longer interesting.
He could not control his disappointment…in this future world, and in those technocrats who highly praised specialization but were actually highly restricted themselves. All he wanted to do was to return home, and then everything would be all right — to return to his birthplace, to that wonderful ocean, to that beautiful island…only then would his anxious heart be still….
Suddenly came a big bang. The rocket began to decelerate from orbit … and then in a wink, it shifted 180 degrees and started straight down. “We are on course for Taiwan Island. The surface temperature is two hundred ninety-seven degrees Kelvin. We will be landing in five minutes and forty seconds…. We hope you have had a pleasant journey,” the pilot warmly and articulately announced over the loudspeaker.
In just five minutes … he shut his eyelids, joy filling his heart. Images of the splendor of Taiwan passed before him, floating like a green leaf on water … ah! That dark blue sea, that sea that turned such a fantastic, beautiful color as it approached the coast. The tropical fish swimming delightfully in the shallow waters…ah! His eyes welled up with tears for these familiar scenes.
Each time he thought of Taiwan, both cheeks would convulse uncontrollably and tears would fall. For days his strong facial expression had astonished those scientists who specialized in human body measurements. But what surprised him was that those stuffy-brained, pedantic scientists had also shown extraordinary interest in his birthplace. According to them, aside from interstellar travel, after skiing by the Bering Sea and surfing in New Guinea, Taiwan was voted the world’s third most favorite vacation paradise. When those scientists discovered that he was about to return to Taiwan, they all eyed him with a little envy. That kind of change in emotion on their expressionless faces was indeed very rare and even a little weird. In any case, seeing that they were so interested in Taiwan — his beloved homeland — made him very proud.
Now it was just three minutes before his return home…home…ah! What a wonderful word! He remembered a few verses from a Tang poem he had once memorized, but not very well, it went something like: “Left home young…”, “Accent unchanged, my hair grays and falls…”, and “The children stare at me but don’t know who I am….”
As he continued stumbling through his recital, his mind took on the reserve of an old man. He tried imagining himself as almost bald, with a thin, white beard…uh! Very old! He unconsciously stroked his chin…but how could he possibly have such a white beard? He was just something that had been rebuilt, a half-blooded hybrid. Aye! Not just the children, not a single person would be able to recognize him now…no one! He was so lonely in this future world….
And what about his family? His most cherished wife and children?
Oh! He did not want to think that they were already very far from him; but at the same time, he could not possibly hope that they would still be alive. No matter what, he was the only one left, somehow miraculously returned to life; and this thought could not help but chill the excitement that had stirred in his heart over the last few minutes….
At that moment there was another bang outside the window. He reluctantly opened his eyes and unintentionally peeked at the rows of seats inside the rocket. It was obvious that most of the passengers had come for pleasure. They were all wearing gaudy-colored clothes — their faces still with concentrated looks, but this time they were concentrating on vacation. Alas, how different he was from them. No one in the world could understand his sadness. He sighed silently, shook his head, and rubbed the tears from his cheeks. Bending down he opened the window shade. Outside they had just pierced through the atmosphere. Fifty seconds later, the rocket landed vertically. They had finally arrived.
Realizing that the rocket had touched down, he could not avoid having a tiny feeling of regret — the steep angle of the vertical descent had cost him a long-anticipated view of the Pacific shoreline. Nevertheless, he did not have much time to think, for he could already hear the din outside. Suppressing his rising emotions, he peered out the window. Jesus! In the square, amid the numerous Express Rockets, were groups of hula-clad teenagers waving small flags; rosy-cheeked children passing out leis; and dozens of beautiful women all clad in traditional Chinese dress and giving out fragrant kisses.
Flowers grew everywhere around the circumference of the landing field, and at a closer look, one could see that this background was actually made up of many quite different smaller gardens: Some were planted completely with tropical ferns, some with northern pines; some were lush green and some in full bloom; some were just like the parks found in the detailed realist paintings of the Victorian Age; and others closely resembled the simple elegance of the Japanese-style drawings. Inside the gardens, flocks of mandarin ducks were playing in the water as cranes strolled about, parrots mimicked passersby, and black swans raised their heads to take a look…. And again, scattered here and there in this Eden-like setting were those small children and beautiful women all wearing their sweet, cheerfully bright, programed smiles as they gazed vacuously at each travel guest….
