Soaking up the warmth of urban China

I come from a sparsely populated city in the US, where it's not uncommon to find yourself alone on an empty sidewalk in the middle of the day. When I first arrived in Beijing, the thing that struck me most was its population density. Beijing is a big city geographically, but it's home to 10 times more people than my hometown. All of Beijing's residents have to walk, work, sleep and eat somewhere.

I tried describing the hustle and bustle of Beijing to people back home. I told them it was like every hour was rush hour and every street was main street. But folks back home couldn't imagine the Chinese capital's constant clamor, and I couldn't find the right word to describe it - until I started studying Chinese.

In my dictionary, I discovered that Chinese has just the word for the feeling of a crowded city: renao. Combining the characters of "hot" and "noisy," renao makes me think about climbing the stairs at Chaoyangmen Station on subway Line 2, riding a bus filled beyond capacity with no air conditioning and trying to sleep through the sound of the construction next door. I could only assume when I learnt renao that it had a negative connotation.

But the next day in class, my teacher was quick to correct my mistake. Renao, it seems, actually has a positive meaning in Chinese.

My years living in China have taught me how renao can be a good thing. More accurately translated as "abuzz" or "lively" in English, renao is the adjective of festivals and family gatherings. It means "warmth" more than sweltering heat.

For Chinese, renao is snow-capped red lanterns illuminating the street during winter. It is chorus lines of middle-aged women dancing or singing red songs on balmy summer nights. It is the boom of distant fireworks that light up the sky on Chinese New Year Eve. It is the feeling that you are around friends, family or even strangers, and are not alone.

Compared with the vibrancy of China's public spaces, life in the fenced-off suburbs of the US can sometimes seem cold and quiet. In China, the space separating every man's castle, the street, is not a moat but a bridge. You can walk your dog, wash your vegetables, stroll in your pajamas or even brush your teeth on the street. There is always someone around, but that's fine. In fact, it's kind of the point.

I admire how Chinese culture values the "warmth" of human life and the "sounds" of society. I may still be too protective about my own privacy to brush my teeth on the street as I value peace and quiet, but in Beijing I have come to value renao, too.