The Canning Room

Did somebody say Party?

Tonight, all of my students are having a big celebration down by the lake before I leave. Unfortunately, it is at the same time as another event: a planning meeting for the big June 1 "Birthday" shindig for the Chinese Communist Party. I got this apologetic email from a student today and had to chuckle at all the "partying" going on around here.

Dear jennifer:
Taday,there is a party about party member to celebrate the Party brithday
at the big hall. Because i am a party member, so I have to attemp this party. I
really would like go to your party, but I can't. I really sorry! I will e-mail
you.

I'm almost all packed. Grades are in. Apartment's almost clean. I look forward to seeing you all soon.

happy birthdays and sharing some info

Happy belated birthdays to my girls Shell and Tessa! Can't wait to celebrate with you in person! I also can't wait to celebrate my Noanie's birthday in person with her in San Diego in just one week! Last night I threw a party on our roof for Kate's birthday - our dance music and late-night sing-alongs to Dave's guitar echoed across campus until 2am. It was a nice mix of students and teachers, locals and foreigners. It was a great final shindig and a beautiful pre-finals night.

And I know I've already written a gazillion times about censorship here, but it's just so much on my mind these days...I have to mention it again today, sorry.
For those of you who can see it, I found this article online which explains the recent flickr and blog banning throughout China:

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/06/07/china-flickr-filtered/

...one writer calls the block a virtual "temper-tantrum" in response to some recent environmentalist demonstrations in a city about 3 hours north of here... I can't see the images, but you can.

Holding a tiger by the tail...that phrase keeps playing back in my mind...This kind of thing simply cannot continue. There's no way. That tiger is going to move...one way or another. I have a profound admiration for those here who are doing what they can to ensure that it keeps moving forward, despite the consequences and in very creative ways.

driving blindly, dim sum and Shanghai

Now I can no longer see my own blog or photos. I can get to the editing page, but I can't get to the actual blog or anything on typepad, blogger, wikipedia, or flickr. At least I have the China Daily (haha) and a few things that friends have cut and pasted into emails and sent from the US. The news that I'm getting in the China Daily: "Batch of US-imported nuts "rancid" Apparently, US food standards are questionable in China now because somebody found an imported box of pistachios that had gone bad and had some ants in it...It's a good thing that Chinese officials caught it in time..."The rancid pistachios would have harmed people's health if they had been eaten, and the ants could have damaged buildings, houses, trees, and cables buried underneath the ground, according to officials with the administration." Oh, China... More to say about food safety and the consequences of bad international press...just maybe not here...

On a different note, I went out to an awesome Dim Sum brunch today with 4 other teachers right overlooking the harbour. I also took another shot at eating chicken feet. Nope, still don't like em. But the steamed shrimp dumplings were delicious. The jury is still out on the durian pastries. Durian is an asian fruit that is actually forbidden in many public places because it smells so bad. It tastes different than it smells, though, and there's a saying that durian "Smells like hell but tastes like heaven". We decided today that the taste is actually more like purgatory...not quite heaven. But it's definitely different, and one of those smells that will always remind me of China after I leave.

I also haven't mentioned our trip to Shanghai yet- it was so fast but so fun. Kate and I found a fantastic new youth hostel, enjoyed browsing through art, antique and clothing markets all day and the brilliant neon-lit colonial buildings to go out dancing in at night. Still catching up on sleep!

Only 3 classes, 1 final exam and 11 more days to go!

in today's email

"Dear All,

Shantou Air Defence Siren will be performed from 11:00am to 11:15am on June 21(memorial date of the fall of Shantou during Japanese invasion war in 1939). The performance will last 15 minutes. You will hear outdoor siren in the city and on campus during the time. Please stay calm. No special response needs to be made."

So basically, the air raid sirens will be blaring outside while we're teaching on Thursday. Possibly at the same time that they're blowing up the mountains for concrete, which I wrote about earlier. And we're not supposed to react. I'm not passing judgement, but there is an awful lot of anti-Japanese sentiment here. An awful lot. For good reason, perhaps, but I just don't see how this kind of thing is helping to do anything but feed that 60+ year old resentment in the minds of the people, young and old...

That's my two cents. I'll bring earplugs that day.

Doesn't even phase me anymore...

I can't remember what it's like to actually have traffic laws! This was taken in Shantou, and is exactly what the streets are like here...on a good day. I think I might even miss it a little!

And Happy Father's Day to my dad and all dads!

the crunch and the museum

sorry for the lapse, all. Finals are quickly approaching and the last few days, my life has been reduced to writing annual reports, nursing papercuts from thumbing through all these essays and blisters from constant stapling of quizes every moment I have between classes. I have to finish them all by tomorrow at 6pm, when Kate and I leave for Shanghai for the weekend. Woo-hoo!! The crunch will be worth it.

