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The Smoking Problem
Wu Fingping InterviewPlease read this AFTER you have written your paper!A portion of an interview with Wu Fengping and his spouse Tang Mei. (Wu is dying from lung cancer.)Interviewer: Lately, have you been thinking about anything in particular? Wu: Lots of things. What caused my cancer especially. Interviewer: Would you be willing to share any of that with me? Wu: My doctors say smoking, they say smoking is probably the main cause for my cancer. I’m so young, though. And I know so many people who have smoked much more, much longer than me. Look at them, have they all gotten sick? No. And how about Mao, Deng Xiaoping, and all the cadres you always see smoking on TV. They smoke and smoke. Do they all get lung cancer? Interviewer: So, what do you think is the reason for your sickness? Tang Mei (Wu’s spouse): Smoking. Wu: Yes, I’m sick because of cigarettes. What does it say on the pack? Smoking harms health”. The government is always telling people to stop smoking because it’s dangerous. I just never thought cigarettes would hurt me at such a young age. Interviewer: Hmm, yes, yes, I know. Wu: Something else, falling ill like this has been forcing me to think back a great deal about my life. It has been forcing me to look at old photos and think back about all the cigarettes I’ve smoked over the years. Getting sick really forces you to think back about how your life has gone. Interviewer: What have been your reflections? Wu: I started smoking because it was important, so important for being a man. It was important for developing my life… I started to smoke when I finished high school and began working. Then, once I started, I just kept smoking, because it was important for keeping my life on track, getting along with people, managing problems. And I kept smoking because it was one of the few day-to-day pleasures I had. Interviewer: Have you been thinking back about anything else? Wu: Um, yeah, how before graduating high school, my friends and I played around with cigarettes. It was just play. You know, boys playing with men’s things. My parents didn’t like that I did it because cigarettes are especially dangerous for the very young. But after I started to work, it became important for my life and they had to recognize that. My father smokes. Nearly all my uncles smoke. It’s hard becoming an adult in China and not smoking. I mean it’s hard to become an adult man and not smoke. On my first day at work, my colleagues started giving me cigarettes. You know, offering cigarettes (fayan). I had to accept and smoke those cigarettes and then every day give some back. Interviewer: Did you ever exchange cigarettes with women at work? Wu: No, no, of course not. Just men. Just men. Back and forth. You give cigarettes. They give cigarettes back. It’s terribly rude if you don’t. This custom is so important for everything men do. Interviewer: How about for women? Tang Mei: It’s not important and it looks bad. Some [women] smoke, but they usually hide away. They don’t get together and offer cigarettes (fayan) like men. For men, offering cigarettes is a must. It makes everything in life go more smoothly. Wu: That is except if you’re unlucky. [Sigh] Then you get sick like me. Tang Mei: Yeah, what miserable luck. Now, what can we do? Just try to get healthy again, you know, find very effective treatment. Wu: Yes, all one can do is try to find effective treatment. Interviewer: Last time we spoke, you told me that you’ve nearly always smoked Red River brand. Why Red River? Wu: I had to buy something, and that’s the brand I like. We’re from Chuxiong [which has its own prefectural cigarette company] but I like the taste of Red River [prefecture’s] cigarettes. Red River is a famous, high quality cigarette company. I’m sure you’ve seen its ads. Interviewer: Do either of you blame the Red River cigarette company or the officials who created it for getting you addicted to cigarettes? Tang Mei: Why would we blame them? Wu: They started the factory to help Red River. Sure, cigarettes are dangerous, they kill people, that’s why they put lots of warning labels everywhere. But, if not producing cigarettes, how is a poor place like Chuxiong or Red River going to get ahead quickly? Governments all over the world do this. Interviewer: So where does the responsibility lie for you and other men like you getting sick? Wu: Look around. So many people now, men like me, are sickened by years of smoking cigarettes. We push to get into good hospitals, which have more patients like me now than they know what to do with. We get treatment, sometimes lots of treatment, and then, go home and wait to die. I’ve thought about that. I’ve thought back, way back, about so many years of my life, all the smoking I’ve done, all the people I’ve been with. Responsible? Who’s responsible? Aiya! This is just the way things are ... Smoking, that’s what men must do. That’s what they must do to get along and succeed. Three lung cancer patients’ statementsXu Rongli Here in the hospital, it’s hard sleeping, especially on nights after receiving chemotherapy. Often I lie in bed in the middle of the night and wonder who is to blame for this situation? It’s so complicated! I’m sick because of cigarette smoking, right? Do you know how many people have given me cigarettes? So many! The people I work with. My cousins. My old classmates. My neighbors. Am I to blame them for this sickness? Of course not. But those are the people with whom I’ve smoked all these years. They’ve given me cigarettes, I’ve given them cigarettes, they’ve given me cigarettes.
