Smeared Type

By Jian Ping

Dai Ethnic Dance "Green"

Last Friday, the Confucius Institute in Chicago (CIC) invited Dong Fang Chinese Performing Arts Association to give a performance of Chinese dances and singing to a select group of administrators, teachers and students of the Chicago Public School (CPS). It was an evening of sharing cultural heritage and celebrating the Year of the Rabbit. CPS offers Chinese in 43 of its schools, with more than 12,000 students in the Chinese language program.

I made my way there, partially to learn more about Dong Fang, and partially to watch one of my close girlfriends dance. I must say that I was blown away by the high quality of the performance!

From the elegant dances of “Bamboo in the Moonlight”, “Flowers in the Rain” and “Green”, to the professional level of singing from Puccini’s Opera “Turandot”, the evening’s performance captivated me and the rest of the audience. It was hard to believe they were a group of amateurs. I was thoroughly impressed by my friend’s dance: she was not only elegant and beautiful, but also full of grace. And more, she appeared relaxed and was enjoying every move on the stage! What a talent.  

I later learned that the Dong Fang was founded in 2005. It has over 150 members in 5 groups: chorus, dance, theater, Beijing Opera and Chinese Variety Arts. They have given more than 50 performances since its inception.

I talked with Terry Mazany, Chief Executive Officer of CPS, and Jane Lu, Director of CIC after the performance and was pleased to hear that they were equally impressed.

Jian Ping, author of Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China. Visit www.mulberrychild.com or www.moraquest.com for more information. Mulberry Child is being developed into a feature-length documentary film by award winning director Susan Morgan Cooper and will be released in 2011.

By Jian Ping

Supporters across the street from Hilton

Last night, China’s President Hu and his delegation attended a welcome dinner hosted by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. My daughter Lisa and I, along with 15 or so bi-lingual people, mostly members of Chicago Sister Cities International, provided help to the event at the request of the Mayor’s Office.

It was the first visit by China’s President and Mayor Daley stated it as a “big, big, big, big deal!”

President Hu gave his speech (I took the photo from a distance without using flash!)

I had the privilege to greet people at the entrance with a few others working at the event and saw the VIPs of Chicago arrive. I could see through the revolving entrance door that a large group of people standing behind the metal bars across Michigan Ave. were waving Chinese national flags, and a long “dragon” was dancing back and forth vigoriously, accompanied by drums, all in the bitter cold. I chatted with Yi, a Ph. D student from Purdue who carried a large camera, trying to capture President Hu entering the hotel. He said he came with 162 students from the University to extend their welcome to President Hu.

A policeman came in the lobby, his face flushed red from the cold.

“Could you tell me how to say ‘move on’ in Chinese?” he asked.

Lisa and I posing by the welcome banner

“Qing Zhou Kai,” I said. He repeated several times until he got the pronounciation right. I watched him walk out, still saying the phrase aloud.

It turned out to be a very exciting evening and I’m glad I was there to witness and support it.  I’m so glad that today’s China is a world away from the China I grew up in.

Jian Ping, author of Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China. Visit www.mulberrychild.com, and moraquest.com.

Mulberry Child is being developed into a feature-length documentary film by award-winning director Susan Morgan Cooper and will be released in 2011.

By Jian Ping

A guide demonstrating a hidden entrance to the tunnel

When we arrived at Ho Chi Minh City, Typhoon Megi, the strongest in Asia for the year, was forecasted to hit Vietnam. We were very concerned and kept checking weather forecast. Luckily, Megi changed its route and skipped Vietnam and Hong Kong, our next destination.

We made usual tourist stops at the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, and Ben Thanh Market. Then, we visited the War Remnants Museum, formerly known as the Exhibition of American War Crimes. Despite the bias of the exhibition that demonstrated only the cruelties committed by the Americans and my awareness of how the war was fought, the devastation of the Vietnam War was still nerve wrecking. The impact on me was much stronger than I expected, perhaps partially due to the fact that I was standing on the ground where the war took place.

A trap with bamboo spikes

In addition to photographs of the burning of villages and killing of people, there on display were gruesome samples of “tiger cage” and deformed fetuses, resulted from the use of Agent Orange. There was no much shown about how the Vietnamese fought the war. However, when we visited the Cu Chi Tunnel the following day, we saw the weapons that the Viet Cong used, including metal and bamboo spikes in hidden traps that were designed to pierce through people feet, rib cages, shoulders, and head. The Cu Chi Tunnel, which extended to 250 kilometers in distance, was first dug during French occupation in the ‘40s and expanded during the Vietnam War in the ‘60s. Listening to the horrific battles fought around the area by both sides, I couldn’t even raise my camera to capture the images of these weapons. I couldn’t imagine the fear and pain of all the people involved in the war, including the civilians! Yet, standing right then and there, I wondered if we could ever truly learn from history given that fact that war is still being carried on in other part(s) of the world by the U.S.  I followed a guide and crawled through a section of the tunnel, bending more than 90 degrees. I felt suffocated, both emotionally and physically.

