Yearning for the old Beijing向往老北京

I arrived in Beijing in September of last year to learn a bit of ancient history and see Chinese society for myself before starting a hard-fought investment banking gig back home in Melbourne, Australia (a little over a month was enough for me to quit the job). But at last I’ve found truth in China. It had been waiting 2,400 years for me.

Arriving in Melbourne at the age of eight with no English ability, I quickly learned the ropes as one of the three kids at school of Asian heritage. My three years swimming at a sports academy in Shanghai paid off in Melbourne when I made friends and gained respect by showing up to school assemblies with medals. Acculturation is always easy in hindsight.

Chinese vaguely attracted me during high school – Saturday Chinese school was a hangout for lack of a better description. I wanted to learn Chinese, but not by the way it was taught there – that’s what I kept telling myself anyway.

Classical Chinese is reason and rhyme, sparse words chosen carefully. Reading it is figuring out a puzzle with missing pieces, things known to an earlier age preserved. Still the road is long. I am uncertain where it goes next. But solace is everywhere.

I used to believe that China was in a distinct time period today, that most of the old had been ripped, raring and tearing, from the womb by modernization’s unyielding grasp. Yet this is not so – to believe so would be to discount China’s history. You see it everywhere in the streets, in the signs, when you live here you can see this place struggling to negotiate its sense of self with what is imported. A teenager bombarded by billboards walking to and from school. Today in Beijing there seems to be a yearning for the old – a calling to a time gone by. All that was ridiculed is now the pride; all that is respected born of another time; maybe all that is solid will not yet melt into air.

我于今年九月到北京去学习一些中国古代历史，在返回墨尔本的投资银行奋斗之前，为了自己看看中国的社会。我请了一个多月的假。至少我在中国找到了真相，这些真相等待了我2400年。

我在8岁时到了墨尔本，那时我一点英文也不会说, 学校里有三个亚洲学生在最短的时间里学会了绳索，而我就是其中之一。我在上海体育学院游过三年泳，这三年挣的钱支付了我在墨尔本的学费。我和朋友在一起时经常会上他们骄傲地展示我的游泳奖牌。在事后往回看，文化适应总是很容易的。

在我高中时期，中文在模模糊糊中吸引着我。每到周六，中文学校都是最好的聚会场所。我一直对自己说，我想要学习中文，但不是以那些中文学校教的方式。

古典中文是一些有韵律的，有内涵的，排列稀疏的，经过精挑细选的文字。读这些文字就像寻找一个拼图缺少的部分，这些文字是从很久远的以前保留下来的。读这些文字时，我不知道去往哪里但是慰藉无处不在。

我过去一直认为中国正处于一个独特的时代。很多古老的东西都被那些来势汹汹的现代化事物打破取代。但事实并不是这样的。这样做会使得中国历史被遗漏。你会看到中国历史在那些无处不在的街道，标志上，当你身处中国时你会发现，人们正试图从那些进口东西里辨认出中国的本土物品。青少年们在那些狂轰滥炸的广告牌之间往返于学校。如今在北京，人们都在寻找那些古旧的东西。在此时，“老北京”这个牌子本身就是人们追求的。那些过去被嘲笑的现在都变成了骄傲; 那些出现时被尊重的; 将来也许会定格在那里而不会融入人们生活。