Day 1 in Country

9/21/2010

Today was the first day of actual research. I went with my hostdad to his laojia, a small village on the side of a mountain a few kilometers from the Chongqing town of Wanzhou. Going into this research endeavor, i had many ideas about what it would be like to conduct my research in the rural villages. in my imagination, i would easily walk up to the village with minimal disturbance, hand out some cigarettes, and get all the answers i wanted. i was mistaken. much to my chagrin, when i told the folks at the university that i planned to go solo out into the nongcun to do my research, many of them scoffed at me. i found out that the scoffing was well-founded. my hostdad (referred to hereafter as wan shushu) opened all the doors to the research that i needed. upon getting out of the car after the long, bumpy ride to the mountain, we disembarked from wan shushu's brand new audi. the juxtaposition of the audi against the mud huts of the village was a microcasm of the gulf that exists between china's newly rich and its traditionally poor. as wan shushu and i, along with his younger brother and 10-year old nephew (referred to hereafter as didi) ascended the mountain, we encountered several of the people that these mountain-side hovels home. I got pictures with a few of them. Ideally, i wanted to pass through, not interact with any of the people and be invisible b/c they tend to act differently when a gigantic (by their standards) white guy waltzes into their village. we met the village chief who was on his way down a small goat paht iwth some local laborers. he was a middle-aged man, shorts and unbuttoned white shirt, and sun-baked skin. his voice was harsh, but he always had a smile on and a hand open to help. he guided us throught the village that wan shushu used to call home, pointing out the homes that lay abandoned as a result of china's rapid urbanization spread even to this remote shire in the chongqing mountains. then we reached the home of wan shushu's elder cousin. the place consisted of an enclosed concrete courtyard used for thrashing various vegatables, and a modest tiled two-story house. the entire extended family (except the younger 20-30 yr olds who have since moved to cities) lives there. outside in the courtyard, they whipped out several old benches that were about a foot off the ground and we all sat around and chatted, wan shushu kindly translating from the local dialect to mandarin for me. we waxed about a pack of cigarettes before we really started talking turkey. wan shushu starting asking about how much money they got from the gov't, whether they were able to obtain subsidized loans or any loans at all, how they got the capital to farm if needed, where they got the money for medical services, and so on. Generally, families who had children didn't get anything from the gov't. so they fended for themselves off the land and relied on the younger generation who work in the cities to give them money. this is quite common in these types of villages. it seems that the only ppl who live in villages anymore, the real kind, are old people and children. but later conversations with the village chief and other older residents revealed that some got up to 500RMB from the government in addition to free health care. for example, their is a childless old widower who lives in one highest homes on the mountainside. he lives alone and is rather solitary. he receives 200RMB per month and then grows his own food and rations his energy usage with spartan austerity. he also is able to see a doctor free of charge. some of the most interesting conversations arose over lunch in the elder cousin's house where we talked about everything from differences between northern and southern people to the changes that deng xiaoping enacted. without exception, deng is seen as somewhat of a diety. they frequently repeat, "without deng xiaoping's gaige kaifang, this (pointing to something random) and this (often pointing to their healthy guts) wouldn't be possible!". and true to chinese tradition, the most important and most often cited benefit from gaige kaifang was food. but back to some of the researchy questions, i was told by the village chief that generally speaking, a villager can obtain one loan of 10000RMB, but absolutely no more and often less. it just isn't possible to get more here. my question about other sources of capital (i.e. loan sharks, mafia) was not directly answered. hint noted. it will take more time before they will speak to that. i was surprised by the frankness with which they spoke to an absolute foreigner such as myself. but i suppose it makes sense; they all live off the land, they all generally get the same amount from the gov't, what is there to hide? and come to think of it, what is this complex about money in the west? larger topic for another time. after resting for 45 minutes or so after lunch (they were drinking me under the table even in mid-afternoon), wan shushu took me outside the courtyard to view the graves of his parents and his cousin's parents. a solemn moment ensued as he spoke to chinese family tradition of believing that you should bury your parents close to home, so that they watch over it and protect it. it is moments like this that i wish so so so badly that my chinese was at a level that i could communicate my empathy, but sadly i was consigned to nods of acknowledgement and occasional grunts to break up the monologue. that being said, over the last few days, mandarin has become english to me and the local dialect has become mandarin. what i mean is, when i'm trying to get something done or have something to say, i am relieved when someone is able to speak some semblance of standard mandarin and have to struggle through situations with those who don't. after many more cigarettes and awkward greetings, we made our way down the mountain as the sun did the same. we bumped our way back down a road unfit for cattle in our audi and returned home. Tonight i went to dinner with some of the local whos-who from wanzhou where i was treated to a fantastic dinner and a lot of throat-burning baijiu.