YAN 堰

When i was living in Shanghai Pu Dong, a small town call San Lin, where i would spend my lazy afternoon if i don't have to cross the Huang Pu river for work, I would wait after the students lunch hour, bring my favour essayist's book, heading to the kiosk next to the bus terminal, a small Fu Jian little-wonton shop and the steam dumpling shop would be my regular spots. Reading and eating , satisfied both physical and mental needs at the same time.

Even the media friends know that i am a die hard fans of Eileen Zhang Ai Ling ( writer of Lust Caution, Love In A Fallen City,Pink Tears,Red Rose and White Rose etc ), i admit that i am so poisoned by her spectacular words, however , a writer named Yu Qiu Yu is also one of my favour.Whatever he is curious, he would explore and analyze, and explain it in a literary way, which affect my chinese writing a lot.

For me, the most remarkable prose he wrote is call Du Jian Yan 都江堰

As you all knew, the most famous historic spot for tourist in China,still, must be The Great Wall, however ,Yu was being humor said in his prose that even it has a most dramatic history,but  there is no more Huagarian or Mongolian living right outside the wall, it's not funcional anymore . But a place located in the west of China, an water control system was built several decades before the king Qin ordered to build the Great Wall, it name Du Jian Yan. It should be named as greatest as the Great Wall  not just because this water control system is one of the oldest, the only left and not using any dam to seperate the angry water from the Himalaya, but also it's still responsiable for watering 2 biggest provinces of provision for the whole China and preventing the scary flooding .

I am fasinated by water, no matter it's just a stream, a lake or a big big sea, don't know why, i just crazy about water.Until being a high school boy, every time i went boating with family, i jumped into the water immidiately, no matter how deep the sea could be, i just like the feeling being surrounded by water. My friend Mr Ywen, a  Xuan study master,keep reminds me that the charater of my life is belongs to Yan Shui ( positive water),  a person who doesn't care the miner things, mass, tolarence, like an ocean. Do i ? may be !!? anyway, everytime i only able to understand half of what he said.

So, right after i read Yu's prose, i called all my closer friends in Shanghai see if we can join for a trip, i am so going to Du Jian Yan.

As time goes by, i haven't been there yet , still, no....... too many reasons and excuses, i might ask Mr Ywen, Does a Yan Shui man only waiting for big things to do ? not organize ?  i think he has a quite long explanation

When the news hit my eyeballs, i'm really regreted, Du Jian Yan is one of the major city ruined  by the 12/5 earthquake, nothing could left during a catagory 8 earthquake, those photos taken by people from the city showed that many tranditional style building collapsed, oh no my Du Jian Yan is gone, but sooner, i even forget how regret i was, after i've seen those kids and victims suffering under the concretes, and their little colourful school bags lying on next to their shattered school .i felt so sad that even i know the built in BC 230 year water system is fine.

If we can exchanged their lives with those non funtional historic spots, it's worth.

I have no more regret but i am angry, most of the collapsed schools are built by bastards, there should be no doubt, and i believe they have to pay for that. But there is a lot of God wordshiped by human, Are there any of them responsable for that ?? I mean besides saying "This is a natural disaster, we human can't deal with that, only face it !" but what do 70 thousand  died mean to us,not even mention those lives lost in Burma at the same month?

I 've been told a parable that we human are just like being put into the sea by who created us. and i think Chinese are just try to put our heads above the line of the water like other kind people in the same water.

Are there anything that we have to learn from it ? Did we not learn enough from the last century ?

I was so yearned to learn how to pronounce 堰 in Cantonese, i didn't know that i would learn in such a hard way like this.

I thought the pain will gone so soon, and hope not learning anything hard at least in a short period, didn't expect a crazy woman came up and teach me a new word " Karma ", thankyou very much !

Pop singer Amanda Lee didn't say any non-sences, but singing charity shows in HK and China for those people lost their home, i still remeber that night we worked was so hot, she danced and keep appealing people for donation.