Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Back to the Stargate

According to the Chinese media reports, this is the world's tallest stupa.

It's located in a rural county a ways from Xi'an, and the structure reaches almost 500 feet. Earlier this month, it was unveiled to the public.

I passed by it a month ago while visiting the nearby Buddhist temple. The stupa was still under construction, and thus off limits. Now tourists are free to come in.

It's English name is Palms Together Dagoba, and the structure basically resembles two hands in prayer. But like I wrote before, this monument looks more like it belongs in a science-fiction movie, or the Las Vegas strip.

Stupas are Buddhist structures that contain ancient religious relics. Usually they look more like mounds, and are also very old. Though this particular stupa has none of those two traits, it does
house a very special Buddhist relic: an actual finger bone to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of the religion.

The interesting thing I found about the stupa is that it feels like you have to take a mini-pilgrimage to get there.

In order to reach the stupa, one has to walk along a concrete pathway that stretches for over half a mile. Golden Bodhisattvas flank you on both sides, inspiring worshipers to stop and pray with their incense sticks. Along the way are exhibits detailing Buddhism history and culture, though I don't know if I understood them.

"From beginningless time until now, all living beings have mistaken themselves for things," one sign read in English.

I know little about Buddhism, but while I was walking up the stupa, I wondered if the architects tried to envision what attaining Nirvana might be like when they built this place. The long pavement road is like a grey cloud in Heaven. The giant statues sit solemnly as if they were meditating gods. The pagoda at the end is enlightenment. And food stands are located to your right in case you are thirsty.

This place is certainly grand. But there was one thing that shocked me. To enter the place costs 120 RMB, or $17, a hefty sum of money and something my students would never dare pay.

The reason for the high cost is because the makers of the place decided to lump together the major surrounding tourist attractions into one big venue. An all or nothing approach.

I read a news report this would be temporary, and that they might eventually scale down the ticket price or even cancel it.

Nevertheless, I couldn't help but feel like I was ripped off. By a Buddhist shrine of all things. Nirvana my ass. (No offense)

Waiting

Next to my apartment I caught this scene. Dozens of people were waiting outside the office of a new residential complex going up.

I was wondering what was up. Maybe a protest of some kind? But as I approached I knew exactly what was happening: these people were waiting to buy a condo.

My aunt in Beijing told me about this. New housing is in huge demand in China, what with the large populations. So waiting in line for a home is common.

At 8 a.m. tomorrow, the office to the new complex will open for potential customers. People, however, had begun waiting outside since yesterday.

"These people will wait through the night," a man walking past me said.

The interesting thing is that the new apartment is not even near being finished yet. Construction on the complex began only about a few months ago.

When I first came to Xi'an, there was an open field, with a few abandoned brick buildings sitting on the land. Soon, there will be three villas built on the land, each towering up to 32 floors. "Shopping, fine cuisine, entertainment, recreation and service," will be included.

Questions

Being an American, I get some interesting questions from time to time.

"Are there really vampires in America?" one student asked me. This came after she saw the movie Twilight.

"Is Kobe Bryant Indian (Native American)?" she later asked. "Is the Bermuda Triangle real?"

About a month ago, a student I had met earlier in the year sent me an email with some good news: he had just been accepted to a university in America. But now his big worry was making sure he could fit in and adapt to his new life once he arrived in the States.

"Do you usually go to dancing parties?" he asked in an email. "I heard that there are many dancing parties on and off campus."

"If I want to join in the dancing party, what kind of dances should I dance? I can dance Viennese waltz only."

I told him not to worry. But one can only imagine what it would be like watching him do the waltz at a college house party.

I do receive a lot questions about life is like in America. But since I've been in Xi'an, the most surprising question I've gotten is one I loathe.

"Will you sing us a song?"

It's more of a request, but I hear this a lot, especially when I'm meeting some new students for the first time. I don't know why, maybe its because Karaoke is so popular here. "I want to hear a foreigner sing," I remember one of my students saying to me.

Whenever I'm asked of this, I always think to myself: do you understand how embarrassing this is? According to my students' excited faces, no.

