Archives for June 2009
Wuxi Film and TV Studio
Enjoy the pictures while they last, because I’m moving back into a hotel for July in order to work at a training school and might not be able to upload anything for a while. These are from a quick trip to Wuxi to see the Film and TV Studio, where ancient towns were lovingly recreated for filming purposes. I’m sure it would be a special experience for those who have seen the corresponding shows to marvel at the signs that say, “This is where the scene ‘Pang raises his voice and walks away’ was shot.” Think of it like going to Universal Studios but without all the roller coasters… and fun. Okay, it was still cool, but that humid weather really sucks the enjoyment out of everything.
Five Things I Like About China
Since I’ve been here for a year now, I’ve had ample time to reflect on the things I’ve liked and haven’t liked about living in China. Yes, that means a negative list of five is on the way. Until then, let’s enjoy the more pleasant aspects of expat life:
1. The food
I was just talking to a new expat today about how his greatest challenge is the food. Hey, it’s rough. Some people never get over it. I still have my days of nonstop stomach aches and bathroom dashes, but I actually love Chinese food. Once you get out of the god-awful cafeterias and know what meats to avoid, you’ll find there are a lot of good restaurants and a lot of good things to eat in China. In fact, forget the restaurants. Some of my favorite snacks are sold by street vendors.
2. The cost
The locals tend to get a little disgruntled when they find out you, a lousy foreign teacher, make four times as much as them. Because the cost of living is comparatively so low, anyway, you can really live it up, eat at nice restaurants, take cabs instead of buses, travel every weekend, and be the big spender you couldn’t afford to be back home. Granted, as soon as you convert your stash into US dollars, you’re suddenly not as rich as you thought you were, but we can worry about that later.
3. The randomness
Strange, funny things are bound to happen regardless where you are, but not like this, and not so frequently. It seems like every other day I go outside, I come across something that makes me stop and mutter, “What the hell?” Just today, I saw a naked man wiping his butt in front of the train station and a group of people bottle-feeding fish for sport. These are the kind of things that, while startling or annoying at the time, make for an interesting and occasionally hilarious adventure.
4. The sightseeing
After a while, every temple starts to look the same, but I still enjoy the architecture and seeing the old streets and buildings (especially now before they’re all torn down). There are a lot of great scenic spots in China that aren’t limited to Beijing and Xi’an. In Jiangsu and Anhui province alone, I’ve been able to see many beautiful lakes and mountains, enormous statues, historic gardens, and withered pagodas. Even going to the countryside and seeing a rice paddy up close is a treat.
5. The friendliness
By “friendliness,” I don’t mean how drivers slow down for pedestrians. Because that doesn’t happen. I’m mostly referring to people’s willingness to help, or at least help foreigners. They certainly give us the benefit of the doubt. I’ve had strangers not only tell me which subway stop I needed but go out of their way to escort me there personally. The friends I’ve made in China I know I can count on, and their generosity is hard to keep up with. I’m sure I’ve amassed quite a debt should they ever collect.
One-Year Anniversary Revolution!
I’m not sure how many of you have been following the blog since Day One and how many of you didn’t jump on board until things started getting edgier (not to mention those who left for the same reason), but today is a pretty big milestone. I have now been in China for one year. One whole year. One entire whole entire whole entire entire year. I’ve no doubt lost my mind somewhere during that time. Was it so wise of me, then, to sign another contract for the rest of 2009?
It should come as no surprise that the last year has gone by pretty quickly. And the overall experience hasn’t been anything like I thought it would be. For starters, where are all the bikini-clad babes I was promised?! Being the sole teacher in a remote primary school was much more difficult than anticipated, and even though I’ve been able to see some cool things while I was here, I’ve realized I don’t like working and traveling alone. Like, the thought of going somewhere by myself is so unappealing (not scary but unappealing), I’d rather stay in Changzhou over a holiday and watch TV.
Okay, look, don’t get the wrong idea about all the TV reviews. I’ve still managed to get out of the apartment, see a lot of Jiangsu province, improve my game of pool, and meet new people. It’s funny how I’ll find myself at Starbucks, chatting with a group of older women who, combined, make up five different countries, when I would never have bothered to branch out like that back home. Hints have been dropped that I’ve even been dating a Chinese girl, too. Well, we’ve been together for eight months. This hasn’t helped my Chinese much, but in all fairness, she thinks her English hasn’t gotten any better, either.
I already summed up how I felt about teaching primary, and I can’t exactly say I’m leaving this school on good terms. I’m not sure why they decided to be so unhelpful on so many issues, but I don’t think I’ll be recommending Star Experimental School to anyone anytime soon. As a primary teacher, it’s easy to feel like you haven’t accomplished anything. I don’t think the kids retain much, anyway. But when I reflect on how much time I used to spend preparing what were ultimately bad lessons compared to what I was doing at the end of the school year, I have improved quite a bit as a teacher. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens next semester with an older group of students. The adventure continues!
