Adventure in FengHuang County

Did you have experience that heard a mysterious music not only in the still of the night but also in an abandoned castle? I met similar case personally, only the place is different. The scene was happened in a quiet and ancient town --- FengHuang County. 
I believe many travelers know FengHuang County in China for its beautiful. It is located in the southwest of Hunan Province; and the ancient town is placed at the foot of mountain and beside TuoJiang River. Fantastic landscape, well-preserved historic sites which have more than hundreds years history, and unique custom of Miao & Tujia Minorities, all of these absorbed many backpackers visit there.  

The adventure was happened in August 2005. As a part of my backpack travelling, I went there and stayed in an inn (see above photo) opened by local people. The standard room was simple and clean, small but comfortable. During check-in, I met Cong, my roommate; due to close background, we sooner knew each other quite well and chatting with gusto till the midnight. At a time when we prepared to sleep, we heard the instrumental music out of our windows; initially we thought it may from our neighbor’s TV, but quickly we changed our mind because the kind of melody was unlike the style that TV or broadcast station played, and the tune fluctuated wildly from high to low. Cong winked at me, and we bent over the windowsill to see what was happening outside. There was a crowd of people all in white dress across from the river but it was difficult to observe them clearly from our angle. Our curiosities drove us crawled across the bed and moved to balcony; in an instant, we were both dumb-struck. They were holding a funeral rite! I had already heard of local mystical funeral custom, but I had never thought I would meet it. We watched for a while and held our breath as we can for fear we might disturb them. A full moon hung high in the sky, everything was frozen. I tried to move back to the room, but my legs seemed useless. I looked at Cong while he looked at me; we found the expression on our faces was both quite strange…

In the breakfast of the second day morning, we asked other people whether knew what happened last night, but it was unbelieveable that nobody realized it. The ancient town covered in morning mist, mysterious and attractive.  

Family

12:00pm on Dec. 24, 2007 was an important time; it was a watershed in my life. Before it, I only had one family, my parents and I; after that, I have two families. Why? Because I got married to Margaret at that time and have my own family. Even we live apart from my parents, but in terms of Chinese tradition, we are also under the same roof. Therefore, I usually call the “big family” which includes my parents and us; the “young family” just for our couple. 

Firstly, let me introduce my big family makes four. My parents are traditional Chinese parents, stern father and loving mother. Did you watch Akeelah and the Bee? If you watched, you must remember Dylan’s father;  then you can imagine some pictures of my father and my happy childhood. In fact, like most of fathers, he loves me and hides his love deeply. My mother is the lubricant between my father and me. She does housework and looks after us. In my memory, home is always spotless as long as she stays at home. Mum is good at cooking; due to she has living experience in Indonesia with my grandparents, we have lucky to eat sate, gado-gado etc. Indonesian foods cooked by her.

Margaret --- my wife, she is our big family’s new member. She comes from Xi’an, Shaanxi Province and her parents are still living there. She is a pianist and now works for Shanghai Conservatory of Music. As for myself, I was born in Shanghai, grew up in different Chinese cities due to my parents’ working location changed, and stay in Shanghai since my university life started.

My parents both received well education. I believe their education background cause them accept part of western notion while they keep Chinese traditions. For example, unlike many traditional families have two or three even four generations stay together, they encouraged me keep independent while I was only sixteen years old. Therefore, we don’t live together since they retired and returned to Shanghai; we chose another apartment instead but within walking distance of them and arranged decoration, furniture, appliances etc. everything by ourselves. I was a frequent traveler because travel was the part of my past job; hotel became my home till I met Margaret and had our own family. We respect, support each other and love each other “through the best and the worst, through the difficult and easy”.

The community we live, Shanghai

  From Monday to Friday, we work and live in our apartment, enjoy every minute of our young family life. We cook some simple but delicious foods, we have many CDs on classic music & jazz waiting for us to enjoy. My parents also have their activities in this period. They meet their old friends, have some walks in the park and read books etc... In weekend, we will spend one or two days with "our" parents; we may shopping together, help them do some housework, or just listen to their chatter. So this is my family, “young family” in “big family”; we have independent living space, and our souls are always staying together.

Herein, I would like recommend a Chinese movie to you --- Eat Drink Man Woman, Chinese name is 饮食男女 (yin shi nan nv), direct by Ang Lee in 1994. Hope it can help you understand more on Chinese family.

Directed by Ang Lee ( also directed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon & Brokeback Mountain)

Preface

Internet changes our life and many traditional things have been changed, esp. on daily communication tools. I’m so appreciate these advanced information technology and will accept it as one of communication ways; but at the same time, I dislike it in the mind. It’s not for technology itself, and mostly due to living styles’ change which it brings. The obvious change is many traditional activities disappear and become the part of memory, such as letter. I remember when I was in university, I was so happy that receive the letter from my parents, couple pages paper loaded with their deeply love. Even after several years, I also keep them till I move to new apartment. Today, unless commercial direct mails, I didn’t receive any traditional letters. Although I also get emails from my friends, but I still feel lack of something. We may feel less exciting or anticipation while we enjoy communication convenience from Internet. After all, you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs. 


Too much natter, let’s back to blog. The first time I heard blog, it was really in many years before, couple reasons cause me far away from it. Firstly, I’m not used to post my personal experience on the Internet. Secondly, and this is the most important, I prefer share it with my friends face to face, you can fully enjoy that environment. But right now I have to share some info with more friends at real time, and blog should be the best solution, isn’t it? 

I like history, traveling, and delight in good food and drink. If these three things can be combined together, it would be fabulous. I’d like share with you something about it in later blogs.

HERE WE GO!

PS… <<Sideways>> is the one of my favorite movies.