Don't come to China if...

Some possibly helpful advice:

Don’t come to China if you can’t use chopsticks. I know I’ve written about this before but it bears repeating. A necessary part of the Chinese experience is dining. There is food everywhere from stands to teeny restaurants to night markets where a cart becomes a kitchen and a makeshift canopy the seating to elegant establishments with smothering service. Eating with a group is so much fun in China. It is the primary venue for social interaction. If you like food you’ll enjoy China as one of the world’s top dining environments. Which leads me to…

Don’t come to China if you are not open to food. You will NOT see the Chinese food you know in the USA, at least not where I’ve been eating. You’ll have some familiar dishes prepared in new ways. Take eggplant. It’s all over. At every restaurant it’s a little (or a lot) different and it’s always good. You’ll have some new foods. In season now are willow leaves—yes, from the willow tree and don’t weep, they are delicious. The Chinese could make rocks taste good. You’re in for great food if you’re willing to dip in your sticks and enjoy.

Don’t come to China if you don’t like mushrooms. A large variety graces a number of dishes and they’re really good. I’ve had some spectacular mushroom soup.

Don’t come to China if you don’t like hot peppers. They’re not in everything but they are one of the most common ingredients. Hard to avoid.

Don’t come to China if you’re addicted to salt. There’s none on the table and rarely any in the food. I like salt too much but I don’t miss it at all. In fact, I’m hopeful that I will cut way back when I return home.

Don’t come to China if you expect water fountains. There aren’t any here. The tap water is not potable. Bottled water, juices, and other drinks are readily available (but very rarely cold). All apartments are outfitted with clean water, the big upside-down dispenser jugs you see all over the USA.  Oh, forget about ice, also.

Don’t come to China if you can’t squat. The sit-down toilets here in the foreign experts compound are the only ones I’ve seen so far in Kaifeng. The common toilet is a slit or hole that one straddles.  

Don’t come to China if you’re squeamish about toilets. Good news: China is very good on providing public toilets everywhere. Bad news: While those in Beijing are pretty clean and well-attended, the experience elsewhere can only be described as noxious. Older readers will remember the original roadside rest stops, where in summer one fought through a horde of yellowjackets to use the outhouses. Those were palaces compared to the Kaifeng street privy. Take a deep breath and try to do your business as quickly as possible. You’ll live. And always carry your own toilet paper.

Don’t come to China if you don’t want to make friends. If you are around long enough you’ll build relationships and the Chinese will teach you profound lessons in hospitality, respect, friendliness, openness, and undisguised warmth. Prepare to learn and to change your life.

"Xmas Story," Henan University

This article appeared in the Wooster Daily Record March 29

________

Ni hao. Greetings from Kaifeng, China, where I'm teaching at Henan University for a semester.

The Chinese love Christmas.

Don't get too excited. It's not what you think.

To them the religious aspects of Christmas are hazy. It has something to do with Jay-soo, but few know much more than that.

The Chinese government is tolerant about religion -- to a point. You can practice but you can't proselytize. Perhaps it would be accurate to say you can preach but not teach.

I don't know all the reasons behind the policy. I suspect in part the Communist Party doesn't want any potentially uncontrollable rivals. There's also some history. While missionaries are remembered to have done good work, they also represent the intrusion of Western values and power. The Chinese are quite sensitive to that. One of my students wrote on a recent paper, "I'm proud of being born in such a great nation, though it suffered a hard time and even was once bullied and shamed. That is long gone! We're conscious of our strong points as well as weaknesses and more, we are moving forward swiftly. One day the revival of our nation will shock the world."

The great majority of my students tell me they have no religion. They are materialists. That doesn't mean they are into the accumulation of worldly goods. It refers to a basic tenet of Marxist ideology. They've been taught this just as Americans learn about liberty and democracy in school.

I've told them people in America have different beliefs and levels of commitment to them. That we have people of strong faith and some who have none, but most Americans would consider themselves to be at least somewhat religious. Here in China there are far more similarities than differences. Diversity and variety are very difficult for young provincials to grasp.

But the Chinese love festivals. Christmas intrigues them. It is full of concepts they embrace. There is light and color, and these people have a whole festival devoted to lanterns. There is singing and joy, and the Chinese do karaoke even at funerals. There are peace and harmony, all very Confucian. The giving of gifts has deep meaning here, so the importance of that part of Christmas is readily recognized.

