Hometown Visit (Prelude)
《探鄉記》——楔子
Nothing Has Changed in Mother Nature
I turned back around, trying to trace the voice. But there seemed to be no one of my acquaintance among the folks in the street. I walked on as I must have misheard. No had called me. Mishearing might also be part of my Spring Festival syndrome - I shouldn't eat like a pig, watch too much TV, and stay up late every night these days. But how was I supposed not to eat a lot of long missed and amazingly delicious hometown foods, 
watch funny hometown TV programs and shows, and excitedly stay up late for the holiday season of Lunar Chinese New Year after living overseas all these years?
Something was on my shoulder. I brushed it off. It was a hand! I stopped and turned.
"Happy New Year, old deskmate!" In front of my eyes stood a pretty, tall, and painted lady in chic hair style and fashionable dress.
"Tingting? Is it ... you?" I was greatly surprised, stammering. I could hardly recognize this three-year classmate and one-year deskmate during my high school.
"Yes, it's me. What are you supposed to say to me?"
"Oh, sorry. Happy New Year! Happy New Year!" I repeated. "But look at you, are you you? You are not you. I mean, way beyond my recognition."
Tingting beamed. "I called you just now. But you pretended not to know me and walked on. Only put an hand on your shoulder can stop you. So rude."
"Haha! So rude indeed." I echoed agreement.
Tingting smiled. "No, I'm kidding. But I spotted you instantly among the people. You are still the then you, barely have any change, still like a student after so many years."
"Right, a silly boy like me always maintains his silly look. So how have you been? How's everything going?"
"I'm okay, kind of." She replied.
"Kind of?"
"Well, let me ask you first. How are you? You come back to visit your parents and for Chinese New Year? How do you feel after coming back here? What do you think about our country now?" Tingting asked non-stop, turning excited.
"Wow! All questions at a time. I'm good. Right, come back on vacation for visiting my parents and for New Year. How is Canada? Well, everything is good except weather."
"Weather?"
"Yes, just too hot, especially in winter."
A burst of firecrackers drowned out Tingting's laughter.
Scraps of the crackers were flying in the air with odours of sulphur and potassium nitrate. A gust of wind swept over. I found something tiny on her face when that short string of crackers was out.
"Hold, stay put! There's something on your face. Let me help you."
"No. Stop. Don't touch me." Tingting demanded.
I stopped searching my pocket for facial tissue. "Why? Why are you so freaked out?"
"Because you always tricked me like this with your dirty hand and made my face tainted with either ink or booger, and I've got sequela already since high school. So don't think you can trick me again when you tell me 'oh, there's something on your face, and let me help you'."
"No, no, I never put booger on your face. That wasn't me, that's 'Nipple'. He did that. He did so. I only used ink."
"But it was your idea. 'Nipple' told me everything at the classmate re-union banquet last year."
Darn it. Teenage friendship between 'Nipple' and myself just couldn't stand any test. I snuffed and cleared my throat a bit. "But you know what, you really looked very special when your face was made up with ink."
"Get out of here."
A sky-piercing monkey whistled into the air and blew up.
"Some still set off firework this year," Tingting explained, "but the people doing that has turned fewer and fewer."
"Firecrackers, long missed. Ignoring the noise and air pollution, I feel somehow they cure my nostalgia."
"So how do you feel after coming back?"
"Oh yah, honestly, too big is the change in China.
I'm totally an alien here. So many high-rises, highways, vehicles, and all the new subway system. Too many changes.
I'm as excited as a fifth grade schoolboy bursting for a pee. What I've seen here well explained Premier Wen Jiabao's saying China is so old, yet so new."
"Right, the development goes fast. But I think you know the government has been fighting the pollution and corruption. Good thing is, the situation here is quite under control, and has got a little bit improved, though not that big. The problems elsewhere are still serious. Sometimes we get influenced here. Overall, the project of environment protection is big and the way to go is still long."
"Hey, hey, hey, you talk like a government leader, like a Communist cadre."
Tingting instantly posed like an official with a flat face and with her hands crossed at the back and her chin tipped up.
I was amused by my deskmate's posture and countenance. "But serious, there are so many feelings in my mind after coming back. I've walked around, hanged around, and checked around. I'm excited and amazed. A trolley, a double-deck bus, a tree, a deep lane, a street corner, a kiosk, a snack stand, and even an electric wire pole makes me feel close and I have passion in them."
"You have passion in an electric wire pole? You talk funny. Having passion in those sticky advertisements on the wire pole would make more sense than having passion in the pole itself. I never know nostalgia can torture a Chinese this much in Canada. By the way, do you still play soccer over there?"
"Yes, I still do. Guess what, I'm getting to be as good with my left foot as I am with my right. So left forward or right forward will all do me well."