Sigh.

I've gone through the Beatles, Michael Jackson, even some Coldplay and The Strokes. Makes me feel like a human jukebox. There's even been a few times where I've looked up the lyrics of a song, in case I get any requests.

At other times, I complain when they ask me the question. "Couldn't you have told me beforehand that you were going to ask me to sing? I didn't prepare."

I guess I just want to minimize the embarrassment, and put on a good show.

So yea, if you come to China and be a teacher, be prepared to sing.

I’m a tape player II

One thing that’s missing with my students: backpacks.

Not too many of my students wear them. Instead, they usually carry their lone textbook in their hands. It’s strange to see so many unencumbered backs on campus. I, however, still lumber around with the habit I’ve had all my life, and carry a backpack whenever I’m heading to class.

“Why do you carry such a big bag?” a few students have asked me.

One other thing that’s often missing with my students: note taking. I rarely see students who come in my class with an actual notebook. Some don’t even bring pens or pencils. A few students bring nothing, not even their textbooks. Today, one student walked in, with only his cellphone in hand.

“Why don’t you take notes?” I mumble to myself as I teach a class.

To compensate, I’ve ended up handing each student a blank piece of paper. “Write this word down” I’ll say while I teach.

This week, I’ve been giving my students a listening test, a request made from another teacher at the school. Basically, this requires me to press play on the computer, sit for a few minutes, and then explain the answers.

I feel terrible giving them the test, and ironically, I feel stressed over having to do pretty much nothing.

Today, I recognized a new face in my class, a student who had likely skipped so much I had forgotten him. As I gave the test, I saw him play with his cellphone. He then later laid his forehead down on the desk and slept.

I saw all this and didn’t care. It happens and I figure there’s no need for me to make a big issue out of it. But I wonder if that makes me a bad teacher for not doing anything about it. I've stopped giving homework, seeing that no students do it, and how I really don't have much of grade to give them once this semester ends. Maybe I'm just being sympathetic.

When I started my one class today, a few boy students said “???” which means “watch movie.” I rolled my eyes; they do this from time to time.

But it occurred to me, that while I’ve been with these students for almost eight months now, they still choose not to say this simple phrase in English. Will they ever use English to say this?

Eventually I do show them a movie once we take our ten minute break. On the school's computer I find a romantic comedy called The Perfect Man.

"Yes, this one," my students seem to look at me as I ask if they want to see it. I play it. Soon I find my students, who are mainly all boys, quickly brace on their headphones and watch. Somehow, Hillary Duff, one the the movie's actresses, has captivated them.

Showering

"Do you wash your hair everyday?"

This was the question a friend recently asked me. And she gave me an almost bizarre look as she said it.

"Uh, yea, I take a shower everyday," I replied. "What about you?"

"I only take showers every two or three days," she said. "Most people in Xi'an do the same," she later explained.

I never would have imagined it. But showering everyday is really a foreign habit over here.

"Oh, you like to take showers in the morning. I see," my aunt once told me. She lives in Beijing, and while I was visiting she asked me if I need to bathe myself."

"That's right. Americans really like to take showers," she added.

Personally I can't imagine skipping a day not taking a shower. One might wonder if all the people in Xi'an are dirty, or walk around with a nasty funk, but I assure you that's not the case.

Yesterday, a student explained to me part of the reason why. In the northern parts of China, the air is dry, and people sweat less. So there's no need to shower so often. In the south, however, the humidity is high and the weather is hotter. And so showering often is common. Xi'an, although in the center of China, is still considered a part of the north.

The other reason is because a lot of people don't have shower facilities. I've been to some of my students' dorms and noticed no bath tub or shower head in the nearby bathroom. To wash themselves they soaked a rag, or washed their faced at the sink.

When they do need to take a shower, students instead go to a local bathhouse.

One student told me she knows a classmate who has the rare habit of taking showers everyday. To do, so she simply fills up a bucket of water and then drops it over her head; a "shower" as my student put it.

So, I guess I'm the weird one; I take showers everyday.

