At the Center of the World, V. 13
Hello, and many, many greetings.
This has been a week of perspectives, some renewed, some remembered, and some discovered.
As winter extends, the people here sleep earlier and earlier. Tonight I was told by the girl at the school that the room I was using was to be locked, and it is only 9:30pm here. Most of the people are asleep, and outside, the gates are locked, shops are closed, and cars, so few, wander the street. Dotted bikes glitter over the snow, and people in heavy jackets and scarves over their mouths scurry like lightning bugs through the sidewalks.
Just now the girl came to check up on me. She wants to close up the door. I told her it was too early, and she walked back into the hallway of the school without saying a word, only a silent expression on her face.
LOCK, stock, and two bolted doors
When I first came to this school, there were two doors, and three locks. The front door, which had one lock, and the backdoor, which had two locks, but only one of them was used. Today, they have added two more doors, and six more locks. Three of the locks are on the door I use to get into the school, and most hours of the day, that door is unaccessible for me. Two more of the locks are on a new door that has been added, a side entrance for the teachers in the morning, and one of those locks has been added to the front interior door (not exterior). I'm not sure what they are afraid of, so I'm still a little confused about all the locks, especially since they weren't here when I arrived. I still have a lot to learn about this culture.
OBSERVATIONS on the center of the world
On Saturday, I took an excusion to the center of the city with some new friends. I noticed a number of things that I had never noticed before. Upon entering the supermarket, I noticed that in the butchery area there were whole skinned pigs strung up on wires and posts, and behind the slanks were two giant posters of a cow and pig. The posters were divided up into sections of the animals, and numbers were placed on different part of the bodies. For ease of reading, so that you don't get confused when you buy the head or buy the rump?... And in the pharmacy (on the second floor of the supermarket) there was a nature scene with two stuffed deer on a fake landscape, and on the wall behind them was a giant photo of the Great Wall of China. A pharmacy?...
Outside of the supermarket, I saw the KFC, and a thought struck me. Most places in the world have a McDonalds, not a KFC. Even in places like India, McDonalds is pretty high on the list, but in China, KFC dominates. In Harbin, there were dozens and dozens of KFCs, but only one McDonalds and one Pizza Hut. And all the way out in Mudanjiang, a city many people in China have not even heard of, there are two KFCs. Why? And then I noticed the stark red sign, and put the pieces together. Most of the KFCs are near important government centers. And on Saturday, I saw a city-sponsored dance in front of the KFC. Connection? Perhaps.
Finally, upon entering the square my friend ordered an octopus-on-a-stick. So far in China, I've eaten everything from silkworms to pepperoni, hot dogs to mutton, beef to chicken, on a stick. And every week I discover something new.
ON restaurants
On Friday, I visited a patriotic restaurant. On the walls were pictures of important government officials at meetings. On the booths where people eat hung old relics of the military, with the star hanging in the center. On the upper floor of the restaurant was a picture of an old chairman of China. The entire front of the restaurant was covered in red hangings, the waitresses wore red tops, and I believe the people sitting in the booth next to me were of some importance to the city. They had on government uniforms and spoke far too loud to be ordinary citizens. The food was good, though, and the experience was interesting.
The restaurant also had a unique feature that in my experience, I have not found in any other restaurant in the United States except for that illustrious jungle restaurant, the Rainforest Cafe. The pipes in the restaurant were covered in green plastic, to make the pipes look like bamboo. Some of the eating stalls were made of bark, and under a glass counter by the front of the restaurant was a covering of artificial grass, with little plastic flowers popping out of the green. Flowers in different colors hung from the ceiling in crescents. And actually, this is quite typical for China. Even in the school where I teach, the pipes are made to look like bamboo trees, and the walls are covered in pictures of the outside. The same was for both schools in Harbin, the one where I lived AND the one where I taught. There is something integral in the culture here about mixing the natural with common life. It is a wonderful feeling, to know that although we may surround ourselves with the machina of the future, we do not forget the past.
NEW generation
On Thursday, I noticed one of the teachers showing her children some dance steps. And then I looked on the television screen, and they were dancing to Chinese pop. At first I laughed, because it really is funny to see preschoolers dancing to a guy who wears skinny tights and colored hair, but suddenly things came into perspective. The teacher was young, only about 20 years old, and I remembered the other day when I asked her to help me sing some nursery rhymes to the children, and she looked at me, then at the music, then back at me, and looked very embarrassed to be singing some music. And then on Thursday, I saw her dancing pop tunes with the kids.
This is a new generation, most defintely, because she is not the only one. Many times after school has ended, I wander into the different classrooms and often find them learning dance steps to pop songs, not nursery dances. This generation is fed on popular culture, through television, music, and the computer. I suppose some things even bind cultures on the opposite ends of the earth.
Nevertheless, there are still differences. The students are learning a dance for the Christmas concert, in which one of the children has the lucky chance to dance solo, and part of the dance step is to lose his or her pants so only the underwear is showing. Then this student dances as if they are trying not to fall, and all of the other children dance around him or her, pointing and laughing. When I first saw this, I was aghast that a dance would be so bold as to ridicule a little child with such a terrible prank. But no one else felt this way. Actually, they thought it was funny. And fun.
