Monday, January 26, 2009

Gong Xi Fa Cai - Hong Bao Na Lai!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

2009, the Year of the Bull!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Make New Friends

Traveling throughout Southeast Asia has allowed me to see things I never dreamed I would. I remember watching “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” on the TravelChannel a few years ago and thinking that I would never in my life see those things. And now here I am! Every morning I wake up and am shocked to remember that I’m in Laos.
What’s almost more exciting than riding elephants, swimming in waterfalls, and visiting Buddhist temples is meeting other travel junkies like myself. A few days ago my travel companion, Caroline, and I had the “pleasure” of taking a slow-boat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang, Laos. For two straight days we were squished into a small boat with 124 fellow travelers for at least nine hours each day. Each person had only a small wooden bench where they could make themselves “comfortable” during the journey.
This could have been a terrible, terrible experience. And while it wasn’t the most relaxing trip, it was a fun one. Caroline and I were able to meet some very interesting people from all over the world. We meet an older British couple who are on their fourth trip to the area, a middle aged American traveling alone, as well as a young Canadian couple who are on their fourth month of a year long trip around the world. These people had fascinating stories to tell of their travels in Southeast Asia and other places. The boat trip could have been deathly boring, but instead became fun and interesting with the help of the other tourists.
As this is my first time “backpacking,” I didn’t expect me meet so many interesting people. It has been a most welcomed addition to my travel experiences. These people have really left a mark on my trip, as I hope I have on theirs.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

King Good, Government Bad


The Chinese love Mao. He's on the money, he's on posters in peoples' homes (even I have a painting in my apartment), and his statue stands in various places all over the country. He is looked up to by children and adults alike. There is no question that his name lives on in the hearts and minds of his people.

This all is nothing compared to the love the Thai people have for their king, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The kind taxi driver that drove Caroline and I from the airport to our hostel in Bangkok said, "King good, Government bad," only 5 minutes after we got in his taxi. Apparently he likes the king. The king's picture is proudly displayed all over the town. Large portraits and small pictures can be seen at almost every turn. In fact, the Internet cafe I'm sitting in has several photos of the king on the wall next to pictures of the Buddha. Let's just say that after 5 days in the country I could pick him out of a line up.

At first I was a little confused as to why the Thai people love their king so much. The UK and Denmark have royalty, but they don't seem to revere hi as much as the Thai people. Then it occurred to me. Thailand has had so many coups and governments over the past years. Leaders have come and gone. Politics has changed drastically many times. One such example was in the news only a few weeks ago when protesters closed the Bangkok airport for several days. The one consistent during these troubled times has been the king. He has seen much during his 81 years. According to this article by the BBC, the king's reign has seen 17 military coups and 29 prime ministers. I'm not sure that we've seen that much change in the 230 years that the US has been a country. It's good to know that the Thai people have something they can hold on to during times of upheaval. I hope he is able to see them through the times of crisis that are certain to visit this beautiful country in the future.

Monday, January 12, 2009

I <3 HK

Someone once said that Hong Kong is where East meets West. I disagree. I would argue that Hong Kong is a transplant of the West in the East, which happens to be populated by Chinese people. Hong Kong was everything and had everything that Zhuzhou does not. Hong Kong is a place where people are not likely to push an elderly woman out of their way to get on the bus. People don't spit in the bus and on the street, don't encourage their children to use public trash cans as toilets, and didn't stare at my every move. Everything that I missed about living in a western country was wrapped up by the British many years ago and brought to Asia. Including food. I can't express how wonderful it was to increase my meal options 100 fold by traveling a mere 9 hours from Zhuzhou by train. I didn't know a place like this exsisted in China! (Whether or not Hong Kong is actually China is another topic, but we'll go with the official PRC stance for now.)
Don't worry, Hong Kong, I will be back!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Taking a Break from China

