China and the Environment: Egrets and Herons

In 832 AD the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi* wrote the following poem about white egrets:

White Egrets

Forty years and not yet completely in decline;

Nothing more to worry about than a few fine white hairs.

Why then, at the river side, does a pair of white egrets

worry not, when they have nothing more than a dangling thread on their heads?

In this short poem, the poet makes the comparison between himself and the birds. Both have white hair. The birds don’t lose sleep over their aging: Why should the poet?

(*Note: the poet’s name: Bai means “White” in Chinese)

This connection between the natural world and humans reaches deep into Chinese history and the literary tradition. It therefore is hard to understand the seeming deep divide between the natural world and some current practices in China. Are there any regulations on factories? How can people tolerate the poor air quality? And what’s up with those markets that sell wildlife to eat?

As with anything geopolitical, it is complicated.

The wildlife markets are a major embarrassment to modern, urban Chinese folks. (Please note; There is a difference between wildlife markets and wet markets.) They mark a stark line between rural and urban life. While it is easy to criticize, there are similar markets in the US. For example, in Florida, you can buy alligator and iguana at roadside stands; raccoon, squirrel and rattlesnakes are all legally available in most states. As a doctor, my father frequently would be given gifts of deer and bear meat by his patients who hunt. While wildlife markets are currently outlawed in China; in the rural areas these laws are hard to enforce as they would be in the US, if the government tried to regulate hunting.

On the bright side, for the last five years, China has made an effort to phase out coal burning factories, moving towards wind and solar. It is currently ahead of its carbon emissions Paris agreement commitment. This year the air has not been bad at all, although the reasons for this are likely more because the factories have shut down rather than reduced coal emissions. (Last year, I understand Xi’an’s air was quite bad. Christmas Day, this year, it was terrible!)

In early January, when we met up with our friends in Guangzhou, a place that had many micro-factories making goods for the US, we noticed many of the factories were closed due to the US tariffs. When we mentioned this to our host, he said that he thought that the tariffs were actually a good thing. The factories, he said, didn’t make anything useful. He believed that new factories would open that would not sell useless products that would eventually become landfill. Instead, he believed, the new factories would be more directed towards Chinese needs, and perhaps use more environmentally appropriate material, just because it made good economic sense.

* * *

Against this backdrop, I taught Sarah Orne Jewett’s “White Heron.” The story takes place in 1886. It is about a young girl in Maine who has to decide whether to reveal the nest of a white heron to a hunter who calls himself an ornithologist, and admits to liking to shoot and stuff birds. The US, like China today, was a young, developing nation, when this story was written. The young girl is offered $10---a significant amount of money in 1886. We talked about how the heron’s feathers were the fashion – used by US factories at the time to create women’s hats (another useless product, that would eventually become landfill).

For homework, before we discussed the story, the students were asked to identify key quotes from the story and explain why the passages caught their fancy. This is what I got:

Several students liked the passage that described the relationship between the girl and her cow:

“The companions followed the shady wood-road, the cow taking slow steps and the child very fast ones. The cow stopped long at the brook to drink, as if the pasture were not half a swamp, and Sylvia stood still and waited, letting her bare feet cool themselves in the shoal water, while the great twilight moths struck softly against her. She waded on through the brook as the cow moved away, and listened to the thrushes with a heart that beat fast with pleasure.”

Dorothy writes of the quote: “I like this picture of the countryside. I find it very similar to the Chinese countryside. When I lived in the village, I often saw farmers drove their cattle home at sunset and birds flew back to the forest as the cloud dyed red. I could also hear moms called their children home for dinner. The stream was clean and the wind was soft. Sometimes there would be some mosquitoes or moths flying around the light. I think besides the natural scene, the harmony and peace is the thing that every countryside has in common. We all share the same simple life with the nature.”

Ilse also liked this passages. She explains why and then provided some Chinese paintings that reminded her of the passage: “I like this part not only because of the vivid description of the cow, the girl and the beautiful scenery, but also because it reminded me of some pictures with Chinese traditional features. In this part, the writer described how harmonious the relationship was between the girl and nature. Chinese people have always been valuing nature since the ancient time and the image of “buffalo herder” represents a balance between nature and human beings.”

