April 16, 2010 - Glebe Report

BOOKS
Egg on Mao, the story
of a not-so-ordinary man
By JC Sulzenko
Where were you when tanks
moved on Tiananmen Square? I have
to admit that June 4, 1989, was not
as large a defining moment in my
personal history as the assassination
of JFK or 9/11. After reading Glebe
author Denise Chong’s Egg on Mao,
I think it should be.
I admire Chong’s choice to mark
the 20th anniversary of that time
of extraordinary hope and then of
repression by focusing on the defiance
of three young men, who threw
paint-filled eggs at Mao’s portrait at
an entrance to the Square on May 23.
She tells the story from the point of
view of Lu Decheng, the ‘ordinary
man’ in the subtitle. Decheng, a bus
mechanic from Mao’s own Hunan
province, leaped on a train to Beijing
with his friends, not only to show
solidarity with protesters occupying
the Square but, more importantly,
because he believed China and its
power elite had to change. How he
came to this point, committed the act
of vandalism and survived its aftermath
provides the arc of the story.
At the core of the narrative is
Decheng’s own transformation. We
see him growing up, abused by his
father and living in the cast-iron
shadow of a government that insinuates
itself into even the most intimate
aspects of its citizens’ lives.
We watch his emotional and sexual
awakening, and root for him and his
underage, first love, Qiuping, as they
cope with an ‘illegal’ pregnancy and
the birth and death of their infant son.
We cheer him on as commitment to a
better future develops and leads him
to Tiananmen Square. We fear for
him through his betrayal by student
leaders, his trial and imprisonment
and ultimately, his flight to freedom
in the West.
What surprises the reader is how
Decheng evolves inside the fortress
walls. A prisoner, certainly in the
physical sense, he reads to educate
himself, becomes a teacher and gains
strength while defining his own philosophy.
That he overcomes and almost
thrives in a set of circumstances
that deprived another member of the
original trio of his sanity shows that
Lu Decheng is no ordinary man.
What he suffers and how he survives
earn him the preeminent place in the
slice of history served by this book.
As explained in the “Author’s
Note” at the end of Egg on Mao,
Decheng escaped from China and
entered Canada as a refugee in 2006,
where he “took on the life of a democracy
activist in exile.” Now more
or less ‘local,’ Chong was able to
interview him for days-on-end over
an 18-month period. He embraced
her project wholeheartedly.
Before I bought a copy, I listened
to Denise Chong and her editor,
Craig Pyette, discuss how she wrote
the book. This provided an exciting
exposé: the ‘cloak and dagger’ nature
of Chong’s travels in China; the
complexity of finding out what really
happened and safeguarding sources
of intelligence, both human and written;
and the barriers caused by language
and dialect. I suggested to her
that a book about writing Egg on Mao
could be a huge hit in its own right,
much as Kate Grenville‘s Searching
for the Secret River revealed the story
behind her award-winning novel.
In spite of its strengths, Egg on
Mao was disappointing in one particular
respect for this reader: its
structure. The book begins and ends
with the defacement of Mao’s portrait.
In between, however, it ricochets
in time and place between Beijing
and Decheng’s childhood, from
life in prison to the loss of his first
child and often back to the Square.
Even when the book captures an exquisite
moment, such as when Qiuping
professes her love and refuses
to divorce inmate Decheng, the very
next chapter deprives the reader of
any chance to savour this as it jumps
back in time. This pattern of going
back-and-forth felt frustrating and
interfered with my enjoyment of and
investment in both the characters and
the ‘plot.’
Is this book worth reading? Yes,
of course! Lu Decheng’s story as
portrayed in Egg on Mao is an eloquent
paean to individual courage
in the face of repression. We would
each do well to remember what happened
more than 20 years ago in the
“largest public space in the world,”
as The Cutting Edge series so aptly
labeled Tiananmen Square.
Glebe Report April 16, 2010 39
Popcorn and beer,
the Writers Festival in the hood!
Coming to a cinema near you
BY neil wilson
The Ottawa International Writers
Festival prides itself as one of the
most innovative literary celebrations
on the planet. Over its fourteen year
history, it has hosted more than its
fair share of literary luminaries and
prize winners, including two Nobel
laureates. More importantly, the festival
prides itself as a truly community
based initiative with deep roots
in the fertile soil of our great city,
where it continues to be blessed with
dedicated volunteers and world class
writing. So, when the invitation came
from our friends at the Mayfair to set
up shop in one of the oldest surviving
independent movie houses in all
of Canada, ‘‘home of stuff you won’t
see anywhere else,’’ well it was like
Vampire Girl meets Douglas Coupland!
As well as fifty of the finest writers,
the Mayfair will feature a ‘Page
to Screen’ series of movies adapted
from novels by some of the most
adventurous screenwriters including
Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation,
David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch
and Wes Craven’s Serpent and the
Rainbow.
The Writers Festival is really an
extended five course meal over six
days, featuring mostly organic delicacies
of big ideas, global perspectives,
writing for young readers,
Next Sessions Start:
May 10, June 7, July 5
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Nepean: Celebration Park
Gloucester: Walter Meier
Dows Lake
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the writing life, and poetry cabarets
with each day’s menu specially
themed by Canada’s premiere literary
chef, Sean Wilson. Beginning
on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22,
the menu features Sustainable Capitalism.
We clear the table on Tuesday,
April 27 with a menu of Living
History in the Present Tense, with a
very special dessert of Extraordinary
Canadians.
The menus for the weekend and
Monday include Imagining Truth
and Finding Fact, Invention, Investigation
and Authentic Voice, Lost
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Where Are We And How Did We Get
Here?
Needless to say, all diners must
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as far as wine and beer pairings are
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to go with Andrew Potter and Dan
Gardner.
See you at the festival. Pick up a
program at a local bookstore or coffee
shop, at the Mayfair Theatre or go
online at www.writersfestival.org.
O yes, Yann Martel, Scott Turow
and Ayaan Hirsi Ali are just three
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