One
After lost the second Sino-British Opium War (1839-1842), Chinese people were called “Sick man of
East Asia” by Japanese. Before long, in 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces , which was also
known as Eight-Nation Alliance, aggressive troops sent by Britain, the United
States, Germany, France, Tsarist Russia, Japan, Italy and Austria-Hungary, came
to China to suppress the anti-imperialist Boxer Uprising and
the siege of diplomatic legations of the Chinese people. After that, they began
to divide concessions in China, since then China thoroughly became
a semi-colonial society. At the gates of the public areas of concessions were inhumanly written “Chinese
with no dogs allowed.” During the period of time Huo Yuanjia founded “Jingwu
Men”-- a martial arts school aimed at Chinese salubrity and patriotism. “Jingwu
Men” gained world renown and he was called a generation master because at that
time for him there was no counterpart over the world. But several months later
the founder of “Jingwu Men”, Huo Yuanjia suddenly died. Hearing the sad news,
his favorite apprentice before his death, Chen Zhen returned to Shanghai from
Japan where he was studying. “Your honor, the defendant still doesn't have an alibi for the night of the murder.”
“Your honor, all of my client’s fellow apprentices have agreed to testify for him” said the defender’s counselor
“Your honor, the witnesses are related to the defendant, their testimony can’t be adopted by the court of law,” said a man in Japanese military police uniform. Behind him were dozens of Japanese military men sitting on the plaintiff looking disdainful and confident.
After a long silence, a court police suddenly came in and whispered in the defender’s attorney ear. All of a sudden a joyous smile appeared on his face. “Your honor, I have another witness.” the defender’s attorney stood up and said solemnly.
“Your honor, the court of law shouldn’t adopt any testimony coming from Chinese people.” said the Japanese prosecutor.
“Your honor, my witness is Japanese.”
Two
The door slowly opened. I followed after the court
police when I suddenly felt panic as I had never been to a place like this.
Stepping into the court of law, the first thing I saw was a huge British flag
hanging above the hall. A white man who was supposed to be the judge was
sitting under the flag. He was about fifty with a strong accent when speaking
Chinese. “A typical British” I guessed. I subconsciously glanced at the whole
court, without surprise I found him sitting in the dock appearing tranquil as
he always was until he saw me. “Identity yourself, miss?”
“Takako, my name is Takako. I am the youngest sister of General Yamamoto, the Japanese army commander of Shanghai.” Hardly had my voice faded away when a ceaselessly whispering between those Japanese military men started.
“Miss, can you testify for Chen Zhen that he was staying in Jingwu Men in the night of murder?” asked the Japanese prosecutor as he looked at me with complex emotions.
“Yes, he was with me that night, and never got a chance to go out.” I responded immediately without hesitation.
“The whole night? Are you sure even after you felt asleep? ”
“Yes, I am sure he was with me the whole night. We’ve been…” Even though I was making excuse for him, but after all, it was the first time for me to speak such a shameful word in front of the public.
“You’ve been doing what? Please say it out aloud, Miss Takako.” asked the Japanese prosecutor aggressively.
After taking a deep breath, I pretended to be a little calm and asked, “You think what else it can be?”
In an instant uproar arose in the court of law mixing with sneering, laughing and condemning, “Silence, silence”, the judge shouted. After a significant eye contact with the Japanese officer, he continued, “I found this case is too ridiculous, I declare that because of lacking evidence, Chen Zhen is acquitted of murder”
Three
I slowly walked up to Chen Zhen,
looking at him up and down.
He hadn’t changed much since the day he left
Tokyo. It is hard to describe him because his facial features were not
prominent, but clearly angular. His cool, resolute temperament made him all the
more remarkable. He had black hair and a pair of black eyes, being tall and
straight. An ordinary Chinese tunic suit wearing in him immediately set off all
over his tight muscles and slender figure. Only the torn skirts and the pieces
of bruises on his face destroyed the aesthetic feeling, which seemed weird in a
funny kind of way. “I’ve thrown off all, you will have to keep my life, huh?” I couldn’t help laughing.
“Absolutely.” He nodded his head without hesitation, holding my hands tightly. I found a touch flashing out in his eyes.
“How can you be here?” he paused.
“Two weeks after you had left Japan, I came to Shanghai and lived in my brother’s in the Japanese concession. Such a serious matter had happened, and you had hidden from me all the time. Don’t you take me as a stranger?”
After a long silence from him, seeing inner of his mind through eyes, I continued firmly, “I trust that you are not a murder, and I guess I know what has really happened.” holding his hand tightly.
“The truth?” Chen Zhen reacted amazedly.
