Star Trek, marriage brokers and dissidents in the park
Gman and I went to see Star Trek at the Xintiandi theater yesterday and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Star Trek has been in the theaters in Shanghai for three weekends now so the crowd at 11:30 am on Saturday was a bit thin. The movie was in English with Chinese subtitles. While the Chinese government only allows 12 US movies in to the theaters every year this is a most unusual month because Terminator, Wolverine and Night at the Museum are also playing alongside Star Trek. I think if the producers of Star Trek would put a Chinese character on the bridge of the USS Enterprise they could assure unfettered access to the Chinese mainland market. But that might open up a new can of worms. Beijing might insist that the Chinese character be of a higher rank than the Japanese Sulu. Is the Chinese character from the mainland, Taiwan or Hong Kong? Better just to leave things as they are.
In the afternoon I stopped by People's Park where I mingled with the parents and marriage brokers that congregate in a corner of the park and advertise their children or clients on sheets of paper. They are looking to arrange marriages. The advertisements and inquiries focus on income and education. No one is looking for a poor daughter- or son-in-law.
As I wandered I spotted an open bench in the park, a vary rare sight indeed, so I sat down. Within a few minutes Mr. Wu sat down next to me and started talking to me in good English. He had been an English teacher in Beijing but after participating in the demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989 he had been put in jail for over 10 years and hasn't been allowed to teach again. Every time he gets close to getting a teaching job his record as a political dissident kills his opportunity. For close to a decade now he has lived off contributions from family members. He said he was 58 years old but he looks like he is in his eighties. He looks like he's been through a lot of hard times. He didn't have much of anything good to say about the Communist Party. For about an hour he explained government corruption and the Chinese prison system to me. When I became aware that there were a couple of clean cut middle-aged people walking back and forth nearby and glancing at us in an irritated manner I became concerned for his security. The watchers paced back and forth for ten minutes exchanging glances with each other as if they were trying to decide what to do. I decided I'd better move on and hope Mr. Wu wasn't in trouble.
In the afternoon I stopped by People's Park where I mingled with the parents and marriage brokers that congregate in a corner of the park and advertise their children or clients on sheets of paper. They are looking to arrange marriages. The advertisements and inquiries focus on income and education. No one is looking for a poor daughter- or son-in-law.
As I wandered I spotted an open bench in the park, a vary rare sight indeed, so I sat down. Within a few minutes Mr. Wu sat down next to me and started talking to me in good English. He had been an English teacher in Beijing but after participating in the demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989 he had been put in jail for over 10 years and hasn't been allowed to teach again. Every time he gets close to getting a teaching job his record as a political dissident kills his opportunity. For close to a decade now he has lived off contributions from family members. He said he was 58 years old but he looks like he is in his eighties. He looks like he's been through a lot of hard times. He didn't have much of anything good to say about the Communist Party. For about an hour he explained government corruption and the Chinese prison system to me. When I became aware that there were a couple of clean cut middle-aged people walking back and forth nearby and glancing at us in an irritated manner I became concerned for his security. The watchers paced back and forth for ten minutes exchanging glances with each other as if they were trying to decide what to do. I decided I'd better move on and hope Mr. Wu wasn't in trouble.
posted by Kevcham at 10:25 PM
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