Min tibetanska barndom i Zorgay - Life and Culture on the Tibetan ...

24
TELEVISION ENTERS MY LIFE
K
ing Gesar stories lost their luster. I no longer asked
Gr<strong>and</strong>mother to tell them <strong>and</strong> I did not pay attention
when she did. There was a popular saying, "If you are
bored <strong>and</strong> have nothing to do, read King Gesar stories to kill
your boredom." The heroic saga was no longer impressive, <strong>and</strong>
Uncle Denba was no longer an admirable, smart trickster.
Television had replaced them. Past treasures were rendered
present rubbish.
A rich man from another village brought his VCR to
show us films in order to earn money <strong>and</strong> grain. There was no
electricity, so he brought an electricity generator with him. We
needed to pay a big bowl of grain or one yuan to watch one
movie. We were then permanently addicted.
Children escaped from home to watch films every night
without paying. These films were always in Chinese <strong>and</strong> usually
were martial arts films made in Hong Kong. We wrote our
names on a list that the owner used the next day to collect the
fees from our home. In this way, our family could not refuse to
pay. Sometimes, Father came <strong>and</strong> dragged me home in the
middle of a film, which was very painful.
After a local power plant was built, a number of families
bought televisions <strong>and</strong> stopped telling King Gesar stories for
recreation. Villagers are curious about new things <strong>and</strong> they were
very interested in television. They had only heard about it
before, <strong>and</strong> no one realized its arrival was causing big changes.
The women collected firewood early in the morning in groups.
They seldom talked to each other before television came
because they chanted mani <strong>and</strong> did not want to be disturbed.
But, after TV came to our village, they discussed the film they
had watched the previous night, or the TV series about the
Monkey King (Journey to the West). Every woman wanted to
share her thoughts about what she had seen.
My sister-in-law noticed <strong>and</strong> commented one day,
"We've changed. Now it's a shame among the women if you
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