Tianjin Women: Determined, Outspoken and Humorous
泼辣逗哏儿的天津女人
Tianjin, “ferry to the imperial capital”, is more of a gate way and the largest industrial and commercial center in North China. In the 12th century, Tianjin was a trading post during the Jin and in the 13th century developed as a port in the Yuan. Soon after the Grand Canal opened in 1412, inland commerce and Tianjin’s fortunes improved. After the Opium Wars, Tianjin became one of the treaty ports opened to foreign trade. Ever since, Tianjin has been the international exchange center of trade, business, culture, finance, education, medicine, science and techniques in North China. Women of Tianjin have demonstrated characteristics shared from the Sea Goddess as outspoken, helpful, efficient, perseverant, humorous, and artistic.
天津意为天子渡河的渡口。明朝迁都北京，天津据沿海水陆和漕运枢纽，地位更显重要。鸦片战争后，天津开放为通商口岸。经600年努力，天津已经成为中国北方与国际进行经济、科技、金融、贸易、文化交流的中心。天津女人用他们的泼辣、勤奋、率真、智慧、热情、幽默为中国这座移民及其后代为居民构成主体的大都会的发展承起“半边天”。”.
Sea Goddess helps those who help themselves
自立泼辣的半边天
Tianjin is a metropolis established after the Temple of Sea Goddess (1326 AD), the largest of its kind in North China and second largest in the world. The temple, located in the city center of old Tianjin, is not only a guardian of safety cruising on the sea and waters, but a blessing of happiness, good luck, longevity, prosperity, and fertility to people in Tianjin. Women of Tianjin are not “da ye” or wives of “da ye”, a form of address originally to officials or those who work for them in Beijing, and now to those who seem to be or those who want others take them as somebody. Where in Beijing “da ye” or wives of “da ye” did easy work and made more money only, for many “da ye” enjoyed “feng lu” or emolument generation after generation from the emperors, or they often took opportunities from their relations. Most of the residents in Tianjin are migrants or descendents of migrants. They believe, however, the real guardian of happiness is hard working and creative thinking. So they come and live in Tianjin to seek for opportunities and happiness.
While more women in Tianjin worked in textile plants, since the city used to be one of the largest manufacturers of textiles in China, many of them worked as maids, tailors, washers, shop assistants to support the family in the old days; also a lot of women worked at home to do needlework, make packages, etc. for exporters. Since the 1960s, more and more women have worked in manufacture and service institutions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as a result of the effective practice of opening to the outside world and reformation policy, more women were employed in the IT industry or joint-ventures; and because of the decreasing demand for textiles and the readjustment of the national economy, a lot of middle aged female workers were laid off from the firms and institutions they had worked for years. Facing these new challenges and difficulties, few women in Tianjin waited and complained. At the moment, Tianjin Women’s Union stood out and encouraged the laid off workers to find new work opportunities and set up vocation information centers at municipal, district and community levels. With the help of the local women’s union, they have attended training lessons, learned new skills, and now are working as owners of their own businesses, looking after their shops in the new shopping centers, offering household services in the communities. Since the mid 1990s, 18,800 women have attended training courses of varies kinds and 50,000 women have found new jobs with the help of vocation information centers of different levels.
Ms Lin, the director of a beauty salon, used to be a manager in a large state owned factory. The factory closed down when she was 38. Ms Lin, with new expectations, studied in a skin care and hair styling training program instead of staying at home and being supported by her husband. Eight years later, she opened her own beauty salon and has been doing quite successfully ever since. She says: “With my own hands, I have supported my self, my mother, and my son; with these hands, I have got real respect from my husband, my friends and my customers.
