“Jeep girls” were a distorted phenomenon of the War of Resistance. They could be seen everywhere on the streets of Kunming, in the great rear area. American soldiers drove jeeps “careering recklessly” along the roads, carrying Chinese women with painted faces and gaudy clothes.
Most of these women were dancing girls and prostitutes, along with some young girls and married women who were particular about fashion and pursued vanity. Sometimes a woman held the steering wheel, with an American soldier beside her helping her. Sometimes an American soldier drove, with a Chinese woman pressed close to him. They sped along the roads for pleasure, their laughter lewd. At such sights, some passersby looked on with surprise and envy, while others turned up their noses.
At that time, the liveliest and most prosperous area was around Nanping Street and Xiaodong Street. Nanping Street was somewhat wider, and American military jeeps often drove past, always with gaudily dressed women whose hair looked like chicken nests. Xiaodong Street was only a small, narrow street, but the Nanping Cinema was there. It often showed Hollywood films—Westerns, *Tarzan*, *Bathing Beauty*, and other color pictures—and almost every showing was full. The street had bars, dance halls, hair salons, and cafés, so there was a constant stream of pedestrians. At night, it was even more a world of bright lights, wine, and women. Neon lights flashed through the night, while drunken American soldiers wandered the street with Chinese beauties in their arms.
American soldiers liked drinking most of all. Perhaps their monthly military pay was not enough to spend, for they often took out military supplies to sell or traded them to Chinese people for liquor. These supplies included American military uniforms—the yellow khaki unlined jackets and trousers worn in summer and the yellow woolen jackets and trousers worn in winter—military canteens, mess tins, belts, leather shoes, blankets, camp beds, parachutes, binoculars, lighters, flints, cameras, typewriters, gramophones, razor blades, and all kinds of canned foods, canned butter, compressed biscuits, powdered milk, cigarettes, chewing gum, and so on.
From splendidly furnished auction houses to small shops with crude storefronts, from vendors in lanes beside the streets to peddlers carrying goods and crying their wares as they walked, American goods could be seen everywhere.
In people’s minds at the time, owning goods marked Made in U.S.A. was a source of pride. This phenomenon was one scene of the distorted prosperity of the wartime economy, and it continued for many years after the war.
Later, a musician composed “In Praise of U.S.A.” to satirize this distorted phenomenon:
“U.S.A., U.S.A., everywhere there is U.S.A. Canned food, cloth, jeeps, submachine guns, rocket launchers, airplanes, tanks. Glassware, lipstick, perfume, DDT, vitamins, penicillin, jazz records, ‘tai-tui’ film prints—everything is Made in U.S.A. From the sky to the land, from the oceans to the mountains, where is there no U.S.A.? Where is there no U.S.A.?”
At that time, our family lived around Jinbi Road. I was a boy of twelve or thirteen and already had “mature” memories. My father was a tailor who “made wedding clothes for others.” There were many brothers and sisters in the family, and Father’s labor alone could no longer keep up with prices that were rising all the time. Father went to secondhand-clothing stalls and bought some yellow woolen American military trousers. He took them apart, turned the cloth over, brushed and washed it clean, and used three pairs of army trousers to make one Chinese officer’s uniform. At that time, Nationalist Army officers below battalion level were not entitled to woolen uniforms. So officers below battalion level flocked to the yellow woolen uniforms Father made. As long as they had money, they rushed to buy them.
Father also bought some yellow woolen blankets and made them into military overcoats. These were just as popular. When the officers put them on, they looked sturdy, striking, and imposing. After school, I always had to help Father take apart the old uniforms with razor blades.
In those days, when children saw American soldiers with white skin and high noses, they would hold up their thumbs and say: “American, number one!” If the American soldiers were pleased, they would give the children a piece of chewing gum or a cigarette.
But some American officers in peaked caps wore stern expressions. They ignored the children who shouted that they were number one and walked past with their heads held high. There were also some “dark-minded” American soldiers who gave rubber condoms to the Chinese children shouting that they were number one. The children thought they were balloons and put them to their mouths to blow them up and play with them. What a wicked thing to do!
(Originally published in the U.S. *World Journal*, February 6, 2007.)
Appendix
### Kunming’s Golden-and-Jade Convergence
In February, “Past and Present” published Mr. Ye Guozhi’s fine article “Jeep Girls During the War of Resistance,” which described Kunming at that time in great detail. On looking further, I learned that Mr. Ye had once lived around Jinbi Road in Kunming. Reading it felt just like revisiting an old place and filled me with a special sense of closeness.
Jinbi Road is one of Kunming’s very broad main thoroughfares. In the city center, it crosses a north–south lane at right angles. At the intersection stand two archways, one to the east and one to the west, facing each other across the street.
The upper parts of the archways are finely carved, their forms elegant and refined. One is called Golden Horse and the other Jade Rooster. It is said that once every *jiazi*—sixty years—as the sun sets in the west, a ray of sunlight passes through the Golden Horse Archway and falls upon the midpoint of the two intersecting roads. At the same time, a bright moon rises in the east, and a beam of moonlight passes through the Jade Rooster Archway and falls upon the same point. Sunlight and moonlight merge into one. This is why it is called the “Golden-and-Jade Convergence,” an extremely well-known wonder of Kunming.
It occurred once sometime between 1942 and 1943. I no longer remember the exact date, but the newspapers all reported it at the time. Because I was working in the suburbs, I could not go see it in person. To miss it by such a narrow chance was truly a great regret.
Since Mr. Ye lived on Jinbi Road, I wonder whether he ever witnessed this remarkable sight. After the Chinese Communist Party established its government, it launched the comprehensive campaign to “Destroy the Four Olds.” I do not know whether these two archways escaped that calamity. Now more than another *jiazi* has passed, and there is some doubt whether the wonder can appear again. If Mr. Ye has any related information, I very much hope he will report it in detail for the benefit of readers.
Although I stayed in Kunming for only two short years, its springlike seasons, pleasant climate, and simple and warmhearted people left a very deep impression upon me. Though several decades have passed, I still find it hard to forget.
(Ziyue)