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Monday, March 27, 2006
THE SOUTHERN BRANCH DREAM OF CHINA'S XINYUE  I spoke today with students about the movie Cinderella Man and America's Great Depression. I lamented the impact industrialization took on our nuclear families and sense of community. And I went on to remind them that powerful notions of family and community values were still alive in China and were theirs to lose or to guard and cherish for the future.I told them how I thought my favorite day of the week to be Saturday when the whole neighborhood turns out for a movie projected onto a canvass strung across the local basketball court. Everyone brings chairs, children run gleeful circles around the adults, where earlier in the day the elders of the community welcome dawn with the graceful sway of Tai Chi Chuan, and no one has the slightest worry for at least the length of a double feature. Synchronicity brought me home to a marvelous story in the Shanghai Daily's recent archives: A WISH FULFILLED It is the tale of a blind eight 8-year old dying from brain cancer. Her name is Xinyue from the Northeastern town of Changjun. One of her favorite activities has been raising the flag at her school's playground. And she always dreamed of seeing the Ceremonial raising of the Chinese flag drawn to full height over Tiananmen Square in Beijing some 600 miles away. Too frail to make the real trek her parents enlisted the aid of several thousand people to grant her a farewell wish. The journey to "Beijing" began in a van with a tour guide describing the sights and sounds along the way. Three hours later they boarded the bus to the square where the Changjun driver called out the names of stops in a Beijing accent and volunteer students rode along and spoke in varied dialects to effect realism. The bus stopped at a college recreational yard where students marched to mimic the ceremonial police team, the National Anthem was played and thousands of townspeople talked and shouted to bring the square to life. From her wheelchair she raised her hand in a weakened, but proud salute. They spent the night in a "Beijing hotel" ate Beijing style food and returned the next day, with a contented Xinyue, to Chanjung: The community of angels that, for a day, became a little girl's dream. *THE SOUTHERN BRANCH is an often used idiom that alludes to a famous Chinese story and means to have a fond dream or illusory joy. Asia Blogging China Blogs China Blog Chinese Proverb Cancer Childhood Cancer Lonnie Hodge Lonnie B. Hodge maintains his China Blog at ONEMANBANDWIDTH Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by Lonnie at 7:45 AM |
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