Wu Naifeng, deputy president of Tasly Group and director of Marketing Company of the Chinese traditional medicine producer, is one of the inventors of Cardiotonic, a novel oral droplet formulation based on the Chinese traditional medicine theory to be used for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. It is an approved drug product in China and has met the FDA's Investigational New Drug (IND) application in the United States. The former director of FDA Medicine Examination Institute Dr. Carl Peck was deeply impressed as he visited the Tasly Modernized Chinese Medicine Garden and gasped with admiration: “Tasly pharmaceutical industry has the same standard and level to American large pharmaceutical industries.“ The endeavor of Ms Wu and her colleagues to promote the internationalization of Chinese traditional medicine has been commended by All-China Women’s Federation and other government organizations and Wu Naifeng has been awarded “全国三八红旗手”, “Outstanding Female Entrepreneur of China”, and “Outstanding Women of China”.
In Tianjin, most of the women working in service and hospitality speak in Tianjin dialect, while in Beijing people doing the similar work speak in different dialects and accents of all places of the country. Disdain is written on the faces of those “da ye”. With urbanization in the country around the city, more women are underemployed. As a result, large scale training has been offered to 1,500,000 women who once lived and worked in the country, now the new towns or development zones around the city。Women of Tianjin are independent and self supported.
Knife Tongue and Bean Curd Heart
幽默率真的女“卫嘴子”
Visitors find women in Tianjin are friendlier and more polite when you do not forget to say “da jie”, which means elder sister in Chinese and a form of respect address to females in Tianjin, before you ask the way or for some help. Women of Tianjin are well known for their humors and puns, sometimes to some people they mean sarcasm and aggressiveness. Different from the mandarin Chinese, the official language of China, women of Tianjin feel honored with the local dialect, which is the accent many people living around Tianjin, in counties and towns of Hebei Province have shared. The local culture of Tianjin has stronger influence in the region than that of the old imperial city of Beijing. “da jie ” can be used to married or unmarried women in Tianjin, even to young schoolgirls, no matter how old they are. Women tend to be using more puns and humors when they chat, debate, or quarrel.“mai shang er liang mian hua fang fang” (买上二两棉花纺纺（访访）) literally means to buy some cotton and process it into thread, and figuratively it means to investigate and interview then you will know what kind person I am. The women of Tianjin are so popular for their humors and puns that many entertainers, especially talker of xiang sheng (cross-talk) in China achieve laughter by imitating the accent and humor of them. Instead of this, the talkers of xiang sheng reproduce the humors and accents of men in Beijing or Shangdong mainly. In “Go Fishing”, a cross-talk presented by Gao Yingpei and Fan Zhenyu, one of the best pair talkers of xiang sheng, imitated the accent of a granny in the neiborghood to the fishing fan: “the fish are so similar in size that you might buy them in the market.” A judgment is made in a sarcastic and indirect manner to criticize the fishing fan as bragging (吹牛chui niu) and dishonest, as he went fishing a couple of times without bringing any fish back home, he bought 1 kilo of fish in the market, so as to save his and his wife’s face as well. Women of Tianjin respect those who are hardworking and look down upon those who are “Chicken with feather dusters on the tail shows to others as if it were an eagle ”（鸡屁股上插掸子，楞充大尾巴鹰ji pi gu shang cha dan zi, leng chong da yi ba ying）, which means figuratively bragging and showing off in public. Just like the granny in the neighborhood, women of Tianjin will certainly find chances to make the braggart “zai mian” (栽面) , meaning loose face in public. Among neighbors and friends, women of Tianjin help to and care for each other as a local custom of this transportation and communication canter. In other cities, as neighbors live in tall buildings, they do not have chances to meet, not to say talk to each other. While in Tianjin, neighbors visit and extend New Year greetings face to face early in the morning of the New Year’s Day. Grandma Hao Enrong, who has been living in Tianjin for 60 years, believes from her personal experiences that relatives living afar are not as close as neighbors, and close neighbors are not as helpful as those living in opposite houses.（远亲不如近邻，近邻不如对门yuan qin bu ru jin lin, jin lin bu ru dui men）One evening the Grandpa fell down from the stairs at the entrance of the apartment building. Their sons and daughter, however, were living at the other side of the city, they could not come and help the grandpa any more then. The neighbors, even though some of them were as old as the grandpa, sent him to the nearby hospital by a tricycle at once. From these puns and humors people could understand fully what “knife tongue and bean curd heart （刀子嘴，豆腐心dao zi zui, dou fu xin）”means to the personal style of women of Tianjin.
