Author Archive
City of the dead
Posted by: Rachel in Stories from the Countryside on July 17th, 2010
And now let us enter the city of death “现在，让我们走j进《死城》(From a poem by Liao Yiwu, a son of Sichuan)
“So you’ve been there today? It’s too clean now. You can’t really imagine how it was back then” (Chen, a hotel proprietor in Anchang, to where survivors from Beichuan are being relocated)
Beichuan, Sichuan. The town that is now known locally as “Lao Beichuan”, old Beichuan. To tourists it is known as “Sichuan earthquake memorial hall”. Buses go there from an improvised ticket office few kilometers away and leave when full. They get full quicly, with visitors from all over China wishing to pay their respects. Tickets are 13 Yuan.
Beichuan was right at the epicenter of the 12.05.2008 quake and was almost completely destroyed. The town will not be rebuilt in its previous location but moved some 30 Kilometers south. The site of old Beichuan is now for all intention and purposes, a tourist attraction. It seems carefully design to extract sympathy and sorrow, but not so deep as to put visitors off their plans to go on and visit the Jiuzaiguo nature reserve up north from here.
But I am being cynical. The site of Beichuan is carefully cept and very respectful. You can first see the ruined town from the road above, then the tour bus will take you down, and a young guide walks a silent group in a circular morbid path. Here is the collapsed building of the local government, the once lovely Beichuan Grand Hotel, and a vocational school that buried more than a hundred students and teachers, but whose basketball court seem barely damaged. Strange what catches your eye.
Also catching the eye are the street cleaners, dutifully doing their job in a town that no longer has streets. one of them, carefully sweeping leaves from the road, to keep everything clean for the visitors. Beichuan is an open museum now: behind the low fences are the exhibits : stone slabs, iron polls, electric cables, mattresses, kitchenware, washing machines, everything that makes a home. Everything that can tell the story of an inconceivable tragedy. Within the fences, however, facilities must be kept neat for museum goers’ sake.
I look at the street cleaner who looks back with expression that invites no enquiries.
There seems to be reproach in her eyes, but maybe it’s just because I feel reproached anyway. Like an intruder. Some of her friends tend the grass over what was the foundation to a new glitzy shopping mall – a very hopeful enterprise in this environment. Construction of the mall has just begun when nature handed its deadly blow, and the pit became a mass grave for the thousands who needed to be buried in haste. Tourists stand here in silence for a minute or two, some shed tears. Then, we all get back on the bus. On the way back to the dispatching point, some eight kilometers away, The road passes a camp of temporary houses, still inhabited more than two years later. But this is no place for tourists to visit. On what life is like there, in the next post
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Peppery spirit of Sichuan
Posted by: Rachel in Stories from the Countryside on July 15th, 2010
In Chengdu, you can find many dissidents. Many here oppose the government but it is quite different from Beijing. Sichuanese aren’t very interested in the details of politics and political institutions, they just love to be free. This is the spirit of Sichuan”. (A native explaining local culture to bendilaowai).
And probably always has been, ever since Laozi, founder of Daoism and father of all anti-establishment movements retired into the mountains of Sichuan on the back of a water buffalo sometime around the 6th century BC.
Post(card) from Chengdu
Posted by: Rachel in Economy, Stories from the Countryside on July 14th, 2010
So far, good. The Beijing-Chengdu train ride was merely 31 uneventful but fairly pleasant hours. When I first started traveling in China – it wasn’t so long ago, only in 2002, so you wouldn’t expect the changes to be that big – There were warnings in every hotel and every guidebook regarding train rides. You were supposed to take extra good care of your camera, your money, even your hiking boots as they were all legitimate prey for train-robbers. Though I’ve never lost any item on a train, nor met anyone who has, this anxious habit of keeping all of my valuables under my pillow is still with me. It’s probably a good idea still, but it made me smile slightly at my own folly when I realised that almost every single person sharing the wagonwith me had a laptop, most of them better and more expensive than my own.
I am not sure thieves specifically target foreigners anymore, Toto.
Chengdu is Humid and damp as always. with traffic that made me miss the excellent execution of law and order in Beijing. Came across a small neighbourhood market this morning called 工人村 (GongRen Cun or Worker’s village) apart from vegetables and meat and masterly made dumplings, that absolutely filthy street offers some recreational activities besides:
This massage parlour mainly serves the stall-owners and shoppers in this market. foot treatment cost 8 Yuan for 30 minutes, whole body massage costs 12 Yuan. sights, sounds and of course scents of the sorounding are all included. Now that’s a bargain…
The inevitable Ma-jiang facility is here too
And a dental clinic of sorts, right near the meat truck.
This is not some backwater small town, but a community within the first ring-road in Chengdu, capital of the South-West and home to R&D centers by companies such as Intel and Microsoft. China is developing very fast indeed.
The not so great earth
Posted by: Rachel in Stories from the Countryside on July 11th, 2010
Starting tomorrow, I will be traveling in south China for few months, from rural Sichuan down to industrial Guangdong. This trip comes mainly out of boredom, I guess, or maybe rather call it restlessness, and the feeling I am missing out on China.
