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| View from train between Chengdu and Chongqing |
On Wednesday morning, a two hour train ride from Chengdu to Chongqing is a reminder of the stark contrast everywhere in China between modernity and tradition, between ugliness and beauty. The high-speed train departs from a vast, gleaming station and the ride is smoother and faster than Amtrak's Acela. The rural landscapes are in some ways timeless, but the urban sprawl at either end of the journey has few redeeming features.
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| Luxury brands have proliferated in Chongqing |
It's great to be back in the city where Max and Audrey's story began - though the weather hasn't improved! Courtesy of the British Council, I'm staying at the Intercontinental (new since my last visit five years ago) in the downtown area near the Liberation Monument. I'm reminded that the 1940s monument was the tallest structure in the city twenty years ago - now it is dwarfed by buildings like my 40-storey hotel.
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| Fame at Chongqing's Rare Garden! |
The British Council (working here as a section of the Consulate-General) introduced me to my invaluable Chongqing guide nine years ago, and they've turned up trumps again, organizing two events for
At Least We Lived. The first is a literary evening at the Rare Garden, kind of a Chinese version of the Bookworm venues - a casual literary cafe for young Chinese, run by the deputy director of the local writers' association. It is in an edgy neighborhood on the south bank - an area built up beyond all recognition from the days when Audrey and her roommates found it 'more airy' than the north bank of the Yangtze.
I meet Paula Middleton, the Council Director for Southwest China, and Mark Woodham, the deputy Consul-General, to drive over to the Rare Garden. We begin the evening with dinner with the owner and some interesting guests, including an architect and the manager of the British Chamber of Commerce for the region. Paula moderates our discussion of
At Least We Lived very skillfully - she really understands the book's themes and, though we move slowly because of the need for translation, it's a great session. The audience are intrigued by the idea of a wartime love story set in a time and place that many of their grandparents experienced, and I sign and sell the few copies of the book that I have with me.
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| The Rare Garden Literary Evening |
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| View today from north to south bank |
My second Chongqing event is a half-day workshop on 'the changes of British Consulate and Embassy in Chongqing and China-UK relationship during WWII'. It takes place at the Foreign Affairs Office, with a top table of 15 researchers and officials including the British, and a larger audience of 35 graduate students. The Council has funded a study of the history of British diplomacy in Chongqing that is being conducted by the Sichuan International Studies University (SISU). Researchers are to present their progress report, and I've been invited to chip in on my parents' experience of daily life in the foreign community.
My 30-minute presentation is of course much more personal than the historical overviews presented by four SISU researchers, but a nice contrast, I'm told! I show the best photos from Max's only roll of film of the city, and talk about some of the other characters of their day who wrote memoirs, like Berkeley Gage. I hope that the Council and SISU will keep me in touch on this interesting project.
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| Hot pot dinner with Sun Ying |
I've come down with a heavy cold (blaming the polluted air everywhere), and am pleased to have a warming hot pot for dinner with Sun Ying. It's wonderful to see Sun Ying, who was my indefatigable interpreter and guide on previous trips to the region. She's added another string to her bow - building on her fluency in French and English, she is now training to be a wine expert. She's judging wine tastings, and may lead tours of Bordeaux - so enterprising.
