Posted on Thursday, December 23, 2004 3:17 PM
#personal #central kindom
during the spring festival a few years ago, i traveled to the northern part of shaanxi province and visited mountain villages near yan'an.
the mountains were covered by snows, the sun was shining and the sky was blue.
i passed by a house, in front of it an old man smiled to me and asked, “are you a tourist?”, i replied, “yes”, the old man said to me, “why don't come in for a cup of water”.
the room was simple and crude and apparently the family was very poor. the old man's wife cooked dumplings for me. for those poor farmers living in mountain areas, dumplings might be the best food they could find to treat their guest. i found their grandchildren just had very simple food in stead of dumplings, then i stopped eatting. i want to pay the food and the bed but they refused to accept.
before the trip i learned from my professor that china's gini coefficient exceeded that of the u.s. for the first time, and what i saw in that family obviously tells me what it means.
i left in the next morning. on the road, when i tried to get my drink from the backpack, a half bowl of dumplings rolled out in front of my eyes.
humble but noble, just like the blue skies of shanbei.