Read the City - Beijing Through the Eyes of Masters

Author: Liu Yida / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The streets are filled with a different kind of people. At first, I noticed the national flags hanging under every household eaves, reminding me it was a festival. I asked someone in the shop and learned it was related to respecting teachers, and that a grand ceremony to commemorate Confucius was being held that day after eight years. The entire country would observe this solemn ceremony on the same day. I recalled the vast and desolate Confucius Temple in Suzhou's Pingjiang District. On this day, would the dozens of robust Japanese military horses kept in the temple's corridors be temporarily led out by the guards, allowing the elderly teachers from Suzhou, who had served for twenty years and were now emaciated, to pay their respects at the temple without being reminded that classrooms were being used as stables, causing their emotions to weaken and revealing a sense of bitterness? The military horses could be temporarily led out, but how would the countless unidentified bats in the main hall be handled? Confucius Temples across China likely used their corridors to house horses, and the one in Qufu might be even worse. This only shows that while teachers were respected in ceremonies in places like Beijing and Nanjing, those in other areas were still struggling to survive among military horses and bats, and it can be imagined how difficult their lives were.
I began to stroll through the streets of Beijing. I wanted to find some small insects or creatures on the ground that had a different will, expressed through their strange shapes, mottled colors, or flying, chirping, resting, and eating habits. However, I had no success. There were many people instead—on cars, tricycles, rickshaws, and bicycles. The streets were wide and clean, and the people on the vehicles seemed unconcerned about colliding with each other. But many of them looked the same—sleep-deprived and malnourished. The well-fed special figures, including the great and the butchers, shared a similar demeanor. It seemed they had lived for generations in a state of disbelief, aimlessness, and lack of ideals. Their facial features, unused to proper use, showed signs of fatigue or degeneration.
The other type was cunning—the oily smoothness to shrewd merchants, petty officials, and detectives, who feigned simplicity and humility. He might be recalling some days from a certain industry related to a small village named Sanlang, he might be planning how to participate in cultural activities again using past methods involving land and islands with someone, or perhaps he has even received some new special authorization.