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Bitter Cane
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Bitter Cane Genny Lim 164 CAST OF CHARACTERS Lau Hing Juo, the ghost of a middle-aged cane cutter Li-Tai, a prostitute in her mid-thirties Kam Su, a cane cutter in his early thirties Wing Chung Kuo, the sixteen-year-old son of Lau Hing Fook Ming, a middle-aged Chinese luna (foreman) [3.89.116.152] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 18:22 GMT) Scene One (China. A bare stage. WING is packing to leave for America. There are several tightly wrapped cloth bundles on the floor, ready to go.) Voiceover of HIS OLD MOTHER: Listen well, young man, and understand . You are my blood, my color, the offshoot and stem of my bones. There is no place on this earth where you can walk without shadow. The rain will pelt your shoulders like stones. The burning sun shall torment your flesh. Life is difficult and short. But the gods have given us laughter and song to forget our troubles. You must remember, my only son, never to dishonor yourself. Do not be idle, do not wander aimlessly, without destination. Do not throw dust upon the gods' faces. Do not spill black ink on the ancestral graves. You have been formed, shaped like a thorn from my womb. You grow like the wound in my soul. Now it is up to you, my son. Do not kill me with shame as did your father. Will you break the cycle of pain or will you pursue another grievous lifetime? Beware of tigers everywhere. Snakes lie among the leaves like snares. The sun and wind carry the seeds of memory. Do not forget my words. They are all I have to leave you. (Enter a funeral procession in a Chinese village during the mid1800s . The drone oftantric Buddhist chants mingled with the weeping and wailing ofwomen fill the air. White-robed mourners march across the stage bearing a litter with the shrouded body, paper effigies, and palace, symbolizing wealth and status in the afterlife. The objects are lowered to the ground in a funeral pyre. WING approaches and halts apart from the rest. He presses his hands in prayer and bows three times. The mourners turn together and watch him in silence. WING takes up his bundles and exits. Blackout.) Scene Two (Storm over Oahu. Kahuku sugarcane plantation. A weary, middle-aged Chinese traveler, wearing white and a coolie hat, 165 GENNY LIM enters carrying a wrapped bundle. His movements should be stylized and suggestive ofanother world. He stops, listens, and puts down his bundle.) LAD HING (attentively): Listen to that. Sounds like it's never goin' to stop. Hear it hammering down the tin roofs? Drilling through cracks, dripping down walls, fillin' empty tins on the floor? Yu-chiang, the master of floods, remembers our sins. (miming ) Sometimes he cups the ocean in his hands and hurls a tidal wave! (howling of wind) Hear him growling? (pauses) There's nothing more lonely than the sound of wind and rain. But, once it stops, you're back in the fields, knuckling under the sun. Just when you think you'll collapse, you look up and there she'll be, the cane witch. Smiling at you from behind high stalks; long, black hair shining, naked brown arms beckoning you. You blink your eyes twice to see if you're dreaming and she laughs. You don't know where she came from or who she is, but you want her. You want her so bad you can feel your heart trembling. You chase her through row after row of cane till you're breathless. When you finally catch up to her, she spins around and looks at you. Her two dark eyes are caverns. You reach to enter, but a stabbing pain pierces your heart and she disappears. There's no trace of her. All you see is a lizard darting through the leaves. And the faint smell of pikake. (Woman's laughter and sound ofrain. LAD crosses downstage left, where he remains for the rest ofthe play. Light goes up on a wooden shack room with a vanity, a bed and a few feminine, Victorian articles. The set should be evocative, not literal. On the bed, LI-TAI is giggling as KAM so tickles her.) KAM: Teach me! LI-TAI: I'm not Hawaiian. KAM (lifting her camisole): Then you need exposure. (kisses her navel) LI-TAI (laughing): Piko. KAM (tickling): Piko, piko, piko! LI-TAI: Diu-mao-gwai! KAM...