next week marks the sixth month that i've been in beijing, home to the fast talking, hard selling Chinese.
it is a dusty, seemingly confused city wherein you find a small bustling street of illegal hawkers selling what i believe to be the world's best 麻辣烫 (malatang), right in the midst of the busy, sky scrapper filled CBD area.
i love it for the way it is somehow, it reminds me of my chronic identity crisis and feels like somewhere i could belong to.
everything is possible here, from a single bicycles carrying what seems to be triple stacks of 2 meter high newspapers, to the world's largest lcd screen that goes on forever, to the vast size of their cultural symbols - the forbidden city and great wall, the extravagant malls, the beyond-your-imagination stinky toilets, the cheap shopping areas where you can get a jacket for 19 yuan, the crazy traffic, the honking, the variety of food, the nightlife, the large rich-poor gap and so much more.
but the thing that strikes me most is the people. they speak of their history with so much love and pride, knowing that China was the most advanced civilization around for many years before the western world, speaking with such confidence that they will once again take centre stage, and i am slowly being convinced that they will, though i may not live to see it.
and just taking a ride on their subway shows you how much they suffer from split identities.
the announcements are made by a woman, whose voice is enough to touch any soul and sounds elegant and civilized. but yet every ride is like a stiff competition of who-can-get-in-first, the never ending pushing and shoving, the lack of regard for others' private space. and, just when you thought that they must be the world's rudest and most disgusting bunch of people, they shock you by getting up and giving up their seats, for every old man/woman, pregnant lady, child that gets on. every single time.
very very interesting people.
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