In about 2 hours, I will be getting on a train bound for Shenzhen, the gateway city for Hong Kong. This is only the first leg of my four week vacation from China. The current itinerary has me visiting Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam with my dear friend and travel companion, Caroline. We have a pretty ambitious schedule mapped out, so we’ll just have to see how things pan out during the coming weeks. I’ll do my best to update while I’m on the road, but please understand if my posts are not up to their usual standard for a while. One good aspect to the trip for you, however, is that you can expect a multitude of pretty awesome photos when I return. See you then!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Legend tells of a legendary warrior…


About one day before it was too late I found out that I was required to give final exams to my students. Not just final any exam mind you, oral final exams, which means I had to speak to all 720 of my students one-on-one. I decided the most efficient and painless way to do this was to bring the students out into the hall nine at a time and have them fill in the following prompt: “Hello, Teacher Ashley. My English name is _____. My birthday is _____. I like to eat _____.”

You may be wondering why I would bring them out nine at a time. This was done for several reasons. 1. There is less dead time taken up by switching when the class is broken up into only six groups. 2. There are 9 students seated in each row. 3. Chinese students are “all up in each other’s business,” as some might say, so they have no problem testing in front of their peers. It’s normal for others to know how you did. Their grades for each class are posted up on the wall, listed by name, so it’s no secret which students are doing poorly. Well, it’s a secret to me, as I can’t read their names, but that’s a different story.

My final exam testing plan worked beautifully. I was able to test up to 64 students in less than 40 minutes and the students did very well. While I was testing students in the hall, I had to figure out a way to entertain the other 50 of them. Before Christmas I decided to show them a few Christmas specials, like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, and The Snowman. After Christmas, however, I needed to find something else, so I turned to 功夫熊猫, which most of you know as Kung Fu Panda.

I’d never seen the film before showing it to the class, but I knew that they would love it. I finished the exams quicker than I had originally anticipated, so I ended up watching a majority of the movie close to 10 times. The movie’s really pretty good. It should tell you something that I haven’t gouged my eyes out yet; I watched it every day for the past 6 days, plus several additional days last week.

In many ways the movie, which is set in China, gives a pretty good representation of what it’s like to live in China. The country is populated by talking animals, everyone worships the Furious 5, and ducks have pandas as children. Just kidding. In all honesty though, apart from the obvious things, the movie is rather realistic. Noodle shops are popular, children love kung fu, children of shop owners are often expected to carry on the family business, and the mountains really are that beautiful. Disney obviously did a great deal of in country research before making this film. I was actually surprised how “China” it is. I think I might be in the perfect position to enjoy this film. No only do I speak fluent English and understand American humor, but I have a greater understanding of the Chinese culture and lifestyle than the average person. So if you’re in the mood for a good animated movie about China, Kung Fu Panda is my recommendation of the moment. I’ll have to watch Mulan again to see how she stacks up to my Life in China Test...

Sunday, January 4, 2009

You're Too Old

Since many of you like to see me make a fool of myself, I thought I’d thought I’d post the video of my portion of the skit I was in with the Junior 1 teachers.

Background: The man in the orange shirt has a special cell phone that allows him to “order” women. He ordered several other girls, which he turned away for various reasons. He then orders an English speaking girl (me) and is just meeting her for the first time.

Translation:
Man: Excuse me, excuse me … [something actually I don’t understand].
Me: I don’t speak Chinese.
Man: What? You don’t speak Chinese?
Me: Umm, I don’t understand you. I don’t speak Chinese.
Man: Oh, she doesn’t speak Chinese. Go home. I don’t want a girl that I can’t talk to. Go. Go.
Me: You’re too old. I don’t want you. I’m leaving.

Continuation: The man chases me off the stage shouting, “What?! You do speak Chinese? Come back! Come back!” He eventually gets over me and ends the skit with another girl.

