The Sichuan Broadcasts

We get to the stopover before sunset. It is not clear where we are going to sleep tonight.

   Our guide has gone to find out. We're waiting, sitting on the side of the path. There is a bunch of people gathered further up. Almost twenty persons, all dressed in peasants clothes, are squatting on the slope side of the path. Some of them are smoking short straight pipes. The older ones seat in the center.Below, to their left, a girl is squatting on the track. There is an older woman by her side, maybe her mother. Five or six paces away on the path, to the right of the overseeing crowd, there is a boy squatting opposite them. We get closer. The girl is speaking very fast, vehemently. At the end of each sentence, her mother agrees loudly. The boy doesn't say a word. He is thoroughly examining his toes . We sit by the others. Comrade T. inquires of his neighbour. "They're Party members. They're going to the seminar too, and they're stopping over here tonight, like us. Since all the local leaders are here, and haven't much to do, somebody from the village came up to them with a case. - A case? - Yes, it's a trial." He asks more questions. " It's a divorce. The boy ran away to India right after the wedding. The girl says that she's supposed to have been married for the last two years, but he has never lived with her." One of the elders starts to talk to the girl. He speaks like a grand-father trying to reason a stubborn child. "I understand the problem now", says Comrade T., "the whole argument is about compensation. He agrees to divorce, but she asks too much money. The judge has just told her:'Everybody thinks you're asking way too much. Try to be reasonable, don't compel us to fix the amount of the settlement, we don't want to have to impose on you a decision you won't like, be reasonnable,let's work out a solution acceptable to both of you." Comrade T. turns back to listen to the debate. Suddenly, he faces me and ask :"Why do they want to divorce in the first place? They have never lived together. How can they know they wouldn't get along? Don't you think they should try to live together for a while and see if they can be happy?" He is getting interested in the case. He is getting involved in the case! He stands up and starts a speech. Quite a long one. Comrade T. is a man of importance, he is a district level leader. Everybody listen to him with a great show of attention and all due respect. When he is finished, they get back to where the proceeding has been interrupted.