On our way back to Jingwu Men, I began to tell him what had happened. “I was going to find you directly on the day when I arrived in Shanghai. But no sooner had I walked into the Japanese concession I heard Jiechuan, the master of Hongkou dojo, had been killed by you. It was said that he had insulted Jingwu Men at Master Huo’s funeral with a plaque writing “Sick men of East Asia”. And the next day you forced your way to hongkou dojo, fought against Jiechuan and all of his fellow apprentices. It was also said that you had kicked sign saying “Chinese with no dogs allowed” at the gate of a concession into pieces and defeated some of the guards of the Japanese military.
Giving a snort of contempt, Chen Zhen said, “After fighting against Jiechuan, I knew exactly that he wasn’t capable of defeating my master. But all I did was to admonish him for his wrong doings. I didn’t kill him.”
“I know. After I heard that you had been arrested by the police, I went to my brother’s, and I heard something. ” I observed his facial expression with a temporary pause before I continued, “he was arguing with Jiechuan. Even though I couldn’t hear clearly what they were arguing about, but I saw after a while a body rolled up with a filthy rag by one of my brother’s subordinate. I followed him quietly and then saw it was put at the gate of hongkou dojo. There were also some Chinese words written on the rag saying ‘revenge for Master Huo’. So I knew this matter was not simple as it looked like.”
“According to this, I can no doubt reason that Jiechuan must have hidden somewhere or have gone to Japan. The body which had been put at the gate of hongkou dojo must have been somebody else. I have been framed for murder. How vicious Japanese are!” Finishing this, he suddenly looked sharply at me, “Now I can absolutely conclude that my master's death must have been a catch in it somewhere. I will have to discuss with my eldest brother to open the coffin and find out about the truth. ” Chen Zhen mused a while and then remarked firmly.
Four
(Crowds shouts)
“What a slut, and said she was sleeping with our junior brother, Chen Zhen in front of the court of law”
“How dare you are to step into Jingwu Men.”
“How cheeky she was! Are all Japanese women so casually like her?”
I was shocked by the recrimination which made me let go of Chen Zhen’s hand, afraid of Chen Zhen’s being really misunderstood. But he griped my hand back, “Don’t worry. ” he said voicelessly. Chen Zhen then looked at a respected old man and said with hope, “Uncle, could you please find a room for her in here? She has been driven out of the Japanese concession and now she has no place to go.”
“No way! Even though I am only a householder in here, it’s been three generations since our family had been living in Jingwu Men. As long as I am alive, there is no way to let me cook and look after for her! A Japanese woman.” the man whom Chen Zhen called “Uncle” replied categorically.
The scold sounded again, and more loudly than ever after this “uncle” declared himself. Chen Zhen slightly frowned, and continued, “Uncle, and my eldest brother, she has made all her sacrifice for me and even her own brother has disowned her now.”
After a long waiting, his eldest brother looked about the whole crowd and said perplexedly, “we can’t let people think we’ve colluded with Japanese, especially her brother is a general of Japanese army in Shanghai. You can choose either to depart from her, or leave Jingwu Men.”
(Crowds shouts)
“Get them out!”
“Out of our country! You Japanese.”
“You Japanese killed our Master Huo with poison”
Looking at the angry crowds, Chen Zhen fell into silence. They were all his friends and relatives, his brothers and sisters who had been with him all through his childhood and boyhood, the ones he had cared about the most in the world. Holding my hands, he knelt in front of the memorial tablet of his Master Huo. He said, “Master, I can not show my final devotion to you. I can not keep vigil beside your body. But I was born as a man of Jingwu Men and will die as a ghost of Jingwu Men. Now I swear in front of your memorial tablet that I will find out the truth about your death, take the revenge for you, the murderer must pay with his life! ”
Finishing this, he then took down a board “toleration” hanging on the wall of the hall and smashed it with his fist. Looking at the stunned crowds, Chen Zhen said emotionally, “Brothers and sisters, this board ‘toleration’ was written by our master before he died. Now I have broken it, because our Chinese can not tolerate any more. Toleration is that why those Japanese have done evils and insulted us on our own land! From now on I have been driven out of Jingwu Men, no matter what I will do next, it is none of Jingwu Men’s business. I myself will take all the consequences and responsibilities. After revenge for our master, if I can return alive, I will ask you for all my forgiveness and kowtow to our master’s memorial tablet again.” Then he seized me by the hand and left Jingwu Men before everyone reacted.
Five
In an ordinary evening as usual, we were sitting near
the bonfire. Leaning against my head on his shoulder,
“This is fine.” he
suddenly said.
“What?” questioned I.
“I meant it is fine that we live peacefully like
this.” He explained with his arm around me.
“Sure, it is fine. But…can you really put down
everything? And can you really leave your master’s death? There are no places under
the sun we can find to settle down” I said softly but surely.
