riding the iron rooster

i just read Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux (tay-roo? tay-rox? the rock?? he's american, not french, someone tell me pls how to pronounce his name) and what a ride it was..

i felt sad that the journey had ended when i turned over the last page. reading the iron rooster was like listening to a good friend bitching and gossiping about people he met on the trip, things he observed, the landscapes he passed through. he is incredibly knowledgeable and that adds great depth to his account of the one-year travel through china by train.

very often, his bitchy descriptions about some people made me laugh out loud because i could fully identify with that. at the start of the journey, he talked about other ang moh travellers on the same train who asked him incessant questions: where was he from? what did he do? was he married? did he have children? why was he taking this trip? what was that book in his lap? what were his plans in paris? first time in china? that reminded me of the people who asked me similar inconsequential questions when i left my job. he was evasive just like i was and he confessed that what he wanted to reply to those questions was "something I heard a man say to an inquisitive woman at a dinner party in London. 'Please don't ask,' he said softly. 'I don't have anything interesting to tell you. I've made a terrible mess of my life.'" And he lets on that "what kept me from saying that was that it was a sad memory, because about six months later that man killed himself. It seemed unlucky, and unkind to his memory, to repeat it." haha... i had also thought of giving some unexpected/shocking answers sometimes to questions i don't wish to answer, such as "I am gay" when people ask me why are you still single? why don't you join activities to meet more people? what kind of guys are you looking for? what about tom/dick/harry, what do you think about him? blah blah blah...

i digressed. back to the rooster. in case you were wondering why the train was called Iron Rooster (referring to that particular train from Peking to Urumchi), a Chinese he met during the trip explained that it "implied stinginess because 'a stingy person does not give away even a feather - nor does an iron rooster'... because until recently this accident-plagued line was run by the Xinjiang government.... And this remote railway ministry in the autonomous region would neither surrender control of the railway nor would they maintain it." a while ago, i mentioned about this book and someone asked why it was called Iron Rooster. one of my scholar ex-colleagues quickly replied that it was probably because rooster is a symbol of china. i thought that sounded incredulous but i didnt argue because i didnt know any better before i read the book and also it was futile arguing with scholars.

when i have mustered enough courage to face stinking toilets, spit-filled floors and smoky carriages, i may just try travelling through china by train one day...

note: i emailed a paul theroux fan who said that the accurate pronounciation is "the-roo". there.... mystery solved.