Recent Events (5-18)

Last week Dale and I were asked to attend a special lunch for a visiting American. As usual, Dale was called and then he texted me to see if I was available. I still find myself feeling a bit irritated that they can’t call me, too. My response was “Free delicious food. Sure.” These special lunches always have a huge quantity of delicious food, and this lived up to our expectations. 

One special, new-to-me dish was eel with large pieces of chili peppers that don’t affect the flavor of the eel and green beans. However, when I put a green bean in my mouth, it exploded. It was a green chili that looked like a green bean. The American beside me agreed. I think it’s not fair to use green chilis that I can’t recognize and remove. Another special dish that I didn’t eat because it looked like bits of meat turned out to be pigeon stomach. When Dale commented that it was tough, he was told what it was.

The special guest was from Pacific Lutheran University and was here to discuss an exchange program. They have one with Sichuan University, and this school seems to want to emulate that one, which is the best university in the province and one of the best in the country. I was seated beside him (Dale was beside the president, as usual.); so I was able to chat with him a bit between conversations with the administrators in Chinese, as the man is fluent in Mandarin. The exchange program would involve both teachers and students. One student program has students study the school’s curriculum here for two years and then go to the Tacoma campus for two years. I don’t know what she was saying, but the Waiban director was clearly talking about me at one point. I don’t mind being on display when the food is delicious and this was extra nice since the man speaks English and I got to chat with him. It was also fun to have a companion taking photos of the food.

April has left. We had a last lunch at our favorite eggplant restaurant. I miss having her here to get together with on weekends and to talk with, but I totally agree that leaving was what she needed to do.

After our discussion group on Monday, Bennie told me I was dressed to kill. I wasn’t wearing anything I thought was special, but it was sweet of her. I think she doesn’t know how the expression is really used. The girls then said many students in their class like the way I dress. That outfit turned out to be quite popular, as the teachers and a few other students also commented on it.

Yang and I were talking about her grandmother’s recent death. I learned that it is traditional to mourn for seven weeks. During that time, paper money is burned every day to send wealth to her spirit.

Wednesday night I went with Grace to a student performance. This one was put on by the various student associations/clubs. She enjoyed her special status as my companion, as we got to sit in the front row because I am a foreign teacher. It was nice to be able to “give” her that treat. As always, I enjoyed the show. 

We especially enjoyed the wedding dress fashion show.

Saturday I went to the new Ito Yokado, an upscale Japanese department store. April had given me a card to the food court there, and I wanted to check out the grocery section. I bought some packaged sushi, which is a treat. Also a small cup of crème brule. I’ll return for both of those. Food is all I’ll be buying at that store, as clothing and other items are quite expensive. I looked at an umbrella I liked, and the price was 398 yuan ($66). Even though the attendant told me it was only 300 that day, I passed on it. 

In the restroom, I ended out in a family stall. It had a miniature toilet as well as a holder for a baby and a fold-down changing table.

At the shop outside Carrefour, I had a new battery put in my watch. I was given a choice of Japanese or Swiss. I was so surprised I didn’t know what to do; so I stuck with Japanese. (cost 20 yuan/$3.30)

Both Carrefour and Ito Yokado have a section decorated for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival where the special foods, such as 100-year-old eggs, are sold. 

Carrefour’s hanging dragons are especially nice.

Yang took me to the local hospital with my stool sample for the Peace Corps Close of Service physical exam. (Cost for three lab tests: 60 RMB/$10) We took a bar code from a machine; one part was put on the bottle and one was for collecting the results. When my number came up, we went to the machine that read the bar code and then printed the results. Very efficient and no doctor needed. The other work was done at the Peace Corps office and at the nearby hospital (mammogram and hearing test) that is the largest in Chengdu. It has several large buildings with escalators between the floors. The signs were in Chinese, but even with English signs I would have been lost without my Peace Corps guide.

Jianchuan Museum (5-4)

May 1^st is China’s Labor Day and is a national holiday. This means that we had three days off: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Friday classes were made up on Sunday, since only the official holiday is free. But, since I have no classes on Friday, it was still like Sunday to me. But, since others were working and I had a meeting, it was still disorienting.

