By Admin
Let me tell you a story:
让我告诉你一个故事：
In 1986 I went across China, from Beijing to Urumqi, Turpan, and Kashgar. On the way I stopped off in DaTong, on a mission to find an American guy who had moved there (turns out he had already left China— but that’s not relevant to the story).
1986年我走遍了中国，从北京到乌鲁木齐、吐鲁番、喀什。在路上我在大同停留，去寻找一个搬到那里的美国人（原来他已经离开了中国——但这与故事无关）。
On the train I met a young PLA soldier who spoke pretty good English. He was traveling home for the first time in over a year, and hadn’t been in contact with his family all that time. It would have been reasonable had he simply said goodbye to me at the station and went on his way, but instead he took me to his home. His mother cried when she saw her son and rushed out to buy meat, fish and other really expensive things. This was a coal mining family, with one room, and everyone heating and sleeping on top of the one kang . (An entire row of these houses shared one outhouse— three brick walls, two bricks on the ground for squatting.)
在火车上我遇到了一位年轻的解放军士兵，他的英语说得很好。这是他一年多来第一次回家，而且一直没有与家人联系。如果他只是在车站和我说再见然后继续他的路，这本来是合理的，但他却把我带到了他家。他的妈妈看到儿子就哭了，冲出去买肉、鱼和其他很贵的东西。这是一个采煤的家庭，一个房间，每个人都在一个炕上取暖睡觉。 （一整排这样的房子共用一个外屋——三堵砖墙，两块蹲在地上的砖。）
Of course I was too ignorant to be embarrassed about this lavish treatment.
当然，我太无知了，不会为这种奢侈的待遇感到尴尬。
Then after dinner, instead of sitting around reconnecting with his family, he helped me find people back in town who might help me with my mission.
晚饭后，他没有坐在那里与家人重新联系，而是帮我在城里找人，他们可能会帮助我完成任务。
My opinion of China and the Chinese? After over 30 years I’m still here, and still have a warm feeling when I think about that special dinner with the DaTong coal miners.
我对中国和中国人的看法？ 30多年了，我还在这里，想起那场与大同煤矿工人的特别晚餐，依然有一种温暖的感觉。