Carlos in Macau

Sounds of the River

－A Young Man’s University Days in Beijing

Author: Da Chen

 

  Sounds of the River is an autobiography written by Da Chen who was studying in Columbia University Law School in New York with a full scholarship. Actually, when I first saw the name, Sounds of the River, I thought, it must a book which is full of happy mood. But, when I started reading this book, I changed my mind. The book is not that easy, Da Chen is not that easy. Now, let’s get into this book, Sounds of the River.

  There are twenty nine chapters in this book. But, I tried to divide these twenty nine chapters into four parts. The 1^st part is called “A Son of Farmers Going to Beijing” including chapter 1 – 3. The 2^nd part is called “My Freshman Year” including chapter 4 – 19. The 3^rd part is called “the Rest of My University Days” including chapter 20 – 24. The 4^th part is called “Going to America” including chapter 25 – 29. This is just my definition of this book. Actually, from my definition and division, the most important part that I will be focusing on in the rest of my essay is the 2^nd part “My Freshman Year”. Also, I will talk a little bit about others.

  As we can see, from the baby title of the book “A Young Man’s University Days in Beijing”, Da Chen is talking about his university life in Beijing. Da Chen went to Beijing Languages Institute in 1983 from a very far away village called Yellow Stone, in Fujian Province. Actually, to be the very first university student at that period of time, also, from a poor village and family, Da Chen went to Beijing which was like a “Dream City” to him. During that time, China was just recovering from the Cultural Revolution. A lot of new policies and actions were taken by central government to recover China’s economy. The most important one is the open-door policy which lets China be more attractive to foreigners. There is a coincidence; Da Chen’s university is Beijing Language Institute which is full of foreign students coming from different countries to learn Chinese and Chinese culture. To be a country boy, being with foreigners and city students must be a challenge to Da Chen. For sure, a lot of stories happened, my essay will be focusing on the impact to youngsters of open-door policy. To country boy, to foreigners and to city students.

  1983 was a very special year to author, also, a very important year to China. Open – door policy had been put into practice for a couple of years. A lot of things were changing slowly. Some were good, some were bad. One of them was China imported marketable economy from western countries. It changed the human nature. In the 1^st part, author was on the train to Beijing, he saw a girl selling flowers. [1] An old man reached out with a small bill. The flower girl smiled with her white teeth, took the money, and stuffed it into her pocket. Then she busied herself trying to choose a stem from her basket. In the meantime, she moved backward with small steps, farther and farther away from the unsuspecting old man. Then in blink she was gone, running off into the woods. Can you imagine that a little girl was being a thief or a co-called robber? I can’t see any girl’s characteristics, such as innocent, kind-hearted, etc from this girl. Another example, [2] the author’s friends were trying to pass a piece of luggage of Phoenixes cigarettes to him on the train to his hometown. But, other seatmates didn’t allow them to do that. They wanted to share those cigarettes with Da Chen. At last, author was forced to agree to give one for each of them. What’s this? “Looting a burning house”. I don’t think that is marketable economy which people wanted. Actually, there are still some more examples in the book. By seeing these two examples, they remind me of an article. [3] In this article, it is talking about four debates after the reform and open-door policy, one of them is Planned Economy or Marketable Economy. The article said that Marketable Economy is good, they chose Marketable Economy. It has some good examples, such as the stock market was bombing in Shanghai, China’s economic growth was up to 13% in 1992, more and more students studying abroad coming back to China to contribute themselves,etc. But, I couldn’t agree. Is Marketable Economy all right? Everything has two sides. Our human nature changed to be worse and worse. There are two reasons for that. 1^st, Marketable Economy was a totally new thing to all of Chinese People at that time. Before Marketable Economy, China was carrying out Planned Economy for a couple of years. So, China’s government was taking a risk for that. For people, their experience for Marketable Economy was ZERO. They weren’t ready for the huge changing. They didn’t have guidelines. So, just like we saw in the book, some people, the little girl and the passengers on the train, were taking Marketable Economy in a bad way. 2^nd, it is really about the human nature, I think, we all have the bad side in our human nature. In Planned Economy, everything was equal. So, we didn’t think about some “extra credits”. But, in Marketable Economy, if you are good or smart enough, you can get more by using the market. So, that means, sometimes, the bad side of people’s human nature would come out. Let’s see now. Marketable Economy has more positive sides than negative sides. China’s economic growth is increasing rapidly every year. Also, China’s political position is going up constantly. But, we still need to be careful with some social problems which will be caused by our human nature.