April and I had planned to go to Jianchuan Museum Cluster, which her friend had recommended, but she wasn’t able to go. So I went alone. I decided to book a room for two nights because I had read that the museum is very large and I wanted to allow adequate time for holiday travel delays. As it turned out, traveling was extremely easy. When I arrived at the Wenjiang bus station, the ticket purchasing area was, not surprisingly, very crowded. But I was prepared to wait and got in the line waiting to get into the purchasing area. I figured it would take about an hour. After a few minutes, a woman with a megaphone made an announcement. I heard her say “Chongzhou,” my destination. So the next time she spoke, I listened carefully and watched her. She was announcing that passengers to several destinations could purchase tickets at the information counter, which was where I was standing. So five minutes later I had a ticket and was sitting on the bus. And two hours after leaving my apartment I was at the hotel.

The hotel turned out to be conveniently located only five minutes from the van stop to get a van to Anren, where the museum is. I found it fairly easily by telling people where I wanted to go and asking if the bus goes there and walking in the direction they pointed. After a short time, I noticed a van turning into an alley and followed it. Once in Anren, the van stopped outside town and I had to a local “taxi”/electric tuk-tuk to the museum.

Jianchuan Museum Cluster is a collection of 20 museums covering four themes: China’s resistance war against Japanese aggression, the Red Age (Cultural Revolution), folk customs, and the 2008 earthquake. Tickets are good for three days, which is good because seeing them all in one day is too much. I spent several hours on Thursday and on Friday taking in everything.

The anti-Japanese war (1937-1945) displays were interesting in that I didn’t know a lot about it. One building commemorates the Flying Tigers, who I learned were Americans assisting the Chinese. A somber building features prisoners of war. Graphic war photos are displayed in several of the buildings. 

I especially enjoyed the veterans’ handprints gallery that was created for the 60^th anniversary of the end of the war. Handprints of surviving veterans, who were then 80-99 years old, were collected for the display. 

Another outdoor exhibit has over 200 statues of heroes of the war. 

They are based on photos taken when the people enlisted. Some died during the war, but some lived to be over 90. I learned later that they are continuing to add to this display of war heroes and that their recognition is recent, since they were members of the Kuomintang.

The earthquake series has a building featuring rescue/relief operations and one featuring damage and surviving artifacts. 

There are also displays replicating how things looked after the earthquake, and some large destroyed items are on display outdoors. 

I also enjoyed the earthquake-inspired art. Art is truly an international language.

I especially enjoyed the Red Age series, as it covers aspects of social life in the 1960s and 70s. Propaganda was everywhere: embroidery, porcelain ceramics, enamel cups and trays, mirrors, clocks. I enjoyed the propaganda art. Since these are times I have read about, it was interesting to see the artistic portrayals and the everyday life items. 

One building features badges, 

clocks, and seals. 

Another is full of mirrors. 

Another has necessities of life such as arm bands, books, trays, and cups. 

And another documents the Educated Youth, those who graduated from high school but didn’t get into another school and were sent to work in a rural area. Of course, 

Mao was prominent everywhere. When I was telling Diao Min how I’d read about this but that the huge quantity of objects made it real for me, she commented that people couldn’t say anything and that even today people can’t say anything negative.

The folk custom/cultural relics series included traditional medicine, porcelain, 

furniture, 

and weapons for homeland security. The last had the largest collection of guns, rifles, anti-aircraft rifles, machine guns I’ve seen. Actually, I’d not seen anti-aircraft rifles or machine guns before. 

One of my favorite buildings was the Three-Inch Golden Lotus cultural relics gallery. These are the shoes worn by women with bound feet. I’d seen a few before in various museums, introduction to the exhibit acknowledged that this was a “barbarous” custom that needs to be remembered.

On Friday I was relaxing one of the benches made from boat planks and was noticed by a group of people. They waved happily. While I was responding to them, another man made his son, about ten or twelve years old, sit beside me and put his arm around my shoulder and smile for a photo. The poor boy ran off as fast as he could when his father was finished.

