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.For Wei Ziqi, and nearly everybody else in the delegation, it was the first time they had ever flown in an airplane.The Air China flight was delayed by five hours and it was after midnight when they finally departed.For half a week the Sancha Party members toured Dalian.Every night they ate seafood, the local specialty, and during the days they were taken to see various tourist sites and examples of modern infrastructure.Dalian is one of the most prosperous places in northern China, and it’s also one of the best planned, with elevated highways that ease congestion.The Sancha cadres rode on the highways, and they visited Dalian’s new development zone.Pfizer, Toshiba, and Mitsubishi had already set up operations in the industrial park, and Intel had recently announced that it planned to build a Dalian factory dedicated to making semiconductors.But the cadres seemed most deeply impressed by a variety show that featured Thai transvestites.In recent years, the Chinese government had loosened restrictions on international travel, and Thailand had become a popular destination for middle-and upper-class people.Whenever Chinese tour groups went to Bangkok, they made sure to schedule an evening at a transvestite show.As more and more people went abroad, the shows became increasingly famous, until finally the folks in Dalian decided to import some Thai transvestites of their own.After Wei Ziqi returned from the northeast, he couldn’t stop talking about the variety show.“You’ve been to Thailand,” he said.“About the renyao—is that true?”I said I was pretty certain they’re actually men.“That’s not what I mean,” he said.“We were told they take children when they’re really small, maybe four or five years old, and then they train them to be transvestites.They said they spend years and years on this training.Is that true?”“I doubt it,” I said.“I think they probably do this as adults.It shouldn’t take that long to become a transvestite.”“That’s what I thought,” Wei Ziqi said.He seemed happy that I had confirmed his analysis.“All the other Party members believed it,” he said, “but I didn’t.”IN 2007, CAO CHUNMEI decided that she wanted a driver’s license.Now that they had a car, she thought it made sense; she could pick up groceries down in the valley.But Wei Ziqi wouldn’t spend money on another driving course.“It’s not necessary,” he told her.“We already have one license.” For a while, Cao Chunmei tried to change his mind, but he was too stubborn, and eventually she gave up on the idea of driving.In the spring she began to experience panic attacks.Periodically her heart raced and her mind filled with dread; sometimes she was struck almost helpless.Finally she saw a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, and she also went to Huairou to visit the clairvoyant.The man took her right wrist, felt her pulse, and informed her that new spirits had entered the home.Now she needed to appease a snake spirit, a rabbit spirit, and a fox spirit.Rabbit spirits are particularly jumpy; they often cause marital problems.Cao Chunmei prayed diligently at her shrines, and she did everything she could to avoid the slaughter of fish and chickens, and by summer she felt calmer again.Wei Ziqi seemed to recover when the customers reappeared.He cut down on his drinking, and he focused once again on expanding his business; he renovated the patio and built a new pond for the Swiss trout.To determine the most auspicious location for the pond, he called in a clairvoyant from down in the valley.Wei Ziqi had never been religious, and he ignored his wife’s shrines in the living room, but he obeyed the clairvoyant’s instructions.That was one thing Wei Ziqi had learned—never again would he ignore a fortune-teller’s warning.As for Wei Jia, he picked up his own lessons about politics.In school, fifth grade is the first year that Chinese children campaign for classroom cadre positions, as opposed to being appointed by the teacher.Wei Jia had been successful as Politeness Monitor; he was well liked by other kids and the instructors trusted him.They encouraged him to run for office, but he flatly refused.“It’s too much hassle,” he told me.“Let somebody else do that stuff.” His favorite subjects were English and computers
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