Another popular passage was the passage, near the end of the story, where the young girl climbs the tallest pine tree in the forest:

“The way was harder than she thought; she must reach far and hold fast, the sharp dry twigs caught and held her and scratched her like angry talons, the pitch made her thin little fingers clumsy and stiff as she went round and round the tree’s great stem, higher and higher upward. The tree seemed to lengthen itself out as she went up, and to reach farther and farther upward. It was like a great main-mast to the voyaging earth; it must truly have been amazed that morning through all its ponderous frame as it felt this determined spark of human spirit wending its way from higher branch to branch. Who knows how steadily the least twigs held themselves to advantage this light, weak creature on her way! The old pine must have loved his new dependent. More than all the hawks, and bats, and moths, and even the sweet voiced thrushes, was the brave, beating heart of the solitary gray-eyed child. And the tree stood still and frowned away the winds that June morning while the dawn grew bright in the east”

Helen writes: “This paragraph mainly focuses on the process of Sylvia’s climbing up to the top of tree, from which we can see how hard it is for such a little girl to climb without any other’s aid. However, it seems that there is a mass of fire inside her pushing her upward. It’s hard for us to imagine how much she loves the nature that she risks her life willingly just in order to get a glimpse into it. The writer uses personification to describe the tree. It’s endowed with the psychological states. The tree is touched by her strong desire to have a look. This paragraph is a hint for the ending to some extent, because we can infer that, as far as Sylvia is concerned, nothing outweighs the nature.”

Mia chose this passage too, and writes: “This paragraph is also a good example of personification. This one depicts a loving, caring, mother-like tree, who protected the little Sylvia when she was climbing up. In my opinion there can be two levels of meaning. First, Sylvia kept a relationship so close to nature that every creature treated her as a friend. Second, I prefer this one, the tree didn't recognize the girl but just protected her out of sympathy and love. The tree is like mother nature, who always offers, protects and forgives.”

Scarlett chose a slightly different passage to talk about the tree:

"The woodchoppers who had felled its mates were dead and gone long ago, and a whole forest of sturdy trees, pines and oaks and maples, had grown again"

She writes: “I think this is a profound saying. Human beings, especially woodchoppers, need to cut down trees for their own construction. The great pine-tree is like a man who has mates before, but his mates were all killed by human beings. After so many years, the great pine-tree is still alive, but those woodchoppers have died. Human life is always short, in contrast, nature seems to be eternal. I think this sentence implies that human beings should respect nature.”

The students were also very talented at noticing when, grammatically, the literary work shifted—which I think is hard to do in a foreign language. There are a few places where Jewett shifts from 3^rd to 2^nd person narration, like here: “And wait! wait! do not move a foot or a finger, little girl, do not send an arrow of light and consciousness from your two eager eyes, for the heron has perched on a pine bough not far beyond yours, and cries back to his mate on the nest and plumes his feathers for the new day!”

Yvonne writes: “Sylvia had found the white heron. She could not make a single move. She even could not alter her eye-tracking in order not to disturb the white heron. This sentence is amazing because it is not simply conducted in a third person omniscient narrator. It sounds as if someone is talking directly to Sylvia, using an imperative mood.”

At the end of her assignment, Yvonne departs from assignment and muses:

“I searched for the white herons’ pictures online and found out they are not just American birds. They are in fact the famous birds which often appear in traditional Chinese proverbs and poems. They are special because of their long neck, thin and straight legs, and pure white feather. They often appear in places with marsh which are near to the sea. Chinese people eulogize them because they often appear with their mate, which stands for their character of loyalty. And they fly beautifully like a celestial being. In traditional fairy tales, the god often keep the white heron as a pet.

I think the white heron is a great inspiration for me. Because it does not appear in the urban area, you have to go to the wetland park to catch sight of them. And there are so many legends about it. All of these reasons make it far from our lives. However, imagination of these distant creatures can also contribute to the creation of a story or poem filled with mysterious elements. I like that Americans eulogize them too.”

At the end of class, I asked the students what they would have done, if they were Sylvia: Would they choose to protect the environment or reveal the location of the heron to the hunter (To sweeten the deal, I pointed out that the hunter was cute and friendly; the $10 would go far to help your family)?

Since we were on Zoom, I asked them to respond via “ZoomChat.” Here are a few of their answers

18:48:20 From Yuan Qin : environment

18:48:25 From Lynn: Environment , I would not sell my friend’s life for 10 dollars

18:48:53 From Echo: I would do the same. Although I am not rich, but I am satisfied with my life. I love nature and animals.

18:49:19 From Mia : I choose to protect the Environment.

18:50:20 From Yuan Qin : And man or Money can come back after loss, but Friends, animals and nature once destroyed cannot come back anymore.

18:50:46 From Melody : environment, because when she stands at the top of forest, she knows that she is a part of it, and to protect the bird and environment is also a way to protect herself. If she tells the man where the bird is, it will also cause damage to herself. She has the independent soul at last.

Despite the fact that it sometimes feels like the world is falling apart, I am heartened by my students and their wisdom, insight and compassion.

In 2008, Xi’an opened the Chanba National Wetlands Park, at the confluence of the Weihe and Bahe Rivers. There, you can find 180 species of plants and 150 species of animals. Thirteen of these species have been classified as “protected.” With the city gradually opening, just this week, Dave and I visited this park with a Chinese friend. Here are some pictures.