#1 Class

Lets start by making a long story long.

The school term ended on July 4th (technically) but the students needed to take an exam and then they had two days rest before starting up summer classes. I kept asking Ricky what the summer schedule was going to be and he kept giving the usual answer, "The school didn't make a decision yet." On the evening of the second day of rest, Ricky called me and told me I was teaching the first class the next morning and that he would give me the rest of the schedule when I got there. Well, the "rest of the schedule" turned out to be a three day plan. What was happening after that, I asked. "The school didn't make a decision yet." On the third day, I was given a new schedule for the next ten days after which the school would have a holiday. For how long? "The school didn't make a decision." The next day, Ricky had to come to my house in the evening to give me some last minute changes to the schedule. On day two of that schedule, it was decided that the students who had just completed the second year (of three) of high school would move into the third year building. They do not have lessons with a foreign teacher their third year so my schedule changed again. By the end of the week, I was asking, what next? "The school didn't make a decision yet." Since the schedule had changed, the undetermined holiday after the ten days of work went out the window but I knew it would be coming eventually. I just had to wait for the school to make a decision. As I was getting ready for work the second to last day of the most recent schedule, Ricky called me. "The school made a decision. We are done with classes. You are free." "When will we start again?" "The school didn't make a decision."

Two days later, Ricky called me again. I had to teach three more days. WHAT?! This is getting absolutely ridiculous! He explained to me that the middle school students who would be starting at the high school would be there. It turns out it was only one class--what they refer to as the #1 class--that I was spending three afternoons with. The middle school students take a test and the top 50 students based on the scores are put in a class together.

So, the first day I just introduced myself to them and I had them pick their English names and they asked me questions.

The second day we went on a fieldtrip of sorts. I was pretty excited to go since I don't get to do much touring. It was a bit of a let-down as far as tours go but I had to remind myself, this is China, home of simple pleasures.

The first place we stopped was the government center in Tai'an. There was a very large square here, which I was told was modeled after Tiananmen Square. I've not been to Beijing yet but I've seen pictures of Tiananmen Square and I didn't see the resemblance. The students kept asking me what I thought of it and if I liked it. I wasn't really sure what to say. I tried to explain to them that my idea of a beautiful setting was something UNdeveloped but I don't think they understood. Most of them have never seen "wild" landscapes. In all of my forays through the Liaoning Province it is all towns or farms.

Our next stop was a museum built for a general (can't remember his name) who was born in Taian. He is sort of their claim to fame. There is a very large statue of him in the city-center's traffic circle. The third stop was the Industrial Park. The bus stopped at a traffic circle and everyone got out. This was it. Again, I wasn't really sure what to make it.



The last stop was the park, back in Taian. As we were walking around, we passed an old woman who had baby rabbits. I stopped to pet them and one of my students asked, "Do you like it?" I told him I liked it very much and the next thing I know he hands 10 yuan (around $1.50) to the woman who picks up one of the rabbits by the ears, puts him in a plastic bag, and hands him to me. I took him out of the bag right away and tried to explain to the students that I couldn't keep a pet because I would be returning to my country in January and could not take the rabbit with me. One of the students promised she would take the rabbit when it was time for me to leave. I DID still have the fish tank in my apartment and I DO really miss my cat and the bunny was so cute so I accepted him. I've named him Tuza, which is "rabbit" in Chinese.

On the third day I promised the students we could play sports so I taught them kickball. This was interesting because some of them had never seen baseball either and didn't know the rules. I had a really hard time explaining to one girl the choice between staying safe on a base or running to the next one. Of course, they wanted to play basketball too. I was the only girl who played and the boys kept apologizing if the bumped into me. Later, they all complimented me on what a good runner I am.

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Miscellaneous Part 3

I ate dog. I can't believe I did it! I was having dinner with one of the school administrators and one of the dishes that was brought out was a stew. In it, the server added a meat that I thought might have been eel (not that I've ever seen eel that I can recall). It was a dark grey color and cut in long strips. Nope, not eel--dog. My hosts offered me a piece and I guess I suffered a moment of insanity and agreed to eat it. It was an extremely soft meat and not at all what I would have expected if I had ever expected to eat dog. There wasn't much flavor to the meat itself so most of the flavor came from the stew. All in all, it wasn't bad but still not something I care to make a regular part of my diet.

