The Windup Girl

Jaidee has knocked down a Chaozhou (as opposed to Malayan) Chinese factory owner who has become aggressive about the white shirt’s reminder that he has exceeded his coal allocation. Although the owner insults him, Jaidee respects the Chaozhou, who have worked to assimilate themselves among the Thai, as opposed to the Malayan, who contemptuously hold themselves above them. A younger white shirt, full of timidity and respect for Jaidee, apologetically informs him that that he must get his “glory-seeking ass” back to the Environment Ministry (118). On the bike ride over, he reflects how the ministry, once full of good intentions, has decayed and corrupted both physically and administratively. He concludes “he is a bully…walking amongst water buffalo, and though he tries to herd them with kindness, again and again, he finds himself using the whip of fear” (122).

While Jaidee waits outside General Pracha’s office, a young monk asks for his autograph for his father. The young monk says Jaidee inspired him to be a great, legendary muay thai boxer like Jaidee, but he chose another route instead. Still, the monk would like an autograph to give to his father, since his father still talks about Jaidee’s past renown. Pracha interrupts the encounter by saying “if you are quite finished with your fans” (123). Pracha tells Jaidee that Jaidee overstepped his authority at the anchor pads when he had the illegal goods burnt. The general also tells Jaidee that he must restrain himself, not to fight, and not to become deluded by the press’s heroic characterization of him as the Tiger of Bangkok. Jaidee also realizes that he has acquired a big enemy. Pracha slides a card toward Jaidee and tells him it arrived under his door this morning. Jaidee turns over the card and this section of this chapter ends.

The next section of Chapter 11 begins with Jaidee’s reflections about his sons and his own parents and sisters. His sons tell him they want to be fighters like their father, but Jaidee’s heart breaks because he knows fear is really the enemy. His parents and sisters have succumbed respectively to cibiscosis (a kind of futuristic form of tuberculosis) and the arthritic-like fa’gan. He now turns around the photo and sees a picture of his wife Chaya blindfolded, curled against a wall with hands tied behind her back and ankles bound. On the wall above, painted in blood, reads “All Respect to the Environment Ministry.” Pracha informs Jaidee he has made many enemies, demands that he make a public apology and be demoted and transferred, in order to get Chaya back. “If you were still in the muay thai ring,” the general concludes, “I would place every baht I own on you. But this is a different sort of fight” (127).

Anderson is furious with Hock Seng because of the loss of the imported goods that Jaidee burnt. He demands Hock to increase the efficiency of the kink-spring factory (the mechanism that makes trains and guns function, among other items) or else Anderson will fire him and send him back to yellow card poverty. Hock feels humiliated but bides his time so that he can steal plans from Anderson’s safe. He also comforts himself with the knowledge provided by Lao Gu, Anderson’s driver, that Anderson and Emiko are steadily having sex. The Dung Lord’s right-hand man, Dog Fucker, shows up at the factory. He tells Hock to get in a car, an expensive, rare and wasteful luxury that attests to the wealth and power of the Dung Lord. Hock fears being seen with Dog Fucker and is for once pleased with the stupid Thai workers’ unawareness, as the Chinese would immediately realize that Hock is engaged in shady dealings. Hock has Mai, one of his girl workers, tell Anderson that he is going to look for a new teak spindle to facilitate the running of the factory. They speed away in the car, which Hock finds “appalling” (134).

Hock Seng returns with Dog Fucker to the towers of the Dung Lord. It is a familiar place to Hock, since it is the refuge of the yellow cards, who the Dung Lord permits to live there, even though they starve and their squalid lodgings permit no privacy. Hock recalls the horror of the place as they ascend in a lift to the top of the building, which provides a marvelous view of the city.

The Dung Lord sits under a kind of pavilion. He is fat, evidence that he eats well, and offers Hock food and drink. Hock has brought a kink-spring with him and demonstrates that it can generate much power and thus provide fuel. He asks, in return, for one ship to reestablish himself as a trader. The Dung Lord agrees but it is a dangerous deal for Hock, given the Dung Lord’s wealth and power. Hock feels happy for the first time in a while, as “liquor flows in [his] veins, and he is content” (140).