Santa Claus appears to be just below Mickey Mouse in popularity. His image graces the doors of many stores year-round. At first it was a bit disconcerting to see a thoroughly American Santa welcoming me to a typical hole-in-the-wall Chinese eatery, but now I see him as just part of the jigsaw Chinese cityscape.

Recently I showed my American Popular Culture classes "A Christmas Story," the 1983 classic about Ralphie and his tireless quest for a Red Ryder BB gun. You had to be there. The students laughed in all the right places. It would have been perfect to record a laugh track for a TV sitcom. Their uproarious responses had me in tears.

The following week they submitted essays on their reactions to the film. They were puzzled why the father went into the "smoky room." I failed to realize they have no grasp of basements or furnaces. Even their dormitories have no heating or air conditioning. I guess four people sharing a room generate all the heat they need in winter.

They thought the kids in the movie were admirably independent and creative, an example for Chinese children. However, they were upset with the bully. The Chinese abhor conflict. They appreciated the loving family. Many commented Chinese parents, especially fathers, do not openly express their emotions to their child.

Yes, that's singular. China has the one child policy so most of the students have no siblings. Although they acknowledge the necessity, the students envied Americans kids with brothers and sisters.

I heard unexpected "ahs" when the mother finished cooking Christmas dinner. They were fascinated by the big turkey which would be a great feast here. Ovens are quite rare. In a country that long ago consumed its forests most cooking, including in small restaurants, is done over one or two burners (which is why dishes parade out one after the other instead of coming all at once). The wok was developed for flash cooking using little fuel.

One of my American friends here offers the opinion the Chinese like Christmas because we buy so much of the stuff (his word was less kind) they produce. I'm not so cynical. The Chinese may not embrace the religious aspects but they still understand something very important.

As one of the students concluded in her essay, "The night on Christmas was so beautiful and the family were happy. I am happy too."

Language Class

I visited an English class today.  One of my freshman groups was hard at work in a new language lab.  The instructor employs a Finnish software system, playing words and an essay to her class The students have headphones and monitors but no keyboards—no messing around.  A student read a joke, the one about the woman who hurts wherever she touches (I've heard it as a blonde story) and three classmates simultaneously recorded their Chinese translations in booths located in the rear.  These were played back for review.  The students were rewarded with another installment of a film they had selected which they watched intently on their monitors.  Look below right—can you tell what it is?  

I met a few of the kids after class and took them to lunch.  How many hours they take.  They are in class about six hours a day, six days a week.  Yet they are cheerful and friendly and enthusiastic.  Any instructor has to love their indomitable work ethic.  I begin to wonder whether fast food-fed Americans will long keep China in check.

The film is:   

               The Godfather

Spring

Spring... the same everywhere.  Two Chinese students smooching on a bench in the park near my apartment.   I pondered whether to take a picture and got out my camera and walked around for a good angle and snapped two.. all during one very prolonged kiss. 

Spring...

Luoyang

Saturday, March 21:  Mike and I taxied through predawn Kaifeng to the train station.  We sat with a jolly conductor and who put his hat on Mike for this picture.  The big train station opened to clean paved streets with traffic guards even in the bicycle lanes.  We could tell we were in a much more prosperous town than rugged old Kaifeng.

Mike used his Chinese throughout the day to navigate Luoyang.  We first took a bus to White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China.  Though it may sound like sacrilege, I'm beginning to see a certain amount of repetition in the temples, at least in this area.  They're all laid out pretty much the same and feature the same small rooms dominated by images of Buddha et. al.  The grounds of White Horse are much larger than usual and there is a large Indian stupa of recent construction, probably a gift.  There was a pretty garden area with a pond where I fed the fish and turtles.

We bussed back downtown for lunch, when we sampled some of the local specialties.  Luoyang was once an imperial capital, as was Kaifeng.  We had some fantastic mushroom soup and something made of sweet potato that was somewhere between a soup and a puddng, both great, and finished with Luoyang Yan Cai, a famous dish originally made with a radish presented to a Tang Dynasty empress about 1,500 years ago.

In the afternoon we went to Longmen Grottoes, where work began in the 5th century on chiseling Buddhist images into mountainsides.  There are thousands of carvings, some small and a few mammoth.  

