What do movies say about us?

The weather in Guangzhou couldn’t be more pleasant.  It remains about 80 degrees most days with nights in the 70s, my kind of perfect.  The sun is out all day, however our days are beginning to see shorter amounts of sunshine.  The humidity today was 61%; our laundry dries in one day.  I am not sure how you could improve on that.  We walk to class every morning in short sleeves and sunshine, it seems like sunshine has a direct effect on positive mental attitude as well.

It seems that everyone is settled into a routine, students have figured out how to manage the pacing in their classes, teachers have managed to get everything that needs to be included in the syllabus in the curriculum schedule and the rest is history.  I am beginning to think about what the final exam will be in my classes. I was just informed that the final will be 40% of the grade for my students and should reflect the instruction.  I need to spend time pondering what exactly that will look like.  It is easy to tell the communication improvement in my classes.  The first week of class it was difficult to pull any commentary out of students.  They had never had a foreign teacher before and were very self-conscious about speaking English. They are feeling comfortable with their English now and sometimes it is necessary to stop conversations to move to new ideas. 

The assigned homework this week was to watch an English movie with another student from our class to speak English with in a discussion after the movie.  No Chinese subtitles were part of the assignment.  Today in class we did movie critiques.  It is a sobering experience to think that my Chinese students could judge our U.S. culture and who know how many others in China on the television series FRIENDS, the movie TWILIGHT or PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.  Those were the top three selections that were overwhelmingly the favorite representation of U.S. Culture.  I am still not sure how to respond to that mix and what it really says about us and about what my students believe life in the U.S. is really like.  Whose reality can those three selections reflect? 

The teacher is being schooled!

This week I had a student ask me to proofread his resume.  He is getting ready to take the GRE to be admitted to graduate school in the US, he is hopeful North Carolina.  He is in our Master’s Program working towards his Master’s of Chemical Engineering and diligently working to polish his 13 years of English study.  Very bright student has done very well in school academically; he has taken very difficult classes and is at the top of his class.  He still has to take the TOFEL for admittance into an English-speaking program and of course get a high score on the GRE. 

The part of his resume that caused me to pause was his extra curricular/ leadership section.  He has been active in school leadership opportunities from the beginning of his freshman year straight through his Master’s Program.  At least a half dozen leadership entries were student leadership positions within the student Communist Party chapter on campus.  I know students on campuses across the United States participate politically on many different levels from Young Democrats and Young Republicans all the way to government internships so political activity was not the questions at all.  I have worked with students for all most two months and it never really occurred to me that they are all most likely Communist Party participants. Students who are successful in China are in fact members and leaders in the Communist Party.  We had an interesting conversation as I suggested to him if he was planning to go to the United States he might not want to list his Communist Party activities on his resume; possibly a change to campus student leadership positions might be better received in the United States.  He seemed puzzled and somewhat defensive in his explanation of pride in his ability to be recognized by the Communist Party. 

He enlightened me about Guangzhou and the role it had played in the Cultural Revolution and the implementation of the Communist Party in China.  His family has been involved for generations.  He caused me to do some research and spend time visiting the local sights commemorating events in Chinese history. 

The Guangzhou Uprising of 1927 was a failed Communist uprising in the city of Guangzhou in southern China.

On December 11, 1927, Red Guard citizens, directed by Communist political leaders, took over Guangzhou (then known as Canton in English). The uprising occurred despite the strong objections of Communist military commanders such as Ye Ting, Ye Jianying and Xu Xiangqian. Using the element of surprise, rebel forces took over most of the city within hours, despite a huge numerical and technical advantage held by government troops. The Communist leaders officially renamed the city's political structure "Guangzhou Soviet". However, warlord armies quickly crushed the uprising. Zhang Tailei, the leading Red Guard organizer, was killed in an ambush as he returned from a meeting. The takeover dissolved by the early morning of December 13, 1927.

