Chinese New Year in Beijing

It started a couple of days ago –the sounds of what seemed like bombs or gunfire going off in my neighborhood. The first time I heard it, I looked out my window to see if there were any thing strange down on the ground. No, and people were walking about as though they had heard nothing. Not even any dogs were barking at the sound. So, I thought, it must not be a problem.

Yesterday morning, I started to hear a lot more such sounds. Alvin said it was fireworks, because it’s New Year’s Eve. I had never heard of fireworks during the day—what’s the point? He said they do it just for the sound. As the day went on, the blasts were more and more frequent. Then I began to hear what sounded like automatic gunfire (very rapid, like firecrackers) or like very loud static on the radio. Turns out, these were just different types of fireworks.

This is the biggest holiday in China, like our Christmas. Brian and Jennifer, a couple who teach at my school, who were kind enough to invite me over for dinner and fireworks viewing. There I met Joe, another American EF teacher, and heard about the differences between teaching in China and Japan. Contrary to all the stereotypes, he reinforces what I’ve heard from others, that there are severe discipline problems in both countries.

Ilisa and Bruno, a couple from Italy who are both architects, brought the dinner they cooked—spaghetti with clam shells and a whole fish (though no one was sure what kind it was). It was topped off by some delicious brownies, homemade by Jennifer. Later we were joined by Jurrie, a Chinese woman who grew up in the provinces in severe poverty, but now has a good job at an investment company in Beijing. I loved the conversation about the language similarities and differences among Mandarin, Italian, and English, and even some occasional talk about Portuguese and Spanish. Occasionally we translated for Bruno, who although his English is not-so-good, managed to keep us laughing with what little he did know.

All the way over to the apartment and all through dinner, the fireworks were constant, and getting more frequent all the time. I even noticed people shooting rockets from their apartment windows. Now that it was night time, the fireworks made a lot more sense to me, and we had a great vantage point after dinner on the patio, where we could see a huge section of Beijing from the 28th floor.

Imagine New York City, which has a population similar to Beijing’s, but where everyone is allowed to set off any kind of fireworks they want—the kind that in the US only the professionals are allowed to use. Then imagine that ever Tom, Dick and Harry is allowed to set off these fireworks any where in the city they want, with the favorite place being the middle of the streets. Then imagine that is augmented by several professional displays at various points in our viewing area. That’s Chinese New Year in Beijing. Here's a video that's similar to what we saw last night from the 28th floor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwDPy56eU0s&feature=related Here's a typical scene from the ground: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68my70DEnQg. It's been called the largest uncoordinated fireworks display in the world.

We could see for miles around into the distance and fireworks were going off all over the city as far as we could see. There were even some pretty nifty fireworks being set off right on the ground below our apartment; it was great to see them explode at eye-level.

It kept building and building, getting louder and more colorful and brighter. It peaked at midnight, but kept going all night long. Every other fireworks display I had ever seen reminded me of that song from the 60’s: “Is that all there is?” I never could understand what all the fuss was about. But THIS was a huge spectacle, which I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of. It was truly exciting.

About 1 am it was time to go. Joe and I were afraid we wouldn’t be able to get a cab home since all the cabs seemed to be off the streets (and who could blame them?), but Jurrie was good enough to deliver us home in her car. On the way, she had to dodge many of the fireworks boxes and canisters which were in the middle of the streets.

It’s a good thing I’m a heavy sleeper. As I said, the fireworks went on all night long, they were still going when I woke up this morning, and they are still going strong as I write this at 3:30 in the afternoon. They tell me this will continue for 15 more days.

2 firsts: Silk Market and "adult store"

I'm going to a party on Wednesday night that requires we wear a Tang dynasty shirt. I had no idea where to get one, so I headed to the Silk Market. It's one of the biggest tourist sites in Beijing, with 1700 vendors and 60,000 visitors per day on weekends, but I'd never been there because I had heard it was such a tourist trap.

But now I needed silk and had no idea where to find such a traditional outfit, so the Silk Market seemed to fit the bill. It lived up to its reputation for crowds, pushy vendors, and outrageous initial prices (though the prices sound good to people just off the boat). It's known for its knock-off clothing and accessories, but the one thing the Silk Market had very little of was silk. I finally found a place that had what I wanted and the woman asked for the outrageous price of $800. I countered with $100 (which still may have been too much--I don't know) and after a fun negotiation dance, I walked away with it for a little more than $100.

Afterwards, while exploring the area, I saw one of the "adult shops" you see all over Beijing. I had been curious for a while, and decided that today was the day to check it out. It had condoms, lubricants, stimulants, fake breasts (for straight men's enjoyment) and not much else. What was surprising was the attendant: a woman in her 60's wearing what looked like a nurse's uniform from the 50's: white dress and white nurse's hat. I suppose that's to give it a sheen of medical necessity. I actually did feel more comfortable there than if it had been some skank in their 20s, so I guess it worked on me.

Judge and jury

One of my classes this week was on the American legal system --just the spare basics of what happens in a trial. Almost all of the students thought that, as in China, the judge decides who is innocent or guilty. They were fascinated by the idea of a jury - average people making this decision? They aren't experts, so how can they make the right decisions? How are they picked? What if they don't want to do it?

They were all incredulous that the jury decision has to be unanimous -what if one person is an idiot? One student, whose name is "Sunny Bright", said "maybe that's why the crime rate is so high in the US." Another asked, "Doesn't this make the jury susceptible to bribing?"

I explained that this is one of the most basic of rights in England and the US, going back 700 years, but they didn't seem to be impressed. The unanimity part really bothered them.

"You must be from New Zealand."

I've know for a while that my accent was "in the middle" somewhere. A lot of native Southerners say that they don't hear an accent (meaning it's standard American), but when I travel in the US outside the South, people say OH YEAH you do have a Southern accent. This is probably familiar to a lot of people who have moved to a different area than they grew up in or whose accent has changed.

