So my wife and I recently returned from some time in her hometown, Jiegu (that's the pinyin at any rate) township, in Yushu Prefecture. Homecomings should be familiar territory for people, but (as anybody who has had a tumultuous family holiday can attest) the way things should be and the way they are can sometimes be two very different things. It had been almost two years since our last visit to the region, still rebuilding after an earthquake rocked the region in 2010 and precipitated a building and re-imaging process on a nigh unprecedented level. Almost every building has been leveled, to be rebuilt with a concrete imitation of what a Tib. style house should be. Even those buildings that look like they're made of stone (not the traditional materials of choice in this region) are actually fake stone made of concrete.
My wife felt like a stranger in this new place. She felt like some bizarre half-tourist, half-native hybrid. Who knows the language, people, and customs, but little of the space! To say that it was disconcerting for her would be an understatement. The only metaphor I can think for this (given my choral background) is of a four part mass that you know only too well (let's say a Byrd), that all of a sudden is only barely recognizable. Please bear with me as I extend the metaphor: There's a bass-line that you know well. It's been there since time immemorial it seems and sets the tone for the piece. This bass-line is the mountains and rivers that resolutely background this town and have for years. he bass-line is mostly unchanged, but this is perhaps the only reason that you still recognize the beloved piece. The tenor line, however, is completely different. Quite literally unrecognizable. the drone of generators that hum ceaselessly from morning until evening, the engines and horns of massive heavy trucks that seem intent on doing nothing more than providing a quite literally demonstration of the doppler effect. Hammers pounding throughout the summer's many daylight hours, sometimes crescendoing into the high notes as power saws intermittently impose their high pitch whine into proceedings to momentarily commandeer the whole tune. The alto line is the building. Here again, everything has changed. Homes you used to know well, are gone. Replaced by multi-level townhouses, or apartment buildings. You are told that this is modernization, but to you it seems to be at the expense of home. The soprano line is perhaps the most jarring, if only because it hasn't been fully replaced, only irrevocably altered. Some of those favorite old notes are there, but your once melodious piece is suffused with a frenetic number of new notes, that turn Byrd in Philip Glass (who's awesome, just not in my beloved Byrd!). In this metaphor, these are the people who populate this town. There are, indeed, a number of the old faces. They reassure you. "Yes, this is Jiegu," you think. But many of the old faces are also missing (spending their years in the provincial capital, or tragically passed in the earthquake or since) and there are so many new faces. Where are they coming from? Migrant workers (from any number of ethnic groups), entrepreneurs trying to provide services that cash in on the newly rich caterpillar-fungus infused economy, people from other T areas like Chab mdo and Sde dge. All in all, the experience ends up being bittersweet. Dorothy was right, there IS no place like home. But there's a sense of loss, longing, and a wondering about where home actually is anymore. Returning to the big city seems like a better option than staying there. She still loves the place, but just as much in memory as in fact. It was a great trip, she loved it too, but it's still worth discussing this side too. It's also worth mentioning, that almost everyone in town universally speaks of improving conditions, and they do so positively and mo... and the prefectural gov't offices are still in makeshift huts even as many have already moved into their new homes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |