6,000 years of Culture

One of the lessons that I prepared for my class was about geography. After talking about the different countries in the World I had the kids ask each other a few question, and then rehearse their conversations in front of the class. Elias, and his partner walk to the front. His partner asks him, “Where do you want to live when you grow up?” each single word has the stress of its own sentence, and her effort is clearly visible. Elias looks up, and puts his hand on his chin, then says, “China!” That is the end of the scripted conversation, but I intercede, “Elias, why do you want to live in China?” He waves his hand and says, with a smile on his face, “Because. China. Is. Good!” the words are short, but sure. I giggle at his light hearted, but genuine words. I am also giggling because I think I am seeing the result of a mindset that only exists in China. I think back to the Human Rights class I took last semester, “Most people in China think Mao is the man” our professor had said, and “People in China don’t know what happened in Tiananmen Square.”
At dinner one night we started to talk about different things that have been translated for different cultures. One girl says, “Well why did the US give China a new name?” someone else says, “A new name?” “Yeah, Chinese people don’t call China China, they call it The Middle Kingdom.” Another voice chimes in, “Well that’s probably why…” we all toss our heads back in laughter, and the conversation naturally moves away from the subject. I had never heard anyone refer to China as the Middle Kingdom.
We all sit around a table for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The waiter pours tea in everyone’s cups. I have heard about wine being served like water in France, and now I know that China serves tea like nobodies business. Green tea exists as a flavor in just about everything, hot drinks, cold drinks, candy, pastries, even toothpaste. When they poured tea in Jessie’s cup she tapped two of her fingers on the table, “that is how you say thank you for your tea in China.” She explained that a long time ago one of the Chinese kings use to travel out among the people to see how things were really holding up. He traveled as if he were a commoner, with only a few of his servants. He would pour tea for the people he was dining with. His servants felt unworthy to have him pour their tea, but could not reveal his identity so they would tap their fingers on the table to express their gratitude, almost as if they were bowing. I had never thought about the dynasties of China, or the kings themselves, and I thought the story was really neat.
The school put together a Chinese cultural night earlier this week. The Chinese teachers performed songs about courtship, more traditional songs with dancing, and the kids did dances and skits. It was amazing to see all of the different things that they considered essentially Chinese culture. Jessie was MCing that night and said at one point, “We have 6,000 years of history, and many era’s of culture” I was impressed by that statement, and gained a new respect for China. In classes I have taken, and literature I have read, China is framed as an unfortunate country suffering from corrupt leaders, imperious laws, and detrimental foreign policies. Although some of those claims have validity in the recent past, and present China has a rich history that includes prospering dynasties, unique cultural traditions, and national pride.
We line up by age group, with the teachers being paired with the kindergarteners. The kindergarteners are the smallest kids here, and they have only Chinese teachers. Their little heads bobbed around our knees, and their curious eyes watch and mimic our cheerful smiles. We sit in a large circle around the unlit fire. I notice a zip line from the top of the building leading to the fire. The anticipation of the students is growing, as the hosts voice grows more excited. I don’t understand a word of what she is saying, but I’ve gotten pretty good at reading facial expressions and hand gestures. Two stories up, on the dorm building, two men fiddle around with matches. Then a triangle of fire speeds down the zip line, and the fire pit erupts into flames and the crowd explodes with cheers. I rub a little more OFF bug spray onto my elbow. The girl next to me leans over, and whispers, “These” motioning to the many children sitting in front and around us, “Are our best bug repellents, the mosquitoes like them more than us” I smile, and hope she’s right, because my legs haven’t stopped itching for the past week. As the fire grows, the older boys begin a dance around the fire. They are all shirtless, and their enthused dance produces rhythmic clapping from the audience. As we watched and joined in, I felt the energy of all the kids and the pride in their cultural traditions; suddenly I knew why the mosquitoes liked them so much—their blood is rich and alive.

I love it here but....

