The Colors of my Landscape have all Become Dull

I am happy to announce that this summer I will be spending 7 weeks in Beijing (and perhaps some other parts of China) My time will be spent taking history, music, and language classes at Peking University, researching Chinese Shakespeare, and enjoying myself immensely!

The title of my blog comes from China's most famous work of literature but it also comes from one of my favorite singer's songs.

The translated lyrics of Wang Lee Hom's 花田錯 (Mistake in the flower field) say...

"It was only a chance meeting,
the dream of a red Mansion,
the colors of my landscape have all become dull,
as if washed by a fierce rain"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSNVCPkNl4U

What could be more perfect than a song that blends past and present for a trip that will attempt to do the same thing for me? I'm traveling to China to understand the past of the country, but also my own past and the past of my parents.

My parents met when they studied at Peking University (hereby called Beida because that's the only name I know it by) in 1981. They were part of the first group of international students to study in the country for many years. I hope to upload pictures of the campus covered in Communist paraphernalia and inhabited by a curly-haired Timothy Geitner before I leave.

My parents moved back to Beijing and started a family in 1987. In July 1988 I was born in Hong Kong because at the time the hospitals in China's capital were not reputable. Then, almost a year later, we were evacuated when our apartment building was held hostage, tanks rolled down our streets, and our complex was riddled with bullets that are only barely hidden today. Many of the students my parents had taken pictures of protesting previously were killed. This was June 4th, 1989, the Tiananmen Square Massacre whose 20th anniversary will fall in only three days.

When I returned to Beijing last summer for research I had a number of conflicting images of the city in my head. I've seen the glittering, cloudy, Olympic city, that is bursting with activity and brand new buildings with the world's premier technology. Then there's the Beijing I know from pictures that features the quiet parks and weather-worn architecture my mother liked to photograph. Finally there's the city that I only know from my parents' stories. The Beijing that was immersed in the hum of hundreds of bicycles, not cars. A city where the big excursion was to the Friendship Hotel to buy the only available cheeseburger in the city.

This trip will be an incredible opportunity for me. I hope I will be able to continue my research, study Chinese culture and history, and increase my language capabilities. I also think I'm going to have an amazing time!

More updates to come when I leave for the Middle Kingdom in 3 weeks!