Thursday, May 17, 2007
Exerpt from Time magazine that i found enthralling.
"Several years ago, I was strolling through an old neighbourhood of Shanghai when I spied a scrum if men carrying something out of a darkened doorway. It was a rattan chair on which sat a very agitated granny. She was one of the last holdouts refusing to leave her house, which was scheduled to be torn down to make way for XinTianDi, Shanghai's sprawling outdoor shopping-and-restaurant development. As she was born out, like some parody of an imperial courtesan in a eunuch-shouldered sedan chair, the mao-suited woman kept screaming a phrase in Shanghainese. I asked a friend what it meant. "Remember history," she told me."
Remember history. Amidst the soul-less new buildings that sprung up in the city district, I wonder how many stories are lost or what her story is.
The article resonated on so many levels, one of which is that it made me recall something i saw in beijing in 1997.(i forgot everything else about beijing). There was this elderly woman shouting in the middle of the street "chase the japanese soldiers out" repeatedly and passionately. Particularly traumatised (i was 14, i was easily so), i knew she obviously suffered under the Japanese.
so i wondered what they did to her, or what made her not let go of the past and realise that the war ended a long time ago and i wished she was warm in her bed and drinking tea as old women ought to. and it bothered me that people were ignoring her like she was a crazy women. mostly i want to go up to her and tell her "it's ok..." but a 14 year old boy has his limitations and i didnt do anything. i wonder how she is now..
anyway the point of this post is.. what happens to us when we die? i havent even found out stuff about my grandma.. you think you know someone but there are so many things you dont. what happens to the poetry she sprouts on occasion? what do i do with the red eggs if i get married? or is it for child births? how do you use a spoon to scratch your back again? how do you boil that seahorse soup thats so good for the skin? did she come to malacca from china alone? was grandpa her first love? (gasp) shes so innocent yet so worldwise yet not hardened and so full of love for people.. if living were like monopoly, shes got the train stations and the water works and park lane and park mall etc. she won. that was a bad analogy, i dont know what the point of monopoly is really. how do you win monopoly? it just goes on and on doesnt it? but not like life. who will remember history when we die or get removed from our possessions?
wow what an emo post..
Posted by Dominic at 7:54 PM