In the resulting purges, many young Communists were killed, and the Guangzhou Soviet became known as the "Guangzhou Commune" or "Paris Commune of the East"; it lasted only a short time at the cost of more than 5,000 Communists dead and an equal number missing. Ye Ting, the military commander, was scapegoated, purged and blamed for the failure, despite the fact that the obvious disadvantage of the Communist force was the main cause of the defeat, as Ye Ting and other military commanders had correctly pointed out. Enraged by his unjustified treatment, Ye Ting left China and went into exile in Europe, not returning until nearly a decade later.

The Japanese entered Guangzhou, then Canton, on Friday, October 12, 1938 and occupied Guangzhou until the end of World War II.  There are many memorials around the city so we took the time to visit those Chinese memorials to better understand student’s background and political understanding.  

The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall sits in the city center.  The huge auditorium is an amazing, dark walnut stage with a huge balcony, leaded glass windows with stained glass in the upper levels.  Interestingly enough the soft padded chairs are red velvet on red carpet.  The auditorium is still used today for social and political events.  The statue out front is the same mold that sits in front of the SCUT Administration building where we teach every day.  

Martyr's Park is where the young Red Guard gathered to fight knowing they were outnumbered but remained committed to their cause.  There is a large mound dedicated to the mass grave where they were all buried together. Yes, that is a very large a hand wrapped around an even larger rifle.

Peasant Movement Park is largely housing and training buildings with cafeteria accommodations in a huge halls.  This is a training registration room with furniture used at the time. The housing is tightly crammed with wooden bunk beds, four beds to a set, barely room to stand up between. 

This whole piece was enlightening and very interesting to contemplate what we are all about here in China.  I have spent considerable time reflecting about my students and my role in their progression to support them in reaching their goals.  There is an emptiness about my students, they seem alone, lonely and struggling to make sense of their lives. They are each in intense competition with their classmates to be the best, get the best grades, get into the best schools, get the best job and ultimately have the most power.   I am watching more carefully their interactions and presentation. I love being in a place that makes me think, I love being challenged to determine who I am and what things are important to me.  I love deeply my family, who they are and what they are about.  They are amazing, all 20 of them.

On the street where we live......

I think it must be time to talk about our luxurious retirement housing.  We live on campus in the University Faculty housing area in a gated community with a security guard 24/7.  The gate is really about serious security but not the kind of gated community that you were expecting. 

Chinese professors are expected to be accessible to students whenever they might need support so on-campus housing for staff and faculty is provided as part of a professor’s salary. We live in a one-bedroom apartment among families with two bedrooms and one child. It really does have that dormitory feel with a whopping 360 square feet of living space on the second floor of an eight-story building. 

 Master Bedroom

 Office area for both in one tiny room

 Living room, exceptionally comfortable furniture, even the two inch foam padding doesn't help.

 Kitchen table, love the bamboo, it has a college dorm appeal.

 Two burner stove and a bar sink completes the kitchen.

This sterilizes the dishes after they are washed in Guangzhou water.

 Shower

 Shower room that is equipped with a toilet and sink all in one tiny room, shower and faucet on the left.  

 Our water is delivered every week, never thought I would have my own water cooler.

 Double metal green security doors.

 Small capacity front load washer

 Mother nature built in dryer

 Yes, we do have air conditioning!

And a heater to plug in just incase we might get cold.

New golden brocade drapes and valance hanging on our sliding glass door.

We have garbage pick up twice daily, once early in the morning and once in the evening, I bet you can figure our why.

 All university employees are subject to the Chinese One-Child Policy so two bedrooms are the capacity of the family apartments.  I asked our Department Chair what would happen if a professor had two children how that would be accommodated.  Peter promptly told us if he had two children he would loose his job and his housing, and still be required to pay the hefty fine.  Government employees are expected to follow the rules and laws to the letter of the law, no exceptions! So really there will not be a need for a three-bedroom apartment for professors because they would no longer be professors! 

There are campus cafeterias called canteens for students and faculty, campus grocery stores, school supplies, bakery, pretty much everything a student would need could be found on campus.

