Packed With Enough Explosives

A text and then the text message repeats itself.  Wechat has a convenient feature that allows you to auto translate Chinese text.  But not so on my iPhone’s text messaging feature. You need to really want to know what the text says beyond the general tone, (real estate!  phone bill!  need a loan?) I need to cut and paste the message into a different translation app: Pleco, which I use for flash cards on the stair master.  “Attention people of the neighborhood:”

The message is from the local authorities.  They want me to have a safe and civilized Lunar New Year Holiday and they want me to remember that our neighborhood is within the bounds of the area defined as prohibiting fireworks.  The rules seemed to have changed a few times over the years here in the capital:  Banned outright, allowed, banned again, so it’s probably best they issue a clear message.  Then if I’m caught lighting off anything the PSB can presumably open my phone and say, “what do you mean you didn’t know: you opened the text, right here.”

On the morning of Chu San, in days gone by, we’d gotten up at 4:30AM with my wife’s family and ridden from the county seat of Wudi out to the ancestral home, some forty minutes away in Chengkou.  The purpose was to light fireworks off at the site of the ancestral burial ground.  Every male in the car, including the driver had been drinking till late, the night before, every man was a smoker and we were now speeding along a dark road in a car packed with enough explosives to turn us all into confetti.  I, for one, considered the disregard for “Public” and indeed, my security. 

And there is nothing like the sound on the morning of Chu Yi when the dull thud of explosives pound-off near and far in the Shandong countryside.  Beijing is always a bit boring on Lunar New Year.  Half the city has returned to somewhere else, things are quiet, things are closed.  And people still ignore the PSB’s text message of course.  And though some might think it intrusive, or even Orwellian, I’d say it’s all for the best that a city of twenty-million, tries to enforce a ban on explosives in the city.  I don’t have any issue, adhering to my textual instructive.

Wednesday, 02/14/18