Hope you enjoyed watching me act like an idiot in front of my colleagues... again.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

The Exception


To every rule there is an exception. Naturally, Inability-to-plan-itis is not immune to this phenomenon. In this case, the exception is what any Chinese English-speaker would call “performances.” As someone who is fluent in Chinglish, I would translate “performance” as “a variety show” in standard English. The Chinese have no problem planning their beloved performances far in advance and as long as they hold a particular performance in high regard, it will go off without a hitch. (Note: In Chinglish, a performance is made up of many small performances. Please don’t be confused.)

Variety show is, in my opinion, the best way to describe these performances. There is always a few host and hostess that introduce the extremely varied acts. At first I thought that signing, dancing, and putting on skits were acceptable acts for a Chinese performance. I later learned, however, that a fashion show and “an interesting conversation with a very handsome man” are fabulous ideas for performances as well. The Chinese also love a performance where one student sits behind a chair and talks, while a second student sits on the chair and acts out what the other students is saying. This is by far the most confusing type of performance to a westerner. I haven’t met one who understands why that is funny.

The day Amy and the other school officials picked Kelly, Ryan, and I up in Changsha, Kelly and I were told that we should prepare a performance for the New Year’s Eve party. Although we were ignorant at the time, this announcement should have clued us in to how important performances are in Zhuzhou. The school is unable to tell us more than a few hours in advance that school is cancelled for the day, but they know months in advance that a performance will be held on December 31st, and that Kelly and I will star in it. Oh, Inability-to-plan-itis!

A few days before Christmas, my friend Bridget invited me to a performance at Nanfang Middle School, where she is one of the foreign teachers. This was only my first real taste of Chinese performances and should have been my second warning as to what I had been signed up for on New Year’s Eve.

When we arrived at Nanfang’s Christmas performance security guards were stationed at the doors of the gymnasium to keep the older students out and to let all the little primary school students who were caked in makeup in. This was a serious matter. The place was packed with the primary and junior school students, more than I could imagine. As a foreigner, I was given a place of honor at the front and a lovely wallet as a Christmas gift, even though I have no connection with the school. For the next three hours I was treated to a string of acts put on by the students of the school. A rock band with 12 guitars, skits in Chinese and English, a fashion show, and dance groups ranging from exercise routines, break dancing, children’s dancing, and dancing far to sexy for any American high school filled out the program. It was a fun evening and it should have tipped me off as to what to expect at the Jing Yan’s New Year’s Eve performances.

In the morning of December 31st, Kelly and I walked with the 3,000 students in our school about a half of a mile through town to a Factory 602 (inventive, I know). Once there, we entered the basketball gym where a stage had been set up for the occasion. For the next three hours, a select group of students put on a show for their peers. I have to admit that these performances were not as interesting as those as my last performance. The students were competing in some type of competition that I was never really able to figure out. For some reason the same kids appeared on stage over and over again. Additionally, the number of skits and other language-based acts were a lot larger at this performance than at Nanfang. Chinese language skits are only interesting for so long. This wasn’t even the show that Kelly and I were instructed to perform in. That one was in the afternoon!

Later that day, Kelly and I went to the Huatian Hotel, the nicest in Zhuzhou, for the teacher’s performance. The acts were more of the same type of thing. I participated in a skit with the Junior 1 teachers and well as sang a song with Kelly. We decided to sing a song that was popular in Europe in 2003 and is now popular among Chinese middle school students and in the clubs called “God is a Girl.” I’m not sure how we did. While some teachers complimented us on our singing, I don’t really think it was a hit. We’re beginners at this whole performance thing.

Whatever you call Chinese performances – boring, mildly ridiculous, overdone, silly – you can’t call them disorganized. These shows are planned at least weeks in advance and often the highlight of a particular holiday season. One has to wonder why these performances so important and how they get planned so well. Nobody plans anything else throughout the year, so how does it all get done? And if things can be organized for this one event, why can’t it be done for other things, like the school calendar? Oh China! Oh Inability-to-plan-itis!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!