“It doesn’t need to look for a good place. It isn’t
the best place like here? A hut, a bonfire, and only you and me.” A tender
smile came out on his face, which was hardly seen for a long time. I couldn’t help moving deeply a while, looking at him
in the light of the bonfire. Even if I knew what he said could never happen, I
would like to believe that we could find a place like this someday. I knew, I
knew it all the time that day like this could not last too long. Maybe today
was the time because I saw his eldest brother come to look for him. Chen Zhen, my dear, do whatever you need to do. As
what you always used to say there were so many things that we cannot help
doing. Don’t worry I will live on well and wait for you even though you would
never return.
Afterword
“Chen Zhen my love. I am
sorry, I finally decided to leave.There is something in our
life more important than love;Maybe without me, you will
have no burden to do whatever you have to do.Keep your words, I will wait
for you in Tokyo on the day when Japanese army return.”
-Takako
It was two months since I had been back to Japan. My despair when I departed from him had faded away and my expectation of waiting for him to return to me had gradually disappeared. I went to the same dock where he left Japan that day. Listening to the horns of the steamboats coming and going in and out of the port, I still couldn’t help staring at everyone step out of the boats, hoping that you were the next one. But I knew, you would never come back. I knew it, I knew it was on the day I saw you leave. It seemed like our destiny. I can still remember everything you said. I can’t help hoping the time could stop on that day,
“Chen Zhen, would you return someday?”
“I will return on the day when Japanese army return to Tokyo.”
“But Japanese army is going to Qingdao to fight against Germans”
“Qingdao is our land. Both German and Japanese are invaders. And my master was killed by…”
“It is impossible. Your master couldn’t be killed by Japanese. ” , “Chen Zhen, do you really hate Japanese?”
“I don’t know, Takako, growth in this era, you and I cannot help doing. You …take care of yourself.”
(The end...)
My writing intentions
My rewrite was based
on the Bruce Lee’s movie Fist of
Fury in 1972. The historical background of the movie was that after Chinese
were defeated
by Britain army in the second Sino-British Opium War (1839-1842). After that
China, Qing Dynasty becomes a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. The
difference between “semi-colonial” and “colonial” was that in semi-colonial
society, the colonized country was allowed by the suzerain to keep their own
government. Since then the Qing Government had become a tool for foreign powers.
And a number of humiliation protocols had been signed, which Chinese had endured
the national humiliation for a hundred years by Japan and some other western countries.
Among those, China had been divided into concessions, the existing Qing
government was to help the suzerains rule Chinese people. Chinese were called
“Sick man of East Asia”, they had no right. At the gates of the parks in the concessions,
“Chinese and dogs are not allowed to go in.” was even written. The national conflict became the most intense by the
time of 1900, The Eight-Power Allied Forces which was also known as
Eight-Nation Alliance, aggressive troops sent by Britain, the United States, Germany,
France, Tsarist Russia, Japan, Italy and Austria-Hungary, came to China to suppress
the anti-imperialist Boxer Uprising and the siege of diplomatic
legations of the Chinese people.
The movie described
a character named Chen Zhen, an apprentice of “Jingwu Men” created by his
master Huo Yuanjia. He was sent to Japan to study Japanese Judo by his master. During
the time in the concession of Shaighai in China, “Jingwu Men” aimed at Chinese
salubrity and patriotism. “Jingwu Men” gained world renown and Huo
Yuanjia was called a generation villagemaster because for him there was no
counterpart over the world. But several months later the founder of “Jingwu
Men”, Huo Yuanjia suddenly died. His favorite apprentice, Chen Zhen returned to
Shanghai from Japan. The story started after he returned.
My rewrite changed
Chen Zhen’s girlfriend into Japanese named Takako. In the original movie, Chen
Zhen had been engaged to his youngest sister apprentice before he went to
Japan. But I think if Chen Zhen had a Japanese girlfriend, the content of the
movie might become more interesting and richer. The struggling of Chen Zhen and
Takako whether to choose to be loyal to their personal feelings or devote themselves
to their country was the whole ideology of the rewrite. It might be a good way
to express the national conflict between Japanese and Chinese during that period
of time. And apart from that, I chose to describe the story through Takako’s eyes. The character of Takako
might give the audience another perspective of that period of time. Especially what it had reacted was from her deep
inside of heart by experiencing the same events. Besides, most of the movies described
at that time were based on the hatred of Japanese. But I tried to show people
that there were still a great number of ordinary Japanese people who were
innocent. And I also wanted to show that there would have been a sweet love without
wars even if they had been from a different country. The conflict and wars had happened
between China and Japan, and Britain, or any other western countries. It was some
ambitious politician who had committed crimes, but they could not represent all
of their people. However, the ordinary people had paid for them, physically or psychologically.
Bibliography
Edward Said, E. (1993) Culture and Imperialism. New York: Aldred A.Knopf
Metcalf, M (2011). Imperialism with Chinese characteristics?
Washington, DC. National Intelligence University
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