China Update 7

Dear all,

In this season of giving thanks I must admit I found it more difficult be thankful than I usually would be this time of year, but I was indeed thankful for the opportunity to video chat with you all and certainly glad to see your smiling faces :).  And if you have grown weary of my biweekly updates, fear not, only 3 weeks remain, and this update will probably be a little shorter (I hope) since the past two weeks weren’t terribly event-filled.

On Monday (Nov. 15) I finally gave in and decided it was time to get a haircut.  The haircut experience wasn’t terribly different from that in America, although the barbers continually ask you to evaluate their performance and inquire as to whether or not you’re comfortable.  They were very nice, though I had a little trouble communicating since it was rather loud in the barbershop (that’s the problem with learning Chinese in a classroom with very controlled conditions.  I wonder if there’s a formula for degree of language proficiency in relation to the decibel limit at which one can understand… just a thought).  Most of my Chinese friends laughed when they saw my haircut, but when I asked them what was wrong with it, they said ‘nothing.’  I still don’t understand Chinese people, though my guess would be that they think change is funny/interesting, even scary (which is probably why hundreds of people will fight to get on the escalator when there’s a wide, empty set of stairs right next to it).  Anyways, enough rambling.  Tuesday (Nov. 16) I attended an on-campus meeting concerning an International Studies program offered dually by Johns Hopkins University and Nanjing University (in Nanjing).  The program is two years (for an M.A.) and sounds like a lot of fun, but it’s a lot of money, and I think I still would prefer the linguistics route.  Wednesday (Nov. 17) a few friends and I went to the athletic field of a nearby college to play frisbee; we even got some Chinese students to play with us for a little while.

Friday (Nov. 19) CET students went to a Beijing Opera house not too far away, to see a traditional Beijing Opera performance.  For those of you unfamiliar with Beijing Opera, I would really suggest checking it out on Youtube.com, since words can’t really describe it.  The music is very traditional but doesn’t operate on the same scale(s) of Western music, nor even with a steady rhythm, and to a first-time listener it can sound like the actors are purposefully trying to sound bad, singing off key very loudly while anticlimactic drum sounds play off-beat.  But it was interesting, nevertheless.  The performance consisted of three acts: 天女撒花 (“Goddess of Heaven Spreading Flowers”), which was mostly just (strange) dancing by the female lead; 拾玉镯 (“Picking Up the Jade Bracelet”), which included a 丑 or clown/comic-figure, and this act was actually pretty funny; and 盗仙草 (“The Great Immortal Herb Robbery”), which involved sword-fights and some surprisingly impressive acrobatics, as the main actor juggled a dozen swords (although not real) with his five or six opponents, swords flying everywhere but not falling.  Also, Beijing Opera traditionally only ever allowed for male actors, which means that a male always plays the female lead role.  Beijing Opera is big on makeup too, which you can see in my pictures online.

I had learned before the Beijing Opera that one of the 500-level students here (and the one with the best Chinese), Da Jeung Ho or “DJ,” was going home on Monday because she had tonsillitis (or something wrong with her lungs/throat).  So on Saturday (Nov. 20) we threw her a going away party.  We played various games in the student activity room (mostly games Jesse had invented, like “Zombies” and “Germans and Russians,” both of which are essentially more complicated versions of tag, and both played in the dark.  We also witnessed a “zorch,” demonstrated by Jesse, in which one hangs a long string of plastic (from something), sets it on fire, and watches as the plastic slowly rains down fire (into a bucket of water, of course).  It looks pretty cool; you can see a picture of it online.  The next evening (Nov. 21) we had our last dinner with DJ at a nearby hotpot place.  We saw her off on Monday, and all were sad to see her go.

But things lightened a little with the advent of Thanksgiving Thursday.  A few of the students had spent the previous few days cooking and preparing a Thanksgiving meal for 50+ people, and they did a very good job.  I was worried there might not be enough food, but I ate a ton of food, and there was still plenty left when we were done.  Of course, a Thanksgiving dinner with chopsticks and in a tiny cafeteria just isn’t the same as in America, but I was indeed thankful for those who prepared the food, and for the food itself.  My stomach agrees :).  It was funny to watch some of the Chinese teachers (who also participated) trying our American-style food, pondering the implications of a plate full of food that wasn’t scalding hot, filled with rice, or drenched in unhealthy oils.  I don’t think they liked it very much, but I think every one of the American students did.  Mm, mm, good!  And I think it gave us a vision of the light at the end of the tunnel, the strength to press on for these next three weeks.

On Friday (Nov. 26) our diet went back to “normal.”  I and some friends (Jesse, Lauren, Tamara, Nicholas Fenichell,  Cristina, Bao Xin, and Zheng Wenyang (Nicholas’s roommate) went again to Xin Baiwan (in Weigongcun) for dinner.  The food was very good (again), though a different “good,” I would say, than our Thanksgiving meal the night before.  A few of us ordered silkworm kebabs, but they were out.  Disappointed, we went away with full though bugless stomachs.

