The Oscar's stories #12: Volare, Oh, Oh on the Great Chinese Wall

 

Still some distant snapshots taken from the memory of my Chinese travels many years ago

In Beijing we are hosted in the Diaoyutai Guesthouse which has become famous for the meeting promoted between Mao Tse Tung and Nixon, thanks to the talent of Dr. Kissinger. 

 

We sleep three people in one room, but the place is very nice with ponds and single units. The Chinese have started the construction of the mega hotels, says the guide, but it will be necessary to have a little patience. "Even if we are very fast" he concludes.

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China and the Soviet Union. 

 

These are two realities administered by the same Communist Party which is not the same because in the Soviet Union the transformation will take place in blood while here in China the party has now decided to leave a minimum of freedom to individuals to boost the economy. 

 

After the terrible years under Mao who had transformed China into a state where denunciation reigned, with millions of peasants torn from the countryside to pursue the mirage of the world's largest steel production, after the tens of millions of individuals who died from famine caused by the lack of agricultural production, after the cannibalism of infants and children (always officially denied), the revolution carried out by Deng XiaoPing with the 'Four Modernizations' is transforming this great country. 

 

The Chinese know how to do things well, with precision. They started producing beautiful tennis rackets that compete with the famous (then!) Maxima Tournament. 

 

Unlike the Russians who reveal in every work activity that they are cobblers. 

 

In Moscow, the outdoor exhibition of Soviet conquests features tanks with tattered welds and Gagarin's suit which is that of a diver. 

 

In the famous Rossyia hotel at the foot of the large windows of the lobby the heating units are placed as they like without following a minimum order in the alignment.

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"Tomorrow morning wake up at 4:30" says the guide, agent of the foreign ministry, a girl perhaps in her thirties, who could be pretty if she came out of the black uniform that bags her. 

 

Any temptation away because the omnipresent party has forced young women to be asexual, shunning the temptations of bourgeois fashion. 

 

But since women are always women, I noticed that many in Canton allow themselves to challenge the rules of the party by wearing some colorful garments. For example a red shirt under the 'Lenin style' jacket, so called in the official jargon. In Shanghai and Beijing, on the other hand, it is the triumph of gloomy dark uniforms. 

 

Wake up at 4:30? Faced with the astonishment of the foreign guests already considerably tired from the previous stages, the guide explains to us: "You Italians have created the melodrama, you are famous for the opera that here in China gathers millions of fans. There are many young people who study for become opera singers. Since we still live in cohabitation, despite the great commitment in the construction of social housing made by the leaders of our Great Communist Party, the young people who have to make vocalizations are forced to go out so as not to disturb the other occupants of the house . " 

 

 

The next day, few members of the Italian delegation found the strength to get up for the 4:30 am appointment. 

 

Our guide boards us in black ministry sedans. Direction the Forbidden City in front of whose walls young men and women play warbling and intone arias from the Italian opera repertoire. 

 

Someone shows off a splendid voice and (will it be a coincidence?) Intones' O 'sole mio'. 

 

Everything organized. 

 

It seems that the vocal emission directed to an ancient wall allows to control the intonation. At least that's what the guide who speaks excellent English tells us.


 

Visit to the Great Chinese Wall in the restored section near the capital. 

 

We are among the first Western tourists to have this privilege. 

 

The Italian journalists following the delegation are excellent pens but suffer from an incurable sedentary lifestyle. 

 

After covering almost a kilometer of the Chinese Wall, they ask loudly to be able to rest in one of the kiosks that interrupt the winding of the wall which - the guide says - stretched for over 8850 km. 

 

In the next kiosk we meet five red guards with three girls. 

 

Upon our arrival they smile, but they are intimidated by our presence. One of them was playing the guitar. 

 

 

 

I approach him and beckon him to lend it to me for a few minutes. He looks at me dazed and hands it to me, more than a guitar one would say, as for the lack of voice, a cutting board. But that's okay. 

 

'Volare', I attack and the boys start dancing, but only between males. 

 

The females remain seated and smile, denying the insistence of a couple of Italians still full of energy. 

 

The scene is shot in super eight but who knows what happened to the film after so many international removals.
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A visit to a commune is a must, where we can admire the work of the looms for the production of silk fabrics. 

 

Old fabric machines, held together by the ability and good will of the mechanics, but the fabrics are beautiful. 

 

We have to drag away an entrepreneur from Como who is talking to the head of the department and seems to have known each other for a century. Power of the same job. 

 

After the visit to the looms, an obligatory stop is in the dirt square of the commune where the streets radiate out from the shacks with a clear distinction by sex of the occupants. In the center of the square stands a high flagpole on top of which large horn loudspeakers have been installed. 

 

 

Our guide continues to illustrate the characteristics of the commune by pretending not to have listened to the sentence of an unwary colleague of our group who said aloud: "Here are also those who must be 'reconditioned' to the logic of the party ..." 

 

"What are these speakers for?" asks one of our reporters. 

 

"They are used for the orders of the executive officer and for the lessons.", Says the guide who adds: "Every day here the members of the commune from 18 to 30 years old must gather here to follow the English lessons broadcast by these speakers ... The exams are very strict. I know something about it!"she concludes smiling. 

 

It was 1977. 

 

It is no wonder that within a few decades China has managed to reach a level of competitiveness that today puts the American superpower in difficulty. 

 

The school is essential for the development of a country.

 

And it is said by an elderly liberal, who has always been convinced anti-Communist for having experienced firsthand the reality of those so-called 'paradises'. ________________________________________ 

 

Oscar