Beijing Coma (95 page)

‘Let’s hold the opening ceremony straight away. We can’t wait for the stage to arrive. The reporters and guests are all here.’ It was evening now, but Mou Sen’s face was covered in sweat. His long hair looked freshly washed.

‘The factory you commissioned to make the stage is probably too scared to deliver it,’ I said. ‘Let’s just pull some tables over here and make a temporary stage. The martial law troops have already reached the western end of Changan Avenue. Where have you been, by the way? Ge You has been looking for you. He’s got another donation to give you.’

‘Nuwa and I went to a hotel to take a shower,’ he said, raising his eyebrows suggestively, wanting us all to know that he’d just made love to his new bride.

‘You bastard. So, how was it?’ I could smell a scent of soap wafting from his goatee.

‘I tell you, I could die a happy man now! I’m starving! Is there anything to eat?’

I finished painting the words
DEMOCRACY UNIVERSITY
’S
OPENING CEREMONY
on a long white banner, then went off with Tang Guoxian to lug some tables over from the Monument. We wanted to set up the stage at the foot of the Goddess of Democracy, but some provincial students had put up a tent there.

I went inside and asked them to budge. They were drinking and smoking.

‘Move our tent for you? Of course it’s not all right with us!’ they said, then pushed me out as though I was a trespasser.

‘I gave you this tent!’ I shouted. ‘I’m head of security. We want to hold the Democracy University’s opening ceremony here tonight. Can’t you please just shift your tent over to the right a bit?’

‘You think that just because you’re some high official you can push the rest of us around! Go and read up a bit on democracy before you come in here again. You don’t offer us anything to eat or drink. You just expect us to move our tent out of the goodness of our hearts. Well, it’s not going to happen!’ They pushed me out again and zipped up their nylon door.

‘This is too much!’ Mou Sen shouted, having joined me outside their tent. ‘If you want something to eat, go to the Hong Kong students’ provisions stall. They’ve got bread and cartons of soft drink. All I can give you are pamphlets.’

‘You can say what you like, Mr Security Chief. I’m the tent chief, and I tell you, we’re not moving!’

‘You’ll move pretty fast when the martial law troops turn up!’ Tang Guoxian said, squatting down outside the tent’s door. ‘And besides, the Headquarters has asked everyone to leave their tents now and stay on the Monument.’

‘We won’t run away when the army turns up!’ one of the guys inside shouted. ‘We’re here now, and we’re not moving.’

‘Don’t waste your time arguing with them,’ Nuwa said to Mou Sen, rushing over in a fluster. ‘Let’s put the stage up on the east side of the Goddess instead. The reporters keep asking me whether the ceremony’s going ahead or not. I can’t make them wait any longer.’

Xiao Li was setting up the amplifiers and diesel generator. I asked him how his head was, and he said the wound had stopped bleeding and he felt much better. Then he picked up a radio cassette player and said, ‘Look what we’ve just been given! It’s got a double cassette deck, a digital display and an automatic tuner. Even the Voice of America sounds crystal clear on it.’

I’d seen cassette players like that three years before in Guangzhou. Xiao Li had never had a chance to travel. The only places he knew were his home village and Beijing.

‘Here’s the red sash and the scissors for the opening ceremony,’ Tian Yi said, handing them to Nuwa. She was still busy trying to find some last-minute guests to attend the event.

I fetched the banner I’d just made and tied one end to the scaffolding at the base of the Goddess of Democracy and the other to a lamp post.

The recorded announcement came over the government speakers once more: ‘A counter-revolutionary riot has broken out in Beijing tonight. Everyone in the Square must leave immediately. If you fail to leave, the martial law troops will have to remove you by force!’

‘Where’s this counter-revolutionary riot they’re talking about?’ Tian Yi asked, looking up at me.

‘The government has probably given guns to the students and citizens, then taken photographs of them, so they can claim there’s been an armed rebellion,’ I said.

‘Stop trying to frighten me,’ she said.

‘It’s nine o’clock already, and Professor Yan Jia still hasn’t turned up,’ Nuwa said. ‘What are we going to do?’ Her cheeks were red and there was a smudge of black ink at the edge of her mouth.

