On our honeymoon in Beijing, China, my wife and I stumbled through our daily routine of trying to understand her broken English and my almost non-existent Mandarin. We were going to the Forbidden City that day, which is a place my wife had never been; but, she had always wanted to see how the Emperors lived and where they lived. She looked at the entire city as something akin to an interesting aside, since she was raised communist. Philosophically, the Empires of ancient world were the nails on the blackboard to her; yet, there was new interest because of her foreign husband and his interests.
We awoke at the hotel around 0400 to get a ride into town and to Tienanmen square for the day to officially begin. It was impressive: Tienanmen Blvd is six lanes heading east and west, I believe. A very busy street and then without a word, the street and all traffic became silent. At that hour all you care about is when the ceremonies will end and sight-seeing begin. It was dark and about 0530 when the bustle began. Traffic was honking away one minute and the next one wondered who had been interned. There was lots of movement and talking, followed then by dead silence-- just that quickly. Out of the corner in the southwest, from what we both learned was the Tienanmen Square entrance to the Forbidden City, came an olive-drab brigade, slow-stepping to a mournful drum, carrying the brightest red package one could almost see in the murky morning. Click on, or paste this address into your browser to see in better light that which was seen as we watched facing the Square, not the Forbidden City. It is the first raising in 2009--very cold and not my footage but the Chinese government's footage. A nice remembrance about as long in time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pZfKCtJVQY&NR=1
The soldiers became more defined as they and the sun come closer. Finally, at the bottom of a hundred foot flagpole they began to unfurl their county’s ensign and the day. It had taken about fifteen minutes since first seeing the parade begin until the flag was waving in the cool morning breeze. You could see the pride in the eyes of the Chinese visitors to the square; less than warm feelings were seen on the faces of merchants who had gotten caught by the parade. And as quickly as it had started the milieu of pedestrians, Beijing and road noise squelched the return of soldiers to their barracks. We were hungry so the search for a good meal took precedence.
This carried us northward toward one of the better known eating establishments found in Beijing; the Wahaha (娃哈哈) Restaurant touts a Cantonese cuisine, they speak no English, is a Five•Star, which translates into "Giggling Baby;" appropriate for Once fed, we began our journey to the Forbidden City via so many motorized rickshaws and a taxi. Our first steed took us about a mile away from the restaurant on our return to the City, opposite Tienanmen Square; it was a peddle rickshaw, driven by one very skinny, older lady who found it comical to know that if I was to sit in the back my wife had to sit up front. Because I am larger than average, and this was our transport, I resigned to sitting by myself with my wife acting as ballast. During the drive, more like Herculean effort on the driver’s part, I heard my wife laughing with the driver on our slow trip to the City that we been in front of only an hour before. I heard “Ha, ha ha…” Not the smooth giggle of effortless humor, but it sounded deliberate and thought-out. The driver apparently misunderstood me and my wife was getting the lay of the land from her for the very next vehicle we employed. In the street my wife began to yell at a taxi driver across the street, repeating her deliberate laughter and moving to a better place to get a ride to the Forbidden City. This began a pattern of stop, talk, laugh and next ride. I began thinking the Chinese were very happy people. Everywhere, someone was making my wife laugh.
Then, there it was. And, just as the movie The Last Emperor had depicted, this huge courtyard; giving the entrance an austere and a larger than life appearance for the importance it communicated. While walking up to the large red wooden gates--these were closed to the emperor after the death of his mother in the movie--I had to ask my wife what she had been laughing about. I mean, it would be nice to be let in on the joke, also. At first she did not understand; so, I mentioned the restrained but deliberate laugh she had been expressing all morning. First she said through an electronic interpreter that we had arrived at the rear entrance of the City. This threw me a bit because I could swear, the movie showed this to be the entrance and the movies do not lie! …do they? But she was still puzzled by my insistence of what had been so funny. Obviously, the rear of the City could have been the joke, not to mention we had been at the front earlier. I guess the Chinese were having fun with us.
After pressing the issue while we walked the numerous courtyards within the palace Fanying (my wife) stopped, turned to me and began laughing without control (娃哈哈). I was starting to see a pattern: mess with the American today. A few more minutes were permitted for her hysteria and then I again pressed for an answer of this outburst; but, I thought I might be the butt-end of that joke. Finally, composed; she sat with the translator and told me of her dilemma concerning directions, finding help and a way a back to our original destination. She informed me that ha ha, ha ha was the Mandarin for OK, alright, sure, you don’t say, no kidding, etc., etc., etc., or deng deng deng (等等等等)! When she was attempting to find out where the palace was after breakfast, the information she received was simply being acknowledged—Ha ha.
哈哈,哈哈 is Ha, ha
Though tears of laughter she demonstrated how she normally laughed. I felt dumb, but relieved that I finally was in on the humor that only existed when she realized something had been missing in translation between our languages and cultures. So, ha, ha, ha… next time I will ask earlier and remove the mystery; but then, I would not have seen a side of my wife that indicated her sincerity and unabashed ability to be humored. We both laughed about that all day. Ha, ha ha!
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