Chapter 525 - The Women's Issue
As she listened, Li Mei grew interested—though not in protecting women's rights. What caught her attention was a new business opportunity.
Li Mei was, at heart, a businesswoman. A businesswoman seizes every opportunity, even at the most inopportune moments. Five minutes earlier she had been worrying whether the masses would "collectivize" her Cooperative and whether she could save her property at all; now she was already scheming to profit from sex-starved shut-ins.
These five hundred men had considerable needs. Li Mei mused silently: the entertainment industry was easy money. In another timeline, the required investment was too large, the waters too murky, and she had to consider her daughter-in-law's career—she had never dared even think about it. But in this timeline, things were different.
Her mental abacus spun: what scale would be needed? What décor style? How much investment? Where would the capital come from?
Seeing Li Mei's grave expression, Du Wen assumed her words had made a powerful impression—until Li Mei began showing intense interest in opening a nightclub or similar establishment and peppered Du Wen with questions.
Once Du Wen perceived Li Mei's true motives, the conversation soured. Only when Li Mei mentioned her worries about the Cooperative's future did Du Wen find a fresh angle.
"If men move against the Women's Cooperative today, tomorrow they'll move against the interests of women as a whole," Du Wen said persuasively. "This conspiracy is closing in step by step. 'Personal secretaries,' 'maids'—aren't these just concubines in disguise? As women comrades, so many among us remain unawakened. Don't you see? We retreat one step, and the enemy advances one step!" She went on to propose that the women comrades in the transmigrated collective unite and "roar with a female voice" at this General Assembly.
Li Mei said nothing. She was interested in saving the Cooperative, not in women's rights. Hearing Du Wen ramble on without any substantive content, she had already lost interest.
Finally, Li Mei excused herself by claiming that her whole family held only temporary IDs and probably lacked the standing to submit proposals or vote at the General Assembly. She showed Du Wen to the door.
Du Wen, of course, knew that this "old capitalist" was insincere; her sole aim was to preserve the Cooperative. Inwardly, she seethed. She thought: when the Assembly convenes, I might as well lead the bombardment against the Cooperative and let the Executive Committee "collectivize" it outright. Then she remembered that Li Mei had once promised the Women's Federation five percent equity. If the Cooperative collapsed, that would be a real loss.
Du Wen was no fool. She understood what Director Ma had meant. Alone, she sat for a long time beneath the willows on the Wenlan River embankment, until Dong Weiwei came to call her for lunch and she snapped out of her reverie.
Dong Weiwei and Du Wen both worked at the Social Work Office under Wu De's Civil Affairs Commission. Ever since the two of them had opened up the Thirteen Villages area, Civil Affairs had designated it a pilot zone for grassroots governance. Du Wen, for her part, had turned Daolu Village into a showpiece for new rural construction, visiting every other day. Village Chief Liu Si dared not slack off; he was constantly busy responding to her various directives—until recently, when Wu De issued an order forbidding Social Work Office staff from going to the countryside around the New Year to give local cadres a rest. Only then did her schedule lighten.
Dong Weiwei lacked Du Wen's passion for political affairs. On days with no fieldwork or meetings, she practiced her sword techniques in the courtyard and wrote social-survey reports. She had no enthusiasm for Du Wen's campaign to defend women's rights. Seeing Du Wen brooding again, she tried to comfort her:
"What's the matter—still fretting over the personal-secretary issue?" Dong Weiwei had the look of someone observing a worrywart. "Men—they're obsessed with what's between their legs. So many bachelors—isn't it a good thing if they all have a woman? At least I'd feel safer taking a bath."
"Little Dong, you have to see through appearances to the essence," Du Wen shook her head. "Isn't this a reactionary resurgence of polygamy? Personal secretaries are concubines. Surely you can see that?"
"It's a system of one wife and multiple concubines," Dong Weiwei launched into pedantry. "A concubine is not the same as a wife—there are major differences in family rights and personal bondage…"
"Kept mistresses are illegal, too, and that doesn't stop them," Du Wen said.
"Right now, the goal is to solve the living problems of the majority of bachelors. You can't say, 'Because you might keep a mistress later, you're not allowed to have a woman now.' That's completely unreasonable."
"You'll see," Du Wen said listlessly. "It's only a matter of time."
Dong Weiwei urged her a bit more, asking her to come to lunch. Du Wen declined, saying she was not hungry.
As she sat alone on the bank of the Wenlan River, lost in thought, someone sat down beside her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw it was a man—a transmigrator—but she did not recognize him. Clearly, he was one of those generic rank-and-file types.
