Dragon Air

April 3, 2010

The first time I went to Xian, China’s ancient capital before moving to Peking (Beijing), was in 1999. The airport terminal looked like something out of Casablanca.  Stairs were rolled into place and we walked to the terminal.

The last time I went was in 2008 and there was a new airport that would put most in America to shame.

China is replacing old airports and building new ones—hundreds, and they are building them with the future in mind. China is also planning to buy another 218 aircraft this year.

I flew with Dragon Air

In 1999, the taxi driver cheated us. He said his meter was broken, but he’d give us a bargain, which turned out to be higher. Then the hotel tried to cheat us. While my wife was arranging a car and driver to take us to see Qin Shi Huangdi’s tomb and the Terra Cotta Warriors, the desk clerk said we would need two cars.

I saw a sign in a corner that said vans were available and the price was lower. I picked up the sign, carried it to the desk, and held it where my wife saw it. She turned to the clerk  and if words could fly, her’s would have been arrows. We got the van.

See more about Xian

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Jailed for Negligence

April 3, 2010

Robert Hart, the main character in My Splendid Concubine, wrote, In China, the innocent often suffer along with the criminals where in England the accused often goes free or the sentence is too light.

A piece in The Washington Post, Prison for bosses of China disco after deadly fire, pointed out how two bosses of a nightclub in southern China were sent to prison for more than 15 years for a fire in their club that killed 44 people and injured 64. In addition, the club’s general manager was sent to jail for three years while fourteen other club managers received jail terms up to six years.

A similar fire in America in 1942, the Cocoanut Grove Fire, killed almost five hundred and injured hundreds more.  The kitchen helper who started the fire due to negligence was not punished but the nightclub’s owner was sent to jail for twelve years but let out in four.

When Faith Dremmer was killed in southern Illinois by a motorist who swerved across the road hitting her and two others, all he received was a ticket for improper lane use. What would the verdict have been in China?

Learn more about China’s justice system at http://wp.me/pN4pY-hH

 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Farewell, My Concubine

April 2, 2010

Chen Kaige, self-trained as a filmmaker, was the director for this award winning 1993 film. Prior to “Farewell, My Concubine“, Chen received modest acclaim for the “Yellow Earth” and “The Big Parade”. With “Farewell, My Concubine,” he won the Palme d-or in Cannes.

Farewell, My Concubine

Although the film is in Mandarin with English subtitles, the story captured me from the beginning. If you are interested in Chinese history, this film spans several decades beginning near the end of the Ch’ing Dynasty. On the surface, it is just a story of two boys who happen to become famous, but have their difficulties like most of us lesser mortals do. However, the setting shows the  transformation of a nation from the Ch’ing Dynasty to a warlord dominated republic, the Japanese invasion of World War II and then Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

I saw this movie a decade ago and I remember this powerful, dramatic story of one man’s life from the day his mother took a knife and chopped off an extra finger on each hand so he would have five instead of the six he was born with.

The main character is apparently modeled after an actual person—Peking Opera superstar Mei Lanfang—some may imagine that Lanfang was ‘gay’. However, he only specialized in male roles. He was married at least three times and had children.

Discover Not One Less

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.  This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Orphan’s Life

April 2, 2010

More than 90% of babies in Chinese orphanages are girls. Prior to 1949, it was common for parents to murder girl infants. From the 1950s to the end of the 1970s, due to Mao’s leadership and a tough stance for women’s equality, the death rate went down. Then in the 1980s, with the population growing too fast, a desperate government implemented the one-child policy.

After that, many girl babies went missing or were abandoned to state-run orphanages. To end this tragedy, the government eventually allowed rural families to have two children per family—hoping for a boy.

The conditions in these rural, state-run orphanages are often not ideal. Girls, who are not adopted, usually end up being the caregivers for the younger children. Since these orphan caregivers were raised without the love of parents and siblings, they may not be loving themselves creating a cold environment to grow up in.

abandoned at birth

It isn’t as if China’s government has done nothing to stop a practice that has been around for thousands of years. During the 90s, tougher laws were passed but often ignored. Government inspectors were sent to rural areas to enforce these laws, but it isn’t easy controlling a population of 1.3 billion scattered over a mountainous country almost the size of the United States.

I will not criticize the Chinese government for these conditions. I’ve been to China and understand the challenges. What would you do if you had inherited a medieval country in 1949 that was bankrupt due to the Kuomintang looting the banks and treasury as they fled to Taiwan under American protection? Then there is a culture reaching back thousands of years where girls were considered worthless. That is a lot to overcome.

Discover Gendercide in China and India, and also see the conclusion of one orphan’s journey in Saying Goodbye

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Peking Opera

April 1, 2010

Peking Opera is a combination of several styles of Chinese opera.

The metamorphosis started during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), about two hundred years ago.

Peking Opera focuses on historical events, legends about emperors, ministers, generals, geniuses and great beauties.

Performances are a combination of singing, dialogue, pantomime and acrobatic fighting and dancing.

Today, Peking Opera is considered the highest expression of Chinese culture.

The origins of Peking Opera did not begin in Peking (Beijing).  The opera had its start in the Chinese provinces of Anhui and Hubei.

Experts say the opera was born in 1790 and was originally staged for the royal family and then the public.

There are thousands of these operas that cover the history and literature of China. Peking operas can be divided into two categories.

“Civil” operas focus on singing while “Martial” operas feature acrobatics and stunts.  Some are a combination of both.

If Peking Opera interests you, see Chinese Yu Opera with Mao Wei-tao

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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