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c h a p t e r 1 6  Homeward Bound Beijing, an ancient capital city, is the very heart of China. It has a rich cultural history with numerous historic landmarks. Almost two decades earlier, Chiang Yee had expressed his love of this ancient city in a letter to Jianlan, after she moved to Beijing: Jianlan, you are lucky to be able to live in Beijing, a city rich in history and the most beautiful in the world, and enjoy the “most humanistic” Chinese cultural atmosphere every day. How I envy you! . . . For all these thirty years, it has been my wish to visit Beijing and to spend the last part of my life in Beijing. . . . Jianlan, please remember, I was born in Jiujiang. I will definitely make a trip back to Jiujiang and then live till death in Beijing.1 This dream now came true. During his two-week stay in Beijing, Yee visited the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, and many other famous sites. China had changed into an entirely different country from the one he remembered. “The feeling of peace and prosperity in the air everywhere was the most striking change from the past.” He strolled through Beijing’s streets and lanes with his children whenever he had spare time in order to experience life there. Once, after a couple of hours’ walk, he stopped near the People’s Culture Palace and sat down on the sidewalk. His daughters thought he was tired and asked him to have a cup of tea in a nearby teahouse. “No, I am not tired. I just want to see the people here,” he explained. For two hours, he sat there, observing pedestrians and bikers. It gave him such enormous satisfaction. The poor, ragged, and malnourished had disappeared; in front of him were happy and healthy people, dressed in clean and decent clothing.2 It was immensely pleasurable for him to watch people’s smiling faces and listen to their conversations. He enjoyed taking the bus or waiting in line to get into the eateries. When he saw a farmer who was selling vegetables from a small pushcart loaded with carrots, cabbages, 252 homeward bound 253 turnips, and spinach, he stopped to have a chat. He asked the farmer what would happen to the vegetables if they were left unsold at the end of the day. The farmer answered that he would go home in the evening, leaving all the items behind. It was perfectly safe to leave them there, even though no one would stay and guard the pushcart at night. Yee was “amazed that not even a small carrot would be stolen in the night.”3 He attended the festive Labor Day celebration at the Summer Palace on May 1. Colorful ornaments on the trees and platforms were seen everywhere. There were a variety of martial arts demonstrations, and around forty thousand people participated in the celebration that day. Gaiety and merrymaking filled every corner. Formerly a royal garden built for the Empress Dowager and the royal family, the Summer Palace was now a public park. Yee was amazed by the fact that so many people assembled and mingled together “in such an orderly way without the slightest disturbance anywhere.” In his opinion, the Summer Palace’s Labor Day celebration was a remarkable success. “I cannot believe my eyes,” he remarked.“It seems as though that people in China have had fundamental changes in their temperament.”4 To him, the social order and peace were indicative of a government that served its own people and took their interest as its priority. As a poet and artist, Yee was sensitive to important cultural changes. He observed that all big stores in Beijing—not just department stores, but also bookstores—were crowded with customers in the afternoon. “They told me that the people now had money to spare for some extra food or clothing. They were also interested in reading. What a different attitude and situation now from what I knew of the masses before 1933.” When he was a county magistrate in the early 1930s, many could not read and write, and most could not afford to send their children to school for elementary education. At that time, only 20 percent of four hundred million Chinese were literate, but now elementary and often middle school education was mandatory and popular. Approximately 90 to 95 percent of eight hundred...

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