We returned to Kaifeng after dinner, arriving back in the apartment before midnight after a long day of memorable sightseeing.  For pictures go to  http://picasaweb.google.com/PackLitePaul and open the Luoyang album.  Click the Slideshow button for full captions.  More signage is included!

Blog Me!

O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us.  —Robert Burns

Marta's blog on the ol' professor:

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/m.van.etten/1/1236151380/tpod.html

Modern times

The Chinese are struggling with new ideas about love and relationships. This video is popular on Xiaonei, the Chinese version of facebook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYgVb7jzyDU&eurl=http://xiaonei.com/profile.do?portal=profileFootprint&id=222827333&feature=player_embedded

Thanks to Marta for the link.

It's Chinatown, Jake

For those who don't get the Wooster Daily Record, this column ran on Sunday, March 15
____________________________________
Welcome to the China way of life
By PAUL WEINSTEIN
Guest Columnist

Ni hao. Greetings from Kaifeng, China, where I'm teaching at Henan University for a semester.

Jack Nicholson stands mute and befuddled, unable to fully grasp what has unfolded. "Forget it, Jake," advises his old partner. "It's Chinatown."

Here I am in the biggest Chinatown of 'em all. This is supposed to be the economic superpower that is rising as we are stumbling. Beijing airport's spanking new international terminal leads to a gleaming city center with new hotels overlooking broad boulevards filled with shiny autos. In America it feels like a "Made in China" label hangs on half the stuff we buy.

Kaifeng reminds me China is still a developing nation. Sure, there are automobiles on the streets but they are far outnumbered by a bewildering assortment of vehicles. The bicycles aren't the multi- speed hi-tech machines that even kids ride in America, but clunky unisex single-gear workhorses with a basket on the handlebars.

Electric motorbikes and motorcycles are a step up (why don't we have these?). You have to keep your eyes open because you can't hear when one sneaks up on you. Hordes of small three-wheeled vehicles from little taxis (bun-buns) to overloaded trucks roll down the roads.

There are bicycle rickshaws, carts, wagons and just about anything else that can move goods and carry people.

The Chinese ride in the open air even with temperatures in the 30s. The people seem oblivious to the cold. The buildings are perennially under-heated. On a February morning when a very light snow had fallen, the inadequate furnace in the corner of my classroom was not even running. The students sit in their parkas and sip hot tea out of thermoses without a murmur.

In restaurants there is barely any heat. On cold evenings customers eat with coats on. Drafts steadily blast through loose-fitting doors. Someone exits without closing. I can hear my mother asking about being born in a barn but the patrons hardly seem to notice until a server finally pulls it shut.

Proprietors of outdoor stands sell everything from eyeglass parts to hot snacks. They put in their endless days bundled up as thickly as Ralphie's little brother Randy in "A Christmas Story." I can't decide if the Chinese are tough, inured, or simply resigned. They are making me feel like a softy, especially on cool nights in my thermostat-free apartment (A great mystery here in the foreigner compound: Who controls the heat?). I sure am looking forward to the warmth of spring.

The downtown area is like the America I remember from the 1950s. Crowded sidewalks unroll past a thousand little stores. Recently I ambled by three shops dedicated solely to purses and another that was nothing but chopsticks.

Anyone who works in an organization knows that employees always complain about management. What are those office people thinking? In China the answer is quite easy: I have no idea. Last week there were rumors the freshmen would miss class for a service day.

One American teacher received a text informing him of the cancellation 30 minutes before class. I got the news off-handedly from a Chinese professor. At the University of Akron we'd receive a dozen e-mails reminding us of a cancellation. Here I guess people are just supposed to know these things.

Food in restaurants is great but comes out in no particular sequence. The Chinese way is to order a number of dishes and dig in as the cascade of food begins to appear. The beer is served somewhat cold and water is hot. That way you know it's clean. There's no written check, the total is just delivered verbally. Oh, and no tipping.

Allow me to note one last custom: Toddlers wear pants with a vertical split up the backside. No diapers needed, and the air conditioning might provide extra incentive to get potty trained.

China is so far away from America in space and spirit. It is a place where a simple walk down the street might bring a new surprise.

