My Drinking Partners
Zhao Xilin
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I was lucky to have had an opportunity to host two singers, one tenor and one baritone, from the BJBDH Chorus during their staying in this area. I feel even luckier that those two best singers are the hard liquor drinkers also. Many people drink beer or wine but no many oversea Chinese have this bad habit of hard liquor drinking. One musician told me that an alcohol, like a steroid for the athlete, is a vocal performance enhancer (for man's voice only). Deference between these two is, that alcohol drinking is completely legal. I consider myself is a sort of singer and I made a good excuse for having this bad habit.
In the first day, it was 11 o'clock when these two quests arrived in my home. I could not wait for any longer to invite them to have a drink with me even my cold haven't gone away yet. Start from there, we almost drink everyday when having a chance. One byproduct of drinking is that you have to talk.
Both of my quests are belong to the grade 1969, which was the most disadvantage group among our ZiCheng. They were graduated from elementary school when Cultural Revolution started in 1966. They accepted less than one year middle school education before were massively sent to the semi-military farm at the age of 16. The tenor spends 5 years and the baritone spends almost ten years in the farm.
From the conversation I found that the tenor apparently doing better than the baritone socially and economically. The time does matter. The baritone could not make up the loss of ten years of the time. He tried very hard but heavy family burden hindered his way.
He said, "Literally, I am just an elementary school graduate".
People's diploma dose not always matches with people's content. The person sit in front of me still kept the sincerity of ZiCheng and a drive of moving forward. Our conversation reached a variety of topics and I found that this person is quite knowledgeable.
My wife asked, "Do you hate?(Been sent to the semi-military farm)?"
"No," he answered without any hesitation.
"But it is a mixed feeling", he added afterwards.
Finally, he told me that one of the reasons he is still singing in this Chorus is, that he want to prove the value of his existence.
I met many semi-military-farm YuLan ZiCheng before I came to this country and herd a lot of horrible stories from them. Most of them miss the opportunities for the high education and been marginized by the society.
Look at the oversea ZiCheng here. Most of us have been settled down in this rich land with a comfortable life. No matter what is the reason to lead us to the current position, may be some of us were born in the privilege families, some of us are extremely smart or some of us are just lucky, we are in the better situation. I am so gland that at least we have done something for our fellow ZiCheng from China.
Monday morning, when I dropped my guests to the bus station, the baritone, a strong man with all of his hash life experiences still imprinted in his face, gave me a big hug. I found that tears filled in his eyes. I turned my face over and try to control myself.
I do not have this kind of feeling for a long time. Though they promise to visit U.S. again; though I promise to visit them in Beijing; I know in the reality that the chance for the reunion is very slim. My home is not in Beijing and I have to work until 67 year old before I can get the retirement check form Uncle Sam. It was always having no spare time whenever I went back to China.
When I waved my hand while the bus was leaving, I whispered in my heart: my dear fellow ZiCheng friends, walking well and keep singing
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