THE SEARCH FOR A VANISHING BEIJING: A GUIDE TO CHINA’S CAPITAL THROUGH THE AGES
MA Aldrich, Hongkong University Press, US$49.50
After several visits to Beijing, you’ve already seen the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. You’ve paid your respects at the Temple of Heaven and marvelled at the Empress Dowager’s marble boat at the Summer Palace. You’ve eaten Peking Duck and drunk too much Chinese liquor. So what next? Buy this book and use it as you revisit the major sights again and again. In between times, take in some of the less-familiar sights, the bizarre and the beautiful corners that still remain in this city of a thousand pneumatic drills.
You could not have a better guide than long-time Beijing resident MA Aldrich. He has a day job as a corporate lawyer, but after office hours he prowls the parks, markets, alleys and libraries in search of the past.
The absence of colour pictures alerts you straightaway that this is no ordinary guidebook. It’s a hard-back, weighing in at a hefty 900g, but still worth lugging around as you explore. The author cautions at the outset: “I have not attempted to sift fact from legend or make any new contribution to a body of scholarship. Rather, I have simply gathered miscellaneous stories recorded over the centuries and set them out alongside their original stage sets.”
Who will miss coloured pictures and bland clichés as they savour Aldrich’s characteristically strong lacing of pepper and vinegar? To take a couple of his most feisty comments at random, he writes of “The loutish China Club”. Speaking of the products of Sino-foreign joint venture vineyards, he comments:
“After an extended stay in Peking, these wines will begin to seem to taste good, which is purely a symptom of a much-needed home leave.”
He has adopted (with due acknowledgement) Frances Wood’s delightfully irreverent term, the mausoleum (sic) and made it his own. For good measure he mutters: ”As a symbol of national unity, the Chairman now serves a more constructive role in death than he ever did in life.”
He is at his best when he encourages readers to venture beyond the familiar tourist-stamping grounds. The penultimate section of the book should encourage everyone to spend time in the Western suburbs, exploring such delights as the Tan Zhe Si and the Jie Tai Si.
When the Beijing version of Trivial Pursuit appears, you will be well prepared after reading this book: you might already know that elephants served a ceremonial function from Ming times until the late 19th-century. But only Aldrich will tell you that their droppings were sold to Peking ladies as a shampoo.
Aldrich’s chapter on food will surely endear him to everyone. The price of the book is worth paying for his insights into restaurants alone. A true foodie, recommending Lao Si Chuan, he says: “I would be as pleased as punch to arrange to have my ashes interred here so that my ghost can partake in the kitchen preparations of the powerfully fragrant dishes.” What a wonderful way to spend the afterlife!
Jane Ram
