THOUGHT PROVES TOO MUCH FOR NIGHT-SOIL COLLECTOR
. Shi Chuan-hsiang, the "all-China night-soil collector" [see World Outlook October 7, 1966,. January 14 and January 27, 1967], appears to have finally ended up as an object lesson in the "cultural revolution" in which he had been pictured in the press in China as a loyal student of Mao's thought and an exemplary teacher of the Red Guards.
As previously reported, he was driven through the streets in a truck, a dunce's cap on his head and.a placard hanging from his neck, reading: "Worked insufficiently. Supported Liu Shao-chi. Shook Liu Shao-chi's hand when the latter made him an elite night-soil collector and a deputy in the National Assembly.' :
In a January 23 dispatch, Agence France Presse reported additional details concerning the fate of Shi Chuang-hsiang. After being paraded through the streets, he was brought before a meeting of 100,000 persons in Peking.
There, according to the Peking Journal, he was accused of having in his possession a photograph showing him in the company of Liu Shao-chi, the president of the republic. He was likewise accused of having supported the gang of "XXX" and "XXX." The "X's" used -by the Peking Journal are known to initiated readers as referring to Liu Shao-chi and to the party's General Secretary Teng Hsiao-ping.
‘Finally, the famous night-soil collector was confronted with the fact that on two occasions in 1965, his wife went to have dinner at the home of the former vice-mayor of Peking, now disgraced, where the main course consisted of raviolis.
Just how these crimes advanced Shi Chuan-hsiang from being a mere model nightsoil collector to the status of a budding capitalist | was not explained.