OCTOBER 2021
www.thenanjinger.com
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Everybody Hurts
O
ur series, The Muslim Connection, comes to an end this month. Say, “Ta ta for now”, to Kamla Tung, as she profiles the most well-known Chinese Muslim of all, famed explorer Zheng He. Then over in Our Space, this month we begin a three-part series looking at craft beer up north. And we thank brewing correspondent, Matt Ford, for spending the recent Nantional Day holiday in no less than 21 Beijing bars (actually it was more than that as he confided that he retured to quite a few). Hats off to that liver!
Empaths out there shall herein delight in learning the meaning of terms such as austice, lilo and nodus tollens, together with their origins (p.10-12). Elsewhere, it turns out anger, sorrow, grief and joy are emerging all the more these days from behind that traditional Chinese poker face (p15-17). Finally, in The Gavel, our legal team ponder the role played by feelings in the courtroom (p.18). Welcome to “Emotion” from The Nanjinger. Ed.
And so to our theme for this month.
S
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The room is veiled in stale gloom till one Then one by one cold tears trickle then roll Up reddening cheeks, threading their way, Steadily increasing, obscuring our drowning sight.
Until the room around us once more stills. Bewildered, silent, we’re left standing, Till that poisoned arrow unsticks And you let fly that sentence.
The stilled emptiness ripples. Ripples become waves Which themselves turn into a tumultuous sea Conjured of pain and anger suffused With that unhallowed rush of excitement
Then and only then may this space settle And it is again as it has for a long time been You’ll steal a kiss from my cheek and leave Backing away, closing the door behind you.
As our regrets are now loosed in the heat Of this Exigency. Bitter words thrill Across the narrowing gulf between us Into our mouths, like spittle choking us.
Till time turns on it’s dime
Words we do not recognise, do not understand But in this moment seem to taste Somehow right and righteous, Birthed in anger, returning to their source,
Once more you’ll place your key in the lock And then, again, we’ll shuffle the deck, Deal the cards, play the charade One final time?
By M ait iu Bralligan ‘2 1 9
ByTriona Ryan
10
Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear. Paul Eckman defined six universal emotions in ______________________________________________________ the 1970’s, including Surprise on the list, and ______________________________________________________ was named as one of the 100 most influential ______________________________________________________ people of the 21st century for this work on ______________________________________________________ emotions as universal categories, as well as the ______________________________________________________ co-discovery of micro expressions. ______________________________________________________ This came as no news to empaths, that particular breed of human endowed with the ability to step into the shoes of others and understand their feelings and perspectives.
Again, the empath can read these and fifty more shades of feeling, no matter how convoluted and obtuse the cocktail of these basic human responses may be.
Unless these shoes are Crocs. Not even the empath would step into a pair of Crocs.
Armed with an ability to read others like click bait, one empath, John Koenig, set about naming the obscure emotions that otherwise leave us speechless.
If anxiety is worry on steroids, empathy is the black hole of emotions. Black holes are regions of spacetime where gravity is so strong, nothing; not particles, not radiation, not light itself, can escape. Empaths perceive the emotions of others, not to mention their own, with the same galactic force, and if not careful, also absorb them. My children call it witchery. Perhaps that’s why they are so guileless and beautiful; they know better than to try to hide the feelings that flower on their faces. There’s no point. I always know whodunnit, or who needs hugs, or who’s about to go into orbit. For empaths, this recognition of the facial expressions that occur in 1/25th of a second, is second nature. Reading these micro expressions, tone of voice, word choice, and silences with disturbing ease is the empaths gift and affliction. We can see your six basic emotions and raise you a hundred. Indeed, Eckman himself expanded his list of universal emotions in the late 1900’s to include: Amusement, Contempt, Contentment, Embarrassment, Excitement, Guilt, Pride in achievement, Relief, Satisfaction, Sensory pleasure and Shame.
