Nature Always Wins

I was expecting my friend’s father to be holding a placard with my name outside the railway station. I checked my cell phone many times and there were no messages or missed calls. Everything's looking good, I thought to myself. I saw a sweet familiar face standing out in a crowd of eager looking men. It was my friend. I realized later that the men were private drivers offering their services and she was haggling over the fare to her home including one stop at the hospital. Private transportation fares doubled and trebled during the Lunar New Year festive period. We walked away from the touts. Our act caused a response from one skinny lanky man who came after us and directed us into his royal blue Volkswagen Golf. His price was right.  I was rather glad because I had noticed his car earlier. It stood out as the newest among the rest of the cars at the parking lot. It had a sense of safety. 

The stop at the hospital was to pick up my friend's mother and sister-in-law who had given birth to a baby girl a day earlier. The birth was expected on 9^th day of the Lunar New Year, but nature had other plans. I had to reboot my cell phone to receive three messages and two missed calls that my friend had made. I did not receive any of her updates during the 18 hour journey.  The flow of events had changed upon arrival of the new born. I ended up greeting her parents at the gate of the hospital and congratulating them as first-time grandparents. Nature always wins. We will win too if we cooperate with nature and allow it bring us to the unexpected.  

As we entered the road to my friend’s house, there were unfinished but occupied brick houses on both sides of the roads. Most houses had red lanterns hanging outside the main door. My friend's 3 story-high concrete house was conspicuously located at the end of the small countryside road. A big foyer precedes the entrance of the house. Barricades of pomelo trees guard the house.  The ripened fruits were strewn on the grass and permanently abandoned there.   

 The little two month old plushy puppy and the proud roosters were roaming freely in the open compound. The entrance to the house is the common eating area. The floor is of hard concrete and brutally cold. Throwing litter, pouring water, and spitting on it are perfectly normal. It is swept a few times in the day.  I arrived on the eve of the Lunar Goat Year, the most meaningful last day of the Lunar Year when all family members meet for reunion meal. Firecrackers and fireworks had already started exploding during the day. The mother lit up a long train of firecrackers to welcome her newborn granddaughter. The explosion was deafening and lasted for nearly two minutes.  

Our reunion was lunch of 7 dishes laid down on an unfinished wooden table. They were predominantly meat dishes: pork, dog, and goose. Apparently eating dog meat is as common as eating pork and it costs more. The meat was not deboned before cooking. The fish were drawn from the well and cooked in its entirety. It makes sense to me now why Chinese spit so naturally. They swallow the meat and spit out the bones. Vegetables were fresh from the vegetation. Coal is used for cooking. Water is drawn using a lever. Solar energy is used to heat cold water. Wifi for internet is available. 

The parents are one year younger than me. We are contrasting in our culture, language, education, habits, tradition, values and physique. Their world is the same place that they were born. The mother is a typical housewife: cleaning; cooking; raising children (now a grandchild); and attending to the family vegetable garden for self-consumption. She places everyone else’s needs before hers and is always the last to join us in the dining table. She is always in motion. The father is the breadwinner engaging in physical laborious work. His contentment is for the family to have a solid roof over their heads and more than enough to eat and live. His indulgence is 'baichiu' (white liquor). He was happy that I drank with him! We broke the norm and drank during breakfast. 

We are from two different social structures. They are born to be married and procreate at a very young age (from 17-21 on the average). Not having family and children is considered a shame and embarrassment to the parents and the source of gossip. The social stigma is so entrenched that it has created a demand for unqualified matchmakers. Young adults would desperately seek their services to get themselves hooked up to secure a family life. Otherwise pressure is imminent. The golden age years are sacrificed in rearing children.  Mid-life crisis is not relevant because grand-parenthood takes over by that time. It is difficult to break away from the cycle because it entails opportunities and risks. They are not given the opportunities to know the risks. Their life has been sewn by the societal needle that pins their roles to the different life stages. 

The parents and I are three people born and raised in different geographical regions. We are equals as humans and yet distinct in our lifestyles. Their purpose in life is to take care of their family in the same way that their ancestors did except that now they are exposed to modern technology such as washing machine, microwave, TV, internet. They did not have a choice to further their education because of limitations. They know of the world outside theirs but are not envious. 