     Our bus makes the wide turn out of the school driveway. There are two uniformed men a hundred yards away, and a police vehicle blocking the main road. Jeanette, our 23 year old host, stands up and addresses the bus, “they are blocking our road; I don’t know what it is about though.” Her voice sounds suspicious, and her eyes wander out of the bus to the flashing red light. Her twin sister, Jesse, stands up and quickly turns, her long stick straight black hair rises off her shoulders, “Welcome to China!” she says cheerily.
     It was nothing major, there was a government official coming by and the road had been blocked for him, but the effects of the Chinese government can definitely be felt here. In our school there are air conditioning units, and fans in just about every room. It is really hot here, if I haven’t mentioned that before. Not only is it hot, it is humid. And you can’t really sea the sky. It looks just like a light bluish gray color. This weekend we had a clear day where we could see brilliant blue behind puffy white clouds at we all got excited. Anyway, because China doesn’t have enough power for a full time supply for the whole country, they rotate though areas cutting off the power. If your area goes over it’s allowed power usage, it will be cut off as well (typically unexpectedly). The power has only gone out once since we have been at the school. It went out in a restaurant we were in this weekend too.
     One day a few other teachers and I were outside talking to Jesse. One of the two boys here said, “Hey Jesse, I am kind of embarrassed to ask this, especially since I was a government major, but what is the difference between China and Taiwan? Because there is a handful of kid here from Taiwan.” Jesse went through an informative talk on political strife between China and Taiwan. I came away with the very simplified and basic understanding that the Chinese people who are in Taiwan were members of a fallen political group from China who had been sent away by the new regime. We got into a discussion about the school system in China, and she told us that the government comes a few times a year to examine the text books the school is using, and regulate what is being taught. The visits are schedules, and Jesse told us that any textbooks that are not manufactured in China have to be hidden.
     I asked about church services in China. Jesse didn’t know of any local Christian services, and said that the government heavily infiltrates a lot of the religious activity that goes on. Because the government would rather that people not be religious they put their own men into the churches as monks and leaders, and a lot of the time they run the practice very poorly as to discourage religious activity. Last year the teaching group went to Nepal, and they saw a lot of corruption, and said that a lot of the government trained monks go home at the end of the day to wives and children. When I asked more about Christian groups in China she said that when they exist they are very low key, because they are making a huge effort to stay under the government’s radar. The TA for my class today asked me about God in the west, because she is writing a research paper about God in the west, and heaven in China. I am really interested to talk to her about how those differ. 
     One of the teachers here did some research with a professors from Harvard before this, where she worked in a Chinese cell phone factory gathering information from the workers etc.. She told us a little bit about the working conditions: employees work 13 hour days; getting a half hour lunch break which is unpaid, and food is not provided. They receive only 7 days off a year. She recounted that many of them don’t keep track of the day of the week because it is pointless. They live in dorms on the factory grounds, and usually can’t leave within a year. A lot of the workers came from the country side, are trying to find a way out of it, will only be at the factory for a year to 2 years, and send a lot of the money they make home to relatives. The workers are really smart, and try to study while they are working. She talked about one girl who wanted to be a translator, so she brought vocab sheets to the factory every day and studied while she worked. The company puts out half a million cell phones a day. It was really interesting to hear what she had seen while she was there, and get a glimpse of another side of China.
    Most of my experience here thus far has been overwhelmingly positive. I love the kids I am teaching, and the school is great. This weekend we went to an incredible spa, and I have been lively pretty luxuriously, but I wanted to note the aspects of China that aren’t as tranquil and comforting as herbal baths, and the outbursts of “Teacher! Teacher!”

There are four tones

I hope this find you well and happy!

I've been in China for over a week now. When I first decided to come on this trip I was mostly motivated by the free airfare and trip, but China is Fantastic--at least what I have seen of it, and the people I have met here.

My first week of teaching was harder than I thought it would be. Maybe teaching in English would be a little easier, but trying to explain things and getting blank stares in return can be a little frustrating. The good news, my kids really like games. At one of our night time activities I was sitting with one of the older girls in my class ( I have six kids who are 8, 9, 10, and then I have four girls who are 14-17) and we were just watching what was going on. She pointed to one of the teachers across the room, and said, is she Chinese? and I answered, that yes she was. A few minutes later she looked at me, and said, "are you Indian?" I kind of laughed, and said, "no, I am half mexican though" her face started to look a little confused. I didn't try to explain, I just decided that we should have a geography lesson. The school is really neat. When we were walking in it was night time. There were some Christmas lights blinking on the dorm, and some lights along the pathway. On the lights they have these 3x2 foot banners with pictures of the school, and the students from last year that say "Harvard Uniwise Summer Exchange." It was pretty cool. There is also a zoo of sorts here. The woman who cofounded this school with her husband had two dreams in life, starting a zoo, and starting a school. So there are two dogs here, a pig, two monkeys (one is a really cute baby), some chickens, and a peacock. There is also a stable with four horses.

On Saturday they took us out shopping. It was awesome. There are these warehouses that have tons of vendors set on each floor. Most of the items aren't priced, and you are expected to to barter with the people. There are a few different buildings, and each one specializes in something else. So some are clothes, and some are electronics etc etc. They told us before we went in to try and get the stuff for about a third of the price they first offer. That was a little intimidating, especially since I felt bad for the people, but after once or twice I got use to it. It helped that one of the girls who speaks Chinese was walking with Tara, one of my friends from the crew team, and I. There were so many people, and so many shops. We went to a tailor later in the afternoon, and they were able to make just about anything we wanted. I had a some pictures of clothes, and they took me around to pick fabrics, then took my measurements, and said to pick it up on Wednesday. I am pretty stoked about the custom tailored clothes. I got a few pairs of jeans, and a a suit, all for pretty cheap.

The night before they took us to this DVD store. Our host talked to the woman in charge of the store, Chinese that really does sound like pots and pans clinking together some times.... I have made a few attempts to learn Chinese. The people here are patient, which is helpful. One of my kids tried to teach me how to count, and each time I went to five she would say, "well, that time you got 1 and 2 right" or "that time 3 was good" but never could I get through 5 with all being right. Anyway, the shop owner took us into the "back room;" something I always thought was reserved for movies like The Godfather. There were tons of DVDs and CDs, and most of them cost between $2 and $5. When I said thank you in Chinese the women got really excited.

I am hoping to get better at blogging!