Flame On

The most popular sports franchise in the city, the Vancouver Canucks, stood atop the National Hockey League's standings at the end of the regular season. It entered the Stanley Cup playoffs as the top ranked seed and one of the favourites to win the coveted trophy. After battling through three best-of-7 series, Vancouver claimed the Western Conference crown. In the finals they would face the Boston Bruins, winners of the East.

My return to Vancouver after 15 months away coincided with the return of the Canucks to the Stanley Cup Finals after 17 years. The city was in a jubilant mood at this pleasant turn of events. Once the hockey team had secured a 2-0 series lead, provincial politicians felt it was an appropriate time to to relight the Olympic Flame. It was fenced off during the Winter Games, so audiences could not get too close to it. The barricades had long since been removed, so this time around there was a clear view of the torch being lit.

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 "If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire." — Charles Bukowski

The Parable of the Arable

In China, around 120 males are born for every 100 females. A local man once warned me not to pursue beautiful Chinese maidens on humanitarian grounds:

"There is a lack of arable land in this country. You should not take land away from local farmers."

The Nanchang Uprising

As the calendar turned from 2009 to 2010, I took a three day trip to southeastern China with three of my good friends. We assembled in the early hours of January 1st at the Beijing Capital Airport, wolfing down a Burger King meal to usher in the new decade. We were flying to Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province. Another mega-city in a country full of mega-cities, we bypassed the large scale infrastructure of Nanchang and headed to the nearby village of Luotiancun for the first day.

The second day was spent exploring Nanchang. After going to a few Buddhist temples and having lunch, we saw a large lineup in front of a building and joined it without hesitation. We ended up inside a museum chronicling the history of the Nanchang Uprising. On August 1, 1927 Communist forces battled the Kuomintang for control of Nanchang. This marked the birth of the People's Liberation Army. We then headed to the magnificent Pavilion of Prince Teng, another of the "Four Great Towers of China" memorialized in poems by men of letters who had passed through before I.

Nanchang was shrouded in fog when we left for the airport before dawn on our third day, our taxi driver barely able to navigate through the roads in the zero visibility conditions. Because of the weather conditions, our flight was delayed indefinitely. We passed the time sipping coffee and playing cards. A bored Polish girl also joined us. She enthusiastically discussed her love for the Canadian television series "North of 60", an apparently riveting show about life in the sub-Arctic that I had never watched despite my nationality. Our flight finally departed in the evening, and night had fallen by the time we arrived in Beijing. A lot of snow had also fallen, the most that the city had seen in decades.

Witnessing an incredibly long queue for taxis, we headed to the Airport Express train platform to see if that would be a better option. The metal gates were closed shut. A much larger crowd congregated outside, growing more and more restless. The security guards cautiously opened the gates and let a few passengers push their way inside when the train finally arrived. Most of the crowd remained on the outside looking in as the guards prepared to close the gates again. Some people tried to keep them open, letting a few more stream through the portal. They could not keep it up for long though, as their strength was fading. One of my friends pumped his fists in the air, yelling "Do it for your fellow Beijingers!". Individual desires were set aside, and the door blockers were joined by the masses in forcing open the gates. In the ensuing frenzy, we surged through the gates and onto the train home.

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"I am just a humble young man studying everything." - Weng Bo, from the Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng

The Last Emperor

 

An Argentinian friend of mine from my days in Beijing had moved to Changchun, the largest city in the province of Jilin, to study Chinese. I visited him one weekend, but since the train arrived very early in the morning he refused to pick me up. I entertained myself by using sign language, sound effects, and drawings to find a washroom. After much confusion among the locals, one man exclaimed "Double u sheeee!" and delivered me to the promised land.

My friend showed up soon after, having pedaled on his bicycle from the university campus on the other side of the city. As we headed for some tourist sites, he would find out which bus I should board and then tail it on his bicycle. My fellow passengers would alert me when I should disembark.

The main tourist site in Changchun is the former residences of Puyi, the last emperor of China. The Japanese established Changchun as the capital of Manchukou in 1932. The state of Manchukou was formed after the Japanese seized control of large tracts of land in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia after the Mukden Incident. They installed the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty as the puppet ruler of the region as a pure marketing maneouver, giving him no real authority. The League of Nations stated that the area rightfully belonged to China. Japan promptly withdrew... from the League. After World War II, the city came under Russian control for a couple of years before falling into Chinese hands again. The Imperial Palace is now a museum which recreates Puyi's daily life there during these tumultuous times.

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Puyi: Is it true, Mr. Johnston, that many people out there have had their heads cut off? 

Reginald Fleming Johnston: It is true, your majesty. Many heads have been chopped off. It does stop them thinking. 
- from Bernardo Bertolucci's 'The Last Emperor'

The Yoga Conversation

Once I had a lengthy conversation with a beautiful Chinese girl in English. Because of the language barrier, the subject matter had to be kept simple and the sentences short. Despite my best efforts at speaking slowly and clearly, we still ended up with a different understanding of the topic we were discussing in depth.

Me: Do you like yoga?
Her: Yes, I like.
Me: So you do a lot of yoga?
Her: Yes.
Me: By yourself? Or in a group?
Her: By myself.
Me: How long have you been interested in yoga?
Her: Since child.
Me: What do you usually wear?
Her: Just normal clothe.
Me: Where do you usually go for yoga?
Her: Restaurant.
Me: Restaurant?
Her: Yes, below my apartment. I mean food store.
Me: OK..
Her: You like yogurt too?

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"A system of exercises for attaining bodily or mental control and well-being" - Merriam Webster's definition of yoga

"A fermented slightly acid often flavored semisolid food made of milk and milk solids to which cultures of two bacteria have been added" - Merriam Webster's definition of yogurt