Potpourri

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd give my massive audience a little update on what has been going on lately. Actually, that's one of the reasons I haven't posted; nothing monumental has happened, but if you add everything up, I think I can squeeze out a few paragraphs. Also, blogger has been inaccessible for a week or two for some reason, so that has also foiled any plans I had of posting.

I haven't travelled to any faraway places recently, but I did have dinner with the man that invited me to go hiking about six weeks ago. He gave me a phone call one night and I was able to understand that he wanted to go to dinner that very instant, and in a few minutes he arrived to pick me up. This is the same man that doesn't speak any more English than the words "go" and "ok" and "hello". At times I feel like my Chinese is progressing really slowly, especially since I spend a lot of time with other English speakers, but this night confirmed that my fluency has increased a lot, even if my vocabulary has not grown at the same rate. We were able to talk much faster and about more topics, which was a great encouragement to me. I still need to be a bit more deliberate about studying, as this would increase my mobility and enjoyment of the culture a lot. Anyhow, the main reason I write is because these situations often leave you in the position of eating something you really have no desire to eat, in this case, cow stomach. When eating in a large group it's easy to avoid such "delicacies": just let the silk worms and sea slugs spin on by on the Lazy Susan, and usually no one takes note. When the dinner party consists of only three people, however, food is offered without any real room to decline it. So, when the thick, translucent, chewy, cilia-covered stomach was offered, I had to suck it up and put it in, my mouth, that is. I really don't understand why it's eaten; it wasn't bad, but it had no taste or desirable texture, and i don't see how it could be of any nutritional value. I also had to eat some plants that looked like osteoporosis-ravaged bones, but they weren't too bad, either.


In the last couple of weeks the weather has also changed quite a bit. Gone are the days of sun and 80 degrees, and here in their place are windy ones that are quite nippy. A week or so ago it got down into the 40's with a fierce 30 or 35 mph wind, but it has since warmed up a bit to around 65, enabling me to continue playing tennis for a while. Once it gets too cold, I think I'll have more time to study and read, but for now I'm enjoying meeting new people on the tennis courts, so hopefully they can turn into friends when it turns colder.


My classes have also been going well. I think all of my five classes like me, save one really boring one. I'm having them do mid-semester evaluations for me this week, and I have gotten the results back from one of the classes, so hopefully my suspicions will be confirmed.

At times, though, I think I derive more pleasure from their assignments than they do. This week being Halloween, I passed out candy and read them a few scary stories (one by Poe, the other the scary hook-on-the-door-handle-while-a-young-teenage-couple-is-parked-alone-in-the-woods one). After I briefly outlined the elements common to most scary stories (villain, surprise, everyday people, everyday situation), I had them write their own. Well, the results were pretty hilarious; I have posted the best below, as they were written.

"The Breather in Self-Study Room"
It is said a true story. Beside our classroom there is a self-study room. Some students like to study there because it is quiet. One night, one student of our class studied there alone. It was very, very quiet and there was no wind outside. He was studying concentrately when he heard a sound. It sounded like somebody was breathing heavily. At the beginning he thought there was another student who was sleeping. But it was strange that there was nobody in the room. After a while, he heard it again. It increased heavier and heavier, just like "ha---ha---." When he turned back his head, the sound stopped. And when he turned to his book, the sound appeared again. He was badly frightened and rushed out of the room.
It so happened that other students met the same thing.
The room still existed. No one cal tell who will be the next person who will hear the strange sound.

(Untitled 1)
This is a true story. When I was in my primary school, I once went spring-outing with my classmates. We climbed a hill on which there are many graves. In fact the hill is used for burying dead body. After lunch, we were eating watermelons. And then a naughty boy climbed on to a grave and tried to scare us. During our going down the hill two girls just became mad and one of them picked a knife to attack all of us. Then she fell senseless. When she woke up, she didn't know what had happened at all. But she told us that an old man came to her and told her to pick the knife to attack the boy who just climbed the grave. She didn't know what had happened at all.

(Untitled 2)
A Young doctor who studied medical science always dissected corpses at laboratory. Everynight when he left the laboratory the corpses were intact, but he found that the digits of the corpses seemed to be bitten by something the next morning. He thought it might be mouse. So, he kept a cat. The cat caught a mouse. To his surprise, the strange thing continue to happen. He stayed up to find the reason of the strange thing, but he slept. The next day he found the digits were still bitten by something. He was frightened. Thus, he asked his friend to accompany him to find the reason. They chatted happily and enjoyed the beer. Then the friend went to WC. When he came back, he found the doctor asleep, so he himself watched. Suddenly, the doctor stood up, walked near to the corpse, and started to bite the digits.

