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Losing her in pieces

It was her 98th birthday yesterday. In the house I was taken to when I was born (and grew up in) I bought her some flowers that was lost on its way to the house– on the back of a motorbike that transported everything to Beijing city-dwellers these-days. The courier had taken it to the the opposite house of the Inner Mongolia Building (内蒙古大厦), which was the humungous building that was constructed about ten or fifteen years ago which blocked off our hutong. Before that there was only one way to get in, and it was straight through the hutong, except all that had changed now.

When the flowers arrived, it was time to go– to a friend’s in the countryside. But the look on her face was worth the trip, and getting the flowers. She was born on December 22 in 1920 or 1921 on the Lunar calendar, but she now celebrates it both in the Lunar and the Gregorian calendar.

CPC Holiday Cheer

Found this in my archives today. Jiang Xue 江雪 is the name of my grandmother. She worked at the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China for many years. 

I did not know that they thought Santa brought you ‘happiness’ and ‘wisdom,’ but there you go. 

Granny project update #1

麦新 大刀Download

I wanted to send an update on writing on my grandmother, as well as other miscellaneous thoughts.

I’ve been on a trip around the States, and I thought about my grandmother. On the way over there the only thing I could play on my computer was the recordings of her talking.

In this particular snippet she sings a song called “Knife” by a composer called Mai Xin (1914 – 1947) . This anti-Japanese song was a hit back in the day. 

The first line from the song, which I ask her to sing, translates roughly as “A large knife / Strike / The heads of the Japanese devils. / Armed brothers / Get ready! / It’s time for resistance against the Japanese!” 

What I like about this recording, from 2015, aside from me egging her on to sing the revolutionary-era song even though she says she can’t remember the words, are the sounds of the house that I grew up in. The State-propaganda news playing on television in the background, and someone — either the help or my aunt-in-law, chopping and dicing onions or garlic in the kitchen.

These sounds are precious because I know that all those times when she and I would sit together, when other things were going on in the background, will be some of the best memories I have with her.

Light

Project: 

Because I have been waiting so long to publish a story about my grandmother, I’m sick to death of waiting. 

So here’s what I am going to do. I’m going to care little about grammar, spelling and punctuation (okay that’s a lie) but I am going to keep updating with small pieces I have written about her, with pictures and other things, from a much longer project. 

The point of this exercise is to not think too much.