China rocks, China rolls, China is always moving . . . a purposeful tidal wave on bicycles bearing an impossible load of ears of corn, pots and pans, bargefuls of fruit, acrobatic China on two wheels holding up an impatient, beeping Mercedes, old and new China merging, taking no prisoners, street sweepers still use homemade brooms, and pick and shovel brigades dig up the streets and pound old buildings into bits of rubble, constantly.
Coal fumes and dank dust, the coughing dragon hawking, everybody smokes, everybody stares, everybody is not your buddy, though kindness arises in spontaneous gusts that leave you smiling stupidly, the unmistakable gestures aimed at easing your burden, lightening your load, a mother and a newborn, she's waving the tiny hand, saying hello, heloo, hello, the shopkeepers totaling up purchases on a calculator so I can read the price, from the merely courteous to the seemingly lifesaving, and so on, and so on. Then there are are the constant parents/grandparents dragging a shy child toward you, pushing them forward, prompting them to say,"Hello, how are you?" I say I am fine and the parent or grandparent beams at the cleverness of their child and waddles away, and once again I turn back into the swarm, having blissfully learned the lesson of how to be alone among all these people, a truly amazing Chinese trait I learned from a man sitting so regally on a crowded train, so deep into his solitude he was untouchable, and just to show me he knew I was there, he came out briefly, made eye contact, then disappeared again. As I weave my way through crowds, like a ship, I always leave a staring wake marking my progress. But China really comes alive at night. Night markets are an explosion of food and goods and shop till you drop, Chinese style, offering up yak butter, fake silk, fake Calvin Klein's, genuine spicy beef noodles, Muslims in white round hats serving up lamb and round flatbread and goat's skulls for soup leering from ragged booths, potatoes, tomatoes, no tofu curfew, and later, overwhelmed, I feed bread I bought at the improbably named 'Auspicious Bakery' to the cranes on the banks of the Yellow River that's not really yellow but as brown as mocha coffee, brown as a winter without snow, as brown as Brown Sugar sung by the Stones, as I stagger wide-eyed, how-to-say, how-to-say, how-to-say, oh my god i really am here, bring on the giant Buddha's, the Gobi Desert warriors, the wind off the Tibetan Plateau, the decaying remnants of the Great Wall in the Hexi Corridor. I will follow the prostate pilgrims crawling toward the Forbidden City, ride a reluctant camel up barren dunes, spin prayer wheels till my fingers go numb, teach my students well, climb the pagoda'd mountains, eat dragonfruit, be accupuntured, consume unidentifiable things, drink strange concoctions, poke and probe and blunder about. I will be your errant reporter, brave, dutiful, deliberate, though not always timely and lackadaisical at best. It is China after all. Happy Year of the Dragon and drink deeply from the self-illuminating cup. Every day I revisit how little I know. Yet everyday beckons me, waving me to follow, promising more somehow, and baby, it always delivers.
7 Comments
Christy
5/12/2012 02:25:37 pm
Elvis English-that is so you!! Well, as the first to see it let me say I am ever so grateful that you esteem me so highly. Your narrative along with the pics make me experience it with you. I loved the one of the dog with the sneakers. Go figure I'd lock on that one. I cracked up when I read that it was taken by Marty McFly.
Reply
moonmadman
5/12/2012 10:35:49 pm
NOT in Kansas anymore?
Reply
5/14/2012 03:30:34 am
Very cool Mike, I mean Elvis English, "thank you verrrry much"
Reply
Brujita
5/21/2012 02:37:42 pm
Brujito Mike, after seeing the vibrant collage of moments you have captured... this is officially a Journey!
Reply
Paul & Peggy
5/22/2012 08:39:00 am
Mike this looks great. We look foward to following the blog to continue on your journey
Reply
Mary & Michael
5/23/2012 04:39:36 am
Elvis English "King of Teachers" that is so you. Great how you captured the area for us to see I also see you found Lucky in China only he is wearing sneakers!lol I love how you wrote about the rain it felt like I was walking with you so clever and descriptive great narritive. Looking forward to your posts We so enjoy them. Love and miss you
Reply
Tony
8/8/2012 10:18:17 am
Interesting to say the least. I'll stay tuned.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
|