China and me from 2000 till Spring 2019 -I-Can we live without live music?

Yuelu Mountain one evening in May 2019 (31st)

Can we live without live music ?

Due to my brilliant intellectual husband who has had to put up with the prole I am,  I have  benefited some amazing journeys in China   whenever he stayed at a prestigious Chinese university to give  either conferences or  follow the research of advanced students .

 My last rather 'long' stay was in Spring 19.

 I really thought I could spend the rest of my life in Changsha not far from the Confucius oldest Academy on the University grounds at the foot of the Yuelu mountain.
During the hard lockdown episode I was gazing every now and then at my pictures which are still on my phone with some videos.
 

There was the flute player who stopped at the small pavilion by the side of the main paved track.

There are three temples as you walk up the mountain, Tao, Confucius and Bouddha have their temple in the mountain. 

The flute player  was here for the sake of playing as no audience gathered around him that late May  evening.  People were walking alone with good walking shoes on  and backpacks, for the sake of walking and thinking, in this shady very green environment, at the foot of the Academy there is the clump of huge bamboos, then as one goes up,  the wonderful old trees having their names and age on  and all the waterfalls and springs keeping the air refreshed, nurturing the soil so rich with orchids and beautiful plants like  very green small ferns shining with dripping water.

I could walk this moutain half way to the top almost any time in my memory! I was told by the student who was my 'guide'  that he always takes the cable car to the top and stays there to read, study and gaze at the view. I did not do that as  my better half  has vertigo  and time was over for the cable car. So that is to be done in another life!( The student had the task not to lose me if I went to town but on the University grounds I was free to wander around as I liked !  We went shopping in town  together and I thought he would not be interested when I told him I was going to buy culinary things : he followed me none of the less because he also loved cooking little gadgets like peeling knives. I then thought he had the duty to prevent me from  getting lost... so we became good friends as usual with the English speaking students 'in charge' of us ! Now we have so many young friends who became university teachers, who got married  and some have babies!)

When this awful virus started not far from Changsha we wrote to them to have news. They all shared news with us and all were safe so far. They work on line quite a lot and are well organised.

The discovery of China came too late in my life : I took Chinese lessons thinking  I could learn the basic key roots of the signs to be able to read what was written around me. I tried hard but did not suceed to recap all I learnt when I was back in China.   Whenever I listen to some News on TV and what with this pandemic atmosphere which started in China I can feel all the resentment almost like racists points of view on China and I feel irritated because it is obvious that all these political journalists have hidden agendas and have never spent some time in a Chinese town on their own.  In 2006 we rented a flat in Shangaï,  registered at the keeper 's desk at the entrance of our tower( we had the flat on the 17th floor) and also at the police that is all we had to do as my better half had a three years contract at the nearby Tongi University! 

Back to the most ancient Confucius Academy  at the foot of the Yuelu mountain  where so many students came to learn in these peaceful surroundings.

Somehow in this too busy and noisy XXIst century this particular place has remained special, with splendid nature and lots of quiet visitors which is rather unusual because in areas of natural beauty Chinese crowds do not often keep silent and they enjoy loud music drinks and food  outdoors as well!

I could not go past  the flutist (Chinese wood flute ) without trying to catch sight of the musician. He had settled in a small pavilion by the side of the main track but I did not want to get nearer for fear of disturbing his secluded spot and quiet playing.

Today listening to the short recorded excerpt I discovered there were also beautiful birds singing around and some children shouts in the background. (It sounds terribly noisy and yet it was so quiet to my ears only focused on the flute... )

Guffaw-Wail-Cliff.

Going through the photos, I also rediscovered stories engraved in old marble slabs ! If I had a writer abilities  and skills it could well be the beginning of a long tale with passion, war, and tears. 

 Reading the tale  of the Crane and the Boa then the story of the Korean patriot, I am feeling ever so moved again.

Along the walk I also found interesting inscribed slabs about orchids growing there and of course I did salute all the ancient trees adorned with their decorations like old veterans of Narure wars,  won through  centuries.

That evening Daniel was having his last meeting with his students. So I lingered until night and sat opposite the main old building to watch the women' dances and listened to the music ... thinking I could have joined in with the gestures learnt in childhood in another life. The music was coming out of a box on the ground by the side of the entrance. Two dancers were giving the tempo and gestures according to the rhythm. Some were arriving a bit late, running and hastily joining in. These young and older women were used to meeting after day's work and were enjoying themselves, I could feel it!

I also taped the music and I keep listening to it with vivid images of that night coming  to me there in no time! 

I will never be able to live without muisc of any sort... because music is life, music is love, music is having wings to fly away... Changsha so far so near through these precious recorded tunes. 

Music is our life.... and whenever music is played in the street, in parks , underground, squares, anywhere live, it is a gift from heaven!

Perhaps the most visited spot, Aiwan Pavilion,  because of Mao's front inscription in red calligraphy  ( the famous poem about the beauty of the trees in Autumn ) Young Mao Zedong who was brought up in a big farm near by, used to come here with his student friends for quiet poetic evenings.
Another great quality of my evening walk is meeting also the mountain fruit-sellers, with their scale-

baskets and gorgeous( somehow unknown) fruit... she was so pretty... 

We were expected last october in both Changsha and Shangaï... that is another story.