Beijing redux

Back to Beijing.  Barb and I took a soft sleeper.  I'm getting accustomed to this mode of travel, had a very good sleep and awoke in Beijing.  Barb didn't want to stay in a hostel so we had a hotel only about 300 meters from Tiananmen Square.  After resting a bit we found a comfortable restaurant, fortified ourselves with some excellent jouza, and across Tiananmen to the Forbidden City.  We spent a few hours there doing a much more thorough exploration than my first visit in February.  The courtyards are a labyrinth where the emperor and his various wives and courtesans lived.  Now their various homes are each art galleries with exquisite pieces.  China always reminds the visitor of its past glory and wealth, which in turn demonstrate its potential to be great again.

On Saturday Barb wanted to visit the Great Wall so we joined a tour to the Badaling section.  We had a chatty guide and a good crew:  a couple of young lovers from Cambodia and three Intel technicians making a brief stop in Beijing before returning to Costa Rica.  I think the climb up was harder than my previous encounter at Simatai, although of course we didn't subsequently do a long hike.  In fact, getting up and down was all Barb could do.  By the time we neared the bottom her leg muscles had turned to jelly and she was walking like a Robert Crumb character.  You can share her experience at http://picasaweb.google.com/PackLitePaul/BarbAtTheWall#.  She was so tired that evening I had to pry her out of the room just to have a decent dinner.

The next morning she went to the airport for the return flight, regretting that she had not planned a longer stay (only one time:  I told her!).  I taxied to Beijing West train station.  When I got to car 13 lower level seat 25 two young women asked if I taught at Henan University.  They were pre-med students on the new campus who had come to Beijing to visit their boyfriends and take exams for further study.  I graded papers for the first half of the trip, then as the crowd dispersed we were able to sit together and chat.  We were joined by an music student who had graduated from Henan two years ago.  They practiced their English and helped me with my Mandarin, people kept giving me food, the alumna sang beautifully, and altogether we had as jolly a journey as nine potentially tedious hours could be.  Any visit to China is greatly enriched by a few train trips.

This weekend is the May Day holiday.  When even a small percentage of 1.3 billion people take to the rails and buses it's a good time to avoid travel so I'll be in Kaifeng.  But—the weather is great and I'm in my last few weeks so there's a lot of travel I hope to do in May.

Chinese view of U.S. a big puzzle

This article appeared in the April 26 Wooster Daily Record

__________________________

Ni hao. Hello from Kaifeng, China, where I am teaching at Henan University for a semester.

Preparing to come to China, I spent a lot of time on my courses. I assumed the Chinese know a lot about America from TV, movies and other sources.

Once I started teaching I re-learned the old saw about what "assume" makes out of you and me.

Perhaps in more sophisticated big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai people have a fairly accurate vision of the West. But here in the provinces we are as mysterious as ... well, as the Chinese are to us. I think the students at Henan University have a fragmentary picture of America. It's like they've got several pieces of a jigsaw puzzle but many are missing.

There is a fundamental difference so great it makes each of us incomprehensible to the other. The soil of China has grown and nurtured its people and their culture like a strong and very old tree. Although there are tribal minorities here, 92 percent of the population is from one root. That makes the Han the largest ethnic group in the world. With the exception of a few areas this is a homogeneous society.

America is a ground on which a great variety of seeds have been transplanted. There are trees growing from everywhere. Every nation, every tribe, every religion, large and small, is represented. In this variegated forest cross-pollination has taken place. So many of us are multi-hyphenate. "I'm Irish-French-German-Cherokee." Like the plant researchers at ATI, sociologists keep busy studying the profusion of cultures and subcultures that never stop appearing in our country.

We Americans are not accustomed to such a large number of people who despite regional peculiarities are more alike than different. Chinese can't quite grasp the motley variety of America.

My students are forever asking what Americans think and how they act. Perhaps they think I am evasive when I keep stressing that Americans hardly ever agree on anything -- politics, religion, lifestyle, education, you name it. I find myself saying over and over we argue about everything but somehow we make it work. And the arguments actually are healthy. We're being Americans by making choices, holding beliefs and voicing opinions.

That doesn't compute. Chinese value harmony. Dissent is rare and muted. In unanimity there is strength.