Forget what you've read or seen, you really have to dive in and swim to just begin to get acquainted.

It's Chinatown, Jake.

Field Trip: Xinzheng

My friend/student/teacher Xue Yufeng wrote last week, “There’ll be a one-day tour this Saturday to Xinzheng, Zhengzhou, the hometown of the Yellow Emperor (or Huangdi) The tour is organized by our department for all the female staff as a celebration of this year’s Women’s Day (last Sunday). Every year on the Qingming Festival on April 5, there would be a grand ceremony there to commemorate the Yellow Emperor, one of the two most important ancestors of the Chinese people. I talked with the dean Shi Fuqiang who is in charge of this tour about your interest in Chinese culture, and he agreed that if you WANT to go with us, you’re welcome! If so, you and he and the driver most probably will be the only three gentlemen to protect about 30 female teachers in our department.”
How could I resist this invitation?  So it was that Saturday morning I boarded the bus with the women and a few men of the Foreign Language Department for a field trip.We first went to Mt. Shizu, the center of the world to the Chinese.We started on a concrete road and soon reached the dreaded steps. If I felt a bit challenged by a two kilometer staircase, all I had to do was see some of the elderly Chinese stolidly making their way up and I was reinvigorated. The peak had a shrine to the Yellow Emperor and his most important wife who by legend taught Chinese women to make silk.
We lunched at a place that, I was told, was once an old peasant home. In Chinese style we split into different rooms where eight people were seated at a round table with a lazy susan. The usual cascade of dishes appeared, starting with delicious fried vegetable balls and continuing with a couple of green salads, a cold noodle salad with shredded carrots, buns, fish, meats, vegetable dishes, mixed mushrooms, sweet potatoes, scrambled eggs with wild mushrooms, a kind of tortilla which we filled with any of the above.  I stopped counting the dishes at 16 but there were more. Each one was new stimulus for commentary and critique. Soups always come last. The Chinese believe they help digestion, and for this meal we had three, fish, chicken, and noodle.
Our afternoon destination was the shrine of Huangdi in Xinzheng, a large plaza dedicated to the legendary first emperor. Workers were busy getting the place ready for a huge festival coming up. The square with the image of the emperor was closed for construction. One of the most important elements of life in China is guanxi which basically means connections. It's the same as America, adding in networks, pull, and having a friend in the right place.  An administrator of the shrine was a former student of the Assistant Dean coordinating our group. Negotiations ensued with the local tour guide, the official descended from her office, the barriers were opened, and we made our way across the square to the giant image of Huangdi. We paid homage which means everyone posed for pictures in front of the statue (as I’ve previously written, the Chinese take to cameras like giddy American teenagers. We did group pictures everywhere we went on this trip).
Whew! When we pulled back into Kaifeng after a long day I was tired and a bit achey. I figured I’d drag myself back to the apartment but Yufeng suggested a massage at her favorite place. There ensued an hour of manipulated bliss which would have cost me all of 20 yuan had Yufeng not insisted on treating me (you have to be very adept in China to win the check). Massage fans, prepare to groan: the cost translates to $3.00. You can bet I’ll go back!More adventures to come. Stay tuned…

Nicholas Kristof warns America

Marta recommended this article from the New York Times.  The description of Kaifeng is still accurate enough;  the warning of decline for New York and by extension America sounds downright prescient. Go to http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFDE1539F931A15756C0A9639C8B63&scp=2&sq=kaifeng&st=cse

What's a China blog without...

What's a China blog without signs?  Here are a few…

Far more poetic than our prosaic "Keep off the grass"

I went in but could not find the propagandas.

Suck out the poison!

Had a cold and accompanying cough that made for a slow weekend.  Felt better as the week progressed.  After auditing my class, Yufeng was headed to the hospital for jar therapy and said that a treatment would be good for my congestion.  Well, why not try it?  The campus hospital is typically cheerless but the doctor was happy to be of help.  The application was different than the one I got in Beijing.  This time my back was wetted with a lubricant and the doctor moved the jar vigorously up and down each side of my spine before hanging several on as pictured.  I guess this is supposed to manipulate something and draw it out...??  The doctor did comment (through Yufeng who interpreted) that the procedure was a bit more difficult due to my hairy back.  I guess she doesn't do it much to weigoren (foreigners).  I asked Yufeng to take some pictures so all you in bloggoland can see these jars hanging off my back, reddened by the rubbing.  Besides a little sore skin I can't say if the treatment has contributed to any improvement I might otherwise be experiencing.  The doctor recommended that if I feel another cold coming on I should get acupuncture in a couple of specific spots on the back and then come in for the jars.  Not sure if any of this has a basis in science but I'm always willing to try anything that doesn't rely on pharmies.