After touring the museum on Thursday, I walked down a main street in Anren where I enjoyed the old buildings. Anren is an old town that seems to be known for fermented foods, as a number of shops carried them. I bought some fermented black beans, as I’ve had these before and liked them. 

After a while I came to a sign pointing to Anren’s Old Town; so I went there. I like the old towns that are still living quarters for local people. They usually have a residential area as well as the “tourist” area. 

Although there are some shops and toys are sold on the street, it’s not very touristic. 

Most of the buildings have small cafes 

that feature local traditional foods. On Thursday I was thinking about eating when a man greeted me in English and then invited me to join his family. He wants a foreign teacher to tutor his son, age 16, and a few friends in Chengdu; so he wanted to talk to me and he paid for my food.

I enjoyed the Old Town so much that I returned on Friday to eat there again. While I was eating, a couple university students sat with me for photos. One girl stayed and chatted with me for a bit. They are all studying to be TV broadcasters.

Anren advertises itself as “The Museum Town.” In the new section of the Old Town, there is an old theater stage and there are displays of classrooms and other offices. When I was looking down the street deciding if I wanted to go there or not, a woman pointed that I should go; so I did. It looks like this area is a work in progress with many new buildings that are not yet occupied.

I had lunch with April on Sunday. After finishing, I had a really good sneeze. A man across the room called out “Bravo!” That was a first.

April has had problems with her hips for the past month. First one was extremely painful; then the other. Each time she couldn’t walk for a week and then had to rest for another week and could barely walk. So she is returning to Wales next week. I’ll miss having her around to get together and chat with.

Not Much Happening (4-27)

Not much going on in the past two weeks.

Cherries are in the markets. Chinese cherries are small and a little tart but a little sweet. At 20 yuan ($3.30) a half kilo, they are not cheap, but they are delicious. When I met some students in the market one day, we saw what they called Japanese cherries (otherwise known as bing cherries). They were much more expensive: 80 yuan ($13) for a half kilo. I won’t be buying them.

Dale and I have been “asked” to do a teachers’ training for Wenjiang teachers. This is a project of the waiban (Foreign Affairs Office). We’re not sure why they are doing it instead of the foreign language department other than to show off its foreign teachers. It will be one week long and will be the first week of July. I insisted on this week because I finish with Peace Corps that Monday, so it will be my vacation time, and Dale has to do the Peace Corps summer project sometime around then. I also informed Mr. Huang that they have to pay me, since I will no longer be with Peace Corps.

Last Saturday we had a meeting with Mr. Huang and his good friend Luke, who is a high school teacher at an international school in Chengdu. The waiban had done a survey of some of the teachers who will participate so we can learn a little about their interests in training. Luke served as interpreter, explainer, and answerer of questions. It was good to have him there, as Mr. Huang doesn’t know a lot about the schools and teachers. Then we were taken to lunch at a good restaurant. As always, there were many dishes that were delicious. Mr. Huang likes it when I take photos of the food and told me/us to take photos as the dishes were brought out.

The weather was quite nice last Saturday; so I went to the park near Carrefour to walk and read. But when I got off the bus, I ended out heading for the massage place where I had a full body massage: 50 yuan ($8.25) for an hour. I did feel better afterwards. I guess my body knew what it needed.

When I was sitting on a bench near the teachers’ bus one afternoon, a teacher joined me and started chatting. She is 37 years old and teaches art history. She is married to a French man she met when traveling in France and has a 6-month-old daughter. When she learned that I have not been married, she said that is cool. She liked being single but wanted a baby very much; so she got married. In China, she could not be a teacher if she had a baby when unmarried.

One day I found myself telling a student to “Try your best.” This is what Chinese people say all the time. I guess I have arrived.

I find myself really glad to be here this semester. I taught this semester last year; so now I have the opportunity to do it better. Classes are going well, and I’m enjoying them. I'm enjoying having the same classes I had last term. And I enjoy the office hours discussion groups that have started this semester for the first time. The Monday group has from six to ten girls each week. So I added time on Thursday for other purposes, but the girls who come want to talk. About six girls come and that’s what we do. What’s really good is that they all talk and they are interested in listening to each other, not only to me. Sometimes all I do is facilitate, which is nice.