One of my daughters found a part-time job with a Shanghainese woman. My deceased grandma used to say that out of the entire mainland China, Shanghainese women were the hardest nuts to crack. When I met Choo Lien in Virginia, she was the very first Shanghainese I met. After about a year of being friends, one day I asked her if that statement was true in China. She did not deny it but claimed that her mum and her were different because they followed Jesus. I asked what about Beijing or Nanking, why was it that the women in mega cities did not get that reputation? She said that for hundreds of years Shanghai had been a cosmopolitan port. It was very difficult for women to survive there, especially women who worked at selling things on the street. It took ruthlessness, persistence and ingenuity to exist and bringing up offspring there.
The thought of surviving in pre-Communist China brought to mind that it was not easy to survive after the takeover. My uncle, who lived most of his life in Mainland China, said that the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution had killed off virtually all the upright, brave or courageous people in that country. To me, he was upright, honest and principled, at least that was my impression as a 33 year old niece visiting. He replied that he owed his life to his politically savvy wife. There were many instances where she had stopped him from acting out or speaking up during those turbulent and terrible days.
We see China as the economic power house and I was really tickled when I heard that Saudi Arabia has made Chinese the compulsory second language in their schools. With Covid-19 rampaging, it is most unlikely I would visit China in the forseeable future.
No comments:
Post a Comment