She was in no mood to ask why he had sat down next to her, much less to engage him. To her surprise, he spoke first.
"What's wrong—lost heart already?"
Du Wen was taken aback. His attitude suggested he knew her. She turned to study his face—no recollection at all.
He was around thirty, evidently strong and robust, with dark skin. He clearly had not been a "cadre" after D-Day—and she knew all the cadres; this man was not among them.
"Who are you?!" A woman's self-defense instincts made her draw back a step.
"You're Du Wen, right?" Unconcerned by her manner, he pulled a pack of "Sacred Ship" cigarettes from his pocket, shook one out, and lit it.
"That's right. Who are you?"
"Heh heh heh." The man suddenly laughed. "How's it going—women's work isn't easy, is it?"
The words struck her to the quick. She quickly glanced around, then asked again, "Who are you? What business is this of yours?"
"Let me give you a piece of advice." The man continued smoking, unconcerned. "Rather than this fruitless canvassing, why not get involved in the preparatory work for the Second General Assembly and think about what proposals to submit?"
"I don't need you to tell me that. Stop playing the aloof sage." Du Wen was not about to be outdone. Of course she had a proposal in mind: to propose the establishment of a Women's Federation. Relying solely on her own efforts was not enough; she needed an organization to rally women around her—not just transmigrators but indigenous women too.
"If you move to form a Women's Federation, it'll be shot down a hundred percent during the discussion phase." The man seemed to know her thoughts. "Men are the majority. Who would create trouble for themselves by forming a Women's Federation? Besides, even if it were established, what use would it be to them?" He coughed. "Your proposal has too obvious an agenda." Without waiting for Du Wen to ask, he flicked his ash. "Why not try this instead—"
After several rounds of meetings and votes, the caretaker cabinet finalized the schedule for the Second General Assembly and established its preparatory committee.
The preparatory committee was chaired by Wen Desi, with Ma Jia as vice-chairman. Most of the staff came from the Law-Studies Club—essentially the same team as the Maid Countermeasures Committee. Two signs on one door.
To balance reactions from all quarters and represent public sentiment more broadly, the preparatory committee also recruited one or two specialists from each professional field.
Proposal submissions opened at 0:00 on January 10, 1630, and closed at 24:00 on January 15. Every transmigrator had the right to submit proposals; there was no limit on the number of proposals per person. The full text of each proposal was posted on a dedicated forum on the internal BBS for all to browse. Each proposal required co-signatures from five percent of all transmigrators to become valid and proceed to the discussion phase. Each transmigrator could co-sign up to five proposals.
From January 15 to January 25 was the discussion phase. The format was unrestricted—BBS or group discussions were both acceptable. After discussion, a proposal required co-signatures from ten percent of transmigrators to advance to the open-debate and voting stages of the Assembly. Again, each transmigrator could co-sign up to five proposals.
The period from January 10 to January 25 was the preliminary phase; everyone continued their normal work and conducted discussion and proposal work only during off-hours.
The General Assembly formally convened on January 26 for a five-day session. The agenda included the First Executive Committee's report on its tenure, open debate on proposals, and voting. Except for a very few personnel who could not be recalled from overseas postings, all transmigrator expatriates would be called back. Those unable to attend due to work requirements could be briefed on proposals and vote via telegraph and telephone.
Given that proposals might be numerous and there might not be time to debate and vote on each during the Assembly, those advancing to the floor would be tiered. Proposals involving the transmigrated collective's future development, legislation, or other major matters—as well as any with over fifty percent co-signatures—would be designated Tier-One Proposals and given priority.
The moment this plan was announced, interested parties throughout the collective began convening private meetings to discuss their proposals. Some were canvassing for co-signatures before their proposals were even published. Yi Fan was especially diligent, writing proposals late into the night after his auditing duties; his proposals alone filled a large binder.
Ma Jia and his core cadres, in addition to handling the Committee's administrative work during the day, organized nightly sessions with all Club members, drafting all manner of legal proposals for submission to the Assembly for deliberation.
Caretaker-cabinet members were either canvassing and holding talks, or holed up in their offices writing. Only Xiao Zishan seemed relaxed. Aside from the routine processing of correspondence and maintenance of the transmigrated collective's normal operations, his main task was to implement the maid initiative and make it a reality.
"Telegram from Lingao!" Zhang Yuchen emerged from the radio room, dispatch in hand, and delivered it to the other members of the Guangzhou Station who had been awaiting the latest directives from Lingao.
(End of Chapter)