I admit to trying to "soften" my accent when I was in college because it just sounded too redneck to me. However, I have never wanted to get rid of it, just to have a more attractive version of it...more genteel. I don't want to have a boring, standard American accent, and I am proud of my Southern heritage.

But the comments I have received here in Beijing are bizarre to me. Many of my students have said that I don't sound American. If I ask them what I sound like, they usually say British, or say I sound like another teacher here--who is from England. This puzzles me, so I've asked them what in particular makes them say that. They usually can't say. A couple of times, students have said something like, "You just don't act like an American."

Well. What does that mean? I think of the old "All in the Family" show, where Archie made the outre comment that all British men act "queer". Is that what they really meant? I tend to discount the students' comments since I don't think they are particularly good at detecting English-language accents anyway.

However, a couple of teachers who are from Australia told me they thought at first I was from Australia or New Zealand. And today, in training, a guy from England upon meeting me said confidently, "You're either from Australia or New Zealand--can't quite place it." When I told him America - North Carolina, he said, "Well, I guess we expect the way we hear Americans sound in movies."

The one thing that I know that stands out about the way I speak is my Pennsylvania long "o". It's kind of "e-yo-oo" sound. I learned about this when I took a diction class in college. (This was the same time I learned there was a difference in pronunciation between "pin" and "pen", and "want" and "won't'.) My professor went to my church and was aware that in elementary school I was taught by nuns from Pennsylvania, so he concluded that's where I must have gotten it. When I hear that sound, it does sound British to me, and I mentioned that to the English guy today, and he said "Maybe that's it."

Any light friends or family could shed on this mystery would be much appreciated.

BTW it will be interesting to hear, when I return to the States, whether people think I speak any differently. When I first started teaching, I was told repeatedly that I speak too fast for students to understand, so I've really worked on slowing down my speech, also on enunciating my words more clearly. I rarely get a complaint anymore, so I guess I'm succeeding.

National amnesia; students open up

In 2 of the 3 types of classes we have, I am very fortunate to be able to hear students talk about some intimate things on a variety of subjects. It's a real window onto the culture that I think not many people get.

For instance, in a recent Face2Face (just the teacher and 4 students), we read an excerpt from a woman who talks about the idyllic 50s in England, and compares it unfavorably to today. She says they had bigger houses, lived in the country, played outside, had gardens, ate healthier food and ate together as a family--all in contrast to today.

I ask them if they think things are better today in China than they were in the 50's and 60's. I'm very interested to hear what they have to say because to me there is no doubt at all that it's much better today. But I'd heard and seen what I saw as evidence that there was a national amnesia about those days. They are not taught in school that millions of people died from starvation and violence due to the ruinous policies of Chairman Mao, and it certainly isn't covered in the media. I've had conversations with local teachers, who are well-educated, who seemed to be completely ignorant of this time and, what's more, didn't care.

I had this same class several times in the last week, so it was interesting to see the dynamic in each class. The first couple of classes, everyone said things were better back then, but they were quoting from the story, saying that food was healthier, etc. This speaks to the way they are trained in school to tell you what you want to hear rather than give their real opinion.

But don't these people hear stories from their parents and grandparents? Or do people from those generations simply not want to talk about it?

Finally, yesterday in my final F2F on this subject, a teenage girl spoke with passion about how it's much better now because people in her family died because they didn't have enough to eat and that they're still trying to recover from that time. A couple of others chimed in, acting as if they were letting me in on a secret.

So is this something everyone knows, but is reluctant to speak about to foreigners? Or do they not want to be seen as criticizing Chairman Mao? Or is it something else?

No heat, no air

I was told before I ever came to China that they didn't turn the heat on in apartments until November 15th, no matter what the weather was like. So I prepared myself for the possibility of a few nights without heat if it gets cold before then.

But I wasn't prepared for the flip side of that. A little over a week ago, the air conditioning stopped working in my apartment. I was having trouble sleeping because the temperature was as high as 83 degrees F.

When I had Building Maintenance come look at it, they seemed to be saying nothing was wrong, and I guessed what the answer was. I called a student to translate and he confirmed the bad news: Between Oct 1 and Nov 15 there is no heat or air conditioning, no matter what the weather. I have one tiny openable window, which doesn't do much good when there's no wind. So I was stuck with 83 degree F temperatures for several nights. It's cooled off some recently, but it could get hot again between now and November 15th.

The pleasures of life in a Communist country!

Shocker

One of the types of classes that we teach is called Face2Face, where we meet in a small room with just 4 students, to give them more personal attention. This is where I really get to know the students and learn a lot about their thoughts because we encourage them to practice their English by giving their opinions on different subjects.

A couple of days ago, as sometimes happens, there was only one person in my F2F. His self-chosen name was Neo. He was extremely shy and nervous, so I thought he might be autistic. If it hadn't been just him and me, I wouldn't have been able to spent the time with him that I did. I discovered that if you gave him enough time, he could answer most questions and that he didn't hesitate to say he didn't understand.

At the end, he asked where I was from. I said North Carolina and asked if he'd heard of it. He said yes and I said most people know it from Michael Jordan or Bank of America. He said, "Do you know South Carolina?" I said, yes, I was born there. He said, "First Confederate state." I couldn't believe my ears. Most of my students seem to know next to nothing about non-Chinese history.

Then he said he liked Abraham Lincoln and started quoting verbatim and IN PERFECTLY ACCENTED AMERICAN ENGLISH (which had had not done when he was using his own words)-- The Gettysburg Address! I was amazed. He said he liked to read history and that he "likes American freedoms".

The Chinese people are fascinating. I hope to write more about them soon.