On the title for this post:  What movie does the line come from?  A fan of Woody Allen's early work will know.

Work day

Various grades and departments cancel classes for a day or two for a work day when the students prepare the grounds for spring plantings.  Hate to miss class but it's nice to see everyone contribute to the good of the university.  Like kids anywhere, the students make work fun and seem to have a good time.

Jewish Kaifeng

About a thousand years ago a community of Jews somewhere, likely Persia, got word of a pending persecution. They decided to migrate east and wound up in Kaifeng, China. The Emperor recognized them and granted them protection, and for the next several centuries a small community thrived in complete isolation from the rest of world Jewry. Acceptance led to assimilation. Members of the community intermarried with the locals. With no barriers as were the norm in Europe, young men prepared for the imperial exams, neglecting their Jewish studies. By the 1800s the last rabbi had died and no one could read Hebrew or lead the community. It slowly faded away.

Henan University has a Jewish studies department. One of the professors showed me the center, a couple of rooms with a modest library and small collection of Judaica. Given the difficulty of obtaining relevant books, most of them in English they’ve made an admirable start.

The graduate program currently has six students, one of whom gave me a tour of Jewish Kaifeng on Saturday. We first saw the site of the old synagogue. A Canadian missionary bought the land and funded the replacement of the old building with a hospital. In the alley named Teaching the  Torah Lane lives a widow of one of the descendants, as they are locally known, and her granddaughter. The young woman maintains a tiny collection of artifacts and gifts and hopes

eventually to establish a museum. A few tourists have made their way to the house as you can see at http://hi.baidu.com/yisrael.

She told me a brief history of the community and the synagogue and of her vigorous preservation efforts. Tears ran down her cheeks as she remembered how her grandfather urged her to keep her Jewish heritage alive.  It was very moving.

Later we visited Shi Lei, a activist intent on promoting interaction among the descendants. He speaks excellent English and has lectured in Israel and the USA. Shi Lei has a room dedicated to a display of pictures, gifts, and a few artifacts. He also is energetic and emotional in his dedication to his unique heritage. In addition to billing as the Curator of Mini-Jewish Museum on Kaifeng Jewry, his card lists him as the

Head of the Kaifeng Jewish Community, China’s only Jewish-Chinese Lecturer on Chinese Jewry, and China’s only Jewish-Chinese tour guide. His father is friendly but the language barrier prevented us from doing much more than smile and laugh together.

I’ve been invited to do some presentations at the Jewish Studies Department. We’ll invite Guo Yan and Shi Lei, both graduates of Henan University, so they can come if they’re interested. I hope to see everyone again while I am here.

Carryin' our own

As I have previously posted, many of the cheap restaurants have throwaway wooden chopsticks.  In the interest of preserving trees, a precious resource in China, the Beloit kids and I now each have our own personal screw-together sets.  As the food begins to arrive we take out our cases, assemble our shiny stainless kaiza (chopsticks), and enjoy. 

Touring Kaifeng

Kaifeng is something of a domestic tourist attraction. It isn’t a blip on the screen of Westerners traveling around the country, but the Chinese come to see the historical sites. The government is supposedly exploring how to add a little more polish the town to attract more business.
Before we begin exploring Kaifeng, I must introduce you to Professor Xue Yufeng. The wife of Professor Kang, head of the English Department, Yufeng is a teacher of American literature. She has studied at UCLA and done extensive research on American war novels. Her doctoral dissertation analyzed Asian-American fiction. What three novels does Yufeng require her students to read this semester? Answer later.
During her time in the USA Yufeng was joined by her husband and daughter and together they traveled all over, including Grand Canyon and New York City. Her daughter’s favorite? Why, Disneyland of course.
Yufeng contacted me shortly after I arrived with the clear intention to make me feel welcome. In my first weeks she has surpassed even the high standards of Chinese hospitality. She loaned me a cell phone and helped me set up an account (texting, or as it is called here “messaging” is the way to go. Each costs only 1.5 cents so I’m finally becoming proficient). She guided me in getting a park pass so I have unlimited access to the system.

