21. Teaching in China
We returned to the hostel hungry and I went with Bertha, a German girl, to a restaurant for a welcome meal of noodles. After eating we went along the side street which leads to the
Forest of
Stones, for Bertha wanted to look for a pair of beautiful chopsticks. She had not seen the local art before so I took her to the shop I enjoyed before. Bertha bought cut paper work and I fell for a small lacquer screen. I was helped in my decision to buy it by a fellow shopper, a Chinese woman who is a lecturer in International Politics and confirmed the value of what I was looking at. I got a good price. The screen is made of black lacquer inscribed with the images of Chinese theatre masks which are individually coloured. It is a four panel screen with two incised and painted theatrical masks on each panel. There is a little damage on one panel. The artist who made the screen has since died and it is the last one of its kind. I bargained for 60% off the asking price and later I asked two of my Chinese friends to guess its value and both estimated a little more than I was asked for originally.
Unfortunately I caught a flu or heavy cold and had to take things a bit easier for the next couple of days. I would have liked to go to a temple called Luo Guan Tai which has strong associations with Lao Tse and the birth of Taoism, and perhaps it was even the place where the Tao Te Ching was written. This is outside Xi’an and in the cold weather I thought it would be unwise to make the journey. In sight of Luo Guan Tai is a small pagoda which is one of the earliest Christian sites in
China. I spent a lot of time talking with the students and staff at the Hostel and only went out to visit the Great Mosque, which was not too far away. This is also quite historic, being the oldest surviving mosque in
China. The Government allocates funds each year for its restoration and it is still a centre of worship. The basic building structures are the same as other Chinese temple buildings but much of the decoration is distinctly different. The main worship hall is floored with scores of beautiful rugs and their value in the West would be enormous.
The twenty-first was Chinese New Year’s Eve that year and at midnight there was a mass exodus from the Hostel. I followed, braving temperatures of about minus six degrees centigrade. I ran down through the alleyway in the old wall and stood about a hundred metres away from it with two Chinese guests and watched the fireworks shooting up from all over the city. The best for me were the ones which rose from behind the wall, silhouetting it. I have not seen anything like it since fireworks were banned in Queensland in the sixties because of the high bushfire risk. Expensive public displays are one thing but to be in a city where everyone who can afford to creates the biggest bangs possible and sends rockets into the sky is very special. The next day I relaxed and talked with new friends and left for the station at about four o’clock. My train travelled overnight to Xiangfan and I arrived at about six in the morning. My cold was worsening and I rested and did not make any attempt to talk to other passengers. Someone in the bunk above me was coughing heavily. This is part of the experience of travelling in the Chun Jie (Spring Festival) period. I am sure that the mass movement of people all over the country contributes to the fact that many new forms of flu develop in China. By the evening of my return my cold was quite bad and I rested for the next week and visited my friend Dr.Shang for antibiotics.
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