3 posts tagged with "Social Critique"

Old Ma, Teacher Ma, he was almost synonymous with this dusty rural elementary school. For forty years, like an old tree, his roots had sunk deep into this barren land, watching generations of children, like dandelions in the wind, fly off to distant places. Some flew high and far, while others fell back into deeper soil. His hair had long turned from jet black to frost white; chalk dust had whitened his temples and seemed etched into the rings of his life. In three more months, just three short months, he would be able to touch that shore called "retirement." On that shore lay the imagined, deserved tranquility, the meager but stable monthly pension, the finally relinquished pointer, and a throat no longer strained from shouting.

Lao Wang finally got his hands on the car. Not by stealing, not by robbing, but in a way more characteristic of these times—you know the kind. A brand new, gleaming metallic, Bavarian-proud, five-letter iron beast. In theory, this thing symbolized success, at least the greasy kind, the kind others could recognize at a glance. Touching the blue-and-white emblem on the steering wheel, Lao Wang's heart felt like it held a rabbit, one that had just popped some pills, kicking frantically with excitement. The feeling was like the first time he held a girl's hand in his youth, soft and smooth, full of infinite possibilities, as if he was about to do something earth-shattering.

K. felt it necessary to go to the police station. This wasn't out of anger or revenge, although she had every reason to be angry—the man who claimed to be single, with whom she had been involved for nearly a year, the gentle and well-spoken Mr. Z, turned out to be already married. She discovered this purely by chance, as jarring as finding a hair not belonging to her on a clean floor. This isn't anger, K. told herself, it's a confirmation of order, a necessary clarification of facts. Deception is deception, just as two plus two equals four; it was a fact that needed to be recorded.