Christmas in Beijing - Part II
**Prologue
**Aidan ran upstairs to get the DVDs he picked out for Mommy, Lydia, and in his words zhe ge shi xin didi ( 这个是新弟弟).
**Part II
**Christmas is decidedly secular in Beijing and the people on occasion are not quite sure about the line between religious images and non religious images. For example, this image is making the rounds in Beijing.
(and I thought it was a manger)
Yang compares it to a foreigner trying to relate Chinese culture.
There is this scene in the book The Joy Luck club where the non Chinese boyfriend of an American Chinese woman is having dinner with said women's mother. The mother asks the boyfriend if a dish the mother prepared is good while saying she thinks it isn't tasty enough. The proper response would have been "no, it's delicious" or "i love it, it's perfect" but instead the boyfriend thinks he is being helpful and says "ah, all is needs is a little soy sauce" and proceeds to douse the dish in said sauce to the horror of the rest of the table. Such are the land mines we non Chinese, supposedly, have when dating and eventually marrying into a Chinese family.
With that as background I take you to our Christmas dinner table. I had prepared my Mother's recipe for pot roast and bow ties and I was about to take my second bit of the pasta. My mother in law, Yihang, then informs me that the bow ties taste much better with a little extra sauce beyond what I had made. Her choice? Soy sauce? No (but our ayi did secretly added some soy sauce to the pasta sauce while it was cooking). No, not soy sauce but rather the sour cream and onion dip mix. I can't make this stuff up.
The onslaught continued. I was asked where the meat was bought since it was so expensive it must have been imported (200 kuai at Jenny Lou's). When the table conversation switched to Chinese there was a talk of dryness and lack of flavor without the soy sauce and dip mix. Yang had ordered up to special sour Chinese dishes to be made in anticipation of not finding satisfaction -- but she has a bit of an excuse -- more on that later.
Proof that I cooked
Actually, I found it quite good which is good because I will be eating it for some time to come. Last year when I made the same meal for Christmas -- incidentally the last time I cooked -- it was much more of a hit, I think partially out of surprise that I could make something beyond cheerios.
Christmas is a normal working day in Beijing but I took day (and day before) off work. Christmas Eve was cool in that my Dad called and pretended to be Santa to Lydia and Aidan. Lydia took in in stride but Aidan was mesmerized. When I layed out the gifts in the afternoon Aidan wanted to open them up right away and did his corner anger/pout thing when I told him no. But eventually he realized he had to wait for Santa.
When the morning came, we opened gifts one by one. Lydia's favorite was Barbie and Tom and Jerry videos. Aidan's was a drum set and Tom and Jerry videos.
Lydia with her new, jia de (假的) , Barbie
Now back to the dinner room table. Yang had a good reason for wanting that sour tasting food and since it seems everyone in Beijing knows the news, why not all who cross this space:
**Epilogue **
I started this story with some Steve Earle lyrics. On the same album is another song, that with the right interpretation explains more than anything how and why the Allio family of Beijing is. Here are the words:
A long time ago there lived a man
He had the world in the palm of his hand
Sultans and kings beat a path to his door
He had everything but he still wanted more
One day in spring came a lady so fair
He'd never looked on a beauty so rare
But he didn't trust her so he locked her away
And his gold lost its luster when love died that day Once you love, once you trust it
Once you give your soul is bare
One false move and you know you're busted
Once you love you care I knew an old man who lived all alone
In a sad little house at the end of the road
He sat on the front porch in an old rocking chair
And everyone swore he'd gone crazy down there
But no one comes near so how could they know
He lost someone dear to him once long ago
He remembers the laughter and he still tastes the tears
And he still calls her name out after all of these years You can keep it all inside
You can run but you can't hide
When you think it's safe outside
Look behind you, love will find you