Dragon boat time

Spring feels like it is here to stay.   Time to put away my heavy winter coat, hat, mittens, scarves, and long underwear.  On most days both outdoor and indoor environments are warm enough to use sandals and short sleeves.  My bare arms and toes attract many stares.  Most people in Wuhan are fully dressed with layers until an unofficial date sometime in late April/early May.  My translator was sweating bullets on Friday afternoon.  I suggested that he take off his jacket, but he felt that his long sleeve button-down shirt was insufficient.  I sat across from him in the office very comfortable in a short sleeve shirt and flip-flops.  

 

Since the discovery of the Boone Memorial School I’ve been digging deeper into the history of this University.  Following the Second World War the school was relocated to Guizi hill, which at that time was a large cemetery.  The remains were removed and many tombstones or direction markers helped create the walls and steps to the University.  Since this time most have been covered with cement or replaced, but a few are still visible.  

Along with warmer weather comes dragon boating.  The national holiday is particularly special to Wuhan as it originated from this area over 2000 years ago.  The C.E.C.P. group has a team every year and last Saturday was our first practice.  We spent time reviewing safety and strategy before using the training center's simulation boats to improve rowing techniques.  

Before China I had little knowledge of Dragon boating.  I tried it once through the canals of Gdansk, but never really gained expertise.   The leader of C.E.C.P. approached me months ago to join the team.  Oddly enough, I learned more about the event from Miami’s Dragon Boat website: http://www.miamidragonboat.com/race.htm. Never would I have dreamed of racing in the center of dragon boat history.    

Following the simulation training we made it to a real boat and paddled back and forth across the East Lake.  Getting 22 adults to work together in a narrow wet space is more challenging than convincing the people of Wuhan to take off their jackets in the heat of spring.   Thankfully we have two more months of practice before the big weekend.

Signs of Boone

Boone University Gallery

 

How fitting to discover another Boone legacy right around my father's birthday.  My Chinese language teacher first noticed the family name in the basement of the campus library and asked me if I knew anything about it.  From the look of shock on my face it was easy to tell that I had no idea.   She showed me the Boone memorial gallery displaying old photos of this University from its earliest years.  The information was in Chinese, but even with the interpretations there was little information about Mr. Boone.

Later in the week my teacher put me in contact with a librarian who knew more on this topic.  He traveled to the US in the early 1990s to research the Boone Memorial School. At that time there were VERY few records of Boone in China.  This librarian's research through Yale’s divinity school archives delivered most of the records currently held in China.

Central China Normal University, (Hua Zhong) opened in 1871 as Boone Memorial School.  It was named after one of the first Episcopal Bishop in China and his son, (Bishop of Shanghai), helped to open it in his honor. The school became Boone Memorial University in 1904 and in 1924 it became Hua Zhong University.  During the first fifty years Boone Memorial School grew from a small elementary to a widely well-recognized University and introduced several Western activities such as marching bands, baseball, and boy scouts.   

The story of William Jones Boone can be found online thanks to the work of librarians and archivists in the US.  One can also find the work of Mary Elizabeth Wood.  Her years of missionary work created the first public library in China as part of Boone Memorial School.  This library eventually was taken over and privatized through the University of Wuhan, but it still exists today. 

Yesterday I searched through CCNU’s archives and read through a small book that was found buried in a box along with 9 silver dollars from 1908.  The box was unearthed in the early 1990s while the University was digging for the construction of a new building.  Thanks to this treasure the mystery of this school’s earliest years was beginning to unfold. 

Following the archives visit I got a sneak peak at the University’s museum. It aims to educate its students about the history of the school, but the English translations still need a lot of work.  I will work with them this Saturday before attending the tulip festival at the Botanical Gardens.

Aside from discovering my family’s long-lost Chinese legacy I’ve explored a few other destinations in the city.   

Yaks and crackers

The zoo left a very memorable impression.   A few foreign friends joined me along with a couple of teachers from the kindergarten.  I was shocked at the deplorable state of the animals.  To be fair, at least the birds had decent habitat areas, but the other animals were poorly maintained.  The animals seemed to be either in a state of rage or complacency.   

The cages of many primate and felines species were small and bare.  People, (young and old alike), threw everything from pink sausages, crackers, peanuts, and plastic bags at the animals.  The lions don't chase after peanuts the way you'd expect them to hunt wildebeests.  Despite the signs on almost every cage advising against this behavior the place was full of evidence to this ignorance.  

