River Town by Peter Hessler

Author:Peter Hessler
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2000-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

“He’s not on television in their Canada, either. The only place where he is on television is China.”

For the woman, like many of the Chinese that I met, this was a great disappointment. It was tragic for a nation to produce somebody as gifted as Da Shan and allow a foreign country to monopolize his skills. But in fact, as I explained to the woman, this is a common pattern in Canada, where all talent leaves the country as soon as possible, just like NHL franchises. She thought about this for a while and then continued talking about Da Shan.

“He has a Chinese wife,” she said. “Have you heard that?”

“Yes,” I said. I had heard every theory there was about Da Shan. Occasionally people said that his grandmother was Chinese, which seemed unlikely given that he was blond. His Chinese teacher had also become famous, and sometimes people recommended that I move to the east of China and seek out this pedagogue, the way itinerant scholars had done more than two thousand years ago during the Spring and Autumn Period. I had a good start in Chinese, they said, and it was a shame to waste that in a place like Sichuan, where even the locals couldn’t speak the language.

“Do you know what Da Shan’s salary is?” I asked. I wanted to talk about anything else, and money sounded promising.

“He makes thousands of yuan every month,” the woman said with certainty. “He has a very good salary. How much do you make?”

“One thousand yuan.”

“That’s not as much as Da Shan.”

“No,” I said. “It’s not as much as Da Shan.”

“But it’s enough,” she said. “For a young man who is single, one thousand yuan is enough.”

“Yes. It’s a better salary than most people in Fuling, where I live. Have you heard of Fuling? It’s in Sichuan.”

She thought hard and shook her head.

“I’m sure you’ve heard of Fuling hot pickled mustard tuber,” I said. “It’s very famous in China. Have you seen the advertisements on television?” And I sang the jingle:

Wu River brand,

Fuling hot pickled mustard tuber!

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