There are phrases that slip into our everyday language and we embrace them like an old friend without understanding their meaning or origin. You might not have heard of the legend of Pangu, 盘古, but you’ve probably heard of yin and yang. And, like me, you’ve probably used them to describe two opposite things. Like chalk and cheese, right?
Well, sort of. Delve a little deeper into this Asian philosophy and you’ll find that real dealbreaker with these polar opposites is that they are entirely interconnected. The concept of yin yang is more about balance than difference. Yin yang are two parts of a dynamic system where one cannot operate without the other.
Take the Chinese story of creationism, Pangu, which was featured at the beginning of last week’s BBC Radio 3 broadcast The Essay which mulled over China’s relationship with the natural world. BBC Chinese Service broadcaster Howard Zhang recalled the moment that the ancient myth of Pangu was told to him by his grandfather, and childhood pilgrimages with his grandmother into the snowy, incense-scented world of the holy mountains. On the way, Zhang shares two sides of rural China: the religious retreat and escape from a “heartless and money-drunk china”, but also the giddy stampede of tourism into these sacred mountain spaces.
So how about making your pilgrimage through the pages of a book instead? Chinese author Bi Feiyu has been chosen as Author of the Day for next month’s London Book Fair. One of China’s most respected authors and screenwriters, his first novel The Moon Opera investigates the little-known world of Chinese opera. More recently, his novel Three Sisters won the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2010. Here’s what the Judges said:
‘A moving exploration of Chinese family and village life during the Cultural Revolution that moves seamlessly between the epic and the intimate, the heroic and the petty, illuminating not only individual lives but an entire society, within a gripping tale of familial conflict and love.’
–The Man Asian Literary Prize
For a more visual foray into the Chinese underworld, check out the 1996 film Shanghai Triad, which was written by Feiyu. The Chinese title (“Row, row, row the boat to Grandma Bridge”), refers to a well known traditional Chinese lullaby.
For facts and figures about travel in China try http://www.lonelyplanet.com/china or http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13017877
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