A Question for Wellington

A Question for Wellington

The Original Book Cover for A Question for Wellington
Author	Gao Wenzhong
Original title	維鈞的一個問題 (Huajiangite）
Translator	Liu Bei
Country	Huajiang
Language	Huajiangite
Genre	Moralist Fiction
Publisher	Gao'an Literary Company
Publication date	January 5, 1915
Published in English	August 12, 1928
Media type	Print
Pages	228

A Question for Wellington (Huajiangite: 維鈞的一個問題; Alphabetized Huajiangite: Wéijūn de yīgè wèntí) is a dystopian social-science novel written by Gao Wenzhong and published by Gao'an Literary Company in January 1915. A Question for Wellington is centered on questioning authority, both secular and religious, as well as scientific nature and the idea of the individual within a society. It also touches on the behaviors of those that are within a secular authority and those of a religious authority to exterme degrees and the difference of what exactly the individual has become within this kind of world.

The novel takes place in Huajiang (Renamed the Holy Kingdom in the novel; 圣王国 (Shèng wángguó)) with the lead character being a man Wellington. Wellington is a college graduate who had recently applied as a detective at a local police precinct. Within the book his thought process as a citizen of the Holy Kingdom is taken into consideration, as once he becomes a detective, he is then allowed to see what truly is happening in the Holy Empire. Wellington soon is introduced to the Western Republic (西共和国 (Xī gònghéguó)) from modern-day Guakok. From here he discovers the extreme differences between the two countries and becomes disillusioned with the two ideologies, with the Holy Kingdom focused on extreme theocracy and the Western Republic focused on extreme secularism. He quits his job as a detective, which to the Holy Kingdom was seen as treason and Wellington retreated to the border, where he lived in relative seclusion. The remainder of the book talks about his thoughts about both the Holy Government and the Western Republic, before fraternizing with rebels that wished to take down both authorities. The book ends with Wellington meeting his fate in a firefight in Kaiyang, which is a battle between the Holy Kingdom and the Western Republic to destroy the rebels.

Unlike other novels that Gao had published before, he had put his full name in the title as opposed to putting his pen-name, Wellington.

Plot Summary

A Question for Wellington is divided into four sections, which are then subdivided between twelve chapters, three chapters for each section. The sections are named and annotated while the chapters are simply numbered. The sections are named in order: "The Holy Kingdom", "Wellington's Thoughts", "The Foreigner from Cukobai", and "A Time in Kaiyang"

The Holy Kingdom

The story revolves around a man named Wellington, who is the protagonist of the story. Wellington is a citizen of the Holy Kingdom who recently graduated from an unnamed police academy in Gao'an. He is soon scouted by the Holy Kingdom's police, as he graduated as summe cum larde from his class. He meets a woman who he dubs, "Mimi", after the Huajiangite profanity Mimi (咪咪 (Mīmī)). He takes Mimi as his lover and as an object of affection, having non-marital relations with her, something that is prohibited in the Holy Kingdom. He applies and is accepted as a detective in the Gao'an Holy Police Force, and continues seeing Mimi. It is discovered that Mimi has been having non-marital relations by his co-worker, Li Xi (李喜 (Lǐ xǐ)), who then proceeds to arrest Mimi. It is at this point that Wellington begins questioning his actions and his holiness, as well as his faith and belief in the Holy Kingdom. Wellington then meets his young neighbor in his apartment complex named Yu Yan (语嫣 (Yǔ yān)). Wellington meets Yu Yan's parents, who are only referred to as her mother and father. It is clear that what Yu's father discusses with Yu's mother in front of Yu Yan is considered both sedition and apostasy. They begin talking about the secularist government of the Western Republic, and discuss books that are deemed heretical by the Holy Kingdom.

Wellington, instead of reporting them, begins to question his freedom and what there is outside of the Holy Kingdom. It becomes no secret as Wellington takes a book from Yu Yan's household, The Divide between the Western Republic and Holy Kingdom. Wellington begins to question the Holy Kingdom and his thinking, however does not stray from his main train of thought and still holds everything in regard of the law of the Holy Kingdom. Snapping out of it, he considered that Yu Yan's parents allowing him to borrow the book was seditious, near treasonous. He later reports to Li Xi and then his superior, Lou Ma (娄马 (Lóu mǎ)). After he finishes up researching a separate case about a missing female in North Gao'an, he completely forgets of his actions of reporting Yu Yan's parents. Once he returns home, he appears jolly, ready to discuss the book with Yu's parents. However his apartment is barred from him as a double pronged homicide took place. He is able to make it to the floor with his police identification, and sees Yu's parents shot in the apartment, Yu Yan herself missing.

