Liangliang and The Tale of Two Cities

Next week Liangliang will go back to Beijing for the whole summer. Very much excited, she is planning a lot of things to do in Beijing. By splitting her time between New York and Beijing she leads a life of, in Charles Dichens' words, The Tale of Two Cities.

 

Maybe we all are yearning to travel back and forth. Life is elsewhere (for whomever read this book I will buy dinner). I guess people in New York are especially prone to such urge. After all, most of us came here to search for a different life in the first place. In Le Petit Prince, the Little Prince saw trains passing in front of him one after another from different directions. In the end he concluded that only children know what they are looking for. The rest of us, in his eyes, are not as lucky. 

 

But Saint-Exupery wrote this story when he traveled to New York because of the war in European continent. The book was published in 1943 in New York. Incidentally the bookstore helped him to publish this book located right in Rockefeller Center. I didn't know this until the owner closed it last year. I was only able to catch a glimpse to its inside from the window. The writer returned to Europe later. He Like Liangliang and us,  wanted to go after life elsewhere. New York is as much a destination as a new starting line.

 

Then we have J.D. Salinger, a New York native. For a while he lived in an apartment on East side several blocks away from where I work. From there he moved to New Hampshire and lived in recluse till his death. He gained his fame through his well-known tale staged in New York City. His eccentricity is puzzling. While another native New Yorker, Woody Allen, basically crystallized his deep love and admiration for New York City in movie "Manhattan". To him the only cultural advantage of Los Angels (hence the rest of the world) is one can "make a right turn on a red light". In his seventies he still plays clarinet in a Jazz band every Monday in Carlyle Hotel. Amazing. Nonetheless, in recent years he has been making movies in London, Barcelona and Paris. Sooner or later we grow out of New York City.

 

So does Liangliang. The spring term ends, along with her many Manhattan shopping sprees and late night parties. When she comes back in fall, she will tell us her version of The Tale of Two Cities. I am sure it will be fancinating.

On a picture my friend took for me

Thanks to Chen Yuan for sharing my image out, - like everyone has not been fed up with it!

The last time I paid attention to my own appearance was many years ago, when the cutest girl in my kindergarten pushed me out of way for a nasty handsome boy much taller than me. Back then there was not much I could do about it. A fight with him ended seconds later with my walking away with a bleeding nose, and I had already given away all my favorite toys and candies to the girl. So with a broken heart of a four-year old I only watched from distance that they were savoring my milky candy. For the first time in my life, I vaguely realized that girls prefer certain type of appearance to my own...

Before long I left kindergarten for school. It turned out a more challenging place to win girls' favor, especially in our junior high school. For a while they all seemed to have a big crush for our P.E. teacher. Then the fervor expanded to those boys who were good at sports. Anyone who ran fastest, or jumped furthest was treated like hero. The girls always stood around the basketball court and cheered for the team. I was two-year younger than most of my classmates and in consequence was disqualified from the team every year. But I was not completely forgotten. I was ordered to hold the clothes and school bags for the players. Last year when I went back for class reunion, most of girls didn't remember me, but they still had vivid memory of the huge pile of clothes and bags on court side. They were very surprised to know that I was buried underneath it.

After school I came to New York City, I felt relieved that in this big city girls don't value running and jumping as much as the rest of world. I figured running and jumping are useful when you hunt animals in tropical jungle. But a lot of girls in New York are vegetarians, or at least feel shameful to admit they eat meat. So you see how the world changes over time. I was grown up too. I was cautious enough to ask what the girls want before I do anything. Most of them said man with depth. The moment I got the answer I went back to pick up Shakespeare and Kierkegaard and tried my best to learn how to pretend I understand them. After practice at home for months, i finally had the courage to ask a pretty girl from Department of Philosophy out. It went well except I mixed Plato with Pluto and spend great length of time on other cartoon characters. But she was fine with it. Years later when she married to a multi-millionaire and became a housewife, it finally dawned on me that they meant depth of one's pocket, not mind. Well, it is always good to know.

Thanks again to Chen Yuan. It's always nice to reminisce one's life while looking at oneself in picture. The most important thing is, I realize that I am not losing hairs or becoming bald or anything. I am just pro-hat now.

Written on my last year's birthday

Thank you all for coming to our birthday party for Kevin and me last night, accidentally or not. Actually yesterday morning Yaofei called me that he was going to hold a “surprise” party for us.


“But why do you tell me if it is a surprise party?” I asked.

