Land of Misunderstanding

I have an American friend here in China who has been here for six years and she says that nothing in China is what you expect it to be. My three months here have taught me a similar lesson: that many things in China are misunderstood by foreigners.

This month my husband and I have been getting into the performance business. Pancho is a performer and is studying acrobatics here at a school in Beijing. In Mexico he performed almost every night mainly doing fire shows and stilt acts. We stumbled onto a performance gig in China when a lady approached our friend because she saw his juggling pins sticking out of his backpack. Well the lady is now well known to us and is the president of an event planning company here in Beijing. She had us perform in Shanghai last weekend at an event for a famous watch company. But please allow me to digress. In preparation for the show we did in Shanghai I decided that I would learn to walk on stilts. I had wanted to learn for over a year but it just seemed that there was never time. So Pancho and I set out to make a set of stilts for me to use and learn with. We got the metal, the Velcro, the bolts and all that we needed was the wood to make the foot piece and brace. We thought it would be an easy errand, until we realized that there isn't any wood in Beijing! For days I went around with a little note my friend wrote for me asking if anyone knew of a carpenter nearby. Always the same answer, although some people thought really hard before replying no. I suppose they were also surprised at the realization that they had never seen a carpenter here in Beijing, much less wood.

One Saturday Pancho, Denya (my daughter) and I set out to find the wood we needed. It was only three weeks to the show and time was running out. We stopped at a construction site, of which there are plenty in Beijing, and saw a huge beautiful, amazing pile of wood. Pancho showed the workmen the drawings of the pieces we needed and after a lengthy discussion that no one understood we left empty-handed. Feeling disheartened we kept going on our bikes until I noticed a cart at the side of the road stacked with wood. Salvation! We called the owner away from his checkers game and showed him the note asking about a carpenter. He excitedly indicated himself. We showed him the drawings of what we needed and he nodded eagerly. So we gestured that he lead the way to his workshop where the land of wood awaited. He went ahead.

Since he was driving a cart of wood the going was slow and after a while Denya became fussy in her bike seat. But we couldn't stop now. At each intersection the carpenter would indicate to follow him straight ahead and I would nod and we would follow. We rode for about forty-five minutes and I told Pancho that the carpenter didn’t seem so sure of where to go. But we agreed that first he was probably going to another shop to buy the wood before heading to his workshop to cut it. By this time we were very far from home and Denya was nodding off in her seat. At each stop Pancho and I would prop her head up so she wouldn't feel uncomfortable. Then the carpenter pulled a loop on us; that's right, he circled back on himself! Pancho told me to stop and get off the bike. We approached the carpenter and asked what was going on. Why did he go in a full circle? The carpenter replied (in Chinese) and we countered in English by thanking him for taking us on a wild goose chase.

As we rode off I looked back and saw that the carpenter was sincerely confused. Strange, I thought.

About a half an hour later it hit me. He thought we were taking him to the workshop and wood. The note asked if he was a carpenter, he said yes. At every intersection he would look back and signal which way to go, only he wasn't signaling, he was asking, and I was nodding and replying yes each time he asked! Pancho and I couldn't believe what had just happened. It seemed so far fetched. Now we found ourselves still without any wood and shocked at the incident.

After the long bike ride that day I bought a cellular phone so that if I ever have any doubt I can call a bilingual friend to get the real story. So far I've used it many times and in many strange situations.

We eventually found the wood later that day. We went to Shanghai and we had a wonderful fire show prepared with a beautiful stilt dancer (that's me in the middle of the photo). Unfortunately, the show was an outdoor event and when it started raining the stage was too slippery for the stilts! Disappointing, but I know I'll have other opportunities to walk on my stilts and this adventure was a lesson in more than just stilt walking.