As if the dog weren't enough, a couple days after, I was having lunch in one of the villages near Taian with some friends and they asked me what I wanted to eat. "Order whatever you want," I said. Imagine my surprise when one of the dishes that came out was a platter of halved bugs. I know my face showed shock and trepidation but, with their encouragement and "hakuna matata" ringing in my head, I ate one. Crunchy and slightly nutty-sweet. Again, not something I would put on my favorite-foods list. I asked what kind of bugs they were and one of the girls went and got a live one for me so I could see it. It looked like a cocoon but it was definitely alive. I took it and one of the prepared ones for some pictures.

Just as a little side story to go with the above, on the way out to the village, I rode in a car with some people who had slip-covers on their car seats and the steering wheel and other surfaces of the car. This in itself is not that extraordinary but it was all an eye-watering pastel pink with embroidered roses and frills. I wish I had my camera! If Umbridge had a car, it would look like this!

I went back to the park to get some pictures of the lotus flowers that are blooming. The first picture is of the lotus pond. It was a rainy day (surprise) and I enjoyed watching the water drops collecting in the leaves that were easily two and a half feet wide.

While I was at the park, I decided to record some of the other images there since I had made a post earlier about the park.

This is a pagoda in the lake and a moon-bridge:

And some people playing cards and Chinese chess:

On my way out, I was spotted by some of my students so I had to spend a few minutes taking pictures with them. Then I had them take a picture for me and one of them posed in front of the "guardian" Mickey.

Here is a demonstration of what I mean when I say the Chinese are easily entertained.

Start with tiny beads:

Add beads to a bottle of water:

Wait one day until--presto:

And that's it! They love it. I've seen these bottles of beads several places. Sometimes I think it must be nice to be so easily entertained, to possess that kind of innocence and then sometimes I really feel like they are deprived of so much...

This picture is of a bottle of water I bought one day. If you don't know why I find it funny, I'm not going to explain it to you.

Dinner with the Headmaster

Ricky, Headmaster Lu, and I enter a small restaurant (and by small, I mean there are three tables). I have eaten here before and like the family that owns the place. It is a couple with three children--something nearly unheard of in China so it can be surmised that they have some connections in the government. We sit down and immediately the headmaster lights up a cigarette. The wife gives us the menu and the husband goes in the back to prepare to cook.

"What do you want to eat?" Ricky asks me.

I give him a disbelieving look. "You know I can't read the menu."

He orders three dishes, an egg, pork, and mushroom dish, sweet and sour pork, and a potato dish. He also orders three beers. The beers are cold rather than the usual slightly-chilled temperature for which I am grateful because it has been a hot day and a feebly rotating table-fan is the only relief in the restaurant. We pour a little into our 3-inch-high glasses, “cheers” each other and drink.

I look at Headmaster Lu and he smiles at me. This is about the only way we can communicate without Ricky's assistance. I know he likes me--he has told me I have good habits. By this he means he appreciates that I show up to work on time, have my lessons prepared and am dressed nicely. Ricky also tells me that it is noticed that I am a good housekeeper. Some of the other foreign teachers hire a housekeeper to do their cleaning and laundry. "You come from a good family," the headmaster says. I agree with him. "Both of my parents work very hard," I tell him. I ask him to tell me about his family.

"I have a daughter," he explains through Ricky, "she is your age. And I have a son who is twenty-nine."

"How old are you?" I ask.

"liu-shi-wu," he says, sixty-five. His mother is eighty-four. "She is very strong. She goes for a walk everyday after dinner. You must exercise if you want to stay healthy," he states as he lights up another cigarette. Other than some facial lines and tobacco-stained teeth, he looks much younger. He is a tall man and fairly lanky. His hair is still black though a few gray strands can be spotted. His eyes are rounder than many of the Chinese and his complextion is fairly tanned indicating that he spends a lot of time outside. Later, I will learn that he has a small garden outside his apartment in Anshan where he grows some flowers and vegetables.

"Have you always lived in the Liaoning Province?" I ask him.

