w*****g
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Bye-bye, Bao Bao: Imagining the day one of our giant pandas leaves us
By John Kelly
October 23, 2016 at 6:46 PM
Mei Xiang and cub Bao Bao in April 2014. The giant panda offspring will head
to China next year. (Smithsonian National Zoo via Associated Press)
Giant panda Bao Bao will depart the Smithsonian’s National Zoo for China in
late winter, within the first few months of 2017.
— News release from the Smithsonian
“Mom, I don’t wanna go!”
Bao Bao stamped her foot petulantly, the very model of an irritated tween.
“Now, Bao Bao, we’ve talked about this,” her mother, Mei Xiang, said
patiently. “The clock has always been ticking. You shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Is it because I’m a foreigner?” Bao Bao said, angrily shredding a piece
of bamboo. “Am I being deported? Is this because of Donald Trump?”
Mei Xiang chuckled. “No. You’re as American as the bison or the prairie
dogs. You were born here, Bao Bao. You’re a citizen. But soon you will be
reaching sexual maturity and —” “Ugh, Mom! Gross!” Bao Bao raised a
black paw, the universal sign of “Enough.”
There was a grunt. Mother and daughter turned toward the mesh fence and saw
Tian Tian, Bao Bao’s father, on the other side.
“Zounds!” he said. “A party and I wasn’t invited?”
“Dad, you are so clueless!” Bao Bao said.
Mei Xiang ambled over and started to explain. “Tian Tian, your daughter is
going to China, as per the agreement. Soon, Bao Bao will be reaching sexual
maturity — ”
“Mother!”
“Soon she will be old enough to help our species and so she is leaving,
just like with Tai Shan.”
“Tai Shan,” Tian Tian said softly. “My son and heir. How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In
action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the
world, the paragon of animals! We shall not see his like again!”
“I heard he mostly just slept all day,” Bao Bao said.
Tian Tian grunted again. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have
a thankless child,” he muttered before settling back on his haunches and
stroking his ample belly.
“Bao Bao, you’re going to be fine,” Mei Xiang said in a soothing voice.
“I’ve packed everything. Bamboo, apples, pears, cooked sweet potatoes. .
Also, some half-smokes, chicken wings and mumbo sauce.”
“Mom, I don’t even speak Chinese!” Bao Bao wailed.
“You’ll learn.”
“What if the other pandas don’t like me?”
“How could they not like you? You’re a great giant panda.”
“What if some of the other pandas bring up the contested Spratly Islands or
Philippine president Duterte’s pivot away from Washington and toward
Beijing?”
“Well, now you’re just being silly,” Mei Xiang said.
Bao Bao sighed. The truth was, she wasn’t cute anymore and she knew it.
Well, not as cute. She would always be cute — it came with the black-and-
white markings, the roly-poly demeanor — but she had reached that awkward
age. And there was a new panda in town. Everyone wanted to meet her little
brother, Bei Bei, the cute one.
She noticed with some irritation that he was nowhere to be seen just now.
It was true that giant pandas in the wild were solitary creatures, rarely
encountering one another.
But this wasn’t the wild. This was the National Zoo. All of the animals
here shared a bond. Like a troupe of actors in a long-running show, they
turned to one another for comfort.
As Tian Tian was fond of saying every morning when the first visitors were
arriving, pushing their strollers and hoisting their cameras: “All the
world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their
exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”
Bao Bao had always thought Tian Tian was talking about the humans, their
entrances and exits, but maybe he’d meant the animals, too.
It was time for her to take on a new role.
She knew it now. But did it have to be so hard?
“Mom,” Bao Bao said, trying not to cry. “I’ve never said it, but thank
you for being my mom. You were always there for me, but you let me figure
things out on my own. I hope someday to be half as good a mother as you.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” Mei Xiang said, enfolding Bao Bao in a furry embrace.
As he watched from his side of the fence, Tian Tian raised a paw and bowed
slightly.
“Parting is such sweet sorrow,” he said quietly, wiping away a tear.
★ 发自iPhone App: ChineseWeb 16
【在 w*****g 的大作中提到】
: #NotMyPresisent
: #I Am a Panda Too
: 可怜还是这里出生的dreamer。
: ★ 发自iPhone App: ChineseWeb 16
: ★ 发自iPhone App: ChineseWeb 16
: ★ 发自iPhone App: ChineseWeb 16
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