Walls Remember

Ren runs up: a writer went back to Jinan, and the old station is gone. Granny Ume: the church reopened, for those who show papers. Mio asks about his old friend: an American soldier who stayed, branded a spy, hauling carts; cleared by 1980, he hung Mao on every wall. Poko: walls remember.

Back in Jinan, where he studied in 1980, the writer found the history he knew removed or fenced: the German-built railway station torn down and replaced on the outskirts, the church that was once a storeroom reopened only to Christians who register and show ID, and the grave of his old friend Lao Wen, an American soldier who stayed after Korean War captivity, was branded a spy in the Cultural Revolution, lost his job and his wife, and once cleared by 1980 covered his flat in Mao portraits to stay out of trouble.

Starring

RenGranny UmeMioPoko