About 6 years ago, I posted this entry: Jian Shuo Got His Car. The little car (I gave it the name Goudaner) has been with me and my family for 6 years.
This week, we got our new car – a Nissan Teana 2.5L XL with V6 engine, and CVT transmission. Today, Wendy went to the dealer to get the new car back (I hope it was myself who went there, as I picked up Goudaner 6 years ago). I quickly had my dinner and rushed down to see it. Then I drove to the nearby department store with Yifan and Wendy – just for a test drive.
Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang
© Jian Shuo Wang
So far, so good. – Did I say exactly the same thing when I got Goudaner?
The Change of A Normal Person’s Life
I spent few minutes to read all the blog entries of Goudaner. That articles brought me back to 6 years ago, when I was still an engineer in Microsoft, with a limited circle of friends, and a small world to handle. Obviously I had much more time to spend, have simpler life (no Yifan!), and surely younger than today. The life 6 years ago is very familiar to me (since it was my who wrote those articles) but at the same time, seems pretty distant from my current life.
The car is an example. It upgrades with the owner. With the arrival of Yifan and the change of our life, our need for cars also change. That is reflected honestly on this blog. Wendy and I am the type of person who are easy to get satisfied, and be happy. Our expectation to life is not very high. We buy things that we just need, and nothing more than that. Many of our friends bought Volkswagen Passat, or Honda Accord 6 years ago when we bought Goudaner (a FIAT compact car). Now, we finally upgraded to a bigger car, that is still just right for us, financially, and functionally. That is the type of life we enjoy.
I never shy away from sharing my personal life with my readers, with just one hope that people can have some real feeling about what the life in Shanghai, in China, or in the beginning of the 21st century looks like from an individual person’s view – his joy, his dream, his life, and his happiness. I am sure that differs from country to country, and from decade to decade. I hope my honest record of this fragmented, and detailed life can be of some value for others and for the future.
I hope the Jian Shuo 6 years later can get back to read what I am writing today, and still be able to feel the exact moment I am writing this.
Goudaner
I listed my first car, my favorite car, and my good friend Goudaner on Baixing.com to sell it. Quickly my friend saw it and we made the deal. Goudaner will find a new home next week. I am very sad that I cannot keep Goudaner with the new car.
The story with Goudaner started with a comment from my reader Nina in San Francisco:
Congratulations from San Francisco! It’s a very nice-looking car and I’m sure you will enjoy it.
Are you going to give the car a name? I don’t know whether there is enough of a car-owning culture yet in China to have developed the custom of pet names for cars. I think I’ve read that about 25% of Americans have named their cars and supposedly, cars that have names last longer and are more reliable, although presumably this is because the sort of people who name their cars usually take good care of them, rather than by magic. The most popular name is “Betsy” or “Bessie” and the speculation is that this was a common name for a cow back at the time when people first started owning cars, and the habit transferred over. Of course, this was when cars did not go much faster than a cow. You probably want to have a snappier and more elegant name for this little beauty.
Posted by: Nina on March 17, 2004 2:16 AM
That comment inspired me to give my first car a name. Nina is 100% right that when you give it a name, you treat it as a person, and then it becomes your friend. Goudaner was an excellent car, lasted very long, and never gave me hard time. Is it because I gave him a name?
What Nina didn’t told me, though, was it is so hard to sell it when you have given it a name – I do hope I could keep my Goudaner, which Wendy had told me to be not realistic.
OK, let me move on. I will spend time to give a name to this bigger white car.
What should I name it?