The history not forgotten

China has always been a country with a sense of mystery, covered by its own glory past as the easter empire, the troubled 19th and 20th century tangled between civil war and foreign invasions, and now more importantly an emerging power of the 21st century. There are certainly a lot of interests in china, and the British media certainly has chosen China as one of their favourite subject.

Channel four has a correspondeant in China who obviouslly loves to report all the dark corners of the society which looks to be poised for fastest economy growth ever. While they are dragging on the human rights issues, Channel five has taken a more historical view on things that have shaped China over the past century and also try to find the links between the past and today. Variety is always a positive thing, for viewers you get a more fully rounded picture and you can make your own judgement based on the input from various angels.

There has been a series of programmes on Channel five covering the red army's long march, the cultural revolution and also the Paul Merton in China - which is showing the life in today's China. I was impressed by the very objective and neutural view from the commentators in these programmes, it shows a good sense of maturity, understanding and putting things into the perspective and circumstances in which the events occured.

In the programmes about cultural revoluation, it shows the historical moment when Nixon was visiting Beijing and his meeting with Mao, whose health at the time was deteriorting. But both looked exicted about the occasion, and then Nixon was taken to the entertainment in the evening, where they were watching the red guards (in their very distinctive uniform) dancing and chanting the long live Mao songs. I can imagine he must have been feeling a bit disturbed watching a performance like that, not really the sort of entertainment he expected, but nevertheless he had to look interested. And then it was when Henry Kissinger was visiting Beijing, Mao was obviously amused when he saw Kissinger's very tall wife (who was probably a former volleyball player!). He was a whimsical man, who had a side of artist.

I was only very little when the gang of four was sentensed (the trial was broadcasted throughout China). But I certainly remember the atmosphere in the room where the crowd was watching TV. It was a momemnt never to be forgotten for a lot of Chinese. But how much do the new generation know about this history and its impact on China, probably very little. I guess sometimes the baggage from the past could be too heavy to carry along the way, and maybe it is too much to ask the young people today to make a connection with a past they never experienced.

Peak District

We had a laidback day in Buxton, a sleepy town on the west edge of peak district national park. It is a small town known for its spa and obviously had flourished during Victorian time when many people came here for a spa leisure holiday. There are quite many hotels for a relatively small town, and the spa water is still running and we saw a few people waiting in queue to fill up their bottles. And the legendary swimming pool is still there, although looking a bit outdated. I was surprised when someone told me that the Beatles once played at the pavilion gardens in the town centre in the 60s, I guess that was before their fame took off across the Atlantic. We went to see the Opera in the evening, which was in this opera house built in the Victorian period, certainly you can find traces of the past glory there.

I joined the guided walk “Secret Kinder” taking place in the moorland part of the national park. It was a sunny day, a bit hazy, but very windy, especially when you are walking on the ridges of the hills. Several times the wind was strong that I felt I was going to be blown away any minute. There was one difficult up and slightly difficult down during the whole walk, which I enjoyed the most.

Kinder Scout is an interesting area for environmental and some historical reasons. The ranger from National trust elaborated on the stories around its past, and he is a good story teller knowing how to get the audience attention and intrigue them. He told us about the story of George King, a guy started a sect many years ago and according to his sect, the stones could be charged with prayers, and the charged stones can release their energies from within to save the world from disasters. At the end of the story, he said in a joking way, “maybe we should try to ask the charged stones to release the energy to save the world from George Bush.” We all laughed, obviously this was a popular political joke that most people find funny. Some of the area we walked past has massive exposed soil not covered by any grass or trees. We learned from the ranger that this area was swept through by ice sheets during the last ice age five thousands years ago, and the trees got slammed down and decomposed into the soil. The remains we see today in the soil are those trees from ice age and this soil is very poor and it takes long time for grass or any kind of plants to grow back on this soil.

A few letter boxes were found during our walk, I think the two rangers know where they are hidden approximately. I flipped through some pages in a notepad in one of the letter boxes, and one comment said “When is the end of summer? It is 25 degree but I want -5 degree.” Well, there are certainly some people with the opposite minds.