Here is a break from my Silk Road trip; I promise to finish soon!
Below are a few vignettes of interesting things I’ve done since returning to Xian from our Silk Road trip. They are loosely in chronological order and will unfortunately feature less pictures than my travel journal entries.
教英语的机会
The first episode involves teaching English. Andras, a classmate of mine from the East Coast, has been studying Japanese for around seven years and actually has spent two of those years teaching English in Japan China
Upon arrival in Xian, we learned that a literature professor at our university often goes into the countryside (about an hour and a half to two hours by bus) to help disadvantaged kids learn English. I think he also has family in that particular town, which is why he goes so far away; if I remember correctly, his nephew is currently in charge of the English cram school. Apparently this professor has been nagging Orion himself to come out and volunteer for quite some time, so now seemed like the perfect time to try it out. The professor, Andras, Orion, our other assistant director, Li Shaohan, and I all went the first Saturday we were back (October 1). The five of us hopped on the bus chartered for our trip and were off on the start of a rather long journey.
October 1 is the Chinese National Holiday, so it’s been cool to see all of the stores put up their Chinese flags and see and hear all of the various celebrations. The day prior, Karen and I were walking back from Xiao Zhai (小寨), a shopping district, when we were stopped by a lady with a camera and a microphone. They asked if we could understand them, in Chinese of course, and having satisfied that request asked if we knew what tomorrow was. Failing to come up with “National Day” in Chinese, I said it in English, which they understood and told me just to say “中国生日” (China’s birthday); they then asked me if I knew how old China was turning. I promptly responded with “90!” which was only met with laughter. They corrected me with 62. (The last dynasty fell in 1911, which was 100 years ago, the Communist party was founded in 1921, which was 90 years ago (what I was thinking because I had seen a lot of 90th anniversary posters), and the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, or 62 years ago.) After correctly saying 62 years, they asked if I had anything to say, which I responded with 中国生日快乐 “Happy Birthday, China!” They had me say the whole thing through in one take and add “Happy Birthday” in English at the end, too, so we may have been on some local Xian channel…
The professor is a very interesting person. He is rather sprightly and energetic for someone who is apparently almost 60. He is also extremely curious and talkative, so Andras and I were able to practice a good amount of Chinese with him as we tried explaining different aspects of American culture to him. [For those of you reading this who are from Michigan
Once we arrived at the cram school, we were immediately whisked into the classroom and told to teach. That day there were six students, three boys and three girls, who were aged fourteen to sixteen; the professor also decided to sit in. Luckily Andras has teaching experience, so the hour they had us there went rather smoothly. We started by introducing ourselves a little and about where we are from; we then had the students tell us a little about themselves. Afterwards, we decided to play a modified version of Pictionary. It’s interesting to see how people decide to depict things. We ran into a bit of a snag when I tried to illustrate “jungle” and when Andras tried to draw “vampire.” They understood what they were, more or less, but I don’t think they knew the English for it.
After class, the five of us were invited to have lunch with a local family who must somehow be related to the professor. They had a little son who they affectionately call 小肥猪 xiǎo féi zhū “Little Fat Pig;” he was pretty chubby and literally ate as much meat as the rest of us combined at lunch, though we probably ate more vegetables than he did. The family was very excited to host us for lunch, which meant they kept bringing more and more platefuls of food. It was all delicious but way too much.
After lunch, we had a short walk and were given a short history of the area. The family whom we ate with, and the majority of the townspeople, all live in a series of apartment complexes built by the local factory and “given” to the workers’ families as justification for lower wages. We saw some girls playing with a sort of hackey sack, but instead of a cloth ball filled with beads, they were playing with a few metal washers tied together on the end of a pom pom. I’m pretty bad at hackey sack, but I was atrocious at this game. I wasn’t much worse than anyone else in our group, though. With our short visit over, we headed back to Xian.
One the subject of teaching English, a rather interesting event happened last Wednesday (10.5). As Andras, Karen, and I were leaving the school, a random Chinese girl walking by us said, “Hello!” I responded back and was surprised to see her stop to chat with us. She then immediately asked if we wanted to teach English. She continued by saying that some nearby schools that all had some connection with each other were all looking for teachers on the weekends. After some other random information about ourselves and this potential job, she asked us what salary we wanted, which we thought was rather odd because we hadn’t agreed yet to the position nor actually talked with the headmaster of the school for final details. We agreed to meet on Saturday with the headmaster, but heard back Friday that because we are only here for such a short time, that we weren’t viable candidates.
