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Beijingers wax lyrical about hometown When They reminisce over you, Beijing
Photos by Han Junwei and courtesy of interviewees Yi Ling, 43
Ding Rong, 22 "I eat shuizhuyu (water-boiled fish) seven times a week - it reminds me of hanging out in Beijing's bars watching beautiful strangers shuffling in and out of the crowds like a school of fish. I like the Midi music festival the best - it's great to rock out with a large group of people ... Beijing is great because of its free atmosphere and the unlimited opportunities it gives people who have dreams. It gives me the chance to experience different kinds of things without caring about what others think: culture and fads from both here and abroad exist in harmony - this makes Beijing unique to me, and somehow I feel we belong to each other ... Oh yeah, I also like walking around on Beijing's streets - especially in sandstorms, even if I have to wash my clothes afterwards." Luke Mines, 31 "I've been feeling a bit cynical lately. A lot of people (myself included) are attracted to Beijing these days because it's easy to make a buck here - or at least people think it's easy to make a buck here. Of course while you're chasing the almighty RMB there are a lot of cool and quirky sideshows: bicycles traffic jams, karaoke reverb on every microphone in town, coal hill, hole-in-the-wall Xinjiang restaurants ... The other day I was standing on top of my 25-story high-rise at dawn looking at a rainbow descending from golden clouds into the hills east of the city thinking: 'Beijing, what a beautiful town'." Bernadette Wu, 25 "I'm from Singapore, where things are different. In Beijing, people have their own way of thinking, and doing things...and there are many kinds of food and interesting places to live. Even though Beijing looks chaotic, things still get done - since moving here, I've learned to speak up and raise my voice! Otherwise, I'd never get on or off the bus!" He Wenjin, 30 "I was born and grew up in Beijing - so I can never get lost. Even if I did, and had no money for a taxi, I wouldn't feel afraid because Beijing is my home ... the city may be a little chaotic, but it's very tolerant, especially for rock music. The people here are also all really funny, they love to chat - even a taxi driver can talk about politics for hours. It seems they can tell the whys and hows, but in reality, they're all full of it. Beijingers definitely all have their own philosophies on lifee."
Dan Warthman, 58
I feel like I am floating through the heat. I trip over a heavy cable angling down from a light post. I hit it with my shin and, because of the sharp angle, spin around like a wounded gunfighter. Luckily, I don't fall, I am able to right myself with quick hops. My sandals slip off as I scurry quickly trying to catch my balance. My bare feet land in a puddle. There has been no rain for a month. The old guys sitting around in their sleeveless shirts and rolled up pants chuckle. I sit up until two, wondering. What is it? Why do I live in Beijing? Is it something here in China? Is it something there in America? Is it wanting or not wanting?" Wei Yelu, 24 "Beijing is a very liveable city - the life pace is slow and people really enjoy their lives. But some things never change: I think people still tend to spit a lot in public and the subway crowds always rush to get on before people can get off. Fashion here is a bit behind the times as well - some of the 'in' styles in Beijing this year are what people were wearing last year in Shanghai ... I've also had to adopt a Beijing accent because some people here tend to dislike us Shanghainese ... But Beijing guys are the best. They are talkative, humorous, generous and, above all, manly." Peter Yang, 25 "25 years ago, I was born in a lovely village near Beijing called Yangzhuang. It was filled with trees, birds and a small flowing river full of frogs, snails and fish. I loved the place a lot and enjoyed my time there with my friends. 10 years ago, I moved to the city for high school. I shared a dorm room there with seven classmates and spent my evenings studying and playing basketball. 4 years later, I started working for a company. Everything was so interesting for me and I learned something new everyday. Now, I work for another company. Since things are changing constantly, I have learned to enjoy my life. Every year, I can always find new adventures and challenges here, not only in my work, but also in my life. I truly enjoy it." Zhang Yang, 37 "I was a happy, sunny boy from Guangzhou. But when I came to Beijing, I found rock and roll, my mind and my values ... my entire world changed. I had a band and I was constantly listening to rock. It was like brainwashing. I still love rock. It's rooted in my body [and] it affects my movies." Jan McDonald, 40-something| These are the things I love about Beijing: 1. Finding a restaurant (Pass By Bar) that I keep going back to with visitors and friends. 2. Biking through the hutongs and having conversations with real people. 3. Trying out the exercise equipment in the local neighborhoods and having a crowd gather round, watching. 4. Hiking in the mountains on unrestored parts of the Great Wall. 5. Dining out in local restaurants and paying only RMB 20 for a fabulous meal and beer. 6. Having evening cocktails on the boat in Tuanjiehu Park, watching the sun go down. 7. Driving past villagers drying their corn on the road outside our school in the mornings. 8. Watching the flag ceremony at Tiananmen Square. The sight of the soldiers marching across Chang'an Dajie from the Forbidden City is amazing. 9. Having an ayi to keep my house clean. Silvia Dong, 26 "When I first moved here from Shanghai five years ago, I complained a lot about the weather, about the inconvenience of living in dorm and other bad things that happened to me. But things changed when I started to make friends with some other Shanghainese who were also studying here. After a few long 'bitch sessions,' we began to see good aspects of living in Beijing. For one, most Beijing people didn't exclude people from other provinces as much as Shanghainese do. They may also have a superiority complex, but they don't mind making new friends - even from less developed places. Beijing people are also more polite in many ways. For example, they always call each other nin (?ú) and they also show much more respect to elders and not just family members. An American friend once said that "they have fast food and we Chinese have fast cities" - he was right, Beijing has changed a lot these years. Since I decided to stay here to work and I've been trying to figure out why I made this decision - maybe for the freedom I enjoy here, or just for the man I love. Yep, that's a good reason!"
Sydney Faith Robinson (aka Xiao Guazi'r),
(Translation: "All in all, Beijing is pretty good ... there are lots of things I can pick up and play with - like shoes, my mommy's cell phone and my stuffed dog. There are also lots of real dogs, and they're all my size, but they're generally scared of me. I like to chase them around the little park by the East Gate Plaza.") Christina Lionnet, 26 "I love Beijing because the most beautiful things are hidden. At first, it's really ugly. But you need to explore and seek out the beautiful things. For instance, I used to pass by this strange building at Hepingli all the time. It looked Chinese, but there was something European about it. One day, I asked an old man about it, and he told me it was the first stock exchange in China. I went inside, and it was beautiful. It had beautiful, old European architecture; a glass ceiling, iron banisters and you could imagine the high society of the 1930s in there. It's falling to ruin, and it will be torn down soon. These are the kinds of things you will never see unless you live here."
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"The surprising thing about Beijing for me is that there are so many
art exhibitions which are not held for money, but only for fun. I have many
artist buddies here who are from different places and in general they live more
freely and leisurely. I think if you choose art as your life, you should live it
this way, so I won't move back to Shanghai, where artists are more reclusive -
it would be very hard to part with my Beijing artist friends."
"On summer nights, I sometimes walk around my neighborhood, Xiaoxitian.
The heat is a substance in the air, like an article of clothing, a sweat-soaked
t-shirt. The street is thronged. Hundreds of people in their pajamas. Talking,
sitting with their grandchildren, strolling about, slapping themselves and
rotating their arms for exercise, rubbing their kidneys for good health,
scratching themselves, tucking their clothing between flaps of skin to absorb
the moisture.
"Ga ga ah oooh ga wa. Waa goo goo ga. Da da goo go gou gou. Aaa waaa
goo goo."