"In China, all the things we learn are not allowed to doubt about," one of my students complained. "The books and the teachers mean the authority, especially in primary and high schools. All we learn is just to remember the facts and the principles. If you have a very creative thought or if you think in the other way around, instead of praising, the teachers will laugh at you or persuade you to give up that 'stupid' idea, for you are wasting your time on a thought which won't gain a single point on your college entrance examination (just like SAT in America). Maybe this is the reason why we can't think out of the box."

Another of my students shared with me her ambition to study in Germany. She said my classes are helpful because she must learn to think like a Westerner. Chinese tend to see the big picture, she explained, but aren't interested in the details. Westerners are more committed to a thorough exploration of the facts and logical organization of data before reaching a conclusion.

That's the way we're taught to think. That's the way I set up my courses and teach. It's an approach so ingrained I hadn't considered that students here might view it as unusual or instructive unto itself.

At the heart of it all is an essential difference. The Chinese value most highly membership in the community. To belong to the family, the village, the group, the society, the country -- that's of paramount importance.

For Americans individualism is part of our creed and character. We pay the price of being disputatious and stubborn. We work hard to balance our unique identity with the need to work and live with others. Here in China, I'm reminded it makes us quite different.

While at home, it's easy to get caught up in the divisions that are part of our everyday lives -- Democrats vs. Republicans, believers vs. nonbelievers, Steelers vs. Browns. Half a world away, I'm learning a lot about the great, glorious stew that is my country just by having to explain it to others.

Xi'an

And so, Xi’an… Barb and I took a soft sleeper from Kaifeng—two bunks on each side of a small compartment. We both had upper berths and Barb had a little trouble hoisting herself up. Xi’an is the capital of Shanxi province, which sits on Henan’s western border. It was an imperial capital, reaching a peak during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 C.E.). Xi’an appears to be flourishing. It’s a large, bustling center with a lot of modern buildings, clean streets, wide boulevards lined with smart shops, and well-dressed, busy people.
Let’s get the bad out of the way first. In a upscale fashion shop Barb entrusted me with her purse while she tried on some clothes. I looked at my cell phone and when I looked up, it was gone. We lost a little cash but more troublesome were the credit cards. We had to get an international calling card and cancel everything.

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?  Well, we couldn't let a little setback ruin our visit. The highlight was the visit to the Qin Emperor’s tomb to view the famed terra cotta army, every bit as awesome—actually, much more—than expected. We hired a guide who pointed out a lot that we probably would have missed. We also visited the teahouse on the grounds for a formal tasting which was educational and fun. We took a pretty nice public bus out to the area but caught the local back—a jolting and much longer ride that wend through some villages.

Of course we liked the shopping Mecca that is the Muslim Quarter, an area of narrow streets and unending commerce. Barb likes the knock-off purses and has an eye for counterfeit quality. 

During our second foray Barb was experiencing significant pain so we stopped at the blind

massage place. It was twice as expensive as Kaifeng but she got a bone crackin’ make-me-into-rubber hour plus for US$7.50, still a deal.

When Barb was resting on our third day I ascended the old city walls, rented a bicycle, and made the 14 kilometer (9 mile) circuit all around the top. Traveling a medieval rampart past guard towers and over gates, looking over the old and new cities was one of my best experiences in Xi’an and indeed during my whole China visit.We stayed in the Shuyuen Youth Hostel which I recommend highly. Located next to the city’s South Gate with a patient, friendly, helpful young staff. A very good restaurant. I had coffee regularly for the first time in two months, great breakfasts, and even pizza, for which there was a wood-fired oven right off the restaurant. The hostel may be justified in its boast that the basement bar is one of the best in the city.We met an interesting character, Steve of Missouri, who might have been the only person in the hostel older than I. Every two years he comes to Xi’an and stays in the hostel for 55 days. Never saw him go out in my 4 days there, he just hung around talking with guests, visitors, and the staff.
We hooked up with Walt Hixson, a history prof from The Univesity of Akron who is teacing in Beijing on a Fulbright. We shared a marvelous meal at a Hong Kong-style restaurant—the barbequed eggplant was memorable—and returned together on the seven-hour train trip back to Kaifeng, Walt’s first China train ride. He’s delivering a lecturing on drugs and sex (!) to my American Popular Culture classes before he goes on to Qingdao for a conference.
This weekend: back to Beijing! I’m building up my frequent tracker kilometers!

