Registro del dispositivo e instalación

As Xu Gang wanders around the endangered landscape of Wuyishan, he meets a remarkable person:

“I recognize him at once, skinny and dark, his hand holding a bamboo straw hat, and only his sparkling eyes set him apart from ordinary men. I think he must have absorbed some spiritual force of Mount Wuyi. Some say he is a strange man, an eccentric, an obnoxious troublemaker. The villagers say he protects the forests, repairs the roads. He is the management office’s section chief for capital construction […]. His name is Chen Jianlin.” (FMXL: 6-7)

It is not entirely clear from the text whether the person is fictitious and serves as a plot devise to advance the narrative, or if Xu Gang actually encountered this person. The fact that some of his distinguishing features as described in the quote above seem to endow him with supernatural attributes point to the former possibility. It is likely that Xu Gang here draws on a rich literary tradition that portrays nature as the dwelling place for superior individuals who have voluntarily withdrawn from the

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world of men only to re-emerge once the right time has arrived. As such, Chen Jianlin displays all feature of an archetype of noble recluse that Berkowitz labels “the wise rustic”:

He [the wise rustic] is encountered fortuitously, standing by the road or just passing by on his way from one anywhere to another; he imparts his often homespun yet always profound notion, which has not necessarily been solicited nor is it always appreciated [...]. The Wise Rustic is a literary invention and lives only as the personification of a recurrent leitmotif and as a mouthpiece for someone else's views. Berkowitz 2000: 28-29)

Soon it becomes clear that Mr. Chen is no ordinary man, and neither is he an ordinary bureaucrat. Although his rank as a cadre of the CCP would entitle him to be set above the ordinary village folk, he does not display the airs of grandeur that characterizes many of his fellow colleagues. To the contrary: Mr. Chen refers to himself as “the dog official” (gou guan’r 狗官儿), a rather unflattering name that no normal cadre would ever self-apply. Not so Chen Jianlin, who says about himself: “I am Wuyishan’s watchdog (kan shan gou 看山狗), I bite whoever tries to cut down trees, I am the dog official!” But it is not only his role as the guardian of the forests that makes him pick this humble name, it is also his attitude of serving the people. Mr. Chen, through Xu Gang’s description, is presented to us as the highest ideal of a Communist cadre, assigning to himself a subservient role towards the common people, and being utterly devoted to a higher cause. He detests the bad habit of feasting and drinking at the expense of the public purse that has become so common amongst cadres, and instead rides his humble bicycle home every noon to eat lunch there so to save the tax payer’s money. He patrols the mountains tirelessly to prevent illegal logging, and when he cannot persuade the villagers, he often pays them out of his own pocket to keep them from felling a tree for money. But it soon becomes clear that Chen Jianlin is fighting a lonely cause, even while he is writing letters of warning to other officials, and publishing articles in the local gazette: one man will not be able to stand against all the hungry axes eager to devour the forests to the last tree.

For these fellow cadres Mr. Chen, the only committed protectionist in the area, reserves the bulk of his ire: he curses them as a bunch of hypocrites, pencil pushers, and kiss-ups (mapi): “These cadres, who lead the people on to cut trees, they should

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all be put against a wall and shot! I will take care of their children and educate them as if they were my own.” (FMXL: 9) Aiming at a party leader from Chong’an county, he continues: “Corruption: wasn’t that supposed to be the Guomindang? With such people in power, the whole country is done for, and so is Wuyishan!” Xu Gang dryly comments: “His anger is directed at the right one, this party leader had succeeded his predecessor for not even a year, and already he went to Hong Kong, and when he came back, he happily played some pornographic videos he had brought with him for 13 days in a row, what did it matter to him that people were continue logging at Wuyishan?” (FMXL: 9)

Just as Xu Gang meets an outstanding person at Wuyishan, he discovers another person at Tianmushan: Song Yongzeng 宋永增, another devoted protectionist of the mountains and the forests. Just as Chen Jianlin, “Old Song” is a man of impeccable revolutionary credentials, as well as unwavering moral convictions: A veteran of the World War as a militia member of the famous 8th _{Route Army (tu balu 土八路), in the}

1950s a cadre of significant status, he was assigned to guard the forest area at Tianmushan starting in the 1960s. Apart from protecting nature ever since then, he was also instrumental in several reforestation campaigns. Xu Gang descriptions endow him with almost saint-like features, as a Daoist hermit from the past: he has become an expert in herbalism, botanic lore and traditional healing methods while living on the mountains. Moreover, in order to protect the area, Old Song has teamed up with a group of Buddhist monks who inhabit the temple located on the mountain. The main difference to the situation at Wuyishan, however, is that here, the protectionist does not fight a lonely cause, but is helped by enlightened cadres who follow the guidelines set by the central government, and also are helped by Old Song's advice and guidance.

Moreover, as for his own role, Xu Gang stresses that he is not the first, but only the latest in a line of travelling Chinese scholars to describe the natural majesty of Wuyishan: “In 1616 [Western calendar], Xu Xiake79 _{徐 霞 客 entered Min [Fujian}

province; M.L.] for the first time to visit Wuyishan. In his “Travel Diary to Wuyishan” (You Wuyishan Riji), he recorded:

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The setting sun forms a semicircle 落日半规

Ridges and peaks far and near 远近峰峦

Shades of green and violet abound. 青紫万状

Rocks loom majestically 岩既雄扩

Outpouring springs from high above 泉亦高散

In a thousand rills, a myriad threads 千条万缕

High from the air water is streaming 悬空倾泻

What a spectacle to behold! 亦大观也