A Change of Pace

Being back home in the US is great, although oddly disenchanting.  Sometimes I feel like someone that knows a secret she isn't supposed to tell. How do you return to ordinary life after having experienced something more? I don't want to resume business as usual. How do I maintain what I've learned? I'm still working on that answer whether it's getting a fresh start by acquiring a new apartment, a new job, or a new degree.  I should change my routine.
One main difference I've noticed within myself is that I really have achieved a broader perspective on things and do feel (gasp) more patient.  While I still try to take every opportunity I can--I understand that success is not achieved because of one or two magic moments, but a constant effort toward a goal.  Yes, single-mindedness and focus is hard work in this digitally, fast-paced modern era of ours but I'm damned glad to be surrounded by the diversity and resources of  the US of A.

One Last Look

Open-air cafe near Beixinqiao

China is one funky place I would like to return to. There's so much history but simultaneously so much development and both sides are struggling to preserve and create.  It's like the country's on one of those makeover TV shows and you want to see the follow up episode of "where are they now".  Did they get better or worse or stay the same?

I would like to see where everyone's lives take them. Rebecca, the Russian language teacher tells me she is planning to get pregnant next year and have a baby--maybe two since minorities aren't restricted by China's one child policy.

Rebecca and I at Beidaihe

 

 

Three of my students are going to study abroad. Vanessa and Tony are headed to Australia for college and Zhao Si Yue is going to live with a host-family in Canada for high school.  It will be the first any of them have ever set foot abroad.  I can't imagine taking a plunge like that and trying to somehow perform academically--but I am so excited for them. They're going to have such great stories.

Tony and I in Bedaihe

Vanessa and I in Beidaihe

Zhao Si Yue in Beijing's 798 Art District

Finally, I would like to see what new innovations and oddities the Chinese people turn up. Below is an elaborate fluorescent light fixture in the Beijing subway station. Fluorescent because of energy and cost-savings, but decorative because anything less would be too institutional. I like it.

Then there's also the nicotine patch vending machine at the Bird's Nest Stadium because that's one of the only rare places in China where smoking is actually prohibited. I think most societies would view the placement of such a machine as a bit tactless about a very serious addiction problem but not the Chinese. They locate it of course, right next to the other vending machines where any passer by--such as a kid may access nicotine patches.  I love China, and I hope to be able to come back many times over to see how she's doing.

The Next Big Thing

Freshmen Grade 1 Class 4

 So although my reasons are great and varied for going to China, teaching is the reason I was able to stay as long as I did.  I didn't think I would care as much as I did, but weeks after returning, I still think of my students.  There are just so many little things about American life that I wish I could teach them---show them.  I wish I could show them that life can be something else. It's not always regimented schooling, battered buildings, and the looming divide that gao kao---the college entrance exam creates for those left behind.

The average Chinese student is a robot.  They might as well live at school with the amount of time spent in the classroom studying and memorizing. Volunteering in the classroom is discouraged as it might create a disruption and so students wait to be called on.  Because most schools are over-crowded anyways, it is more orderly for students to remain in the same classroom and have teachers rotate.  I am assuming because the education levels of parents may vary that students are made to finish homework at school while supervised by a teacher.  All in all, students are in school probably a total of 10 hours a day Mondays through Fridays and usually Saturdays.  Furthermore, although my school was public, uniforms and short hair cuts were required and dating was forbidden.

High school is an awkward enough time as it is for teenagers, but to have all these restrictions is to create a prison for the mind and spirit. So much of their youth is encircled within the walls of academia.  It impedes independent thinking and creativity.  What does this mean for a generation of only children that already have two sets of grandparents and parents doting on them? I worry what this means for the country's desire to innovate and become the next super power.  They will need thinkers, activists, artists.  China needs to move beyond this mimicry and cultivate differences; innovation; change.

Most young people I think see this but are powerless to change it. They continue on this path established for them and those that can afford it choose to study abroad.  However in select students I see such hope and determination for a better future that I know something is stirring. While many will be limited by bureaucratic restrictions, I hope even more will find a way to surpass them and get to the other side.

Sophomore/Junior Grade 2 Class 5