The Cold, Hard, North

The General

The body of the Confederate army’s greatest general appears to be in perfect health for a man his age.  In the morning he attends to his many laborious duties and even goes to Sunday mass, ever the faithful believer.  When it comes time to eat, however, there is no energy left in the old warhorse.  He feels faint.  The blood rushes to his head.  He sits down in his armchair and exhales a breath. 

The doctors say that the condition is serious.  General Lee is suffering from congestion of the brain, and his time is not long.  He will never ride his favorite horse, Traveler, again.  Soon, they will be buried, side by side–the steed and his master entombed in marble silence for the remainder of eternity.

“Strike up the tent.”

These are the last words that General Robert E. Lee, Saint of the South, utters.  He passes away silently on Wednesday October 12.  The marble statue of his body at rest slumbers peacefully in Lee Chapel.  To touch it is to touch ice.

The Weeping Swissman

The tears on Simon’s cheek freeze immediately as soon as the Siberian wind squeezes them out of his face.  The air in the north of China in Heilongjiang^W Province is dry and unforgiving, especially at night.  The temperature is well below zero, and it’s not even the coldest month of the year.  Everywhere in the city one may catch site of intricate ice sculptures–at the train station, lining the roads, on the way to the infamous Harbin Tiger Park–everywhere. 

The crowning achievements of Harbin’s ice sculptures can be found during  its Ice Sculpture Festival, held every year in the dead of winter (official start date of January 5th).  Participants and sculptors from China and across the globe come to add their own bit of culture and architecture to the ice paradise, making one feel as if he is in a scene amidst “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.”  After entering the manmade Ice fairyland across the river from the train station, one can find examples of some of the world’s greatest monuments, architectual masterpieces, and historical artifacts.  All are lit up with Christmas lighting.  All are made of ice.   

The first time I had ever heard of or considered coming to Harbin^W, China’s “Ice Capital” was three years ago during my time in the southern province of Jiangxi^W.  One of my co-workers at the time was a Romanian woman aged 40 years old named Diana.  She was engaged to a Chinese man from Harbin named Mr. Zhang.  I had heard Diana talk of Mr. Zhang and of Harbin for some time.  She told me that he was a retired ice scuptor who left his art because of his bad shoulder.  Diana brought it to my attention that Mr. Zhang would be visiting Jiangxi for one week and needed a place to stay.  I happily offered my spare room to him.  When he came, he immediately made himself at home shffling around the various rooms in his long underwear and bath slippers.  He cleaned the house, he made meals for me, at night we drank yoghurt or alcohol together.  When I was out of the house he would smoke in the living room.  One day I returned home to find him assembling more than 300 Chinese dumplings in my kitchen.  When I told him that these were far too many dumplings for us to eat, he told me not to worry, as he had already informed 3 of my students that they would be coming over to eat dinner at “our place.”  One week turned into two weeks.  Two weeks turned into four.  A month passed.  A month and a half.  When I left for a vacation to sunny Thailand, Mr. Zhang was still lounging in his long underwear and slippers.  That was the last vision I had of him in my mind’s eye.  That was the only impression I had of Harbin.  The “Ice Capital” of China would remain a mystery to me until this year.

The Prophet

During the last hours of Jesus Christ’s life, the prophet had to endure some of the most unbearable and torturous treatment known to man.  Betrayed after the last supper, he was beaten, flogged and made to bear the cross.  The story of his suffering and resurrection is one that is known throughout the West.  Jesus is said to have died for mankind’s sins.  In the New Testament he is referred to as the “Lamb of God” in John 1:29 and John 1:36.  This reference harkens back to ancient times when the lamb played an important role as a symbol of sacrifice for the Hebrews during Passover.  The blood of the lamb would be smeared over the doors of Jewish households in accordance with the Passover sacrificial rites.  The lamb became a symbol of innocence and purity.  Its blood washed away the sins of yesterday…

The Last Call

“The lamb is coming!  The lamb is coming!.”  The driver of the 25 passenger bus looks around at us with a sinister grin on his face.  My body prickles with anticipation at what comes next.  The other passengers on the bus get out of their seats as our bus comes to a halt.  Our bus is protected by metal wiring.  Outside the ground is still covered with snow–clean, white and pure.  The reason for the wiring on the windows and doors of the bus is apparent when a lion and tiger awaken from their mid-morning slumber only about 10 feet away from our vehicle.

