It looks moreish
Photo: Beijing opera last Monday night. Clearly designed for the hall full of foreign students that attended: hardly any words, loads of acrobatics.
October 21: It's Saturday morning and I'm happy because I've got a couple of hours between things. I woke up to the sound of an "occasion", which means big speakers in the xiaoqu courtyard blasting woozy synth covers of "My Heart Will Go On" and "Can You Feel The Love Tonight". I don't know what the occasion is. It turns out that the central courtyard's strange coloured and grated holes are a fountain and light display. I bet some of the gardeners would love to switch it on under the ayis in the middle of their morning exercises... And there's me going "oo, maybe I should get out of the shower now, wouldn't want to waste water."
It might just be celebrating the completion of the common space in the xiaoqu. Since I've got here they've built two more pagoda-like structures, a large lily pond full of goldfish and a bridge over it, they've landscaped all around the pond and rolled out ready-grass like carpet (I'm always amazed it doesn't die, that stuff), and they've installed lighting in the entrance plaza so everyone can go there in the evenings and play badminton and featherball and practice calligraphy on the paving slabs.
[Later]
It's Saturday evening now. After a morning of peace I went to have lunch with Sea Bright and her boss from the Chinese language school, and two strangely dozy Japanese blokes. I didn't particularly have fun - I suddenly realised that Sea Bright is a bit zickig, and prone to using English for no reason when superiors are present - it's understandable, but makes me feel like a bin. I didn't speak terribly much, though I definitely remember telling everyone about how, when Teacher Woodchild calls me to food every evening, I always sit down primly with my hands in my lap while she dishes out the food and Clear Logic and Teacher Order walk over from the television. Yesterday it emerged that she's thought all along that I was praying. After Sea Bright's boss translated it into Japanese, we all had a good laugh about that. Teacher Woodchild had thought it was pretty funny too.
I'd planned to go shopping for a bag with Sea Bright, since my everyday bag is a bit pickpocket-friendly. After that lunchtime of mild language prostitution, though, I wasn't too keen. It turned out I-55 was one bus stop away, so I went there. It's a cosy American-run coffee chain with nice coffee and some attractive-looking Western food which I've yet to try. Anyway, my mood was foul and I was grousing inwardly at anything that crossed my mind - rudeness, pop music, people talking about you instead of to you, silly fussy clothes, hierarchy problems between traditionally-minded Korean blokes and bolshy Irish girls, non-renewable energy, North Korea, whatever.
Then I took down an English translation of Dream of the Red Chamber from a shelf of English books and started reading it (the Gladys Yang translation). It looks moreish. I liked this proposal at the beginning:
"At present the daily concern of the poor is food and clothing, while the rich are never satisfied. All their leisure is taken up with amorous adventures, material acquisition or trouble-making. What time do they have to read political and moral treatises? I neither want people to marvel at this story of mine, nor do I insist that they read it for pleasure; I only hope they may find distraction here when they are sated with food and wine or searching for some escape from worldly cares. By glancing over it in place of other vain pursuits, they may save their energies and prolong their lives, sparing themselves the harm of quarrels and arguments, or the trouble of chasing after what is illusory."
I dunno... it was apt.
Then it was dinner with Göttingen guy (the Godfather) and his friends. In Germany, he said that when I came to Dalian he would "zhaogu" me, which means "look after" but apparently can have gangsterish overtones. So he jokes that he's "Lao Da", the Godfather. One of his friends is getting married on Sunday and I'm invited to the wedding. Oh no oh no what will I wear? They say I shouldn't wear yellow, black or white, so it sounds like a case of red... What do you bring to a Chinese wedding?