One of his words, “Sonder,” or “the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own”, has found its way into the popular lexicon. Koenig’s book “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows” (Simon &Schuster, 2021) is stuffed with words rescued or repurposed or fabricated with prefixes and suffixes and a little elixir of etymological magic. For the empath, naming the unnamable may be just the thing to level-up. From Mandarin, the word Yuyi; the longing to be young again will come in handy as winter rolls round and I go into my cave, yearning for the youthful and carefree days of summer. For those of you who are literally humming with desire for the heat of summer to pass, Austice; a wistful omen of the first sign of autumn, a subtle coolness in the shadows, a rustling of dead leaves abandoned on the sidewalk, or a long skein of geese sweeping over your head like the second hand of a clock. And Lilo; a friendship that can lie dormant for years only to pick right back up instantly, as if no time had passed since you last saw each other. Useful, right? I can think of a couple of lilo’s I am ready to pick up right now.
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Scientists attribute heightened awareness and oftentimes, absorption of the emotions, to mirror neurons. Discovered in 1996 by Italian scientists Giacomo Rizzolatti and Vittorio Gallese and their team with brain imaging technology, monkeys, and a banana. Their studies proved that “certain cells in the monkey’s brain activated when a monkey performed an action and when the monkey watched another monkey perform that same action”, reported Psychology Today in 2019. Intersubjectivity also relies on these magical psychic neurons to create shared understanding, as The Nanjinger wrote in April of this year. Not only do empaths possess hyperresponsive mirror neurons, there is also a growing body of evidence to suggest that the insula, a small nugget buried deep within the cerebral cortex responsible for emotional cognition, is structurally different in empaths; primed to process emotions at light speed, revealed Frontiersin back in 2013. As a brain architecture nerd, the neuroscientific explanations for these heightened emotional receptors, though fascinating, is less interesting that the ways in which empathy is changing the world.
And my favourite, nodus tollens; the realisation that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense to you anymore, that although you thought you were following the arc of the story, you keep finding yourself immersed in passages you don’t understand, that don’t even seem to belong in the same genre. Tell me you haven’t experienced nodus tollens these past couple of years, seriously. I want to know who you are. Koenig has spent the last 12 years cataloging these neologisms on his blog, “Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows”, and his book will be released in November of this year. He writes of “the power of words to make us feel less alone,” which, in the midst of nodus tollens, is a small but very welcome comfort. There is room enough in one heart to feel such things, but without a name, these emotions remain obscure, unknowable to conscious self, floating like ghost feelings at the edges of the event horizon. Naming the thing, the emotion, the concept, has a power beyond words. It is only through language that we can conceptualise the feeling.
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We are stardust. _____________________________________ We are all that has gone before us. We are Shakespeare and Rumi and Plato and Joyce. We are ourselves reimagined an infinity of times. What is déjà vu but the serendipitous alignment of soul fragments, stardust reimagined, redreamed into life, into mind? Words are magic. They are maps to the soul. The more precise the word, the more precise the understanding. The more precise the understanding, the greater the insight. The greater the insight, the deeper the empathy. Being an emotional sponge is tricky until you get the hang of it. But ultimately, seeing and understanding the feelings of the person in front of you is the first step towards authentic connection, compassion and comprehension. And although life may ultimately be one long sonderlust; to be seen, to be heard, to be accepted can make the whole venture less terrifying.
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14
By Frank Hossack
W
hatever you do as a Chinese, keep a poker face (喜怒不形于色). Because it’s not about experiencing emotions. It’s about not expressing them. But in a society which glorifies non-verbal implications, there should be no need to express any emotion anyway. In the Middle Kingdom, the most important things in life are usually implied, such as a parent’s love for their child. In a traditional family, very rarely is this directly communicated, for there be not the need. Taking the concept to to a more or less natural conclusion, expressing too much emotion in China can be considered insincere or a sign of weakness. Hence, the majority of children in China are on a hiding to nothing if considering showing any emotion. From a young age, the regime is established. Drilled into them is the ethos to fall in line. And that means remembering all their school lessons and hours of homework. Never should they question authority. Orders are to be followed without query, while thoughts are prescribed by their parents, grandparents and teachers.