Zhang Jie My doctors say I’m sick because I smoked. So, of course, I ask myself, all those years, why did I smoke so much? I started in middle school, stealing cigarettes from my dad. My friends and I used to sneak off and smoke together. Sometimes they’d supply the cigarettes. Sometimes I’d supply them. Acting like big shots. Trying to be a “real man” (nanzihan) ... Since then, everyone has gotten addicted to nicotine. And everyone who’s made more money has been buying better, more expensive cigarettes, using them to make connections (guanxi). Before I got sick and quit, every day, like everyone else, I’d be tossing cigarettes at others from packs that were each 10, 15, 20 yuan. What fun! But [sigh], that’s what caused me to be in this desperate situation. All of us smoking so much ... Now, my wife sometimes gets frustrated when friends come to visit me and she sees them exchanging cigarettes. I understand her frustration. But it’s not like we can criticize them. Those are my friends. It would be rude.
Lin Xupeng Cigarettes were so much a part of my life for so many years. To think back now and know that’s what’s killing me. Strange, so strange. Everything of importance I’ve done in my life, all the things making me feel good have involved getting together with others, developing relationships, and smoking. And when I wasn’t with others giving cigarettes or receiving cigarettes, I’d be off by myself smoking, using cigarettes to manage my mood. My gemen [literally “brothers”, but idiomatically meaning a man’s “male associates”] and I used to joke by saying, how can any of us live without cigarettes ... Now here I am, so sick ... I wonder sometimes if any of them feel bad for giving me so many cigarettes all those years. If it wasn’t for them, who knows if I’d have smoked so much. I quit once or twice but it never stuck because I always had to smoke with my gemen or smoke to help business along. Three family members’ statementsA Spouse Last year, after he got sick, I started thinking back about all the cigarette smoking [my husband] did ... So many people were involved ... Like him, his friends, the people he worked with, so many were always pulling out packs and offering cigarettes. On holidays, family members would be offering cigarettes back and forth and smoking. Sometimes I’d even buy [my husband] a carton to share with his friends. And now [sigh] this is all causing us so much pain.
An Adult Daughter What’s that expression? Men who don’t smoke will work in vain to ascend to top of the world (Nanren buchouyan baizaishi shangding). I remember my dad repeating that in the past. Is that why he smoked so much? … He began when he was in the army for a few years and then never stopped. Over the years, he and his friends, comrades, brothers were always smoking together. If that’s what men do, maybe I should make all those people pay for his hospital bills. Ha! Never. Not possible.
A Father When he got sick, I’d think back to when [my son] was a boy. His mom and I used to tell him not to smoke. But, then he grew up and got a job. To succeed, he had to smoke with all his colleagues… His company even gave him a cigarette stipend for business trips. After he started making big money, he’d even buy me fancy cigarettes, really expensive ones at New Year ... Now [sigh] my son is gone. My poor grandchild. Why my son? Why not me? I’ve smoked much longer. Doesn’t seem right ... Maybe I should have pushed him to smoke less. My wife says that sometimes.
A statement by Wu Fengping shortly before his death So many people now, men like me, are sickened by years of smoking cigarettes. We push to get into good hospitals, which have more patients like me now than they know what to do with. We get treatment, sometimes lots of treatment, and then, usually, go home and wait to die” Click here to go to the Class Assignment |
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