Last weekend's trip to the museum was fascinating. The museum itself was impressive, but the trip there was really something. 8 of us went- 3 teachers, 1 staff, 4 students. We took the public bus to the town where it was, then asked folks on the street how to get there. We followed their directions then got to this place that was a huge touristy park full of temples and a lake and little restaurants. They gave us a map and one of the students asked if this was where the cultural revolution museum was. The guy just pointed to a place on the map- It didn't make sense because according to the map, that place was a temple. I was sure we were in for another typical Chinese wild goose chase and that the guy had misunderstood us or we were in completely the wrong place. But we went in anyway.

The other thing was that it was raining and there was literally nobody else there. They took our money at the gate, but everything else in the park looked abandoned. It was surreal- like some David Lynch movie, walking past empty restaurants and paddle boats and brightly colored dragon sculptures, but everything was closed. We still kept walking...up this path that went straight up the mountain, surrounded by lots of trees, random chickens, and a stream...all eight of us and our umbrellas. Finally, we came to the top, looking out over Shantou, and sure enough, there was a big building up there that looked just like...a temple. The doors were all shut, but somebody saw us coming and opened up the doors and voila! Temple on the outside...but all kinds of cultural revolution stories, poetry, art, photos and paraphanalia on the inside. I have to wonder if it was intentionally "mislabeled" on the map...it had to be, right? Anyway, It was remarkable and beautifully done. Everything was in Chinese, but the pictures etched into the black marble walls got the message across. It was not a time in history that should ever be repeated.

The students translated a little for us, but mostly they just looked and read and didn't say much about it while we were there, or on the way back even. It didn't matter to me that this didn't open up a big heavy discussion about what we do or don't know about history, or even that I couldn't understand any of it. I'm glad that we got to see it and now 4 more students, who are sophomores, know that it exists, what it says and how to take the bus to get there.

I have photos still in my camera, but flickr seems to be off limits these days. We'll see if I can get to it next week.

the other side of illiteracy

First of all, I would never say that illiteracy is ever a good thing, but I was having coffee with a friend today, a researcher from the medical school studying bird-flu, and he said something interesting. He's from Spain and like me, still can't read Chinese. He said, "My mind is quieter here because I can't read anything." It seemed like a funny thing to say in the middle of Shantou, kamikaze motorbikes zipping around us, horns constantly honking at annoying levels, taxis yelling "nali? nali?" (where?!). How on earth could a mind become quieter in this place? But it's true. I agree, and it is because we can't read.

There are just as many billboards, street signs, directions, shop signs, advertisements and whatnot here as anywhere else. For the first few months, it was really frustrating to not know what they said. It was scary to not have a point of reference when I was in an unfamiliar part of town because I couldn't read the street signs. It was humiliating to go into a store and have to guess whether a bottle was shampoo or conditioner just by the shape of it. After a while, though, you do start relying on other visual cues, and you figure out other ways of knowing where you are. Ways that have nothing to do with words. And you just keep living.

I still wish that I had learned more, but the thing about not having access to all of those words, all of those advertisements, all of those commercials, all of those warnings, is that it's just so easy to ignore them when you don't understand them. They're just pretty chinese characters with a history so deep that I can't begin to understand it. I can just look at them as art and my thoughts inside my head can continue, uninterrupted, to be my own. It's a freedom that we rarely get to experience in our media-rich world today.

That said, I am really looking forward to knowing what's going on around me again.

This Week's Class Unit: Censorship

I came to China with a very neurotic mind. I probably came here with more fear about what I shouldn't do and what I shouldn't say or ask than was good for me, actually. Even now, I'm much more relaxed, but it's still hard to say for sure. On one hand, this is China. On the other hand, China is changing so, so quickly. Nobody ever told us what not to talk about. I try to notice patterns, but it seems so inconsistent. Blogs go up and blogs go down. Websites get blocked and then they're back again. TV shows suddenly turn into dancing penguin cartoons. Phone conversations get cut off just when they start to get interesting. Not always, just sometimes. Was that...? or was it just technology failing us again? It's hard to say. The closest thing we'd get to any sort of direction is "Just stay away from sensitive topics". Great. Thanks. Communication is so subtle and indirect here, one has to just pay attention. Very, very close attention. There are rules, but there are always exceptions to the rules.

The first ever (and maybe only?) Cultural Revolution Museum in China is right here in Shantou. It was funded and established by Li Ka Shing, one of the 10 richest men in the world, and also the founder of Shantou University. Many of the students call him "Uncle Li". He came from this area. That kind of money gives you special privileges, like the privilege of a blind eye being turned. There's no advertising about the museum, but it's there. A bunch of students went last weekend to see it with another teacher. I saw one today at the store and she told me how shocked they were. That's just not in the history books. They just didn't know. People who lived through it don't talk about it. They just want to forget about it. I'll try to go next weekend. I think Mr. Li is a good man.

So we'll see how this week goes. I'll open up the unit with a few scenes from Pleasantville...I've found that keeping things light and humorous is the only way to keep the students open. I didn't do that last semester during this unit and I might as well have been posing questions to the walls. I may just invite some of my students next weekend to come along with me for the ride.