Monday, September 20, 2004
Lunch With Chunli
Travelling in the backwoods of Yunnan, one never knows what's coming next. The guidebooks only cover the few towns popular with tourists, and the local maps give only the name of otherwise anonymous towns. My map indicated that Jinping was a small county seat and was home to at least a half a dozen of China's minority groups. It showed that its location, 20 kilometres north of the Vietnamese border, was isolated enough to ensure that very few would take the time to visit. Only after the bus made its way down over the last pass did I discover that Jinping was a charming town on a mountain side overlooking a narrow valley. And I had to wait another day before I would meet Chunli, the most beautiful woman in town.
No, I'm not quite finished with my Hmong material, but even this story is marginally connected. However, another story about a deaf school in Nicaragua where the children seem to have invented their own sign language really caught my eye. It brought back memories of my own attempts to learn Chinese sign language and all the fun I had with it.
My brother told me something funny he picked up from his visit to the Wolverhampton Deaf Film & TV Festival, which by the way is scheduled for November this year. Talking or crackling snack wrappers during a film won't disturb a deaf audience. But keep your hands down. Touching your hair or face or making gestures will draw attention and will not be appreciated.
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