|
|
JISHOU, HUNAN — These Chinese holidays just sneak up on me, I swear. I knew about Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival before I came here, but some others I learn about just a few days before, it seems.
Because of my temporarily sparse teaching schedule, getting a day off Thursday for Duan Wu — the Dragon Boat Festival — gave me almost a five-day holiday. Too bad I had not made any plans ahead of time.
But I managed to find things to do, and see.
First, a primer on Duan Wu. This traditional holiday has roots going back (like almost everything in China) thousands of years. Its origins are so ancient that there are different stories about the reason for the holiday.
Until recently, the national government had banned many traditional holidays as national days off, but in the last few years, the Party has reinstated several traditional holidays (another is QingMing — Tomb Sweeping Day) to give the hardworking Chinese public some respite.
There are two key customs associated with Duan Wu: dragon boat racing and zongze. One I did not see. The other I ate a lot of.
Dragon boats are long, seating at least 12 paddlers and many times more. Every town or city with a large enough navigable body of water sponsors boat races. I had planned to go to Yuanling, near Fenghuang, to see a traditional dragon boat race, but heavy rains forced the postponement of the race. Fenghuang did not cancel its race, but my friend and I decided not to brave both sloppy weather and the inevitable crowds there. The Yuanling races will be next month sometime.
Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — OK, so I was only on screen for maybe 10 minutes — tops — sandwiched in between musical acts for a pre-Spring Festival concert extravaganza, but it was still a debut on provincial TV.
And, get this, all of my lines were in Chinese! I learned them on the spot, with patient coaching from a Hunan Economic TV director (and of course promptly forgot them all by the following day).
Here is the link to the on line version of the telecast last night. You will only be able to watch it if you are using Internet Explorer and only if you download a plugin for IE here. I have had no luck viewing the clip yet. Either it is not yet available, or my antiquated versions of Windows (2K Pro) and IE6 are not up to the task.
When you load the first link, this is what you will see. I have labeled the appropriate buttons to click on to see the video.
If any clever person can figure out how to capture this video stream and/or make it a YouTube video, let me know. I have people working on the task on this side of the world, too.
I have already chronicled the background behind how I ended up in this TV production, so I won’t go into great detail here. Briefly, I was pressed into service when ETV called the university looking for a westerner who could speak both English and Chinese well. I was the closest approximation, an American with next-to-no Chinese speaking ability. I agreed reluctantly, since I had made other plans for Jan. 1, the day of the shoot.
Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — My exams are marked, final grades are calculated, and I can now start my Winter Holiday! Phew!
The campus is pretty empty right now. University students have four weeks’ break, officially, but many left for home as soon as possible after their last examination. Left on campus are a few exchange students, assorted graduate students with work still to submit, and faculty.
In China, Spring Festival — celebrating the lunar New Year — is a big family affair, like Thanksgiving and Christmas are in the States. Imagine rolling Independence Day (fireworks), Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve into one holiday, and you can begin to understand what a festive occasion awaits us here.
With some time on my hands — finally — I can recap what has happened in the last several days since my last post.
When we last left our hero, he was recovering from a long day in Fenghuang shooting for a TV show….
The following day, I helped make and eat dumplings at the home of a freshman student, Fu Xiao, whose father is a local government official. Fu Xiao and her friend, Tian Fang, another of my students, helped me buy a space heater for my apartment, since the heat pump does a crappy job warming any room besides the bedroom. Xiao’s father gave me a gift of Xiangxi tea, grown in the mountains around here, which I swear is the best damned tea I have ever had. Sweet and fragrant. Aaahhh!
Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — This fairly quiet city made international headlines early last month when nearly a third of the population took to the streets to protest a massive real estate scheme that swindled them out of billions of dollars.
I have tried to piece together a more substantive review of the whole mess, which for good reason I have posted on The Daily Kos, after a commenter there encouraged me to do so.
China is famous for its “Great Firewall,” which prevents Internet users here from accessing sensitive websites. In order to gather information about the Jishou mess, I had to circumvent the firewall by relying on the Tor proxy network. I figure posting a frank review of the Jishou incidents here would result in my blog being firewalled, too, making it really hard to me to maintain it. Other bloggers in China have had similar problems.
So, if you want to read all about it, go to The Daily Kos. Leave some comments, too.
Permanent link to this post (166 words, 1 image, estimated 40 secs reading time) Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — On my Facebook status I posted a few days ago, I asked the rhetorical question, “Why is there is unrest in the streets?” Today, as a class exercise in speaking, I asked my business English students to help me understand our local economic crisis.
Imagine if 70% or more of a city’s population all invested in the same companies, who were promising 50% to 100% returns on these investments. Imagine if some of those investors, including some city officials and retirees, had put their entire savings in this scheme.
Then imagine what would happen if word got out that all those investments were lost, perhaps forever. We’re talking, say, about US$1 billion in funds.
People might just get a little upset.
Well, that’s what happened in Jishou. It’s why there was enough of a public outcry that this small city in the middle of China actually made it into the Washington Post early this month. It’s also why my ability to leave campus to venture into the city has been somewhat limited from time to time. It’s gotten bad enough for the school to close its gates recently, blocking entry to the campus.
Here’s what I was able to glean today from my class of 12 business management students, three of whose families have lost money in this scandal.
Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — This past work week was a short one, by virtue of the Autumn Moon holiday, but nevertheless eventful.
It started not all that auspiciously, however. My lesson plan for the sophomores was sort of a failure, complicated by the poor timing (first morning class after a three-day weekend) and by my overestimation of their speaking and listening skills. I recovered after the first 15 minutes of dead silence from the class, but those 15 minutes were the longest in my life.
Now I know how a comedian who’s bombing feels on stage.
The rest of the week went well. The older students are warming up to exchanging emails with me and several have joined Facebook, where they can practice their English more. As I blogged already, the concert Thursday by the China Philharmonic was excellent. And yesterday, I started a bank account at China Construction Bank with the able assistance of senior English major Ava (her Chinese name is Niannian). All the bank needed was 10 yuan and my passport to start the account, but the application forms were of course in Mandarin Chinese, so I needed a translator.
My pay is directly deposited and the ATMs on campus are bilingual, so in about a week I’ll feel more like I’m at home. And I won’t need to pinch my pennies (or jiao, as the case may be) quite as much.
This is a preview of Week three: a concert, a bank account, and two Americans . Read the full post (753 words, 1 image, estimated 3:01 mins reading time)Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN – I fulfilled three of my shopping objectives this afternoon, while witnessing the special brand of capitalism of the new China.
Here, stores that sell similar goods are clustered together. If you don’t like the price or selection at one place, you just need to walk next door or across the corridor and try somewhere else.
Thus, Christopher and I visited at least three stores before I bought what I wanted, without having to drive miles in a taxi to do so.
As a consumer, I like the convenience, but cannot see how any store owner could make any money trying to compete with someone right next door.
Our first store did not offer us a price that Christopher (after conferring by phone with his friend) felt was acceptable for a three-speaker system. The young woman working the sales floor was polite and efficient, but did not offer any wiggle room on the price of the Hyundai speaker set I was interested in. Her price was 130 yuan, and I was more amenable to 100. Nevertheless, I was able to leave there with a decent-sounding microphone headset and an optical mouse for 50 yuan (roughly US$7). The mouse says “Sony,” but I wonder … All I know, it works. She let us try them out before I paid for them.
We hopped on over to another couple of stores with the same results on the speakers. Then, Christopher led me upstairs to the shop where he had bought his computer, suggesting they might cut us a deal since he was a returning customer.
Possibly related posts:
|
Recent Comments