Sichuan Saturday 19 years, 9 months ago by Martey Dodoo

It occurred to me that I ran across references to the region of Sichuan three times yesterday. First, while reading a New York Times article about crowded Chinese beaches which described three young interns' from Sichuan's first time at the beach:

"There are plenty of people in Sichuan," he said. "We can see a lot of girls in swimming pools."

He was more captivated by the sea. It was the first time he had ever seen it. "It's so vast," he said. "It's so beautiful and magnificent."

Then, four or five hours later, in another New York Times article from today's edition, about economic disparity in China (or perhaps I should say, the "two Chinas"). This piece focused on the suicide of a promising young high-schooler unable to take final examinations because of his inability to pay $80 in fees.

In school in Pujia, Qingming excelled in biology, and dreamed of becoming a doctor. He also loved literature. He filled his scrapbook with clipped essays and wrote his own ditties. One he repeated so often that his grandfather recites it from memory:

Do not toady to those above.
Do not flatter the rich.
Do not cheat the poor.
Make way for a new generation.

Finally, I was randomly searching through Wikipedia articles, when I ran across the entry for "Battle of Chi Bi." From here, I read the entire entry on the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. Since I also wondered about the Chinese epic "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (partly because the computer game was advertised on the back of my manual for Liberty or Death; both were made by Koei), I read Liu Bei's entry. Liu Bei's kingdom, Shu, included what is modern Sichuan.