‘Go and talk to the other guests,’ Tian Yi replied. ‘See if any of them will stand in for him. They only need to say a few words.’

‘Wasn’t Yan Jia the guy who told us that Deng Xiaoping had resigned?’ Xiao Li said. ‘Why has he been made honorary president?’

‘His sources had been mistaken,’ Tian Yi said. ‘It wasn’t his fault. He’s a well-respected political scientist. We’re lucky that he’s agreed to get involved.’

At last everything was ready. The guests and reporters were invited to gather round the stage we’d constructed from the eight tables. The red sash, which we’d tied in the middle in a decorative knot, was lying at the front of the stage, ready to be cut.

Tian Yi stood on a chair and shouted, ‘Please can all the students who’ve enrolled in the Democracy University come and take your places. The opening ceremony is about to start . . .’

A crowd slowly assembled behind the guests and journalists in the large cordoned-off area in front of the stage. The huge Goddess of Democracy towering above us made me feel as though we were making history.

The only student marshals left in the Square belonged to Tang Guoxian’s small security squad. Fortunately, everyone was behaving in an orderly manner. No outsiders attempted to climb over the security cordon.

‘Is Bai Ling coming?’ Tian Yi asked, beads of sweat breaking out on her forehead.

‘Liu Gang’s gone to fetch her. Why? What’s the matter?’

‘I overheard that journalist in the black T-shirt say that soldiers in the western districts have opened fire. He’s photographed the corpses of students and citizens. The army is shooting to kill!’ Tian Yi bit her lower lip. There was terror in her eyes.

‘We’ve got a huge crowd standing here. If panic breaks out and there’s a sudden stampede, people will get trampled to death. We must tell Mou Sen to hurry up and get the ceremony over with. As soon as it’s finished, we’ll move everyone back to the Monument. Most of this crowd are standing on Changan Avenue. The army tanks will be rolling straight down there in a couple of hours . . . Don’t worry, Tian Yi. I’ll look after you.’ I took her hand. It was as cold and clammy as it had been when the thugs found us in the woods of the Summer Palace. There was a damp, scrunched-up tissue in her palm.

‘I want a drink of water. I feel sick.’ She looked up and removed the sunglasses from my face. She hated me wearing them when it was dark.

I ran over to Mou Sen and said that any guests who hadn’t turned up yet were probably trapped behind the roadblocks, so he should stop waiting for them and get on with the ceremony.

Bai Ling hurried over with Old Fu, and said, ‘We’ve just gone through the latest reports we’ve received from the intersections. The army are coming to clear the Square. They’re shooting their way through the city, crashing over the barricades in armoured personnel carriers.’

‘Whatever happens, this ceremony must go ahead!’ Mou Sen said, his eyes blazing with determination.

Yu Jin ran up to us. His clothes were splattered with blood. ‘Look, I picked up this bullet cartridge myself. The soldiers are shooting to kill. They lifted their guns and sprayed the streets with bullets, then tens of bodies dropped to the ground. My racing bike was crushed flat by the wheels of a tank.’

We stared at him in disbelief, and he stared back at me, his eyes wide open.

‘If you see any student marshals, tell them to go to the Monument,’ I said to him. I searched my pockets for my sunglasses, then remembered that Tian Yi had taken them.

Mou Sen walked up to Bai Ling and said, ‘Professor Yan Jia still hasn’t turned up yet. Would you stand in for him and cut our red sash?’ Then he said to Tian Yi, ‘Quickly, make a final announcement calling all those students in the trucks blocking Changan Avenue to come and attend the Democracy University’s opening ceremony.’

Tian Yi stepped onto the stage, gripping a microphone nervously in her hand and said, ‘Please will all the students come to the Democracy University to attend the trucks blocking Changan Avenue.’

‘Oh, that’s too much!’ hissed Mou Sen, annoyed at her slipup. He went over and whispered to her, ‘I said: attend the opening ceremony, not the trucks!’

Tian Yi put the microphone to her lips again and blurted out, ‘I mean, everyone must go to the trucks, not attend them!’