It’s what Confucianism is all about; the greater good. Chun Liu notes this well in the paper, “Chinese, Why Don’t You Show Your Anger? — A Comparative Study between Chinese and Americans in Expressing Anger” (2014). “When in conflict in personal communication, Chinese tend to sacrifice their own interests in order to satisfy the well-being of others. Consequently, they tend to restrain their anger”, Chun writes. But bottling it all up inside chips away at the façade. Eventually though, it will be time for lift off. Benoit married his Chinese girlfriend here in Nanjing back in 2009 and recently related to
The Nanjinger one of his first experiences encountering extreme displays of emotion by the Chinese. It was after he came back home one afternoon and had reason to sit on his mother in law’s bed.
She erupted. And then stripped the entire bed and changed anew every last piece of material and anything stuffed thereon. Being the sensitive foreigner, Benoit was quite upset that he had, in one foul swoop, been defined by his dirtiness. But such rapid enragement is in fact pretty common in a society supposedly underpinned by harmony. How many times have you seen a Chinese parent become angry with their child? On the street or the shopping mall escalator, all it takes is the minor misdemeanour of a child to turn parental care into a bad day with the Sergeant Major. Then there are the major battles fought for parking spots. In western countries, we would just say, “Damn, she got the last space”. In China, there have been numerous reports of such situations resulting in fisticuffs, even here in our own Nanjing. So that’s dealt with anger (and obviously there’s hoards of it). What about public displays of sorrow and grief in China? These were witnessed in an arresting fashion in 2014, in the wake of the disappearance of flight MH370. With fully two thirds of its passengers Chinese and destination Beijing Capital Airport, as the news hit waiting families and friends, there was a hitherto unseen outpouring of grief. Hitherto in so far as it was broadcast on television worldwide.
The poker face was off.
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But at the other end of the emotional spectrum lies happiness. Plenty of that too in China. Witness the average teenage girl’s overwhelming joy at her favourite band’s concert in Nanjing’s Olympic Stadium, and any garden variety office in China that sees its fair share of daily giggles among colleagues sharing jokes, observations on life and the hottest social media posts from the previous evening. Then there are the foreigners visiting China who will invariably mention how local people are “so friendly”! Come to think of it, there are generally more smiles to be found in China than on the dour faces of Europe. Especially these days. With all these salient points as examples, emotion would appear to be an attribute worn quite proudly by many a Chinese. But all this “toing and froing” stops us from asking the fundamental question.
Why the contradictions? It boils down to uncertainty avoidance; our degree of tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. In a high-uncertainty culture, such as the USA, citizens are not good at dealing with ambiguity and unpredictability. In all their communication, they seek clarity and accuracy, exactly what the Chinese language was designed to avoid. “When they [Americans] are angry, they are unlikely to pretend to be happy. There should be a clear distinction between liking and disliking”, writes Chun. “However, members of relatively, low-uncertaintyavoiding societies, such as China, are more comfortable with ambiguity, chaos and less resistant to unknown situations.” Going forward, the lid of the emotional China pressure cooker may well remain on for now, but external influences will continue to constantly fiddle with its settings, seeking to elicit as much reaction as possible, a bit like that petulant child who earlier received the dressing down from their enlisted mother.
Legal notes from The Nanjinger in association with:
D’Andrea & Partners Legal Counsel
What Place of Emotion in the Court Room?