And, my personal favorite:
"The Cabinet"
When I was in junior middle school, I lived and ate there. At that time, several people lived in one room and each of us had a big cabinet under the bedplate. One evening, after I finished washing my lunchbox, I planned to put it into the cabinet. Quietly I walked towards the cabinet and opened it with the dim light. At the moment I put the lunchbox into it, suddenly I saw one head and a hand. Without a word, I threw the lunchbox to the ground and rushed out of the room. I was really scared. I didn't know what happened until my roommate told me that it was him who was eating a meal in the cabinet! He was always a strange person and always did something out of your mind.


So, what is your favorite?

On A Lighter Note, etc.

Here's a funny passage about music from one of my students:

"Music, like a breeze, blow softly across your body, to relax every part of your body. If you laid yourself on the bed or chair, with your eyes gazing at the sky blue stage and listening to Canon (a piece of music produced by Pathbel), you'll feel yourself like the clouds, drifting in the sky and feeling the breezes of love, the warmth of compassion. In the moment, you're not simply human. You're more than a human. You're an elf of the sky and gradually melting yourself in the atmosphere."


In China, you don't just get warnings about dangerous activities; you also get advice on interpersonal communication.

Another Temple, Already?

On Saturday, one of my classes invited me to go with them to visit Chishan Fahua, a Buddhist temple about 90 minutes away. They chartered a bus for the trip, which left at about 8am. Everyone brought their lunch in a sack and ate it together in the shade at the temple complex. It reminded me a lot of a field trip I would have taken in middle or high school. I was able to get to know my students a lot better, though, and I think it helped them see me as a real person, not just a teacher. It also helped them see me within the context of a photograph, as I posed for no fewer than 50 of them with various students, in almost every possible combination.

Anyhow, the temple complex we visited is actually only ten years old or so, despite what you would guess by looking at the buildings and grounds. Apparently, the nearby city decided that building this Buddhist area would contribute a lot to the tourist industry, and indeed it has, as the place was pretty full of sightseers. Basically, the idea seemed to be "We're going to build this Buddhist temple, and then you're going to pay to come visit it." I guess this can sort of be compared to the ideology behind Disney Land or other theme parks, but the problem I have is that the concept here involves religion. I'm not Buddhist, but the act does nothing to make me think more deeply about Buddhism; conversely, the fact that it seems perfectly alright to build giant statues of Buddha just so people will spend money to see them seems a little shallow; in Christianity this would constitute building false idols. I know I am influenced by this knowledge, and that anthropologists would argue that I can't evaluate one religion based on another's values, but I this would be a bad idea for any religion. Sure, people pay to visit Christian churches and sites, but these are either still being used for worship or were created for that purpose. Or, am I forgetting or missing something?

The giant Buddha in the complex:


Another big Buddha statue. This one revolves and plays music.


Part of the temple complex:


Most Buddhist temples have this rather large lip on the entrance to the temple. It seems like it would make it rather difficult for the elderly and disabled to worship in them (and indeed it does), but the belief is that if you lift your legs rather high in order to enter the temple, you will be better prepared to overcome the obstacles you face in life.


A prostitution "uniform" from last century. I must say, those pants could not e any easier to access


Shoes made for women with bound feet. They're tiny. I'm glad this practice is finished.


My seven male students in my junior writing class of 32 students, standing in front of the entrance to the temple.

Japan

Most Chinese despise the Japanese. This may seem like a bit of an over generalization, but really, it's true. Especially here in Shandong province, where the Japanese did commit some horrible acts on the locals during the 20th century, the Japanese are hated. (A ship converted into a museum now sits in the main harbor in Weihai; the museum contains mostly pictures of the torture and atrocities performed on the locals at the time. It seems, however, to serve the purpose of stoking animosity towards the Japanese rather than respectfully honoring the victims.) This hatred is somewhat forgivable for the generation that lived through such horror, but I can't forgive the younger generations for harboring such hatred. A similar situation occurs when people today associate all Germans with Nazis; most of the people alive in Germany today had nothing to do with WWII and weren't even born when it occurred.

Here, the Chinese have been virtually taught to hate the Japanese, even if they have not directly experienced anything to warrant such hate. Sure, Japan does add fuel to the fire by honoring its war heroes that committed the acts, but that doesn't justify extending the hostilities between the countries.

I was having dinner with a student of mine a few days ago and we were discussing which second language he should begin in the spring. (English majors are required to learn a second language, be it French, German, or Japanese, starting their sophomore year.) I was encouraging him to learn either German or Japanese: German for its literature, or Japanese because of its relative usefulness in business and improving the relations between the two countries. He seemed to have little desire to improve the relations, which is surprising because he is generally one of my more reflective students. It seems that this issue is immune to much rationality. Though other issues are open to be explored, this one is already decided by the curriculum, by the government, by society. He then told me that another one of my students indeed "hates the Japanese," to quote. I asked why, and he replied that this student hates them solely because he is from Shandong province. No other reason but that.

