Just recently, I started to learn English by teaching. Yes, I know you'd laugh at my courage to actually teach someone with such limited knowledge in the subject. Believe it or not, I do have a student -- remotely. He is my youngest cousin who is still in college, and, to my surprise, the classes have been going unexpectedly smoothly and effectively. Before the end of last night's class, I routinely asked him to name a topic for his next essay. And he picked "The 1911 Revolution".
This morning, I got up early and went to the post office at 8:30 to mail the books I bought for my cousin. I was glad seeing there weren't many cars in front of the post office, -- before I and the girl arrived at the same time saw the doors were closed and then both realized today is a holiday!
About half year ago, there was a widely criticized 100th anniversary celebration going on. Many of my family members were invited and some of them joined it in Beijing. Although having quite a few graduates from the same school is one of the things our family are truely proud of, I didn't really feel anything about it at that time, and I declined all the calls to return for and gifts from the event, except that I did go to the post celebration concert held in my area and enjoyed the singer Li Jian's singing.
Leaving the post office, I started to wonder: Columbus Day is the day I set foot on the American land, and this year it falls on the same day as Xinhai Revolution, which coincidently broke out the same year my infamous alma mater was established; so my life must be mysteriously tied with this date in some way.
Gradually I recalled a series of seemingly random events. My grandparents were all born after the 1911 Revolution. My parental grandpa gave up working for communism "above ground" after being rescued from the Nationalist prison, but contributed half of his money to the communism movement without even my grandma knowing it -- not until 40 years after his death and a few years before her. Before the communist party took over the country, both families had money to buy enough farming land to qualify as big landlords, the worst class the party identified as. But thanks to my ancestors, they did not do so. Partly due to my grandpa's comrades' help as I now guessed hindersightedly, my father and his siblings were not only able to survive after losing their father at very young age, but also had decently paved roads to prosperity. Children of my generation are the biggest beneficiaries. Most of my siblings and cousins went to prestigious colleges, and the few who didn't later obtained talents and skills of their own, and they are the richest among us. I later brought my immediate family ("little family", 小家 )to America.
By going to the now hundred year old school, I had the chance to marry up, which nowadays has become so popular a trend. And with some other people on my in-laws' side marrying up the similar way, I am 'proudly' related -- not very distantly -- to two of the big bananas in the early nationalism era: Dr. Sun (Yet-Sen) and Genral Li (Yuanhong). I knew my hu*****and's uncle's wife has an antie who was married to the Li family when I first met this uncle's mother in-law and she told us many interesting stories of their good old days. I am related to The Sun family at about the same distance, only that I didn't know it until recently, when I read Lan Ni's story and realized that she, Sun Ke's "little three", was the antie of one of our uncles. Yes, and hence the new American embassador to China is related to us too.
Please don't look down upon all the "little threes". I have a not-very-distant antie, who is a few years younger than me, that has been a "little three" for years. She has a beautiful little girl and I guess she is going to stay with this guy for her whole life. With her 'hu*****and's' help, all the siblings of this antie's and their spouses were moved to big cities, got good jobs, and are living very decent lives. While I, a "big first", a highly well educated person, am not capable of doing much for my family.
Anyways, the Double Ten Day -- or Xinhai, or 1911 -- revolution had predefined my life. And Columbus Day will affect the latter half of it, I believe. I will be keeping an eye on "how" from now on.
These are the "really funny stories related to 辛亥革命" that I told my cousin that I was to share with him when he finishes his writing. It is more than tough to write with 1500 VOA vocabulary, and I think I should push both my cousin and myself much harder to break this barrier. For now, I'd better finish and submit this piece of 'art' before midnight.
选择“Disable on www.wenxuecity.com”
选择“don't run on pages on this domain”
