(3 of 6)
People's Daily front-pages a picture of Mao and Nixon. Nixon and Chou En-lai confer privately for four hours. Evening at the ballet:
The Chinese smile has spread this week. In the first hours there was a deep reserve, unmoved faces watching. The guards at the gates did not smile when they motioned you on. People on the street were remote. Then a perceptible change. Smiles from the guards. A real camaraderie with the interpreters. Jokes, laughter. Perhaps it was the big spread in the People's Daily, which certified that this group of Americans is okay.
Just as some ease is beginning to be established, there is this shattering spectacle. Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon at the ballet. Sitting cozily between them is Madame Mao, the fire-breathing dragon lady of the Cultural Revolution. They are observing the drama of a wicked landlord and how he beats the peasants who turn on him and join the Communists. They go off into the red sunset shooting, bombing and hacking their way to liberation and the new age. My God, this same Nixon is advocating cutting landlords' taxes back home and suggesting a generation of peace without bloodshed! Is there no consistency to be found in political experience? One sits in the seat and wonders, then laughs at the whole improbable world. The sight of this man and his glassy-eyed young aides who have ridden to power denouncing people like those in the ballet. No. 1 Imperialist Dog applauding No. 1 International Bandit. It boggles the mind. -
The artistic director of the Central Philharmonic Orchestra is Li Teh-lun. He is a round-faced, portly man who smiles when asked how the Cultural Revolution affected his orchestra and replies: "That is a long story." When pressed gently for a response, he says: "There was a change in the content but not the form of the orchestra." Then he explains how the orchestra no longer plays Western music publicly but rather adapts the best from Western music into new Chinese compositions. He says that Western music is still played privately. But the subject seems to pain him, as if one who has not experienced the Cultural Revolution could not possibly understand or appreciate the experience. It is like talking to someone who has just undergone the trauma of psychoanalysis and has not yet fully assimilated the impact.
There is an inner middle-American humility about Nixon; he is not usually a grandstander. His style is subdued, although in the larger sense he understands the elements of drama. His manner fits that of the Chinese. He dresses plainly. He does not plunge into crowds to shake hands. He moves slowly and talks rather sparingly. He does not launch himself on a grand tour, exhausting himself and his hosts.
His concentration on his meetings suggests he is a serious man who could be trusted. That is his central mission, and if he implants even a speck of that idea then he will make progress.
Third Day
More talks with Chou. Evening sports spectacle of gymnastics, bad minton, table tennis:
There is the feeling that Henry Kissinger and Chou En-lai put it all down on paper months ago, then stamped their chops on the agreement, shook hands and just waited for the actors to come onstage and do their parts.