He looked around with great curiosity following the tourists ahead of him as they stepped onto the “walk”, In a wink he was whisked from the cabin through the Sky Bridge and into the Great Welcome Hall. The Hall was built entirely of Mercury rocks — the solar system’s most up-to-date construction material. These exceedingly shining and reflective stones kept a building warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
In among the irregular-shaped reflections from the rocks, there was huge rotating electronic poster that displayed the island’s most famous, most beautiful, and most unique tourist sights, restaurants, and night clubs featuring new shows every night:
Want to enjoy life, come join our Sundown Dinner Cruise and watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean….
…Need some exhilaration? Catch the Superhydrofoil to the Casinos on the Turtle Island….
…Looking for romance, why not ride a white horse to view the Sea of Clouds from the top of Jade Mountain….
…In love with nature? Take the Giant Turtle to Mt. Ali and visit the Sacred Grove….
…If you’re keen on observing primitive lifestyles, come over to Orchid Island and see the Harvest Festival, the Dwarf Ceremony, the Full Moon Sacrifice, and the Human Skull Rituals….
…Want to construct the future? Have a look at the Space Exhibit, the Light Year Show, the Galactic Display, and the Cosmic Exposition….
…If you came here to eat…well, we suggest you travel to the offshore islands to sample the seafood or to Eight Fairy Cave to taste the game and produce…. Or you can enjoy globefish, shark, king crab, shad, as well as fruit fox, golden chicken, Asian cobra, and spotted deer available daily at our first-class hotels….
…Nightclubs every night provide big bands and big dancing pools/great relaxation and great fun/incredible mystery and incredible surprise….
He was bewildered. In the end, he just closed his eyes and glided in.
The “walk” came to a stop at the scarlet banner of the Great Welcome Hall. He then followed the other rocket passengers and boarded a numbered electric shuttle bus that zoomed straight to the downtown Vacation Inn. On route he did not encounter a single bit of familiar scenery: Above him stretched a roller-coaster ride that extended for miles on end. Below passed one amusement park after another, each especially designed for tourists — there was a rare bird sanctuary, and then a crocodile farm, and then a water garden with dolphin shows, and then a wild animal preserve called “Safari” as well as an self-served fruit garden.
As he gazed at the strange city that gradually emerged before his eyes, an indescribable feeling of fear and nervousness arose in his heart….
Finally, he was sitting in his suite at the hotel. It was full of hanging plants and had a fragrant scent. The bathroom faucets were made of 18-K gold and let flow steaming hot-spring water. His nervous heart suddenly relaxed and he grew tired…. He took a pressure shower, the joints of his arms and legs cracked under the hot steam massage, and the pain began to go away. Later, he tried out all the massagers and vibrators by the bedside and managed to sleep for a short while until nightfall. Then he walked out of that 203-story hotel.
He discovered very soon that all the shops on the street outside the hotel were devoted one hundred percent to tourism — selling nothing but souvenirs made of plastic and acrylic. As he wandered slowly down the street, he gradually became bored; he was not like those curious tourists. Yet the funny thing was in this great big city he could not find even a single item that was not a souvenir.
He strolled lazily. The whole street was filled with the sound of rock ‘n roll music. Growing tired of gaping at the waves of tourists, he passed a flower clock: it was almost 9 p.m., no wonder it was dark. He turned and quickly went back.
Just at that moment the flower clock chimed the hour. There was a huge explosion, and the sky filled with millions of bright stars — actually it was all kinds of wonderful fireworks. Accompanied by splendid symphonic music, multicolored smoke slowly ascended, turning into a magnificent design in the sky. As the orchestra played, masked paraders pranced about in colorful attire — some funny, some handsome, some strange, some magical, and some, in his eye, outright ridiculous. In among this continuously passing troop, he unexpectedly caught a glimpse of Mickey Mouse with his two large, rounded ears and fixed smile, and also Donald Duck wearing a small blue hat and with his erect tail. Suddenly his heart acted as though it were stabbed by something and began to sting uncontrollably.
