Temple and the Town God Temple. It’s the perfect place to watch The Seventh Fairy Delivers her Son to Earth!’
‘Is the opera based on the weaver girl and the cowherd story?’ Meili asks, putting her arm around Nannan. She cracks a sunflower seed between her teeth and spits the shell onto her bulge. ‘Here,’ she says, offering some seeds to Nannan.
‘You know I don’t like them,’ Nannan says, pushing them away.
‘But these ones are freshly roasted, just try one – they’re delicious,’ Meili says, wishing Nannan would overcome her irrational dislike of seeds. The drums are so loud now, she has to raise her voice to be heard.
‘Yes, the Seventh Fairy is the weaver girl, the seventh daughter of the Jade Emperor and the Mother of the West. When she fell pregnant with the cowherd’s child, her mother was furious and commanded her to return to Heaven. Now that it’s born, she has to hand it over to the father.’
Gongs, violins, drums and guitars all sound out at once, drawing the audience’s attention to the brightly lit stage, where two men with hoses are filling the air with white smoke in preparation of the fairy’s descent to earth.
‘Look, there she is!’ Nannan cries out, jumping to her feet. A canvas backdrop is lowered, revealing the green landscape of terraced tea plantations beneath a clear blue sky. The sea of heads, hats and paper fans below wave about in anticipation.
A woman in a jewel-encrusted headdress and a long red robe wafts down from the sky with a baby in her arm, singing: ‘The Seventh Fairy cradles her swaddled baby son, and looks down at the Nine Regions and weeps, her tears flowing like a river . . .’
‘This is boring,’ Nannan moans. ‘I much preferred the moon-dancing policemen just now.’ This free show has been staged by the Foshan Song and Dance Troupe and the Shenxian County Cantonese Opera Company to celebrate 1 August Army Day. Meili, Kongzi and Nannan arrived at the theatre at five o’clock to make sure they’d get seats.
‘Shut up!’ Kongzi says, tapping Nannan’s leg.
‘My darling son is too young to know the meaning of grief, to know how my heart breaks at the thought of leaving him . . .’ the fairy sings. The cowherd walks onto the stage wearing a headdress decorated with pompoms and tassels, a thick-belted tunic and padded boots. To a melancholy strain from the violins, he twirls around the fairy and takes her in his arms.
‘Feel how fast my heart is beating, Kongzi,’ Meili says, pressing his hand against her chest. The sunflower seeds on her belly scatter to the floor. ‘The baby reminds me of Waterborn. She was no bigger than that when you sold her. I was still producing milk six months after she was gone. My body was yearning for her to come back.’
Kongzi pulls his hand away and takes a swig of Coca-Cola. Nannan sees a classmate in the crowd and waves to her. The sweltering, muggy air smells of cigarette smoke, sweat and sulphur. The open-air Ming Dynasty theatre is on the north shore of Womb Lake. Its ornate stage resembles the entrance to the Confucius Temple, with a golden roof supported by large red pillars. Lights pointing at the upturned eaves illuminate strange carved beasts glaring at the audience with mouths agape.
‘Forget your sorrow for a moment,’ the cowherd sings to the fairy. ‘Let me wipe the hot tears from your face, and hold my son in my arms.’ He takes the baby from the fairy and, gazing down at him, dances about the stage, the drums beating in time with his rhythmic steps.
‘That baby’s not real,’ Nannan says, brushing a mosquito off her arm. ‘See, it’s not moving at all.’
‘I am a celestial being and you a mere mortal,’ the fairy sings. ‘Our love defies the Laws of Heaven. For giving you a male heir, I have been berated and humiliated . . .’ As the fairy bursts into tears on the stage, in the unlit darkness at the back of the theatre, Meili weeps as well. Although she can remain on the earth, she has to live like an escaped convict, searching in vain for a place where she can legally give birth to her child. At least no one has tried to harm the fairy’s son. As soon as her own son was born, he was killed and condemned to another reincarnation.
When Meili returns her tear-filled eyes to the stage, suddenly the