To boldly go…

Last night I went to a movie theater for the first time in China. Me and a friend saw Star Trek, which came out the day before.

It was a good movie. But except for maybe a handful of other people sitting with us, we were the only ones watching the film.

Granted, there probably aren't too many trekkies on the mainland. But surprisingly, going to the movie theater isn't a very common thing in China.

Why? The same reason so many of my students don't do a lot of things: "It's too expensive," a class of students once told me.

True that. Things in China usually cost much lower. But as for the movie theater, one ticket cost me $7 dollars, the same price it would in America. (I felt like I was being robbed as I paid for my ticket.)

In China $7 dollars can go a long way. Specifically, you could buy about 7 pirated DVDs, each a dollar a piece.

From music and movies, to even books, bootlegs can be found everywhere in Xi'an if you know where to look. The quality might be sub-par, (such as shoving all 9 seasons of Seinfeld on 4 DVDs) but I've already amassed my own mini-library of movies.

Most of my students, however, don't even do bootlegs. Instead, they just download them or watch them online. All for free. TVs aren't allowed in the dorms, and not that many students have their own computers. So they go to a school computer lab, and watch there. (That's one strangely good thing about Internet piracy. It may be wrong, but people who genuinely can't afford to buy movies or music still have a way to enjoy it).

Yea, so I wasted some money last night. But it was worth it, although I was worried about my friend when we went to go see it. Star Trek was being played with Mandarin subtitles, and she had no prior knowledge of the famous sci-fi series. (Can you imagine Kirk talking in Chinese?)

Furthermore, one could translate the Chinese name for Star Trek ???? as Interstellar Disorientation. I also cringed a little as the words Romulans and Vulcan came flying out, along with the whole time travel storyline. Will she get this? Or is she confused out of her mind?

"I really liked the movie," she said.

Whew. Star Trek can live, even in China.

Blogger blocked?

This is the first time I haven't been able to access my blog. Instead I've been forced to use a proxy site to access it. I hope this doesn't become a regular thing. (Youtube has still been blocked for maybe two months now).

I think people back home often think that the most of Internet is blocked in China. But it's generally the opposite. I can access most things and I only encounter a few blocks here and there about every month, usually due to maybe some sensitive news story on China. I do, however, get a "page load error" when I try to access the wikipedia entry on Tibet.

It's quite unsettling that someone in the Chinese government can read my blogs and basically prevent anyone in the country from reading them. Ridiculous. But I can't help but wonder...

Chinese censors are a bunch of punk-ass douchebags! Suck it! Let's see if anything happens. The great firewall of China is my biatch!

Home at last

"My great grandfather Gan You Xi was once an official in the Shanxi province, who oversaw the Liao, Xian and Baode areas for many years. In the city of Taiyuan, he held much prestige. The number of properties he owned was not small, and he had a penchant for collecting antiques. Ultimately, his family was well off."

This is the first paragraph of my grandfather's memoir. Taiyuan, a Chinese city of 3.4 million, thus has a special place for my family. My grandfather grew up around the place, as well as his ancestors before him.

I had never been to the city before, and there are no more Kans left in Taiyuan. But this place is still my true hometown, as one Chinese friend put it. So, with some free time on my hands, I decided to finally visit the place this week.

I had wondered if maybe I'd feel some kind of spiritual connection upon visiting the city. Like my ancestors would imbue me with some sort of power. But no, that didn't happen. Just sore feet and a sore back from walking so much and lugging around my backpack.

I wish my grandfather could have came with me. Then this trip would have had more meaning. Earlier this year he told me he wanted to visit it, but he's confined to wheel chair and doesn't think he can make the trip.

I hope in some way, my coming here can make up for it. But I doubt my grandfather would recognize this city. He had left China in the late 1940's when the communists were taking over. Now Taiyuan has become a modern city, and I rarely see any buildings that look older than a few decades.

Taiyuan is really just another tourist location to me. But it is nice to think, that maybe I'm stepping in the same spots where my ancestors once did. For a few days at least, a member of the Kan family returned back home.