Chinese village offers glance at past

Thursday, April 6, 2006, 2:47 p.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

LIU TIAN, China - The scent of wood-burning stoves hung heavily over this 1,200-year-old family village nestled at the foot of the Mei Ling Mountains.
Some of the 1,000 residents who live here, all of whom share the Huang family name, were cooking lunch when our tour bus arrived today with families adopting Chinese babies.
The sight of Americans toting young Chinese babies didn’t alter their plans. Some residents, particularly the elderly men and women, stopped briefly to look at the babies.
Others, though, went about their normal routine taking care of their homes, playing mah jong friends, playing card games friends or plowing rice fields with their water buffalo.
This is life in rural China, where people still live in cement-block homes and life is centered around their family and a small gathering place in the center of the village.
It’s also likely that our child, Camryn, may have been born in a similar rural village. Camryn was found abandoned on the side of a road and taken to an orphanage in Jiujiang City.

Proud history

Liu Tian has a proud history. The Huang family settled here years ago after they fled their original village, also called Liu Tian but located in the Hubei province.
They have everything they need to live a full life without having to trudge 60 kilometers south, or about an hour’s drive, to the much larger city of Nanchang.
Residents here live in ancient homes, many furnished with antique furniture almost as old as the village.
Water drains away from the city beneath the large cement blocks that make up the maze of narrow walkways through Liu Tian. You can hear water steadily flowing beneath the walk.
Chickens and ducks roam freely about the streets. Some of the chickens are used for their eggs; others are feathered, cooked and prepared for meals.
A convenience store near the center of town offers fresh fruit and other food. Signs advertise the Chinese telephone company and cell phone service is readily available.

Village restaurant

Liu Tian also sports its own restaurant.
Patrons sit at wooden tables that resemble picnic tables in the dining room; uncooked meat selections hung from a string that stretched across the room.
I couldn’t read the menu which was written in Chinese. But the cook was crouched outside the restaurant this morning feathering either a duck or a chicken to cook later.
The winding maze of corridors left me in daze and with no sense of direction. And it was difficult to communicate with residents who spoke no English at all.
Holt International Children’s Services scheduled the tour for two reasons, including to help kill time while parents wait for the Chinese government to process their child‘s passport.
The chief reason, however - at least in my point of view - is to help parents like Pam and me to better understand and appreciate their new child’s culture.
And while touring the village was like watching a film in which much of the bright colors have been drained , Pam and I left with a fuller picture of China and its people.
This is a China few people see, and that is a sad shame.

Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.