And I fully expect you to click on every one of those links.
My Other Carry-On is Swine Flu
The scope of the swine flu in China is much smaller than it is in the US (500 cases compared to over 21,000), but the response has been drastically different. Even when there were just a few reported cases in faraway provinces, people here were pretty nervous about the virus and had resolved never to go to the Americas, where the flu was surely laying waste to major cities one right after another. The Chinese government is even quaranting random travelers coming into China, as though my family’s summer plans haven’t been riddled with enough problems already.
Sometimes it feels like the hysteria is a bit uncalled for, but then maybe it just hasn’t become personal yet. A foreign couple I know went on a Yangtze River cruise last week and ended up on the same boat as a group of California high school students. While on the boat, some of those students exhibited signs of the flu and were whisked off to a hospital where the infection was confirmed. My friends’ travel agency went wild trying to locate these two foreigners from Changzhou in order to verify their health. Luckily, they’re fine, but I’m surprised they were able to just walk away considering the government hasn’t wanted to take any chances.
New Job, New Visa, New Medical Exam
Finding a new teaching job in China turned into a much bigger hassle than I had planned on. The good news is, the fight is over, and if the 12 hours of sleep I got last night is any indication, I’m feeling pretty relieved. The contract I signed with a local high school may not have been what I was hoping for, but this close to my visa’s expiration date, why argue?
They actually gave me the job last week. I’ve just held off on announcing it, because there was still a lot to do to secure my new residence permit, including getting a letter of recommendation from my current school (you know, the school that hasn’t been of any help the past two months) and a new health certificate from the clinic. I’ve spent the last week running all over Changzhou, trying to fill these requests. I’m so burned out, 12 hours of sleep may not have been enough.
Originally, the high school asked for a copy of my health certificate from last year’s medical exam. The clinic really dragged its feet on this request, though, saying my old certificate had already expired and had been “filed.” But this was what the school wanted, so I finally told them to call the school’s foreign affairs representative and talk to him directly. On the phone, he replied, “I never asked for that.”
I ended up having to pay for a new exam and go through all the uncomfortable tests again, meanwhile baffled by the school’s change of heart concerning the old certificate. My Chinese friend, who accompanied me to the hospital, thought maybe the school was only trying to save its relationship with the clinic, since asking them to dig up my old records would have been such an “inconvenience.” And business relationships are very important in China! The clinic was very adamant about not being able to use the old certificate, anyway, though my friend also thinks they just wanted to make me pay for a new one (700 RMB). I’m inclined to believe him.
Now that I finally have Fall semester figured out, I’m still left with nothing solid to do over the summer. I’m going to travel in August and will probably work at a training school again in July, but before I came to that conclusion, I asked my current school if I could stay here for a few more weeks. I even offered to pay 1,000 RMB for the apartment that is otherwise going to collect dust over the summer. Not surprisingly, they said no. Wow. They really want nothing to do with me once our contract ends! I’m not sure who will say “good riddance” first.
Graffiti and Propaganda in Shanghai
Shanghai is only an hour and a half away from Changzhou by train, and yet this is the first time I’ve gone there since I moved to Changzhou last year. The truth is… I don’t care for Shanghai. Everyone thinks of Shanghai as this magical place where anything is possible and all your dreams can come true, but I find it to be a busy, smelly city offering little in the way of entertainment if you’re not already into the club and bar scene. But I hear Disney Land is on the way!
Don’t take that to mean I find Shanghai a huge waste of time. When I was there in 2005, I really enjoyed the knock-off market. Unfortunately, in 2006, the knock-off market had broken up, and I’m not sure if it ever found a new home. It’s also interesting just to see a big, modern Chinese city, and Shanghai does have some cool museums and shows. My friend and I specifically went to see a DJ play then later visited a propaganda poster museum (this website isn’t affiliated with the museum but is a great resource) and a part of town known for its art galleries and graffiti.
Five years ago, I don’t think I would have had any interest in checking out street art or DJs. Five years ago, I was also still somewhat prudish about drinking beer and staying up until 3:00 in the morning. Funny how we change.
A Year of Teaching Primary in China
Here’s an intimidating request: Clark, we need you to interview every student and give them a grade (A, B, or C) depending on how good their English is. Remember that I have 800 students, so this is nearly impossible to do efficiently. Or fairly. Or even do with a smile on your face. Five months of teaching had to be summarized in just three questions:
1. What will you do tomorrow?
2. Mr. Nielsen is ________.
3. What floor is this? (first, second, or third)
Most of the Grade 3 students knew what they would do tomorrow, but some of them, when asked, only said, “Thursday.” Well, that’s at least better than the kids who would shake their heads and say, “No.” Clearly, I have not gotten through to you.