A few days later, I was attending the English department's welcome celebration/performance for the new freshman, which featured songs, choreographed dances, skits, and martial arts. During one of the martial arts routines, a student with nunchucks broke through a wooden board that roughly translated to "The Chinese are the weakness of the East Nation," which was meant to recall the audience's distaste for the Japanese. It worked, and the crowd cheered.

It's scary that such a large mass of people can be convinced so thoroughly of a belief, especially one based solely on the complete hatred of another. Then again, look at politics in America and the division between right and left. How different is this situation, with each party incessantly demonizing the other until only hatred remains the common bond?


Below, a different performance given by some of my students.

Beijing Cuisine

Beijing, like most areas of China, features food distinct to the region, and some of the more famous Beijing specialties include Beijing duck, every dumpling variety you can imagine, and Mongolian Hot Pot. We tried all three while we were there, and they were all delicious.

Below, the beginnings of a Mongolian Hot Pot feast. Similar to fondue, the food of choice is cooked as desired in the big boiling pot in the middle of the table. We had beef, chicken, a mushroom medley, potatoes, noodles, and greens.


Beijing is also the best place in China to find international food. Because we knew this would be our last chance to have non-Chinese or non-Korean food for a while, we indulged in what the city had to offer: Indian, Japanese, Baskin Robbins, Dairy Queen, MacDonald's, delivery pizza, and, most amazingly, Pizza Hut. Again, I'm not an advocate of most of these places while in America, but here, they allow for a needed break from the constant onslaught of Chinese food.

Finally, below is package of a Cracker Jack-ish product in Beijing. The English translation makes it sound pretty X-treme, almost like X-treme banana chips or something.

Extra Beijing Pictures

Part of the skyline, though Beijing doesn't seem to have one central area where most of the high rises are located. Rather, this is pretty much the view 360 degrees around.



Below, a panda at the Beijing Zoo. Though it was cool to see the pandas, it was depressing to see them in their tiny cages. As one travel guide put it, if zoos are normally animal prisons, "the Beijing Zoo is death row." The panda's "habitat" was considered the nicest, but it consisted almost entirely of concrete, while those of other animals were much smaller and little more than holding cells.


Below, Beijing traffic starting to build up. At rush hour, it is nearly impossible to travel in the city. You can cram yourself into the metro cars for 3 yuan, but taxis are basically worthless, and costly, often 50 yuan or more.


One of the many Chinese flags displayed proudly on National Day.

Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City

Though National Day occurred on October 1, Allyssa and I were first able to make our way to Tian'anmen Square on the morning of the 3rd for the Flag raising ceremony. As most of you know, this was the sight of the massacre of probably thousands of students protesting for democracy in 1989. It is also the world's largest public square, the size of 90 football fields (covering 99 acres) with standing room for 300,000 people.

We awoke at around 4am again and arrived at about 5:50. With sunrise at 6:11, we though this would be early enough, but by this time, the enormous square was already packed with at least 20,000 people; on National Day, the crowds are multiplied several times over. As the sun rose, hundreds of soldiers marched in perfect rhythm and made their way to the flag pole, where the flag was raised to the sound of the Chinese National Anthem, " "Song of the Advancing Volunteer Army" (義勇軍進行曲).




After the flag was raised, we still had quite a bit of time before the other sights opened, so we wandered around the square for a while. This is the old South Gate, Zhenyangmen, to Beijing.


Below is a view of the Great Hall of the People, which is where the National People's Congress meets, and the Monument to the Heroes, which commemorates the victims of the revolution during the mid-century. Behind me, unseen, is Mao's Mausoleum. For a few hours a day, his body is raised from a freezer for viewing.


At the north end of Tian'anmen square is this massive portrait of Mao, which hangs over the entrance to the Forbidden City (Gugong). It's pretty much a rite of passage for Chinese visitors to have their picture taken with Mao, so we figured we might as well join in on the fun.


Below, the expansive Forbidden City, which has more than eight hundred buildings spread over the square kilometre site. This is where the 24 emperors from the 16th-20th centuries lived, separated from the people they ruled.

Temples

The next day had a religious theme of sorts, as we visited the Lama Temple (Yonghe Gong), which is a Tibetan Buddhist Temple right in the heart of Beijing, and the Temple of Heaven.

The Lama Temple was built in the 17th century and became a lamasery in 1744, housing monks from Tibet and Mongolia.


Here, visitors burn incense and offer prayers to Buddha.