Yufeng was kind enough to spend a long day showing me a few of the major Kaifeng sights. There is an 18th century Guild Hall, built by area merchants. Just about every decoration seeks to invoke good luck and fortune. The city boasts a major temple featuring the Buddha with a Thousand Eyes, a four-sided image that looks like he’s extruding peacock feathers with eyes on the tips. The Temple of Lord Bao is dedicated to a judge of such legendary integrity that he was eventually deified. 

I saw this young lady dressed in traditional costume and wanted to take her picture, but just as I was about to ask her boyfriend requested that I pose with her. Westerners are still somewhat exotic here.There are still several major sites to see. The weather is warming, Barb is coming, and the Kaifeng experience continues.

What novels are Yufeng’s students reading this term? A Catcher in the Rye, A Farewell to Arms, and Slaughterhouse Five.

For those who do not receive the Wooster Daily Record, here is the column that ran on Sunday, March 1.

Ni hao. Hello from Kaifeng, China,
I have just completed my first week of teaching at Henan University. Seemingly to great acclaim, I might add.
Chinese students applaud at the end of class. I’m not sure if they are being polite or are simply relieved that the ordeal is over. Or maybe they actually appreciate the effort
But they applaud. I could get spoiled.
It’s symbolic of the overall culture. Next to Chinese people, write “hospitable” in capital letters, bold and underlined. China is becoming a global economic power, but in this area its people are already world class.
I want to get a bicycle to use during my stay. Two other foreign teachers are also in the market, so a student is organizing a negotiation for used bikes. Meanwhile, the Assistant to the Director of International Programs showed up at my door to loan me his bike until I get my own.
I didn’t ask. But he gave. This has happened several times in my first days. I feel like the proverbial bull in the very real China. It is difficult to be gracious and thankful enough in the face of such generosity. “Thank you” seems less and less adequate.
I was told that the students were delightful and they are. When I ask a question the whole class responds. Sometimes it’s a chorus, sometimes a cacophony. When a single student speaks, she stands. They’re a little shy. I can hear the quaver in their voices. But they are always ready to put forth great effort.
Perhaps this gives insight to the differences between our cultures. It’s American raise-your-hand-and-speak-for-yourself vs. everyone work together.
The kids are very respectful. As the first foreign professor most have ever seen, I am an exotic creature and they treat me with a charming deference. It would be easy to get spoiled teaching here.
I felt my way through the first week. I concentrated on speaking very slowly. The advanced English students told me I could go faster, because then I could give them more content. Students wanting more! Yes, I could get spoiled.
The students are oriented towards work—hard and lots of it. There are limited university slots in China and a college degree is seen as a ticket to success. The competition is stiff. Through high school the students are focused on doing well on their examinations and gaining admission to college.
The schedule for college-bound hopefuls is grueling. High school students begin their day at 7:30, breaking for lunch at noon. They’re back from 2:30-6:00. After an hour for dinner, they have homework time from 7-9:00 PM. Just enough time to go home to bed and then wake up to another long day. And they go to school on Saturday, same schedule only without the evening session.
Consequently they enter the university programmed to study. A bar recently opened near campus. It’s run by a young Chinese who spent eight years in Canada. It’s the only such place in the area. Strictly for the purpose of reporting to Daily Record readers, I’ve made a reconnaissance mission. Okay, a few, but strictly for research purposes. Half the clientele seems to be drawn from the handful of foreigners teaching and studying at Henan University. There are few students. They don’t party. They work.
They do date. I see couples everywhere. Many are engaging in relationships for the first time. Up to now they have had no chance. In some ways they are like American middle school (or younger) kids fumbling through the first flush of young love.
After class I began to erase the board and was corrected. “That’s the students’ job!” Each class has one or two monitors who take care of the chores. It’s a much-sought after position. Candidates run for the office and give speeches to win election.
Yes, I could get very spoiled teaching here!
I knew that when I came to China I would as much learning as teaching.
They applaud. It’s a bit humbling, a little embarrassing, and very gratifying. Now I have to keep earning it.