Friday Night in Beijing
I arranged to meet for dinner with a friend of a friend for Friday night dinner. When my friend heard I was in Beijing, he made an email introduction and Bill (not his real name…more on that later) agreed to meet me and Steve at our hotel @ 7:30pm. He wanted to take us to “a great Sichuan restuarant called Chuan Ban“. The restaurant is owned by the Sichuan Provincial Government — they run it, and it’s staffed by Sichuan locals.
Chuan Ban was about a half an our walk from our hotel, tucked behind a series of alleys in a residential area that included various local shops — convenience stores, hair salons, etc. — and there was a pretty good-sized crowd waiting to get a table when we arrived. The promised 10-15 minute wait was more like 45 minutes, but we drank a beer and Bill told us about his experiences living in Beijing for the past 10 years.
Chinese food aficionados know that Sichuan food is extremely spicy. In writing this post, I did some research and reviews include such expressions as “tongue-numbing” and “lip-tingling”, so you get the idea. My mouth was numb within minutes of digging in — one plate was particularly memorable: it was a giant bowl of chili peppers with peanuts and the occasional piece of chicken called “lazi jiding”. Each little bit required an immediate swig of beer to cool down my mouth!
Throughout the past week, Steve and I have said a number of times to each other how surprised we were at how “normal” day-to-day life feels here. I guess the propaganda we grow up with about “Communist China” set our expectations that we’d see an active governmental role in daily life. Many things, including the explosion of the Internet, have led to China opening opening up over the past decade or two. In fact Bill mentioned the Western influence he’s witnessed — Chinese people love American pop culture (music, movies and TV shows), NBA basketball (Yao Ming is idolized), and seem to have adopted an American level of consumption.
One thing that hasn’t truly opened up is the Chinese attitude toward homosexuality. Bill confided in us that he’s gay and has a long-term partner. However he’s not “out” at work, and although he thinks some people know, it’s not something he’d ever openly discuss for fear of creating controversy that could pose a risk to his annual visa renewal.
There is an active gay community, Bill told us, but it’s primarily closeted, and many Chinese people don’t even tell their parents as such an admission could post great shame on a family. Instead, some gay men look for lesbian women to “marry” — they go through the entire charade in the name of family honor.
While the US still has a ways to go on true levels of equality and civil rights for gay Americans, it’s leaps and bounds better than in China. From what I took away from Bill’s comments, there’s no “penalty” for discrimination against gay people here.
After dinner took the subway over to an area of the city called Sanlitun. It’s a very modern part of Beijing known especially for its bars and nightlife. We saw more Westerners walking around in Sanlitun than anywhere else during our trip. Some bars played live music while others rocked American hip hop.
Steve and I decided not to push it too hard so we’d be rested for our trip to the Great Wall on our last day. The plan is to pack up and hire a car for the day and head out to Badaling — can’t wait!