T
he Law is not a place for emotions. It is the place of reason and rationality. In the legal community, feelings are considered irrational or dangerous and, as such, have to be contained or suppressed. This approach is nonetheless flawed and completely unrealistic. Emotions form an inevitable part of our life, ever present under the surface; they cannot be avoided. They are what makes life worth living. Moreover, a soulless and cold approach would make the Law rigid and inflexible, through a mechanical application ignoring the context. By closing out emotions, we fail to completely perceive the reality around us. Without emotion, decision making can be shallow, fragile and lacking a sense of common humanity. If the legal system becomes a kind of judicial assembly line, then social justice may become irrelevant to the Law. Truth is, in contrast to the common image of dry reason and objectivity, the Law has always taken account of emotions and deals with the full range of human feelings. Courts take into consideration feelings of anger and jealousy to determine whether a killing is manslaughter or murder. Criminal Law also regards theories of fear, grief and remorse. Tort Law awards compensation on the basis of emotional sufferings. Strong feelings are involved in all legal matters, whether they are experienced by judges, juries or lawyers. Any barely relevant legal matter, even a dispute over a pending payment, may cause worry, sadness, frustration and anger on all sides. In the Common Law’s courts, the judicial oath requires judges to hear disputes “without affection or favour”. Members of the jury in criminal trials are expected to set aside their emotions, regardless of the case’s subject matter. These expectations serve as a foundation for a fair and just legal system. However, it seems we fail to understand the relation between emotion-driven information processing and decision making. Emotions can prompt us to take action, if we perceive that the action will either reduce or sustain the unpleasant sensations associated with the emotion. Sometimes, an emotion can create a powerful desire to express ourselves, such that failing to express the emotion will itself create a feeling of discomfort.
Judges are believed to be the incarnation of rational and reasonable ruling. They are not biased and we expect them to be significantly less inclined to let their emotions affect the outcome of a case. It is their responsibility to put their personal feelings aside and only look at the facts of the case. But they are human beings. There are many factors that affect the judgment of the courts during a trial. It is reasonable to believe that criminal cases of violence towards women would better heard by female judges, due to an emotional inclination and sympathy towards the victim and it is very much possible that injustice would not be done. We rarely enjoy learning that we have been deceived. To the contrary, the discovery that we have been lied to usually provokes an emotional mix of anger, resentment and surprise. Along comes a feeling of uneasiness and wariness if someone is being dishonest with us on a particular occasion, sensations that warn us that if we trust the person, we might regret it. Therefore, when jurors find themselves instinctively feeling that a witness is lying, that feeling alerts them that indicators of deception are present. Something does not feel right. The law places great confidence in these mechanisms, giving jurors the liberty of making whatever assumption they reasonably deem appropriate. Here, in the domain of one of the jury's most closely protected functions, emotions are playing a central role. Studies suggest that while sadness does not seem to affect jurors’ decisions, anger and disgust do. Showing gruesome photographs of a murder victim's body can usefully counteract the emotions that jurors feel when they are facing a nice-looking, well-dressed criminal defendant. If jurors are exceedingly outraged by the pictures, they immediately consider the defendant a monster. Generations of lawyers have been taught that thinking like a lawyer requires putting emotion aside. They are warned that anger will blind them to the facts as they really are. In exchange for putting feelings aside, law students are promised the gift of rigorous thinking. It takes work to create the appearance of disinterestedness and objectivity. It takes work to project a tough exterior and a sense of unwavering certitude. Let us not forget the old saying; “A person who represents himself has a fool for a client”.
DISCLAIMER This article is intended solely for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Although the information in this article was obtained from reliable official sources, no guarantee is made with regard to its accuracy and completeness. For more information please visit dandreapartners.com or WeChat: dandreapartners
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THE
Trip
By Frank Hossack
Little Tibet, Vultures & the Café at the End of the World
It’s pretty difficult to take photos on a train from Nanjing to Lanzhou, largely because the blessed thing spends most of its time in tunnel after tunnel after tunnel. At least it does on the interesting part of the journey. Truth is nothing much happens for almost 5 hours. Until the train reaches the ancient capital of Luoyang, and latterly, Mianchi. Then things start getting interesting, and fast. Right after the Zhongtiao Mountains on the horizon appear, the train starts its plunge into the tunnels. That’s also when the wind starts whistling through the carriage. Hats off to the engineering, but there ain’t nothing to see. Another 4 hours in and we were here, in the very centre of China. After an evening feasting on the best lamb this correspondent has ever encountered, followed by a lousy breakfast, it was time to head. Not to the massive sand dunes of northwest Gansu, but to the plains and mountains of the south. For we were off to “Little Tibet”. Before that though, we need traverse the Gansu grasslands that earlier in the year pull in the tourists in their hundreds of thousands for their endless carpets of verdant green. But The Nanjinger, always forging a different path, made the trip at the end of September. With our long train journey behind us, it was now time to spend 4 days in a car. So we chose a big one. And what did we find? The Highlands of Scotland, basically. But on an epic scale.
