"A Hard Night," a Contemporary Chinese Story by Yu Chai Fang Yu Chai Fang (bio) Translated by Wang Lin (bio) A Note on "A Hard Night" Chinese pupils are busy enough with school during the daytime. They long for a relaxing and warm evening at home with their parents. But many of them fail to get this. A Hard Night, a contemporary children's story with a strongly sympathetic tone, provides a picture of the everyday lives of many pupils and their young parents. In China, it is easy to be a child but hard to be a pupil. When children enter primary school, they must be top students, as their parents desire. To be excellent pupils, they study many difficult lessons during the day, and must finish homework under the supervision of their parents at night. With such hard work, the parents hope, their children will place into one of the key middle schools (about one key middle school in a county, three to five in a city). But less than 10 percent of pupils gain entrance. And entering the key middle school is just the first step. The next one is to become a college student. The rate of enrollment to college from both the key and normal middle schools is about 2 percent, while only some 40 percent of the students from the key middle schools can expect to pass the entrance examination. Most of the pupils' parents are in their forties. They experienced a period of restriction under the decade of Cultural Revolution during their youth. In those years, 1967-76, most schools were closed; no colleges existed. The students from middle schools, then called "intellectual youths," were sent to the countryside to work as new peasants and to be re-educated by the peasants. After 1976 they were able to return to the cities and get jobs. Now the vast majority have become parents and their children are studying at primary schools. On the one hand, the parents think too much of their children, desiring them to learn much and better in order to be somebody in the future. So they treat the children strictly. On the [End Page 135] other hand, they lose no time in following modern fashions, trying to catch up with today's youth. This they call "seeking the lost youth." Although they exhibit concern for their children, in fact they are not at all considerate of them. They take no notice of what their children truly desire or need. This gap between parents and children is a hard fact in China. Many writers have composed stories, papers, and plays in order to help parents better understand their children. Although neither the government nor publishing houses in China has set rules for materials appropriate for publication (government subsidies are rare and are offered only to the most established authors), editors usually choose stories for publication on the basis of their potential for instruction. Adult books, sold in bookstores in cities, towns, and counties, are more highly regarded if they encourage contemporary readers to learn, think, and even criticize. Stories for children can also be disseminated in schools; the most successful ones may be adapted to fit school textbooks. Both teachers and parents are encouraged to read to their children. The story that follows is regarded as one of the best on this difficult problem, because it helps to bridge the gap between parent and child. It warns parents to ask a friend or relative to keep an eye on school-age children rather than leaving them home alone; it also provides a means for children to understand and appreciate their parents as people who work hard and may have been deprived, by former political circumstances, of enjoying their lives as young people. A Hard Night After supper, father and mother went out together. On their departure, the mother addressed the children: "We have something to do. You little ones stay at home to finish your homework carefully and review your lessons. Don't make too much noise." These words were not new to them. Under an electric lamp, the brother and younger sister sat face to face at the desk. The...