I love Beijing, really. It has actually dawned on me today, as I was clearing my flat and saying my goodbyes around the Xiaoqu, that I probably love it more than you should love anyone you didn’t give birth to. Nonetheless, getting all so comfortable and acquainted with this great big city, with its great big expat community eventually only served to reinforce my prejudices and all those things I already know, or think I know, about the inexhaustible entity we usually call China. There is too much China out there, and hoping to some town for couple of days to interview some Mr Wang or other before rushing back to Beijing to make it for my deadline and for Xiao He’s next concert, is lately failing to give me the sense of being out there with it.
I hope to learn something. Long ago I was told: “You will never really understand China until you’re picking rice in the fields with some farmers”. I was young and stupid enough back then to take it literally, so picked rice (and corn, and beans) for a while. Now I know that I will never understasnd China. More important, I know I don’t want to ever stop trying.
Next post will be from Chengdu and this blog will henceforth be updated more regularly, or as often as I can get online. Many thanks for all of you who helped with this: from suggesting itineraries to storing my stuff while I’m away. Cheers
And to my beloved city: see you in November. Don’t run away.
Han Solo and his T-shirt. Consumerism with Chinese…
Han Han's poster at a Beijing subway station
Few days ago, I went shopping for shoes with a friend. Finally finding the right pair (light-brown-no hill-can put on and take off while at the same time holding a baby kind of shoes), we got tired and thirsty so sat for ice-cream at the nearest KFC. My friend, sweet woman that she is, uttered a thousand apologies for making me sit there, but nevertheless we still did because, as she said: “I am seriously addicted to their ice-cream. Don’t worry. I never eat the chicken”.
I’m aware this story, apart from being quite dull, puts me in a rather bad light, and want to stress that I don’t really care that much about people spending time at KFC. There are worse things in the world, after all, in mean, you could be spending time at a Starbucks!
But to get to the point, our conversation that afternoon reminded me of my constant failure in explaining to people I talk to in China my position on economic issues, why I think big corporations should be treated with suspicion, and why one should be aware of one’s consumption habits.
To turn from this to everyone’s favourite celebrity: Couple of weeks ago I was walking around in central Beijing with another friend, when we got into discussion over a poster for the clothing brand Fan Ke （凡客, a brand specializing in uninspiring designs）featuring blogger/race car driver/literary editor/heartthrob Han Han wearing a T-shirt with the company’s logo.
In the ad, Han Han puts his image as an anti-establishment, free-spirited individual to good use for good money (I hope) to help selling more shirts for the rebellious youths. My friend commented that Han is a very good presenter for the message Fan Ke want to push, which is, I suppose: “We are all non-conformists” (The text for another FanKe ad, with actor Wang Luodan actually reads: I’m not like anyone, I’m just like you!. Would almost seems as if irony never made it to the studios )
The text of the Han Han ad reads as follows:
Love networking, Love freedom, Love getting up late, Love nightly food markets, Love car races, also love 29 kuai T-shirt, I am not a standard-bearer, I’m not anyone’s representative. I am Han Han, I only represent myself. Me and you are the same, I am an ordinary man. (FanKe, the name of the brand, which means ordinary, or everyman).
爱网络，爱自由，爱晚起，爱夜间大排档，爱赛车，也爱29块的T-SHIRT，我不是什么旗手，不是谁的代言，我是韩寒，我只代表我自己。我和你一样，我是凡客
Yes, using Mr. Han is good for the brand, but, I asked, wouldn’t it be harmful to the other brand, ie Han himself? My friend thought long and hard but couldn’t quite get why should anyone object a poster. Don’t you think he comes off as a sell-out?
I don’t really know what that means. He probably got a lot of money for that and he’ll use it for his magazine.
What’s wrong with that indeed? Well, it’s not wrong in the same way gulags are wrong. It is a bit disturbing, however, that so seldom in China, there is a line being drawn from the desire to posses as much as possible, purchase, spend and identify oneself with brands, to the greed, corruption and money-grabbing that many, including Han Han, see as one of China’s biggest problem.
I wonder if Han really doesn’t realise when writing all those poignant and accurate words about government officials, that he himself promotes a set of values that encourages, nay, almost forces those officials and everyone around them to make as much money as possible, in every way possible.
Whether he likes it or not, Han Han is a standard bearer. It is a pity then, that too often he bears the standard for little more the race cars, getting up late and 29 kuai T-shirt brands.
Turning grief into strength
Posted by: Rachel in Stories from the Countryside on June 30th, 2010
It worked wonderfully well at Beichuan in 2008: Both China and the world were justly impressed with the government quick response as well as with Wen Jiabao’s grandfatherly manner. Comparisons were made to the sleepy, birthday cake infested response of the Bush administration at the time when hurricane Katrina washed over New-Orleans. And, by comparison at least China look very well indeed, tofu buildings aside.
