What the Chinese Don't Eat by Xinran Page B
Authors: Xinran
Tags: Social Science, Language Arts & Disciplines, Business & Economics, Anthropology, Cultural, Industries, Media & Communications, Journalism
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up to Mao.
Perhaps I should not have been surprised by this: I have been asked the same questions by young Chinese ever since my book
The Good Women of China
was published two years ago. They, too, find it hard to believe that these things happened within the lives of the older generation.
China needs people like these two writers, Feng and Zhang, who are prepared to dig for the truth and to uncover painful facts. We need them so that a younger generation of Chinese can know how brave their parents were, and how much they owe them.
These books may not be 100% factual but, as Feng says, he has to protect the people who have told their stories, changing names, places, dates and other details. These people have suffered too much already to have their lives overturned again.
1st October 2004
My friends in China ask me to look out for their visiting children – but I have to draw the line somewhere
Every autumn since I moved to London seven years ago, I have exactly the same phone conversation with my friends in China – parents whose children are coming to study at universities in the UK and Europe. I would love to tape them, but of course, I haven’t been able to persuade anyone. The conversations usually go something like this (me speaking):
‘Yes, you can buy duvets and pillows in London. Britain is a developed country; you can get anything you want from the shops here. Yes, even soya sauce and vinegar. In fact, there are at least 10 different kinds of vinegar in the supermarket. Chinese vinegar? Yes, you can get that from the smaller Chinese shops. Fresh vegetables? Not always directly from a farmers’ market, but still very good. Live fish? No, you can only get dead fish. The law doesn’t allow people to sell live fish. I know, I know what they say – that live, jumping fish is much better for your health … Is it expensive? Absolutely. London might be one of the great cultural centres of the world, but it is also one of the most expensive cities on the planet. But you can’t let your daughter carry everything with her from China …’
Then, the daughter will arrive with three huge suitcases, a rucksack and an enormous handbag. When I picked one girl up from the airport, the taxi driver asked me where everyone else was, the owners of all the other bags.
In the course of two years’ study, this girl received further supplies from a friend of her father’s, who came to London on business several times a year.
Before she went back to China last year, she shipped home two 50kg boxes of clothes, and left a number of brand-new, never-been-used things in my flat: a set of kitchen utensils; a rice cooker; 11 bags of cooking sauce (each of them big enough to cook for 20 people); three big bags of dried mushrooms; 12 bags of dried seaweed; 24 bags of instant soup; 16 bags of dried fish; 12 pairs of chopsticks; six food storage boxes; 22 bars of soap; four bottles of face cream; five bottles of shower gel; four new bath towels; four tubes of toothpaste; six bottles of body lotion; two mirrors; two handbags; 32 pens; 200 envelopes; eight hardback notebooks; three pads of paper … I’m going to have to stop there, before I run out of room. All of these things her parents would have bought for her in China.
This year, I have been talking to the mother of another girl:
‘Is the beef safe to eat? Of course it is. Mad cows? Yes, there was a problem a couple of years ago. You’ve heard a lot of people died of mad-cow disease in England last year – where did you hear that? I read a British newspaper every day, and I’ve heard nothing about it. You think I’m being deceived by the British media? Come on, we have a proper legal system here. You think Britain is full of terrorists? That’s not true. I am here and I don’t see that people are living in fear in the way we did in China. Don’t send your son to England if you are so worried. Really? He can’t get a good job in Shanghai without a western
Perhaps I should not have been surprised by this: I have been asked the same questions by young Chinese ever since my book
The Good Women of China
was published two years ago. They, too, find it hard to believe that these things happened within the lives of the older generation.
China needs people like these two writers, Feng and Zhang, who are prepared to dig for the truth and to uncover painful facts. We need them so that a younger generation of Chinese can know how brave their parents were, and how much they owe them.
These books may not be 100% factual but, as Feng says, he has to protect the people who have told their stories, changing names, places, dates and other details. These people have suffered too much already to have their lives overturned again.
1st October 2004
My friends in China ask me to look out for their visiting children – but I have to draw the line somewhere
Every autumn since I moved to London seven years ago, I have exactly the same phone conversation with my friends in China – parents whose children are coming to study at universities in the UK and Europe. I would love to tape them, but of course, I haven’t been able to persuade anyone. The conversations usually go something like this (me speaking):
‘Yes, you can buy duvets and pillows in London. Britain is a developed country; you can get anything you want from the shops here. Yes, even soya sauce and vinegar. In fact, there are at least 10 different kinds of vinegar in the supermarket. Chinese vinegar? Yes, you can get that from the smaller Chinese shops. Fresh vegetables? Not always directly from a farmers’ market, but still very good. Live fish? No, you can only get dead fish. The law doesn’t allow people to sell live fish. I know, I know what they say – that live, jumping fish is much better for your health … Is it expensive? Absolutely. London might be one of the great cultural centres of the world, but it is also one of the most expensive cities on the planet. But you can’t let your daughter carry everything with her from China …’
Then, the daughter will arrive with three huge suitcases, a rucksack and an enormous handbag. When I picked one girl up from the airport, the taxi driver asked me where everyone else was, the owners of all the other bags.
In the course of two years’ study, this girl received further supplies from a friend of her father’s, who came to London on business several times a year.
Before she went back to China last year, she shipped home two 50kg boxes of clothes, and left a number of brand-new, never-been-used things in my flat: a set of kitchen utensils; a rice cooker; 11 bags of cooking sauce (each of them big enough to cook for 20 people); three big bags of dried mushrooms; 12 bags of dried seaweed; 24 bags of instant soup; 16 bags of dried fish; 12 pairs of chopsticks; six food storage boxes; 22 bars of soap; four bottles of face cream; five bottles of shower gel; four new bath towels; four tubes of toothpaste; six bottles of body lotion; two mirrors; two handbags; 32 pens; 200 envelopes; eight hardback notebooks; three pads of paper … I’m going to have to stop there, before I run out of room. All of these things her parents would have bought for her in China.
This year, I have been talking to the mother of another girl:
‘Is the beef safe to eat? Of course it is. Mad cows? Yes, there was a problem a couple of years ago. You’ve heard a lot of people died of mad-cow disease in England last year – where did you hear that? I read a British newspaper every day, and I’ve heard nothing about it. You think I’m being deceived by the British media? Come on, we have a proper legal system here. You think Britain is full of terrorists? That’s not true. I am here and I don’t see that people are living in fear in the way we did in China. Don’t send your son to England if you are so worried. Really? He can’t get a good job in Shanghai without a western
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