I sleep on Van Bo’s couch. Going to the morning market. According to my friend, those that comment about me mention my height and ask about my origin.
We go to create a bank account for me. Good thing I first have a Chinese SIM card, says the bank agent.
We talk about the pension issues of the aging population in China, as the bank is full of older people coming to withdraw their money.
He informs me that India now has a bigger population than China.
He’s Christian, as are his parents and grandparents.
We finally get out, bank card in my pocket.
We go to a nice barbecue place. At the end, I'm filmed while I give "greetings" about the place, in French.
We walk to a lake. People are playing cards in groups or doing some sport.
We get back and talk about history, politics, and Russia-China relations (tensions and cooperation).
We 90% communicate through a phone translating app. Or in English.
Since I rely on friends to transfer money to me in China (yuan), I look for a way to do it independently. That’s how I discover that cryptocurrencies are forbidden in China. Wise seems to be a reasonable option.
We watch history videos, 2, 3.
I watch a lot of Wukong videos. Many series exist about this famous Chinese myth.
We talk about daily life stuff, and I take notes.
When I ask questions, he often answers using first plural (We like this, we do that, etc...). But all this is through a translating app.
We watch the 3 Chinatown detective movies. The stereotypes jokingly presented in the movies are interesting and somehow revealing, I think.
Listening to a podcast with a former teacher of mine, and reading an article - 2021 also from former teachers.
I messed up something with my SIM cards, and credits ended up in a big internet bill, and I lost my ability to connect to usual networks.
Asking my mom to grab a VPN for me from France and realizing it doesn't work in China.
Tor works, slowly, allowing access to some websites. Might be illegal here, though; I don't know. Van Bo uses Skyline+, a legal Chinese VPN, to bypass internet restrictions.
Watching "Vanquish," a classic gangster series from the early 2000s where a watermelon gets sliced, just like the guy who sells them.
His father and his girlfriend's father made them meet. He told me a few days before that young people tend not to marry anymore.
I train to write a few Chinese characters, using this site that shows the stroke order of the signs.
Van Bo cooks a delicious meal for us. And we make fun videos for his socials.
We talk about Uyghurs and propaganda, in front of this video. Then, some history involving the French and British army.
I leave Qiqihar later, by train, back to Heihe.
In the train, a small girl speaks a little English with me and takes a picture. I also meet Wang, an engineer in the energy sector who speaks English. We have a conversation and exchange contact information.
I start reading a Journey to the West translation. It's quite a long story.
Transition to night train. I took a bed this time. There are three stories of beds in the train, not two.
When I get out of the train, and its doors are closed, I realize the little pocket box I keep my bank cards and my Russian SIM card in is missing. Fuck.
I go sit in a park, waiting for the right time to get to the hotel and rest. I look at what people do. Mainly old people playing Chinese chess, chess, or cards. Only men play Chinese chess. An old lady gives me a paper, some kind of Christian thing, and says "alleluia." I hear fireworks, and some guys make noise with a kind of whip. Some people grab grapes from the surrounding vine.
Getting to the hotel. Resting.
Barbecue and money transfer with a Chinese friend to refund my WeChat account.
In the morning I go back to a place where I've seen what seemed to be a swimming club.
Long story short, I meet club members and when I ask if I can come and swim with them in the river, they accept. Later, we take a bus that brings us upstream,and we swim in the river toward the tall Chinese flag.
I'm later invited for dinner with the swimmers, in a restaurant.
Drinking what seems to be homemade baijiu, having a great meal, and I'm brought to the hotel by car. Amazing day.
By the way, this call for papers gets into my mailbox, I might do something with it to get a finished product out of this second ethnography. I'll try not to write two days before the deadline this time.
Swiming group arrived