# Elegy of Sweet Potatoes 18. A Crazy Fellow The two inquisitors took turns to go to the toilet but did not bother to invite Youde to go along. They appeared angry. Youde did not need to go, in any case, it was as if all his waste matter had been wrung out like body oil. The two also took out cigarettes and smoked without offering Youde any. On his part, Youde did not beg for one either, not out of stubbornness but because he sensed that by begging for a single cigarette, a corner of his psychological defense levee could start to crumble. Switching directions, Wang said, "O.K. Let's hear about Cheng Wen-bang." Anybody who had known Wen-bang could not possibly speak of him without shedding tears. It was no overstatement to say that Wen-bang was the world's most honorable and most innocent soul who had ever lived, who seemed to not realize that evil exists in this world. He was born the first son of the wealthiest family of Putzu. Unlike Youde and the others, he went to the school reserved for the Japanese children. His parents showered him with everything under the sun. They subscribed for him directly from Japan the pictorials 'Children's Club,' 'Youth Club,' etc. He also wore leather shoes even when he was just a young child, quite different from the public school kids who attended school barefoot. The image of Wen-bang riding around in his own child-sized bicycle was no less than a symbol of royalty. Yet he never prided himself on being a rich kid even when he was little. His books were lent out to whoever wanted to read them and his bicycle shared with whoever who Stories of Taiwan's White Terror W wished to ride. As he grew older, Wen-bang resembled a royal even more, what with a great build and fine facial features classier than a movie star's. And such a person perished at the execution yard at just age twenty! All because he was introduced to Marxism in the economics class at the university. Flipping though Youde's statement, Wang remarked, "You did not write very much about Wen-bang." It was true that Youde only wrote about Wen-bang in connection with the Student Friendship Association. "What do you think of Wen-bang?" "It's a pity." Youde let his true feelings slip. "Why is that so?" "The fellow was an utterly despicable Communist. What's there to be sorry about?" "He was a rebel, you know. He was our enemy, everybody's enemy. Why are you sympathetic?" The two inquisitors pressed on. How Youde wanted to scream: "I don't think so! The truth is he was a pristine flower amidst the muddy field!" But this would be suicidal. On the other hand, for him to concur with 'You are right about him' was absolutely out of the question. It would have been blasphemy. Youde replied, "1 meant it's a pity that he did not join the Kuomintang Party instead. He would have gone far." T'ien put down his pen and offered, " I witnessed the fellow's interrogation in Taipei. It was crazy. Imagine! He sang the praise 76 77 Elegy of Sweet Potatoes of Communism right in front of us and tried to enlighten us on Communism. Not only did he show no remorsem, he acted like he felt sorry for our ignorance. I felt like slapping him." "But he did admit to everything, didn't he?" Wang asked. "He did. He admitted to all, straightforwardly His interrogation was the shortest." T'ien faced Youde anew and said sarcastically, "How about it? How about being a man like Wen-bang and admitting what you have done." Maybe Wen-bang was but a 'crazy guy' to them but they couldn't help but recognize his manliness! T'ien cut in sharply, "Seeing that he even tried to sell Communism to us, he must have tried to persuade his friends. Now, lets have the place, the time and what transpired." To a certain degree Tien was right. Wen-bang talked about Marx and Engles constantly but he never forced it on anybody. The Wen-bang Youde knew was a serious young man who got along well with others, who was a sympathizer of Communist ideology but was not a Party member. It was likely that he remained so until Shui-ching got to him. He was the one person who should have been left alone in this turbulent world. Youde allowed that he knew Wen-bang was sympathetic to Communism and that they had talked about it from time to time, but insisted that Youde himself had always argued against it. Alas. The answer only invited further trouble. Now Wang wanted to know when and what was discussed and how Youde had refuted the Communist ideology. Even if time and place could be fixed in some degree, to recreate the conversation was not so 78 Stories of Taiwan's White Terror easy First of all, 'refutation' was not exactly the accurate term to describe Youde's role because most of the time he just listened. "I can't remember too well." The answer did not fare well. Youde almost wished that he had studied more about Marx. Finding no other way out, Youde had to make up his own Marxism and then offered its refutation in a one-man show. If Marx were listening he would surely have rolled his eyes. 19. About Books General Hu and Gl-cut Chen entered the room. Wang glanced at his watch and rose from his seat. T'ien said, "Is everything you have said so far all true?" "Yes, all true." T'ien penned in the last two lines and pushed the investigation report over to Youde. T'ien took out the ink paste and instructed Youde to sign his name then press his thumb print at the side of the last line of the report. The report numbered about ten pages. There was no time to even scan through it. Youde picked out the part about Mao's collective work and insisted that Li Shui-ching never showed him the book. After a brief argument, T'ien reluctantly added small circles over the three characters, 'Mao-wen-chi.' Youde felt some unease at this as he himself would have drawn two vertical lines over the words instead. But in any event Youde was relieved that the words were scratched. He signed his name and put his thumb print on 79 Elegy of Sweet Potatoes the document. General Hu signaled Gl-cut Chen