Beijing Brushstrokes.

• Author: Camp, Beatrice
• Position: Assignment at U.S. Embassy in China

Title: Beijing Brushstrokes

Author: Beatrice Camp

While studying Chinese at the Foreign Service Language School in Taiwan in preparation for assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, I gave birth to baby William, our first child. Along the way, I learned a fair amount about Chinese birthing customs, including the medicinal benefits of black chicken feet and the importance of fetal education. A few days before my due date, my husband David dreamed I gave birth to a koala. David's shock over having a furry animal for a son was compensated by the thrill of hearing the newborn utter a Chinese phrase. We had, after all, spent the previous two years struggling to master tones and characters. Not to mention that the little koala's question of "ganma" ([phrase omitted]) or "whatever for?" seemed right on the money Our Chinese teacher proclaimed David's dream auspicious and named our son Meng Xiong ([phrase omitted]), Dream of a Bear; she prophesied a bright future in accord with the Zhou general whose bear dream foretold becoming emperor. She predicted--correctly--that our baby would be a boy, born by his due date and--less correctly--that he would never give his mother a day of trouble.

Two months later we flew to Beijing via Hong Kong, the only route in 1983 when there were no direct flights across the Taiwan Strait. By that time baby William already possessed three passports - a civilian one to leave Taiwan, a second civilian one that didn't reveal our residence on the island, and a diplomatic one that we picked up in Hong Kong.

Despite two years of language and area studies at the Foreign Service Institute, we had little idea what to expect in the People's Republic of China or how we would be perceived in those early days of diplomatic relations. The dark drive from Capitol Airport down a two-lane road rimmed by locals taking advantage of the street lights for their card games provided our first look at this strange new world.

Despite all the differences--we learned on that first night that it was illegal to drive with lights on in the PRC--both populations saw eye-to-eye over children. On both sides of the Taiwan Strait, we were roundly criticized for putting William on his stomach. As first-time parents dependent on Dr. Spock, we embraced this practice as received wisdom and laughed off the Chinese insistence that babies should sleep on their backs. Years later, after the western medical establishment changed its recommendation to back...