Chimerica

Chimerica - Lucy Kirkwood

Act One - 8 scenes 

Act One, Scene 1 begins with the image of the Tank man (a Chinese man in a white shirt with two shopping bags) at the Tiananmen Square. He is a young Chinese protestor and his photograph was captured by an American reporter named Joe Schofield through a Hotel window. (This happens in the year 1989) Scene 2 describes the conversation between Joe Schofield and his editor Frank Hadley. While Joe is at Tiananmen square at China, his editor is in America. As the Tank Man appears, Joe captures his pictures and meanwhile gets attacked by the Chinese Police as the scene closes. However, 23 years later, Joe conducts another investigation to trace the history of the Tank Man. Act One is juxtaposed between two time frames 1989 and 2012. (Tiananman square protest and American Elections respectively). His return to Beijing and his meeting with his old friend Zhang Lin makes him realise that the Tank man is still alive. Zhang Lin’s brother Zhang Wei, whose son Benny is studying at Harvard is also mentioned in the scenes. According to the brothers, the Tank Man’s name is Wang Pengfei and he is still alive in the United States. Joe’s return to New York forces him to conduct his investigation on this Tank Man. He meets another journalist named Paul Kramer to get more details as his earlier article mentioned the execution of the Tank man. However, his attempt goes futile. He decides to continue his search. The act also introduces two other characters Mel Stanwyck, a colleague of Joe who accompanies him during his trip to China. We also meet a lady character named Tessa Kendrick whom Joe meets from the airplane during his journey. The first act also exposes the past incidents in the life of Zhang Lin in the year 1989 during the hunger strike along with his wife Liuli. We also hear about their coughing neighbour - an old lady named Ming Xiaoli.

Act Two - 8 scenes 

Act two begins at Colarado. The year is 2012 with the United States Presidential Election going on. As Joe scuddles through his investigation for the young Chinese protestor, he gets a call from Frank informing about two advertisements placed by a woman in the Beijing Evening News. One is “in memory of the mothers who lost on 64” and the second is “ To Wang Pengfei, the unknown hero of the square”. 64 refers to June 4th, 1989 when the massacre happened at the Tiananmen square. As the censorship part of every country wants their history of atrocity erased from every paper, the girl named Mary Chang who published the news got fired and ends up in a strip club. Hearing the turn of events, Joe and Mel meet Mary Chang to get the identity of the woman who placed the add and her name is Feng Meihui. Meanwhile Zhang Lin in his apartment keeps recording the past events of 1989 through a microphone. He narrates his love story as a young man and how he saw the beautiful Liuili in an Appliance store opening the door of a brand new refrigerator. He goes and buys the refrigerator and his fantasy makes him think that the beautiful girl is inside the refrigerator. Joe somehow finds the address of the woman who placed the add and meets her along with her daughter Jenifer. She speaks about her lost son who got killed in the crib with a bullet. She confesses that the second add was given by her for an unknown person as he offered her money. She remembers his name as Jimmy Wang. She also adds that he should be working in a flower store now. As per this information, Joe and Mel visit the flower store and meet a man called Pengsi, but unfortunately couldn’t gather more ideas on the Tank man. 

Act Three - 7 scenes

As Act three opens, we find Joe, Mel and Tess involved in a political conversation from Joe’s apartment. Soon after this, Frank meets Joe and asks him to drop the story of the Tank man which makes Joe completely frustrated. In Beijing, Zhang Lin sells the refrigerator he bought in the year 1987 to a young businesswoman named Deng. Xioli dies and Zhangh Lin continues his writing about pollution and smog. Joe continues his hunt for the tank Man. 

Act Four - Eleven Scenes

As Election work happens in America, Zhang Lin’s apartment in Beijing is searched by security men. Lin’s online writings on party corruption and smog was noted by the party officials. His laptop is seized, he is handcuffed and is dragged out of the apartment. It is understood that his article was firewalled as it was illegal to incite unrest through online articles according to Chinese Law. As he had passed the same write up to Joe in New York, he too suffers the consequences. Zhang Lin is now tied to a chair and his whole body covered with wounds and electric shock is administered. The scene then shifts to 1989 where Zhang Lin and Liuili wait at Tiananman square for the protest. He keeps Luili at a hidden zone to protect her from rubber bullets as she was pregnant and tired. The scene again shifts where David hands over an address slip to Joe and Joe goes in search of the Tank man again. Joe reaches the earlier flower store of Pengsi and kicks up a row. At the end he realises that the soldier in that picture was in fact Pengsi’s brother and Pengsi is not the Tank man’s brother as Joe had thought. Pengsi also adds that his soldier brother was executed for his soft hearted nature. His brother was the soldier who drove the tank. Soon after this, the police arrests Joe and he is bailed out by Frank while Tess along with Benny wait at the Restaurant for Joe.  

Act Five - 4 Scenes 

The Act begins with a conversation between Zhang Lin and Zhang Wei. Zhang Lin plans for an American trip. On the other side in New York, Joe meets a pregnant Tess. Tess is dating Mike but Joe realises that it is his child. The very next scene begins with a gallery Exhibition by Joy at Midtown Manhattan which includes the eponymous picture of the Tank man. Mel comes to the gallery and during the conversation between Mel and Joe, Benny - Zhang Lin’s nephew appears along with his father. Their talk gives a hint to the real identity of the Tank man. Zhang Wei hands over a recorded audio from Zhang Lin to Joe and he listens and he understands that the real tank man is none other than Zhang Lin. Lin was wounded in the Tiananman square protest and Liuili, his pregnant wife was killed. A nurse offers him a new white shirt and she packs all the remaining belongings of the dead Luili in two grocery bags to Lin. He carries it and walks towards the Tank. The men look at one another as the story comes to an end. 

Dr. Krishna Sunder A.