The Forbidden City, Eunuchs, Surveillance and Giant Otters!
The Forbidden City, Eunuchs, Surveillance and Giant Otters!
The Forbidden City, Eunuchs, Surveillance and Giant Otters!
August 22, 2008
Hmm...that title may come back to bite me.
Anyway, I realised yesterday that the vlog thing is addictive - the allure of quicktime pro has made me lazy - so I will write a blog today as well as a vlog...that sounds fair….
I went to the Forbidden City the other day. As usual, I was under constant surveillance, not necessarily the Chinese government as far as I can tell, instead eyes were on me from all angles - seemingly every family had one eye on their history and the other on me…. I am sure this sounds like ego, but two factors back me up: first, this isn’t flattering star-gazing type starring it’s just “what-the-hell-is-that!?” type starring; second, my co-presenter Ron McIntosh, another 6’8” black, English bloke told me he had the very same experience in the forbidden city - one so acute that he felt it “...almost spoiled the experience.” So for a change, it’s not all just in my head.
Since I had seen a “Discover Beijing” documentary on the Forbidden city at 3am the morning before this trip, I of course knew everything there is to know about it!
In reality, I had at least been given a taster, but frankly, nothing prepares you for the real thing, it’s scale and it’s grandeur and, in fact, it’s symmetry are awe inspiring.
A little more austere and practical than most of the public and ceremonial areas of Buckingham Palace for example. But while “buck house” whispers with echoes of a dramatic, uninterrupted history - events long since gone, now replicated only in ceremony; the palaces of the Forbidden City reeked of antiquity. It felt as if the Forbidden City was a freshly opened time capsule sealed after the last Emperor, but by entering it’s walls all five senses were soaked in the another time, another dynasty.
It took a little imagination, for sure, one of the few resources I have in abundance. I looked around, standing still and rotating on axis while my brain airbrushed out the throng. In that moment, you could imagine the giggling of concubines ahead, the clattering of pots in the domestic staff area, and feel the gaze of the silent, sentry soldiers at their post, just as you can in contemporary China...my mind drifted to Eunochs - no bizarre fascination - I wince just like most men when thinking of that violation, but people would be surprised by the role that Eunochs played in the daily life of the Emperor and his Queen. Most people know they were house servants, considered ‘safe’ to have roles around the Emperor’s concubines, minor Empresses and Queen, but they often also had high ranking positions as personal confidants to the Emperor, generals and one, Ruan An, was the architect of the Forbidden City for Yongle Emperor Zhu Di.
“Not bad for a man whose testicles had been removed at or before puberty…” I thought, and then winced again.
I was brought back to the 21st century, fully intact, by a woman who brushed up against by back whilst surreptitiously trying to have her photo taken with me. I looked over my shoulder and frowned deeply as she smiled up at me, I don’t like to scare or intimidate (at least physically) but I think it’s important to let people know when their perception of the appropriateness of an interaction doesn’t mesh with yours.
Damn! The spell was broken and I was in a hot courtyard surrounded by people - I had become a modern addition to the exhibit.
I needed a drink. Thankfully, there was a coffee shop in the Forbidden City, in fact it was “the best coffee shop in China” according to their sign. Tucked away near the central courtyard, integrated with the inevitable gift shop, it had once been a Starbucks. My mind boggled at this news - how incongruent must that have been? Apparently, the people of China felt the same way, as countrywide condemnation caused its shutdown and removal...considered, somewhat ironically, an invasion of a sacred, space, one that had considered the centre of the Universe, and home of not just an earthly, but celestial Emperor. I say ironic, as it was just such an intrusion and the consequent expulsion of the “last emperor,” Puyi from the Forbidden City, that ended the reign of 24 emperors - fourteen of the Ming Dynasty and ten of the Qing Dynasty over nearly 500 years. (TV can be educational!)
I should add that the programme I watched was produced by CCTV (Chinese state run TV) so I may need to round my sources when I get home.
