Christmas in China

December 22

One of the delightful surprises in China is the enjoyment and love of Christmas. For most here, it is a day of celebration without presents or religious significance. Trees are decorated, lights are strung, and it is a wonderful reason for a party. You may notice the tree in International Square has “wishes” on it. Anyone is welcome to write their wish for the year and hang it on the tree.

There has been a good bit of Christmas celebration on campus, given the large number of foreign faculty. Holiday cheer has included a formal Christmas banquet with entertainment, a “white elephant” gift exchange, a night of Christmas caroling with songs sung in English and Chinese, and two evenings of Christmas performances.

Caroling on campus

Naturally, there are the unique Chinese additions to the celebration. Winter Solstice is very important and is celebrated by making and eating dumplings. The story children are told across China is that if you don’t eat dumplings, your ears will fall off. No one I asked knew the origin of the story. Fortunately, a student invited me along for the festivities, and it was great fun. It is considered good luck to have flour sprinkled on you , and as you can see, there was lots of good luck being shared. Another tradition is to give an apple for peace and happiness.

If you don't eat dumplings, your ears will fall off.

On Christmas Day the foreign faculty are gathering to make Christmas dinner. For me, Christmas will be wonderfully special: Dan arrives very late on Christmas eve.

Readers, Dan’s arrival in China means the blog will have no new posts. As you may know, I cannot post from China because blogs are not permitted; Dan has been posting all of these blog entries. Thank you for being such avid readers! I am flattered by your attention and interest.

I wish all of you a holiday season filled with peace, love, and joy and a new year filled with endless possibilities. I look forward to seeing all of you next year.

Love to you and yours,

Laurie

Squatty Potties

December 21

No blog about travels in China is compete without telling all of you dear readers about toilets here. So if this is not a subject of interest, bail now. This is not a blog post for the squeamish.

The vast majority of toilets in China and all public toilets are known among westerners as “squatty potties.” Yes, there is a hole with a porcelain platform surrounding it. Rarely is there a flushing mechanism. Toilet paper is a rarity. There is a basket for you to place your used toilet paper, which you carry with you everywhere.

The odor in the majority of public bathrooms is enough to keep out all but the most desperate. Kelly took the attached photo; this was the bathroom in a nice restaurant. Go figure!

Life in Xinzheng

December 17

A sudden sunny day after a week of gray and bitter cold days was excuse enough for a walk through town. Xinzheng, the town where Sias University is located, has an august history. Huan Di, the legendary ancestor and ruler of the unified Chinese nation, was born here more than 2,000 years ago. That’s him in the traffic circle.

The revered Huan Di presides in a traffic circle

Today, Xinzheng is a small, rather dusty town with little to especially recommend it. Nevertheless, it is home to me now and is the site of much of my learning about daily life in China. So let me share what I have seen and observed.

There is construction everywhere, and it happens seven days a week. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration hasn’t come to China yet. Construction is done in whatever clothes a worker has handy, including blazers and dress shoes, no steel-toed boots here. It does kick up quite a bit of dust. Shopkeepers sweep many times each day, and they use these beautiful willow brooms — see one in the back of the cat below.

Kelly with a cart and willow broom

Another challenge created by the construction and the pollution is that many people wear masks. It is not unusual to see people dressed elegantly with a mask over their mouth.

Build they must

Traffic is frightening. I don’t know if they are great drivers or the worst ever. They don’t have accidents, but they also don’t obey any apparent rules. They pass on the right or left. They weave in and around. They pull out into oncoming traffic to pass on the left. And they love the horn.

They also use everything from pull-carts full of heavy construction materials to station wagon bikes and motor scooters to brand-new name-brand cars. Check out the photo of the three vehicles.

Range of transportation

Many people don’t own transportation, so bikes and scooters are rented; there’s a photo below of a bike rental area outside the campus gate.

Rent a bike here

Street food is as diverse as in New York City. My personal favorite is the whole sweet potatoes. They also have huge long stalks of sugarcane that is cut and peeled.

 

 

 

One of the most delightful aspects of a walk along any Chinese street is the frequency of young children out with parents and grandparents. Children everywhere are pretty darn adorable and China is no exception. The most remarkable fact is that I have only seen one child crying in my entire time here.

Today’s walk led us into the center of town and the large park located there. There was an impromptu playground created by a very large tarp, covered with dried corn kernels. There were a dozen or more children under three playing with the corn like a sandbox.

Another fascinating aspect of childrearing in China are “split pants.” Small children don’t wear diapers. The crotch of their pants has a split, and from a very young age they grunt and squat when they are outside. No wonder the Chinese are so adamant about no shoes in the house!

