“Extra” (first appeared in the Dec. 22, 2003 issue of The New Yorker):
Granny Lin, also known as Comrade Lin Mei, is honorably retired from the Beijing Red Star Garment Factory after it has gone bankrupt and she is left with no pension. In order to survive, she is desperate to find work or another means of earning money. Her neighbor, Auntie Wang, suggests she marry an older widow in order to inherit some money after honorably caring for a husband. At 51, Granny Lin is reluctant to marry, but finds herself matched with Old Tang, a widower suffering from Alzheimer's. Granny Lin takes good care of Old Tang, who believes his wife of 54 years, Sujane, is still alive and in the hospital. She keeps up the charade in order not to upset him and gladly does all of the menial tasks involved in caring for him. One night, in a rare moment of lucidity, Old Tang is alarmed to find Granny Lin bathing him instead of Sujane. She struggles to keep him calm but he slips and falls in the tub, which kills him. His family blames Granny Lin for his death and she is removed from any inheritance. Once again, she is alone and jobless, with only her meager savings.
Old Tang’s family gives her a work reference and she is able to get a job as a maid at an exclusive private boarding school called the Mei-Mei Academy. Here, she becomes attached to a young boy named Kang, who is sent away to the school by his father. Kang appears to be unwanted at home, as the son of his wealthy father’s first wife, rather than current wife. He is the only child to spend weekends at the school and thus, Granny Lin looks after him and they form a bond. Soon, it is discovered that many of the girl students are mysteriously missing socks from their laundry. Granny Lin realizes that Kang is taking them from the laundry room where she works and hoarding them in his bed, yet she doesn’t have the heart to chastise or embarrass him. Instead, she uses some of her savings to buy him girls’ socks in town and leaves them lying around for him to “steal”.
Kang is discovered stroking his cheeks with the socks by his roommate one night and soon the whole school finds out about what he has done. As a result, Kang is bullied and ostracized, being called a freak by his classmates. One weekend when Granny Lin is supposed to be caring for him, he hides and no one can find him. The authorities are called and the worst is feared, until Kang reveals himself. Granny Lin is dismissed for her negligence and while walking away from the school, a thief runs by and grabs her duffel bag. It is revealed that she actually keeps her savings in her little metal lunch pail, which she is still carrying so that she has not in fact lost everything.
“After a Life” (first appeared in the Apr. 17, 2005 issue of Prospect):
Two married cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Su, live unhappily together in Beijing with their 28-year-old daughter Beibei and a younger son, Jian, away at college. Beibei suffers from “severe mental retardation and cerebral palsy” and requires constant care. The Sus were told that Beibei would not live long, and that she’d be lucky to reach age 5.
Mrs. Su often gets a call from Mrs. Fong inquiring about whether their husbands are going to the stock brokerage together. Mrs. Su always lies and covers for Mr. Fong, who is in actuality having an affair. Mr. Su met Mr. Fong, a former soldier, at the stock brokerage about a year ago and they developed a casual friendship. Soon after they met, Mr. Fong explained that he was dating a younger woman while his wife was in prison on a five year sentence. However, his wife, Mrs. Fong is released early from prison and returns home. During her call with Mrs. Su, she threatens to hire a private detective to catch Mr. Fong if the Sus won’t tell her the truth. Mrs. Su is worried that this will lead the Fongs and subsequently the neighbors to find out about Beibei, whom they have kept a secret from the world.
When they were young, Mr. and Mrs. Su were madly in love but their family disapproved of their marriage because they were cousins. They married anyway and soon had Beibei, which they thought was a punishment for tempting fate. They moved far away from their family to a new area and kept Beibei and her complications a secret. Ten years later, Mr. Su convinced Mrs. Su to try for another child and they had a healthy baby, Jian. But rather than bringing the couple closer, they continued to drift while agonizing over Beibei.
Meanwhile, at the brokerage, Mr. Fong has gotten too drunk so Mr. Su brings him home to sober up. Back at the Su’s house, Mrs. Su is having a hard time soothing Beibei, so she gives her a little bit extra sleeping medicine. After this, Mrs. Fong calls again, livid that Mr. Fong has confessed to her and refuses to give up his lover. At this time, Mr. Su comes home with the drunk Mr. Fong, who falls asleep on their couch. The Sus go into Beibei’s room and discover that she has died.
“Love in the Marketplace” - Sansan has been an English teacher at the Educators’ School in Beijing for the past ten years. She is referred to as Miss Casablanca by her students because she often plays the movie Casablanca for them and they make fun of her for it behind her back. During class one day, she is interrupted by her mother who has come to see her and tell her that her former fiance Tu is now divorced and would now like to marry her.
Sansan and Tu grew up together in their poor, rural town and eventually became lovers and engaged during their time together at University. At school, Sansan also met and befriended a beautiful girl named Min, who had participated in Tiananment Square demonstrations and subsequently received severe backlash from the government, baring her from gainful employment. Sansan devises a plan to help Min by arranging to have Tu falsify papers in order to go to graduate school in the United States and then marry Min so that she can accompany him to live in Pennsylvania and be free. After a year, Tu and Min would divorce, allowing for Sansan and Tu to marry each other. Tu is in love with Sansan and initially doesn’t agree with the plan but she convinces him to do this in order to help Min. He asks to have sex with Sansan before he leaves but she refuses, believing they will be together soon. However, once in America, Tu and Min fall in love and decide to remain married, leaving Sansan alone in Beijing.
Now, ten years have passed and Tu and Min are divorcing. Sansan’s mother says she has spoken with Tu’s family and they say that he wants to marry Sansan now. Sansan goes to her mother’s egg stand in the marketplace and they argue about Sansan’s interest in Tu. Sansan has remained a virgin all these years, despite the fact that her mother and the whole town believed her and Tu had had sex before he left. This belief is also what led her to seem unmarriageable to the town, since she was considered “unclean”. Sansan tells her mother she is no longer interested in Tu and that some people need to keep their promises. At this time, a man appears in the marketplace with a knife and a sign explaining that he will let people slice him once anywhere on his body for 10 yuen. Sansan’s mother gives him money, pitying him and believing he is begging, and refuses to cut him. He returns the money to her and Sansan takes it, gives it back to the man, and cuts him on the shoulder, feeling she has found someone she can finally relate to.
“Son” - In this story, Han is visiting his mother in Beijing where he grew up. He has been living in the United States for about a decade. At 33, his mother refers to him as a “diamond bachelor” - a bachelor who not only earns American dollars, but also has American citizenship. Usually on his visits home, she tries desperately to match him up with a potential wife, yet he always has an excuse about it not being the right time. In actuality, Han is gay and will never marry any of the girls his mother picks.
Han is surprised that on this trip his mother doesn’t immediately bombard him with pictures of potential brides. Instead, she gives him a gold crucifix and asks him to accompany her to church. He tells her he will wait for her at the Starbucks across the street, as he does not believe in religion and doesn’t wish to go into the church with her. While they are outside the church, a little boy and girl come up to them begging and Han’s mother gives them some money before proceeding to bring them into church with her. Han is angered, believing that the children are being used by adult career criminals for begging and also that his mother is paying the children to accompany her to church. He offers the children twice as much money if they will give back his mother’s money and leave. They accept his offer and run off. Soon after, while sitting in the Starbucks, Han notices a car accident involving a child and believes it is most likely one of the begging children he sent away. He refuses to look closer, not wanting to know for sure if it is one of the beggar children and when his mother comes out of the church some time later, the accident has been cleared up. He tells her that he is gay and she reveals that she already knew.
