Twenty-five Wonderful Things about China

June 9, 2009

1. Stately tree-lined country roads and urban streets. Especially the big old trees, green and graceful, offering shade and shelter, and reminders of the abiding beauty of the natural environment.
2. Tile roofs with upturned corners. So lyrical and light.
3. Free exercise equipment in many parks and playgournds. Sturdy, colourful machines for exercising legs, arms, torso and heart. Well-used, especially in the evenings, when many Chinese come out for their daily exercise.
4. Temples. Everywhere.
5. Women who still dress up in style and can go anywhere in high heels – down uneven cobblestone streets, through muddy paths and across narrow, broken wood-slat bridges.
6. People with lots of time to play mah jong, cards, Chinese checkers, and go, or just sit or stand around drinking tea and watching others play.
7. All things old and ancient.
8. Colourful, friendly minority ethnic groups, especially in Yunnan, where their numbers are plentiful. Especially the ones who still dress in traditional garb, not just for tourists, but for themselves. Who keep their culture alive despite pervasive attempts to Disneyfy.
9. Kites. Wonderful, complicated, colourful, fun and free.
10. Solar water heaters on almost every roof. Subsidized by the Chinese government. And they work like a hot ....!
11. Beautiful night lights. Flood-lit buildings, bridges and trees in warm golds and greens. Fancy street lamps in all colours of the rainbow. Huge neon signs with brilliant multi-coloured lights blinking, swirling, waving. Night symphonies of colour and light.
12. Manicured gardens everywhere. Everything in neat rows. No weeds.
13. Cobble-stone and flag-stone streets. 
14. Hair cuts that come with a half-hour massage – head, neck, shoulders, back, arms and hands. Wonderful!
15. Children. Cute, curious and very friendly. “Hello!” “Hello!” As always the best ambassadors.
16. Trains that run absolutely on time. Absolutely. To the minute.
17. Electric motorcycles. So clean and quiet. What a difference from Vietnam!
18. Evening dancing in the park, square or street. In almost every city folks gather at night and dance together. In some places they do traditional dances in a big circle. In others, ballroom dancing. The music is canned, but lively. It's absolutely free, everyone is welcome, and everyone joins in. They have such fun!
19. Incredibly intricate and beautiful wood carvings, everywhere. Temples, houses, hotels, around windows, on doors. Birds, flowers, animals, Chinese symbols. Some painted gay colours, some 'au naturel.' Whichever, always a feast for the eyes.
20. Cheap buses. Just 20 cents will get you where you want to go.
21. Walking streets. Every city has a pedestrian area. No cars. No motorcycles, often not even any bicycles. Street and food vendors set up in them. 
22. Beautiful mosaics created by patch-work rice paddies in the flat valley bottom, or by terraces cascading down the mountainsides. Flooded and shimmering, or glowing green with new growth. Often enhanced by the sight of peasants with hat and hoes and once in a while by water buffalos working the fields.
23. Bonsais and bamboo.
24. Cheap beer. Not too strong, but not too bad – and the price is right!
25. People's Parks in every town and city. All with lovely gardens, big old trees, bamboo stands, flowers and water features like lotus ponds, rivers with carved stone bridges or lakes with boats for rent (pedal, row and electric motor). Tea-houses or pavilions where you can play games – mah jong, cards, checkers – or do tai chi or yoga. And best of all, people playing music and dancing. Solitary musicians practicing their scales by the edge of the pond. Duets and groups plugging in their sound equipment and playing for whoever stops to listen. People clapping, people sing,ing people dancing to the music. And right beside them another group singing and dancing another tune, another drummer. And several dancercize groups where lithe young men and women lead participants in fast-paced but graceful dance-aerobic numbers. For me, the People's Parks, and what goes on within them, may be The Most Wonderful Thing about China.

 

Eastern and Western Attitudes towards 'Moral' Behaviour

June 8, 2009

This morning we met a Japanese man at Mimosa, our favourite cafe in Yangshuo. He was sitting by himself at a table, busily writing something in English, and conferring with the waitress about translation into Chinese. We were having breakfast.

He was a typically neat and trim Japanese fellow, late middle-age, wearing a light blue tailored shirt and dark slacks. He looked like a professor or business man without a suit jacket.

At one point he looked up from his endeavours and said 'hello!' It was clear he wasn't Chinese, but not clear where he was from, so we asked him, and he answered, “Japan, from a city about half-way between Tokyo and the island of Hokkaido.”

In his own words, he's 'half-retired,' and has been coming to Yangshuo for a couple of months every few months to learn Chinese. He intends, once he learns it, to travel more widely in China.

He stood up and approached our table. “My wallet was stolen yesterday,” he said, patting his pants pocket and shaking his head. “So I am writing this message. Can I read it to you?”

Here's what it said:

“Please make China an even more fantastic country. If any of you friends are about to lose their conscience, then please tell them the story below for their own good. To steal something from others means to throw away your conscience which was given to you by your parents who wanted you to be happy. Happiness exists only in a sound mind.”

He wanted to know if the English was correct. Later that day I saw him again. He had a handful of printed papers. He gave me one. The word 'conscience' had been changed to 'morals.' As the saying here goes, 'same same but different.'

What intrigues me is the very different approach taken in the east towards 'bad behaviour.' Appealing to the higher moral being, making reference to parents, and the concept of happiness. Here in the East these things still appear to have some meaning, to exercise some influence on people's behaviour.

I mentioned this to him, and said, laughing, that in the West, our response to a stolen wallet would more likely go something like this: “if you're gonna steal stuff, you're gonna get caught, maybe by the police. And then you're gonna be sorry.” Crime and punishment.

Although I liked his approach I couldn't imagine it having any effect at all in the West, where morals seem to have gone awol, and parents are definitely passe. Where most people wouldn't have any idea what a 'sound mind' was, and would define 'happiness' quite differently.
And I wonder, given the rapid pace of Westernization in China (and other Asian countries), especially among the i-savvy, hip-hopped and hyped-up young, how much longer his approach, as high-minded as it is, will be effective here.... .