Educational exercise

Greetings,

Ah, the joy at precisely 7 a.m. when the Chinese national anthem blares from squawking rusty speakers across the lake at the middle school. 500 children roll out of dreams, scramble into smelly clothes and run to the playground. The word playground is a misnomer. It is a concrete slab. It is cold and cracked. Weeds, trash and discarded youth litter the playground.

Then, at precisely 7:15, the squawking recorded disembodied voice of a man begins exhorting children to perform their calisthenics, their routine. They stand in rigid lines as stern faced women patrol perimeters. Children extend arms toward green mountains, bend at the waist, weaving their heart muscles.

It is expansion and contraction. Children are not laughing and singing.

They go through the motions. They are hungry and dream of breakfast; rice, thick white sticky buns and hot liquid. They dream with their eyes open. Orange and white billowing clouds fly over their little life.

Peace.