China is modernizing at a formidable rate and I'm not sure its culture can cope. We shall see whether the next generation, the fulfulment of the one child policy, has thrown out the baby with the bathwater or whether some of its rich culture survives. Modernization is not all bad and showers would be a welcome development (no hot water as promised on my penultimate day, in fact no water at all in the eve! and there are no showers at all in the Chinese student accommodation!! They have a separate shared shower area - C is for cimmunism and communal!) and I heard there's a 100 yuan fine for spitting in Tiananmin Sq.
I had barely time to boil my kettle for my thermos after returning frim my last 4.30-6.15am park session before A knock at the door. It was Sinyong, Malaysian student who had booked her taxi man for me. Then Xiao Qing arrived to take to the train station.
Thankfully. As she got me onto the business waiting room where we chatted the 1.5hrs wait wait away. Shame I'm leaving as my Chinese could get quite good :-(
Everyone from the park sweeper to the taiji teacher asks whether I'm coming back. I have developed a stock phrase - I have to go back, study for a year and then work to make money to return. I would like to study Chinese herbs and come back to study them.
There are a few little white imaginings in this scenario. I'm not sure i want to do another degree or leave my London life I'm returning to establish and finally, if I did go back to study herbs I would probably return to Guangzhou where my family is and to the hospital that Ah Tao took me to.
There are times when my Chinese-ness fails me and one such is on train fayre. It's a case of once eaten twice shy with the self-repeating pot noodle and I just had to pass on the famed Harbin sausage or vacuum-packed chicken foot!
No comments:
Post a Comment