THE REAL CHINA

[justashooter 430]

some guys on a gunsmithing board i haunt were talking about the international economy. i love it when they do this, because they get the china stuff all wrong (based on the MSM/CNN reporting). it gives me something to say. i usually relate some personal story that demonstrates how effective the propaganda organ of the chinese state is. truely told, the best estimate is that 80% of chinese people live in conditions worse than oakies did in the 30's.

i live in a city of 4-6 million in central china, but the countryside is just a 20 minute motorbike ride away.

Originally posted by renaissance_warrior

I've always wondered how bad it really was over there. Sure not something that gets a lot of press,

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posted by justashooter

well, lemme tell ya.

the crazy aussie is back in town, and called me one night recently. could i come over and have a drink or so? at 9 i was in his hotel, and we drank everything in sight. then we went to a crummy bar until midnight, and thereafter, back to the all night restaraunt at my hotel.

we walked into the place and sat down at a table full if chinese 20 somethings. as soon as john started talking english with a chinese accent, they took us in, and we killed another case with them. cute girls and shy young guys are a lot of fun to play with when you're smashed, but i felt sorry for the poor ####### that challenged me to an arm wrestling match in front of his girlfriend. while he tugged away i played "gambei" with all the girls. this old hammer mechanic ain't dead yet.

after closing that place, i was dragged to my room and passed out shortly after vomiting up a case of tsing tao. next thing i know, there's banging at the door, and it's 9 oclock in the morning. into a taxi we go, off to see THE REAL CHINA.

john is married to this little honey who grew up in yi yang county, an hour outside of luoyang. her parents still live in the country there, and her sisters live in yi yang city, which is a suburb of luoyang. her parents house is the real china.

when you're in the only taxi in sight and the cars and busses are replaced by tractor carts and three wheeled lorries, you are in the real china. when you leave the last paved road and take a mud track into the clay hills, you are in the real china. when you have to get out and push the taxi for about a half mile because the mud is so deep and the clay underfoot just won't perk, you are in the real china. when you run over the neighboring farmer's canola crop spread out on the road to dry, you're in the real china. when you pull up in front of a tang dynasty style courtyard house and see john's one eyed father-in-law coming out of a little brick stall in front of his courtyard buckling his pants, you are in the real china, the home of hot and cold running surface shat water, the which depending upon the time of the year.

ai yun is a nice girl, but her parents are a little bit country. they live in a courtyard "compound" that was made a few hundred years ago by cutting a 50 yard by 20 yard notch into the local clay banks, and putting a sun dried brick wall topped with broken glass across the front. inside are a few small one story 30 foot by 12 foot "houses", each room of which has a seperate entrance. said entrances are old wooden doors that are better than nothing, but just barely. adjacent the houses, which were re-built in the 30's in the tang style, the kitchen, storeroom, and cowshed are cut into the vertical 40 foot clay walls that encompass the courtyard. the piggery backs the brick courtyard wall. it's kind of like that scene on the desert planet in the star wars movie.

there is a pipe coming out of the ground with a faucet on it. there is a 16 gauge 220 volt wire coming to the house from a nearby pole. there is laughter in the courtyard as family shares a meal of bao (boiled dumplings) prepared by 4 sisters and a mother. there is a dog and a cow and a motorcycle and a couple of hung over lao wai drinking beer in the courtyard. what more could you ask for? a satelite dish on the roof. they got one of those, too.

what john's in laws do not have is hot water, any source of heat in their houses, more than 10 amps of electrical service, a bathroom of any kind inside the compound, a telephone line, education, or more than 3 eyes and 16 fingers between them. they wash next to the outdoor faucet, occasionally. they don't brush teeth, obviously. they smile a lot and can't speak the standardised national language. that's OK, 75% of chinese can't speak putonghua. john's in-laws speak luoyanghua, which my wife has taught me a bit of. she speaks luoyanghua, putonghua, and english. on a side note, the beijing opera is really only 300 years old. the luoyang opera, in luoyanghua, is about 1500 years old, and repeated eeeeeeeevery night in the park under my apartment window. but i digress...

they work a sizeable patch of land with a "gravely" type crank start tractor and hand tools, as is evidenced by the plies of shucked corn set out to dry on the "road" in front of their house, and the buckets and bags and bowls and baskets of peppers of all kinds. they come to the "city" once a year or so to visit their daughters, but never together, because someone must always be home to ensure the neighbors don't steal their little bit of nothing. they live without much expectation, or the realisation thereof.

john is a lucky man. his in laws are simple, hospitable people. they love him because he takes care of their daughter, drinks a lot, and buys them things they could otherwise never afford. a farmer's annual salary in yi yang county is about $200. life is tough on $200 a year. thats the real china. 80% of chinese people live this way, or worse. that's the real china.