On Saturday (Nov. 27) CET students were given a tour of 798, a modern art district in Beijing that was originally constructed as a Chinese-German joint venture and primarily sold electronic goods (I think it was rebuilt after the communists tore it down during the Cultural Revolution). I’ve never been big on modern art, but I thought I would check out the Beijing art scene, just to compare it to the West.  We first went to a restaurant called “Switch!” for brunch (American-style food, with surprisingly good sweet potato fries), after which we set out to look at the various exhibits in the area (not just one museum, as I had previously thought).  The modern art met my expectations: it was interesting, surprising, often crude, and not very artful (in my opinion), rather like most of the West’s modern art.  Some of it I really didn’t understand how it was defined as art… e.g. one exhibit held a room with a large screen, where you could watch an “artistic” film in which a Chinese person decides to make himself look like a black person, and therefore sits naked on his patio in the sun for hours (or even days, I couldn’t tell how long), until his whole body was basically one big skin cancer epidemic.  We later went to another modern art museum, called Today Art Museum, where we saw similar art, e.g. a life-size sculpture of a shark eating a hippopotamus eating an alligator eating a man, who is drenched in blood, all suspended from a ceiling in a gigantic room that’s mostly empty space.  But before leaving 798, we were granted the privilege of entering the studio of the Gao Brothers (whom we met), Chinese artists whose art has provoked much government criticism, so much so that Chinese citizens aren’t allowed in their office, their artworks are often stolen overnight by Chinese officials, and while they are renowned abroad, many Chinese people don’t know of them due to the government’s repression.  I felt bad that they were harassed in this way, but at the same time I didn’t really like most of their art and actually found most of it very inappropriate.  They themselves were nice, but their art not so much.  Call me old-fashioned, but I’ll take a good Rembrandt painting, or even a Monet, any day over this stuff.  You can check out the images online–I didn’t take any pictures of the too-vulgar, too-inappropriate stuff, so it should be safe.  And yes, the last picture of the wood shavings and the pliers was (I believe) one of the art exhibits.

On Sunday (today) after church, Lawson and I went to lunch with another young man from BCF.  This man (whose name I unfortunately cannot remember at the moment) is of the German Baptist Brethren denomination (I think that’s the name).  We had some interesting doctrinal discussions with him (it was actually more of a monologue on his part), including topics of predestination and salvation.  He was a very nice guy and passionate for the Lord, though a little quirky, and some of his views I didn’t really agree with (e.g. he thought The Hardy Boys books should not be read, since they’re not true–I guess that goes for all fiction, then).  Lawson had already done some research on denominations, and he explained afterwords that this denomination is related (though of course not identical to) to Amish practices.  I think we plan to have lunch again next Sunday, to pick up where we left off.  I’ll have to prepare :).

This afternoon I headed to Wangfujing to buy a Chinese copy of the Lord of the Rings–successfully!  I wouldn’t dare say my Chinese is good enough right now to read these books at any acceptable speed, but hopefully soon.  Just by looking at the first page I’ve already come across some funny names… e.g. Bilbo Baggins in Pinyin would be Bierbo Bajinsi (pronounced something like Bwee-er-bwo Ba-jeen-suh).  At the Wangfujing Bookstore I also ran into an elderly Chinese man who struck up a conversation with me: he had gotten his doctorate from Princeton in 1986, and his friend apparently got her doctorate in 1987 in Nashville (he didn’t say what university).  He spoke pretty good English, and most of our conversation consisted of him speaking English and me speaking Chinese :).  I told him my plans for the future, and he strongly encouraged me to get my PhD, saying I could find a really good job opportunity in China if I did so (though he didn’t seem to think being a translator/interpreter was a very good idea, saying it would be better if I came to China and did research).  He said often comes to the bookstore to buy English books, so as not to let his English get rusty.  It was rather refreshing talking to someone who actually spoke English, seeing as almost all Chinese students study English nowadays, but hardly anyone speaks it very well.

Also of note, though unrelated to me, I read an article recently about 46-year-old Chen Jianping, who was sent to one-year in labor camp for posting a satirical message (apparently anti-Japanese, though not serious) on her blog.  I also learned in this article that “[u]nder China’s legal system, the police can send people to so-called re-education through labor for up to four years without trial.”  That’s a long time!  China has long been going through a mostly painful process of opening up, but it’s obviously not what we would call a “free” country yet.  And this kind of news makes one thankful for freedoms we do have as Americans, despite all the corruption in our government, and also helps to put things in perspective, I think.

I come to the end of my seventh narrative; and while I can’t say it was a gripping as Rowling’s seventh, I hope you found it interesting at any rate.  And looking back on my text, I don’t think I held true to my promise, as my narrative has (as always) extended to a greater length than I had previously anticipated.  But just as Rowling’s story can’t end without an epic duel between Harry and his greatest adversary, so my story cannot end without the obtainment of the Holy Butter Horn Rolls; and as I have not yet obtained them, there must be more narratives to come.  And so, in the grace, peace, and joy of God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Stay tuned.
James

P.S. New pictures under: Beijing Opera, Going Away Party, Thanksgiving, 798, Today Art Museum, Chingrish, Signs, and Random (I think the zorch video is slowing down the publishing process, but hopefully they’ll be up soon).