Borrowed life 

cctv.com 05-12-2005 11:22

--Ok, there are so many people trying to compare a tourist and a traveler. Can I add a note too?

Being a tourist, you put yourself in a situation of a newborn baby, entitled to be ignorant and helpless. To travel you are entitled to indulge yourself in a role-play game in a "borrowed life", you consciously try to make this time of "your life" not necessarily better but different. Frankly it can be quite relaxing to be a tourist and act cute and curious from time to time, but for the trip to Yangshuo, this time, I lived (almost) hardcore like a Kung Fu student, under the guidance of an old NY friend of mine for two weeks.

Richard is a wired guy, as all friends agreed upon and still making such remarks to him openly. Maybe being perceived as crazy is the safest shelter for an unsaddled soul; he seems to always take the comment as a compliment. Even not always easy with money, NY freelance writer job still can be quite glamorous: one day he interviews Jonas Akerlund for Sundance Film festival, next day he is in Italian Gourmet trip digging catholic monk's cheese-making secret; then all of sudden, he is learning Indian cooking in some hidden retreat while picking up Yoga at the same time, or Later he is up on Wudang Mountain learning Taiji. Nothing Richard does surprises me anymore, (I thought) until when I heard he is starting up this so- called Wuwei Martial art Academy in Yangshuo after 2 years training in a Buddhist temple in Yunnan.

From my experience, the idea of Wuwei center is a concentration camp for the body and a vocational retreat for the mind. This commune-like academy feels like a self- sufficient little world of its own-- located in a Chinese country villa by the Li river in the outskirt of the town, it is still only 15 minutes- nice country road- walk away from the west street frenzy. Martial artists from the US, Israel, Japan and of course China live and teach here together, offering courses in yoga, Taiji, Shaolin Kung fu, plus Japanese and Israeli martial art forms. Most students are travelers that are fascinated by the place first, then by the idea of learning something on the road, giving themselves more excuses to stay a bit longer in Yangshuo. So, without exaggeration, this is a place of "Yangshou, the global village" in a nutshell.

Everyday, after following a rigorous eight-hour daily training schedule that thankfully includes a daily massage class, most of us were not even attempted by West Street rowdy nightlife, all you want to do is to keep lying horizontal on the rooftop listening to the absolute quietitude while watching the stars that seem to never been this closer.

The eventless starry nights became the clearest memory of this episode of my borrowed life, "yesterday- ly" fresh.

To keep anything-alive fresh, there should be an expiration date. (Yes, cold fact, and no exception.) I left while Yangshou still felt so freshly mine. For people like Richard, the expiration date might eventually comes too, but before that, they have been a yoga teacher, a B&B- owner, a rock climbing coach, a cooking school principle, a exotic boy/girlfriend, or to mention the least, like my fellow students at the academy, lived up the crouching tiger fantasy for a while. Before moving on to the next chapter of "borrowed life" or back to their own, they can always call it, Yangshou- their HOME.

Editor:Chen Zhuo  Source:CCTV.com