To my great surprise I started receiving letters from the older man in my University Teachers’ class. He was a retired teacher from Hohai and he obviously had more time than the others did. But, soon I was to find out that he also had, more importantly, an amazing story to tell about his life in China that I would later be compelled to tell others, like you.
Dear Teacher,
I was born in 1929 to a merchant family in Hangzhou. At the time of my birth, I already had three sisters and two brothers.
My grandfather was one of the wealthy and important businessmen in Hangzhou having set up a silk and satin factory and a workshop for manufacturing fans. These are some of the famous products of Hangzhou.
My grandfather had many sons and daughters, but he lived with us. Our residence was so big in the traditional Chinese style having three halls and three courtyards with a small garden.
Owing to the riches of my grandfather, his sons and daughters did not have to work.
My parents liked this because they could sleep until the sun was three poles high. Many days I came home from classes at noon and they were still sleeping. In the afternoon they played mahjong pieces and watched dramas at night. They had a life of unbelievable leisure and comfort.
There were about ten servants and each child was under the care of a wet nurse. I was the first child, for some reason, suckled by my mother herself so she made a special pet of me.
I can remember that my grandfather sat on the sofa in his study all day as a serious and dignified man. These are the impressions of my childhood before the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-1945) which in the West is called World War II.
Dear Teacher, I hope that this interests you and that you are happy to receive my letter.
Sincerely, Robert
I was very happy to receive this letter and it was interesting to me that Robert was from Hangzhou. I had been offered a teaching position at a university in Hangzhou, but I knew very little about China. In my mind I had said, “Hangzhou, Changzhou, what possible difference could it make?” Later I found out that Hangzhou is a much more beautiful city than Changzhou. Anyone who knows anything about China would have much preferred living in Hangzhou than in Changzhou.
I had not as yet done any traveling, but after reading Robert’s letters, I put it in my plans to visit Hangzhou during the summer. After spending only a short while in Hangzhou, I realized that it was one of the most beautiful cities in China and in many ways it became one of my favorites. It is one of the famous tourist destinations. One reason is that West Lake, which the city was built beside, is a large freshwater lake bordered on three sides by hills. The banks and islands are blanketed with gardens and temples. There is an old Chinese saying that, “In heaven there is paradise, on earth Suzhou and Hangzhou.”
It was very impressive to know that Robert had been born into such wealth. I have seen several large houses as he described that are now set up as museums. The Chinese style of houses is quite different from our homes in the West. Each “hall” as it is called, is like a large formal living room with special seating for each family member according to rank and position. People also often took their meals in the room, brought in by servants. The kitchen was quite far removed from the living area and was basically outdoors except for a roof and some walls.
There were many side rooms adjacent to each hall for sitting, as sleeping rooms or for storage of personal items. The courtyards can be huge enclosed outdoor areas for living when the weather is favorable. There can be trees, plants and flowers placed all over the outdoor room. I imagine the little garden had a pond with fish and a stream with possibly a small open-air building for creating shade. I’m sure that there were large rocks and beautiful plants tended by a gardener.
The number of servants was great, but they not only waited on their assigned family member, but also may have helped prepare food, which in China, is a huge project. Another less pleasant task the servants had was to bring in little portable toilets when needed. They waited on the families every need. Servants and even slaves were very common in the history of China. Girl babies were of little value to peasants who had to work the fields, joined by their sons as soon as they were old enough. A mother might keep one daughter to help her, but after that, female babies were often sold as slaves or servants as soon as they were old enough to take care of themselves and work, which was young, maybe four, five or six.
I couldn’t wait to tell Robert how much this interests me. I hoped he would have another letter after our next class, and this is what I got.