The look of disgust and sadness was plastered on our foreign faces throughout the visit.  We treated ourselves to homemade ice cream and a plate of Western-style food at a Hawaiian restaurant not far from the zoo.  Ice cream may not solve issues in animal abuse, but at least it sweetens the bitterness and aids in searching for solutions.

A very special wildlife biologist friend will be here in April and give a talk about understanding animals with young children.  Hopefully the teachers will be so inspired from the workshop that their students will help redesign the zoo. 

Amphibians.... more than just an expensive menu item

 

It’s hard to believe that I’m back in China, and somehow it’s still very exciting.  Following the eight-day teacher workweek I headed to the states while the rest of China celebrated the Spring Festival.  Most of my foreign friends that stayed in China said that it was like a ghost town around University campuses.  Many of these friends either traveled throughout the country or visited the homes of Chinese friends.  Chinese families got together and shared enormous meals.  It is not uncommon for people to enjoy heavy meals every day of the 15-day festival.  

My break was divided among family and friends across the USA.  I am blessed to have spent so much time with so many wonderful people.  As much I’d love to be back in sunny Miami rather than cold, wet Wuhan, there is something promising about this return.  Not only is over half of my work finished but also the weather should only get warmer from now on.   

The flight back with Cathay Pacific was ten times better than my first trip to China and I was able to adjust my sleeping schedule more easily after this flight.  Work began immediately following my arrival.  Each evening offered the chance to catch up with friends.  A few of my closest friends are moving this semester, but not before sharing a final farewell.  The ninth floor of CCNU’s foreign expert building is now mine for the taking, (at least until another foreigner moves into the newly emptied apartments).  

My news of China usually comes to me through my translator or from watching the news on the metro TV screens. China was very proud of their Olympic gold medal speed skater.  The video of the Korean skater falling and the Chinese skater gliding to the finish was on repeat for a week.  Due to the over-coverage of speed skating and curling, it was hard to catch the hockey games.  One bar/restaurant aired the games at 1 AM. I hope the rest of the world enjoyed the winter Olympics.

The nasty weather presents the opportunity to relax indoors and continue cleaning/sorting through the myriad of object that I’ve collected in the past 6 months.  Transient friends have left many bottles of cooking oil, towels, blankets, and several snack items. One cannot live on moon pies and sunflower oil alone, but these things provide a bit of comfort after a long day at the kindergarten.

Speaking of school, I believe that the teachers are on board with understanding vertebrates.  It was difficult for many teachers to distinguish amphibians from reptiles.  We talked about the life cycle of a frog, (going from egg to tadpole to frog), but they seemed unaware to the idea of newts, salamanders, caecilians, etc.  These animals are often found cooked on expensive plates at Chinese celebrations, but most kindergarten teachers know little about them.  One teacher told me that there was a mistake with the caecilian.  She strongly believed that it was a worm.  We had to have a group discussion about not only these animals, but what makes some animals fit into one of the five classes of vertebrates.  Then another can of worms was opened:  understanding invertebrates.

It seems that a trip to the zoo will be made within this month.  Hopefully many teachers will be able to join this outing.  Some teachers have mentioned that they never before studied such biological information.  How wonderful that they now have the opportunity!

The Village People

Lazy man gets no bread

Despite the cold and snow of Indiana, being back in the States is a refreshing breath of fresh air.  Literally.  Luxuries like indoor heating, high speed Internet, and cheese are a high comfort in addition to the things like clear skylines and phonetic alphabets.  The past few weeks in Wuhan were busier than a beehive in spring.  Hopefully the American vacation will renew my energy and send me back to China ready to tackle the last few months.

Prior to the eight-day teacher workweek I traveled with the C.E.C.P. group to several villages around south Hubei province.  Each village had unique structures dating from the period of the Qing dynasty.  The first places we passed had covered bridges.  The next village was a labyrinth of an old farm palace where possibly a hundred people now live.  The whole of the weekend’s villages offered different sites:  a 50 meter long dragon boat, family temples complete with ancestral remains in decorative coffins, and a variety of people that both love and disagree with the party’s distribution of wealth. 

Following the cultural revolution all land was redistributed and the ancient structures were taken from families that had lived there for hundreds of years.  The families that live there are very poor and survival is their greatest concern.  As a result, the beautiful structures are in disarray and maintenance is beyond concern.  Many people that earn money working in the city come back to the village and construct modern looking fronts for the buildings.  These villages are disappearing as China becomes a richer country.  The C.E.C.P. keeps records of these places on their website:  http://www.icecp.org/  You can also see many photos of me in the pictures from the end of the year gala.  Hopefully photos from this weekend’s trip will be up soon.