Mou Sen jumped onto the stage and took the microphone from her. I went over and helped Tian Yi down. Her legs were shaking. She looked as though she was about to faint. ‘Give me some water,’ she said, closing her eyes.

Mou Sen lifted the microphone, and in his loudest voice, cried, ‘We don’t want you to go to the trucks. We want everyone to come here and enrol in our University of Democracy. We will defend Tiananmen Square to the end, and continue our campaign of peaceful resistance. I now declare the Democracy University officially open. Can I ask Bai Ling to step up and cut the sash? Come on, Bai Ling!’

Bai Ling straightened her back and stepped up onto the stage, her small breasts shaking as she moved. She wrapped her hands around the scissors Mou Sen was holding, and together they cut through the decorative knot of the red silk sash. As they raised the severed sash into the air, the crowd burst into applause and a thousand camera flashes went off.

Tian Yi had calmed down a little. She squeezed my hand and said, ‘Promise you won’t leave me.’

‘Don’t worry. If the enemy advances, we’ll retreat. We don’t have to throw ourselves onto the machine guns like that patriotic Chinese soldier in the Korean War.’ There were at least 10,000 people crowded around the stage now. Nuwa was standing beside Mou Sen, translating into Chinese the speech a foreign guest was giving. The high-heeled red leather sandals she was wearing made her legs look elegant.

‘And now let our classes begin!’ Mou Sen said, smoothing back his long sweaty hair.

As the crowd roared their applause again, a stern announcement blasted from every government speaker in the Square. ‘We repeat again, the inauguration of the Democracy University has not been approved by the State Education Committee. The instigators must be prepared to take legal responsibility for their actions . . .’ The voice echoed menacingly through the Square, seemingly trying to prove that even the air above us belonged to the Party.

The distant gunfire sounded like a string of firecrackers exploding. I felt as though we were live crabs being tossed inside a scorching wok.

Mou Sen was still delivering his speech. ‘. . . Chairman Mao said that the People’s Liberation Army is a school, but did the State Education Committee approve its inauguration? The Party trains the army to suppress the people. We will train democrats to serve the nation! Tiananmen Square is our lecture hall. The rest of this vast nation is our campus. We don’t need the approval of any bloody education committee to establish our university!’ The crowd laughed approvingly.

‘All right, fellow students,’ Nuwa said. ‘Now I will ask Bai Ling to read out a message of congratulations from the Defend Tiananmen Square Headquarters. Let’s all give her another round of applause!’ She looked like a television presenter as she paced gracefully across the stage. The high heels of her red sandals were causing the skin at the back of her feet to wrinkle.

The longer Bai Ling spoke, the wider her eyes became. ‘Once this period of darkness is over, we will witness the emergence of a democratic republic, and all our efforts will come to fruition . . .’

As soon as Mou Sen stepped off the stage, Yan Jia, the Democracy University’s honorary president, turned up with his wife. Nuwa was so relieved she burst into tears. ‘We sent three people out to look for you. How wonderful that you made it! Once the representatives from the intellectual circles have read out their messages of congratulations, we’d like to invite you to give our first lecture!’

The light from the two spotlights powered by the diesel generator was dazzlingly bright one minute and a dim glow the next. The generator we’d used a couple of days before for the unveiling ceremony of the Goddess of Democracy had been much better.

Although people were frantically rushing across the rest of the Square, the audience in front of the stage listened quietly to Yan Jia’s lecture, breaking into respectful applause from time to time.

Whenever a flash went off, everyone tensed up, mistaking it for a gunshot. I stood at a distance from the crowd and kept an eye on the four corners of the Square, watching for any signs of trouble.

By the time Mou Sen announced that the opening ceremony was over, there were still more than two thousand people crowded around the stage.

I helped Xiao Li remove the spotlights and generator and roll up my banner. The city residents who were reluctant to leave converged in small groups to discuss what they’d heard. ‘So
that’s
what democracy is about,’ one man said. ‘I didn’t realise we’d have to overthrow the Communist Party to achieve it . . .’

‘They stand here and talk about democracy while the army tanks are rolling towards them. They think they can change this country. They’re so naïve. We told them to leave the Square weeks ago, but they wouldn’t listen . . .’