Roy Kesey, a U.S. writer who currently lives in Beijing, bought his kids two
pinwheels at the Ditan temple fair. Kesey described the pinwheels in a column as
something "make 'clickety' sounds that did not seem so loud there in the throng
but that now, at home, are woodpeckers pecking churlishly at the backs of our
heads", but he said the temple fair "delighted" his kids Tom and Chloe.
Kesey said visitors at the temple fair "looked up at Tom riding on my
shoulders, and at Chloe riding on my wife's, and smiled, and took a picture of
us, because a foreigner made puffy by holiday food and then made tall by an
otherwise thin foreign child made likewise puffy by a bright snowsuit is an
amusing thing".
Andy from Britain who works as an editor in Beijing said, "The really best
thing about temple fairs is the children-watching. They just run around on
sugar-highs, kicking, screaming and laughing. And sometimes if you try you can
almost remember that feeling from your own childhood."
"If you are something of a cynical teenager then a temple fair is really
outdated and dull, but if you are an impressionable child or an easygoing adult,
you soon recognize and appreciate that there's a kind of innocent pleasure to a
temple fair," said Andy who has been to Ditan and Baiyunguan temple fairs a
couple of times each.
"You can enjoy the ''good clean fun' if you just adopt the correct attitude:
become 8 years old again, just once a year," he said.
Andy said he loves watching local opera performances by local opera troupes
at temple fairs in Beijing as the performances are more enjoyable and colorful
in real life than on TV.
Foreigners also join Chinese in observing "superstitions". At 6 a.m. Tuesday
morning, John and three other U.S. tourists joined the long queue of more than
100 meters at the gate of the Baiyunguan temple fair, only wish to touch a stone
monkey carved on the wall of the Baiyunguan, the largest Taoist architectural
complex in southwest Beijing. It is said that the touch can bring an auspicious
new year.
"I hope the touch will bring me good luck, happiness and longevity in the New
Year of the Dog," John said, "is it 'Fu, Lu, Shou' in Chinese?"
Brian and Jenny, young lovers from Britain now teaching in an international
school in Beijing, immersed themselves into the goal-shooting and dart games at
the International Temple Fair in east Beijing's Chaoyang Park. They have already
won three cuddly bears.
"I find I am really good at these games and I've given all the toy prizes to
Jenny," said Brian. His superb "laser-guided throwing skills" stunned the
ball-stall runner who complained, "We are going to run out of toys quite
quickly!"
Not satisfied with a mere visiting role, many foreigners joined performing
troupes in giving Beijing temple fairs a Western flavor.
At the Chaoyang Park, such foreign entertainment groups as a British wildcat
band, a Russian dancing group and a Spanish magic group energetically displayed
their own arts to the Chinese visitors.
At Ditan, Peruvian musician Manuel plays Latin music with the Chinese Xiao
flute, a Chinese vertical end-blown flute, making this corner of the temple fair
very exotic.
And far off there, a yellow-haired English girl is sitting on a chair,
napping, and her cute face constantly attracting passers-by. She looks
exhausted. Sitting beside, her mother holds the winds-charms and the big Pooh
Bear for her.
Editor: Joey
