A personal story about Chinese culture

 

People first

The blossomy fields in the picture are from a bus trip from Chengdu. After a while of winding through the mountains a road broke free in the vast. A colourful valley, reminding of Cezanne’s canvases with its bright yellow and green lots of land. A river of blue, from dark blue in the deep to the quiet murmur of rapids promised by the white foam but not heard because of the distance. The freshness of air brought along by the stream driving waters from the mountains, only imaginable while sitting in the stuffed minibus with closed windows.

This scene tells about the wildness of nature and the smallness of a man in front of the nature. The road winding along the other bank of the river tells a story of decades of local peasants and travellers going along this bank of river. The road being repaired every spring but, otherwise, remaining the same for a life-time. You could hardly find such a scenery in Europe. This road would have been closed – for the supposed lack of safety, or to preserve the picturesque view of the nature. Or covered with asphalt, fenced with a concrete wall and straightened for the high-speed highway.

The grandeur of China is best understood when travelling. In China, the so called development has not reached every corner, yet – the road is still a road, the hill is intersected by an electric power line, intruding the would-be romantic picture, because people have to live there, and river – the river just carries water for the farmers.

Openness to the outer world

And now, imagine again that woman carrying plum blossom twigs. If we turn our gaze from her to the left, on the background this impressive scenery opens to our view.

In the bend of the river we see a string of buildings. The regular rhythm of rounded window openings makes us imagine we’re in Saudi Arabia. The imposing cupolas on the roofs add an eclectic touch to create the impression we’re in Las Vegas. However, the dark silhouette in the background, a volume of a new building reaching up to the skies reminds you – you are in China, the fastest growing country in the world.

By Haralds Matulis.