Bell and Drum Towers

Author: Liu Xinwu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The novel captures the daily lives of nine households in a siheyuan (traditional Beijing courtyard) in Beijing's Zhongguancun area on December 12, 1982, from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. It weaves together the experiences of over 30 characters over decades, depicting the historical of ancient Beijing and the real-life transformations of the 1980s, allowing us to hear the footsteps of the reform era. Each person in this story has their own history, forming a microcosm of Beijing's urban social ecosystem. Xue Yongquan, who once served as a lama with a low social status, now finds himself in an awkward position as he tries to throw a lavish wedding for his youngest son while struggling with financial constraints. His daughter-in-law, Pan Xiuya, comes from a poor family and works as a salesperson. She is vain yet frugal, preferring "a small sheep head over a large ox tail" when it comes to wedding gifts. Her Rado watch disappears at the wedding banquet, sparking a commotion. Everyone suspects it was stolen by Lu Baosang, a descendant of the "Beggar Gang," but it was actually snatched by the troublemaker Yao Xiangdong. Despite having just been angered by Lu Baosang, who exposed Lu's father's past as a worker in a brothel, the kind chef Lu Xichun still spoke well of Lu when he left. The rural girl Guo Xing'er's family has become a specialized household and is now wealthy. She comes to the city to find the arranged marriage her ancestors had set up for her, only to discover that the young man, Xun Lei, already has a girlfriend. Guo Xing'er generously offers to buy a watch for Pan Xiuya. Among the wedding guests is the annoyingly enthusiastic Jia Liying, who was once mistakenly labeled a "rightist" and suffered many injustices, yet few people show sympathy for her. The actress Tan Tai Zhuzhu is unable to attend the wedding due to a last-minute invitation and insists on going herself. Other residents of the siheyuan, who did not attend the wedding, include the loyal editor Han Yitán, the honest cobbler Gou Shifu, the humble Hai Xibin who prefers ordinary work, and the "big official" in the courtyard, Zhang Qilin, and his daughter Zhang Xiuzao, who suffers from unrequited love. The story is filled with contradictions between history and reality, tradition and innovation, but also showcases the resilience, willpower, and solidarity of the lower classes in the face of hardship, as well as their slow yet steady growth in adversity. This book narrates the events that unfold in the area around Beijing's Zhongguancun from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. on December 12, 1982. In an old siheyuan, Grandma Xue rises early to prepare for the wedding banquet, waiting for the chef from Tonghexu to arrive. Her second son, Xue Jiyue, is getting married today. Meanwhile, Grandpa Xue, as usual, goes for a walk and exercises by the Shichahai lake. Granddaughter-in-law Meng Zhaoying is late, and Grandma Xue is anxious. The young man Xun Lei, who lives in the same courtyard, helps her paste red couplets on both sides of the gate. Xun Lei's father is a retired worker who now makes a living repairing shoes. Xun Lei was raised with strict discipline, excelled in his studies, and had excellent foreign language skills. After graduating from high school, he was unexpectedly recruited by an overseas affairs department and sent abroad for training. This summer, he returned to China and is now working as a translator in a key department. Meanwhile, the young Lu Xichun is riding his bicycle to Grandma Xue's house. He works at a small restaurant near Chongwenmen. The chef of Tonghexu, Lao He, has retired early to let his son take his place, and seeing Lu Xichun's integrity and ambition, he takes him on as an apprentice. Today, Lu Xichun is helping his master prepare the wedding banquet at Grandma Xue's. Tan Tai Zhuzhu, an opera actress, lives in the three southern rooms of the courtyard outside the siheyuan. During the Cultural Revolution, she was persecuted and forced to work at a button factory as a packer. She married Li Kai, a common machine operator. Seeing how happy her husband and children are, Grandma Xue asks her to accompany the eldest daughter-in-law to welcome the bride. However, her colleague, Puyang Sun, who plays the leading male role in her troupe, and the two accompanying musicians suddenly have an emergency: the old man who plays the jinghu and the old man who beats the drum have been lured away by a more famous actress. Li Kai dislikes Puyang Sun's effeminate manner and his tendency to perform with other women, so he leaves in anger. Tan Tai Zhuzhu goes to look for him, and Jia Liying, who lives opposite Grandma Xue's house, is forced to replace her. Jia Liying graduated from university in the 1950s, is kind-hearted and enthusiastic, but her loud voice and tactlessness often get her into trouble. She was labeled a "rightist" in 1957 and has been undergoing reform for over 20 years. She married a metallurgical technician from Sichuan but has been living apart ever since. Grandma Xue feels a bit sorry for this unhappy woman being asked to welcome the bride. Zhang Qilin, the bureau chief, lives in the back courtyard. He was supposed to travel abroad this morning, but his flight was rescheduled for the afternoon, so he asked his daughter, Zhang Xiuzao, to help him organize his bookshelf. Zhang Xiuzao is studying at Tsinghua University's Department of Hydraulic Engineering and secretly loves Xun Lei, but Xun Lei is already in love with Feng Wanshi, a graduate of Beijing's Foreign Languages College. She is secretly heartbroken. Xun Lei's father, Xun Shifu, is not pleased with Feng Wanshi's "foreign" demeanor. He is from Hebei and, before the liberation, fought in the army alongside his hometown compatriot Guo Dunzi. They survived together in the midst of gunfire and later became workers in the city. In 1960, both their wives became pregnant, and they agreed that if one had a boy and the other had a girl, the children would grow up and marry each other. Guo Dunzi later returned to the countryside and died of poverty and