 Long lines at the campus bakery every morning.

We are comfortable and love the Guangzhou weather now.  It has been in the 80s with lots of sun and clear skies.  I hope it lasts for six months! 

The streets on campus are packed with bicycles.  Students ride their bikes to class, students are not allowed to have cars, only faculty members drive cars on campus.  I confessed to my students last week that my biggest fear since arriving on campus was being hit by a bicycle.  They fly down the hill by our housing complex and it is dangerous to cross the street when you have to dodge the bicycles. Walking on campus at night is safe, except for bicycles, they do not have lights and they zoom past you within a few inches before you can hear they are approaching.  Pedestrians have no rights, we are at the bottom of the mobility list so bicyclists expect you to dodge around them and never slow down or stop.  Sidewalks are safe but crossing the street presents its own set of dangerous circumstances.  We see at least two bicycle crashes a day and hope and pray not to be come a bicycle statistic! 

And then there was one......

Just as the work part begins to get heavy duty our trusty MacBook Pro begins to blink, I mean really blink.  It was flashing lights and making sounds that could be considered an alien landing, then the screen went black.  Not a good sign, I am sure. I knew it was a risk to hope it would last for yet another year and Jessica dutifully warned me that it was beginning to show signs of "old age."  Ever the optimist I was hopeful that we could squeeze one more year out of it in China.  I did however make a new computer purchase just before we left for China on the outside chance that the MacBook Pro might not make it.  I was ready to admit defeat and limp along with one computer.  

Sunday night my nephew Keith called to say he would be in Hong Kong on business for a week.  We were excited for a good excuse to go to Hong Kong and Keith had just provided that for us. Craig and I both have clear schedules on Wednesday so we decided to take a quick trip to Hong Kong to see Keith.  On Monday night it occurred to me that there was an Apple Store in both Hong Kong and ShenZhen, I should make an effort to take my black computer screen to the Genius Bar to see if any magic could be done.  I made an attempt to schedule an appointment at the Genius Bar however, not being able to read Mandarin proved to be a stumbling block.  I was unable to schedule an appointment at either location.  We decided that ShenZhen would be less crowded than Hong Kong so Keith made arrangements to meet us there.  

Craig and I left Guangzhou on the train to Hong Kong with our computer and high hopes that a small miracle could be ours.  We dutifully filled out the departure cards from China and the arrival cards to Hong Kong, got the appropriate stamps on our passports then met Keith to hop on the metro for the Apple Store.  Interesting fact, the Apple Store in ShenZhen is designed exactly like all other Apples stores; the products are displayed in the same order the big difference being that the employees only speak Mandarin or Cantonese.  That's where Keith steps up to help massage the trauma, he skillfully explained the symptoms and before we knew it they were running a diagnostic on the MacBook Pro.  More that I had hoped for but that is a bonus! Through Keith’s skillful translation from the Apple employee to us, I am sure it looked like a tennis match back and forth English to Chinese, Chinese to English with lots of technical terminology being thrown around we left the computer to have them work on it for about two hours. 

Keith did try to improve our Chinese skills on the metro, we had a pen but not paper so immersion Chinese at its finest on Keith's hand would be the crash course we would get to navigate the day.

Lunch with Keith is always entertaining, however this lunch was better than most.  Keith picked a Japanese restaurant in the area, it was a delicious treat to say the least only to be surpassed by the conversation.  We had many questions about China and surviving, I am sure it was highly entertaining for Keith.  He is a great sport to take care of his senior relatives!

The phone call came before we had finished to pick up the computer.  We all raised our eyebrows about just what that could mean.  When we arrived at the Apple store they had installed snow leopard operating system on the computer and suddenly it was able to update all the programs that previously had been unable to update and a small miracle was ours! I opened the laptop, small problem, it was all written in Chinese! A few more quick tweaks and we are happy campers on our way to the metro with a working computer in tow.  Thank you Keith.