"Yes. My family was very poor. We all slept in one room. I went to Sunyi High School. Then I went to the university in Anshan. Then I became a high school teacher. Later, the government asked me to teach at the teacher’s college. Then I returned to be headmaster at the school." Sunyi High School is the name of the high school I teach at. I tell him I didn't realize it was that old and I ask him if he was a good student. "Dui," he replies, yes.

I ask him to tell me what Taian was like when he was a boy. He explains that when he was born, the Japanese occupied this part of China. "China was very poor then. Mao Zedong told us to work hard and make a better life."

"Will you tell me about Mao?" I ask. I'm not sure if it is polite of me to do so but he seemed eager enough.

"Mao was from a poor family. He was in the army and worked very hard. He told the people to make China great and we worked very hard. Now we have a lot of food to eat," he indicated our dishes, "but there are a lot of people in China to feed. Some people are still poor. We are still working hard to make China great--to make Mao's dream come true. Mao Zedong admired America's George Washington."

"Yes," I tell him, "I can understand why."

"Later in life," the headmaster continues, "Mao made a mistake. He trusted the wrong people." I ponder this point. I have noticed that the Chinese tend to have a hard time trusting others. Our office is padlocked whenever we are not there, my friend wanted to walk on the other side of the street with me when some people were trying to ask her questions, store attendants will follow customers around while they are shopping, and I'm not supposed to go out by myself after dark are a few examples I have seen of mistrust.

Still, there is a cheery innocence here that I have not observed in America. "The Chinese are very happy people," I say. "Do you think this is because there are still people who remember what it was like to be very poor?"

He seems to think about this but is not sure how to answer. "We will teach our children to appreciate what they have," he says finally. He lifts his glass to me, "gan bei," he toasts, bottoms-up.

On Beauty

Last week Ricky informed me that a new foreign teacher had been hired to begin in September. He told me that many people had applied but this guy “was the best”. I asked why and he said, “He is the most handsome.” This pretty much confirms something I have suspected for a while: the Chinese have an extreme prejudice when it comes to physical appearance.

As part of the application process, all teachers must submit a photo. I thought this was for security purposed but it turns out they use it to judge your application. They hire attractive teachers (foreign and Chinese) because the students are more receptive to them. I have met dozens of teachers and I can only think of two who looked to be over 50. So as much as I would like to think it was my teaching experience that got me through the door here, I must accept that they hired me because they consider me beautiful. However, I consol myself with the fact that the students must also like my teaching because physical appearance could only hold them enraptured for so long and I have been given summer classes to teach (by my request) because my classes remain “so popular”.

The Chinese idea of beauty is a slender body, big eyes, and pale skin. The latter is of some amusement to me because in the States, being as white as I am is not desirable but here I am complimented on my pale complexion. When I have been out with someone, they assume I would want to remain in the shade to maintain my color. Many women carry around parasols when it is sunny outside. I, on the other hand, seek out the sunlight on the rare occasions I can catch it.

Being fat has a stigma attached to it. There are not nearly as many over weight people here and they make it clear that being fat makes you the odd-one-out. A student once wrote me a letter in which she said, “I’m Iris, remember me? I’m the fat girl.” I also know some of the other foreign teachers are criticized for their beer-guts.

On the other hand, I have seen great tolerance for differences. One of my students has a face and hands that are badly scarred as if she was burned and another has twisted legs and can only walk with extreme difficulty. These girls, however, are treated as equals without contempt or pity.

The people here react differently to beauty than Americans. It is hard to explain but in America there is more of a desire to possess an attractive person whereas in China there is more of a reaction of admiration or awe. The culture here is far less sexually driven and the Chinese people are shy in general, which I think accounts for the differences.

Although they might put a beautiful woman on a pedestal, most women work on equal ground with men. Many people might think the gender roles are stronger in China than in the States since it is a developing country but I have not observed this to be the case. In fact, women hold just as many high positions as men. I would say one of the reasons for this is that women spend less time in the home raising children given the one-child policy and I have seen men on the street with children just as often as women. So, there is no bread-winner and home-maker demarcation. This is not to say that China is full of independent women, however. Strength and independence in general are not prized personality traits.

