MPR's Mindy Ratner checks in from China and discusses how the government is beautifyingthe city in prepartion for the 50th anniversary of the advent of communism. In the process fo changing the city, the government is kicking businesses out of spots to make way for green spaces. Ratner also talks about her new hobby of fan dancing.
MINDY RATNER: There has been just weeks and weeks of frantic activity to get things ready, which means everything from painting old buildings so that they look nice and clean, and creating instant gardens, potted gardens. They don't plant plants, they bring potted ones and fix them in these marvelous, elaborate, geometric forms and all this stuff. They had a deadline of October 1 for completing the subways. I don't know whether it's actually been done, though. I haven't tried to take it any further than the old Eastern terminus.
One thing I point out about this, which is kind of interesting, I'm a person who loves green space. I like to spend time in parks and places where there are trees and flowers and stuff. And I must say, the city is really looking a lot greener than before.
But interestingly, to be able to watch this transformation take place, it's also involved disrupting people's lives and livelihoods to an extraordinary degree. Many, many markets have been torn down and hutongs have been torn down. And now there's grass planted and so it looks very pretty.
But there's not much ceremony to kicking people out. They just get a notice and say, OK, you're finished. You just have to find someplace else to go. And many thousands of people have been just uprooted as part of this effort to make the city look nice.
HOST: Now, I understand that you also participated in some kind of a Chinese dance event yesterday. Is that right?
MINDY RATNER: [LAUGHS]
Yeah, I did. I have been accepted as a member of a [CHINESE] which means a dance team. It's about as close as the Han people come to folk dancing.
They don't really have a folk dance tradition, although many of the minorities do. It's kind of a walking dance that's done in lines with fans and kerchiefs. And most of the dancers are older women, at least minimum my age and lots older.
I was watching one of these groups one night. The leader saw me watching. She invited me to join them.
And I would have loved to do it, but I felt a little shy about it. But no, she said, come back and I'll teach you how to do it. This is, of course, all in Chinese, right?
HOST: Oh, yeah.
MINDY RATNER: So I actually got to participate in a competition, which took place on Sunday. It was kind of a combination celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival and the upcoming national day. So it was a blast. The Chinese people who were watching loved it because I was the only foreigner. But I'm kind of used to that.
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