Spring Festival is Sprung

Chinese Spring Festival: the annual celebration when Chinese people from all corners of the country travel long and far, by railway, highway, or skyway, to reunite with their families and eat, drink, be merry…and set off as many fireworks as possible without going deaf or losing an appendage. It also marks the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year…goodbye Year of the Pig, hello Year of the Rat!

There are twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. While each year all Chinese people embrace the new and hope for good fortune and safety in the coming year, each year is supposed to bring especially good luck to those born in a year with the same zodiac sign. For example, if you were born in the Year of the Rat, then 2008 should be a good year for you. It turns out I was born in the Year of the Pig, 1983, and looking back, I think there might be something to this notion: 2007 was a pretty satisfying and gratifying year for yours truly. (If you’re interested in more details of Chinese zodiac, see http://www.google.com/)

Spring Festival gives new meaning to the phrase ringing in the New Year “with a bang.” It’s a multi-day holiday that in total spans 15 days. The whole country is off on official holiday for the first 3 days (plus a weekend) but most everyone shuts down for a week (like us), with the exception of big stores and restaurants. Nearly everyone is off on New Year’s Day, February 6 (this year), and from the sounds of things, they all were setting off fireworks and/or firecrackers. New Year’s Eve 2000-Rat was a war zone: constant explosions from every direction as the sky flashed with light for nearly two hours.

On TV, if you could hear it with all the noise outside, performers, in an array of ethnic costumes depicting all of the ethnic groups of China, performed traditional dances while Chinese pop stars sang classic Chinese tunes and wished their countrymen well for the year to come.

Surviving the first few days of fire-crackering probably dramatically increases everyone’s chances for a safe new year. In addition to New Year’s Eve, New Year’s day is also big for blowing stuff up. The traditional purpose of this practice is to frighten away evil spirits and bring good fortune for the coming year. It remains very common today (for businessmen especially), but rather than to frighten away evil spirits, most people just set off “firecracks,” as my students call them, to celebrate the holiday.

Somewhat terrifyingly, this included my neighbors on the floor above us, who had no hesitations about lighting fireworks out of their window, rattling the frame outside of ours as we watched the festivities. For more, see the video below (WARNING: explicit language):

Chinese New Year Pt. I

The other major day for setting off firecrackers is the fourth night of the New Year. After you set off firecrackers to frighten away the evil spirits, you set them off again a few days later to welcome the god of fortune and wealth.

Chinese New Year Pt. IV

As for Nicole and I, when we weren’t being kept awake, woken up, or just terrified by the deafening chorus of explosions outside, we occupied our time exploring the neighborhood, watching movies, and seeing a few of Shanghai’s sights. Much like any big city, every area has its surprises. We finally wandered off the beaten path over the break and found some. On one nearby street we found a number of small shops selling a range of unexpected wares: one place we stumbled across sold very hip, novelty stuffed animals, and another store sold Tibetan jewelry, art, and cultural stuff.


Another nearby street we found was lined on either side by very old…I don’t know…peasanty looking…houses. The route was also decorated with a series of distinct, musically-themed statues, perhaps corresponding with the conservatory at the beginning of the street. This particular strip gave me a strong sense that I was experiencing some of Shanghai’s history and culture, a feeling that is hard to come by in a city that has been developing so mercilessly for the last few decades.

As far as the movies go, we watched a LOT of DVDs over break. We satisfy our appetite for the cinematic with videos from one of two locations: the guy with the bike-wagon in front of the convenient store on Chang Ning Lu (as opposed to the guy with the bike-wagon on the corner of our alley and the guy with the bike-wagon in front of Pizza Hut), and the video store across from the park. Don’t be fooled by the whole “store” thing though, everything inside is 100% pirated. The quality of video in the store is usually pretty good, compared to bike-wagon man’s video-taped theater screenings. The difference in quality results in a difference in price: a lofty 10 to 16 RMB for a DVD from the store, and a more affordable 5 RMB for a bike-wagon disc.

The low prices affect more than just picture quality. Many DVD’s come packaged in cardboard sleeves (imagine a flat DVD case at home) with unrelated credits or plot descriptions on the back. Others feature bizarre or unflattering reviews. The sci-fi zombie flick “I am Legend,” about the last living man in NYC is billed on the packaging as “A big, swinging party with a can’t-miss guest list.” Brad Pitt’s latest, “The Assassination of Jesse James…” features this riveting review: “Stodgy and deathly slow, Jesse James takes the longest route possible to an anticipated resolution.” That one’s still in the plastic wrap…

But as for the ones we did get to, I have a few recommendations for you: The Kingdom, American Gangster, and The Bucket List. The first two are a bit intense, but quite good; the third is a little more laid back.

