Rooster
The other morning I was awoken by a rooster crowing. At first I suspected that it was a cell-phone alarm clock, but the crows were too irregular for that to be the case. Awhile later, while sitting on my balcony, I realized that there was an actual rooster living in one of the apartments beneath me.
I imagine it would take a certain amount of pluck to place a farm animal in this most urban a setting. Yet on second thought it really isn't all that surprising. Quite a few of the residents in my new apartment complex are elderly. Quite a few elderly people in Yunnan come from the countryside.
These people, I suspect, had children who chose to live in the city. When these children started to make money, they invested in a nice, modern apartment for their parents. This is a very common Chinese custom.
In fact, many Chinese people I know find the Western practice of placing elderly people in retirement homes to be barbaric, regardless of whether a home might be the most suitable place for them for health reasons.
Americans of my vintage undoubtedly recall a 1980s era television program called The Voyage of the Mimi. This series featured a group of people on a boat out at sea. One of the people grew up in the inner city, and in order to fall asleep, he had to listen to an audio cassette of city noises.
Perhaps a rooster crowing is the inverse effect. In any case, it sure beats the usual morning din of construction cranes, honking horns, and blaring music through the dread Chinese loudspeakers.
January 24th, 2009 - 13:57
my money says your rooster will be gone by 27th Jan, having been munched on chuyi.
given that human proximity to birds is needed for a human-to-human transmittable form of avian flu to evolve, i really wish people think a little more about the downsides of keeping birds in residential areas. being woken up by crowing at 4am is the least of it.