Saturday night one of our group members found a very decent hotel for us to stay at 85 RMB/room.  Between two people the total is around $6/person.  Each room had clean beds, heaters, towels, separate bathrooms, and Western style toilets.  It sounds like the norm for any hotel in the states, but a typical Chinese hotel at this price would offer none of the before-mentioned items.  Sometimes sleeping on a park bench offers greater luxury than a cheap hotel in China.

The following day was sunny, warm, and full of more villages.  The greatest surprise was an unassuming village with an AMAZING temple and a man who specializes in creating traditional Chinese coffins.  Chinese villagers try to make their own coffins if they live to a certain age in preparation for the inevitable.  This is a part of life, which is not easily planned.  In this situation there are specialists who make ancient style coffins for others.  The man went about his work creating decorative clay handles while we spent a few hours searching the temple, staging our own Peking opera on their ancient stage, and photographing both the beautiful ancient details and the cultural revolution marks left in sloppy red paint.  Most people in villages flock in masse to see foreigners, but this man continued working as if we were a passing wind. 

The leader of our group shared with this village two boxes of clothes and children’s toys that another transient member of C.E.C.P. donated.  At first many people said it was not necessary, but after seeing some designer labels, the boxes were emptied in under five minutes.  No fighting and everyone got something.

We drove to see the mausoleum of Li Zicheng, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Zicheng), before having lunch at a mountainside restaurant.  The final stop was to see terraced rice fields, but the road to the fields was recently covered by a mudslide.  The diverted travels lead us to a village funeral where they were honoring an elderly woman with a day of open mourning.  The pre-recorded sobbing prayers were blasted from giant speakers.  People close to the deceased wore white and covered their heads with white cloth.  There were inflatable ancestral gates and lions propped in front of the mourning tent and a truck loaded with huge fireworks.  Although the recordings broadcasted from the speakers sounded painfully tragic, people were smiling, talking, and looking forward to the great firework show that evening. 

Starting Monday the Montessori teachers of the kindergarten and I worked together for the next eight days cleaning rooms, creating materials, and talking about curriculums.  It was busy, challenging, and not completely finished, but certainly off to a great start before the break.  Happy Chinese New Year to all!  May this year of the horse be full of hard work and great payoff!  Ma shang you qian!

Forever Yang

The New Year of 2014 is quite different from the Chinese New Year.  The Chinese New Year is based around the Lunar calendar and will be celebrated later this month.  The Chinese New Year, (better translated as Spring Festival), is the most honored holiday for Chinese people.  Many children from the kindergarten have been absent since the first of this month in order to extend their New Year celebrations with family members in various parts of China.  I’ve been told that it's the craziest time to attempt travels in China.

The Western New Year’s Eve mildly interesting to Chinese people, and thankfully the first of January is considered a public holiday.  Many people told me that going out on New Year’s Eve was a mess and not to bother celebrating.  After work I headed to a friend’s place on foot.  The streets and walkways appeared no more busy than usual.  The metro stations were not crowded and no one looked festive or aggressive in any way, shape, or form.

After dinner with a friend we drove to a popular expat hangout, Brussels cafe.  The place was loaded with a mix of Chinese and foreigners, the music was great, and the party favors were a highlight.  Later on I discovered that my mask would leave smurf blue marks on my face, but thankfully I didn't have to remove my mask for the night. 

A Chinese woman told me that this year all fireworks on New Year’s Eve would be illegal due to the increase in air pollution.  Despite the warnings, someone set off fireworks on the other side of the lake and we had a grand display. 

Since January first life has returned to normal busy.  I’m preparing for an 8 day teacher workweek where the teachers will be organizing their rooms, creating more cultural materials, and practicing for a practical exam.  This is the last week of students and we will all re-convene on February 17^th.  The work week starts next week and goes across the weekend.  After this I can take a few weeks break and finally catch up with life on the other side of the globe.

This past weekend my neighbor and I set off to find Chairman Mao’s Wuhan residency on the East Lake.  The day was beautiful and the walk offered sights of birds, fragrant blooming winter trees, cycads, and soft pines.  The winding roads finally led us to our destination, but the residency is closed for the season.  We took a few pictures before heading to a nearby gala hosted by my traveling group.