They accept their destiny and work hard to sustain life. They are content to be where they are by making the most of what they have. In our world, we have too much of everything. Ours is quantity-living in a tight space and theirs is simple quality- living in a vast space with nature. Our security is in our accumulated possessions because of our higher purchasing power. Their security is in their family and community. Our distraction is digital technology and theirs is to gather to play cards. Our main door is closed and latched, their door is open until bedtime. We are strangers in our own community, they know all their neighbors.

I admire the parents’ openness and warmth towards me, accepting me quickly as part of their family. They did not discourage their daughter (my friend) from pursuing advance education in Beijing. She could have been coerced to get married. My friend is the only one in the extended family who is still studying at 25. They do not feel that they are a notch up anyone else just because their daughter is going to earn a doctoral degree in three years. She is probably the only one that has attained to this level of education within the community. Despite our cultural differences, we did not feel any sense of awkwardness with each other. They were not pretentious in front of me. We respected our differences and went with the flow. 

Joyous Reunion

At long last, I arrived at Beijing Railway Station, the day before the eve of the Lunar Goat Year, February 17, 2015. I was expecting the traffic of people to congest the entrance to the station and be polluted by screams and shouts. To the first of my pleasant surprises, the crowd was cooperative and everyone could walk into the station in an orderly fashion. I was expecting to bump my way to get into the train. However, I did not experience any tiny bit of hassle. I realized that I have let precious knowledge decide that I should encounter similar experience as reported in the media about Chinese New Year travel in China. Without making this trip, I would not have dispelled my knowledge and substituted it with the real experience of traveling in the overcrowded Chinese world. I joined the hundreds of millions of locals in this eventful journey.  
 
I started the first leg. It was a 14 hour train journey from Beijing to Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. To my pleasant second surprise, boarding began more than 45 minutes prior to departure time! This was unusual as normally it begins much closer to the departure. The carriage was fully occupied and so were the luggage racks. I had to push mine under the seat at the hint of one of the local passengers. People are going home to reunite with their families on this auspicious festive season. It is the celebration of the entire country. 

The people in my carriage were mostly family members of at least three traveling together. They were blue-collar workers and neatly dressed. They brought with them big bags of snacks that occupied the small table shared by six people. Noise and the festive spirit permeated the entire journey. Shouting across the carriage was a normal occurrence. Watching personal movies without headphones is tolerated. Spitting on the floor is a natural phenomenon. Meals were simply gigantic sized instant noodles in colorful packaging. After 14 hours, the floor of the train was carpeted with glittering litter of empty cans, distorted paper packages, smashed nutshells and dirty napkins of various sizes! The drowsy commuters woke up to the last day of the year of the horse and ushered their way out of the train in high spirits. I waited out to the hall of Nanchang Railway Station at 5 am and waited till 7.15 am for the second leg of my journey to connect to my final destination, Guixi, Nanchang district, Jiangxi Province. I arrived two hours later.

Despite the lack of sleep for the last 18 hours, I felt joyful. A little celebration had begun inside me. I was looking forward to be in a place with people who are culturally different from me. When the opportunity came to visit them, I did all I could to secure the train tickets. Indeed I was blessed to be able to buy tickets to my destination within a short time frame. There were many passengers who stood along the aisle waiting for others to leave their seats temporarily. One of the passengers waited patiently for his seat to be relinquished. Their eyes met and both smiled amicably to each other when the lady realized that the man standing near her was the owner of the seat. One husband gave up his seat so that his wife could rest in a sleeping position. Two young adults sat next to me and shared an entertainment program on iPad. The family of three sitting opposite me took turns to give up their seats so that the son and the father could sleep. I was touched by the humanity. 

Some passengers brought their own traveling stools but had to excuse themselves very frequently to free the aisle for walking passengers. They were willing to put up with the inconvenience just to catch that short moment of restfulness. The tolerance level of the Chinese is indeed remarkable. The family reunion is such a symbolic occasion in the Chinese culture that every pain is endured even if it means paying to stand on the train to reach the destination. It costs the same as a ticket with seat. As much as the Chinese are regarded generally to be uncouth, they have their own little acts of communal kindness.

My ordeal of getting the tickets started three weeks before the New Year. I had to constantly monitor the on-line tickets many times daily. Frequent trips were made to the railway ticket counter to check the spot tickets' availability. It is indeed true that when we want something, the entire Universe will conspire to help us. The Universe conspired to help me to find train tickets when it seemed remote. We cannot see the invisible that works behind our sight that is leading us on our mysterious journey. It is a miracle of life. If only we allow it to happen and let go our tension that is caused by the need to control every circumstance that falls upon us.