The Burgoise Toy

By Tim Erasmi

            The Headman gathered all of the people in his village together in order to welcome their new members. Two young intellectuals from the city had been sent to him in order to be re-educated. The Headman did not take the matter very lightly. He was extremely serious about the responsibility that had been entrusted to him. He was a devout communist and a true follower of  Mao Zedong.

            At the welcoming ceremony The Headman shuffled through all of the intellectuals belongings to make sure that they were appropriate and nothing against Mao Zedong. As the Headman was shuffling through their belongings he came across a violin. The people of the village had never seen a violin before and this made them curious. The Headman inspected the violin very thoroughly. The Headman shook the violin violently in order to see if anything would come out of the sound holes. Then he sniffed the neck of the violin up and down. After much investigation the Headman came to the conclusion that it was a toy. It was passed among the villagers who drummed on it and fiddled with it. They decided that they would burn the toy and they raced to see who could burn it first.

Then one of the young men from the city declared that it was a musical instrument. He told the headman that his friend was a talented musician and the violin was his tool. As one of the boys began to tune the violin the other announced that the music the villagers were about to witness was that of Mozart and the song was named Mozart is thinking of Chairman Mao. This impressed the Headman as he was a supporter of anything that had to do with Chairman Mao. He approved the choice of music and was satisfied with what he witnessed. The look on his face softened and the whole village relaxed and listened to the intellectual play his “toy”.