Wellington's entire night is narrated, as he is unable to sleep due to being jarred from the disappearance of Yu Yan and the death of her parents as well as the police continually investigating the homicide. It is at this point he begins having more thoughts about the Holy Kingdom, between Yu Yan's disappearance, the double homicide of her parents and the earlier arrest of Mimi. In the following days, he comes across several different reports handed to him by two different co-workers, An Bei (安北 (Ān běi)) and Kai Nan-ou (開南歐 (Kāi nán'ōu)) that are either disappearances or murders of people within Gao'an, most of which have a similar background. A common denominator that is found with every victim is that they are all considered traitors of the state, having literary work or expressing thought, even in privacy, that was considered seditious and treasonous. A few days later, with questions abound in Wellington's mind, Li Xi confronts him on how close he was to Yu Yan and Mimi. He notices that this is a trick put on by Li Xi, and states that he felt zero connection to them. Li Xi hands him two folders for separate cases. He finds that Yu Yan has been missing for five days and is almost certainly dead; and that Mimi was stabbed in the basement of a brothel. Wellington is devastated from this, as it became apparent that Li Xi was the one that was behind the police handling of these cases, which were sparse and inefficient at best. Before Li Xi leaves, she tells Wellington that if he had ever fraternized with Yu Yan, or her parents that he would be considered a traitor to the state. Li Xi then reveals in the open that she suspects Wellington of having treasonous thoughts and had most likely fraternized with Yu Yan's parents before their deaths. Lou Ma enters as Li Xi exits, and does not let up on Wellington, interrogating him about what his idea of sedition is and how his view of literature about the Holy Kingdom is. He is then confronted that Lou Ma had searched his house during his work hours, and found the book he had previously borrowed from Yu Yan's parents, The Divide between the Western Republic and Holy Kingdom. Lou Ma leaves the room, leaving Wellington alone in the room.

The entire encounter leaves Wellington jarred and scared for his safety. It is at this point that he stays late at the building, reviewing the cases that have been handed to him. He comes to the realization that if he does not do anything, he will end up as one of the cases of missing and murdered people in Gao'an, as he fits the modus operandi of the people behind the mass murders and disappearances. He then comes to another realization that his co-workers and superiors are now threats to him. Li Xi and Lou Ma suspect and know about his possibly seditious behavior while An Bei and Kai Nan-ou are considered his peers and are not unwilling to arrest him.

Wellington leaves and goes home, only to find his room broken into and his possessions in ruin. Now subdued into a state of panic, Wellington is now fully aware that Li Xi and Lou Ma may attack again, and he will end up as one of the cases that appear on his desk. He tries undressing and going to bed, but cannot. He leaves the apartment complex and begins wandering in the street, before going into a Gao'an Metro Station. It is at this point that "The Holy Kingdom" ends, with him taking a subway and leaving midway, before jumping on the train tracks and going into a random backroom within the infrastructure of the station, where he sleeps on the floor. It is here the novel is considered to blur the lines between reality and imagination, as the majority of "Wellington's Thoughts" take place within these backrooms, which are considered endless.

Characters

• Wellington (維鈞 (Wéijūn)) is the protagonist of the story, and disloyal detective. After college, he lives a promiscuous lifestyle and then is hired onto the Police force. Before college it is made clear he was very loyal to the Holy Kingdom, but began straying away from the Holy Kingdom midway through college. After he is discovered to have seditious thoughts by his coworkers, he flees to the underground. He is stuck in his thoughts and reviews the events of his life as it is hinted that he becomes a full time criminal fugitive underground, making a living stealing. Eventually, he ends up a fugitive, and makes a living with exiles on the border of the Western Republic. Within the novel, he is killed as the exiles storm Kaiyang.

