Another Winter’s Day Where Change was in the Air
The moving inauguration day of President Barack Obama in the U.S. reminded me of a January, 1997, winter’s day in faraway China where change was in the air along with colorful clothes, singing birds, and upside down ducks all in a tree.
A sunny day brightens dispositions all over the world, but none moreso than in the middle of winter in unheated China. Such as a day that brought me out of my hotel room in Hangzhou. The sky was unseasonably blue with gentle clouds floating in it.
I walked in the streets of a small neighborhood market and saw the smiles of people sitting outdoors playing cards, playing with grandchildren, chatting. Even a usually busy vendor who concentrates on making money with his goods had paused to turn his loaded cart into a table for playing cards.
I chanced upon a picturesque canal with small houses lining it on one side. The opposite side was already beginning to give way to the rather awkward, ungraceful, high-rise apartments springing up like unattractive weeds all over China. Each side of the street separated by the canal — one still filled with old, graceful one- and two-story homes, across from ungainly blue-windowed monsters — struck me as symbolic of the many fast-paced transitions of modern China.
I walked slowly along the grimy, although not trash-filled canal and took for granted the unusual cleanliness of the sidewalk and canal bank on this side. These were people who had a sense of the neighborhood that existed outside the walls of their homes. These were people who knew their neighbors and easily flowed between outside and inside. The people on the other side of the canal were apartment dwellers who had no sense of community outside their walls and who would live confined to their modern boxes with balconies from which to see the canal.
At times I regretted having left my camera behind, but in other ways was glad because I could blend in a bit better without the prying tourist’s camera-eyed view of China. I took many mental pictures instead.
The cold chill that permeates unheated homes in winter had brought not only people outdoors, but also their clothes, bedding, and even whole beds that had been moved outside to air out. The puffy quilts made a gay sight. The tree branches were no longer bare, but happily bore birds in cages, and a variety of newly washed clothes excitedly waving and soaking up the wonderful fresh sunshine. Cooked ducks being preserved for the upcoming Chinese New Year were also sunbathing on the branches so they could develop the best taste possible.
China in the 1990’s is a place of incredible transition, turmoil, and even chaos. The old and the new, whether with people or technology, often confront each other in discord. But on this day, in this place, there was only the warmth of sunshine and harmony.
Tags: Chinese New Year in China; China in the late 1990s; cha, Travel