On Sunday we ventured out to an area of the city called Qi Bao (7 treasures), an old/ancient river town on the outskirts of the city known now mostly for its crowds and snacks. The video below can attest to the crowds, but as for the snacks, Qi Bao can keep its whole baby chicken skewers and the aptly-named “stinky tofu.” The former turns me off at first sight as the small bird’s head is pinned to its body via one wooden skewer through the eye; the latter smells so repugnant it falls somewhere between “Chinese public toilet” and “Chinese garbage dump,”…hell, it might actually rank lower than both.

Qi Bao crowd

The area itself is about an hour commute from where we live, sans any confusion, via subway and bus. At the outskirts of the city, the modern spirit of the downtown still smacks you right in the face. You get off the bus at the front entrance of a huge shopping mall and are greeted by the beaming red and white smile of Colonel Sanders. Signs for the recently-completed Metro Line 8 are posted on every corner. Perhaps the only visual clue that you have arrived at your desired destination is the giant billboard from the local government welcoming you to historic Qi Bao.

It takes a few minutes, but once you walk a few blocks away from the Colonel and friends, using the flowing sea of people as a guide, you escape from the worryingly unremarkable contemporary Qi Bao and soon find yourself surrounding my the smells, sounds, and shops of the historic version.

A small canal splits the historic neighborhood, hence the label “river town.” There are a handful of sights to see, including some museums and a small Catholic church, but none of those come highly recommended. Food, shopping, and a departure from the normal routine were the real draw of Qi Bao, and if you don’t count the sometimes-nauseating snack selection, it delivered on all three. We bought some cool stuff and felt good to have left the house for a while.

The following day, we needed to recover from all the activity, but we headed out again on Tuesday to nearby Yu Yuan, or Yu Gardens. I had been there when I first arrived in Shanghai, but was definitely glad to see it a second time. Although, it was not as green as it was in October, the gardens were still beautiful. We got to spend a little more time looking around than I had back in the fall, exploring the shops within the garden, and enjoying the translated signs. I especially like this one (brilliant floor plan for this place).



I also had a chance encounter with an IU alumn: an Austrian student who studied business in Bloomington, gotten a job in Texas, went to work in Lan Zhou, China for this company, and happened to be on holiday on Shanghai for the New Year. He noticed the IU logo on my hat…

After a chilly walk around the gardens we warmed ourselves up with a Shanghai speciality: Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings). There’s a very popular restaurant at Yu Yuan where you can enjoy this steamed treat. Nicole first alerted me to this place when it came up on a travel show she was watching last fall. She finally got the chance to experience the famed dumplings for herself, and with full stomachs, we then called it a day, and a holiday.

I've posted pics from the week on Shutterfly, including our wanderings through the neighborhood, a festively decorated Zhong Shan Park, highlights of my historic playoff beard, and shots of Yu Yuan and Qi Bao.

We finally got out of Shanghai last weekend to a nearby city called Su Zhou in Jiangsu province. I'll have pics and a blog on that excursion in the near future. Also included will be pics of my first ever haircut in China (WHOA!)...stay tuned.

MEGA BOOTH: One Round Table and a Microphone...

I’m at work on a Friday again to make up for the “extra” days off I received over the Chinese New Year. I hope it will be the last time I have to work on my weekend for a while. The DOS isn’t in today so with few exceptions, I’ve been here at my desk reading, e-mailing, and blogging (see, getting better at it J ). My only real professional responsibility today has been to man the “mega booth” down by the front entrance of the mall for two half-hour blocks.

Mega booth is an advertising tool designed to attract new customers by allowing them to talk with a real live lao wai (foreigner) and participate in a “demo class” (talking with a foreigner in front of a white board). I stand around looking native Englishy while mall-goers talk with our sales representatives, sometimes to inquire about studying English, but usually just to ask for directions.

Like much of my day at the office, my time in the mega booth was not particularly eventful, though I did have a few interesting conversations. The first was with a pair middle-school students on their way to lunch at KFC, and the second with a new hire, a older woman named Helen who is training to be a center manager for our company. My first conversation was not noteworthy for content. However, it was striking because these two 15-year-old girls were actually capable of having a simple, functional conversation with me in a language other that their mother tongue. I don’t think these two were exceptional in this regard either. What was most exceptional is that many Chinese middle-schoolers could have performed comparably in a similar situation.