* * *
Over the next few days, he walked about like a madman in this amusement-park city so neat and spotlessly clean, without even an unpleasant sound.
Tourists roamed about everywhere, all concentrating on amusing themselves. Among these strange people, he could not find anyone who could remind he about the past, nor could he find anything that would prove that he had ever lived in this city.
In this entirely foreign setting, he could not help but remember the 1980s — a bustling, dirty, overcrowded, noisy, decaying, and chaotic period. However, in the chaos there was some kind of order, in the crowdedness a certain camaraderie…. But now — where were those hard-working people in that pathological prosperity? Those naive little country bumpkins like himself? Those people who always appeared to be so anxious and unstable under the neon lights? And those people who never stopped telling white lies, never quit pursuing small returns, but yet were always so diligent and respectful?
At times, he just wanted to rip the masks off those Mickeys, Donalds, Goofys and Snow Whites, and then have them answer these questions!
Several days later, he completely abandoned his pursuit of what was no longer there. Searching for his lost past was hopeless in this amusement-park setting. Nevertheless, he consoled himself thinking that a city’s appearance is bound to change — if he could only get out of this city, he would certainly rediscover the home that he dreamed of.
As he reflected about the large betel-nut tree by the field, the rustling sound of wind passing through the bamboo grove, the wind-blown rice stalks waving in the moonlight, the egret shaking its wings on the back of a water buffalo … the sulkiness in his heart from the last few days immediately dissipated. Moreover, he remembered that what he liked to do best when he was small was to lie down on the rocks and listen to the babbling sound of water running through the field. His heart nearly sang out with happiness….
…Ah … even if he had to live in the city to study and get a job after he grew up, his roots still were planted firmly in the south Taiwan countryside.
* * *
He took a tour SCC (Superconducting Cable Car) and exited from the city. As soon as the magnetic clutch was engaged, the SCC whisked its way forward, the whole north-south freeway looking just like a wide fan belt. The driver of the SCC did not have to sit up front to steer, and thus was also able to act as a tour guide, continuously describing in a comical voice the entertainment spots along the freeway….
He could not comprehend that the amusement park extended all the way along the freeway, the area just becoming wider, and the scale even larger. Among the rides were intermixed verdant golf courses, horse runs, archery ranges, tiger hunting grounds, fishing ponds, whale and shark hunting lagoons, and so on — each offering entertaining and exciting facilities for young people. Besides these, around all the island were boundless white sand beaches and reefs where you could dive for coral, observe the underwater scenery, and spear-hunt fish.
Then he discovered things he could not believe: what originally had been a mine had been converted into a “ghost cave” for people to explore, forests had been transformed into places for climbing and skiing, or into rows of “honeymoon cabins”. Produce was no longer cultivated along the freeway — there were just a few rice paddies and rows of sugar cane here and there, used only as displays to show those curious tourists how their ancestors cultivated food.
Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought that, from north to south, the whole island could be turned into something for and only for the tourists, it was nothing but one giant amusement park!
In the face of this incredible park, his nostalgic mood gradually vanished. It seemed that he had entered a weird and absurd dream, completely lost in a thoroughly unfamiliar land.
Dispirited, he took a seat in the sleeping section of the SCC. Not far outside, the blue-green ocean embraced a crystal-clear river, the freshest ocean air blew over his face…ah! The amusement park was amazingly clean, neat, quiet — the pollution and din of the past completely gone. He could not even find any of the trash that would usually have littered the roads in those days.
Everything, indeed, had changed! He curled himself up in the bed and lethargically contemplated: Yes, long ago he used to sit in the southbound train heading home and gaze at the lush, green fields, wherein the stinking, murky rivers flowed toward the broad bay at sunset….
Yes, in those last few years…even an ostrich like himself had gleaned from the papers that too much chemical and pesticidal waste was buried under the land of his roots — not to mention the heavy metals, toxic compounds, and radioactive that flowed into the rivers and out to the sea.