"Good for you. I still remember, you would like to be a soccer star when you were teenager. And one day during our high school, you were like, 'I will be God of Soccer. So I can make a show for the girls in our class. I will stand six metres in front of a wall, and I kick the ball, it hits the top edge of the wall, bounces back, I chest it down and kick before it drops to the ground; and again, hit the wall, bounce back, chest down, kick, hit the wall, bounce back, chest down, kick... back and forth as much as I want and everything is pinpointed.'"
"How did you know that? 'Nipple' told you, right?"
"No, I overheard as I was actually nearby that moment. So are you able to do that now?"
"Oh no, I switched my dream to becoming God of Food because it makes more sense."
Tingting's smile was as cute and beautiful as before.
"Wait. What are they doing? Those people."
"Where?"
"There." I pointed to a group of old women forming an array, all in red.
Tingting turned and looked over.
"Is that what I think it is?" I said.
"Yah, what else can that be?"
"But, but, serious, it's Spring Festival."
"People just have nothing else to do." She explained.
Music sounded.
"Lord, not that again." I shook my head. The women were in motion with the music beat now.
"You also know that song?"
"You know what, square dance is like a plague now. Maybe this metaphor is not that appropriate, but square dance has already infiltrated into many churches in Canada."
"What? Into churches in Canada? Get out of here."
"Serious. Some old Canadian ladies, Caucasian, black, Indian, and Latina in churches, have joined our Chinese aunties and grannies. They don't understand the lyrics of those dancing songs at all, but who cares. Crazy globalization! The Pope must be crying."
"Or maybe he's also dancing it."
Now it's my turn to laugh.
Tingting still looked as pretty as teenage her though her face couldn't hide the definition of years and her style had greatly changed.
During our teenage, prettiness was not her only label. But there was also certain air that set her apart from the public.
"So what do you do during Spring Festival there? How do you celebrate it in Canada?"
"For time being, there's no public holiday set for Lunar New Year in Canada yet. But there are quite a number of celebration events, galas, and art performance in Chinese communities. Lion dance is given every year in Chinatown. I work in the finance district, downtown Toronto. People in the my department say Kong Hey Fa Choy to me every Lunar Chinese New Year and I treat my team with dumplings and dim sums made by myself."
"You made dumplings and dim sums yourself? No way!"
"Way! I've learned to do almost everything myself since I moved to Canada. God of Food is not a joke."
Tingting said no word, nodding.
"Once, my colleague asked me where the sauce for dumpling was when it was accidentally left behind at home."
"He even knew that?"
"That's nothing. He even watched the movie Shaolin Temple when he was a teenager."
"Serious?"
"Another colleague Anna is hailing from Yugoslavia. Her former neighbour is, well, do you know a World War Two movie called Valter Brani Sarajevo?"
"Yes, I know it. It's an old movie, right?"
"Right, very old. Have you watched it?"
"I'm not sure I've watched it. You know, I'm girl, not very much into war movies like you boys are though I do have watched a few, not many. My husband must have watched it. No need to explain that."
"You aren't sure?"
"Wait, hang on, uh, in that movie, are there three men in the locomotive firing shots at the Germans rushing towards them and then falling off the roof of train cart? Is there such a scene? No, it doesn't help, because, well, doesn't every World War II movie have the scene German soldiers fall off the train roof?"
"That must be it." I smiled and confirmed.
"That's the only part I remember and very likely, that's the only part I happened to have watched. So why do you come up with this?"
"One of the three partisans is called Zis.
The actor for Zis was Anna's neighbour. She knew the movie was quite popular in China and that's why she told that to me."
"The world is small after all," commented Tingting. "So how about Toronto?"
"It's good. The thing is, I don't feel any changes there though there must be some. Oh, the only change that impressed me is Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has come to reside on Yonge Street."
"Yonge Street?"
"Yeah, Yonge Street of Toronto is tantamount to Prince Mansion Well of Beijing."
"But wait, isn't it still a change about China after all?" She questioned.
"Haha! You said it. Hey, tell me something. So what else is new here?"
"What else is new? Well, look the people in the community. Expensive or inexpensive, almost every family or household among young generation has a car whilst the distance between the residence and the company is no more than ten minutes walk apart. Time to find parking is 10 times driving. The richer we become, the more stupid we are."
"I have to admit, in certain aspects, that's so true."
"See? The company is just right there, the supermarket is right there, so is the school, the kindergarten, the hospital, the library, and the cinema, needless to mention how close the restaurants, snack stands, ice cream store, tea houses, bars, McDonald's, and KFC are. Everything is within a walk distance. Bicycles even worry about being laid off. Cars?"
"I understand. Actually, as long as they don't bother others, people can do whatever they want to do, and I don't give shit."
