Political discussions.

Present in China and nostalgia of France

Last night, dad knew we had to get up early the next day so he asked the hotel to set the alarm for 8am. As always, he wakes up at 6:30 and as for me, even when the alarm rings I have trouble waking up. Dad finally tugs me out of bed and I get ready to go down and meet our friends that are waiting for us to go see the Terracotta Army. While taking the elevator, I see a pair of twins and I say to myself: “See, those will be my cousins Roshan and Shirdel in a year, only better behaved.” However, arriving at the first floor, I see them exit as kittens do, one goes to the left and the other to the right. It really made me laugh. Dad decides to go to Xian’s covered market to buy a new cell phone and get his glasses fixed. In the jewelry section, we see a baby adding numbers on a calculator while its parents buy jewelry: commerce here begins at a very young age. Since the place isn’t ideal to have a discussion, a you young student Yang Dong, doctor Li’s son and I go further down to wait for dad and Liu Jia at the market’s exit. Waiting takes a while and looking around I notice a sign with “La Seine” written on it, a French gastronomy restaurant. I get closer and see that it’s typically Frenchie. And since a tri-colored flag hangs above the restaurant’s entrance, I put my hand on my heart and sing the national anthem of a country that is more dear to me than I would have thought. Looking at the menu I see that the prices are much cheaper than in France and I find that funny. I then return to my two friends and I talk with them about soccer, movies, music, etc. Since dad asked me to, I begin to ask some youths about the signer Jay, the Chinese star, and that becomes somewhat of a challenge. I still manage to have the account of two young people. Both know him; both like him a lot, but one of them thinks he’s Taiwanese and the other thinks he’s Chinese. Then begins a long discussion with my two friends on the following topic: Is Taiwan Chinese or not? The answers were varied, as were the different ideas. The Chinese argued that historically, Taiwan was very close to China. However, with three different arguments, I put into question a certainty that was previously taken for granted. My three arguments were: first, when there were regional or world conflicts Taiwan was always allied with Japan and rarely with China. Second, when the revolution took place, what founded the fundamentals of Chinese politics was the opposition of two people, Mao Zedong the Chinese red and Tchang Kai Check the white who went on to create the state of Taiwan. Third, the political system isn’t the same. My arguments out in the open, both Chinese start thinking. As for me, remembering the awful dinner where I nearly cut all ties with part of my family, simply by evoking my ideas of Taiwan with my Chinese cousin, I tell my friends: “If I talk about this, it’s without wanting conflict between us. This problem doesn’t only concern China and Taiwan but also France and Corsica, an idea for which I have the same opinion.” Finally this discussion ends when my friend says: “This isn’t a discussion for young people our age.”