DRAIN FOR ALL-CHINA MODEL NIGHT-SOTL COLLECTOR?
Shi Chuan-hsiang, described by the New China News Agency only last September as "the all-China model night-soil collector" [See World Outlook October 7], may be in political trouble. Red Flag, the organ of the Red Guards of the Peking Institute of Aeronautics, reports in its January 1 issue that he has been arrested.
"Down with the traitor Shi-.Chuan-hsiang!" the report said. “He is a protégé of Liu Shao-chi [the head of the republic now under public attack]. He was heard to shout, ‘Long live Liu Shao-chi!' He is also the head of the reactionary group called Detach~ mént of Defense. We know very well who is behind’ Shi Chuan-—hsiang and we have learned from a good source that he has been arrested."
Shi Chuan-hsiang is a deputy in the National Assembly who has often.been in the news. Last spring he wrote an article denouncing the “black gang of intellectuals" who had refused to make a film on the life of night-soil collectors.
In September considerable publicity was given to the way he indoctrinated a group of Red Guards in the cultural revolution. .Before accompanying the group of apprentices on the first round in learning the trade, he told them: “In emptying out the latrines, you not only help in a clean-up job, but you also uproot capitalism and revisionism, which we must extirpate from all the dark corners of our country."
After: the Red. Guards had made their rounds, the old night-soil collector congratulated ‘them profusely, saying, "You are really good revolutionary fighters, educated in the spirit of the thought of Mao Tse~tung." ; The September 29 issue of the daily pulletin of the Hsinhua News Agency carried another inspirational story about Shi. Chuan-hsiang in which he was quoted as saying, "Chairman Mao's teaching has brought me enlightenment. Carrying the night-soil bucket, I keep the whole world's affairs in ny mind. woe
It seems astonishing that such an ardent advocate of Mao's thought would suffer political eclipse. However the Chinese characters for his name seem unmistakable and there appears to be no one else of the same name prominent enough to have caused a mix: up leading toa case of wrong identification.
But even if he is in trouble, shi Chuan-hsiang may again pounce back. ‘All the evidence seems to show that he is a genuine connoisseur of Mao's thought.