Millennium City Park

A thousand years ago Kaifeng was the Song Dynasty capital.  One of the most famous paintings in China, Qingming Shanghe tu (Along the River During the Qingming Festival), depicts a bustling, prosperous, beautiful city.  Although the original is now in  Beijing, reproductions can be found all over Kaifeng.  Near the historic Dragon Pavilion is Millennium City Park, a privately-owned history-themed attraction.  The International Office took all the foreign experts on an outing including a large meal (of course) and the evening performance.  The spectacular features hundreds of costumed actors recreating the Qingming scroll and a drama complete with an attack on the Emperor's palace.  A mixture of Broadway, summer outdoor theater, Busby Berkeley, and Disney, it has to be seen.

Keeping Barb busy

Barb has been keeping busy during her visit.  On Friday we visited Dengfeng City.  We went to one of the oldest Buddhist temples in China, nestled into the mountains.  Barb thought the setting was just like the Chinese art she studied in college.  We even saw a few foreigners and so unused am I now to other Westerners that I was staring at them as much as the Chinese.  I refrained, however, from taking their pictures.

We spent the late afternoon at the famed Shaolin Temple where kung fu was developed.  It's probably the biggest tourist attraction in Henan province but the demonstration was still cool!  Ya gotta like a guy breaking a sword over his head and another throwing a pin through a ballon and a piece of glass.

Saturday was a wedding feast!  Jackie Chan is the liaison for us foreign experts and his new bride Poppy (English name) is in my graduate philosophy class.   Wonderful couple and they welcomed us like family.The hosts must lay on a sumptuous and plentiful spread so that no guest goes away hungry. Better Chinese restaurants usually have a large dining room on the first floor and a number of rooms on the second where people can eat in a relatively quiet atmosphere.  Jackie & Poppy had the entire floor for their banquet.  Naturally there were numerous toasts and much bai jo (Chinese whiskey) consumed.  Jackie doesn't like to drink but by the time he made it to our room for his third visit he was pretty unsteady.  "Five uncles!" he complained, and by tradition they wanted to ensure he was man enough to marry their relative by seeing if he could hold his whiskey.  No way the groom can refuse a toast!  We lightened him up by the special performance of a rap we had prepared. 

 The newlyweds' reaction is our best review.

Sunday Professors Guo Shangxing, Xue Yufeng, Barb, and I went to Zhuxianzhen, a small town 22 kilometers south of Kaifeng.  It has a temple dedicated to national hero Yue Fei.  The statues above commemorate the capture of the five assassins who took his life.  The town also boasts a fine old mosque.

Zhuxianzhen is famous for woodcuts.  We stopped at a shop and watched the artisans at work.  Naturally we did not leave the town empty-handed.  Back in Kaifeng we met more friends for a great feast.  Did I mention that the Chinese love to eat?
Our day was not yet done—nor were our culinary adventures.  Livia, one of my junior students, had invited us to dinner at her parents' apartment Sunday evening.
Her mother taught Barb how to make jiaozi and baozi (dumplings boiled and steamed).
She spoke no English but Livia could translate and at any rate the international language of the kitchen held sway.  Livia's mother is a terrific cook and we marveled at the spread she laid out using one burner.  No oven, no stove, just a hotplate.  Amazing!
We had a great time,  I never thought I 'd hear Barb claim that she can barely face another feast!  But Monday was another day...

Passover in Kaifeng

Passover in the middle of China! My wife and I amid a crowd of Chinese celebrating the holiday. How did this curious event come about?

A thousand years ago a Jewish community in what is today Turkey got wind of an upcoming persecution. The decision was made to flee far from danger. Off the people went, traveling east on the Silk Road all the way to China. They were welcomed by the Emperor in his capital. So it was that a small number of Jews settled in Kaifeng.

Over the years the people prospered. They encountered none of the prejudice and oppression so tragically common in the West. They embraced their new Chinese lives.

In the wake of Marco Polo’s expeditions missionary Matteo Ricci came to China, where he would spend the rest of his life. One day he received a visitor. The Chinese man had heard that there was a Westerner who was an adherent of the one true God. Completely unaware of the existence of Christianity, he was sure he was about to reestablish contact with the Jewish world.

