D - Movin' Out

We have moved into new digs here in Dalian. The old foreign teacher building has been under renovation for several months now and they finally finished the work. Unfortunately, the DSL in the new apartment isn't up and running and probably won't be for several days. We came back to our old apartment this morning to use the internet (and watch Tennessee get waxed by Arkansas). Hopefully this will be the last outage! The new place looks nicer. It has better fixtures and nicer furniture. It's also cleaner and so far seems to be inhabited by fewer bugs. Unfortunately it's also freezing. Our old apartment isn't exactly cozy but for some reason seems to retain heat better. Well, that's all for now. Hopefully we will return to regular posting in a few days when all is well in the new foreign teacher building.

C - it's the most wonderful time of the year

Lately it's been pretty cold here in our apartment, and D and I have both been frustrated that the heat has not yet been turned on. Yesterday it snowed, and I thought "Ha! They'll HAVE to turn the heat on now!" But no such luck.

With our apartment so cold, I've been spending most of my free time in bed under my very warm comforter. I get in bed with the intention of reading, studying, or grading papers, but of course, I always end up falling asleep. I haven't taken afternoon naps since I was a junior in college, and I'd forgotten how much I hate the feeling of waking up in the evening when it's dark. Sunset time here is quite early -- around 4:45 pm -- so I've experienced this uncomfortable feeling more often than I'd have liked to this week. Today was one of those days.

On top of the fogginess produced by my indulgent afternoon nap, I've got a mountain of paperwork to do for my students, since three of my seven classes are taking their final exam this week. It mainly consists of answering comprehension questions about the movie "Walk the Line", and I was amused to see that the students must have found the Wikipedia entry on the movie. (Incidentally, China just granted access to Wikipedia a few weeks ago, to which I alerted them -- the timing couldn't have been better for my students.) Some of them got the question "What causes Johnny Cash's interest in Folsom Prison?", to which they've all responded "A B-movie called 'Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.'" I then asked them "Do you know what a B-movie is?" They, of course, did not. But I'm pleased to see them researching things on wikipedia. They haven't found the Chinese-language version yet, thankfully -- that would've made my final exam a lot easier!

D - Chills, Church, and Communists

The high here in Dalian today is about 45 degrees fahrenheit, but it's been colder most of the day. The formerly temperate ocean breeze has turned into a bone chilling face slapper. I almost felt like I was in Rochester, NY (site of my university education and many a cold sprint to class). If weather.com can be trusted for China though, it will supposedly be 62 tomorrow. Ah the weather, go figure.

I have a few short stories to relate from China. Last Friday evening, I joined our Danish friends at their home for dinner. About a month ago they opted out of the school provided housing and now live in a relatively posh condo just up the road. The walk to school is a little longer but they have a bathroom to die for. Imagine this - the water from the shower actually goes into a shower specific drain. This is in stark contrast to our bathroom, where the shower floor and the bathroom floor are identical. Thus if someone needs to use the toilet subsequent to a recent shower, their pants will become soaked. To combat this problem, C had a brilliant idea - she picked up a squeegee (reminiscent of something you might use on your car windshield), which we employ when exiting the shower. In China, even simple things get a little more complicated than we are used to.

But I digress. Also invited to the dinner were another couple consisting of a late 30s/early 40s American businessman turned Oral English teacher (K), and his Chinese wife (B). He said he is principally teaching at DMU because it's easier to get a residence permit in China as a teacher than a foreign businessman. They met because she was his interpreter in his various business dealings in China, which they are still engaged in on the side. My impression is that while he teaches, she is running the import/export business. Anyway, they are good people and we had a lovely conversation at dinner and afterwards. Even the Chinese wine that was consumed was passable. One part of the night was a bit disturbing however. Although K is married to a Chinese woman and does all of his business with the Chinese, he has a very negative attitude towards China. After B shared one story with us, I could start to understand why. Her grandfather was a member of the KMT (Chinese nationalists under Chiang Kai-Shek) before the Communists took over China. Unfortunately he was captured by the Communists and tortured repeatedly. They would put him on a stage with his arms behind his back in some contorted, painful positions, and then groups of people gathered in the audience would yell anti-KMT slogans and pro-Communist slogans. Apparently B's grandmother was forced to yell insults against her own husband and pretend that he was an enemy of the state. As B said "She did what she had to in order to survive." I can't fathom the world we live in sometimes.

Continuing on that note, our Danish friends relayed another scary story, this one more recent. Last Thursday they had the day off so they decided to take a couple of random buses and then just walk around Dalian to see what they could see. Apparently they ended up in a part of Dalian that is off limits because it's near a Chinese military submarine base, a fact of which they were ignorant. There were no signs indicating it was a forbidden area until right next to the base. When they saw the sign, they immediately turned around and left to go back towards the bus stop. Despite this, a couple of soldiers caught up with them and politely asked them to return to the base for some questions. They did so and they were briefly questioned by some soldiers who didn't have a strong command of English. Eventually they were kept waiting for 2 hours while the People's Security Bureau (PSB) aka Chinese "Secret Police" were called. Four very large gentlemen with an fluent translator showed up and questioned them further. They called DMU to confirm their story. They reviewed their passports which they most fortunately brought along. Our friends managed to maintain their calm, which I am sure expedited things in their favor. Eventually, the FAO from DMU came to pick them up. So nothing negative came of it but you can imagine how terrified they were. It's a reminder that while China may be improving, it has a long way to go.