By Frank Hossack
Great Nanjingers (16) #MeToo Ming! A Shining Star among Qinhuai’s Debutantes; Ma Xianglan
Ma Shouzhen (馬守真) was the foremost product of the #MeToo movement of the late Ming Dynasty. A courtesan, party animal and a hopeless romantic, she was known as a prolific painter, a benevolent citizen and one of the eight beauties of Qinhuai. Born in Nanjing (then Yingtian) in 1548, Ma formerly assumed the position of courtesan aged 15, then took the name, Ma Xianglan (马 湘兰); the forename meaning “Xiang Jiang Orchid”, after the river in Hunan Province and her preference for painting orchids. As her new life began in the entertainment district along the banks of the Qinhuai River, among her circle, there were the elite courtesans; ladies who learned painting, poetry and music as challenges to the era’s gender stereotypes. As Monica Merlin notes in "The Nanjing Courtesan Ma Shouzhen (1548–1604): Gender, Space and Painting in the Late Ming Pleasure Quarter” (2011), Ming dynasty women of gentry were considered virtuous only by being wives and mothers, while the cultivation of any talent was discouraged. The courtesans, on the other hand, were also visible on the social scene and even invested in property. Ma had numerous admirers. And she used their many gifts to finance the purchase of a house by the river, which she named the Youlan Pavillion (幽兰馆). A righteous and open-minded lady, Ma was also generous with her money, helping penniless scholars to take their exams and businessmen in trouble, as well as the old, weak and poor nearby.
Together with her singing, poetry and painting, Ma was also a good talker. Her voice was said to more of a warble and her expression charming. And with her worldlywise, life experience, Ma gradually became one of the Qinhuai River’s most popular faces. Aged 24, Ma formed a close friendship with Wang Zhideng, a talented but poor poet, who, having fallen on hard times, more or less stumbled into Ma’s Youlan Pavillion. It was a love which was to last for 33 years. One of Ma’s most famous works is of a solitary orchid on a cliff, painted to show Wang she was not a willowing flower on the road or a fickle woman without true feelings. Towards the end of their time, for Wang’s 70th birthday, Ma raised money to buy a boat and take party goers to Suzhou to celebrate with drink. Of the time enjoyed by all, there was said to be, “Banquets for months; singing and dancing for days”. Such fast living was to have other repercussions too, for Ma’s paintings. According to Tseng Yuho in "Women Painters of the Ming Dynasty” (1993), many of her art works may have actually just been given away at some of these endless parties. Ma’s many letters to Wang are now to be found in the collection, “Debutantes’ Letters in Successive Dynasties” (历代名媛书简). But the fun was to come to an end all too soon, when one afternoon, aged 57 and on a hunch, Ma bathed and dressed carefully, then sat in the living room of her house and ordered her servant to place orchids around her seat. She passed away just a few minutes later. 22
Only for Teas & Human Heads By Matthew Stedman
“It’s just like sending gifts to myself!” It’s often said that the charm of Taobao is in the 4-daylong narrative it establishes. You order the products distractedly on your phone, return your full attention to work or family… and then, just when you have forgotten all about it, there’s a surprise knock at the door! Well, I guess I’m too materialistic for any of that forgetting. The childish excitement of Christmas Eve still dances in me for all 4 days. There’s also the nagging awareness that I may need to send it back and quibble the whole deal. The Taobao reward loop is just too fast. If only the delivery could be delayed several months… then I may receive a true surprise! Well, that’s kind of what I get from the third tier of our freezer, a place stashed with gifts to myself. It contains that leftover Thai and Indian food which I alone enjoy. I haven’t switched my family on to those cuisines, so my lentil experiments and coconut concoctions can only be aired when the family travels. Only once they’re past the province border do I start defrosting a stinky, daddy curry. I don’t know what I’m going to eat until it starts thawing; some of these brown ice balls are years old. But that’s the enchantment of it. It will go well with rice, anyway. I enjoy my own food more without the exhaustion and trepidation of live performance. For years, I advised doing something similar with tea. Perhaps you have read praise for the freezer within these pages. Even tea kept in the fridge eventually takes on a garlic or porky pong, making the freezer my go-to tea place. But now I want to add some caveats to that advice. I have a cake of raw Yunnan pu er which I bought from a Shanghai market. That was five years ago, and it’s