illness. Today, his daughter, Guo Xing'er, is coming to Beijing to visit Xun Shifu's family. Guo Xing'er's family has become wealthy after the implementation of the household responsibility system in the countryside. This is her first time in Beijing. After getting off the train, she carries a bundle and first takes photos at Tiananmen Square, then goes to Wangfujing to climb the three-story department store she has longed to visit, and buys a large pack of wine and cakes to bring to Xun Shifu's house. She is very generous with Feng Wanshi but doesn't understand Feng's talk about "computers" and "information," so she asks Feng if she knows a wild vegetable called "laocong" that causes swelling when eaten. The first person to arrive at Grandma Xue's wedding banquet is Lu Baosang, a 29-year-old bachelor. He comes from a petty bourgeois family. His father, Lu Shengqi, was once a beggar in Beijing's Beggar Gang and was bribed with bread by the authorities to join the anti-hunger and anti-war student demonstrations. His mother, Huang Shi, is said to be the daughter of "Da Bing Huang," a vendor of insect medicine at Tianqianmen before the liberation. Lu Baosang inherits his parents' unscrupulous nature. He enters Grandma Xue's house without gifts, demanding cigarettes and sugar, and complaining that the quality is too low. The groom, Xue Jiyue, is not happy today. He recalls the hardships and grievances he endured for the wedding. His parents spent three years saving money to buy a gold-plated Rado watch for his fiancée. He also has a secret sorrow: on a snowy night, a woman propositioned him, but he failed to satisfy her, leaving him with severe psychological trauma. The bride, Pan Xiuya, works as a cashier and developer at a photography studio. Her father was once a small merchant who became a shop assistant at a dyeing and cleaning store after the liberation. Her mother's family originally ran a stall selling fake hair. Growing up in such a family, Pan Xiuya has a strong sense of inferiority, so she often behaves arrogantly toward customers, seeking some form of spiritual satisfaction. She does not value "love" when looking for a partner but mainly considers whether the match is "suitable." After failing to improve her status by pursuing the son of a professor, she settles on Xue Jiyue. A rented car brings her to Grandma Xue's house, and the wedding banquet begins. Jia Liying brings the bride back and quickly returns to her own room to attend to two guests she forcibly paired up for a blind date. The man, Ji Zhiman, is Jia Liying's university classmate and now teaches mathematics in a middle school. He is over 40 and still unmarried, and he enjoys stamp collecting. The woman, Mu Ying, lives in the room next to Grandma Xue's house and is a doctor. She usually works at the medical clinic of her unit, so Jia Liying does not know her well. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic, she impulsively married a war hero who was injured in the Korean War. She named her daughter Mu Ying. After being recommended to university, her views changed, and she divorced the hero, marrying her classmate Ge Zunzhi and renaming her Mu Ying. During the Cultural Revolution, Ge Zunzhi became mediocre and lacking ambition, and she later divorced him, falling in love with a minister who had just resumed work. Jia Liying forcibly pairs her with Ji Zhiman, and she reluctantly meets him, only asking for a stamp that the minister dreams of. Zhang Qilin's home is also not calm at noon. Pang Qishan, newly promoted to the position of intelligence station head, asks him to buy a book from abroad. An anonymous letter also exposes the administrative director of the bureau for using his power for personal gain in the housing allocation process. The wedding banquet at Grandma Xue's reaches its climax. The drunk and greasy Lu Baosang behaves rudely, humiliating Lu Xichun by revealing his father's past as a runner for clients and prostitutes in a brothel before the liberation. Lu Xichun's dignity is wounded, and he wants to beat Lu Baosang, but he doesn't want to ruin Grandma Xue's happiness, so he sits under the cooking shed and cries in frustration. Lu Baosang goes wild, overturns a table, and is felled by Yin Daye, who sits at the same table and knows bone-setting techniques, by pressing a pressure point. Yao Xiangdong, a middle school student who has strayed from the right path due to poor parenting, sneaks into Grandma Xue's house with the congratulations and steals the bride's Rado watch and the gift money for the chef. The bride is deeply aggrieved. The kind Xun Shifu asks Xun Lei to buy a matching watch and lies that the thief dropped it outside and someone found it, returning it to Grandma Xue's house. Han Yitán, the elderly editor, lives next door to Tan Tai Zhuzhu. He has nurtured many poetry talents and has also been harassed by a mentally unstable "literary youth." Today, a opportunistic and morally corrupt "newcomer" in the literary world comes to ask for manuscripts that were invalidated seven years ago and publicly humiliates him, nearly driving him crazy. Tan Tai Zhuzhu is betrayed by others, and her husband is also missing. She wanders the streets, seeing a group of elderly people sunbathing under the Zhongguancun. Grandpa Hu tells stories about working as a small laborer in the Forbidden City 50 years ago, and Grandma Hai talks about the lotus pond market in Shichahai 40 years ago. As the wedding banquet nears its end, Xue Jiyue's older brother, Xue Jihui, finally returns. He works as a team leader in the transportation team and, after rising early, takes his team to seize tasks. On the way, he helps repair someone's bike, missing his own big day. Grandma Xue is moved by Lu Xichun's simplicity and kindness and decides to maintain relations as relatives. Meanwhile, Zhang Qilin is still considering the affairs of his bureau while sitting in the plane, realizing that time is money. Xun Lei, Feng Wanshi, Zhang Xiuzao, and Guo Xing'er, a group of young people, are preparing to gather, exchange information, and discuss the mission of the youth. Life is diverse, and the Zhongguancun stands tall, forever witnessing the history of society and the fate of individuals.