On a different note, I went to church in China for the first time on Sunday. Along with our Canadian friends, I caught the bus downtown. Just off of Zhongshan Square, there was a tall building. We met some people outside and they led us up a few flights of stairs. There was a large room with perhaps 75 rows of 8 chairs each. They were very soft and comfortable and every seat was taken. At the front of the room there was a video projector showing the actual church sanctuary, which was down the street in an actual church like building which was apparently built by the Dutch (?). The church was a legal Protestant church operating with government sanction, and the whole service was conducted in Chinese. Two Chinese girls offered to translate for us. One sat between L and T (Canadians) and another sat next to me. During the hymns and the sermon she would lean over every minute or two and whisper the translation in English, which is certainly unique in my experience. I recognized the tune of some of the hymns but couldn't recall the names. The service was essentially 3 hymns, some Bible readings, the sermon, and a closing hymn. All in all, what you would call a pretty traditional service! The only thing they didn't do was take up an offering, which I had expected when they sung the doxology at the end of the service. The message was traditional as well, espousing standard Christian doctrines such as loving your enemies, loving and obeying God, and following Jesus. Apparently some of the young people at the church hold a study (in English) on Tuesday evenings near DMU, so I think I will check that out as well. It's one thing to visit a church in a place like the US where there's a cultural tradition for doing so, and another in a place like China where people are risking their necks and reputations. This I have to see.

C - day by day

Lately I've been feeling incredibly happy to be in China. When I left our apartment to get some food for lunch this afternoon, everything smelled wonderful. First I smelled burning leaves, which were very autumnal and lovely, and then I smelled some sort of food being grilled or barbecued. Even though I wasn't really in the mood for Chinese food (I was en route to KFC, in fact) it still smelled delicious.

Then I walked a bit further up the road and was overwhelmed by the smell of, well, human waste.

Regardless, I'm quite pleased to be living here in China. It's such food for thought, because the cultural foundation is quite foreign to that of my own, and meanwhile no single political or social ideology is really prevailing because everything is changing so fast. It's impossible not to reconsider one's fundamental principles in a place like this. My mind is constantly churning out new theories and suggestions -- almost as fast as I can make observations.

I'm definitely a tad homesick, though. I've been telling myself that things are the same as they would be if I'd gone to Duke for law school this fall; I most likely would've last seen my family in mid-August and would be seeing them again at Christmastime. In that case, however, I at least would've been living in the United States, in a culture that I can make a bit more sense of, under a government that is currently troubling but not nearly as terrifying to me as China's. But if someone offered to wave a magic wand where our teaching contracts would go away and a free flight home and terrific 9-month job offer would appear, I wouldn't take it. There's too much to be learned here, and we just have to wade through it, homesickness and all. Or, as my mother would say, "put one foot in front of the other." And that's what we'll do.

Out of the saddle, back in the saloon

This is just a quick post to share that C and I are internet-less in our apartment again. Despite all appearances that it should work, it's just not. Our Chinese friends are on the case but no resolution just yet. Thus, I am back in the Internet saloon. My eyes aren't watering yet though...

D - Questions on Contentment

I fear for anyone continuing to read this blog for insights into China. With any luck, you will still find some but more and more our journey here is turning introspective. Our trip has been a great opportunity to learn about a foreign culture and people, but I never realized that being here would ultimately turn our thoughts inward. When you are in your home country, virtually everyone you speak with is a mirror. Since you share common cultural values it is easy not to question the assumptions that are being made in the everyday. In a foreign land however, those assumptions fall idle. You must confront your most basic precepts.

In the first post of this blog, I discussed my mild dissatisfaction with my work life prior to China. As I indicated then, it was easy for me to question the validity of my occupation. In America, an upper middle class person such as myself has the world open to them. I could get rich working at a large investment bank in New York. I could go back to school and become a history professor. I could get my MBA and command prestige. Maybe I could run for political office. There are so many choices it's a little overwhelming. But what if I didn't have so many choices? How would that change my perspective or life? If I was less than thrilled with what by all accounts was an excellent job, how would I feel stripped of opportunity and confined to one path?

In China (and everywhere except the middle crust and above in Western countries), people don't have a lot of choice. Even in the "new" China, if high school students don't get the requisite score on the China College Entrance Exam, they are relegated to factory work or service jobs for the rest of their lives.

As an example, there is a Chinese couple that owns a food stand just outside the Foreign Teacher Building here at DMU. Inside the food stand, they have a couple of fryers and a cutting board. Their stand is strategically located on the path between the DMU West Campus and the DMU East Campus, so they see quite a bit of foot traffic. Sometimes they both man their booth, sometimes it's just the husband, and others it's just the wife. She wears a red shirt that seems intended to suggest a fast food motif and tops it off with a red cap that I've never seen her doff. During the warmer months, he wore these tank top muscle shirts - and he could pull them off! He was pretty built although I don't think it was because of his gym membership. He probably has a manual labor job somewhere else. The thing I will always remember about him is the ever present smile on his face. He never seemed stressed or cross, even when students would throng around the booth at lunch time.

