Lenin's Kisses by Yan Lianke

county and township, however, everyone remembers the meeting times, and it is very unusual for anyone to sound the bell.
    But it was evident that Chief Liu intended to ring the bell himself, thereby once again using it to summon everyone together. He had walked over to where the bell was hanging, and was about to look for the brick used to strike it, when One-Legged Monkey, who had been eating with the older cripple, suddenly grabbed his crutches and hobbled up behind him.
    “Chief Liu,” he shouted, his face turning scarlet.
    Chief Liu turned around.
    “You don’t need to strike the bell. I’ll go door-to-door notifying everyone for you. In the past, whenever there was an event of some sort, this is what Grandma Mao Zhi would always have me do.” Having said this, he grabbed his crutches and headed off in the direction of the blind area of the village. He walked very briskly, his right crutch lightly touching the ground as his left foot left the ground, and as he was waiting for his left foot to come back down again, he would lean into his right leg. He wasn’t walking as much as he was hopping, but in this way was able to proceed as fast as a wholer could. In no time, he arrived at a blind man’s house, and entered through the main gate.
    Chief Liu was right behind him, staring in astonishment at his hop-running, as if he were watching a deer or a small horse galloping along a mountain pass.
    In this way, One-Legged Monkey notified each household.
    He called out, “Hey, Lead Blind Man, tomorrow morning there’ll be a livening festival. The county chief wants to distribute grain and funds. Whoever doesn’t attend runs the risk of starvation!”
    He called out, “Hey, Fourth Blind Man, tomorrow there will be a livening festival, though of course if you plan to starve to death next spring there is no need for you to attend!”
    He called out, “Hey, Crippled Auntie, didn’t you say you wanted to see the county chief? Then you should turn out for the livening festival tomorrow.”
    He said, “Little Piglet, why don’t you run home and tell your parents that tomorrow at the break of dawn a three-day livening festival will begin.”
    And in this way, everyone was notified.
    When the sun came up the next day and the eastern sky was enveloped in a rosy glow, everyone finished breakfast and proceeded to the main field in the village. The weather was warm and pleasant, and there was a slight breeze. The men were all wearing loose-fitting gowns, while the women wore comfortable blouses. The field was a large clearing that was as flat as the surface of a lake. Originally, this was used as the communal threshing ground, but after the land was redistributed it came to be used as the blind men’s threshing ground, and therefore whenever the villagers held an event, they would always attempt to include the blind men. The blind men in Liven were well looked after, like babies who are always given a few extra gulps of breast milk. Although this was now the blind men’s field, the village would use it whenever there was a public event for which everyone needed to gather together. The field therefore came to be used as the village’s meeting space and performance stage. It was one mu in size, with one side abutting the road, two sides abutting a set of fields, and along the fourth side a three-foot - high earthen dam, on top of which there was a pockmarked slope.
    The owner of this slope was fifty-three years old. He had only one arm; the other was merely a stub. But even with only one arm, he could still plow the fields, turn the soil, and use a hoe to smooth the earth. When people came to observe the festivities during the livening festival each year, if there wasn’t enough room for them in the main field, they would go over and sit on that pockmarked slope. The slope had been plowed and hoed, but after being trampled for three straight days, it was left as flat as a pancake. After the livening festival, the owner once