Yesterday I went on the spring walk at Chaoyang park with Ms. Liang. It ended up being much shorter than expected, though the preceding ceremonies were not short. Everyone got free white hats and Ms. Liang was quick to point out that I was the only foreigner there. Some people spoke, including a coach to tell us what speed to walk for the half mile, and then the separate work units and other groups' numbers were called out and we marched along through Chaoyang. We started out walking(to majestic melodramatic music) with the group from her apartment complex. Ms. Liang was quickly bored with the pace and we just walked past everyone and explored the park on our own. I don't think she would have brought me had she known it was going to be so much propaganda. As we walked through the park she enjoyed pointing out every foreigner we saw. We stopped at the ping pong area where she made a man give up his paddle for a moment to let me play some ping pong with his partner. She took pictures. And she pointed out two foreigners playing ping pong. Some later foreigner point-outs included: "Oh, there is a little girl, a little foreign girl." and about two young boys: "Are they American?" "No, I think they're German." and to a nanny of a crying boy in a stroller "What is this boy's nationality?" (French) "He is not well behaved, what would American parents do if their child did this?"
And I would have taken a few more pictures but I'm afraid my camera ran out of battery. And the last picture has a famous Chinese singer in it (the woman in the middle of the line of people in the long coat). The photos have weird contrast because I took them in text mode accidentally.
Update: Here are the pictures Ms. Liang took of me. Did not take time to crop out the finger.
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| ChaoYang/Ping Pong |
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