Hey Mom, is there a draft here, or what?

The park was a bustling place today. We saw a band and a series of karaoke singers. It was great fun to watch them, not quite as fun to listen. They tried to get us to participate but they didn’t look like they could play “Heard It Through the Grapevine.”

 

 

Karaoke in the park

Further into the park, we watched art students sketching a little boy. Moments later Kelly and I were asked to model for the art students; you can see our picture of them sketching us and one of their sketches. They gathered quite a crowd.

These art students asked to sketch us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been very cold here, and it was glorious to get out in the sunshine and walk through our town of Xinzheng.

 

Sweeat potato vendor

Sugar cane vendor

A Tour of Sias International University

December 16

Sias International University is a very young higher education institution, founded in 1998. It currently enrolls 23,000 students, largely from the surrounding
Henan Provence, which is China’s poorest. The school was carved out of a lotus field, and the campus is still growing significantly each year.

Front gate of campus

The core campus layout is a series of international squares hosting discrete student communities — Italian square, Spanish square; the Russian neighborhood is just being finished.

International Boulevard runs through the campus. Each “community” has a few shops and restaurants to reflect its country, at least in the name, if not in content or flavor.

International Square

Outdoor sports facilities throughout the campus include a double-decker golf driving range, soccer fields, basketball courts, and running track. Basketball gets an entire beautiful glass building dedicated to it, which reflects the founder’s affection and the country’s love of their Chinese superstar Yao Ming.

The arts are a priority on campus, with several bands and orchestras, a Greek-style outdoor amphitheater, and a full opera company and performance space that I am told rivals the professional company nearby. There is also a commitment to sculpture on the campus, with classical ancient Greek replicas and funky modern sculptures as well as water fountains throughout. In tune with the respect for nature, the campus has small lakes, many trees, and plenty of flowers.

Kelly with campus sculpture

The most interesting building on campus is Washington Hall, so named for it’s similarity to the U.S. Capitol on the front and Tienanmen Square on the back.  Who says the Chinese don’t have a sense of humor!

I live in Peter Hall, the foreign faculty dorm, and I teach in three different buildings.

Washington Hall with my friend Lynda

Students have a curfew of 10:30, and lights out at 11:30. Their dorm rooms have eight students in four sets of bunk beds, and freshmen stay with the same group of people throughout their college careers. You can only imagine the relationship challenges they must work through.

The campus's Tienanmen Square

One interesting thing I noticed is that there is no university gear here. No T-shirts or sweatshirts sporting the Sias University name; no school colors; no notebooks, pens, or keychains with Sias University. I have seen some Yankees gear, however.

The campus bustles from early to past dark. One of the fun spots on campus is Qberry, a frozen yogurt shop with a trendy interior. Check out the photo of Kelly enjoying her yogurt.

Kelly in Qberry

There are shops and informal restaurants across the campus, especially ones that serve soups with many ingredients. My new favorite drink is carmel “milk tea”–a cross between a weak version of English tea with cream  and sugar–that comes in a variety of flavors.

Girls: American and Chinese

December 16

At first impression, there are some striking differences about American and Chinese college students. As I walk the campus, the young women are beautifully dressed. Despite a lack of discretionary funds, they look more professionally attired than students in the United States; beautiful boots, dress coats, cute sweaters abound. They don’t have many items of clothing, but they look quite elegant every day. Their thinking is that being well dressed is a sign of respect for themselves, their professors, and their work. So too, professors are expected to teach professionally attired, respecting the students and the work being done.

The other striking image of young women across the campus is that they often walk arm in arm or holding hands. The young women are not particularly guarded, at least not with us; they are quick to engage and to connect. They seem to take good care of and watch out for one another. They act like members of a team, routinely showing thei friendship andrespect. I sense they are not jaded or cynical. They seem very open to the best the world has to offer. They are also very appreciative and express it openly. There are no sororities here, but the Leadership Academy operates like a vital connection for many of them.

In many ways, Chinese college women are no different from their American counterparts. They are serious about their studies, about preparing for professional life, and understanding how to be a leader, both now and in the future. The questions we get are similar to those I receive when I teach at  American University: how to balance a professional life and a family life, how to get a good job, among others. Their interest in the men on campus are part of many informal conversations. Nothing new there. But how about this: The men here have a delightful tradition of carrying the purse of the young woman with whom they have a relationship.