They offer two dishes. One is the Jian Bing Guo Zi, which they make by pouring batter on a flat fryer. Next they break an egg onto the batter, spread it around and then flip the pancake. Into the pancake they place green onions, two crispy flour shells, and a Chinese hot dog split in two. They fold this up into a pocket and voila. Dish number two is known as "han ba", aka the chicken hamburger. They put a fried chicken patty in a sesame roll with some lettuce and mayonnaise. Both of them are surprisingly good and have become regular staples in our diet. The price has something to do with it - the Jian Bing Guo Zi is 2 yuan and Han ba is 3 yuan. In China you can easily eat on a dollar a day if you really want to.

So why spend all that time describing two people that would be identified as having no significance in the world? Who will remember them for serving up fried chicken patties? Because they are two of the finest people I have ever met. I say that knowing them in the most cursory fashion. Our conversations in Chinese are basic to say the least. But when I see them work in that stand, day after day, I can see real contentment. There is no sense of resenting the work that they do. We've all seen it in a fast food place. The sullen eyes of the bored cashier who seems like they would rather be in the iron maiden than taking your order. And how many of us have thought in the back of our minds while gathering up our double cheeseburgers - "you know, I'd be miserable too if I were stuck behind that counter".

We're not breaking any new ground here, are we? Everyone knows that your job can't be your life and sometimes you have to grin and bear it. What's paradoxical about life is that you can know something in your mind but until you feel it and experience it for yourself it's not real. I think that's what China is doing for me. I have plenty of time to think here and at the same time I'm confronted by people who not only get by with less money but are incredibly contented doing so. That has a way of getting inside you.

I want to close this entry with a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a famous Russian author who survived the Soviet gulag and became a prominent writer and philosopher. He made many enemies criticizing both capitalism and communism.

"If humanism were right in declaring that man is born to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth evidently must be of a more spiritual nature. It cannot unrestrained enjoyment of everyday life. It cannot be the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then cheerfully get the most out of them. It has to be the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty so that one's life journey may become an experience of moral growth, so that one may leave life a better human being than one started it. It is imperative to review the table of widespread human values. Its present incorrectness is astounding. It is not possible that assessment of the President's performance be reduced to the question of how much money one makes or of unlimited availability of gasoline. Only voluntary, inspired self-restraint can raise man above the world stream of materialism." - from "A World Split Apart", 1978

D - Odds and Ends

The post rate on our blog has slowed a bit, as I'm sure regular readers have noticed. I haven't been feeling that well this week and there's been less to report. Nonetheless, there are a few odds and ends to report.

-Last Saturday we went out with a bunch of people to an Indian Restaurant in the Zhongshan Hotel on Jiefang Lu. The Hindu holiday of Diwali (I think it's their New Year) was Saturday and the one Indian foreign teacher suggested an outing. He is here for 3 months as part of an exchange program between his university, Kennesaw State College (Atlanta, GA area) and DMU. He's teaching management courses. Apparently DMU and KS have been doing this for a number of years. It sounds like a neat program and 3 months is long enough to get your feet wet without going mad. The food at the restaurant was decent. For 70 RMB each, we had access to an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet. It was pretty standard Indian fare featuring various curries, plenty of naan, and strangely - french fries. I was disappointed there was no Chicken Tikka Masala but you take what you can get in China!

-My primary lesson for my classes this week was to teach them English words for discussing music. The principal focus of the class was explaining musical genres - such as rock, country, punk, ska, r&b, hip-hop/rap, folk, electronica, etc. The routine was for me to play 3 songs from a particular genre. For example, to illustrate HipHop/Rap I played some Black Eyed Peas, Dr. Dre, and Eminem. Then I would call on a student after each song ask them to say if they liked it or not and to compare it to their liking for other musical genres. Needless to say they were thrilled to get away from my standard English classes. I think only 1 or 2 students were sleeping! Interestingly, a lot of them liked country. But by far their biggest interest is in the mainstream Pop. They love the Backstreet Boys of all people. I tried to explain that Americans would laugh at 21 year Chinese men who love the Backstreet Boys, but I felt guilty making them feel bad. It's like telling your 5 year old that you're not actually the smartest person in the world.

-I've been feeling a strong desire to check out the international church here in Dalian. Chinese people of course can't openly attend services, but the PRC doesn't mind if the foreigners do their Jesus thing. We are told by a Canadian couple that there are house churches. 500 people will meet in tiny sweltering churches for 3 hours on Sundays. Ironically the international church is shepherded by a Korean pastor. Those who know us well are aware that our last church in New Jersey was predominantly Korean. The problem is that the church is a long way out in downtown from where we are. That shouldn't be an obstacle but when it involves riding a packed Chinese bus for 45 minutes it makes you hesitate. I think C and I are going to make the trip soon though. Maybe not this weekend though because I feel like I've been run over by a rickshaw.