My China memories (Steven)

Apologies for the delayed post and thanks to my Mom for the reminders. I can blame my current boss who could learn a few lessons from my Grandfather about how to be more enlightened with his employees and their workload.

This trip was truly amazing on many levels. Thanks very much to 3 yi for your generosity and perseverance for making it happen. Your attending to all the little details (which was probably very tough for you) made this trip such a success. I cannot believe that you were the only one out of the 14 of us that didn’t get sick and yet you were under the most stress on this trip. It was great to have the book to provide a historical backdrop and provide context for the trip. I cannot imagine the time and effort that you must have gone into getting the book finalized and translated. It is an amazing accomplishment to have achieved. The trip itinerary and being with the older generation (Dayi, 3 yi, Mom) who could recall the events firsthand really brought the book to life. Thanks also to Mom and Dayi for sharing your experiences with us on this trip.

I have a much stronger appreciation of the achievements and the personal character of Grandfather after this trip. I have seen a lot of successful entrepreneurs and all without fail have flawed personal characters which sadly often help them to be successful. In Grandfather’s case, it seems that he was able to be successful as an entrepreneur while pursuing a corporate culture where he was a very decent person especially to his employees. In China where the rich and successful will have no qualms about pushing and abusing their influence over others, which still persists today, it is refreshing to see that Grandfather was practically the opposite of that. Most successful business people that I see feel that their employees are just a tool for them to use to make themselves or the company more successful, with an attitude of they pay you, they own you. It is amazing that Grandfather pulled it off with such success and on such a large scale. It is sad to see the events of history tear that apart so that what remains are memories and a shell of what Dongya must have been in its heyday.

I travel a lot for work and those trips always become one big blur of meetings, albeit often in exotic locations and nice hotels, restaurants, etc. In contrast, I don’t recall having so much fun and being able to be relaxed so long since our Chan family trips from when we were growing up and went on long trips throughout the US camping. I realized now that it is really rare in life to be able to do these sorts of trips as an adult. As a child, I became used to having regular family vacations that were fun and relaxing. But as an adult they are few and far between, and makes me treasure this trip even more. Although I have to say, I was very grateful that we weren’t camping or backpacking throughout China as I have gotten pretty soft these days. Thanks to 3 yi for putting us up in style in 5 star hotels with the amazing buffet breakfasts. It was also fun to have Darryl as my roommate, which I don’t think has happened 25+ years, and sorry for snoring so much that you had to wear earplugs!

I also have traveled within China a lot too. But I have never traveled with 14 of my relatives, especially in 9 hotels in 12 days. It was a lot of fun to be able to get to know everyone and share these experiences together. It seemed every part of the trip had some positive meaning that we could appreciate and experience together. It was very especially impressive that Dayi at your age was so strong throughout the trip. Matt’s blog is amazing in its detail and ability to blend our experience with the background of the book. I don’t know how you did that on the Kindle and didn’t get carpel tunnel.

Some of the highlights that stood out for me included:

• Grandfather’s office. Even if it is renovated, somehow the feeling with all the pictures really made his presence with the positive impact that he had with the success of Dongya come to life for me.

• The old family house. I had heard stories from my Mom about growing up at that house such as the area where they stored baicai and luobuo in the winter, where they blocked off to create an ice rink and where the helpers stayed. It was neat to actually go to the house and be able to go inside. Sandy and I were actually brought by Liuyi to the house in 1986 and maybe even to the Dongya office too but I don’t remember it at all. All I remember of that trip was that Sandy’s face got all black because we were on a coal fired train from Beijing, the train window was open, Sandy was downwind from the train exhaust, and I thought it was hilarious. Another reminder of how things have changed with the new bullet train being probably the most modern in the world.

• The Song village. You hear about these rags to riches stories as a cliché but I seeing how simple and non modern the village was, it really does remind me that everyone comes from somewhere and that is often worse than where they are now, and makes me grateful for the fact that my ancestors before me had reached some level of success that I didn’t have to grow up in a village. Everyone in China that I deal with live in cities and frankly they all look down on village or country people. I often heard people who want to insult people or make it clear that they think they are have some crude behavior to often would refer to that person as a nongcuenren (country person). I got to say, it is admirable for the villagers to stay there and try to make a go of it. If I had to live in the village, it would send me into quite a depressive state. The village also served as a stark reminder to me as to how much we have to be thankful for in all that we have in our lives. Frankly, it must be much harder in many ways to live in a village than a city, and if anything, the villagers should look down on the city people. I mean they can survive on no ice cream, no TV, no movie theater, no restaurants, no foot massage…

• Speaking of foot massage, my final highlight was the one that that we had as a group in the Huangshan city. It was my honor to translate for the stocky, handsome Buddha impressionist David and his very handsome sons, who look like Vickie and not David. And I have not laughed so hard in my recent memory to translate the one liners that were coming out of my masseuse and directed at David.