An American Abroad
I was talking with a middle-aged Chinese friend recently who admitted to finding a young Korean pop star very handsome. “Really? Wow,” I said. “You’re really robbing the cradle.” She didn’t know that idiom, so I explained it to her.
She laughed and then she reciprocated, telling me that in Chinese, the same idea is expressed as lao niu chi nen cao (老牛吃嫩草), which literally means “old cow eating tender grass.”
I love it. Like may Chinese idioms, it’s earthy and hilarious.
Zippy is a 2005 Zipstar LZX 125-6 motorcycle built by what was then called the Chonquing Zongshen Number Two Motorcycle Co., Ltd. and is now called Zongshen PEM Power Systems, Inc.
Zippy used to belong to my colleague Matt, but since he is returning to Wales for an extended visit home, Zippy now belongs to me!
Like almost every motorcycle in China, Zippy is small by American standards, with a displacement of just 125cc — less than one-fifth the size of my Kawasaki KLR 650. Larger bikes are very rare here because they are taxed very heavily.
After having a few minor repairs and adjustments made yesterday, I took Zippy for a three-hour ride this morning. We headed northeast out of Yuxi, initially tracking the bicycle route I took last summer. This time, though, I went a lot further. I passed through many small villages where farmers still till their fields with oxen and wood-frame plows. I rode up switchbacks into the mountains. For the most part, the road was smooth concrete, but this occasionally gave way to mud and gravel. Zippy’s light weight made for easy handling even on uncertain surfaces. I did, however, manage to plow through a deep mud puddle which undid the careful cleaning job I’d given Zippy before we left. But it was a fine shakedown trip–the first of many such excursions, I hope.
I’ve taught this primary school class for almost eight months. Many of these students were among the first I had at Shane English Yuxi. Yesterday was our last review class before the final exam, so I took a few pictures. Sad to say, once this course is completed, the class will likely be split and I will lose many of my favorite students. But while they were together, they were the class that always made me the happiest.
. . . to learn yesterday that in northern Chinese dialect, an bu neng si (which sounds very much like “ambulance” when said quickly) means “I can’t die!”
Spring has arrived in Yuxi and the public gardens are in bloom.
Other parts of town are considerably less scenic right now. There is a new mayor here, known to everyone as “Mr. Finger”: he points at a building and BOOM, it’s gone the next day. There are enormous highrise shopping and residential complexes being built in two different locations and an underground shopping plaza being put beneath one of Yuxi’s major commercial streets. There is a new outpatient care building being added to Yuxi People’s Hospital and numerous other medium-sized buildings sprouting up all over town.
Meanwhile in the wake of the Kunming terror attack two weeks ago, there are still armed police and soldiers stationed around the schools and near shopping centers. They aren’t keen on being photographed, but I managed to snap this pic of them near a school.
I was working on one of my MOOCs this morning around 10:00 when I heard a lengthy round of firecrackers going off down in the street. I peered through my window and saw that the firecrackers were being tossed off the back of a three-wheeler. Behind that were people parading down Zhuge East Road. They were carrying floats decorated with a model of a Chinese house and many flowers. By the time I got my shoes on, grabbed my camera, and took the elevator down 18 floors, the parade was over and the floats were being packed up into a truck. The people stood around and chatted, many of them with their heads wrapped in white turbans and their bodies covered with white tunics. They seemed to be in a good mood and gladly acquiesced to my request to take their photos.
Later I learned from some Chinese friends that this was a funeral procession. White is the color of death and mourning in China, which explains the tunics and turbans.
(I was cautioned never to give white flowers to someone outside of a funeral.) The model of the house and the flowers are to symbolize the possessions of the decedent.
If the person who’s died is old, then the funeral party is generally a more festive one.
In the five days since the horrible attack on people at the Kunming train station just 70 miles north of here, I’ve seen how the Chinese government and people react to terrorism. The current death toll is 33, with 130 injured, of whom 70 are in critical condition. It’s a little early for me to try to spin grand theories about what all this means. What follows is more of a notebook of observations.
This bunch of twelve-year-olds has been my favorite class at Shane English Yuxi.
Tess, Michael, Windays, Jack, Ewan, Windays, Nancy and Rose are bright, funny, verbal, and hard-working. They all aced the end-of-course final exam without difficulty.
Fortunately, I won’t have to miss my students. Most of them have enrolled in the next-level course, which I am teaching. That class will be run very differently from the drill-based courses I usually teach. It’s more of a roundtable seminar designed to get students to express themselves more confidently and fluently. It’s going to be a challenge for all of us, but one I am very much looking forward to.
In the last 24 hours, I’ve received many messages from friends and family expressing concern for my safety in the wake of yesterday’s horrific terrorist attack in Kunming. I appreciate all those communications; it’s nice to feel looked after by friends half a world away. Let me assure everyone that I’m fine and unharmed and so are the people I know there.
Kunming is about 70 miles north of where I live in Yuxi. Fortunately, I was nowhere near there when the attack occurred. I’ve been to Kunming about ten times, either passing through en route to other places or shopping for things (e.g., coffee) that are hard to find here in Yuxi. I know the area around the train station where the attack occurred. It’s a transportation hub that includes the bus station I use and the place where I get the shuttle to the Kunming airport. I have two friends there, former colleagues of mine who were among the first to welcome me to China.
I share the worldwide revulsion at yesterday’s events. I am shaken by the news photos of people fleeing the attack and running down Beijing Nanlu, a street I’ve walked every time I go to Kunming. Having just taken a train trip, I can well imagine the horror that the people at the Kunming train station felt as maniacs with two-foot knives ran through the station and indiscriminately stabbed, sliced and hacked away at innocent travelers. My heart goes out the victims and their families.
Today I took my first-ever train trip in China and, at the suggestion of a Chinese friend of mine, went to the town of Mengzi. I was about two hours southeast of Yuxi:
The train was old and a little worn, but it was right on time and and traveled at a good clip. I was accompanied by Silas, a new colleague of mine at Shane English Yuxi.
When we got to Mengzi, we took a taxi to Nanhu Lake, which lies in the center of town. The lake is supposedly the place where over-the-bridge noodles were invented. It has a beautiful park around it that features many classic Chinese buildings.
After walking around the lake, we went into the older part of town. Today was market day, which brought throngs to the town center. At times, the narrow streets were so crowded with foot traffic that it was impossible to move. Many of the people there were Yi and Miao people. I was reluctant to take their photographs as if they were some kind of exhibit, but I did snap these candids:
Mengzi has many more older buildings than Yuxi does. They’re not in very good repair, but they provide a glimpse of the China that was:
Now that I have some train experience, I may do more daytrips around Yunnan. It’s a pleasant way to travel here.
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