10th April, 2001
Huang Jinao, And The Home Of A Chinese Friend Named Yin Where Cleared Mountains Grow Chestnuts
Huang Jinao, the home town of a friend named Yin, is not likely to be included in any places which a Tourist Group might visit, but on my visit there I was made to feel very welcome by the people of this inland town in Hunan Province, and my life has been made richer by my experiences of traditional Chinese hospitality.
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Yin, who teaches Mandarin and is a great thinker, comes from a family of farmers. It was Yin who first showed me the use of a Chinese computer, not with the normal qwerty keyboard, but with Chinese characters, where the user is presented with options to select.
That demonstration was given at his room in the school where he taught, which we visited before coming here to the family home.
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The wooden walls of the living room decorated with posters and hand written Chinese characters on red paper associated with the traditional customs of the Chinese New Year, and there was inevitably a portrait of Chairman Mao.
Between the ceiling beams were swallow's nests, and their return to the nests in the Spring was considered to be a very good omen for the year.
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One of the most precious commodities in any country, is a good supply of clean fresh water. The family, with the help of their friends and neighbours had dug a well in their yard and here Tang and Zhang are refreshing themselves after our walk to the small mountain shown on the next page.
In the foreground is a home-made besom, but in another part of the farm Yin's mother and brother were using home made wooden rakes to turn the rice grains laid out in the sun to dry.
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All the concreted yards had rice drying out in the hot sun, and there were also piles of chaff, ricks of rice straw and loose blades, nothing was wasted from the harvest, and at the point where I stood to take this photograph, a large very fat pig loudly grunted in its sty behind me, as if relishing the thought of future meals from the harvest.
Fats pigs are more valuable than the lean meat sought by Westerners, as the fat is rendered down for cooking, and perhaps that is why Chinese food always tastes delicious !
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