I've finished Chapter 6 and that ends the first part of the book. The more I read the book, the more I find myself seem to talk to an old friend, at least to hear from him. I couldn't wait to see and talk to him face to face.
Rebecca
It's a boy but who poorly chose a girl's name. Peter felt sorry and pathetic for him because of his bad choice of name, faltering English, not so good performance, most importantly expressing his inappropriate ideas carelessly. In Peter's opinion, if a person's got talent, then he would be smart enough to play by the rules. Apparently, Rebecca doesn't belong to the smart sorts of people. To tell the truth, however, Rebecca reminds of myself. I was a student who got good scores in the tests but didn't get along well with some of my teachers. For instance, I hated my math teacher being so arrogant without respect, she'd scold us badly when we made a mistake, even a small one. And she never praised us when we performed well in the test, giving all credits to luck, in her words. I also missed, or rather ruined my opportunity to become a party member when I was in college. I'll skip the details but put it simple,all because that I didn't play by the rules.
Yulin
There's an interesting part in this chapter. When Peter was in Yulin, he was watching TV. The cloying song "Love my China" had scene that fifty-five minorities were celebrating on the Great Wall. He commented:
"Love My China" was a miserable, cloying song, but like so many of the bad music programs on television it had a sort of fatal attraction --- I always watched it to the bitter end. The song's conclusion featured representative minorities dancing on the Great Wall, dressed in traditional costumes as they sang about how much they loved their China. Every time I watched it, I thought: Your China built that wall to keep you people out.
I find it so sarcastic to say so but couldn't help laughing every time I think about it. And the fatal attraction of bad programs also made me laugh.
Another interesting thing happened in Yulin was checking in. There was a restriction back then that there were only two expensive three-star hotels that would allow foreigners to live in. So Peter decided to cheat the receptionist by bluffing that there was a new policy published out in Beijing that a teacher like him should be accepted because his salary was as the same as Chinese locals. He showed his all kinds of colorful IDs and then the receptionist checked, and surprisingly shed believed and charged Peter 2 dollars per night. Amazing!
A terrible experience was the police breaking in his room after midnight. They checked his passport page by page until the police made sure the legal visa issued by the Chinese government. I think it's really a bad experience. Your personal privacy and safety cannot even be protected. I had a similar terrible experience when I was travelling in Yunnan. One night we checked in a hotel near the High-way entrance. We checked in late and it happened by chance that I worked even later that night. After midnight, I heard someone trying to pry the lock of our door. Then I shouted out "Who's out there?" then there's a rushing sound of steps and after that the night returned to dark and tranquil again.
Expressions
YAN'AN LOOKED AS IF A HARD RAIN would wash it away.
I like the expression a lot. It tells funnily the poor city Yan'an.
I let the mistake slide, assuming that he meant Macau.
Slide here means you don't mind the mistake someone else made, without pointing out it.
But it was clear that he had steeled himself for a long time to have this conversation.
准备应付(不愉快的事)；If you steel yourself, you prepare to deal with something unpleasant
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