Maiden Voyage | 首航

Bis ich nach China kam ich Zigaretten gehasst. Sie waren süchtig, gaben sie Ihnen Krebs, machte die Lunge ganz schwarz und kitschig zu. Mindestens so wurde ich von den unzähligen Ad’s im Fernsehen, Radio und Plakate erzählt. Alkohol, auf der anderen Seite war atemlos gefördert und Unkraut wurde schweigend akzeptiert. Aber ach! zu rauchen! Sie könnte genauso gut eine Ratte oder Kakerlake, Vergiftung der Luft, und was nicht … Aber nach der Ankunft in Peking meine Wahrnehmung verändert werden.

Nicht nur waren diese nervigen Anzeigen weg, Zigaretten waren überall, nicht zu einem Spottpreis zu erwähnen. Ich habe schnell festgestellt, dass sie ein perfektes Mittel, um sich mit den Belastungen des Lebens in einem Land, dessen Sprache Sie sind ratlos der Hilfe waren. Ich erinnere mich noch ich zum ersten Mal eine Zigarette geraucht aus einer Packung, die ich kaufte mir. Es war eine kalte Nacht fallen, und ich war kribbelig und frustriert aus nachdem er die vorherigen 4 Stunden pauken chinesische Zeichen in meinem Kopf, ein wirklich Sisyphusarbeit.

Until I came to China I hated cigarettes. They were addictive, they gave you cancer, made your lungs all black and icky too. At least so I was told by the countless ad’s on TV, radio and billboards. Alcohol, on the other hand, was breathlessly promoted and weed was silently accepted. But oh! to be a smoker! you might as well be a rat or cockroach, poisoning the air and what not… But after arriving in Beijing my perception changed.
Not only were those annoying ad’s gone, cigarettes were everywhere, not to mention dirt cheap. I quickly found that they were a perfect remedy to help deal with the stresses of living in a land whose language you are clueless of. I still remember the first time I smoked a cigarette from a pack that I bought myself. It was a chilly fall night and I was antsy and frustrated from having spent the previous four hours cramming Chinese characters into my head, a truly Sisyphean task.

直到我来到中国我讨厌香烟。他们上瘾，他们给你癌症，全黑了你的肺部和恶心了。至少就有人告诉我了无数的广告在电视，广播和广告牌的。酒精，另一方面，是上气不接下气促进和杂草正默默地接受。但是，唉！是一个吸烟者！你还不如一只老鼠或蟑螂，中毒的空气，什么不可以…但在抵达北京后，我的看法改变了。
不仅是那些讨厌的广告不见了，到处都是烟，更不要说便宜。我很快发现，他们是一个完美的补救措施，以帮助在那地的语言，你是无能的生活压力处理。我仍然记得我第一次吸了一包，我从自己买了香烟。这是一个寒冷的秋夜，我是从上花了四个小时挤进我的头，一个真正Sisyphean任务汉字坐立不安和沮丧。

Hallo!Hello!你好！

Smokin, drinkin and eatin in the country.

Until I came to China I hated cigarettes. They were addictive, they gave you cancer, made your lungs all black and icky too. At least so I was told by the countless ad’s on TV, radio and billboards. Alcohol, on the other hand, was breathlessly promoted and weed was silently accepted. But oh! to be a smoker! you might as well be a rat or cockroach, poisoning the air and what not… But after arriving in Beijing my perception changed.

Not only were those annoying ad’s gone, cigarettes were everywhere, not to mention dirt cheap. I quickly found that they were a perfect remedy to help deal with the stresses of living in a land whose language you are clueless of. I still remember the first time I smoked a cigarette from a pack that I bought myself. It was a chilly fall night and I was antsy and frustrated from having spent the previous four hours cramming Chinese characters into my head, a truly Sisyphean task. I took my pack of 14mg Zhongnanhai out of my top drawer and walked into the crisp air. The campus radio station was playing Chinese pop over the loud speakers. Music from the latest boy band echoed across the dark sky and mixed with the light howl of the approaching winter wind. I pulled my sweatshirt hood down over my head to protect my ears from the wind, and pulled out a cigarette. I put it in my mouth, lit it and took a drag. The thick mellow taste of cheap tobacco and tar filled my mouth and lungs, a feeling of clearheadedness also came to help push out some of the memories of today’s vocabulary assignment. Instead of stressing about the impossibility of the class’ homework I began to focus  on the late October night, the yellow glow of leaves under the streetlamps and the shadows of figures coming and going on the dark campus road.

That feeling of reflection has as much to do with the chemicals you’re inhaling as with the very process of smoking. Standing relatively still, breathing deeply, clearing your head to focus on the smoke, the sky, is fairly similar to meditation, just more harmful to the health.

In the small village that I lived in for half a year just about every man smoked. The massive trend of addiction helped make it a part of a culture of politeness that meant when you were a guest at someone’s home, a participant at a feast to mark a wedding or funeral, or you happened to meet a friend on the street cigarettes would be offered to you in the same way as a glass of tea or a plate of fruit may be. To refuse was taken a bit awkwardly, so to not seem impolite you would feign pleasure and gladly take the cancer stick. The secret was then to quickly tuck it behind your ear and stuff your face with the nearest plate of food or take a nice long sip of the drink that was in front of you. Doing this multiple times could save you the experience of waking up the next day feeling like your lungs are two sizes too small. More often than not though I smoked with the farmers, drank with them every now and then too. I could barely understand their dialect so the alcohol or nicotine acted as a convenient starting point.

When I first arrived at the village I brought a pack of unfiltered Camel Turkish blends that I had taken from America with me. They were damn good cigarettes, strong enough to make me slightly dizzy at first  but with a rich taste that you could actually enjoy. Smoking them with the cook and a couple teachers after the school day was the first time I saw them completely relaxed, half-reclining on their beds with sounds of opera blaring in the background. I struggled to catch bits of their conversation and they were patient enough with me to let me slowly reply. Those few minutes of talk about their day, their life and land was the first connection I felt to the often bewildering area that I was living in. I say tobacco made it possible.