I have had several meaningful conversations with Muffin Kent, an American who came here this semester to open a prevention center. Students engage in the same kinds of risky behaviors here as in the United States. There is too little understanding of pregnancy prevention, alcohol use on the campus is too common, and depression is a challenge. Among the men, a significant challenge is with Internet addiction. Drug use seems to be less common, but sexual harassment seems more common.

Most students appeared to bevery connected to their families. They speak of them lovingly, and there is a strong connection and reverence for their families. The culture clash of family life and college life creates enormous stress for these students. Most young women come to college having experienced little freedom when they lived at home, including through high school. Many have never dated prior to college. They feel the full weight of their family’s expectations. Often, these expectations clash with the freedom they experience at college. That pressure is magnified by two other pressures — the one-child policy and their perception of the limited number of interesting professional job opportunities. Many students are the only children of parents who have put all of their hopes into these young women. In addition, these students feel the pressures captured in the recent New York Times articles about the limited number of interesting professional job opportunities.

College life and personal aspirations are no simpler to navigate for Chinese women than for American women. I’m delighted to be here to help them figure out some of it.

Destination: Kaifeng

December 11 & 12

A thousand years ago, this prosperous walled city near the start of the Silk Road was the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. Unfortunately it was also south of the Yellow River, and throughout history it has withstood hundreds of floods. As a result, many relics are buried deep under the current city. Today, Keifang is a delightful blend of age-old charm, with many restored, recreated, and genuine historical treasures.

The Temple of the Chief Minister, built in 555 AD, is a a series of temples and guild halls honors the Buddha, and many statues are on display. The show-stopper is the four-faced, thousand-hand Buddha, with an eye on each hand. It took 58 years to carve from a single tree and is now covered in gold leaf. Each face looks in a different direction. A monastery on the grounds continues to operate. Sorry, but the Buddha didn’t approve of photography.

The Iron Pagoda and Park was a delightful stop. The pagoda is an elegant  and slender 11th Century building (pictured, oddly, behind me below).  This one replaced a wooden pagoda of the same design, that had been destroyed. It is made of rust-colored glazed brick, each of which has been individually decorated, many with images of the Buddha. The bricks were done as the wood had been done, through a tongue and groove construction. It is known as the Iron Pagoda because of its color and because it has withstood so many floods.

Kaifeng Museum has little to recommend it. One exhibit depicting the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony includes one of each of the costumes that were used. You’ll see a photo of one on a mannequin.

The City Wall is still relatively intact, albeit much restored. A thousand years ago, an inner wall surrounded the palace, but that is entirely under the current city.

During the Song Dynasty, and Kaifeng’s imperial splendor, the revered painter Zhang Zeduan did something no one had ever done before: He painted average people and the ordinary daily life of the city, including the streets, buildings, markets, waterways, the famous high-arch bridge, and the palaces of the imperial city. A very large scroll painting, details in photos below, was given to the emperor.

Millennium City Park, built in the last decade, is based on the scroll painting come to life. Kind of like the Epcot Center of China, it is an enormous park developed for family fun. The buildings, costumes, and performances relate to life ten centuries years ago with some imagination and frivolity. We saw many performances, including a drum corps, acrobats on stilts, an ancient wedding, a fire-breather, a cockfight, horseback-riding tricks, and an ancient Chinese traditional dance and music. Throughout were places to play, eat, and shop.

Kaifeng is also renowned for the night market and its food. Imagine an outdoor winter evening picnic with very unusual foods, among the traditional foods. This is the place where all manner of bugs and amphibians can be found as street food. And Bijo, the nastiest liquor you’ve ever tasted. It is the liquid version of hairspray and has the potency of grain alcohol. It was an experience! 

Sias faculty in Keifeng

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buddha shrine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man with a ram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perched on a statue of a dragon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My weird hat (an amazing pagoda)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Details of the bricks in the pagoda

 

 

 

 

 

 

Details of the sroll

 

 

 

 

 

More details of the scroll

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mannequin in a costume worn at opening Olympic ceremony

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women dancers

 

 

 

 

 

 

A firebreather

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beginning of a cockfight

 

 

 

 

 

 

A nifty balancing act

 

 

 

 

 

 

A feast for the eyes (not so much for the stomach)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roasted bugs on a stick (bet you can't eat just one...)

Full house for my lecture

December 8

Kennedy Hall is the largest lecture hall on campus. It has 600 seats and is the site of the leadership academy’s weekly open forum. Usually, the topics relate to the curriculum of the academy but are presented in a different way. When one of the young women leaders heard I was a lawyer, she scheduled an informal conversation with me and the law students that ultimately developed into a universitywide presentation.

