CRASHING THROUGH THE EAST BARRIER 闖關東

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the empire lay in ruins as internal and external relations crumbled, the stability of the past gave way to discord and shifting alliances. At that time, the imperial government in the Northern Metropolis (北京 beijing) decided to open up the lands east of the Willow Palisades (柳條邊 liutiao bian) to settlement by the Han (漢族 hanzu).

Within years, the native population was vastly outnumbered by the immigrants, and prosperity abounded. But the main advantage was that the Russians now faced a formidable obstacle to further expansion. Rapacious Czarist officials and illiterate Cossack hordes had been stymied by the oldest barrier to imperialist expansion known to man: stubborn Chinese peasants.

Okay, I know I gave a somewhat deviant and simplistic spin to events in those last few words, but given that I'm having the very devil of a time understanding Mandarin, re-interpreting is rather essential.
In some ways I'm inventing a new continuity.

The Settling of Manchuria, Prequel, First Episode.

A forty part soap opera produced by the Dalian Television Studio (大連電視臺 dalian dianshitai) a couple of years ago, in what was formerly called Port Arthur (旅順 lushun; 亞瑟 yase) in Liaoning Province (遼寧省), North-Eastern China (中國東北 zhongguo dongbei).
It's about revenge, banditry, gold.
And, of course, the Japanese.
Plus revolutionaries.
Progress.


闖關東前傳 -- 第1集
CHUAN GUANDONG QIANCHUAN -- DI YI JI


[SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYrPw8SMJ4Q.]


The second oldest barrier to imperialist expansion is Mandarin-speaking actors chewing up the scenery.

Nearly an hour of remarkably likable people wearing remarkably baggy clothes. An old mother weeping her outrage at the misbehaviour of her worthless daughter. Two gentlemen of peasant origin eating stolen buns, one of which, and I quote, "tastes like fart".

你聞吧，這裡還有屁味呢。

"Nǐ wén ba, zhèlǐ hái yǒu pì wèi ne."


As with all Chinese television serials, it's the human element (and the furniture) which fascinates.

One of the characters (female) is called 纓兒 (jing-er), which can be translated as "little tassel". She appears to be the requisite 'good girl', and in consequence is rather drippy.

The "bad" (spirited) girl is disguised as a geek (書生 shusheng), and travels with a lute (琵琶 pipa). She fled the family home just before her father was arrested. Naturally, there are a few scenes of the constabulary oppressing the masses.


Dang it looks freezing in Manchuria!
I'm quite enjoying the show.
Probably for all the wrong reasons, as I live in San Francisco (三藩市 san fan shi; 舊金山 jiu jin shan), and the weather never gets THAT cold here (except during summer), and to the best of my knowledge none of the local Cantonese wears fur hats, rides horses, and has strings of dried chili peppers hanging on the wall.

As a note of verisimilitude, given the geographic origins of the transmigrant populus, I should mention that the personal pronoun used in speech in the series is 俺 (an), which outside of Northeastern China is rather anomalous.


Anyway, watch it for yourself.
There are forty episodes.
At the very least, your Mandarin will be improved, possibly also your understanding of the people and their culture.




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================