Endless War: Fiction and Essays by Wang Wen-hsing

Paralysis

47 Paralysis June 1959. This��������������������������������������������� is one of the rare works Wang Wen-hsing pub� lished under a penname—Tong Ma. The story describes a uni� versity student’s first experience of dancing with women. v Shen Qingwen could not open his eyes. The light inside the house was too bright. His mother, wrapped in an old brown coat, had just crawled out of bed to open the door for him. Following him in, she said: “It’s very late, probably already midnight.” “It’s 12:30,” Shen Qingwen replied, opening his eyes slightly to look at his watch. Taking off his raincoat and tossing it onto the chair, he continued: “There wasn’t even one bus and the pedicabs wanted to soak me for ten yuan, plus an extra yuan when I got off—Ma, please wake me a little later tomorrow. You should go to bed now.” He went into his bedroom. “Walk a little softly, your father is sleeping,” his mother ordered. He turned on the light to discover that his mother had already made the bed and lowered the mosquito netting. Even though his eyelids were heavy he was not sleepy but felt he could sit up until daybreak. He took off his suit jacket and hung it on the clothes rack. Then, lifting his head, he undid his tie and carefully pulled it off. He had borrowed this red tie from his father. He noticed that many of his classmates had tied a Windsor knot in theirs, which looked much better than his. If they held another dance, he would have to get them to teach him beforehand. After taking off his tie, he undid the shirt button at his throat and sat down to massage his right leg. It was the sore one. The left one actually did not seem tired. While Shen Qingwen was massaging his leg, he hummed the tune to The Tennessee Waltz. After humming a few bars, he stopped as his mind slipped into deep thought, then started humming again. 48 v SHORT FICTION He stood up, slid forward into a three-step and, twirling his body, backed into another three-step. He just missed knocking over a chair, fell out of his slippers and tripped between two tatami mats. Shen Qingwen leaned against the wall and smiled. He realized how late it was and that he needed to sleep—he wasn’t used to going to bed so late. He took off his clothes, shoes and socks, turned out the light and, in the pitch dark, opened the netting and crawled under the quilt. “What is this? I can’t make out the beat!” he asked. “Jitterbug! Jitterbug! Quick, invite somebody to dance!” Chen Daming answered impatiently. He was standing beside the record player wearing a bright red pullover with two white deer woven into the front. It was only three days since the group had asked Chen Daming to teach them to dance—nobody knew how before—so Chen Daming couldn’t avoid assuming a certain bossiness. A row of girls sat behind the record player but Shen Qingwen did not go over to invite any of them. He was looking for Li Yaqin. She was sitting by the window but the crowd blocked his view of her. Worried that someone else would invite her to dance first, he squeezed his way through and even pushed aside a chair. He heard someone say, “It’s really too crowded. This room should be bigger!” She was still there—that was real luck because she was the only one left. The two seats beside her were already empty—if he had been a step slower, she definitely would not have been there. He called her from a distance, fearful the boys standing closer to her would grab the opportunity first. Li Yaqin did not hear his first call so he called a second time. This time she heard him and, somewhat startled, lifted her head to look at him. He bowed vaguely, feeling it would be embarrassing and vulgar if he made a big deal out of bowing. Bending forward slightly and extending one hand substituted for the sentence: “May I please have this dance?” Although these gestures were no more elegant, overall they certainly were far more refined than a formal bow! Why was Li Yaqin startled? Was this the usual way she expressed herself? Could she really be surprised? He had invited her to dance a number of...