I am sitting in a train station (I upload these entries at a "cafe"). The two teenage girls next to me dropped their ice cream sticks and pudding containers on the floor in front of them. I tried to give them a polite yet disappointed look and said something in English I knew they wouldn't understand. They giggled probably thinking I was amused at their carefree indifference to cleanliness. A few seats over, a mother wipes her baby's butt and leaves an orderly pile of soiled tissues beneath her, a bit like the way we sometimes leave the newspaper on the metro for as a gift to the next passenger.
A few days ago, I spent the day with a couple of Americans who had been teaching English outside of Shanghai for the past year. Sadly, I found most of their feelings about Chinese people to be negative, and I fear that their opinions may inform my observations. They described them as simple, provincial, and lacking creativity and intellectual curiosity. For example, one told me that she routinely asks her middle school students, "If you could go anywhere, where would you go?" While western children might say, "The moon!" or perhaps "France" or "Australia", her students always first say,"But I don't have enough money." When she explains that money is not a problem, they respond, "Beijing". She also teaches business people. She says they respond the same way, except that they say that they must work.
It makes sense. Recent communism with a 2000yr old Confuciust backing is not likely to encourage Shakespearean creativity. The classes sizes are very large, and in some English classes, they actually read the dictionary page by page. I have yet to see a Chinese person reading a book (although newspapers are common), and in Internet cafe's the screens are all animated with dancing or battling avatars. I realize now that censored content is not a major concern for these web surfers.
But although they seem to lack certain valued western qualities, they offer a kindness (at least to foreigners) that is almost moving. People routinely try to help me with everything from finding and atm, to logging into a computer with a Chinese interface, to getting train times. Often the aid comes from multiple people who flock to the scene. When one can't understand me(always), they ask a friend who might have a clue, who then asks another. Yesterday, someone went so far as to run to a computer and printout info on the city I was going to and get it to me before I boarded my bus. Its like a collective sympathy for the bewildered foreigner.
The cities I have seen since my last entry have been historically significant or somewhat scenic, but nothing truly memorable. The last I was in was home to Confucius's personal temple and family mansion and also happened to be a college town. The German guy I was with was doing research, so we stayed on the college campus. The campus, like many in China, had a hotel on the premises that stood in contrast to the decrepit, purely utilitarian dorms. Dryers are hard to come by, so clotheslines hang from student's windows. When peering in, I noticed that most students sleep under mosquito nets. They play badminton in free spaces and ping-pong on pock marked, weathered tables. They don't seem particularly girlfriend/boyfriendy as studying is the primary focus in college. Although, the moment they graduate there is a rush to find a spouse (especially for women as they are considered washed up before men).
I will have one or two more stops before I arrive in Beijing for what I anticipate to be the next big chapter in this story
Below are some random shots..
(on my bathroom wall) I never get tired of these. I will have a whole collection when I get home.
A closeup of an impressive wood carving from a pagoda wall
Chinese chess. You see men playing this and other games all over.
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