In particular, the coastal villages suffered from cadmium waste, southern towns endured dioxin pollution, and victims of PCBs proliferated in the west…. In addition, there was contamination of milk and cooking oil, smog, acid rain, dust, and noise pollution…. Most people of that time — even ostriches like himself — had to admit that they were indeed living in the midst of a terribly catastrophic nightmare.
…But what was even more horrible was the nightmare before him…he now awoke! Although the filth and pollution of his era had disappeared, what remained before his eyes was an indifferent, boring Eden-like Disneyland! Could it have been that this was a case of “when something reaches at extremity, it then turns to the other side?”, an effort made to save the environment? Or was it just that pollution in those years had really reached the critical point, and this was a phoenix risen from the ashes, a totally artificial paradise?
Back then he remembered being shoved into a bus that restlessly exhaled fumes. Outside, the land was gray, the air thick with the burnt ash of waste dispersed by the wind. He glanced back upon the crowded city and knew that on the sixty-meter-high garbage mountain, a firework festival was now being held….
He leaned back in the SCC sadly reflecting….
Ah! He recalled those evenings long ago…standing by an open ditch in front of his apartment and staring at the stinky, black water coming from who knows where, he would turn his head and gaze at his wife sweatily working in the chicken not far away. In his heart, he was secretly worried. But he was, just then, only secretly worried!
…And after browsing through the newspapers and reading stories about a filthy world full of crime, extortion, and other fin-de-siecle, shortsighted behaviors, his attention would turn to his sons who were building a castle with Lincoln logs. He, as their father, felt sorry for them and troubled about their future…. Little did they know how easily their Lincoln log castle could collapse in that tumultuous world!
Yet as a father in those days how could he have ever foreseen all what would happen?… Even though the island was full of politicians shouting and arguing through loudspeakers, hardly anyone really paid attention to the prosperity of future generations!
Well, was it or wasn’t it? He reflected very hard. Was this amusement-park-like setting right before his eyes just a manifestation of an extreme want of ideals, the end of commercialization. Or was it perhaps a world-wide trend. He knew no one here could tell him the answer, no one could say what on earth had happened during this long period, or how the chaos of that era had ended up with this superamusement park. He closed his eyelids and wiped off a few tears from the corners of his eyes. He was no longer willing to pursue the answer.
On the other hand, it might have been fortunate that Taiwan had become a splendid amusement park….
At the SCC terminal he tapped the tour guide on the shoulder, shook his hand, and with some sorrow bid him farewell. Looking at the colorful sunset, he stepped out of the car and headed along the road toward the beautiful, yet melancholy Taiwan sunset.
As the sun descended, he crossed a bridge under which flowed a turbulent stream. Suddenly a sorrowful Taiwanese folk song called “Reminiscing” flew to his head….
Reminiscing… Reminiscing…
As the Winter passes, the Spring returns to the land.
Beautiful flowers bloom everywhere….
If we don’t think of the future, we are destined to lose our past, he thought. If we don’t look out for our descendants, we are doomed to end up abandoning the heritage of our hard-working ancestors. This made him vaguely recall another line, this time from the “Comprehensive History of Taiwan” he had read while in high school, “Taiwan has never had a recorded history….”
PART III
Hair scattered, beard unshaven and clothes ragged, he wandered the whole year over the mountains and waters. He himself had also become part of the Taiwan scenery.
One day on a cliff, he accidentally stumbled upon a stone monument engraved with the following:
THE ISLAND OF TAIWAN WAS PURCHASED BY
WALT DISNEY INTERNATIONAL, INC.,
IN THE YEAR -10 S.E. (2075 A.D.)
At that moment he recalled his sons’ dreams so many years ago — about Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse and Disneyland. Unconsciously, he began to hum that trademark song of the Disney empire:
It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears;
It’s a world of hopes, and a world of fears.
There’s so much that we share;
That it’s time we’re aware.
It’s a small world after all….
Yes! Who could deny that this future world was so small and so beautiful?…
He kept on humming that familiar melody, a slight, subtle smile appearing on his face. Turning toward the magnificent and sublime Pacific Ocean, he leaped off the cliff!
