Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman: This book sure has qi!
This week I
went back to a much-loved book, the memoir of a young English teacher`s
two-year stint in Changsha, in the Hunan province of China. It was written in
the late 80s and went on to become a cult classic, following which there was a
film of the same name. Salzman being one of the handsomest writers ever, played
himself in the film. Which was not a
patch on the book.
What a book.
Written with the lightest but most heartwarmingly real touch ever, the chapters
form a charming collage of Salzman aka
Teacher Mark aka Sima Ming`s (his Chinese name) trip through the (cliché
alert!) impenetrable Oriental maze. He didn’t come to the country all that wet behind
the ears though; a Yale scholar, Salzman majored in Chinese literature, was a student of the Chinese martial arts and
had started learning calligraphy as well.
This is the
China of men carrying shoulder poles and hanging baskets and trading in maos
(cents). The title refers to the twin styles of martial art Salzman learned and refined while in Changsha. Having
had the good fortune to meet one of China`s popular martial arts exponents Pan Qingfu
(who starred in the cult Shaolin Temple film and is known as Iron
Fist), Salzman cajoles his way into the
former`s classes and learns Chinese boxing, ending up with learning the forms
of the Long Sword, too. Master Pan has come
by his name because he keeps pounding
them on an iron plate nailed to a
concrete wall! After a spell, Salzman also takes up the Wudan style of Chinese boxing,
specifically the slower, fluid and graceful
Tai Chi, learning to move his hands like silk.
In between,
he is busy improving the English of his students (No, you can`t say `may I enjoy
you,` it`s `may I join you.` No, it`s
not `go play with yourself,` its `play by yourself`), practicing wushu for as many as ten hours every
day, tuning an old piano for a fellow teacher, going fishing with his new boat
friends, learning calligraphy… and most important of all, learning how `to eat
bitter,` to endure suffering. It`s no wonder Salzman`s two years in China pass
swiftly by.
The strength
is in the story here. Salzman adopts a deliberately non-judgmental, sketching
the character portraits of the people he meets with much detail and much indulgence.
There are the stereotypes of course: the teacher with a heart of gold and
crusty exterior who mothers Salzman throughout his stay (and also telle him: You
laugh a great deal during your lectures. Laugh less. If you laugh too much you
will have digestive problems), the unsophisticated and happy fisherfolk who
live on boats, the rude, rule-quoting officials, men and women; the palpable official fear of `Western
corruption,` even the shy beauty who (momentarily) steals Salzman`s heart.
Real nuggets
of life in the rural China of those days is wrapped in beguiling sentences. His
struggles to get some meds to treat ordinary athlete`s foot from Hong Kong, is
an eye-opener to the strictly controlled China of heretofore. Since all
diseases have been officially driven out of the People`s Republic, how does one
treat an condition that does not exist?!
Another revealing passage is the one where one of his students
innocently ask him how it feels to belong to the country that dropped an atom
bomb on innocent people. That could have led to major awkwardness but Salzman
and one of his students quickly deflect and shoo away this particular white
elephant in the classroom. Salzman also not infrequently faces the Campaign for
the Elimination of Cultural Pollution.
And yes, the
similarities of life there and life here abound, right from the way people hang half out of
local buses to the guru- shishya parampara Salzman forges with all his
teachers.
Read it if
you haven`t read it. Re-read it for a fresh appreciation of a story well told.