Huainan in the Spring Festival
Spring Festival...a festival that lasts fifteen days...when all
of China celebrates, and a large part of it shuts down...like
the restaurants that line the street outside my university. With
almost all the students having gone home for the holidays, the
laobans (bosses) figured there wouldn't be much by way of
clients or business and so, they too have gone wherever...
...And, foreign teachers like me have been left alone to fend
for them(our)selves...
I tried cooking...a long time ago...burned my hand once...cut my
hand the next and that was the end of my misadventures with fire
and food, and oil and cooking gas...I have learnt instead, to
depend on what life hands out...and sometimes, life decides to
hand out little, even when i'm ready to pay for the
handout...like these times, in Huainan...south of river Huai,
the third longest river in China.
Huainan is a mid-sized city, unlike some of the giant cities in
China like Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing and god knows how many
others. I have seen cities that are reportedly small, like
Dongguan in South China but even they seem to go on an
on...Anyway, Huainan, famous for the black and white and my
students ofte remind me...the black is the steam coeal that is
mined here in huge quantities and the white is the tofu or
'doufu' as the Pinyin purists like to put it...Huainan is
proudly touted as the home of the beancurd, the place where it
originated. And, yes, the locals seem to know how to use that
protein-rich food.
I have meandered like the Huai river and now I must hold
myself...ad return next time to speak of another
adventure...well, good fortune if you like...albeit a small
one...one that i went to...and one that met me, arms
outstretched...