Xu You

I have been graciously given the name Xu You (pronounced zoo yoe), that is to say I am part of the Xu family and my given name is You. I am told because of my travels and displacement my first name means something akin to “water moving around a lot.” Last Monday Yong Chao, my family’s father who is a year younger than me, took me to the Public Safety Building to get my resident’s permit. Certainly we ran into the officialdom one might expect of a communist society. My presence posed a problem and caused quizzical faces because despite being only 400 km from Beijing they see few foreigners here. But the stern faces soon evaporated when at what seemed like an appropriate moment I wrote my name in chinese characters. Well one character to be precise, the other is too complex. There was laughter all round and I got my permit. Supposedly I can not go beyond the city limit to the rural area without another permit but that is old China and I am assured by some to ignore that directive. As for progress in learning Chinese I still drink bread and eat water. My stomach doesn’t really notice the difference as far as I can tell.