Ricci in turn thought he might have found a lost colony of Christians. After a discussion they realized their error. Ricci sent to Kaifeng a Chinese Jesuit who confirmed the unexpected existence of a Jewish community—in China!

Curious about this oddity, the Jesuits eventually built a church near the Kaifeng synagogue. Relations between the groups were good when focused on studies of mutual interest. But any efforts at conversion were resisted and resented by the Kaifeng Jews. The only Catholic church in town still stands near the site of the old synagogue. In between stands the city’s biggest mosque. Due to the historical proximity of the three religions to one another, Kaifengers call this area Little Jerusalem

Over time the Jewish community disappeared. It wasn’t suppressed. Many Jews intermarried. Young men neglected their Jewish studies in order to prepare for the imperial examinations. They became more and more Chinese until no one could read Hebrew or say the prayers anymore. When the last rabbi died and the synagogue was destroyed in a flood, the community faded away.

In recent times the Kaifeng Jews have become a subject of curiosity and study. Israeli and American Jews come to town to find out more about this unique outpost. Descendants of the Kaifeng Jews have dedicated increased energy to reviving their dormant heritage.

In the spring Jews all over the world celebrate Passover. All over the world—even in Kaifeng, China. On the evening of April 8 my wife and I attended a Passover seder (service) here. About 50 of the descendants gathered at a local restaurant. The crowd also included guests from as far away as Beijing and Hong Kong—and two from Wooster, Ohio, USA.

Immediately preceding the Seder was an event of signal importance. One of the visitors presented the group with a baby Torah. Representatives received it with the appropriate combination of solemnity and happiness. This scroll is the Five Books of Moses, the Books of Law, the Pentateuch, studied, parsed and combed for every nuance over the centuries. The gathering was genuinely joyful and enthusiastic as the little Torah was taken around the room and everyone stood and touched the box.

The service was led by two earnest young men. While most was in Chinese, it was strange to hear the Hebrew portions spoken with such an exotic accent. The people ate matzo and drank wine as they made their way through the liturgy. A highlight came when a young girl recited the four questions that ask, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” With the focus on task so typical of the Chinese, she had memorized the long Hebrew portion perfectly in only two weeks.

After the service we had a typical Chinese meal. That means a bewildering array of dishes made a seemingly endless parade to the table. There was mutton and duck and beef and chicken. There was lotus root and aloe plant in yogurt sauce and everything else from pickled bean sprouts to sheep intestines. And there was the standard feature of any Chinese banquet—jolly toasts in which everyone must click their cups and glasses. “Kambe!” Drink it dry!

Finally we engaged in another inevitable part of any Chinese event: photographs. Everyone takes pictures of everyone and the weigoren (foreigners) are especially popular. We posed and smiled and said “Qieze.” That’s the Chinese version of “say cheese” but it’s the word for eggplant.

The Chinese Jews were and are a minuscule sliver of a population of 1.3 billion. Most Chinese are unaware of their existence. Among the few who know anything about the Jewish people there is respect. The Jews have a long history and exhibit perseverance. The Chinese can identify.

The Kaifeng Jews are determined to build a future based on a proud and rich past. To China they add a little much-needed diversity. To Barbara and me they gave one never-to-be-forgotten evening.

For pictures go to http://picasaweb.google.com/PackLitePaul/KaifengPassover# and click on slideshow in the upper left corner

Night Market

Mike introduces Barb to the Night Market

Every night downtown Kaifeng undergoes a mind-boggling change.  At exactly 7:00 PM hundreds of vendors wheel their stands into the street and transform the area into a gigantic food bazaar.  This is the famous Kaifeng Night Market.  People come from nearby Zhongzhou and points afar to enjoy the completely Chinese combination of theater and food. Needless to say, Barb was boggled and loved it.

The original fish sticks!         

Yum—roasted cicadas just the way you like them!

Barb's first meal

Barb is fascinated by the menu

Barb flew into Zhongzhou on Saturday.  Jackie, the Henan University International Programs liaison, organized a Buick and a driver for the 2 + hour round trip from Kaifeng to pick her up.  Before we re-entered the new Kai-Zhong tollway we stopped at a hotel for Barb's first real Chinese meal, her Beijing Swiss-owned hotel's Western-style breakfast buffet notwithstanding.