still not (quite) done. Freezing this expensive tea seemed like a good idea at that time. Actually, freezing it was a stupid mistake. 5 years of raw pu er should have been my chance to witness a mellowing process. But my mistake also extends to the green and white teas I placed in the deep freeze. The problem, I now believe, is related to the frequency of opening. Think of those pornographic beads on the surface of an ice-cold Coke can in advertising images; that’s all the moisture in the air migrating to the coldest place it can find: the Coke can. And this condensation effect draws moisture into my tea packet every time I take it out of the freezer. I now recognise in some of my teas a “freezer taste”, which isn’t disastrous, but is still distracting. It’s not the taste of the squid in a neighbouring bag, nor of the plastic materials holding the freezer together; it’s like the empty, tasteless taste of the crystals on an ice lolly. It persists into every infusion of tea. A different kind of staleness. An unwelcome influence. So here’s my advice, version 2.1: Only use the freezer for storage if the tea is firmly sealed; don’t freeze paper packaging (like my pu er); don’t treat the frozen tea like refrigerated tea, opening and closing every day (every month is more like it); only use the freezer for greens, because most varieties don’t need freezing; and if you’re not going to drink it soon, consider giving the tea to a friend instead. Actually, my wife is considering having herself cryogenically preserved, her head only if that’s all we can afford. I’ll probably be gone by the time that decision is made. Still, I intend to write instructions preventing her head from being wedged between my green tea and green curry. That’s not the kind of surprise she’s paying money for. 23
All full-scale mock up of one of Zheng He’s sailing ships can be climbed aboard in the Zheng He Treasure Shipyard (南京郑和宝 船遗址公园), located at 57 Lijiang Lu (鼓 楼区漓江路57号) in Nanjing
ONNECTION With Kamla Tung
6. Zheng He
& His Legacy in Nanjing
Z
heng He, quite possibly China’s most famous explorer, is our last stop on this journey through Nanjing Muslim history.
Born Ma He to a Muslim family in Kunming, Yunnan Province, during the Ming Dynasty, family records claim that they traced their history to settling in Xianyang (modern-day Xi’An) in Sha’anxi Province during the Song Dynasty. Ma had four younger sisters and an older brother, the main point by which his descendants trace their lineage to today. While Ma was captured and castrated as a young teenager by Ming invaders who took over thenMongol-ruled Yunnan, his elder brother escaped capture and remained in hiding until Ma became a high-ranked official. After capture, Ma served the later-Yongle Emperor while he was still the Prince of Yan. It was under the
then-Prince’s service that Ma gained an education in Beiping (Beijing today). This essentially gave him the tools to become an incredibly useful military commander to the future emperor. In 1399, when the Prince of Yan rebelled against his enthroned nephew, Ma proved a loyal and useful subordinate by successfully defending the Zhenglun reservoir (for the city of Beiping) against imperial siege, and later on, in the successful capture of the capital, Nanjing. In recognition of Ma’s work, the newlyenthroned Yongle Emperor granted Ma the new surname of “Zheng”. Zheng grew through the ranks, leading to his famous seven voyages across the seas. In nearly 30 years of voyaging, Zheng served three emperors. According to family accounts, by the time he became sufficiently ranked, Zheng returned to his Yunnan 24