Baked Corn Bread with Stewed Small Fish
贴饽饽熬小鱼的知足
Women of Tianjin consider being considerate to their husbands is as important as being critical to them. As women of Tianjin are trying to improve the quality of life at home, they generally satisfy with what they have. Most of them are good at cooking and planning of the household affairs. Though Beijing boasts for its roast ducks and imperial cuisine, people in North China consider the food in Tianjin is the second to none. Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing highly appreciated “gou bu li bao zi”, steamed meat bun of Tianjin style, though she could have imperial banquet in the Forbidden City whenever she wanted. “bao zi you xian, bu zai zhe shang包子有馅儿，不在褶儿上” means gourmets should not decide if the stuffing of the steamed meat bun of Tianjin style is more or less by their creases on the top. The steamed meat bun of Tianjin style is a must to tourists to Tianjin for the wrapper is very thin, the stuffing is full and carefully prepared. Actually，visitors to China could enjoy steamed meat buns of various flavors in cities or town along the Yangtze River or the Grand Cannel. Unlike the steamed meat bun of Shanghai style, which is a little sweet, or the steamed meat bun of Chengdu style, which has a strong taste of Sichuan pepper, the steamed meat bun of Tianjin style is with a nice saltish taste and a light sesame seed flavor, a taste people in Tianjin and those from the northern part of China enjoy very much. As amazing as the steamed bun, “Gou bu li”, the name of the well-known restaurant was originated from the founder of it. “Gou bu li”, meaning “dogs will show no interest to” was the nickname of Gao Guiyou. Boys from poor families at the time had nicknames of less decency, so as not to be wanted by demons or evil spirits when they were young. Moreover, the nickname gives customers the impression that the restaurant is intimate and the food is affordable. Gao Guiyou set up his “bao zi” restaurant at the joint of the three rivers and near the Temple of Sea Goddess. For about 150 years, “gou bu li bao zi” has been served as a snack or staple food to tourists and customers rich or poor, from waters or from lands. Tourists will never feel sorry when they have a taste of the delicious bun, and they try at the same time other dishes of Tianjin cuisine in the restaurant chain now.
As a city with efficient transportation and communication links to other nations and cultures, Tianjin offers food from the east to the west. Beisides, Tianjin dishes enjoy their own identity and fame. Women of Tianjin are specialized in cooking seafood, since the Haihe River runs through the city and the Bohai Sea is quite close to it. The most famous local dinner is “baked corn bread with stewed small fish” (tie bo bo ao xiao yu贴饽饽熬小鱼) which was originally cooked in a large wok and corn or wheat stems were used for cooking. A lot of people miss the dinner very much now, for years ago the corn and the fish were “100% green food”. Moreover, “baked corn bread with stewed small fish” (tie bo bo ao xiao yu, kao zhe贴饽饽熬小鱼——火靠 着) means literally to cook fish over a mild fire and make the soup simmer until it thickens or dries, makes figuratively a pun women use when they intend to fight for their own rights by sitting and waiting patiently till they win. “jian bing” or pancake of Tianjin style is the favorite of many international visitors and students. 2 yuan (about 25 c) for a “jian bing” with 2 eggs and vegetables in the roll will certainly satisfy both their mouths and appetites. Most of the restaurants in Tianjin like “Gou bu li” serve typical local dishes, such as stewed flounder with brown sauce, deep fried carp with sweet sour sauce, baked and fried prawns, etc. Many people from Beijing are more than happy to drive longer than 120 kilometers to Tianjin and hold their marriage ceremonies and receptions there for the delicious local dishes at reasonable price with the hospitality of Tianjin “da jie.
[此贴子已经被作者于2004-8-20 20:40:06编辑过]
