Nostalgia for blue skies

Nostalgia for blue skies, on my visit to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai

Lighting the beanstalk to boil the beans,

and of this the beans thus wailed:
“Born are we of the same root;
should you now burn me with such disregard?” 

Li Bai, poet laureate of the Tang Dynasty

When I was 19 I wrote a bucket list. I revise it every so often to remind myself of my dreams at the time but also to edit it. Ten years later, many of those aspirations remain.

One of the items on that list was to learn mandarin and live in China for at least two months. Mandarin I did try to learn, multiple times. First in high school with a teacher that was the daughter of the owner of my favorite vegetarian restaurant, one my dad used to take my sister and I for lunch during our high school years. Juan Jose, my classmate from French, and I, decided to get private lessons with her. Unfortunately, she was in college then and didn’t have the time; only one of nicknames remains from then – Meilin (plum jade). Shashwat can attest to the several attempts at Chinatown during my Masters; the teachers praised my accent but although classes were free, they were inconsistent and didn’t move along. By this time, my ideal of China had dramatically shifted as well. I would go for work, no longer as an explorer, but to monitor health effects of air quality.

One of my classmates during my Masters used to show me the particulate matter concentration in Beijing for that day after every class. It was always disheartening.

I became frightful of going for health reasons. Alerts not to go running would show up on my classmates’ feed. Yet, the rich history of this massive country always enticed me. The dynasties, the political struggles, the religious transitions, the language, the radically different economic system…

I remember learning about the 37 million girls that were missing due to the One Child Policy and deciding I would be an advocate during college. I had a college friend from China who had 4 sisters and spoke at one of the coffeehouse’s event I hosted, this was the 37 seconds campaign by all girls allowed. It was a breath of relief once it was removed. Nonetheless, the malthusian policy over reproductive rights resulted in having ripple effects even today.

I remember watching manufactured landscapes and wandering about this metabolic transformation of cities, relationships, modes of production with detrimental results on human and ecosystemic wellbeing- how did people feel about this? I was always baffled by the ambiguous, sometimes standoffish answers from friends who were originally from China.

Despite knowing this or perhaps because of it, in a quest to understand China, I always kept it on the list. This was particularly rejuvenated when I saw Xu Bing’s phoenix at St John’s.

I was finally able to visit last China summer – August 2018 - and yet again it has taken me a long time to write this but here it goes.

After going to Mexico and Tokyo (coming up) for a few days, my sister, mom and I landed in Beijing. It was hot as only a city full of asphalt and people can feel, not humid (like the amazon) but sweaty (there is a difference, despite what the weather experts reading this might say).

Did I mention it was hot? Jocelyn illustrates.

We took the metro to visit the Yonghe Temple, a beautiful Buddhist temple from the Han dynasty surrounded by busy streets where we ate yoghurt in glass containers covered with paper. People were praying towards the 4 cardinal points. I did so as well, I was asking for direction as I was thinking about transitioning to a PhD student life. (While we were leaving the temple, we asked a couple of Argentinians to take a picture of us! Turns out they were our traveling companions for the rest of the trip!)

Praying at the Yonghe temple

We took the subway again towards Wangfujing, a street food market with scorpions and other delicacies to be tried. We also explored the wide streets with the huge department stores under the gray sky. Never during our stay in Beijing was I able to see a blue sky, even though it was the midst of summer.

While my sister and mom rested I went into the art district 798 for a retrospect on Xu Bing’s work.

Xu Bing took the remnants from the construction of the Beijing world trade center and turned it into the majestic phoenixes I stared at for countless afternoons when I was trying to focus on my thesis (now at a different paralyzing level for my PhD). The phoenixes reminded me of the continuous transformation of matter. Now this is so evident as I pursue the PhD about the anthropogenic interruption of it and how recyclers are the few silently yet actively contributing to that cycle (while programed obsolescence rules the market)

A recycler in the art district. 

The district was huge and diverse; it made me feel I was in a combination of Williamsburg and the gallery areas of the 20th streets in NY. Xu Bing’s exhibit included his seminal works:  ‘Book from the sky’, an ineligible piece of writing, ‘Characters from characters’ a reflection on contemporary society based on the traditional learning to read and write in symbols and the implications for civilization moving forward, an impression (actual rubbing onto the bricks) of the Great wall of China with ink. It had a piece from the reflection on tobacco in society that I had seen in ARos before (a massive collections of cigarette butts into a tiger fur carpet); yet, most importantly, it had a film about the construction of the phoenixes - A massive undertaking, both a critique and vindication for the transformation of China’s financial and manufacturing power.

 

Paparazzi in the Art District

By the time it was getting late, I couldn’t get wifi to order a didi. No taxi would stop for me. A group of people was standing close to me and as I asked them to help they explained that no taxi would take me because most drivers don’t speak English. After a long while, I was only able to take a taxi from a woman driver who stopped to drop off someone; I literally had to ambush her and get into the cab- it was getting dark and I still didn’t speak mandarin! We had one of those conversations when you are not sure the other understands but you are laughing, a lot, and that’s all that matters.

On the next day we explored the Forbidden City with its grandiose vessels to keep water available to contain any fire that could destroy the wooden palaces (which happened several times). Water as an element of control. It reminded of my first conference in water security at Tufts when the keynote speaker emphasized that in Chinese characters, politics is a combination of water and a dam, water security is political control (this has been clear for the Chinese since time immemorial, before climate change became an issue and water a top priority for sovereignty).

