Forgotten

Daniel York Loh

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781786825032
• eBook ISBN: 9781786825049
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Chinese History
• Index: History

'The foreign devils will be entranced by our performance and line our path back to Shandong with gold and cherry blossoms…' 1917. Shandong Province, Northern China. Times are tough in Horse Shoe Village. Old Six and Second Moon struggle to earn enough to feed their young child. Big Dog struggles to overcome opium addiction and for Eunuch Lin, the fall of the Imperial Dynasty couldn't have come at a worse time. Could a fierce war far away in Europe present an opportunity to put both themselves and their struggling nation on its feet? Forgotten is inspired by the little-known story of the 140, 000 Chinese Labour Corps who left everything and travelled halfway around the world to work for Britain and the Allies behind the front lines during World War One.

Act One

1. WEDGE: IN WHICH WE SEE ONE VERSION OF THE ENDING OF THE STORY

Somewhere in France on a battlefield in the mud.

OLD SIX with BIG DOG laid in front of him, dead. The sounds of explosions far off.

OLD SIX: (Calling out.) HEEEY!!!

CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME??? HEEEEY!!!

My friend…

My friend Big Dog…

Actually, I say ‘friend,’ but really I should say ‘brother.’

Because we Chinese, in the Confucian ethos, tend to the familial with one another.

Everyone to us is an aunt or an uncle, first cousin or mother, grandpa or father, a sister or a brother.

So my brother Big Dog…

He was called ‘Big Dog’ because he was big and looked like a dog.

He got smashed to pieces by a mother-and-son cannon shell (we’re even familial with weapons from hell) and now my brother Big Dog’s guts have spilled out all over this trench and all over this battlefield and his celestial Confucian blood now mingles with that of the dead Western heroes who didn’t know he was called Big Dog who couldn’t tell us apart one from the other but now he’s dead he’s surely their brother too.

We can’t leave, Big Dog. We can’t leave…

(Sings.)

‘Jingyang Ridge the way back home

Inn to rest, cure traveller’s woes…’

During the above, unseen by OLD SIX, SECOND MOON has entered. She is a bizarre sight. Dressed in an ‘opera coat,’ wearing a false beard on her face to denote she is playing a man, with a baby strapped to her stomach. Unlike OLD SIX, she is in full ‘opera mode’ – stylised walking in a long circle around the stage, in ‘character.’

SECOND MOON: (Takes up the song.)

‘Dark is the night and gone is the day

From Magic Traveller we learn the Way’

OLD SIX: (Seeing SECOND MOON, astonished.) You!

SECOND MOON: (As MIRACULOUS TRAVELLER.) ‘Pilgrim Wu Song!’

OLD SIX: You can’t be here!

SECOND MOON: (As MIRACULOUS TRAVELLER.) ‘I travel the circle of the stage, Pilgrim Wu Song.’

OLD SIX: But this is no stage!

SECOND MOON: (As MIRACULOUS TRAVELLER.) ‘Wu Song the Pilgrim –’

OLD SIX: No, I’m Old Six –

SECOND MOON: (As MIRACULOUS TRAVELLER.) ‘– gallant warrior of the marsh.’

OLD SIX: I’m no gallant warrior.

SECOND MOON: (As MIRACULOUS TRAVELLER.) ‘You slay tigers, kill whole armies, wield flashing swords/ deal death so harsh.’

OLD SIX: (At the same time.) No. No, I can’t.

SECOND MOON: (As MIRACULOUS TRAVELLER.) ‘Rise up, brother! Come with me!’

OLD SIX: The cannon shell killed Big Dog and broke my legs. I can’t move.

SECOND MOON: (As MIRACULOUS TRAVELLER.) ‘You need but walk the circle, Pilgrim Wu Song.’

OLD SIX: Back home?

SECOND MOON: (Reciting.) ‘The Miraculous Traveller leads you, pilgrim. We shall return to our fraternity home on the marsh.’

OLD SIX: (Dares to believe.) ‘You have that marvellous ability to travel quickly, brother.’

SECOND MOON: (As if, even in a dream of an opera, her true self fights through.) Hush now, my love. This life is like red dust on the wind.

BANG!

A huge but almost slow-motion explosion. BANG!

The stage is rocked by explosions. SECOND MOON takes OLD SIX’s hand and he rises up along with BIG DOG, as they both travel the circle of the stage led by SECOND MOON, while drums and cymbals crash as the ‘opera’ commences…

OLD SIX and BIG DOG exit, leaving just SECOND MOON as MIRACULOUS TRAVELLER to introduce the drama –

SECOND MOON: (As MIRACULOUS TRAVELLER.) ‘I am the Miraculous Traveller. I can cross oceans and lands in the same time the sun will rise and fall. I wear magic talismans, eat no fowl or hog or hound or hare, let not wine touch my lips, travel eight hundred li a day like wind…’

Drums, shrill pipe, cacophonous noise. Excited shouting…

2. IN WHICH WE MEET THE MAGICAL CHINESE VARIETY TROUPE OF HORSE SHOE VILLAGE

We are in Horse Shoe Village square. OLD SIX enters ‘transformed.’ They are in an ‘opera.’ BIG DOG has joined EUNUCH LIN. They both bang drums and clappers making the distinctive ‘clack-clack-clack’ Chinese theatre noise. Around them, watching, are assorted villagers, including HEADMAN ZHANG and LONGEVITY LIN.

ALL: (Singing.)

‘Jingyang Ridge the way back home

Inn to rest, cure traveller’s woes

Dark is the night and gone is the day

From Mag...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Act One
• Act Two
• Acknowledgements