The story's sub-heading says "Is this how our national culture fosters? What does it say (about our culture) for the fact that the story has won the 'best plot' recognition?"
The story was obviously written in Chinese originally but I will provide its English translation in whole here for our non-Chinese readers' benefit.
Feel free to leave me a comment if you happen to know who wrote it and who organized this award or contest.
"Come Settle My Bill" - The Best Story of China (2006)
It's weekend today, so old classmates from our senior high decided to reunite at the Tian'an Hotel .
Many of them have made a good life for themselves after guaduation. But I've chosen to keep a low profile.
I'm just a chart drawer in a factory, and on monthly terms my husband and I barely make enough for our family.
Lately my husband has been busy helping our son study. He's old enough to get to high school soon, so my husband's been running around looking for a good school that would accept our son. But so far we still haven't had any luck.
Before stepping out, I looked at my son one last time.
*****
Tian'an Hotel is a high-class hotel. Most of the old classsmates were already there as I stepped into the private room.
Business cards came flying my way before I got the chance to grab a seat. Everybody is either a senior manager or supervisor now.
Even Ah Fei, who used to fail everything in school, is now a police dispatch supervisor.
Looking at the fancy dishes our waitress brought, I lamented at how ignorant I am - just our dishes tonight will cost as much as three months of my pay.
Ah Fei acted as if he's everybody's host. He kept pouring us wine and urging us to eat.
"Just eat, it's my treat tonight."
We all let loose and indulged ourselves with cup after cup of wine and conversation on just about anything.
Having stuffed ourselves enough, it's eventually time to go.
But who would settle the bill? Didn't seem like anyone's generous enough to pay for everyone.
At that moment Ah Fei took out his cell phone and punched a string of numbers.
"Hey Xiao Li, did you manage to arrest any johns tonight? Yeah? You got some? Great! Send one over to Tian'an Hotel to settle my bill."
Everybody laughed as Ah Fei proudly put his phone back into his pocket.
A middle-aged man showed up within 15 minutes. But he raised his eyebrows as he read the bill, as if he didn't have enough cash to settle it.
So the middle-aged man took out his cell phone as well and punched a string of numbers.
"Hey Mr. Liao, this is Principal Ma. Didn't you say you wanted your son to go my school? Well, I can settle this for you today......I'm hosting a dinner for my friends tonight, could you come over and settle my bill? I'm in private room 203 at the Tian'an Hotel."
Someone came knocking on our door 20 minutes later.
When they opened the door, I fainted.
It wasn't anyone else but my bespectacled husband.
--- End of Story---
Piper's Note: This story has won:
- The 2006 Best Plot Award
- The Most Touching Story Award
- The Funniest Short Story Award
- The Average Citizen Judging Panel's Recommendation Award
Going back to the question "What does the story tell us about Chinese culture nowdays?"
Well, maybe 'go Dutch' still isn't something people do in the mainland?
No comments:
Post a Comment