Tonight my cousin invited me to watch The Voice of China (中国新歌声) with him so I could improve my Chinese. The Voice of China is the Chinese version of The Voice, or La Plus Belle Voix, or all the other shows with the four professionals who press a button to turn their seats around to approve of the voice they’re listening to…
不求任何人满意， 只要对得起自己
I won’t ask to please anybody, I only need to be able to do right by myself
We watched this girl sing a song called “追梦赤子心.” Here are the lyrics with a passable English translation.
I asked my cousin what Chi (赤) meant, since this is also the same Chi as the one in Chikan (赤坎), the township where my mom’s village is. My cousin said he had no idea about the Chi character by itself, since he’s only ever heard this word used with the expression “赤子之心,” and so I asked him what that phrase meant, but he couldn’t explain it, so we looked it up.
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I’m thinking about serendipitous, spiritual coincidences. Because it was only this morning, that I noticed something about the cover of one of the books that I purchased before I left Kaiping.
This book, titled 平凡赤子心, is one of Professor Selia Tan’s books. The title means something along the lines of “Ordinary Chi Zi Xin,” or “Ordinary Pure Heart.” The title of the book comes from the title of one of the chapters in the book. I think that it is also a play on the word “Chi (赤),” because I think this book is about several Tan family members whose ancestral home was in the Lanhou Village (岚厚村) in the Chikan Township.
I mean, I think. I’m not sure because I can’t actually read this book yet, and I am only guessing from the few words that I can recognise.
Anyways, the thing I noticed this morning was not the word Chi (赤). It was the photo of the building on the front cover!
I’ve seen this building before!
Only a week ago!
My great uncle took me to look at it!
Yep. My mom’s village is also the Lanhou Village (岚厚村). And my mom’s last name is also Tan.
I showed the book cover to my uncle, and he laughed.
“I used to sleep in this building every night for five years.”
“What?! Why were you living in this mansion?”
“Mansion! This used to be a granary! We stored our grains here! After we dried them, we’d store them on the left side of the mansion. That was Lanhou One. Lanhou Two is the right side. Your great-uncle and I were the ones who slept on the left side. But it was mostly me. I know this building very well.”
I wish I could read Chinese! Then I could have been of some help at Cangdong, then I could have been of some help for Professor Tan.
But I think that Professor Tan and I have some yuan (缘). We’re from the same township, possibly the same ancestors. She likes architecture, and I think I like architecture, too. Only a couple of weeks ago, she even said that when she was younger she had bad acne like me!
I want to study Chinese diaspora art and architecture, too.
I need to start by reading all the PDFs that Laura gave me.
A summer in Guangdong 