with his eyes to take Youde out to the toilet. Youde sat on the toilet seat unable to move his bowels. Constipation perhaps. Only a pitiful trickle of urine came out which turned the water in the toilet bowl the color of reddish brown. This was Youde's last memory of using the facility there. For this round General Hu did the questioning and Gl-cut Chen took notes. General Hu had a cold expression on his face, quite different from the General Hu around the mahjong table. He started off with 'Mao-wen-chi.' It seemed that instead of deleting the words, those small circles had the opposite effect of attracting attention. "It seems that you first mentioned 'Mao-wen-chi' then later recanted." "No. That's not what I remember. My answer was slow in coming because I was not sure what 'Mao-wen-chi' was." "I don't think so. You were hesitating between admitting and d en yin g. Weren't you ?" "The truth is that because the book title 'Mao-wen-chi' was said in unfamiliar mandarin Chinese that I did not comprehend it at first." "Unfamiliar? Not a likely story. Everybody knows the book." "Must be because I had nothing to do with it that I just did not get it right away." "But you had the book in your house." General Hu said with confidence. Youde immediately denied it. "Think carefully. You need to remember who gave you the 80 Stories of Taiwan's White Terror book or who lent you the book as the case may be." As hard as he searched his memory Youde did not come up with the image of the book in his house. "Listen. It's karma that you and I were acquainted. Isn't there a saying, 'To be acquainted imparts sympathy'? I will not be unreasonable with you. But if you keep denying it, it's a different matter." Gl-cut Chen interjected, "General Hu is listening to you with a lot of courtesy since he has known you for a while. He is trying to make it as favorable to you as he can. I won't give you bad advice, but you should admit your doing quickly and go home sooner rather than later. Save us both some trouble!" "1 don't remember anything about the book." Hu stood up and said, "All right. In that case, tell us about the books you had at home at the time." What an awkward turn of events! But Youde had no choice but to comply. Just when Youde opened his mouth Hu gestured irritatingly, "Write. Write them down," then added, "Write down the authors too." Youde started with Natsume Soseki's 'Young Boy' followed by the books by Japanese authors he could remember and ended the Japanese section with the poetry by Takuboku. It was easier to catagorize them by nationality. Next, he listed the Russian works, from Dostoevsky to Chekhov. General Hu, who had been pacing the room, approached the desk and scanned the list. It appeared he did not know any of the titles. Youde sensed General Hu's mounting irritation. "Enough of those. It's no use to keep writing about books of 81 Elegy of Sweet Potatoes " A plainly Communist book, not one easily forgotten." "Was there such a book?" Youde pondered to no avail. General Hu prompted again with irritation. Youde was not able to say anything. "It's obvious, he is not going to lay it all out," Gl-cut muttered. Hu said, "All right. Let me give you a hint. Its title starts with the character 'wei' and ends with the character 'pen.'" no consequences. List the Chinese books first." Youde listed: 'History of Eastern Chou,' 'General History of China,' 'Story of Ah Q,' 'New Treatise on the Three People's Principles' ... Gl-cut who had been quiet sputtered, "Doing it again! Avoiding the serious and touching upon the insignificant. Do you take us for fools?" General Hu walked over and patted Youde's shoulders from behind and said, "You are to write down the leftist books, Chinese or Japanese. It's not that any given book is of particular importance but that we just want to test your truthfulness." Youde included Fujiwara Korehito's 'Treatise on Art' even though it wasn't a leftist book. He included several books by Chinese authors that he had burned- all read before they were banned. They were banned not necessarily because the contents were left wing, but rather because the authors had later turned Communists. These were innocent books. Nevertheless, out of caution, Youde burned them. General Hu returned to his seat then asked, "You are forgetting an important book, are you not?" Stories of Taiwan's White Terror "Oh, yes. I remember now. It's A Reader in Materialist Dialectics' in Japanese." "That's right. Why didn't you say so honestly in the first place?" "That was not my book. It was borrowed from the library. I thought I was to list the books I own so I was concentrating on my bookcase." Youde fumed: One can't possibly remember all the books he had borrowed from the library. Besides, how can one be criminally liable by reading books from the library! The book in question was but a basic reader and was not pertinent to Communism, but they seemed to equate Communism with materialism. With a cynical grin, General Hu said, "The fact was the book was in your bookcase, together with the rest of the Communist books. Now, come clean with the rest of them." Now Youde had to list the books he had checked out from the library that were considered left wing. The Normal University had inherited the former Taipei High School including its library, which had fortunately escaped war damage. The books in the library were 80% Japanese. Since the Japanese authorities also exercised rather strict thought control, there were no outright leftist books in the library - Kawakami Hajime's 'The Story of Poverty' was about the limit. Youde included The Story of Poverty' and a few proletarian books then put down his pen. Hu and Gl-cut knew about Kobayashi Takiji's 'Crab Boat'; maybe there was a Chinese translation of it. Gl-cut was pleased to find the title and promptly entered it into the record. They dwelled on 'A Reader in Materialist Dialectics': about 82 83 #) Elegy of Sweet Potatoes Stories of Taiwan's White Terror