N4e6, says He.

You know, I kinda have to write something about my departure. It is hard to find topics to babble about you know. I can’t reveal my inner self to the world like other bloggers. So I have to find some topics. Hence, I am going to devote this blog to Beijing, and the people from Beijing.

The first time I was in Beijing was in 1993. I was here for a summer internship, and in the same summer, I was up here with the Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra. It was our little China Tour.

I stayed with a distant relative back then. In one of those “min zhai” (citizen houses). It was dark, dirty, dusty. The toilet was nasty, hot water didn’t run all day long. Every morning I would take a bus to the subway station, then after a 20 mins ride on the subway, it would take me another 10 minutes to walk to the office. I don’t remember the exact locations of where I lived and worked. I need to dig into my diary to find out. Everyday I ate lunch with my coworkers in the dinning hall, and the food was delicious and oily.

As for the tour, we did all the touristic things, and we stayed in a hotel. Again, I don’t remember where we stayed. The hotel wasn’t that bad. Clean sheets, hot water and other facilities were adequately available. We greatly expanded our culinary repertoire and consumed fried scorpions and other delicacies.

10 years later, I was back in the capital city of China. This time I was 10 years older ( although I looked pretty much the same), China supposedly had become a world power. It was a different world, supposedly.

Streets were stuffed with cars, pretty cars. They built two more lines for the subway, and the 3rd, 4th and 5th ring roads were all in operation. High rise buildings were everywhere, bus tickets were a lot more expensive (rmb 5 cents vs 1 dollar), everyone had a cellphone, and lao wais were everywhere to be seen. It surely looked pretty, and very much like a metropolitan. It has changed alot. Because it … really has changed alot, and because this time around I get to see a lot more.

During my relatively short stay, I made some very good friends. I can’t say I didn’t expect to make any new friends, but then, I did make some really good friends, and I mean really good friends. I am going to miss some of them tremendously, because of our differences in background and history.

Liu Jian

He is one hell of a smart guy. He has one of these typical chinese growing-up stories. He grew up in a little village in Xian, ate ants’ ass and played with cow shit when he was young. Worked his ass off and got into a decent university in Beijing. Did a master and worked for Legend, and ended up in Copia, my company. He reads a lot, and is verbal and confident. He is hardworking, and he works smart. There are loads of smart people in China, but I think this combination of hardwork and smartness that Liu possesses is rare to find. He is inquisitive, and always asks questions. He has this insatiable desire for knowledge, and his head spins like a V12 engine. I treasure him as a great friend. He is the one who worked on my mandarin, and whom I can trust and rely on. We talked and shared a lot, from personal to family issues to world views.

Wang Wen Hao

He is one hell of a smart guy too, but he is sort of the exact opposite from Liu Jian, when it comes to upbringing and background. He grew up in a well connected family. His father was a hotshot in the government. He grew up in Beijing and graduated from Tsinghua with a master in Mathematics. He is witty, and extremely humorous. He is very open-minded, except when talking about the communist party. He is lazy, which is so darn typical of most Chinese. That’s why he constantly get his ass kicked by me. If you don’t give him a kick, he doesn’t think move and do anything voluntarily. However, once you get him going, he always comes out with the brightest ideas and most accurate perception and understanding of situations. He is a very honest guy, and I find him very reliable and trustworthy.

Simon Mak, Dai Lo

I didn’t like him in the beginning. The first thing he said to me was “Are you horny, bitch? You wanna go fuck some pussies?”. He is around 40 something. He has been in China for almost 20 years. He does all the things all men do here in China. He mouth is so rotten and he doesn’t give a shit about who where and when. He just says whatever he likes to say to you, and thank you with a fuck you. He can be extremely subjective, especially when it comes to topics like how fucked up China is and anything on marriage. However, he is what we would call a Dai Lo (big boss). He takes care of you. He thinks for you. He genuinely cares about you, once he likes you. Yes, he really gives a shit about you, and I do not know how to explain this in words. I have not yet found a friend (non relative/gfs) that treats a friend like him. He is from the old school, and to them, buddies are everything. (that’s how you get into trouble with your wife and gfs.) He is also a loving father, and a… responsible husband. I never expected to have met anyone like him. He, I have to say, is my biggest surprise in Beijing.

I do feel sad that I might not be able to see him anymore. We live in two different worlds, different hemisphere. He is old, I am still young. But I guess in a way I am happy that I have met him. He introduced to me a completely new definition of what a friend should be. I don’t find that among any of my friends. I want to keep talking about him, but I just dunno how to. He is the kind of friend that doesn’t talk about how much he values the friendship. But yet, you know exactly how he feels about you, and how he treats you. Friend is just not a good enough word to describe it. So, fuck it, I will do it the way he does it. I ain’t gonna talk much about this anymore.

Lastly, Josephine

I do not know how to start, nor do I know what to say about her. I didn’t pay much attention to her in the beginning. Because we never had the opportunity to really talk, or look into each other. She is… strange. She has this weirdest view and perceptions on everything, from democracy to cooking to movies to love to god. It is extremely enlightening to talk to her. She is extremely honest and direct. Once you understand these unique traits of her, you would understand why she is so popular and gregarious. Because you don’t need to hide anything from her. First, she doesn’t hide anything, and second, she has the brains and habit of exposing your lies and fakes. She is also strong and determined, and hardworking. She is also natural, and naive. Not naive in the sense that she doesn’t know anything, but naive in the sense that she is so knowledgeable and yet she preserves views of everything that makes her the way she is: Simple, pure and natural. It is a mixture of purity, knowledge and optimism. You can’t help to like her, and wish her well. Because it is just … wrong to hate her, or to dislike her, or to think bad of her.

I believe God has placed different individuals for me to meet and interact with throughout my life. My life in Beijing was defined by the events that happened, and these people that I have met. The above four are the pieces of chess that he strategically placed in my short stay in Beijing. N4e6, says He. I am forever grateful that I have had the opportunity and fortune to meet, interact and learn for all four of them.

Blessings to all of you, my dearest friends.

D Siu


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