Arrived at hotel, author retires for another morning nap, as companion meanwhile ventures forth into the streets of the city. After several hours she returns, bearing roasted chestnuts, apples, a beautiful woven bag. Excitedly she reports on her encounter with minority peoples dressed in their tribal costumes. For in addition to the Han – the dominant population of China, and four other so-called majority peoples – Manchus, Mongols, Muslims and Tibetans, are twenty minority peoples, all to be found in Yunnan.
As she leaves the hotel, she comes across a group of Sanni tribeswomen selling the elegant products of their cloth-making art. “One in particular just looked at me, as though she were more interested in making friends than selling things.” “What was her own costume like?” ”Mostly blue, with black cuffs and a black apron that had a big red flower on it. Her headpiece was also black with red ornaments. Across her chest in brocade were flowers, in yellow, red and blue. She wasn’t wearing much jewelry.” “What did she look like?” “Her skin was quite dark and she was very short, very slender. Of course she was illiterate, but she had that look about her of people who can communicate. She just waited quietly until she figured out what you wanted to do.” “Could she speak Mandarin?” “Yeah, quite a bit, but she preferred just to look at you.
“I asked her what larger tribe the Sannis belonged to. She said the Yi. Her home is near Shi Lin, where most of her family are farmers – like her husband, who stays at home when she comes to the city to sell her stuff. Some of the tribal men, she said, have also come here to look for part-time work.” “Was she curious about you?” “Yeah, she wanted to know where I came from. I’m afraid I lied to her. I said I was from Sichuan – since we’d just come from there.”
“And what did the two of you do?” “Well, she asked what I’d like to see. I said, maybe we could visit a temple. First, though, we went to the zoo, since that was on our way. When we got there, I bought two tickets, but she wanted to wait outside. ‘Oh, if you’re not coming in,’ I said, ‘then I won’t go in either. Let’s go on.’ As we walked along, she would keep her distance. Even though she had a lot things with her, she walked very fast. When we got to the temple, a whole lot of her friends were standing outside.” “Oh, in order to sell things.” “Yeah. They were very happy to see us and wanted to know who I was. When they saw that I’d bought a bag already, they tried to sell me dolls and other stuff. Then three tour buses came up and a bunch of Japanese got out.”
“So where did you go from there?” “Well, I said I didn’t want to keep her from selling things, but she said it didn’t matter. She offered to take me back to the public park, so I said OK. On the way we saw a store where they sell all kinds of minority things. She waited outside, while I went in.” “What sort of things did they have?” “They had stuff from all different kinds of tribes: Miao, Lisu, Dai, Achang, Bai.” “And what did it look like?” “Well, the costumes are actually kind of cool. They had, like, these peacock feathers that the Miao women wear on their head with a big red cloth band to hold them in place, and huge silver horns that they wear on top of these silver crowns. And they had Bai costumes, where the women have different colors depending on whether they are married or not, and how old they are. And then they had Dai costumes, which are more like Southeast Asian, with parasols.
“When I came out, I told her that her own dress was very pretty. ‘Your clothes are even prettier,’ she said. ‘Our children today all want to wear them.’ ‘If I were a kid,’ I said, ‘I’d want to wear the kind that you wear.’ When we reached the public park, it was a little boring, just people riding bicycles. Yeah. So I asked her if we could visit a livelier place. She thought about it for a minute. I had a map and I read off some of the places to her. Finally we decided to head for the market, but on our way to the old town we passed a department store, where they were selling ornaments and different colors of thread, which she was interested in. She seemed to be planning how she could use them in her own designs, so I had a chance to watch her making choices. But the clerks were very rude, really rude. So I said, ‘Let’s get out of here.’
“I asked her, ‘What’s the best thing you can get in a Yunnan restaurant?’ She didn’t want to say, probably because she’d never had it. I asked her what she usually ate. She said, ‘Noodles and other things. Peanuts, corn.’ So we kept walking along, and I asked her to take me to where there were places to eat. Finally we came to a really classy restaurant, with waiters and waitresses just like in Taiwan, very tall and wearing fancy uniforms. On the placard inside the door it said Guo Qiao Mi Xian (Cross the Bridge Rice Noodles), the most famous dish in Yunnan. I asked her if she’d ever had it, and she shook her head. She didn’t want to go in, but I took her hand. I ordered two plates of special rice noodles and that kind of pulpy orange juice that we had in Shanghai. When the noodles came, it was just a kind of hotpot, nothing really special.
“After that I figured I’d take her back to the temple, where her friends were. I’d finished my orange juice, but she hadn’t finished hers, so she carried hers out of the restaurant. When we got to the temple, her friends were there, and she still had the orange drink in her hand. She was quite proud of it, drank it real slowly in front of her friends, until they asked, ‘What’s that you got there?’ ‘It’s really good,’ she said, smiling.”
After visit to dispensary for antibiotics, author returns to room for nap, companion setting out again. On her return he asks her, “What are the people like on the streets?” “Very strange,” she says. “They don’t even look at each other. And when they see that you’re not a local person, they take advantage of you. Like I was buying a skewer of lamb in the market and they tried to charge me double. I hate that.” “What are most of them doing?” “Well, I was watching these middle-aged people walking along the street, and I came across a bunch of old folks wearing grey and black clothes standing around doing nothing. It’s like that. And you see these younger guys walking around with their pals, their arms around each others’ necks, like they’re planning something bad.” “Did you see anything else more interesting?” “Well, finally I came to a park, where people were acting and singing local songs. They seemed a little bit happier. A lot of soldiers were milling about. And then it started raining.
“I didn’t have an umbrella and I noticed this big building, which everyone was crowding into. Out front were two girls with a sign that read ‘Home Tutoring.’ An older woman was asking, ‘What do you teach?’ ‘Languages, math,’ they said, ‘anything you want.’ ‘So how much is it?’ she asked. ‘Real cheap,’ they said, and it was. ‘Too expensive,’ said the older woman. Then another student saw us standing there and loaned us an umbrella – she had two – and we all stood together in the rain. I told them I was from Taiwan, but they weren’t very interested. Later the girl with the umbrella took me to the market, where we talked to people selling stuff, but they were pretty dull. They all seem to be in it for themselves. We saw this girl buying fish, and this guy began to hassle her. ‘Why doesn’t she get someone else to help her out?’ I asked. ‘Nobody’s going to help you out,’ said the girl with the umbrella.”