Eric's Beijing Diary

About a week ago now, I went to the English Corner trying to think of something to talk about that would be a little less boring than what you get stuck with if you don't initiate the conversation ("How long have you been in China?", "Do you like Chinese food?", etc.), when I ran into a one-man bluegrass band. A TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) doctor from upstate New York who now lives in Luoyang was picking his banjo Earl Scruggs style, and singing bluegrass and whatever else his audience could talk him into. Join me on the Beijing Diary Podcast for a little homemade bluegrass music.

Took a bunch of my old winter shirts to my tailor and had him cut the sleeves off. Spring is in full bloom, and summer is almost upon us. I usually tell people that fall is the best time of the year in Beijing, but this spring has been one of the nicest in my memory. With Beijing adding 1000 new cars to the roads every day, I just don't know how much longer we will be able to enjoy this. Ladies from Shanghai sometimes complain about the dry air in Beijing, but I like it. Summer is coming, though, and Beijing does a flip-flop in the summertime: very high humidity with the heat to go with it. In Arizona they are fond of downplaying the tremendous summer heat by saying, "It's dry heat." Suffer through a Beijing summer, and you will know what they mean. When the humidity is over 90 per cent, your body can't sweat properly. I have never actually been here through an entire summer, because I always escape to the western mountains.

The whole thing wouldn't be so surprising if it were not such a sharp contrast to what you normally expect. When I am in South China, I expect hot, humid weather. But in Beijing with it's cool fresh breezes both spring and fall, the summer contrast is really quite mind boggling.

Star helped me get a ticket to "A Mid Summer Night's Dream" tonight at Peking University. A British theater company is touring China with a light hearted rendition of Shakespeare's classic.

I have never been much enamored with Shakespeare's plots. But his characters are always intense. During the years I lived on the road, I used to listen to books on tape. Most of them were books that were read by actors. I would rent them at a truck stop, and then turn them in a few days later at another truck stop that was in the network. But the Shakespeare works I listened to were BBC dramatizations that I purchased and listened to several times. If you ever try to study Shakespeare, you will find that his work is much easier to follow in dramatization. To help me keep track of who was talking, I would also pick up a cheap paperback copy of the play in question, and have it handy so I could take a glance once in awhile while I was driving and listening. I wasn't actually reading it, just trying to keep track of which character was speaking. But herding an 80,000 pound truck down the road with Shakespeare in one hand and the steering wheel in the other was just a little too much, so I had to give it up. Trucking, I mean.

The performance this evening was in English (of course) with Chinese subtitles. Seemed to work pretty well, as students who are learning English like to be able to listen to English and get a little help along the way. Actually, I have found that most serious students of English actually prefer English subtitles. But with Shakespeare, that might be a bit a little too much of a challenge, I don't know.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Well, Sarkozy is in in France. You would be surprised how many seemingly intelligent professionals I have met in this country who try to insist that what is happening today in China is a modification of Marxism. In response to such nonsense, I often say that France is more socialist than China. Now I may have to change that. Sarkozy's election is one more nail in the coffin of institutional socialism. It actually took me quite by surprise. I have not had this much interest in France for a long time. It just seemed to be so irrelevant. Perhaps my interest is peaked, in part, because China has so much interest in France. French is the most frequently required "third language" for English majors. And the restaurants are fond of playing French music. But I really think my interest is due more to the fundamental change that Sarkozy's election represents. History may tell us that Socialism in France was a casualty of the European Union. It is just too easy, now, for energetic, working professionals to move to another part of Europe to escape the burdens of socialism. And a lesson to Hillary Clinton from history: Women politicians who go after the women's vote do not get the women's vote. Women who campaign for the needs of all citizens get the votes of all citizens, and the women's vote thrown in for good measure.

Several weeks ago, I had a discussion with some friendly, informative folks at the English corner on the question, "What do the Chinese people believe?" Last Friday night, I decided take things in a slightly different direction. Our question for that night was "What do Americans believe? I found the young people I talked with to be pretty perceptive about what are the most noticeable American values. Join me for a friendly discussion on the Beijing Diary Podcast.

Got up at 6:30 this morning and rode my bike down to Houhai Park. Haidian Church has started a new English service at noon on Sundays, and since I was going to be going to that service, I decided to get up early and enjoy the spring morning. Beijing is really beautiful in the spring.

One of the major differences between Beijing and Shanghai, is that when Shanghai began to put in all the new developments, they just wiped out the bicycle lanes. Beijing preserved them. I remember the first time I encountered a freeway when I was riding my bike. I was beginning to do some mental calculations about how far out of the way I would have to ride to get around the clover leaf in front of me. To my surprise, the bicycle lane didn't stop! It just kept right on going up and around the circle. It's hard to describe, but it's amazing how well it works.

Songzhuang. The village. Actually, it's a village inside a city, because Songzhuang is situated within Beijing Shi (city). But you'd never know it. This is the countryside of China a stone's throw from the Forbidden City. It's rural nature means that prices of real estate are quite a bit less than they would be in the city. But it's proximity to Beijing proper has made it a drawing card for folks who would ordinarily be drawn to a much more urban locale. Specifically, Songzhuang is becoming a gathering place for artists and musicians.

This afternoon we went to a Christian Rock concert, which featured a group from Pittsburgh called, "Re:generation." Loud, but friendly. The young people liked it. Wonder how much hearing I lost. Hate to be a party pooper, but I left a little early. Is that alright? This is when I should say something like, "I must be getting old." But the truth is that I never have liked excessively loud music, even when I was younger. I must have very sensitive ears, or something, but for me, the loud music at rock concerts is physically painful.

The name of the place is interesting. "Song" is a family name and Zhuang means village. So Songzhuang means "Song Family Village." I guess villages are often named like that in China. I don't know if the Song family is still around, but apparently they were influential in getting the place started. This place is so China, you'd never guess that it is becoming a center for modern art. Not sure how all that happened, but apparently it is just close enough to the city center to be attractive to artsy types who want to be "far from the madding crowd" without being to far from the conveniences of modern life. After all, if you have a car, it isn't more than about 30 minutes from the World Trade Center in Guomao.