A Series of Disconnected Thoughts

Cold: My Uncle shouts at me when he sees me walking around the house without slippers. "You'll get sick! Put on some slippers! Put on some socks!" He shows he cares in unexpected ways. Apparently, in Chinese medicine, getting cold feet is the fastest way to get sick. The coldness will first grasp hold of the feet, if you are not careful, then move up the body as if sucked-up through a straw. It will come to rest somewhere in the upper body, and you will become sick.

Street Food: Fresh-boiled corn (the kernels jump off the cob and melt in the mouth) best eaten while biking, hot-roasted sweet potatoes (so sweet!), sunflower seed cakes, egg-crêpe thingy (street artisans form these in seconds before your eyes. Filled with a choice of veggies, meat and spices). Street food is a way to make a dull walk or moment suddenly alive with flavor. Used strategically, it is the same as happiness (since it's basically free).

Little Sister: I took her out to buy the evening paper (a bit above her reading level, but you gotta start them early), and we stopped by the pond first. This is little-little sis, so intrepid, and completely unaware of danger! She ran back and forth across a series of stones over the pond... it would have been so easy for her to fall in. What goes through these kids' heads? Afterward, on the street we held hands and weaved carefully through pedestrian traffic. Since we live across from the subway station, there are, at all hours of the day, hundreds of people, dozens of taxis and buses, impromptu sock stalls, mobile bookstores and the flavors of street food floating above it all like a tricky ghost.
People stared: 'foreigner... five year old girl... should I call the police? no... is he the father!? no, what's going on here?' We got the paper and made it back in one piece. Additionally (and unrelated), the only word she can say in English is 'banana.' Sometimes I try to correct her on her pronunciation. It's a losing battle.

Traditional China: When an American student comes to China, to Beijing, what are they looking for? It's hard to remember at times the feeling of excitement I felt before coming. But, we travel, inevitably, because we hope to find something different, and some hope to learn something along the way. Sitting atop a mountain on the outskirt of Beijing with my friend, we talked about the search for Chinese culture. We agreed that though there are the obvious things (which I struggle to enunciate) about Chinese culture, we still feel at times that we have to 'search' for it. Beyond political differences, there's a kind of Americanization of China that is ominously, if only slightly, evident. Maybe commercialization would be a more appropriate term.

And though I balance these discomforts against the sentiment that I'm probably overlooking the simple things that separate the Bay Area from Beijing, I cannot shake a premonition: In the future, some strange amalgamation will emerge, some beastly concoction of years of human development and creativity. This, the new world culture, uniform. The 'best of' each country squeezed through the meat grinder of the media. The result, ground chuck. Hamburgers all around.

Hmmm... yes, this is dramatic. I'm generally not given to such apocalyptic fantasy. I'll try to elaborate on this idea more, and give some concrete examples of Chinese culture, and how (from the uterly biased view of the outsider) it relates to this idea of 'tradition.' My glasses are broken, but I'll look and see anyway.