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发帖数: 461 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Prose 讨论区 】
发信人: echofield (飞), 信区: Prose
标 题: Valerian Ocean Chapter 7 (2)
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Mon Aug 22 01:01:40 2011, 美东)
After we finished shopping and went back to campus, we ran into Professor
Chen, who was supervising the student union. He stopped Wenyan and told her
that he had something to tell her.
Professor Chen said: “Wenyan, I hope you stop running for the president of
the student union.“…Why?” Wenyan spent months on that race. She was
shocked to hear this suggestion.
“You are very junior. You are only at your second year serving the Student
Union. Besides, you are a girl. I think it is more appropriate for a boy to
be the president.”
“What? What’s wrong with girls being the president? I am more capable than
any other members in the Union. I organized our mid-autumn festival. I have
the votes of most of the members. It is unfair that you remove me from the
candidate list because I am a girl.”
“Wenyan. I don’t think you can take on all the responsibility and pressure
of being a president. It is too much work for a girl. Be advised.”
“I cannot believe it. I thought boys and girls are equal. Chairman Mao said
woman is half of the sky. Why I cannot take on all the responsibilities?”
Wenyan was like a volcano and was ready to erupt.
“I don’t think I need to explain this to you. I am more learned. You need
to learn how to listen. I have to go now. You will be appointed as the
treasure. I think you will do well.” Realizing that Wenyan was angry,
Professor Chen backed up a few steps and walked away.
Wenyan felt being played by Professor Chen. She was ready to throw a brick
to him. It was hard for her to control her temper. Little by little, she
collected herself and realized that there was nothing she can do. The
president election was always just a show. Professor Chen always decided who
should be elected. He always removed the undesirable candidates from the
list. Before the election, there were only two candidates left on the list.
One of them seemed to come from nowhere. Nobody knew this person, and nobody
knew what this person did. He was just part of the election to ensure the
success of another candidate.
Wearing colorful clothes that Huaqing picked for me, I found that my luck
had been changed. One day after school, I found there was an interview
invitation letter from the school newspaper lying on my bed. I shared this
good news with my dorm mates who had started to suspect that I was a loner.
I liked the word “loner”, but I didn’t enjoy being labeled, which felt
like carrying a cardboard on your neck. I told myself that I needed to get
that position.
To increase my chance of getting this position, I even brought several
articles that I wrote during my first year in College to the interview. I
was supposed to be nervous. But the editor, Jingfeng, who was interviewing
me appeared to be more nervous than I was. Is he the boy who wrote a poem
for Qingna, another Qingna? He looked at me as if we met before. He was
smiling all the time and visibly excited, as if he were the one who was
interviewed. I was confused and in the mean time assured that I would
probably get this position.
I dared not to mention my position to Wenyan, since she was still in the
agony of that election event. I think Professor Chen’s altitude ultimately
triggered her desire to prove herself. One day, she noticed that the school
gongfu club was recruiting members. She went there to join and was rejected.
To me, this rejection was almost expected. The coach told her that no girls
were allowed in the club, never and ever. Wenyan asked him why such a
stupid rule existed. The coach replied: “Girls should behave well. It is
inappropriate for a girl to fight”. Wenyan was outrageous and threatened
the coach: “What? I cannot believe this. I will talk with our provost about
this. Girls are seriously treated unfairly here.”
Wenyan went directly to the provost office and got out within a few minutes.
She slammed the door behind and murmured: “Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t….what is
wrong with those people.” She was so angry and she even found Huaqing to
complain about this. Huaqing didn’t like Wenyan’s idea of joining a gongfu
club, so she said:”Maybe they were right. It is dangerous for girls to
fight. You shouldn’t blame them. We are already in a good time. Back to 50
years ago, uneducated woman is a virtue. Now we are given opportunity to
study and go to college. We shouldn’t expect to be treated in the same way
as boys.” Wenyan wasn’t convinced:”Our grades were not lower. Why shouldn
’t we be treated the same?” Huaqing realized that it was impossible to
convince Wenyan. But she was still trying:”Don’t join the gongfu club. Who
would want to date a girl who does all these gongfu training? We must find
someone to marry while we are still in college. If we go out, nobody wants
to marry us, since we are overly educated. “ Huaqing’s remarks made Wenyan
even more angry:” Who would want to get married? Men are selfish and
stupid….I have to talk with the stupid coach again.” She ran out of
Huaqing’s dorm and returned to the coach’s office. But as soon as the
coach saw her, he told her that she could join his club. Why the coach
changed his idea so quickly? Wenyan didn’t care about this. But in 1995,
the country had gone through some economic transformation. The public
housing was no longer provided. People had to purchase houses using their
own money, but their salaries were almost unchanged. In order to support
their family, college Professors started to take on a second job outside the
university. They became less focused on their responsibilities in college.
The coach had a gongfu club outside the university. When he saw Wenyan, he
realized that he could boost the enrollment by recruiting female members. He
then decided to get Wenyan in the team. Later, he hired a photographer to
photo Wenyan fighting. He thought that if he put her photo on his flyers, he
could have more female members. However, he got more male members. Anyway,
purposes served. |
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