The intent of my second question was to solicit adjectives like clever or tall or quiet. The students who really pined for the better grade would try to butter me up with compliments like, “Mr. Nielsen is very, very, very cool… and he likes me very much!” That may be true, but you still didn’t know what you were going to do tomorrow. B.
It’s a little disheartening when you set very forgiving standards for what it takes to get an A and maybe only ten students in every class reach that level. You have to keep telling yourself, though, that you were only able to see each class for 40 minutes a week, if that, since the foreign teacher’s lessons were always the first to get canceled for special events. You didn’t have enough time to make a meaningful impact.
This does not mean I am ready to jump back into another Chinese primary school and try again. On reflection, I’ve actually liked teaching children. They are adorable and have no inhibitions about singing songs or playing games on the chalkboard. Your lessons also don’t need to be very elaborate; you can spend the entire class period focusing on one concept.
Now for the bad: Chinese kids are loud (way, way, way too loud) and don’t take foreigners seriously as teachers. You end up wasting a lot of time on classroom management. It’s not easy when the kids speak Chinese, and you speak English, and somehow you’re supposed to reason with them. All they learn in the end is to parrot, “Be quiet! Sit down! Don’t do that!” But maybe for you, that’s enough.
TV Roundup: Volume 6
Monk (Season 1)
I’m a little new to the detective genre of TV, but I can already tell there are much more gripping shows than Monk out there. Of course, the real reason people watch Monk is to see Adrian offend people and get himself into sticky situations because of his neurotic behavior and unrealistic fears. Being taken on a murder mystery is just a bonus. Adrian Monk is one of the better TV characters I’ve seen in a while, and I love how he channels his obsessive-compulsive disorders into solving crimes. The show tackles a case two ways, though. It either shows you upfront who the murderer is or keeps it a secret and leaves you guessing. I prefer the latter, as I like being given a chance to figure it out myself (even though I may be a moron). However, Monk often neglects to let you in on some of the most important details until the very end, when Adrian gives his “this is how it was done” speech. His solution is always clever and would have been difficult to piece together on your own. Considering he had all the clues and you didn’t, though, that’s not very fair.
Worst Week (Season 1)
Remember the movie Meet the Parents? Now imagine if that movie was stripped of Ben Stiller and cut into 20-minute episodes. Sounds like I’m about to wage a complaint, doesn’t it. I actually enjoy these kind of “disaster” shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm, where, despite the main character’s best intentions, everything goes horribly wrong. Sam Briggs attracts trouble like a small boy wandering dark alleys at night, holding a neon sign that reads: I’m filthy rich and completely defenseless. Sam isn’t very easy to commiserate with, though. You want to feel bad for him, because he really is trying to set a good impression on the in-laws. Most of his mistakes, however, could have been avoided with a small dose of common sense, and the clean-up afterwards could have gone a lot smoother if his first instinct wasn’t to lie. The trouble he gets into you can see coming, anyway, and there’s nothing funny about calling every plot twist. Still, it’s nice to finally see a sitcom that doesn’t utilize a laugh track or shaky documentary-style camerawork.
Firefly (Season 1)
FOX has a habit of canceling good shows, or so I’ve been told. Well… no, they really do (i.e. Arrested Development, Futurama). But in the case of Firefly, FOX brought down the axe a little too soon. I think Season 2 would have been a great place to jump into this series, since things started out rough but gradually got better and better with each episode. Space smuggler Malcolm Reynolds definitely gives Han Solo a run for his money and is probably my favorite of the two. But the rest of the cast is very hit and miss, and the Wild West influence leans towards suffocating. I’m not entirely against seeing cows and spaceships onscreen at the same time. Why should the future be a crazy place where anything goes? It even makes sense for the “outer planets” to be a bit primitive. But this is still the future, and if people can have things like hovercrafts and laser guns and digital pool tables, they should have also progressed past the horse and carriage and tacky cowboy hats. Don’t give me a horse and carriage and call it sci-fi!
Shaun the Sheep (Seasons 1-2)
I don’t particularly like shows where the animals are smarter than the humans but adhere to some untold law that says they have to play dumb and can’t let their masters know the truth. Half of the episodes of Shaun the Sheep feel like that. But since each episode is only seven minutes long, it’s easy to forgive the bad ones, while the goods ones—the ones where the flock’s curiosity only gets them into trouble—leave you wanting more. Well, as much as a children’s show can leave you wanting more. The stories here are pretty straightforward and are packed with enough safe slapstick to theoretically turn away any intellectual mind. Nevertheless, I still find the show amusing because of the infectious theme song that It’s Shaun the sheep. It’s Shaun the Sheep. He even— No. Stop that. Anyway, I still find the show amusing because of the top-notch clay animation and subtle throwaway gags, like characters’ funny reactions or clever props. And it’s all done without a drop of spoken dialogue. Nice.
Loading ...
