Beijing Bastard by Val Wang

Author:Val Wang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2014-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

Part Four

Chapter Eighteen

Fifty Years Later

My parents looked wordlessly around their hotel room, taking in the sagging beds and peeling paint. They had arrived a week before their group tour started, on the day of the fiftieth-anniversary celebration on October 1, 1999. The Chinese government called the Communist takeover “Liberation,” and preparations for the celebrations had reached a fevered pitch. Right before my parents’ arrival, the government had shut down the city’s most polluting factories and the sky changed from its usual mealy gray to a brilliant blue. But beneath that beautiful facade lurked our side of the story: The date also marked the anniversary of my parents’ exile from the country and the moment their lives had veered off course. If they hadn’t left China, my dad would have stayed in the north, my mom in the south, and they would never have met in New York—and I wouldn’t exist. The accident of my own existence seemed worth celebrating.

Bobo and our extended family had just left the hotel. We had all gone to the airport together to pick up my parents, per Chinese tradition, and thanks to Xiao Peng’s friend had even bypassed security to wait at the arrivals gate to catch my parents right as they got off the plane. Droves of strangers walked out first. When they finally emerged, we hugged and I felt relief, as if they were unaccompanied minors who might have missed their connections in Chicago or Tokyo.

“Hey, you put on a little bit of weight” were the first words out of my mom’s mouth, then seeing the video camera in my hand quickly added, “Good,” as if she had meant it as a compliment all along. I had borrowed Anthony’s video camera to record this momentous occasion and kept it running for most of their visit. I hoped it would force everyone to be on their best behavior, myself included. My parents hugged Bobo and Bomu and the moment brimmed with many years of unspoken emotion. My dad hadn’t seen his cousin since he was eight.

“You didn’t have to come to get us,” he said. “She could have come alone.”

“No,” said Bobo. “We had to come.”

“I told you twice not to come. I told her to tell you.”

“She did. Xiao Peng has a car; it’s no problem.”

They each performed their half of the polite ritual flawlessly and I could see it put them at ease. They walked ahead of my mom and me and talked in a familiar way despite all the years they hadn’t seen each other.

“We’ll just come over to see you tomorrow. It’s late now,” said my dad.

“Yes, tonight just go to your hotel to rest.”

“I meant, you didn’t have to come tonight to pick us up.”

“No, no.”

My mom took another close look at me. “Do you floss your teeth?”

“Don’t look at them, please.”

“Do you floss it?”

“Yes.”

“Why are they black?”

“It’s the water. There’s no fluoride. My teeth are embarrassingly disgusting.”

“Yes,” she said. “Need to bleach it.”

I was excited for their visit, but nervous too.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.