“Oh, I invited many people,” he said, “but I will be surprised if any of them would show up…”

It turns out that Yaofei picked top ten people according to Chengdu Yinxiang’s secret mileage system. The system gives you points when you eat there, and when you order anything from previous night you get double bonus points. Unfortunately Yaofei himself didn’t have enough points. He had to have leftover for breakfast there three days in a row so he can invite himself to the party. Nancy didn’t earn enough points either. So she bought new glasses, got her hair done, dressed like Sara Palin, and then went to a Republican fund-raising event. Some donor gave her 1000 points on the condition that she will run for governor of New Jersey next year. But she is smart enough to carry a copy of recent New Yorker magazine around so she still can date young Democratic lawyer.

Mark gave each of us a cigar-shaped gift. I thought it was out of battery because it wouldn’t vibrate. But I couldn’t figure out how to reload battery until Mark told us it was real cigar. I and Kevin felt very relieved because at least we know how to enjoy a cigar. We lighted one immediately after dinner. Yuanyuan gave me a lovely plant, which was literally a small tree. When I carried it on the street a NYPD’s mounted police officer started chasing me. It turned out that his horse was trying to eat the leaves. Pang Ye gave me two books about Putin on how he courageously fought with his baldness and conquered Georgia without wearing a toupee.

The electricity went out mysteriously for several times. I was confused and thought I should blow the candles out every time. Yuan Yuan hit me hard with chop sticks because I was blowing at her face. Later I had to apologize and explain why I would think her face as round as the birthday cake, layered with cream, butter and chocolate on it. Nonetheless, the real cake was great.

Again, thanks to Yaofei for organizing the party and to all of you for coming. I really appreciate it.

Another impression on Lijiang, Yunnan

We did horseback riding this morning. Along the way we can see the
local people and their houses. The large mountains are beautiful.
Lijiang the town is at the bottom of basin surrounded by them, some are snow-covered, glistening white under the blue sky.

The town itself is a big theme park, full of stores for tourists.
Quickly one will find it actually a big shopping mall. The rest are
retaurants, bars and inns. Aside from local culture(Naxi), another
major theme here is some type of softcore hippie life style, or maybe
more of kistch belongs to petit bourgois. The most impressive part is
its commercial success, which is a result of good management, some
cultural escapism and, I have to include, nice weather. Nevertheless,
as any successful product of capitalism, it does not immune to
eventual excess. There is now a copy of Lijiang old town five miles
alway. Taxi driver is boasting that the value of his license
appraciates 20 percent every year. New construction sites are plenty.

At night bars are crowded. They all have live performance. I couldn't take the music and show. I am wondering how many of those who come here to run away from big city can live without big city night life.

Although a visitor can tell immediately that much of the town is rebuilt recently, it is big enough for one to find pockets of original streets and buildings. The style is similar to that of Sichuan small towns, like the place where I was born. Either due to the rapid devolopment in China, or the simple fact that I am old enough, now those buidings have become cultural curiosity and one has to come here to see them.

The food is disappointing in old town. I have not found anything impressive so far. There are many good restaurants with reasonable price in new town. Do ask the taxi driver for recommendation.

Bright Star

I want to divide all of you reading this post into two groups: those who read John Keats, one of the greatest Romantic poet, and those who haven't. I myself belong to the ignorant second group. But tonight I watched Bright Star, a movie about his love life. What I do fits our frivolous modern spirit, probably to the writer's dismay, that we care more about his love life than his works. Actually there is not much worth watching in Keats' love life in today's tabloid standard. We are fortunately left with his beautiful lines, and actress/actor's impeccable acting.

If you are interested in taking a stab at classic English literature, this is a good chance to try. To follow the conversations in the movie, I suggest you read his poems first, especially Bright Star and Ode to a Nightingale. For those who belong to aforementioned first group, it should be a luxurious pleasure to hear the poems flowing out from the lover's lips, like heavenly music, seeping into our heart.
Just as the poet wrote, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

At the end of the movie, the girl dressed in all black, walking in white snow, crying and reciting Bright Star:
"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art...."

That scene is after the young poet died at 25. He already said to his lover:
"I almost wish we were butterflies, and lived but three summer days. Three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain."

Indeed, first love burns brightest.

Thoughts on a rainy day

One evening at dinner table in Chengdu Yinxiang, Pang Ye inadvertently muttered out how much she wanted to have Shanghai soup dumplings. It seems a tiny wish very easy to satisfy. So I propose tonight we meet in Joe's Shanghai tonight, on 56th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue.