"Oh thank you, because I'm among the stupid ones." Tingting shrugged. "Yes, I bought a car."
I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes to look at her.
"Stop that!" demanded Tingting.
"Why did you say you're kind of okay? What's going on?" I switched the topic.
Tingting sighed. "My husband always gets back home late and goes out to drink with his buddies almost every evening. He plays mah-jung every weekend and smokes like a chimney all the time. Do you smoke now?"
"No, not a puff. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't play mah-jung. I'm a boring one while your husband is not. Honestly, I'm jealous of him."
"Oh come on, take a break. But, serious, he never did any grocery shopping and seldom picked our son after kindergarten. I can't remember when he did laundry last time. But all these," she paused for seconds and then went, "are nothing comparing to living with my mother-in-law which is a constant pain in my butt. Nothing I've done can be right in my mother-in-law's eyes."
I stood still, listening.
"I bought a book as gift for my husband's sister's son Doudou. But look what my mother-in-law said. She was like, 'oh, what's wrong with you? When Doudou was three years old, Doudou's paternal grandpa bought him Pinocchio. When he was four, his maternal grandpa bought him another Pinocchio. That story was okay when Doudou was 3 or 4. Now you bought him the third one. You know Doudou is already a primary school pupil. For what do you still want him to read that? Are you trying to encourage him to learn to play truant from the book or what? And you well know Doudou doesn't care being a donkey or a human being as long as there's fun.' See? This is my mother-in-law."
"Sometimes life is not easy. But don't worry too much. Take it easy."
"I wish I could take it easy. A bitch is a bitch."
"Tingting!"
"What?"
"We are juniors, I don't think we are supposed to say things like that to seniors. I think we can say something like 'Auntie is funny' or 'my in-law is funny'."
"Funny? I don't think it's funny. Plus, what world and what age are we living in? The 21st century already. When certain mothers-in-law give hard time to us, we can't say anything but only take it? I belong to new generation armed with new thought, new concept, and new philosophy. I want to do what I want to do."
"Right, like buy a car, yet nowhere to park."
She punched me in the shoulder and laughed. "Hey, does any contradiction between mother and daughter-in-law exist among Canadians?"
"Well, I would say, yes when people live together and no when they don't. Contradictions exist everywhere. Anna, Zis' neighbour, also complains about her daughter-in-law sometimes."
"Anyway, just don't think I went too far. By the way, how many spoons of vegetable oil would you add when you stir-fry egg-plants?" She didn't wait for my answer and continued, "I used 6 though we should use more, my mother-in-law insisted on 4, and when I started to use 4, she pointed out the spoon I was using was too big. Who the hell still cares about 4 or 6 spoons of oil in today's China? My mother-in-law still lives in the age of Chairman Mao. She will only be satisfied when the egg-plants get scorched, with no oil I add. And last week, guess what..."
I stared at her with a mixed emotion while she was talking and complaining, but my mind flew back to our teenage days. She was so pure, so innocent, and so graceful. For a long time, from high school to now, her image in my memory had been staying as a quiet, pony-tailed girl sitting by the window in the classroom after school and reading Anna Karenina, with sunshine shadow sliced by her fringe on the forehead. There was absolutely nothing that could make me link together the girl in my mind and the woman currently standing and talking in front of me. I was looking and listening, but didn't hear much. She didn't notice my eyes turn damp somewhat.
After a moment, a woman passed by. Tingting and she greeted to each other in a different dialect, which surprised me a lot.
When Tingting waved goodbye after a few words with the woman, I asked. "When did you start to speak Cantonese? In my memory, you couldn't before."
She chuckled, "right, I couldn't speak Cantonese before, but my mother-in-law does, so does my husband. How the heck can I stand the situation that I have no idea what my mother-in-law is talking about to my husband when I am right beside?"
I looked up. The sunshine was still bright, the sky was still blue, nothing had changed in Mother Nature since high school.
Notes:
1. sulphur and potassium nitrate: 硫磺和硝酸鉀
2. booger: 鼻垢
3. sky-piercing monkey: 穿天猴
4. I'm as excited as a fifth grade schoolboy bursting for a pee. What I've seen here well explained Premier Wen Jiabao's saying China is so old, yet so new.: 我就跟個憋了泡尿的五年級小學生那樣興奮。我的所見，很好的映證了溫家寶總理的那句話——中國是那麽的古老而又年輕。
5. doesn't every World War II movie have the scene German soldiers fall off the train roof?: 不是好像每個二戰電影都有德國兵從火車頂上往下摔麽？
6. Prince Mansion Well: 王府井
7. A bitch is a bitch.: 賤人就是矯情。
8. Mother Nature: 大自然