English is a mandatory part of children’s education in China. Some students start studying as early as Kindergarten, and then continue from primary school through high school. From what I’ve gathered, students must pass an English proficiency exam in order to attend university (you’ll have to excuse me, no one outside of the U.S. uses “college” to describe their institute of higher learning, so I’ve adopted the more cosmopolitan and more annoying “university”). Then if they’re English majors, or if they want to pursue post graduate studies, they have to take another proficiency exam. I picked this up from my conversation with Helen, where we discussed the personality of the typical Chinese English student.

Not that this state education produces a crop of competent English speakers at the disposal of the Chinese economic machine, but I think it embodies a good idea in principle. In a globalized world, language builds bridges and puts up walls. Generally speaking, if a person can speak a foreign language, it creates more opportunities for that person to improve their life and the lives of those around them; if you don’t speak any foreign languages, it does not condemn you to a life of poverty or unhappiness, it simply means that you will have fewer opportunities to improve your lot (not few, just fewer).

In a world long-dominated economically, politically, and culturally by the West, exposing a society to the most powerful language in the world makes good clean business sense. In a world soon-to-be-dominated, if not by the Eastern giants of China and India then at least by a globalized economy, does it not also make sense to do the same in Western countries?

If American students had to reach a certain level of proficiency in a foreign language in order to graduate from “university” it could do wonders for preparing America’s work force to compete in a global economy, and perhaps temper the country’s comparative economic decline. That’s not to say that America can imitate the Chinese model (a politically and culturally impossible task), or that students be forced into studying a foreign language in school. I’m just thinking that there should be a shift in educational focus nation-wide to acknowledge the shifting demands placed on the American economy in a globalized world.

To accompany a change in national attitude, universities (and colleges), both private and state-funded, could adopt or expand their foreign language proficiency requirements not universally per se, but certainly in relevant majors and programs. Students could then make their choice of school and major with these requirements in mind, so nobody would feel coerced into anything.

I’m sure plenty of schools have foreign language requirements, and I don’t have any statistics. I’m just suggesting that things need to be kicked up a notch…

Anyhow, I’ve rambled on for a little longer than I’d hoped, but this topic ties into one other point from my conversation with Helen. She and I were talking about the personalities of my students. Chinese students don’t exactly come out of high school sounding like Henry Higgins, and Helen asked me if I thought my students’ language ability suffered from shyness in the class room. She offered a number of possible explanations for this: maybe it’s a result of Confucian culture, or their “teacher talk-student listen” education, or perhaps the product of a tumultuous political past where sharing your opinion got you sent off to labor camp for some reeducating (I’ll go for the safe “all of the above”).

I think that while shyness may play a factor, and it certainly would inhibit language learning, it’s not the biggest impediment on a student’s progress. You can throw material in a student’s face all day, if they don’t have the motivation or the passion to grab that material by the Charlie Browns and know it, and use it, they’re not going to get very far…

Anyhow my train of thought has derailed and I’ve drifted too far from my original point…whatever that was, perhaps a tirade against the laziness of some demographic or another, but I’ll spare you the sermon.

Here are a few random musings:

I will never cut my hair during football season again, and I will not shave my face during a playoff run. My “playoff beard” theory proved correct as my GGGGGGGGGGGG-Men pulled off the upset of the century and defeated the now 18-1 New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII! (Not sure about the quotations there, I could just as easily have put “beard” in quotations because whatever sprouts from my face after a few razor-less days does not meet conventional definitions of the word) Thrilled for my team, thrilled for the veterans, and pumped up for next season…

I think the wheat bread here is actually white bread dyed brown.

Teaching a current events class about Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Everest, produced repeated, hilarious mispronunciations of the country name Nepal. (I’ll let you use your imagination)

Olympic gold medalist and New Rochelle High School alumnus Christina Teuscher works for my company…at least according to a poster of her near the reception desk at the office. She’s teaching swimming lessons to students and apparently is a “program manager” for EF.

I’ve concluded that musically inclined people have an easier time with Chinese pronunciation…

Speaking of music, for my first music club, I put together a class on the Temptations’ “My Girl.” It seems Smokey Robinson’s writing not only leads to success on the charts but also in the classroom. The students liked the theme (luuuuuuv) and the simple brilliance of the lyrics. Getting to rock out to a good tune in the middle of the day also always lifts my spirits J.

Speaking of which, it’s been a bit of a shock getting back into the work rhythm after the New Year’s holiday. I’m not really sure where the whole week went…but I’ll save that for the next post in the interest of getting something up. I will have some videos and such from my week off to lend some visual and audio aid to the ol’ blog. It won’t be too long before the next post.

‘Til then…