Although we are in Harbin’s Siberian Tiger Park, the current enclosure that our bus has halted in does not hold many tigers.  In fact, the staff at the park have purposely put tigers and lions together in this particular enclosure in an attempt to spawn the practically sterile and circus-genetic freakshow felines referred to as “ligers.”  The park itself is huge, encompassing about 355 acres.  According to some statistics, there are more than 500 purebred Siberian tigers inside the park.  The idea is to prepare the tigers for being released into the wild.  In the past, the Siberian Tiger’s natural habitat was expansive covering much of Northern Asia, even reaching as far as Eastern portions of Iran.  Currently the population is very low as a result of interference from mankind.  The Harbin Siberian Tiger Park, however, is attempting to do its part as both a breeding ground and platform for being a re-introduction to the wild.  To re-introduce the tigers into the wild, however, the animals have to know the thrill of the hunt.  We see some bastardized version of this outside the barred windows of our bus.

The lion and tiger prick their ears up as our driver turns off the engine.  They know something is up.  The air is tense and quiet.  I can hear the creak of the bus as people shffle back and forth to get their cameras ready or warm their feet.  Suddenly, the fenced in entrance to our enclosure is opened, and another SUV rushes through the gate.  The vehicle is also covered with meshed wires and bits of chicken feathers caught between the wires.  When the vehicle is in front of us, it’s door opens for a split second, and a pair of human hands tosses a young, possibly 2 year old lamb out of the car.  The door slams closed, the lamb is off…for a split second.  In the time it takes for the lamb to realize that it is not inside of a vehicle anymore, the sunlight shines on his white hair and the female lion pounces on him.  There is no doubt as to the outcome of the contest.  The lioness is huge.  Her teeth are already suffocating the lamb.  What none of us are prepared for is the sound of the lamb’s cries…like a human baby.   I will hear them for the rest of my life.  The lioness is in no apparent rush to finish the job. 

“Have you seen enough?”  The driver turns to the passengers to make sure everyone is satisfied  with Nature’s course.  He seems to be enjoying the show…still with the same sinister smile on his face.  I can only imagine how many of these slaughters he has witnessed during the course of his life’s work as a bus driver in the park.  The bus is silent, and people are sitting back down again.  No one seems to want to continue to watch as the lioness plays with her dying prey.  The driver turns the ignition on, and we drive off leaving the lamb, the lioness, and our sins in the confines of the park.

 Uncle Joe

In 1898 Harbin and Russia were tied together in a deal forged in iron with the construction by the Russians of the China Eastern Railway.  The city is in such close proximity to  Russia, and the influences of China’s great neighbor to the North are easy to feel, especially when we walk along it’s “Russian Avenue” or Zhong Yang (literally meaning “Central”) Street.  Not far from this street is another one of Harbin’s symbols of Russian influence, the St. Sophia Russian Orthodox Church.  The city of Harbin was even occupied by Russia during the years 1945 and 1946. 

Although we did not visit it on this trip, there is even a Stalin Park in Harbin that was constructed in 1953 to commemerate the friendship between the two communist parties.  At that time, relations between the communist behemoths was healthy.  In an unusually upbeat moment during a conversation with then Chairman Mao Ze Dong, Uncle Joe remarks, “If we [China and Russia] continue to be friendly, peace can last not only 5-10 years, but 20-25 years and perhaps even longer.” (USC-UCLA Joint East Asian Studies Center)

Trinity

The General, the Prophet, Uncle Joe.  All three of them come together to meet in Harbin, City of Ice, City of Sacrifice, Russia’s little brother.  The salesgirl in the Russian trinket and souvenir shop holds the three of them in her hands and offers them to me, wanting me to dish out cash to buy them and take them away from the Cold, Hard, North.  She’s a cute girl with a nice smile.  We came in the store to look for gifts, but also  just to get out of the cold.  I look down at the Three in her hands and wonder what the Hell are they doing here.  They must be well-known figures to the people of Harbin.  The citizenry must be able to point to their successes and failures as models of how to live or not to live one’s own life.  In Harbin, Civil War history mixes with the New Testament, all under the watchful eye of a protecting Russian dictator.  Her hands are heavy with meaning.  Surely, she must know much about these Three.  I point down at the picture of Robert E. Lee and ask her to tell me what she knows about him.

“Who?  Santa Claus?” she asks.

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