Road to East Asia

The Cultural Revolution (1966-76) in China, which devastated the nation's economy and socio-political structure, broke up families and destroyed personal relationships. After Mao Tsetung's death, notes translator Frances Wood, "the torturers are now back at work with those they tortured." Although the characters in Dai Houying's novel Stones of Wall must carry the burden of history, they try to rebuild their lives with what they have learned from the past.

Zhao Zhenhuan, for example, has abandoned his first wife, Sun Yue, for another woman. After the Cultural Revolution, Zhao tells his second wife that they "were thrown together" and have "stayed together by chance: because of the upheaval, but he has never really given his heart to her. "The past is finished and a new era has begun," he says, hoping Sun Yue and Hanhan will welcome him back to their lives.

As for Sun Yue, Zhao is her past, which is to be forgotten. What she treasures is the bittersweet relationship she has with He Jingfu, whom she considers building a life together. He is the part of history she values; Sun Yue says, ". . . my love for you is the crystallization of all the suffering I went through before."

History is a record of regrets for most of the characters, and Hanhan is the product of the burden they carry, yet the girl symbolizes hope in the next generation. She has grown up without the guardianship of a father and worries if her existence is really a "regret," as suggested by her name, of what happened between her parents in the past. In the end, she mediates a settlement for the novel when her relationship with He Jingfu develops, and in her Zhao Zhenhuan finds his "soul" again.

Ironically, the torturer in Dai Houying's novel is not a particular person, but history itself. Each character in Stones of the Wall is a victim who has been swept away by history. The images of suffering also underscore their effort to rebuild their lives after a storm.

Bibliography

Dai Houying. Stones of the Wall. Translated by Frances Wood. London: Michael Joseph, 1985.

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Editors and Writers: Jessica Martin, Daniel Sun, Brenda Lo, Kevin Hodgson,
Julie Shim, Shelly-Ann Gunness, Candice Wong, Derrick Choy
Hilaneh Mahmoudi, Megan Donnelly, Benjamin Bacola, Neena Gill
Instructor and founding editor: Isabella Wai

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Copyright © 1997 by the author. References to this text should be attributed to the author.

Illustration by Billy Lo

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