CHEN MEI: (sniffs the air in exaggerated fashion, softly at first, but builds in intensity) My baby, my darling, I have picked up your sweet-smelling, pungent scent. (feels her way up close to Little Lion, like a blind person, just as loud cries emerge from the swaddling clothes) My baby, my good, little baby, you have never tasted your mother’s milk, you must be starving. (She snatches the baby away from Little Lion and dashes offstage. The guests, stunned by the act, do not know what to do.)

LITTLE LION: (opens her now empty arms) My baby (in real despair), my little Jinwa…

Little Lion runs after Chen Mei, followed by Tadpole and others. Chaos onstage.

Curtain

Act VII

Scenery changes constantly on a large screen at the rear of the stage. A busy street one moment, a crowded marketplace the next, followed by a public park, where people are practising Tai Chi, carrying bird cages and playing the two-stringed erhu. The changing scenery denotes the places she passes in Chen Mei’s getaway.

As Chen Mei runs with the baby, she speaks her heart to him.

CHEN MEI: My little darling, Mummy has finally found you… she’ll never let you go again…

Little Lion, Tadpole, and many others are chasing her.

LITTLE LION: Jinwa… my son…

Some of the time, Chen Mei is alone onstage, running and looking over her shoulder, at other times she shouts to people she passes: Help, save me, save my baby.

Some of the time, she and the people chasing her are on the stage together. Chen Mei shouts to people on the street: Help, save us! Little Lion and the others shout to the people ahead: Stop her. Stop that baby stealer, stop that madwoman!

Chen Mei stumbles, clambers to her feet, stumbles again, gets up again.

The fast, lively, shrill music of an opera fiddle together with a baby’s cries form a background from when the curtain goes up till the curtain falls.

Curtain

Act VIII

The TV drama Gao Mengjiu is being filmed.

The main hall of a county yamen during the Republican era. Though there are signs of reform, it basically follows the old patterns. The words ‘justice’ and ‘integrity’ are carved into a signboard hanging above the hall. One scroll to the side of the signboard proclaims: ‘Wind, then rain, then the blue sky’. Its mate on the other side proclaims: ‘The civil, the martial, and the barbaric’. A large shoe rests on an altar in the centre of the hall.

Gao Mengjiu is in a black tunic and top hat, a watch chain looping out of his breast pocket. Yamen clerks stand straight on both sides of the stage, each holding a long red and black ‘fire and water’ club, but they are dressed in modern black tunics, a comical effect.

The director, cameraman, and sound technician move around busily.

DIRECTOR: Take your places. Ready — action!