Walking in the midst of the crowds of the Forbidden City.

We felt much cooler at the summer palace where empress Tzu Hsi had lived and ruled the last dynasty as regent mother. The story is full of deceiving turns that could have inspired the Cersei’s character in Game of Thrones. Read a good summary by the Smithsonian

Summer Palace

We also hiked a portion of the Great Wall of China. What a wondrous structure up to the Atalayas and beyond. The Chinese, of small built in comparison to the Mongolians and nomadic invading tribes from the Asian steppe lands, built it as their watch and protection. Many of the bricks where joined with what in Ecuador we would call ‘engrudo’ a mix of herbs, egg yolks and sand to keep them together. 

Mom, sis and I at the Great Wall

China was conquered by the Mongolians under Gengis Khan’s rule for almost 7 decades. After the marriage of Chinese princesses with Mongolian leaders, the war ended (and now their watch has ended); with it, the reconstructions of the wall ended as well and it has only been restored for tourism purposes. Chinese traditions date almost 4000 uninterrupted years (considering this short Mongolian invasion). Their secluded development influences the whole world through in-numerous product development efforts and exports. Subtly ‘Made in China’ reads in most products used anywhere. I’m compelled to get into economics but this post is getting long so I’m going to hold my horses to take a train.

We took the train to Xian at 300km/hour to visit the terracotta soldiers at Qin Shi Huang emperor’s grave for his afterlife protection. The billboards at the train station announced beautiful waterfalls and mountains that seemed foreign in the midst of all that steel and concrete. The terracotta army, buried around 210 BC, was gradually found by farmers and, later on, archaeologists. The herds of people trampling on each other took away from the solemnity of walking the halls- I wish I had gone at a different season with less tourism (but then again, most tourism is actually internal).

Xian had the beautiful wild goose pagoda that was the home of the sutra translations that were brought from India by the traveler and translator Xuan Zang during the 7^th century. Wanderlusting then meant that you had to travel for years in order to experience the wonders of another place, considering China-India distances.

Wild Goose Pagoda

Shanghai had a wonderful highlight as I could visit my old high school friend, Fabi. We walked the Bund with its bizarre frenchness for the international settlement (talk about enforcing assimilation elsewhere seems so outdated considering these type of settlements have been with humanity for centuries).

Fabi took me to an exquisite Sichuan restaurant (I salivate as I recall the food). It is called Sichuan Citizen- highly recommended!

Together we also explored the Long Museum in west bund, an old wharf for coal now renovated into a contemporary art museum. The light composition, the perspective of the space, shows the possibilities of urban transformation. The boulevard by the river was inviting and I finally saw blue skies, people walking for leisure.

Manufactured landscapes into art in West Bund, Shanghai with Fabi

We took bikes from the Long Museum to the Yaz Museum to see the Random International exhibit of ‘Everything and Nothing’, a sensorial exhibit that inspired some new methods for communication I intend to explore further for research! 

Singing in the rain at the Yaz museum

My favorite visit was at the Jade Buddha Temple. The Jade Buddha, which I was not allowed to film or take pictures of, was in a room covered with red velvet. Its face features held the serenity the symmetry the Fibonacci series stimulates. But contrary to seeing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, the silence of the temple brought me to tears. The beauty in simplicity and contemplation is to allow your emotions to gush out of you, the embodiment of your spiritual self. I stepped out and walked into one of the neighboring temples to write sutras. I brought a piece of the scrolls with me to repeat when needed.

In class, I used to ask my students to guess who is the largest producer of solar photovoltaic energy (just a year ago they removed subsidies but many plants have achieved power parity). They generally guessed the US, Germany or elsewhere in Europe but it’s actually China, though it represents less than 1% of its demand. I used to discuss the Guiyu’s precarious ewaste recycling systems with desperate needs for better training and inclusion into a circular economy. Now China has banned all waste imports and is leading with a directive to transform its internal economy into a circular one (though it still needs work into making it an inclusive one but it’s a step closer, also the US doesn't know what to do with its waste without being able to export it).

We used to compare mortality attributed to particulate matter in different cities in the world, always including Beijing but they are getting tighter regulations.

It’s slow change but the right steps make me hopeful.

This is the longest post I’ve written on the blog but my thoughts are with the Chinese because I hope they can lead the way (for their own sake and the world's).

I hope one day I will actually be able to fulfill this dream from my bucket list, once the conditions are ripe, with bluer skies. I know that this is only a visit of the major city centers and that I cannot judge the environmental state of the whole country by looking at them, so I'll admit it's a first glance. I look forward to the next, more breathable one.

Thanks mom and sis for being my traveling pals

Mel.

PS. During my time in Beijing, Pepe and I were just celebrating our 4 months together and he was so wonderful to send lilies to the hotel. Now, we are engaged! I will share a lot more about this but in the meantime, here is a post with a brief story about the engagement. I'm marrying my partner, the one that got me to the top of Cotopaxi, is pushing me through my PhD (even reads the books Im reading), complements my passion for social innovation and entrepreneurship with impact and can prepare the most wonderful comfort and gourmet foods alike. Needless to say, this is bliss.