坐地铁去教堂
The second episode involves going to church in Xian. A few days before we left for our trip, the Xian subway system (these are actual ads they air on TV and all throughout the subway system) opened its first two lines. Plans are still underway to complete all six lines within the next few years. One of the lines completed runs north-south and has a stop right near our campus and plenty of stops within the city walls. A one-way ticket is a mere ¥2, so the subway is a cheaper, easier, less confusing and stressful way of getting into the city every Sunday than trying to hail a taxi. Thank you, God. I still haven’t had enough time to just wander inside the city (also, I couldn’t find any routes on the website, which seems like essential information) to find the closest station to the church, so I just take the line to the city center and walk about twenty minutes to the church. Going to church has become a much bigger ordeal than I’ve ever been used to. I have to leave almost a full hour before church starts in order to get there on time, which is way longer than the three minute drive in Canton, the fifteen minute drive in Naperville, or the fifteen minute walk in Champaign that I was used to.
The church itself is rather old and small, especially if it actually is a cathedral as I thought I overheard. The English Mass is at 3:30pm on Sundays, so I’m starting to get used to afternoon Masses, which is a very different feeling than I was used to; I’d much prefer to attend the 10:00am Mass, but I don’t think I’m ready for full-fledged Chinese yet. However, apparently the bishop (possibly a cardinal) presides over the 10:00 Mass every week, so it would be worth checking out at least once.
Last Tuesday, the church held special Masses in honor of St. Francis of Assisi
Well, the gate was closed, so I had to hop the fence to leave the campus to go to church. Some girls waiting for the gate to open to leave “ooed” at my rather quick jumping of the fence, mostly because the guy before my took a bit longer and did it more awkwardly. A little frazzled because of this setback, I set out for the station. I didn’t have any small bills on me, so I had to wait for the ticket counter to open to get change for my ¥50 bill; by this time, I had seen that the first train departing north wasn’t until 6:45, which meant I wasn’t late for the first train, but that I would definitely be late for church at 7:00am. I arrived at church as the priest was giving his homily. Some interesting things about church in China: there were a lot of nuns at this early Mass that I haven’t seen, quite understandably, at the English Mass; no one holds hands during the Our Father; the Peace Be with You is a bow with folded hands at people; and a lot of people go up during Communion to be blessed but not receive, and I have never seen them offer any Blood. I headed straight back to class afterwards—I had thought I would be around fifteen minutes late for my first class, but the morning Mass was shorter than normal, so I ended up being on time to both my and the teacher’s surprise.
Right next to the church is a small Catholic store. This past weekend after church I had some free time before I was meeting up with people for dinner and stopped by. I got to talking with one of the women in there; I don’t think she was an employee, but she must just hang out there. Anyway, we talked for probably a good half hour in my broken Chinese and I learned some new Catholic terminology in Chinese. Perhaps I’ll get involved with something through the church. Right now is the least involved in church activities I’ve ever been and it’s really starting to affect me; I feel extremely disconnected spiritually despite going to church (almost) every week since being in China and saying a good number of rosaries.
参加有名的画室
The third episode worth mentioning happened last Saturday. Every weekend, the program directors try to find something interesting in or around Xian to take us to; these trips are optional, so only those who are interested go, which means it’s a smaller group and a lot better because everyone wants to be there. This latest excursion was to the home and studio of a famous Chinese folk artist named Pan Xiaoling. Here are some examples of her famous style. It took about an hour by bus to reach the city where she lives; along the way on the highways we could see some trees starting to turn a very vibrant autumn red. It’s nice even in the outskirts of China
Corn-banana tree-- only in China
Back to the artist. She started out with learning paper cutting, a rather traditionally Chinese art form cutting up paper using scissors and exacto knives into highly intricate shapes and patterns. She then learned the traditional Chinese painting style, 国画. Some time afterwards, she blended the two, along with an interest in the every day lives of farmers, to create her own unique style as a part of the “farmer’s movement.” According to our program director, this initiative was pushed strongly by Communist propaganda as a way to glorify the every day laborer and agricultural work (remember the communal living and missions into the countryside during the 1960s). She gave us a short demonstration on paper cutting by making a butterfly.
The butterfly paper cut-out she made in approximately five minutes
She then taught us how to make a simple cut of a pair of 喜 or “double happiness.” We then learned a little about painting and Chinese numerology and symbolism and then were invited to paint a little of our own. We were told to think of things in our everyday lives and paint them, so naturally one girl painted a unicorn in space. :P
Pan Xiaoling’s studio, exhibiting her paintings
Pan Xiaoling’s studio, exhibiting her paper cut-outs
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