While later today Canada will be celebrating its own anniversary with fireworks, BBQ and a whole lot of drinking; in China it’s all about the Communist Party of China’s 90th anniversary.

Not one to shy away from the spirit of things, I figured it was an excellent time to showcase one of Hainan’s most well known group of folk heroes — the Red Detachment of Women — best known for the series of ballets their story has inspired.

The Red Detachment of Women (simplified Chinese: 红色娘子军; pinyin: Hóngsè Niángzǐjūn) is a Chinese ballet which premiered in 1964. It is perhaps best known in the West as the ballet performed for U.S. President Richard Nixon on his visit to China in February 1972. Adapted from the earlier film of the same title under the personal direction of Zhou Enlai, which in turn adapted from the novel by Liang Xin, it depicts the liberation of a peasant girl in Hainan Island and her rise in the Chinese Communist Party.

The novel was based on the true stories of 100+ member strong all-female Special Company of the 2nd Independent Division of Chinese Red Army, first formed in May, 1931. As the communist base in Hainan was destroyed by the nationalists, most of members of the female detachment survived, partially because they were women and easier to hide among the local populace who were sympathetic to their cause. After the communist victory in China, the representatives of the surviving members were taken to Beijing and personally inspected and praised by Mao Zedong. Most of these surviving members currently reside in the city of Qionghai (84 survivors in 1994, 23 in 2001, 14 in 2008).

That Hainan’s most well-known and loved revolutionary heroes are a group of women is not at all surprising to me. The simple truth is that by China-wide comparison, Hainan men have to be the laziest bunch of y-chromosome carriers in the country. The women here are work horses, and are more often the ones you see doing the most physical of labour while their husbands and brothers sit in the shade of a nearby palm.

A case in point — a road was recently just built along the northern edge of the island district I live on. Now nearly finished, it provides a great view of the Qiongzhou Strait that runs between Hainan and the mainland. For three months I’ve watched the transformation of the road from a dirty construction site to a palm- and flower-lined street that’s great to wander down. And in that time I’ve seen women do virtually all the heavy manual labour while the male positions seemed limited to operating the large crane for hoisting up the palm trees (the women did all the tree positioning, hole digging and planting) and standing and staring supervising.

Interestingly enough, along this same stretch of road is a monument to the Communists resistance/defeat of the Nationalists here (there’s no actual mention on the monument of “who” was fighting — but it’s obvious from its absence that it relates to the Chinese civil war).

So happy anniversary CPC — may the next 90 be much better than the last.

You can watch the whole ballet/film for the Red Detachment of Women here.

(h/t Study More Chinese)

For all the grief that myself and my fellow compatriots give the country, it really is top shelf as countries go. Sure, it’s a bit vanilla when it comes to foreign affairs and global influence; a bit archaic when it comes to political makeup; and, well, a bit cold.

But it’s clean, big, relatively safe, under-populated and has enough of a balance between social conscience and capitalistic motivation for my liking.

The question that shadows me every day I live abroad, and is usually not far from the lips of my family, is “when will I move home”. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit there was spark of desire to do so, but all I can say for now is, “not yet.”

Mags and I have some plans that I will discuss in a separate post, and the majority of them will keep us in China for the near future. But not forever. One day I am sure I will leave the Middle Kingdom and return to the True North Strong and Free, turning the tables on my laowainess and putting my wife in the confused-foreigner chair (something I sadistically revel the thought of) – just “not yet”.

Happy Canada Day everyone.

Canada, Please! – Julia Bentley & Andrew Gunadie

Sorry if you’re in China without VPN and thus can’t see the embedded YouTube video above.

This year’s Canada Day marked the fourth I’ve been in China for, but the first I’ve celebrated – and what’s better, we did it properly with a BBQ and beer!

I had tossed around the idea of doing a Canada Day BBQ a few weeks back, but some other Canadians here in town mentioned they may put something together and I didn’t want to conflict. Besides, with a recent move and an impending 31st birthday just a couple weeks away, I’ve plenty of excuses to celebrate.

However, the alt.Canada plans fell through, and so on somewhat of a whim Maggie and I decided to put our new apartment and adjoining backyard to use and host a little party.

Initially I was just going to use the crappy little BBQ I’ve had for a couple years now, but realizing I have a whole summer of outdoor cookery ahead of me, we headed over to B&Q (like Home Depot for the N. American readers) and found a decently sized grill for about 150RMB (about $20).

Alright, I admit, I wanted the big 550 RMB one, and was set to settle on the 350 RMB one – but my wife used her Jedi mind tricks economic common sense in illustrating that the 150 RMB one was the same size as the 350 RMB one, and only lacked a little bun warmer rack.

All that to say – we got to eat charred flesh for Canada Day. I did marinated chicken breasts, seafood pasta salad, and burgers. The burgers were the most amusing to make. Not really certain how many people would be coming, I bought a massive wad of ground beef, and after mixing in some seasoning, I had what looked like the world’s largest meat ball.

After fantasizing what it might be like to actually cook a meatball that large, I tore it apart and smacked the bits into patties. Good times.

In my rush to get everything bought and prepared, I forgot a few things – fortunately my neighbour, the handy and well-informed guy that he is – swung by the import shop and grabbed cheese slices, relish, mayo, lettuce and tomatoes to assure the guests would have all the fixings.

The grill took a bit of effort to get going, and once lit required my company pretty much the entire night, which meant I didn’t get as much a chance to hang out and chat with everyone as I would have liked, but all in all the day was a success.

As I had no real desire to trek into town searching for fireworks, I figured we’d have to go without, but my Canadian friends Mark and Sarah showed up with a big box of them (bought at a rather well-fought discount I hear).

It was nearly 10 pm by the time we got out and started lighting them off in our community’s courtyard, and after a couple window-shaking bangs we realized we weren’t making any friends (despite that we were operating under the guise of it being a celebration for the founding of the Communist Party of China) and so moved it to an unpopulated area a block or so away.

Being a work-night, things slowly wound down after the fireworks, and thus my first Canada Day celebration in China came to a close. It was great to be able to hang out with a bunch of Canucks and celebrate the way we do best – with beer and beef! Hell, we even sang the national anthem!

Earlier that day my neighbour Glenn came by with his golden retriever Huáng Huang and I took the opportunity to grab a few new photos with Addie.