Chapter 2 A Word to Chinese Readers (Preface to the Chinese Translation)

For China, I only know Shanghai and Beijing, but to really know these two cities, I need two lifetimes. That was in March 2006.Beijing is a big flat city, very windy and dusty, with so many construction sites and the desert is so close.I was very cold, because I only wore a raincoat, I thought Beijing was very hot in March!Baozi shops are almost everywhere: there is a window open on Yingjie, and a pot of steamed buns is steaming inside.I bought several round, hot little buns, and when I bit into my mouth, I had no idea what was inside: meat, vegetables, corn, or chocolate.It's amazing! When I arrived in China, I had no idea what was waiting for me.Everything is more modern, bigger and more violent than I imagined, everything hits me, impresses me,

Shocked me.I didn't expect China to be like this, it's different from what we read in French newspapers.In Europe, many people say that the future belongs to China.This is obvious and nonsense.People do not know how many times this sentence is repeated, but they do not know what it means.10 years before I came to China, when I wrote, I described a possible future, a nightmare future, and I hope that neither China nor Europe will have such a future. I don't know what to tell my 5 year old son and 3 year old daughter about China.I feel as ignorant as a child when it comes to China.China is not a country that children can understand, so I will tell them as much as I can.When I told them that the toilet has no door and you can see the children's beautiful round buttocks through the open pants, they didn't believe it.They all laughed when I told these things.But when I told them that in Shanghai, the lights at night made people forget the existence of the sky, the kites looked like whales, dragons, and butterflies, and there were 20 kinds of dishes on the table, some were sweet, some were bitter, some were salty, some were Sour, spicy, but they all believed it.When I tell them about these things, they are intoxicated.For my children, going to a Chinese restaurant is a holiday: even though there is a Chinese restaurant downstairs in my home in Paris, going there is like a long journey.They always order the same dishes, the menu of the little Parisians: scrambled eggs with onions and cauliflower, French fries and soy milk, they dare not take too much risk, but eating with chopsticks is already a huge pleasure for them Take a risk.

I learned a little Chinese 15 years ago because my first husband was going to work in Wuhan.I only took 34 Chinese lessons.Later, I got divorced, and I didn’t go to Wuhan, but I still remember one sentence, and only one sentence, which means: "This is not a post office, but a tobacco shop." This sentence is not very useful, and I don’t smoke now. , I don't send postcards very much, but I have learned at least one word: "here".Taking taxis in Beijing and Shanghai, I yelled like a madman when I saw where I wanted to stop: "Here! Here!" When riding a bicycle in Beijing or taking a taxi in Shanghai, I keep repeating the word in my head - "here", I think about where I am, this is so far away, so powerful, so beautiful, so disturbing, so What kind of country is this strange and strange country?I wonder if the Chinese know how vibrant their country is?Can people get used to it? Also, there are so many "Chinese", all so different, one Chinese, another Chinese, another Chinese...

I have given lectures in French at many universities with a high level of French.I asked in all the lecture theaters: "Here, who here has brothers and sisters?" No one answered.Will the Chinese words for "brother" and "sister" disappear?My older brother died before I was born, and my parents were cut in two. There are other things and people in China that make me sad or confused, but I have described those things in the book, readers to find out for themselves! Mary Darieusek in March 2006