Current Hong Kong Time: 7:15 AM, December 26th
I know I promised to blog as soon as I got back, but I've adjusted to this new time zone now and I haven't been getting up as early, which leaves precious little computer time before my parents wake up. Precious little time, in which I still need to catch up on e-mail and other mundane tasks. I'll try to do this as quickly as possible.
Home
Home is fun, I guess. Living in a household where everyone pretty gets up at 6 on weekdays and 7 on weekends, doesn't really give me a chance to sleep in or reduce this sleep debt in any significant way. I don't feel like I have any privacy at home, nor any free time. All day, I'm kept busy with chores and other tasks or dragged around the city with my parents. I love going around the city, don't get me wrong, and going around with parents does have the benefit of their buying me lots of things, whether I want them or not. However, it's just not fun. As for the lack of privacy, I feel like I'm constantly being searched or watched. My parents look over my shoulder when I read my e-mail and have empty all the pockets in my backpack and questioned the origins of each item. A number of things have then been annexed for my little brother (not that I begrudge him the use of things, but it's rather unfair). A blue book from a past midterm that I'd left in the bottom of my backpack was opened and examined and I was quizzed on the questions I got wrong. I brought home my digital camera and my laptop and have to some degree regretted both decisions. The first day, my dad had a hissy fit because I'd gotten such a nice laptop and "wasted" all that money. Anyway, I'm not even allowed to use it most of the time, at least not without people looking over my shoulder or calling me off to do chores. As for my digital camera, it's become my dad's new toy. I'm constantly being asked how to do this or that or to Photoshop some image he took to make it black and white, darker or lighter; to remove little mistakes and stuff. I personally don't think he composes photos that well and I'm forced to crop them and adjust around it as he expects the finalized picture to be perfect. Of course, every time I protest, my mom brings up some other person's college age kid who is the model of filial piety. That old Asian parent syndrome, to forever be compared to other people and made to feel inferior.
Christmas Eve, my little brother had a mini-concert and played a number of recital pieces he'd learned. He's really getting quite good. Actually, that's an understatement. In Hong Kong (and the UK), piano grades go up to grade 8, before you're recommended for study at a Conservatory. My brother's only 9 and he's already grade 6 and playing grade 7 pieces. He's also learning some pretty advanced music theory and has already composed a few short pieces for piano. As part of his education, however, all we ever listen to is classical. Not that I don't like classical music, but I could do without Czerny on repeat. I don't think anyone here has heard of jazz piano. When my brother practices, also, he expects to have an audience (usually me). One that will turn the pages for him and offer words of encouragement as well as one to whom he can gloat and challenge to spot his mistakes. Sigh.
I've been doing some reading, nothing at all difficult, to the great chagrin of my parents, but novels that I'd loved when I was little. Really early SciFi by Jules Verne (and I'm still searching for the original French), Jack London, Susan Cooper. I've always been able to be quickly absorbed in a book and lost to the world -- a sort of escapism that's coming in handy again.
I really miss Hobbes. Actually I miss someone I can talk to without having to guard everything I say. Thankfully, I can't seem to get onto the January 4th flight and I'm going to fly back on the 30th. A lonely New Year's maybe, but at least I'll be home. I'd also like to see the last Lord of the Rings movie but I'd probably have to wait for school to start. I've not seen any former friends since I've been back -- partially due to that I'm not online nearly as much, so in all, while I've been kept preoccupied, it's not been terribly productive.
China
So, I went to China a few days ago. The technical details bore you, but we went and met up with relatives, I did the usual grin grin nod nod and act preoccupied with my little brother. Thankfully, less than a day later we went and joined a tour group and went around Wuyishan (a quite scenic area in Eastern China). With temperatures ranging from -1 to 12°C, it was bitterly cold by Hong Kong standards, chilly by Stanford's and positively balmy by Michigan's. I have photographs, some of which came out quite well. I'll post them here, in thumbnail format, when I get a fast internet connection again. Wuyishan is quite a beautiful place with the steep rock formations that are particularly liked by the Chinese -- the ones you see in all sorts of ancient water-colorsr paintings. We even got to climb one -- up stairs of course, the Mainland government would never trust anyone to scale the rock face. For a brief moment, it felt like camping trip I'd so enjoyed years ago. And then people started whining about how far up we had to go and that illusion was shattered. In an American tour, they'd talk about how the rock formations were formed, the type of rock it was and what the various layers mean. Here, they tell you that this rock looks like the sinking Titanic and that one like three pregnant sisters and you'd have to squint and twist your head around and nod like you understand. Definitely don't argue, these impressions are sacred and passed down through the generations (ok, maybe not the Titanic one, but that one I actually agreed with... sort of.)
A definite highlight was riding rafts down the main river. Whereas in the Americas, the native people drew pictures on the walls of caves, the ancient Chinese carved poems. All along the edge of the water, and in some places quite high up, were poems and lines carved into the sheer rock face. It was all done in painstaking detail to look like brush calligraphy. The rafting in and of itself was fun, as we slid through rapids and floated along. These were traditional bamboo rafts that were amazingly stable. I'm not sure if I should blog this somewhere else, but my mom got into a lengthy political discussion with the farmer poling our raft and it was quite surprising how in tune with World politics he was. He had opinions on Chinese government, the war in Iraq and what he thought of Saddam's capture as well as the state of peace in Israel and the West Bank.
Another highlight was this really narrow passage between two caves. It's called "A thread of sky" literally and it's basically two rock faces that jut against each other that you squeeze between. If you look up there's this very tiny sliver of light that seeps through. It was actually just fun to squeeze between the rocks in the near darkness.
Part of going on trips to China with a group, however, is that you're dragged from one "museum" to another. Each time, there's a very fast educational experience in a room -- one on how they make tea, for example, and then they try to sell you stuff. In the nicest possible way -- with what appear to be staggeringly good discounts. Except they don't let you go -- in the nicest possible way -- until you buy some. I'm sure the tour guides get a kickback from this, but having gone to four in four days, it was definitely tiresome. We ended up getting some really nice mushrooms from one, that I may try to smuggle into the US. My mom got a jade bracelet at another place, for what amounts to 98% off, although I didn't see anyone there who actually bought things for full price. The way jade bracelets work, too, is that they really can't be removed except with a lot of pain and soapy water, so my mom didn't really have a choice. I should be glad they didn't give one to me.
Christmas
It just occurred to me a few days ago that Christmas has become the most un-Christian of holidays. Back when I went to school (and it wasn't even a Christian school) we sang traditional carols about the birth of Christ and Mary and Joseph. Stuff like "We Three Kings" and "Coventry Carol". These days, all that plays in the malls and shops and what my little brother sings in school are Americanized Christmas carols. Stuff about shopping and getting presents and playing in the snow. "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Santa was a fabrication whose current image is based a lot on "Twas the night before Christmas", a poem from earlier last century. While I'm not Christian, I like my religious holidays to have religious significance, thank you very much. So if you are celebrating Christmas, and you are Christian, sing something a little more traditional (even if the only one you know is "O, Come All Ye Faithful"), for Christ's sake.
Anyway, the folks are awake. Got to run. Have a great Christmas evening/day after. If for you it's just a big secular holiday to American Consumerism, have a good one. If you celebrate something else, Hanukkahh (spelt however you like), Kwanza, Winter Solstice I hope it goes/went well and you had fun.
--C.