So this week I presented my dual-language PowerPoint (it had been translated into Chinese) to an overflow crowd of enthusiastic and inquisitive students. I was later told that 200 people were turned away!

Many of the students are not as fluent or comfortable in English as the young women I work with every day. So I had a translator for challenging points and for questions. For an hour and a half I spoke and answered questions about the educational preparation of lawyers, the skills required to be a successful lawyer, the range of professional opportunities, and the American governmental system.

Think about it, if you don’t understand the three branches of government, it is hard to understand the rest. It was exhausting and a blast! The students asked amazing questions: Why does the legal system care so much about ethics? Why do we give a trial to someone we know is guilty? Why do juries make so many mistakes? And many other questions.

Another great dynamic was that the leadership academy young women were so proud to have a woman lawyer representing them to the university. I was delighted to be able to fulfill several important roles.

My audience at the open forum

My translator helped me and the audience

A question from the audience is translated for me

Law School Dean Liu explains the Chinese legal system

Girls afternoon at the salon

December 10
Between classes today, two favorite students took Kelly and me to the nail salon for a manicure and then to a bakery for desert. We went for the full-out Chinese manicure — which is very challenging to do and so elaborate looking. We both loved this design, so you can see we both went with it. Then we went to the bakery for some tea and cakes to share, including green tea cake. It was a very fun afternoon.

Laurie and Kelly show off their nails...

...and then celebrate with luscious desserts

Girls get painted

With new friends Stella and Christina

Blowing out the last of the jet lag

December 6, 2010 (Photos at the bottom of the post)

Weekend fun for my first day off was packed with adventures that would make a Hollywood movie star envious. The day included both a body scrub and a massage, but this is central China, so it isn’t a movie star-style spa.

So first the massage. The place is a short cab ride from campus, down busy streets, where the rules of the road are oddly random or fully ignored. There is much swerving and too much gasping. The small shop has a floor-to-ceiling glass storefront, and just inside there are two massage tables and three guys in soccer apparel. There is one potbelly stove in the middle of the room.

The massages are done fully clothed, using a thin blanket to cover you and to rub against. Over the next hour and a half, every major muscle and joint gets the masseuse’s full attention. It is done with a level of pressure that leaves my historic injuries and tight muscles with a delicious release. It also hurts quite a bit in the doing. Yet it is done with a sensitivity to every ache that is astonishing. And for this amazing experience I paid the equivalent of $8.

Then back into a cab, and we head to the baths in a very fancy hotel. We walk in and are immediately led to a sofa in the lobby where our shoes are traded for spa sandals. It looks like a traditional Turkish bath from 50 years ago. A bit shabby and disorganized, it has a compact changing room with no amenities. The changing room opens onto a large, fully tiled open room with a dozen showers along one wall. Two treatment tables are located in the middle of the room, and at one end of the room is a large semi-circular, shallow bath and waterfall, neither of which works right now.

This is my first body scrub. And since no one speaks English, it makes it especially interesting. But smiles and laughing communicate in all languages, and I have learned to say “thank you” in Mandarin. A shower, a scrub, a coating of honey and oil, and a long sauna — it’s my new way to spell wonderful. Once again this entire experience, albeit not in the most elegant setting, costs $8.

Dinner with ten of my foreign faculty colleagues caps off a great day. The restaurant was another adventure. “The Donkey House” is the affectionate name given by my compatriots because there is a donkey that turns the stones that grind the grain. But I am ahead of myself.

At 7 pm, a succession of cabs takes us through the busy part of town, through a construction site, through piles of dirt as high as the top of the cab, and down rutted roads. We finally make a sharp left turn into the courtyard of the restaurant. It is a wide, low restaurant with glass along its massive front with an enormous red arch. At the front doors, two young women clad in floor-length red gowns topped with short white fur jackets greet us. They walk us across the entry area into the restaurant. At that moment a waiter whizzes by on roller-skates. The interior is enormous. Dividing the spaces of the restaurant are five-foot-high hedges planted along streams of water. Private rooms of varying sizes ring the entire perimeter, and that is where we are seated. The most memorable part of the meal is the chrysanthemum tea and the man who pours the tea. He is dressed in a beautiful costume, the significance of which I never did learn. And he pours hot water from a very, very long-handled device that looks like a watering can. He also does elaborate tricks with it. Altogether it was a most unusual dinner.

Sunday morning when I wake up, six days after my arrival, the last of my jet lag is gone.

What a meal!

Here's the guy who poured our tea.

You want pictures?

December 4

Just a few photos around the university. Pictured here are some American colleagues and a campus scene on World AIDS Day. Will send along more to Dan to post more soon.