During the gala the leader of the group, (Yang), showed photos from the trips to small villages interspersed with performances by both Chinese and foreign members of the group.  I sang “Wo Zhi Zai Hu Ni” by the late great Theresa Teng as the only foreigner in a Chinese singing group.  At the end of the event I sang a slightly different version of a Bob Dylan classic to honor our group leader: 

May your heart always be joyful, may your song always be sung, and may you stay……

Forever Yang

My first working Christmas

 

 Being a country without many friends or family can often be emotionally challenging during the holidays, but in China there is plenty of work to keep the mind far from emotions.  A few side weekend trips are helpful too.  Last weekend I cooked a dish called Gong Bao Ji Ding, (which means chicken dish fit for the palace guardian).  My language teacher took me and a few other students to a small city outside of Wuhan for a day of markets, cooking, and hot springs. 

Before hot springs we had to negotiate all of the ingredients in our dishes at the open markets with a little more than $3 on hand.  I thought this would be impossible for me, but I ended up doing better at bargaining than the Chinese in our group.  It helped that I was willing to take advice from a woman cutting and selling fresh dog in addition to many other common pets at her stand. 

There are many crowds this time of year for shopping.  They have deals at all shopping centers from 6 PM to 3 AM on Christmas Eve.  For Christmas one of the teachers at the school gave me a beautiful red scarf that took her 22 hours to knit.  Another teacher presented me an apple because the presentation of an apple, (pinguo), is similar to a presentation of peace, (pin pin an an).  

Despite the work and planning for January’s big eight straight days with the teachers time, I got the BEST Christmas present just a few days before the holiday.  My sister-in-law gave birth to my niece about three weeks earlier than expected.  Both mom and baby are doing well and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my skype sessions with her. 

I asked my family what they got for Christmas this year, and here are their responses:

older brother:  a new baby
Mother:  a granddaughter
younger brother:  a new niece
Father:  a granddaughter
Sister-in-law:  a daughter
My brother's dogs:  competition/sibling rivalry

I'm delighted to be an aunt.  My new niece has my face with her mother's beautiful full lips.  She already has everyone wrapped around her tiny finger.  Until I get to see her in about a month, I may enjoy a few more weekend adventures.  I'll start this weekend with a foreign teacher's Festivus celebration.  A good Festivus will help cleanse the mind of any grievances and start a fresh 2014!

Crow's Mouth

 

In the past month I’ve been taking Chinese lessons once a week.  Although I still feel like I’m in square one, my language teacher has a great amount of patience and is tremendously kind.  Having a good language teacher is not easy to come by.  Stephanie is more than worth her weight in gold.  Not only do I get vocabulary, grammar, and character practice, but also she occasionally throws in a side story. 

One lesson we were working on pronunciation and I came across the words:  Wūyā zuǐ.  Stephanie laughed a bit and explained this meaning of “crow’s mouth”.  “If someone speaks ill in a foreboding way and this turns to be true, you may say to this person ‘crow’s mouth’”.  For example, recently I was very sick.  Before I got sick someone told me that I was not wearing enough warm clothes and I would get sick.  I can now say CROW’S MOUTH to this person.

Not sure how wearing enough clothes relates to a stomach virus, but there are still many things here that I don’t understand.  Prior to this illness I was much more active in my explorations of Wuhan.  Over Thanksgiving my American neighbors, Ted and I went to a Hawaiian restaurant for an all-you-can-eat turkey buffet.  It was Ted’s first time trying turkey, stuffing, cranberry relish, and pumpkin pie.  The following weekend I attended a charity gala by the Women of Wuhan to raise funds for students whose parents have died from AIDS.  The night of dancing was well received and it gave me enough energy for my six-day workweek. 

After the Saturday morning workshop I was still feeling on top of the world.  I went with a friend to explore a natural park in Wuhan and watched Les Miserables.  Sunday morning felt fine in the beginning, but the rest of the day was gut-wrenching torture. 

The day of emptying my insides gave me my first taste of meeting a Chinese doctor.  Ted served as my translator and often his translations came across as an accusation rather than a question.  Instead of saying, “Did you eat too much on Saturday night?” I heard, “You ate too much on Saturday night”.  My quick negation helped me to realize the loss in translation.  The doctor gave me some powders and pills, and my quiet day at home will give me enough time to rest, relax, and avoid any more crows.