New Tales of the Great Wall
June Chong, Group 3: Fiction, Maryknoll Convent School Secondary Section
13
th July 2011
ear diary,
It’s finally summer- it’s time for the school trip to China! I immigrated to the US since I was
one, but I’ve always longed to visit China- the country where my father was from. I simply can’t
wait! China, open the doors wide because here I come!
15
th July 2013
Dear diary,
We have arrived here in Beijing, China. Everything is so different. China seems so foreign and new to
me. I wish I could unravel all of China’s secrets before I leave.
I stare at the old and ancient palaces around me while my schoolmates and I walk along the pavements
of Beijing. I was intrigued by the palaces’ grand yet detailed designs. I was astonished by Beijing’s mixture of
old and new buildings. The city continues to surprise me.
I gape at the weird-but-has-a-surprisingly-delicious-fragrance food: chicken feet, dried cuttlefish and
many more. How different China and America’s culture and cuisine is.
We’ve discovered quite a lot of this interesting capital in a day. Tomorrow we shall all visit Great Wall
which is one of the seven wonders of the world.
16
th July, 2013
Dear diary,
You simply wouldn’t believe what happened in the Great Wall today.
We had set off bright and early in the morning so that we would have good progress on the Great Wall
before returning back. Our teacher, Miss Minchin, who was in charge of this school trip gathered us around
before setting off. She told us,
“
Now girls, I didn’t hire a guide for this particular monument because it had taught me so much in the
past when I was young and visited the Great Wall myself. You wouldn’t believe the secrets and stories of the
Great Wall, but perhaps some of you girls may have the honour of finding it out by yourself. Pull yourselves
away from the chit-chat for once, and you would notice some amazing things.”
That was the last piece of advice Miss Minchin gave us before scurrying us off. I decided to listen to
Miss Minchin’s advice and walked alone in the warm sunshine.
I stepped up another flight of stairs. I felt exhausted so I leaned on the cool brick wall on my left.
Suddenly, I heard some small whispers of sounds . I turned around, petrified. What I saw was beyond my
imagination. The cool grey bricks had each turned into fraction of an image. Together, they formed the ultimate
picture. The image moved about, showing that it was actually a video clip. Curious to know what was
happening, I knelt on the ground and watched as the video played:
The video started off with a huge crack. A man who was around his twenties, shouldered in rags, was
being whipped by a soldier who wore a uniform that was made of steel. The comparison of attire proved the
different social status. One was a servant and the other the master- the one in charge. I flinched as an old
memory of mine flashed in my mind. I have an older brother who was not very good at academic results in high
school. As a result, our father would constantly beat him with a whip to punish him for his bad grades. It was
horrible. I couldn’t escape from the cracks and cries in the house. I was simply forced to listen to my brother’s
aching cries as I could do nothing. I remember the bleeding scars all over my brother’s back every morning. I
would bite my lips until they bled and say nothing. As a result, my brother did indeed work hard for better
grades so as to avoid the beating and is now currently in a good university. However, I could never really
forgive our father. It always seemed so cruel and beastly of him to do such a thing to his own son.
I didn’t notice I was crying until I felt my bitter tears trail slowly down my cheek. I stared at the young
man and noticed in astonishment that he was almost the exact same copy of my brother. I was wondering how
this could be when some white bold words slowly started to appear under the video. It read,
“
Charles Deng. A brother and son who served well for his country building the Great Wall.”
I gasped as I pieced the story together: Charles Deng must have been one of my ancestors and my
parents, grandparents, brother, me etc were his descendants. My brother and Charles looked alike because they
were family. Through countless generations, Charles had a descendant who looked almost exactly like him. Oh,
the wonders of science! I didn’t even notice that the video image slowly faded away as I thought of my
wonderful discovery. I knelt for a few more seconds, to finally sink the truth in before I stood up once again and
walked on.
D