You can build concessions, sell opium, and burn a few palaces and people might be pissed off about it, but there are few quicker ways to get a man to take action and do battle than to mess with his kids.
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Report out of Tianjin, the city by the sea, only 80 miles east and 20 years behind Beijing…residents are doing what they can to alleviate the bad luck of China’s annus horribilis by, what else, setting off firecrackers to blow away the bad luck. In particular, there are fears that certain gods might be interested in harming the city’s youngsters. I’m not really sure where this belief comes from, but further information is certainly welcome. Nevertheless, the good folks of Tianjin are preparing for spiritual warfare the old fashioned way…by stockpiling explosives. Practically speaking, if you’re doing some early shopping for July 4 fireworks in TJ, be prepared to find many stores currently sold out of boomers, screamers, and assorted things that go bang. Oh yeah, and if peach cobbler was on the menu you may find yourself similarly out of luck as anxious parents have cleared store shelves of canned peaches (桃罐头). You see, 桃 (tao/’peach’) is a homophone for 逃 (tao/’escape’) and so children who eat peaches (tao) can escape (tao) the fate of being snatched by nefarious supernatural forces who seek to do them harm. Gotta love living in China sometimes. (Thanks to YJ’s mom for the Before any of my colleagues back home get on my case…Yes, I do know that today is the 137th anniversary of the Tianjin “Incident/Massacre/Dissertation fodder.” The lessons so far: Buying orphans is a bad idea because it makes people want to sell you other people’s children, Manchus make bad officials, the French are even worse, and if you’re going to open fire on an intensly hostile crowd itching to dole out a Tianjin-style beat-down, make sure you bring more than a couple of guys. Often when I go to the market to buy something, I find it useful to feign ignorance of the Chinese language. I find walking around as a deaf-mute relaxes people and causes them to say things (like the actual prices) in my presence that they probably wouldn’t say otherwise. Some of the things said can range from the naive to the nonsensical. When I first came to China, I used to rush to stand up for myself whenever the commentary took a turn for the personal, now I find it more amusing to let them prattle on for awhile. Yesterday, we went to a little hutong to buy 剪纸 jianzhi for the Spring Festival. As usual, I hung back a little bit and let YJ and her Mom do the real shopping lest the seller know there was a laowai involved and add the usual ‘foreigner’ surcharge on each purchase. As I stood before the rows of delicately cut red paper, the seller’s helper came up to me and asked me what I liked. I responded by smiling and shrugging my shoulders. “tingbudong?” (don’t you understand?) he asked. Another customer, a woman of vaguely lao tai tai age wandered over This week as I wait somewhat patiently for my email to load, I’ve been walking the streets of Tianjin. One of the first places I wandered was to the Tianjin Tianhou Palace (天津天后宫), a temple located near Tianjin’s Antique Street (古文化街). The Antique Street is similar to dozens of other souvenir/faux brand markets around the Middle Kingdom but does offer the advantage of being a lot more laid back than Panjiayuan and a lot less pricy than Liulichang in Beijing. The relative absence of foreign tourists (I saw two the whole afternoon) means the yelling/grabbing sales approach is nearly nonexistent making for a pleasant shopping experience. The Tianhou complex itself was originally constructed in the Yuan dynasty (1326 CE) and got an overhaul early in the Ming dynasty but most of the existing structures date back only to a 1985 major renovation of the place. Few of the original buildings had survived intact to the 20th century and those that did suffered a grim fate during the GPCR. Despite its condition, the temple played an important role in the social and spiritual life of Tianjin even into the PRC era. Scholars of Chinese religion might find it interesting that |
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