It was still OK when the same “massive mobilization of all resources to help a disaster area” was applied in Yushu this year, and maybe still passable when grandpa Wen made his visit to the drought areas.
But annual floods and mudslides, I dunno. They just don’t seem enough to unite/mobilize the nation. You can almost hear the lack of enthusiasm when listening to CCTV reports, seriously, it gets past the censor.
Since the three gorges dam isn’t due to break down for another five or even ten years, a search should start for a cause worthy of a nationwide campaign.
I’m afraid at some point, unless a war of some kind breaks, it would be necessary to pull a Chernobyl.
Bendilaowai blocked?
So it would seem… wonder what the point is of blocking a blog no one reads. Thanks Nanny.
“There are many people in the squ@re today”
Posted by: Rachel in Mysteries of the Big Jing on June 4th, 2010
perplexed policeman. detain or just shoot?
Soon after flower girl’s detention, a policeman asked me if I spoke Chinese, then asked me to wait. Someone who said he was a Xinhua employee volunteered to act as an interpreter between the policemen and myself & another journalist from Japan who was also asked to wait.
I have to say the Gongans were way more polite this time than they were last year. They kept apologizing for keeping us from work. Maybe I’m reading too much into it but they seemed kind of embarrassed to be participating in this charade.
I was photographed from every angle by five or six policemen and red umbrellas, so I waved to the cameras, as celebrities should. After some questioning (How long have you been in China for? Do you have a Chinese assistant? Have you been to the expo?), our documents were taken away for inspection and returned after about ten minutes. We were still near the phalus and while I was waiting I noticed about half a dozen people wearing white approaching the site. Each of them was alone, none was trying any provocation. They just stood there fro few minutes, took a photos, then went away.
It was getting hot under the Beijing sun with no shade around. The police officer commented that I should have brought a parasol (true). I answered that since they seem to have so many parasols, maybe they could just lend me one. Xinhua guy chuckled but Officer pretended he didn’t hear me (I really shouldn’t say these things. It’s not even funny).
About half an hour passed when another officer came back with my passport. He apologized again for the inconvenience, then said we could go but be careful: “There are many people in the square today. If they gather in big groups, accidents can happen”.
Gongans are just full of truisms today.
Red Umbrella Day
Posted by: Rachel in History, Mysteries of the Big Jing on June 4th, 2010
So it’s the 35th of May again, which everyone knows is just like any other day in wonderland… Red Umbrellas, metal detectors, and girls getting arrested for carrying flowers. Perfectlly normal beast
Red Umbrella day: Been to the square before noon. There, also, a day like any other: a lot (I mean A LOT, few hundred people at least) of tour groups who, surprisingly, mostly used identical red parasols and didn’t seem to be doing much tourism.
Red Umbrella party, around 10:30 in the morning
Urban public space: You get used to it after a while. You stop thinking how bizaar it is to have metal detectors in an entrance to a public square. Security checks were quite severe today and seem to be focused on elderly ladies, who have had every item in their bags scanned and gone through. They don’t hassle foreigners much as far as I could tell. Maybe they know we are all cowards.
Security checks. old ladies are the new threat
Protest? what protest? Outside of the square, a young man of around 18 wearing red-splatted T-Shirt with the digits 1899 was not allowed in. He asked his photo not be taken. Inside: it’s quite difficult to tell which of the visitors are there to commemorate something. A student from Beida with a big backpack: is he a silent protester? a plainclothes policeman? just a tourist? go figure. Two others were a lot more obvious. When I got to the spot near the memorial for the people’s heroes (or whatever that phallic symbol is called), there was one uniformed policeman there filming a young girl wearing white, carrying white roses, and her friend, a boy in a white shirt. They Were filming him back, which seem to have confused him a lot.
Citizen supervision in action: recording police work
It took few minutes for more police (and red umbrellas) to arrive, after which there were few more minutes of arguing, and the girl was dragged into a police van, the guy was more cooperative and walked to the van all by himself (didn’t get photos of the event. It all happened very quickly , but pretty sure there were others around who did). They were then whisked away, supposedly for tea-drinking in an un-disclosed location.
To be continued:Right after the described events, I got busy having my own little annual ritual with the GonganJu. More on that later today.
Homo Shopiens
ESWN translation of a Ming Pao piece brings the story of an elderly Chinese citizen who died from a heart attack during a trip to Hong-Kong. Mr. Chen was trying to read the paper during a visit to a jewelry store, and got into a heated argument with the tour-guide who made it clear to him that he won’t be allowed to leave the venue unless he buys something first. “This is a shopping group, so you must make purchases”, she said, bringing to poor old men to an excitement that resulted in him collapsing at the shop and later being pronounced dead.
Now I’ve had my share of arguments with Chinese tour-guide who brought me very near a heart attack in my days as a tour leader, but still, you have to admire that girl’s poetry. pushy and bitchy as she may be. it isn’t often that one hears so profound a truth pronounced in so few, almost dao-like words. Here, in a nutshell, is what all the inc’s and TM’s and their advertising staff have been trying to tell us all those years: This is a shopping trip, you must make purchases.