I went inside the best coffee shop in China, I really wanted Chinese tea, something I am now addicted to, but the weather was just too muggy for that to be comfortable. I had a bottle of water instead. The coffee shop was ‘swamp-cooled’ so I chose to find somewhere outside to sit. One of the benefits of this place is its scale. It makes me feel small, I sat next to one of the copper and gold leaf vats, standing six feet high on their stone plinths. (They were used as an early fire extinguishing protocol.) I sat on the marble cornerstone and my feet dangled - I know it seems inconsequential, but that almost never happens to me, I let them swing and I felt like kid again…
My neck burned and I turned to see a man, only one metre away, who looked old enough to have met the last emperor, just starring at me. He pointed a bony finger and I stopped swinging my legs - my brain reminding me I am too old for that anyway. My daydream once again disrupted, I edged forward and dropped off the marble heading to the exit.
On the way in (and out) there is a garden full of huge sculpted trees, collections of rocks pilled to the sky and beautiful buildings offering rest. There was also a fuss going on in the corner: a child had climbed onto a sculpture and despite the appeals of his mother, refused to get off. I watched with some amusement - there is something humanising about seeing unruly families and the ASBO generation (google it, if you’re not from the UK!) exist everywhere. Finally, exasperated, she shouted something so loudly, that quiet fell for a moment and she turned away to compose herself. I asked what she had said and with a grin on his face Jeff said “...if you don’t get off there, I will call the authorities and they will take you away forever!”
It’s funny (not ha ha), I must have been told similar by my Mum a hundred times, but here, today, in China, it happens. A lot.
As I walked through the exit and outside, I saw some bikes with Mexican flags on them, not Olympic cyclists taking a well deserved break from the velodrome to tour the city, but rather, as one biker unfurled a large yellow ‘Corona’ flag, an advertisement. I smiled...I drink that beer (when I am being butch) but it seemed a little inappropriate to turn the pathway to the celestial palace into a strip mall forecourt.
I watched a show recently about some naturalists that had gone to the South American rain forest of Peru to try and film the giant otter - they had taken seven trips over several months and never seen even one. Then one morning they woke in their tents to find a family of otters fishing in the river next to them, they scrambled to wake the crew and get cameras rolling to capture the creatures in the open.
Gay people in public, in China, showing even the vaguest type of affection are rarer than giant otters in Peru.
Scientists regard giant otters in South America as endangered; even though there are some discrete and hidden parts of South America, like the Guianas (Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana,) where they do congregate in numbers and cling to their habitats. These are areas where the indigenous people don’t hunt them and and a recent influx of eco-tourism has encouraged the authorities to preserve their habitat and protect the species.
“Ah ha! Do you see what I did there?” (anyone who gets this obscure film reference deserves a prize - but won’t get one.)
Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes, starring…
I instructed Jeff to take a picture of the couple holding hands. (I know, I know… horrible...the blame lays firmly with me.) There was only an instant to take advantage of this sight and then it might be gone for this trip. They were holding hands, big as life, metres from a security check point, there was no time for “...may I have your picture?” “don’t move...stay as you were” or even “don’t worry...I’m gay too!” conversations. Just time for *click* and the deed was done.
And yet, here I am telling you this story…my hope being that my shock and reverence at the presence of this couple at the foot of the Forbidden City will resonate with you, straight, gay or otherwise; Chinese, American or from where ever you might hail. That my desire that more people will feel safe to show their true authentic faces will be transmitted through you. And that change in China (and elsewhere) will be propagated so that our children will get to see similar sights in their lifetime, even if their increased prevalence, makes them seemingly less awe-inspiring. I also hope that my allegory tells you something about the climate here for this particular ‘endangered species.’
You should also google giant otters. They are beautiful, mysterious and amazing.
Also, don’t spend too much time on thinking on the whole “...Is he calling lesbians giant otters?” or the reverse. Your brain will explode.