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<h3 style="margin-top:0;"><a style="font-weight: 500; font-size: 21px;line-height: 30px; margin-top:25px; margin-bottom: 10px;" href="http://u.osu.edu/mclc/2019/02/04/20/" target="_blank">“20”</a></h3>
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<p><b>20</b><br />
By Martin Winter</p>
<p>20 years ago I wrote my first Chinese poem.<br />
It was in Chongqing. "Wanbao, wanbao!"<br />
That's what they cry, all over China. Every afternoon.<br />
"Evening news, evening news!"<br />
Evening paper, every town has one.<br />
Some have morning papers, those are called Zaobao,<br />
most of them.<br />
"Get your evening paper!"<br />
Anyway, "wanbao, wanbao!"<br />
could mean late retribution. Bào, what comes back, gets back,<br />
a report. Wan, late. Zao, early.</p>
<p>"Wanbao, wanbao!"<br />
Chongqing was the wartime capital.<br />
Jiefang bei, liberation monument, is the city center.<br />
It's not from 1945 or 1949,<br />
it's from the 1930s or so.<br />
Most people don't know exactly.<br />
Emancipation column. One of my students called it that.<br />
Kang Di, think it was her.<br />
Emancipation in German means women's lib.<br />
"Emanzipationssäule".<br />
I was teaching German.<br />
Women's Liberation Monument.<br />
Women's Rights Monument.<br />
She didn't know emancipation means many things.<br />
Didn't want to correct her.<br />
Another essay was about marriage.<br />
Were they really so conservative, our elders,<br />
when they married a stranger,<br />
when they slept with a stranger they had never seen before?<br />
Good question.<br />
Good essays, especially the girls, the young women.</p>
<p>"Wanbao, wanbao!"<br />
In Beijing it sounded more like "wanbo!", although Beijing supposedly<br />
is where Mandarin comes from.<br />
"Wanbao, wanbao!"<br />
Chongqing is a hilly city. No bicycles. What did they do, back in the 1960s,<br />
1970s, '80s, when no-one had a car?<br />
They had porters, for the steep slopes with the stairs,<br />
I guess they're still there.<br />
"Bang-bang", people for hire.<br />
They bang on their tools, bang their tools together.<br />
Bang-bang are men, but there are women porters.<br />
Hong Ying's mother carried sand, rocks and gravel.<br />
Daughter of Hunger, her most famous book.<br />
Daughter of the River in English, it was a bestseller.<br />
Hungry Daughter, Ji'e de nü'er.<br />
That's right, they have a "ü", just like in German,<br />
and like in Turkish. Ürümqi, city in China,<br />
nowadays governed like North Korea.<br />
Many re-education camps. They had prisons in Chongqing,<br />
Liao Yiwu was in there,<br />
another famous writer from China.<br />
Didn't know him then. But Chongqing is about war and imprisonment.<br />
Lieshimu, that's the address<br />
of our university. We taught German and English.<br />
Two universities, one foreign languages,<br />
the other law and police. Law and politics. Yes, they are not separated.</p>
<p>"Wanbao, wanbao!" No zaobao in Chongqing,<br />
although I'm not sure now.<br />
Lie-shi-mu, Martyr's Grave.<br />
Geleshan, Gele Mountain, right behind our college,<br />
other side of the train tracks.<br />
Someone was murdered there, some gambling debt.<br />
Students died, one or two every few months.<br />
Nice walks on Geleshan, very peaceful, really.<br />
"Wanbao, wanbao!" Every city in China.<br />
Nowadays people have cell phones,<br />
but there are printed newspapers and magazines.<br />
And printed books, there is no crisis.</p>
<p>"Wanbao, wanbao!" Late reports, late reports.<br />
>From the guns. Or whatever.<br />
Karma. Shan means good, doing good.<br />
A Buddhist word. Shan you shanbao,<br />
doing good has good returns.<br />
Wouldn't that be nice?<br />
But teachers believe it, teachers and parents,<br />
again and again, otherwise you go crazy.</p>
<p>They went crazy too, war and famine,<br />
all the way till 1961, '62. When Hong Ying was born.<br />
No, also 1969,<br />
Cultural Revolution, like civil war.<br />
Shan you shan-bao,<br />
good deeds, good returns.<br />
"Shan you shanbao, e you e-bao."<br />
E like in Urgh! Like something disgusting, that's what it means.<br />
Ur yow ur-pow, something like that. But more like b.<br />
Eh yow e-bao. Yes, "e" like ur. "You" like yo-uw.<br />
Shàn you shànbào, è you èbao.<br />
Do good for good returns, do bad stuff for bad returns.<br />
Not that it doesn't come back, time isn't ripe.<br />
That's how it goes on.</p>
<p>You throw the boomerang, boomerang doesn't come back,<br />
they tell you wait, it'll come back.<br />
Karma.<br />
And so I wrote a Buddhist newspaper poem.<br />
Bu shì bu bào, shíhou wei dào.<br />
Wei like in Ai Weiwei, "ei" like in Beijing.<br />
Wei means not yet, that's his name. Really.<br />
"Wei" like the future.<br />
His father was the most famous Communist poet<br />
of the People's Republic. Imprisoned in the 1930s,<br />
maybe in Chongqing. Then again under Mao.<br />
Exiled to Xinjiang, North Korea today, re-education camps.<br />
Desert, somewhere between Dunhuang and Ürümqi,<br />
what was the town? It's a big city now.<br />
Ai Weiwei grew up in a hole in the ground, with his brother.<br />
They are both artists. Anyway, where was I?</p>
<p>Bu shì bu bào, shíhou wei dào.<br />
Not that it doesn't come back, time isn't ripe.<br />
Emancipation monument.<br />
MLK day, I have a dream.<br />
They had to memorize the whole speech,<br />
in schools in China, 1970s.<br />
Maybe earlier too, maybe till now.<br />
Good deeds, good returns.<br />
Bad deeds, bad returns.<br />
The Chinese Dream.<br />
Not that it doesn't come back.<br />
Zao you zaobao, wan you wanbao.<br />
Morning has morning papers, evening has evening news.<br />
Early deeds, early returns.<br />
Late deeds, late returns.<br />
Late returns after gambling.<br />
Famous party secretary, famous police chief,<br />
they are in prison now. Or one is dead?<br />
Killed a British guy, now they imprison Canadians.<br />
Anyway, my poem.</p>
<p>Wanbao, wanbao!<br />
Wanbao, wanbao!</p>
<p>Zao you zaobao,<br />
wan you wanbao.</p>
<p>Bushi bu bao, shihou wei dao.</p>
<p>Actually the saying goes on, the Buddhist Karma.<br />
Once time is ripe, everything comes back.<br />
You don't need to say that. People know.</p>
<p>晚报，晚报！</p>
<p>早有早报，晚有晚报。<br />
不是不报，时候未到！</p>
<p>Martin Winter, January 2019</p>
<p>See also my blogs <a href="https://banianerguotoukeyihe.com/2019/01/25/20/">here</a> and <a href="http://t.cn/Et0wYhR">here</a>. The second link leads to new Chinese poems. Ai Weiwei has a new exhibition in Canada. <a href="http://chinaheritage.net/journal/an-afternoon-in-beijing-september-1978/">Chinaheritage.net</a> has a long interview with him by Ian Boyden.</p>
<p>Martin</p>
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by <a href="mailto:denton.2@osu.edu">denton.2@osu.edu</a> on February 4, 2019 </div>
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