I have a massive “To Read” list that I am trying to work on. One book that I have recently finished include Chinese Lessons
by John Pomfret. When I first started reading this book, my initial interest to continue lay around the fact that Pomfret’s initial entry into China was as a foreign student at Nanjing University. With so many people based in Beijing and Shanghai, it is always a plus to hear stories from outside of there (even though he eventually winds up in Beijing). Also, it made me realize that I miss China and I really miss Nanjing. Something I never thought possible while sweating to death in July. When Pomfret talks about New Street Crossing, Hunan Road, the Drum Tower District, and the university areas, I know where there are and I was at those places weekly, sometimes daily. Although Pomfret’s experience mirrors other China journalists and scholars who entered China in and around 1980, the personal stories that he shares are what makes this book stand out.
For me it was the story of Old Wu. Old Wu was a roommate whose parents had been professors at Nanjing Normal University. At the onset of the Cultural Revolution, his parents were the first to be murdered in Nanjing by Red Guards. When I was reading the description of their brutal beatings and deaths, I could picture where and how in my mind. But in the photo section of the novel, he includes a picture of Old Wu, standing in front of the courtyard at Nanjing Normal, where his parents were murdered. The photo gave me chills.
To think of something so terrible and pointless happening where I spent many days sitting and watching children and their mothers and father and grandparents play, the center of one of the most beautiful campuses I visited while in China, is just strange and unthinkable. And horrifying.
Nicholas Kristoff, John Pomfret, Peter Hessler and James Kynge all give stories of amazing similarity and shared experience. The similarities can be comforting - people spitting, the rudeness, the craziness, the corruption - and frustrating. When I arrived in China, things they described as happening before I was born were still happening in 2006. Phrases like mei banfa (there is no other way), mei you (don’t have), bu yao le (I don’t want) are still some of the first that you hear and say under a regular basis. People still act amazed at my ability to use chopsticks, to speak Chinese and the fact that I am not a terrible morally bankrupt rich and greedy American out to expose all of China’s misdoings. I keep wondering how long it will take for these things to change. Or will visitors, scholars and students going to China always experience them?
I guess I’ll find out soon enough.