  For the open-door policy, another changing is our attitude to foreign stuff. I will give you several examples. 1^st, [4] when Da Chen went to his dorm room, he got two roommates, both are city boys. One of them named Bo; he had so many western stuff. He has a stereo recorder and likes to listen to western music; he also tried to let Da Chen listen to western music. 2^nd, [5] Da Chen met a foreign student called Robin Ball, they made friends. After that, Da Chen was invited to join a party which only foreign students like to play. 3^rd, [6] Da Chen was lucky to be chosen to one the interpreters for NBA delegation. But, in China’s side, they treated those NBA superstars like VIPs, they gave them best hotels to live and best meals and wines to eat and drink. On the other side, China stopped them getting in touch with Chinese society and people. China didn’t plan press conference for them, stop them going sightseeing, etc. Those are just three of them. You can find more in the book. Actually, I can understand why China and Chinese would do like that. Trace back to Qing Dynasty, China was bullied by western countries for almost half a century. In Mao period, most of western countries were hostile to China. So, when the open – door policy was established, China must be careful with those “western devils”. On the other side, because, western countries owned the most advanced technology and facilities, China just started recovering from the Cultural Revolution. China needed to focus on economic growth, China needed those advanced skills. So, that’s why some Chinese youngsters like western stuff, admire west, like to learn English. But, for the government, they had to act well. Not only learning something from western countries, but also being careful with western countries. That’s why the NBA thing happened which the book mentioned. Let’s see now, the open –door policy has passed for 30 years. There are good things happened and bad things happened. China is getting started to lead the world in some hi-tech areas and economy, such as TV set producing technology, AC producing technology, etc. Some western countries want to imitate China. From this point, our open – door policy is a great success.

  One more thing, what I want to mention is about us, young ambitious students. From the book, Da Chen went to Columbia University Law School in New York with full scholarship. This is also a benefit from open – door policy. Can you imagine that you can go to New York to study in the Old China? Da Chen is lucky dog in carrying out open – door policy. What’s more, it reminds me of myself. I was studying in New York City for a couple of years, when I was in junior- high and high school. I learnt a lot of things that students studying in China could not learn. Not only about culture stuff, but also the way to face difficulties or loneliness and the way of learning. I am also one of the lucky dogs benefiting from open – door policy. In other word, if there is no open – door policy, I would not be staying in “the big apple” for several years. Also, if there is no open – door policy, maybe, mainland-China students could not have the opportunity to come to University of Macau to study.

Matter of fact, open – door policy truly influenced a lot to China from the past until now. It is totally different from the other “open – door policy” which was carried out by Qing Dynasty. At that time, Qing Dynasty was forced by western countries to open the door. There were a lot of unfair treaties signed between Qing Dynasty and western countries. The new open – door policy was established by China itself. China did this time positively. I think, because the last “open –door policy” happened in Qing Dynasty made China feel extremely painful. This time, China did it very carefully and little by little, just like icebreaking. I think, it’s one of the reasons that make China’s open – door policy so successful until now.

  For sure, if you want to do icebreaking, you will need to have enough courage and face a lot of difficulties that you can not imagine. Just like what I am wrote above, the impact to youngster of open – door policy has both positive side and negative side. For the negative side is unbearable, it is just like exploring. What we need to do is to fix it and make it in a right way. China will be having a brighter future!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Carlos, Pang Bo