Chinese Literature

TSUI YI

Shu Chun

It is two years since I returned from Korea, and the armistice negotiations have been successfully concluded. But the memories of those days still shine like jewels in my mind, particularly because I often talk about the times in Korea to the workers in the Anshan Ivon and Steel Company, where I am working now. The story I have told most often, in the Model Workers’ block, and other places, was about Comrade Tsui Yi.

One day, one of the girls who works in the propaganda department handed me a notebook and said, “Please read this over and make it into a real story for me some time when you have time.” I expected it to be a propaganda draft, or a report on her section’s work that she wanted me to give her a hand in, but when IJ turned to the first page I saw the title “Comrade Tsui Yi.” I then realized that the manuscript was no other than the notes she had jotted down from a talk I had given to the workers on a construction site the other day. J asked her why she wanted this permanent record, and she said she wanted to be able to tell the story to other workers who had not yet heard it. When I got back to my room I went over her notes. The story I had told was all there, and so was the spirit behind my telling of it. I felt very much inclined to do what she wanted. Some of the pages were blurred ... was it by rain or accidental splashes? I think it was from her tears, the passionate tears she shed when she heard the story.

But I realized that it would take me a long time to do what she wanted, and we were all of us very busy. The Heavy Rolling Mill was just being completed and I was involved with all the others. I had to put the notebook away for the time being.

After the rolling mill started operations, and was in trial production, I began turning in at night later and later, but could not get to-sleep. It was during this sleepless period that I polished up her notes, adding here and deleting there. Then when I had finished the whole of the first part, and I was about to lay my pen down, it suddenly occurred to me that if she thought it was helpful to the worker at Anshan, why