hometown, in search of his remaining family, bringing his elder brother’s family back to Nanjing with him. He eventually passed away overseas during his final voyage. A tomb for him was erected on today’s Niushou Mountain (牛首山), rebuilt in 1985 with Nanjing city government funds in recognition of his voyaging legacy. Today, a small museum is located next to the tomb recognising his efforts and contribution to knowledge. Another museum is located on Changbai Jie (长白街) near the Zheng He Garden (郑和公园) outside Mafu Xincun (马府新村) neighbourhood. The reason? Prior to the destruction caused by the Taiping Rebellion, this had been land belonging to the Zheng family. Specifically, it was the area that once hosted the family’s lotus garden. Today, the garden remains home to a 600plus-year-old Wisteria, perhaps the last living physical object remaining that was a part of Zheng’s incredible life. According to Mr. Zheng Zihai (a 73-year-old, 19th generation descendant) working in an office at the Zheng He Museum, this land has been in Zheng’s family hands since the Ming Dynasty, only being desecrated during the Taiping era, to be reclaimed by the government in the mid-20th century. The physical family records or “jiapu” (家谱) were given to the government in 1957 in Beijing. In 1983, after hearing no word on traces of the records, descendants traveled to the capital, searching loose ends for 20+ days before finding copies of pieces of the records. Today, these are all that remain, with a copy left in Beijing’s Cultural Palace of Nationalities (民族文化宫). When asked about what he, as a descendant, felt was the most important thing he wished to relay in regard to the legacy of Zheng He, Zihai stated, “Twelve words: (热爱祖国 睦邻友好 科学航海) Zheng He was a man who deeply loved his country, embodied diplomacy and friendly relations, and bore great knowledge of the seas”. Zheng may be gone today, but his legacy certainly lives on, not least through the remaining museums and gardens in our beautiful city.
C
herished for long by many as the best burger joint in Nanjing, Motu has recently branched out into brunch, bringing bliss and breakfast foods to their already mouthwatering menu. Serving top quality beef patties, prepared with love, cajun, sweet potato or home cut fries, the burger business is booming, as always. Alongside the traditional Kiwi Burger (a nod to the New Zealand heritage of the restaurant) the bacon burger and the cranberry chicken burger, Motu has added to its staple menu of solid meaty goodness, and the new additions are just what the Southern Jing has been missing. Hearty brunch in the middle of the day! Solid staples head up the menu; smoked salmon bagelwith cream cheese, pickles and dill, eggs benedict with hollandaise sauce, pancakes with passion fruit and waffle with chicken. OK, the chicken waffles may be a little out there, but they taste mighty fine; tender Southern Fried pieces atop fluffywaffles with haute cuisine salad.
Jing A CBD at the Kerry Centre, Beijing
Flair in The Ritz Carlton, Nanjing
This year’s student-led Primary Variety Show at Nanjing International School was a special opportunity to showcase some of the many talents and passions of Primary School students. With amazing performances from the student participants and support from peers who made up the backstage crew and MCs, it was a morning to remember. Bravo!
15 October, 2021
To see photos from your event on these pages, contact The Nanjinger via info@thenanjinger.com. Conditions apply.
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From Guildford to Nanjing to Dubai to Qatar; students at RGS Guildford took part in a virtual, non-motorised journey across the world, while their classmates in Nanjing took to the sports pitch outside for a post-National Day sports meet.
R G S G u ild f o rd
8-10 October, 2021
To see photos from your event on these pages, contact The Nanjinger via info@thenanjinger.com. Conditions apply.
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As Mid-autumn Day came and went, St Johns prepared for the cold winter months by making sure they had enough to eat, readying the harvest and reaping the rewards of another successful growing season. Everything from water chestnuts, peanuts and marrows, to sugar cane and aubergines, were harvested. Even their very own rice that needed a good threshing!
St Jo hn s Co lle ge Scho o l Nan jin g 13 September, 2021
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The British School of Nanjing added a Diverse Voice section in their library to celebrate cultural diversity. Reading such books will help students recognise and respect differences and value what other cultures offer. This new addition is available now in the school’s Early years, Primary and Secondary Library.
1 September, 2021
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THE
Download this map to your smartphone via The Nanjinger’s official WeChat account
The Nanjinger’s Metro Map is the only map of the city’s metro system to include first and last times for every station, perfect for planning a late night out or an adventure to somewhere new with an early start.