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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Food and Drink

Food, and the actions of eating and drinking, play a substantial role in “Saboteur.” The story both begins and ends with someone eating or drinking, and some of the most fateful moments happen during these mealtimes. In the square, Mr. Chiu and his bride enjoy a takeaway lunch of pork, rice, cucumbers, and soda. It turns out to be the last meal either of them will enjoy together before their lives are upended. It is a relatively happy moment for them, as they reflect on the next leg of the journey. The two policemen, the instigators who end Mr. Chiu’s peace, drink bowls of tea nearby. In prison, Mr. Chiu’s meals are meager, tasteless ones, with foods such as millet porridge, a corn bun, and bits of pickled vegetable. It is during one such meal that Mr. Chiu observes Fenjin’s torture and realizes that he will have to take some sort of action. Upon their release, the first thing that Mr. Chiu and Fenjin do is to go to a tea shop and drink bowls of tea together. It’s significant that Mr. Chiu drinks a bowl of tea. This is the very same beverage that his tormentors had enjoyed before attacking him. This action can be interpreted as a turning of the tables. This time, it is Mr. Chiu and not the police who drinks tea before inflicting harsh punishment. Food and drink are now his weapon. The policemen threw tea, and in return, Mr. Chiu presumably infects the city. His drinking tea with Fenjin is also an echo of the older policeman and the younger policeman, with the younger man watching as the older takes his course of action. 

Weaponizing Liquids

The police use liquids as a weapon at two key moments in the story. The first is when they throw their bowls of tea at Mr. Chiu and his bride in the square. This is a maneuver designed to harass, provoke, and humiliate Mr. Chiu and his bride. It does not cause any physical damage to them, only ruining their clothing and shoes. But the psychological damage is far stronger, and it leads to further conflict such as the police using their fists and weapons to beat Mr. Chiu. The throwing of tea is also a precursor to the torture that Fenjin endures in the police courtyard. At one moment, one of the police officers douses Fenjin with a large bucket of water almost to the point that he can’t breathe. This is the more severe version of what Mr. Chiu and his bride experienced outside the train station. Fenjin is also severely beaten and abused. When Mr. Chiu drinks tea after his release from prison, it is a sign that he is making plans to turn the tables and return the torturers’ favor back to them, even if it does not directly involve physically throwing his bowl of tea at them.

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