Impression Chengdu - (Includes DVD disc)

Author: Shao Jun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: Chengdu, to me, is a place that feels both familiar and distant, as well as a dreamlike state of half-awake and half-asleep that has lasted for over twenty years. In the early 1980s, I was just a fresh graduate, having been to Chengdu to participate in drafting a "central document" on the development of China's western region. At that time, Chengdu was a city composed of gray, dilapidated courtyards and simple, matchbox-like buildings. Every morning, the first thing that greeted me was the sound of various vendors—some hitting wooden clappers and others beating drums. Their voices, either high or low, had a rhythmic cadence: "Tea with oil—", "Pot stickers, crispy and fragrant sesame pot stickers—". The high-pitched ones were as swift as waterfalls cascading down, while the low ones were as gentle as white clouds emerging from the mountains, forming an unforgettable street tune. Especially the loud, Sichuan-infused cries of the tofu seller: "Salted tofu, spicy tofu, spicy and numbing tofu—", each word ringing in my ears, lingering in the air like the high-pitched singing of Sichuan opera, melodious and graceful.