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 ‘‘Be a Revolutionary Peasant!’’ My wish to escape the village did not come to pass quickly, but I soon learned to ease the harsh labor and to make my existence in the village more tolerable. For this I owe infinite gratitude to Smoking Devil, who had emerged as the spiritual leader of our group and had taught us various ways to live and work at a leisurely pace like those ‘‘revolutionary’’ peasants. ‘‘The Great Leader sent us here to learn from revolutionary peasants, and we must follow His Excellency’s words to the letter,’’ Smoking Devil told us one morning when we arrived at our allotted field. This was in late spring, after we had abandoned building the terraced field and had begun the spring planting. Pointing to the peasants who were lying in the bean field and gossiping about women, sage Smoking Devil said: ‘‘Look at the real peasants and listen to them. To be a true revolutionary peasant, we must learn to talk like them, dress like them, smoke like them, and work like them!’’ We all laughed. Uncle Cricket would have appreciated his pep talk and surely would have missed the sarcastic double -talk that brought smiles to our faces. True to his words, Smoking Devil led the way in ‘‘the revolution to become real peasants.’’ The day after the pep talk, he went to the field in a pair of homemade large-crotched pants, which he had acquired from a peasant by trading his khaki pants. Like a peasant, he wore them without underwear. ‘‘They’re the most sanitary and economical pants under the circumstances,’’ he said, showing off a large crotch wide enough to hide a pig. ‘‘When you are washed only twice in your life—the time you are born and the time you are buried—you’ve got to wear this to keep yourself clean. With no underwear you leave no place for lice and fleas to hide, and the large crotch gives you good ventilation in hot weather. Besides, you save money. There is no need for underwear.’’ He was a good salesman. The next day, Water Buffalo, Green Olive, and Heart Attack all showed up with black large-crotched pants, complete with  earth chalky lines of sweat around the waist. I too acquired a pair from a peasant , but I did not like the smell of them. I wore them nevertheless, for by wearing the peasant attire I blended in well with other peasants when we slept in the field and Uncle Cricket could not single me out from a distance. ‘‘The next thing to learn,’’ lectured Professor Smoking Devil a few days later, ‘‘is to smoke hemp like the peasants.’’ Purple-stemmed hemp was the major cash crop of the Third Production Team. Besides firewood and cooking oil, it provided the only recreation for everybody in the village . Men, women, and children all smoked it with water pipes. ‘‘Shaanbei hemp is the best in the world,’’ Smoking Devil declared. ‘‘It is the most potent marijuana there is—so powerful that it can knock your pants off and let you see the Devil himself. But if you smoke it with a water pipe, as the peasants do, it is a smooth, easy smoke. With just one drag, you feel like sleeping in the South China Sea with the goddess Guanyin herself.’’ Over the course of the next few weeks, every Beijing Kid got himself a water pipe. Even Mirror Wang and I, who did not smoke, got pipes for ourselves, to show solidarity with our smoking comrades . Seeing us with water pipes, other peasants began to treat us as their own and always warned us when Uncle Cricket approached our field. ‘‘But the most important thing is, you are not a true revolutionary peasant if you do not work like a revolutionary peasant,’’ Professor Smoking Devil taught us again one day. ‘‘Work is not just work; it is an art. You must learn to appreciate the artistry of work. Just watch how the revolutionary peasants work and follow their example.’’ Every Beijing Kid, I especially, was immensely grateful for this insightful teaching. We watched the peasants in the field and followed suit. We got up as usual when Uncle Cricket roused us before dawn, and were in the field while it was still dark. But as soon as Uncle Cricket headed back to village for meetings, we all lay down in the field and slept till the sun warmed our...

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