This trip to China is special. Special, because I was invited by a Chinese family to their home. My colleague Jojo and I found ourselves close to the Zheilongjiang province. She invited me to her home. I accepted her invitation and found myself at the receiving end of the hospitality of the family.
Mr. Li is an interesting person and deals with animals and plants. He doesn’t like working for anyone. And of course, employment opportunities were rare in his younger days. He is happy running his own horticulture business. Jojo tells me that he has a passion for birds and plants. He often spends time in the forests around and traps birds to be sold to bird lovers. He is a Han Chinese. Jojo’s mother is from an aristocratic Manchu family. Most of them are now called the Man minority community. All the properties and assets of the family were seized during the Communist revolution. They went through deprivations and struggled for even one square meal. She helps her husband to run the Plant business. She worked for a factory but lost her job as most State undertakings closed down and this province was left with a large number of persons unemployed. Visiting this family was an enlightening experience. I have only read about filial piety or the Chinese philosophy of serving your family to your utmost. But this time I saw it at first hand. Their love for their daughter was moving. They were at the railway station. They doted on her and though they could not afford it, they kept buying digital cameras, laptops and other things that she would need for her work. They received me as one of them; they were disappointed as I am a vegetarian. A feast with pork delicacies awaited me. Well, some things are difficult to describe – the love and affection of this family for a stranger is something that defies description. It filled my heart with hope. In a world when relationships are crumbling, here is a country which honors relationships and family ties. The stable family is what kept China going through the horrors of the cultural revolution. Today, in spite of a consumerist set up, the people have their small families to reach out to for support and caring.
Harbin or Haerbin is the capital city of Heilongzhiang province. I am lucky that I landed here in Summer. Harbin has the Siberian winds and is snow filled for most of the year. The weather this time was pleasant and comfortable.
Harbin city was established in the Soviet era and is a repository of Russian architecture. It is a large city and the population of the city exceeds 10 million. After the Russian Civil War of 1918, the white monarchist refugees landed in Harbin in large numbers. The influence remains clearly visible in the building styles and foods. Harbin, which had been nothing more than a Russian-built outpost of the railway, has managed to become a major player in her own right. It is first of all the capital of Heilongjiang Province. The city was founded in 1897 as a camp for Russian engineers surveying the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Labor was brought in a collection of outcasts from across Russia, Poland and even from within Manchuria. The town eventually was captured by the Japanese during World War II and later captured back by the Chinese in 1946. Since economic reforms went into effect in the 1980s, Southern and Eastern China have experienced a time of great growth, Harbin and the greater Northeastern areas of China started their growth later, in the mid 90s. Northeastern China was originally built up as an industrial center using pre-exsting Soviet and Japanese factories. Once the 1980’s rolled around these outdated and inefficient factories could no longer keep up. To further complicate matters, starting in the early 90’s large portions of China’s State Owned Enterprise workers were laid off. Thus, like many other cities in this region contemporary Harbin is struggling with an aging work force and a lot of laid off workers who have been unable to find re-employment. Private enterprise is mostly centered in the service sector, retail, restaurants, etc. with most large scale enterprises still state owned. However, the province has thousands of state-owned enterprises up for sale and many have been purchased since the late 1990s. Numerous Universities in Harbin also play a vital role in the economy, for their traditional role, research and subsidiary companies. Harbin has Russian streets, Chinese Streets and Japanese streets. The roads are full of shops selling Russian ware. There is a wonderful orthodox church here called St Sophia. A street, the Zhongyang Street is filled with Russian style rooves and spires. Walking on it, one could smell Russian food and shop for the beautiful Russian dolls which Harbin is so famous for. Surprise, surprise, there is an Indian street here. It is full of Indian restaurants. There are also shops selling Indian clothes and articles. Harbin is famous for its crystal clear putonghua or standard Mandarin. It’s one of the few places in the country where you can understand what the locals are saying on the streets. Besides having standard mandarin, the city can be a pleasant and cheap alternative to Beijing for the study of Mandarin Chinese. Most universities are full with Korean and Russian students and there are 2-3 cheap western cafes and a small but lively foreign student social scene that can be seen at the local expat hangouts on the weekends such as Blues and The Box. As the weekend in Harbin came to an end, I was sad. My work never took me to Heilongzhiang and it was because of my friend that I could visit this strange and beautiful city. My friend’s parents had filled a big plastic bag full of fruits and Russian bread. Harbin is definitely a backward part of China but does not lack the human touch. It is alive and sensitive.
