Persimmon Harvest

I went to one class yesterday. I was egregiously late, for no reason. Although I do not live far from campus, there is no way to predict with certainly how long it will take me to get there. And, okay, I also left late. That was especially unfortunately because the class was specifically on the Shiji. On the other hand, that is the part I know best, so it was less of a loss. Still, embarrassing. I spent much of the class agonizing over a phone-call I had missed on the harried scramble to campus, from LGs, presumably in response to my e-mail about our possible collaboration. When the class got out at noon, though, I managed to call back and set up a meeting for next Friday. I was very pleased, although as usual I am greatly assailed by doubts and worries in the aftermath. I should remember that I liked him and his wife a lot and felt very comfortable at their house and talking shop with him! It is hard to remember, though.

After this I felt very relieved so I went to lunch with my classmate Crystal and her roommate. It was kind of awkward somehow, but pleasingly sociable. The roommate, also in the history department, works on Africa and South America, which I found quite fascinating. But as she's only an MA student, she had nothing in the way of specifics to say about her work. She's just starting. Actually, she said, she'd wanted to work on Europe, but there had been a mix-up! Work on Europe. Can a person do that?! I mean, can that even be considered a field of 'specialization'? Similarly of course with Africa AND South America, but at least there are potential comparative topics, I guess. Well, I guess I "work on Chinese history and literature" which must seem equally astonishing to Chinese people.

The pictures below are of persimmon trees! I noticed them a few days before because they had begun to drop ripe golden fruit. The highest fruit is first to ripen, and being high it falls hard and splatters bit. So it was easy to notice. But then yesterday I saw people industriously harvesting them with pole-knives and cloth spread between two poles to catch the fruit. It was hard to photograph, but I did my best. I assume the harvesters must have been officially sponsored, as a campus security station was right down the street.




After this, I accomplished almost nothing. I have been having stunningly unproductive afternoons and evenings lately. I picked up a copy of The Peach Blossom Fan, the play I'm going to go see in a few days, translated into English and changed from a drama into a novella. The translation (Chinese text was on the facing page) was pretty weak and occasionally downright wrong. And plays often get pretty flat when translated into prose--this was no exception. However, I thought it would be good if I could at least begin to get a sense of the story, since I'd never studied it. I'd had no idea how political the work was; amazing it survived. It was written during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), but it dealt with events surrounding the fall of the previous dynasty, the Ming. Very politically sensitive stuff. It's been translated properly by Cyril Birch, but they didn't have that in the bookstore. Well, I'll try to have a crack at the original before I go see it.

Aside from that--nothing. Here is a very dark picture of me sitting on my window seat. I'm not sure if it will show up for you at all, but if not, then imagine me just sittin' in the middle of that dark square.



I've decided to do the news for the day on which I'm writing rather than the day on which I'm writing about. It just seems to make more sense. So my news pick for the day is a fundamentalist Christian who wanted to serve his country but ended up believing that what we're doing in Iraq is a disaster. The article had many interesting points, including a good demonstration of how you sign your rights away when you join up, and also--something I didn't know--that there are (apparently?) pacifist hotlines for military personnel, manned among others by Quakers. They must hear some stories all right. Anyway, the article's really worth a read.