A menu or a stocking list for an aquarium?

Banqueting

One of the great delights of China is the banquet, a convivial meal that features a dazzling array of dishes and endless toasts.  These begin with everyone standing and touching glasses all around—and you must click every glass.  Throughout the meal people walk around the table toasting each person individually.  Teetotalers can abstain from alcohol but you've got to drink something!  Dan and Tamara Yu, Beloit College professors, are spending their sabbatical in China with their daughter, researching language in Beijing.  They came to Kaifeng to deliver a pair of lectures.  Henan University Chancellor Guan hosted a feast for them and was kind enough to invite me.  

We've pretty much exhausted the Australian wine Professor Guan brought, so he and I are drinking corn juice.

Yellow River Outing

The Chinese students do many outings with their classes. I was invited on the spring outing for the Foreign Language postgraduates (grad students in the USA) and was happy to accept, especially since it was my first visit to the Yellow River. The Huang is called the Mother River since Chinese civilization first grew up around it.
We took the local bus 8 kilometers north of Kaifeng. Because the area is suffering from a prolonged drought the river is way down with large sandbars visible over its great width—it must be two kilometers across. The blossoms are out as you can see. We lined up for a considerable number of group photos, a feature of any Chinese outing, and everyone wanted a picture with me. So this is what celebrity status feels like!
No Chinese social gathering is complete without food. We had a little barbeque where the students roasted meat, fish, and vegetables over a fire, and then a peasant meal in a Mongolian-style yurt.  I taught the students Western poker, mostly five card draw, and they taught me Chinese poker—landlord vs. peasants, of course.

Great kids, great day, great fun.

Teaching in China

No foolin'!  This piece appeared in the April 1 Perspectives from the Provost, an e-mail newsletter circulated throughout The University of Akron.

____________________________________

Teaching in China provides as many lessons for the teacher as his students
By Dr. Paul Weinstein, Professor of History at Wayne College

Hello from Kaifeng, China.

As part of its affiliation with the Confucius Institute, The University of Akron is strengthening its decade-long partnership with Henan University. The university serves China's most populous and poorest province. There are two campuses, a new generic expanse of concrete on the northwest corner of the city that houses the sciences and the old one inside the medieval walls. The latter is home during this faculty improvement leave semester.

It's a mark of prestige among Chinese universities to boast some foreign professors, and Henan has had a difficult time recruiting them. The link with UA is very important to it.

I'm in the happy position of being the first foreign Ph.D. to teach here, and Henan is getting as much as it can out of me. I've got double-size classes, seeing every English major in the freshman, sophomore and junior Foreign Language Department classes (here called grades 1, 2 and 3). I'm trying to satisfy their enormous curiosity about the West with two American Popular Culture classes and four History of Western Culture sections. In addition, I've got more than 100 postgraduates (we would say "graduate") and a few faculty in my History of Western Philosophy and Theology class, which meets every other week.

The Chinese accord high respect to teachers, all the more for an exotic such as myself. While I enjoy my unique status, it is the classes that make this a truly delightful experience. Imagine students who thank you after every class for simply showing up. Who ask you for more readings! Who tell you what an honor it is to have you at their university. Who applaud at the end of class.

I'm also learning a very valuable lesson, one that I look forward to communicating to my Wayne College students. And that is, very simply, look out. They're coming.

Chinese students work hard, and I mean HARD. They typically attend about six hours of class a day, often six days a week. Yet they are cheerful and friendly and enthusiastic. They do their assignments diligently.

The Chinese are a bit behind us in areas of critical and analytical thinking. The instructional style tends to be didactic. The students spend so much time studying they don't have a lot of time for research or creative thinking. But the work ethic is unbelievable, the mutual support among class groups is palpable, and the determination to succeed for self and country is extraordinarily strong. The Chinese are putting their shoulders to the wheel and that is a lot of collective power. We're going to have to work very hard to stay ahead — or even.

The students today at The University of Akron and all across the United States should heed the words of baseball legend Satchel Paige: “Don't look over your shoulder. Someone might be gaining on you.”