• Kuning Jati (哭宁查體 (Kūníng chátǐ)) is a fugitive of the Holy Kingdom and the deuteragonist of the book. It is hinted at that he is a criminal to some extent or shows some criminal tendencies, and is a impulsive in his actions. He traveled to the Holy Kingdom with his family to tour the country, however his family was not observant of the laws and were caught being what is considered seditious by the Holy Kingdom. Kuning had been in Gao'an as apart of his seven day tour of the country, however he escaped the police when his family was arrested, and he had taken refuge in the backrooms for over a month before Wellington. Kuning does not join Wellington in the exile storm of Kaiyang, as his intention to protect Yu Yan from danger and harm are made evident. He is last seen on the border making their way to the Western Republic in an attempt to escape the Holy Kingdom and make it to a safer country with Yu Yan.

• Yu Yan (语嫣 (Yǔ yān)) is a teenage neighbor of Wellington and the tritagonist who's background is not explained in the novel. Her first encounter with Wellington is in the apartment complex where they both live in, where she is playing hide and seek with her mother and knocks on Wellington's door. She is somewhat loyal to the Holy Kingdom but sees her parents as unorthodox freethinkers. Yu Yan's parents are later killed in the novel by Li Xi, however it is not revealed in the novel that it is Li Xi until "Wellington's Thoughts". Yu Yan later appears in "The Foreigner from Cukobai" where she joins with Wellington, as she too had been taking refuge in the backrooms with Kuning Jati. It is seen afterwards that Kuning and Yu have developed a quasi-father and daughter bond between the two. She is last seen leaving to the Western Republic with Kuning in order to escape the Holy Kingdom and to make it to a safer country.

• Li Xi (李喜 (Lǐ xǐ)) is a policewoman and the main antagonist of the novel, responsible for countless deaths as well as the deaths of Mimi, Yu Yan's mother and father, as well as Kuning's family. She is the main reason as to Wellington's questions, as the Holy Kingdom and even the tenants of the religion of the Holy Kingdom are in line with Li Xi. She does not personally go for Wellington, however it seems that she is aware of Wellington's sedition and willingly ignores it, rather going after everyone around him. She turns on Wellington after she murders Mimi, now fully aware of Wellington's sedition and moral corruption as well as his disloyalty. She also finds out about Lou Ma's double-agent status, but rather than kill him, teams up with him against Wellington.

• Lou Ma (娄马 (Lóu mǎ)) is a policeman and the head of the Gao'an Police Department, as well as a secret double agent for the Western Republic. He is a hidden secondary antagonist and starts showing his role during "The Holy Kingdom" as he personally searched through Wellington's apartment after Li Xi murdered Yu Yan's parents. It is later stated that he is working alongside Li Xi despite the two of them knowing past their initial previews in order to hunt down and kill Wellington. Lou Ma finds Wellington, Yu Yan and Kuning in the backrooms, where he is killed violently by Kuning at the end of "Wellington's Thoughts", after he subdues Yu Yan and knocks Wellington unconscious with a baton. He is not mentioned at all afterwards.

• Mimi (咪咪 (Mīmī)) is a small supporting-character and works as a prostitute. She is the object of affection and carnal satisfaction for Wellington during the "Holy Kingdom" in the brief period after he graduates college and before he becomes a detective. She is arrested by Li Xi in the "Holy Kingdom" and is reported dead by Li Xi near the end of the same section. It is implied that Li Xi was the one behind her stabbing within the brothel, however her death is not confirmed. She does not appear for the rest of the book until "The Foreigner from Cukobai".

• An Bei (安北 (Ān běi)) is a stock character that is seen as a policeman in Gao'an and one of Wellington's former co-workers.

• Kai Nan-ou (開南歐 (Kāi nán'ōu)) is a stock character that is seen as a policeman in Gao'an and one of Wellington's former co-workers.

Reception

Censorship/Banning

Within Guakok, A Question for Wellington was denied publication rights within the country and distribution of the novel is deemed illegal. An attempt was started by the translator, Liu Bei, who had originally translated it to Auxiliary for international markets; to censor anything considered wrong with the book. He finished his changes in 1942, almost thirty years after the original release of the novel. The Guakok government did not change its stance, and did not allow Liu Bei's version to enter publication inside of Guakok. Within Huajiang Liu Bei's version was also not received popularly, and are often referred to as, "A Question for Liu Bei" in a derogatory manner.

The Guakok government determined the book to be, "Foreign Propaganda" as an attempt to undermine and satirize the Noble Empire with the use of the "Western Republic" and the "Holy Empire". Despite this, Gao Wenzhong released a version of A Question for Wellington in Guavai using Guavai grammar. This publication only came out in the city of Kaiyang, however is one of the most widespread versions of the novel within Huajiang.