Jian Ping, author of Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China. Visit www.mulberrychild.com. www.smearedtype.com

By Jian Ping

"Honai Hilton"

 Hoa Lo Prison, or sarcastically known as “Hanoi Hilton,” was built by French colonists in the late 19^th century and was used to keep Vietnamese fighting against the colonial rule until the mid 20^th century. During the Vietnam War, it was used to keep American prisoners. We made a stop there during our guided tour. Our guide took us to different rooms of exhibition, but remained quiet most of the time. I didn’t know if it was because she knew we all came from America or the images before our eyes were self explanatory.

For me, standing on the ground where many prisoners of war were kept and tortured, I felt impact of shock and awareness of the cruelty of war more than I had ever had before. The prison cells were narrow, the walls were dark and tall, and doors, heavy metal bars. A tiny opening close to the ceiling let in a beam of natural light. Some room displayed clay figures of prisoners on wooden boards, with one or both of their ankles locked in long metal bars. I felt suffocating as images of men and women, in some cases, even

Guillotine at "Honai Hilton"

children, came into view room after room. Then, walking into a larger room, we came face to face with a guillotine, intact in its original shape when the French used it to execute Vietnamese prisoners. I took a picture of the guillotine and felt the chill down my spine.

Apparently, many American veterans who had fought in the Vietnam War visited the prison, among them John McCain who was a prisoner at this location. I wonder what impact the visit would have on them!  

Jian Ping, author of Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China. Visit www.mulberrychild.com, www.moraquest.com.

Mulberry Child is being developed into a feature-length documentary film by award-winning director Susan Morgan Cooper and will be released in 2010.

By Nancy Werking Poling, author of Out of the Pumpkin Shell (Spinsters Ink)

and the forthcoming Had Eve Come First and Jonah Been a Woman (Wipf & Stock)

I’ve become more argumentative now that I’m—yes, I have to say it—now that I’m old. I’m less likely to be tolerant of people expressing —yes, I have to say this, too—dumb or insensitive things. So when a life coach started a conversation on a LinkedIn group page for Boomers, I considered stating my opinion, thought better of it, then changed my mind and took her to task. (I probably wouldn’t be on LinkedIn were social networking not considered a necessity for marketing a book these days.)

Here’s what she said: “Now – figure out how you can be of unique use in that arena of your interest and/or passion by tapping on the depth of your rich and varied background and your proven tenacity to get what you want. Luck has nothing to do with it.”

Words read by me, Nancy W. Poling, who thinks brides should walk down the aisle to the strains of “With a Little Bit of Luck,” and who regularly considers how lucky she is to have inherited her mother’s optimistic outlook rather than her father’s bi-polar condition.

I responded: “It’s easy for those of us who have met our goals to credit our own tenacity; yet we probably all know people who have met roadblocks everywhere they turn….” The life coach and I continued for several rounds, neither of us convincing the other of a misguided viewpoint.

Luck, I think, has everything (maybe I should say, a lot) to do with it: the circumstances of our birth, our socio-economic level, the country in which we reside, our health, our genetic makeup. Sure, it’s possible to overcome the odds, but those who try and fall short should not be made to feel responsible for their situation.

Modern medicine and technology have given us a false sense that we can control our lives when in fact we can’t. Unexpected illnesses, accidents—some conditions are beyond our control. Yet some would have us believe that a smile, a positive attitude, and resolve are all it takes to stay healthy, make money, find the perfect mate, and be happy.

Now I’m not dis-ing a smile, a positive attitude, or determination. They’re useful qualities. But do they indicate an individual’s complexity or depth of character? What about the dogged person fighting injustice? The one who regularly speaks of her distress over the environment? The one whose chronic depression is genetically based? A soldier with PTSD? A father who struggles to feed and clothe his children? How insensitive it is for those of us not in such a situation to suggest that a positive attitude and determination will make the problems go away. Those who struggle deserve our empathy, not our advice to “turn crisis into opportunity.”

I’ve been reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. I’m saying, “Amen” at the turn of every page. Ehrenreich writes, in regard to Americans’ obsession with gaining success or wealth or happiness: “The question is why should one be so inwardly preoccupied at all. Why not reach out to others in love and solidarity or peer into the natural world for some glimmer of understanding” (page 96)?

People who live such lives—they, not the ones with forced smiles and perkiness—they’re the ones worth knowing.