XINRAN: So you had two wives? You were married twice?
WU: Let's not talk about that, I couldn't be doing with the first one; she didn't have any progressive thought at all, and she wasn't capable. So I got another wife. The second one, she could talk sense.
XINRAN: Is she a good cook?
WU: Pretty good – dumplings, flat pancakes on the stove, she can do the lot.
XINRAN: When your father was alive was his tea house called 'the tea house', or did it have another name?
WU: It was just called the tea house. In the past there were storytellers and drum-singers in the tea houses. He sold his tea, you did your singing, he'd give you money every month, plus tips from the customers. Nowadays opera singers all sing on the stage. They turn their noses up at the tea houses – not enough space.
XINRAN: So tell me what you did all day, from when you got up in the morning to when you went to bed at night.
WU: I ran the tea house with my old man, I carried water. Every day was the same, what's to talk about? At first I went to school, until grade three. I was stupid so I stopped going. I said to my dad, 'I'll do whatever you tell me to.' He said, 'You carry water, I'll run the tea house, and the place'll be full of the sound of slurping tea.' I said, 'What use is that?' He said, 'What's good about running a tea house? I'm telling you, this tea house of ours is the place in the village where people talk sense. If anyone in the tea house says unreasonable things, the tea house will meet to pass judgement. The tea house is just like a court, it's like the law. And there's another good thing about a tea house: people get angry, and if they get angry at home, they fight with their sons or scold their daughters-in- law, but once they're in the tea house they don't stay angry, they chat and laugh – a trip to the tea house is a happy thing, a tea house is a good place. Besides, in the tea house you can hear about big matters from outside. Otherwise you'd be living in a dead end, wouldn't you?'
XINRAN: Then what time did you and your father start work every day, and when did you open?
WU: The tea house opened very early, six or so in winter, in summer a bit after five. We heated the water, and once the water was boiled we'd pour tea for the customers. We'd have customers as soon as it was light. As long as there was boiling water there'd be people coming to drink. People who were happy or angry would come early, and old people too. They would wake up early, while their family were still snoring away. There were no lights on at home, and no one to keep them company or talk about their dreams, so they came very early. And they drank until eight or nine in the evening. They used to come straight after supper, some from eight or ten li away. They all wanted to come and drink tea.
XINRAN: So in your opinion, now that life has changed so much for the better, and people in so many places don't want to run tea houses any more, why is it that here it seems everyone is competing to open tea houses?
WU: Who knows? In the past, before the Liberation, there were only two or three tea houses. They were quite rare and special. Now there are more tea houses, two or three with every step. A lot of people are running tea houses in Linhuan these days.
XINRAN: Are there more people drinking tea now, or before?
WU: I think there's even more than there used to be. In the past the tea drinkers were always old men, and that's the truth. Nowadays all the young people drink in the teahouses. Now it's three jiao to stay till eleven. That's three jiao a pot. It was cheaper before.
XINRAN: Did you drink tea when you were young?
WU: Yes, whenever I had time on my hands.
XINRAN: Are tea houses now the same as the one your father ran?
WU: My old man's tea house wasn't as pretty as this one.
XINRAN: Do you know how many pots the biggest tea house here has?
WU: The most? That would be two hundred or more.
XINRAN: In the biggest tea house here, what's the greatest number of people drinking tea together? A few dozen? A hundred? More?
WU: It could be 150, maybe more.
XINRAN: Can you still remember any of the words on the lucky couplets stuck to the door of the tea house?
WU: Not really. I know there are new lucky couplets for Spring Festival every year, but I can't read. I don't know, sometimes I ask people to read them out for me.
XINRAN: So what lucky couplets do you ask people to write for you at New Year?
WU: They're all to do with tea houses, places to drink tea and people who drink tea.
XINRAN: Do you know how your father got married to your mother?
WU: Someone introduced them. My dad was over fifty by the time he had me.
XINRAN: Did your father ever tell you his story?
WU: When he was telling me off he always used to say that he'd done all sorts of things, making lanterns, selling rice, keeping a tea house, but he'd never been black at heart. At any rate my old dad was a good man.
XINRAN: What did your father like to do?
WU: Make hurricane lanterns – he used to sell lanterns every year. Making lanterns, and running a tea house.
XINRAN: And what do you like to do?
WU: I do everything. I've sold rice, I've run a tea house, and sold peanuts. I've sold a lot of things.
XINRAN: Then in the Cultural Revolution was this tea house still open? Did the Red Guards drink tea too?
WU: In the Cultural Revolution they didn't let us watch opera, but tea houses could stay open. What law was there against drinking tea? The tea houses stayed open, business as usual.
XINRAN: Is the tea these days the same as before?
WU: In the past we didn't drink the kind with tea leaves. The tea now is better. In the past there weren't any proper buildings. Now there are buildings made specially for tea houses, made of bricks instead of beaten earth.
XINRAN: Do a lot of young people run tea houses now?
WU: Not many. They've gone away to make money. Most people who keep tea houses are sixty or over.
XINRAN: Do any of your children run a tea house? What do they do?
WU: Cut hair, sell rice, sell clothes, kill pigs. But none of them have a tea house.
XINRAN: And do you and your wife live by yourselves? Or do you live with your sons?
WU: By ourselves. It's the New Society now, the new family. Everybody makes their own money and spends it themselves.
XINRAN: Do your sons give you money to keep you going?
WU: They give me money, but I don't want it. My grandson's heading off to university. That's going to cost a lot of money.
XINRAN: So do your sons like drinking tea in the tea houses?
WU: Only one of them. He drinks every day. The rest of them don't like it. They say it's a waste of time.
XINRAN: You say you joined the Party in 1954. What were you doing at that time?
WU: In 1950, just after Liberation, I was a security officer. In 1951 I was made village head and then deputy head of the production brigade. I never took a penny. I joined the Party in 1954, my wife joined in 1955, and that's the truth, as I'm sitting here.
XINRAN: Have your sons joined the Party?
WU: My second son joined the Party while he was in the army.
XINRAN: You, your wife, and your son too. You must be regarded as a red family, with three Party members.
WU: That goes without saying!
XINRAN: Do you still have Party meetings?
WU: We don't now.
XINRAN: If you don't have Party meetings, do you still count as a Party member?
WU: I can't say for sure.
XINRAN: How many Party members are there in your village now?
WU: There are still a few dozen.