Here, a monk at the temple. The Temple is used at least partly to show China guaranteeing and respecting the religious freedom of minority groups; the monks are state-approved.


Below, the Temple of Heaven, Tiantan. Originally from the Ming Dynasty during the 15th century, it was conceived as the meeting point between Earth and Heaven. Here, the emperor would offer sacrifices and pray for the year's harvests at the winter solstice.

The Great One

The next day, Allyssa and I awoke at 4am to make our way to the bus station to make our way to the Great Wall. At the suggestion of a friend, we planned to take the earliest bus at 6am, thus necessitating the early wake-up time. We arrived at about 5:45 to the bus station, only to learn that the ticket window didn't open until 6:30. So, at 6:30 we purchased our tickets to go to the Simatai section of the wall, though the bus didn't depart until 8am (many tourist buses in Beijing depart not at a set time, but rather when all of the seats have been sold). After a four-hour ride, we arrived at the magnificent Great Wall. We chose this section because of its reputation as more of a challenge to hike, and because it is known to have fewer tourists, and luckily, both turned out to be true. We hiked a few kilometres along the wall until we were allowed to go no further, and then turned around and hiked back. Along the way I picked up my genuine "I Climbed the Great Wall" T-shirt for only 20 kuai, though I overheard some other Americans, who didn't speak any Chinese, paying 100 kuai for the same shirt. This being my first opportunity to really bargain for the best price, I think I did pretty well.

The Summer Palace

This week is one of three "Golden Weeks" the Chinese government implemented a few years ago to encourage tourism. This one centers around the National Holiday (and also around the Mid-Autumn Festival this year), while the other two occur around the New Year and International Labor Day. Anyhow, almost the entire country has the week off, which means that travelling during this time is insane. However, at the urging of my students, I decided to travel anyhow. Two days before the holidays began, I was able to book a flight to Beijing, where a friend of mine, Phil (The Storey Story), is studying for the semester. While there were a lot of people, most of the places we visited weren't ridiculously packed with people, with the exceptions being Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.

On the first day, we took the metro and then a bus (the bus schedules are written in characters only, with no pinyin, making them pretty difficult to navigate if your character knowledge is pretty basic, as mine is) to the Summer Palace, called Yiheyuan in Chinese, which has been around for 1000 years. The present layout, however, is only from the 18th century, as the palace has been ransacked a number of times over the centuries.


A man painting characters near the East Gate:


Phil and I in front of Kunming Lake:


A three-story theatre:


Some ornamentation on the way up to the temples:

Class

These are a few pictures from some of my classes. As you can see by the desks, it is very difficult to plan activities that require students to move around the classroom, as each time someone in the middle of the row wishes to get up, everyone else in the row has to do the same.

I have five classes a week, and each meets for two hours Four of my classes are writing classes (two are sophomore level, two are juniors), and the other one is an oral class at the sophomore level. My writing sophomores are learning how to write essays (paragraph construction, thesis, etc.), while the junior writers are reining their knowledge of the basic five-paragraph essay. Although I have reviewed this model with both of my classes, most of the work they turn in lacks a thesis or any real planning or development, instead looking more like stream of consciousness prose.

I was surprised to learn that I would be teaching the five-paragraph essay in college, as this is something I learned in late elementary school or early middle school, but they really have no prior knowledge of it here before university. The students may only write one serious research paper before they graduate, and as it may be their first, it's usually full of structural and format errors. Indeed, my students are learning this method to be able to complete their thesis to graduate,and they have a long way to go. Longer, structured Essays just aren't assigned earlier, perhaps because teachers would be so overwhelmed by the amount of reading that would be required. Still, it seems odd that this basic structure would not be taught earlier, as it provides the basis for students in the West to explain, persuade, and perhaps most importantly, criticize and analyze.




These final pictures are of my sophomore oral class, which is learning more about public speaking. Because most of their prior language classes have been quite large (this speaking class has almost 30 students, for instance) and been taught by Chinese teachers, they have had relatively little actual speaking experience, even though they have been learning English for more than a decade. Below, I am trying to encourage posture and confidence by having them stand on the "speaking stone", though this student is circumventing my efforts by choosing to read her speech.



These pictures are from a talent show a couple of nights ago for the new freshmen after . completion of their basic military training. I think it was supposed to be a reward, but some of the acts were painful to listen to.The show was much more of a production that any "talent" show I have ever observed in America, though the performances were quite similar: mediocre singers, boy-band choreographed dances, martial arts maneuvers, and opera singing. Ok, so maybe some of the acts were different!


Look at how many freshmen there are! They are all dressed in the same uniforms that they wear in the sun during maneuvers for eight hours each day.


OK, that's all for now. I'm off to Beijing tomorrow for the National Holiday. Be back in about five days, with stories I'm sure.