Beijing Players

Author: Liu Yida
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: Play, this word's meaning, to a Beijing person, is both profound and simple. It is profound because no matter what Beijing people play, they can always find a way to do it well. There are many nuances involved. It is simple because many types of play are accessible to everyone, and on the surface, they don’t seem to have any profound aspects. For example, the few elders introduced in this book play with porcelain, birdcages, bicycles, and so on. These types of play are easy to acquire, but truly mastering them isn’t something that can be done in a day or two. You really have to dive in and think about it. Precisely because of this, play has distinctions in taste, differences between elegance and vulgarity, and thus the terms "player" and "idiot" come into play. Play is a culture, or perhaps an extreme form of culture. In the past, people said that indulging in play leads to loss of ambition and a disdain for the world, which was somewhat biased, or at least these sayings only hold true under specific circumstances. For example, if you are facing difficulties and the enemy has reached your doorstep, and you still play, isn’t that "losing ambition"? Therefore, Beijing people often say, "Whatever you play, don’t let yourself get caught up in it." They also say, "Whatever you play, don’t let the thing play you." This shows that Beijing people’s understanding of play reflects a tranquil and carefree mindset. When we say play is a culture, it doesn’t necessarily refer to play itself but rather the joy found in the process. The elegance that transcends material concerns is only experienced during play. Culture is embedded within it. Take eating and dressing as an example. As long as a person is alive, who can live without food and clothing? But Beijing people say, "Seven generations learning to eat, eight generations learning to dress." Look, one eats and one dresses, but to a Beijing person, it’s all approached with a mindset of play. Without the foundation of seven or eight generations, you can’t truly say you know how to eat or dress. Of course, seven generations or eight generations are just metaphors. I know a player who once chatted with me about eating. He didn’t talk about the intricacies of the food but only about the procedures and old customs of eating, and he chatted with me for five or six hours. This shows that the word "culture" isn’t something that floats on the surface and can be understood at a glance.