For the past a couple of years, we have spent a lot of Friday evenings in Chengdu Yinxiang, but we also explored some other interesting restaurants. We often were surprised by our little adventures. One of Jason's favorite restaurant is in Meat Packing District. Spice, a Thai restaurant built on the site of a former Belgium seafood restaurant, its setting is romantic and food delicious. "I am not sure whether the girl fell in love with me or just the restaurant after a bottle of
Merlot, " Jason reported, "But every girl I took there did become affectionate and it makes the night full of potential." Actually the former Belgium restaurant is superb too. Now moved to 23rd Street and 5th Avenue, its appetizer Steamed Mussels is one of the best in town, and the portion is unusually large and satisfying for a seafood lover like me. Don't forget to dip your bread into the wine sauce after all the mussels turn into empty shells. Tout Va Bien, the small French restaurant on midtown west side, offers Cow Head (yes, you will eat the brain) and Veal Kidney. Sitting in there with almost everyone around you cooing in French, you feel you are in a country restaurant in southern France. I heard it's a primary destination for French sailors visiting New York. Also in that neighborhood I found a Afghanistan restaurant. That was when the war just started and most of people still had trouble to locate the country on a world map. It's a very small place with good Shish Kebab on rice (at least I think this was what I ordered). Dinning there is also like watching National Geography channel for an hour, with all the maps and flags and
decorations to study. Worth mentioning is the Ethiopian restaurant Pang Ye took us to (I remember Qianfei said she ate there before too). The cuisine is quite, hmm, unconventional, and, African. I guess the cuisine might have something to do with the scarcity of food on the continent of Africa. They prepare the food in such a way that you have to be really starved to be willing to eat it. No offense...

Trip to Lijiang, Yunnan

Sunday we didn't have any plan. I walked around the old town, did a little sightseeing. After lunch I settled myself in a small cafe house drenched in sunshine, trying to read Huckleberry Finn. The high altitude sunlight was strong. I thought I might get sunburn by sitting there too long. Not that I had to read Huckleberry Finn now, but it was suggested everywhere that reading a book in a small cafe is a very important part of a trip to Lijiang. Just like that when a tour
guide pointing out a site with some anecdote which does not make much sense for me but I always try to show some interest, now I am doing this so I can say I did it to anyone who suggest that I should. I conform to convention easily.

Monday we didn't book any trip to go out of town either. I rented a bicycle and rode it to another town. The one-way distance is about 5 miles. The road is perfect for biking. And the weather is dry and warm - just perfect. On the road I could see the snow on the top of Yulong mountain. After a while I felt the mountain is like a huge picture hanging at the end of road. The sight of it became surreal. Maybe for the high altitude, I was a little tired. Instead of wandering into a tea shop to rest as I planned, I bought a bottled water and sat on a stone bridge, next to a Naxi old man playing traditional instrument. It turned out he was put up there by management to be part of the scenery. The instrument looks a crude hand-made Er-hu, with only two strings. The trick works out well. His presence adds a lot of credibility to the story that tourists are sold. The simple tone was droning in the bright sunlight. I watched the tourists passing by with their guides who say almost identical words to their clients. Then I felt I should ride back.

At night it was cold. With help from a cafe owner, I found a small bar with the size of a regular Manhattan studio. The owner, whose name is Lu Ping, is the only singer and plays guitar. His girlfriend works as waitress and plays the drum. A small fireplace sits in the middle of room warming up the whole bar. Audience had been small: including me, three at the first night, two the second. Lu Ping plays guitar well, and writes his own songs. He doesn't talk much but has a very earnest
manner. We drank some beer, chatted a little first, then he stepped to the front of room, singing until around 11. We the audience were sitting around the fireplace, sipping our beers. He told me the bar would be packed in summer night.

Many people I spoke with in Lijiang would get philosophical at some point in our conversation. It seems Lijiang the place has inspiring power on a lot of people. They tell me they feel relaxed here, become less materialistic, and have a brand new look on life. At first I was trying to argue that they could have the same psychological transformation anywhere if they want. Granted this is a beautiful
place but the same law of physics and human behavior applies here as it does on the rest of the planet. Soon I realized my words were almost blasphemous here, and learned quickly to just smile back when people talking about their inner peace enthusiastically. People bestow an almost worshipful love to this place.