"Cooking" with Audra

"Liang Pi" is a food sold by street vendors (sort of like how you would buy a hot dog in the city). The noodle is made of wheat starch so if you can't find it, its closest cousin would be vermicelli. The ingredients are: cold noodles, shredded cucumber, cilantro, soy bean paste/jam, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic-water, and if you want to add some kick, chili oil.

Myth Busters

Are the Chinese people all super-intelligent?
School is very important to the Chinese culture. There are enormous pressures on students to do well in school in general but on certain exams in particular. I’ll save my tirade on learning vs. rote memorization for some other time. There is a great emphasis on the maths and sciences and the students here work at a more advanced level than I have seen in American schools. For example, they study electric circuits in middle school and organic chemistry in high school. I am told they have art class and such but I don’t really see the result of this. In other words, the liberal arts education has suffered for the sake of the hard sciences—some people may not think this is a big deal, but I think it leads to a lack of creativity.

Do the Chinese play ping pong?
Yes. As I mentioned, they like to play basketball, that kicking game (I’ve been told the name of it but I can’t remember), and they also like badminton and ping pong (though they refer to it as table tennis when talking to me, so I guess they don’t realize that we recognize it by its Chinese name). I couldn’t resist teaching them how to play the college version aka beer-pong…but only in theory of course!

Do the Chinese eat dog?
Yes, I’ve asked about this and I am told that there are certain restaurants that you go to for dog, for which I am grateful because I know I won’t eat dog on accident. According to Ricky, dog is an expensive dish, though he couldn’t explain why. This seems a little strange to me since it is not like dogs are rare…but I guess they are not just picking strays off the street…

Do the Chinese eat fortune cookies?
I have not seen a single fortune cookie since I’ve been here. I tried explaining to my students once what a fortune cookie was and how iconic it is as part of the Chinese-American culture but they had no idea what I was talking about. They do have what they call fortune-dumplings, which is a dumpling with a coin amongst the filling. Sounds like a good way to crack a tooth to me.

Do the Chinese eat rice with every meal?
Actually, no. I have never seen rice served as a dish. It is readily available, however, since every house and restaurant has it; all you have to do is ask for it and you will get a small bowl. I am told that many people eat rice for breakfast, but since I have never eaten breakfast with people here, I don’t know what these dishes look like.

Are all Chinese kung-fu fighters?
Again, no. I have not seen a single person practicing anything remotely close to a martial art. I’ve asked Ricky about this too and he says that you can find fighting schools in the city, but it seems much less prolific than one might believe. Beyond that, the people here don’t seem to fight much at all. I have seen a few people throw play-punches and I can tell they have never learned how to throw a proper punch. Granted, I’m tougher you’re your average girl, but I’m pretty sure I can kick anybody’s butt around here. People do practice Tai Qi pretty often and they “exercise”, which is in quotations because the exercises I have observed are not strenuous for muscles nor are they cardio workouts. However, whatever they do, it must keep them fit because I have seen many more old people here out and about and they seem, on average, more agile than the elderly I have observed in America.

Are the Chinese, in general, a small people?
There are some people here who barely reach past my navel with their heels on. Of course, there are some taller people too. I think the height difference between men and women is slightly less than what I observe in other races and I am about as tall as most of the men so I am a few inches taller than most of the women.

What do the Chinese think of their own government?
This one is tricky because I’ve been told flat-out, “we don’t talk about politics”. That in itself is a big indicator to me. At the same time, as I have said before, the Chinese are a pretty happy people and to work for the government is to have an honorable and prestigious job. I think in general, the people believe that the government has their best interest at heart and that what their government does it for the good of the country. Of course education is never unbiased so what the students learn here is certainly colored. I have been told that when the lesson on the Cultural Revolution is given in history, that a party representative sits in the classroom.

What do the Chinese think of the rest of the world?
Of course China has some serious cultural pride, but what country doesn’t? Sometimes I am surprised at the things my students don’t know about world history, geography, and culture, but then again, it may not be that they don’t know it, it might just be that we don’t understand each other. Coming from a country of immigrants where I am constantly exposed to cultural differences, I do think that the Chinese are sheltered from the rest of the world. It should be noted, I am in Taian which is rather remote, and might have a different impression if I were in a city.