Until next time,
Benjamin Seeberger
http://cultured.fishspeaker.com
The People's Republic of China,
Heilonjiang Sheng, Mudanjiang Shi,
Fuminjie dong xiao liu tiao Lu,
Jia Mei You Er Yuan
Cell: 011-86-1384-539-6271
This has been a week of perspectives, some renewed, some remembered, and some discovered.
As winter extends, the people here sleep earlier and earlier. Tonight I was told by the girl at the school that the room I was using was to be locked, and it is only 9:30pm here. Most of the people are asleep, and outside, the gates are locked, shops are closed, and cars, so few, wander the street. Dotted bikes glitter over the snow, and people in heavy jackets and scarves over their mouths scurry like lightning bugs through the sidewalks.
Just now the girl came to check up on me. She wants to close up the door. I told her it was too early, and she walked back into the hallway of the school without saying a word, only a silent expression on her face.
LOCK, stock, and two bolted doors
When I first came to this school, there were two doors, and three locks. The front door, which had one lock, and the backdoor, which had two locks, but only one of them was used. Today, they have added two more doors, and six more locks. Three of the locks are on the door I use to get into the school, and most hours of the day, that door is unaccessible for me. Two more of the locks are on a new door that has been added, a side entrance for the teachers in the morning, and one of those locks has been added to the front interior door (not exterior). I'm not sure what they are afraid of, so I'm still a little confused about all the locks, especially since they weren't here when I arrived. I still have a lot to learn about this culture.
OBSERVATIONS on the center of the world
On Saturday, I took an excusion to the center of the city with some new friends. I noticed a number of things that I had never noticed before. Upon entering the supermarket, I noticed that in the butchery area there were whole skinned pigs strung up on wires and posts, and behind the slanks were two giant posters of a cow and pig. The posters were divided up into sections of the animals, and numbers were placed on different part of the bodies. For ease of reading, so that you don't get confused when you buy the head or buy the rump?... And in the pharmacy (on the second floor of the supermarket) there was a nature scene with two stuffed deer on a fake landscape, and on the wall behind them was a giant photo of the Great Wall of China. A pharmacy?...
Outside of the supermarket, I saw the KFC, and a thought struck me. Most places in the world have a McDonalds, not a KFC. Even in places like India, McDonalds is pretty high on the list, but in China, KFC dominates. In Harbin, there were dozens and dozens of KFCs, but only one McDonalds and one Pizza Hut. And all the way out in Mudanjiang, a city many people in China have not even heard of, there are two KFCs. Why? And then I noticed the stark red sign, and put the pieces together. Most of the KFCs are near important government centers. And on Saturday, I saw a city-sponsored dance in front of the KFC. Connection? Perhaps.
Finally, upon entering the square my friend ordered an octopus-on-a-stick. So far in China, I've eaten everything from silkworms to pepperoni, hot dogs to mutton, beef to chicken, on a stick. And every week I discover something new.
ON restaurants
On Friday, I visited a patriotic restaurant. On the walls were pictures of important government officials at meetings. On the booths where people eat hung old relics of the military, with the star hanging in the center. On the upper floor of the restaurant was a picture of an old chairman of China. The entire front of the restaurant was covered in red hangings, the waitresses wore red tops, and I believe the people sitting in the booth next to me were of some importance to the city. They had on government uniforms and spoke far too loud to be ordinary citizens. The food was good, though, and the experience was interesting.
The restaurant also had a unique feature that in my experience, I have not found in any other restaurant in the United States except for that illustrious jungle restaurant, the Rainforest Cafe. The pipes in the restaurant were covered in green plastic, to make the pipes look like bamboo. Some of the eating stalls were made of bark, and under a glass counter by the front of the restaurant was a covering of artificial grass, with little plastic flowers popping out of the green. Flowers in different colors hung from the ceiling in crescents. And actually, this is quite typical for China. Even in the school where I teach, the pipes are made to look like bamboo trees, and the walls are covered in pictures of the outside. The same was for both schools in Harbin, the one where I lived AND the one where I taught. There is something integral in the culture here about mixing the natural with common life. It is a wonderful feeling, to know that although we may surround ourselves with the machina of the future, we do not forget the past.
NEW generation
On Thursday, I noticed one of the teachers showing her children some dance steps. And then I looked on the television screen, and they were dancing to Chinese pop. At first I laughed, because it really is funny to see preschoolers dancing to a guy who wears skinny tights and colored hair, but suddenly things came into perspective. The teacher was young, only about 20 years old, and I remembered the other day when I asked her to help me sing some nursery rhymes to the children, and she looked at me, then at the music, then back at me, and looked very embarrassed to be singing some music. And then on Thursday, I saw her dancing pop tunes with the kids.
This is a new generation, most defintely, because she is not the only one. Many times after school has ended, I wander into the different classrooms and often find them learning dance steps to pop songs, not nursery dances. This generation is fed on popular culture, through television, music, and the computer. I suppose some things even bind cultures on the opposite ends of the earth.
Nevertheless, there are still differences. The students are learning a dance for the Christmas concert, in which one of the children has the lucky chance to dance solo, and part of the dance step is to lose his or her pants so only the underwear is showing. Then this student dances as if they are trying not to fall, and all of the other children dance around him or her, pointing and laughing. When I first saw this, I was aghast that a dance would be so bold as to ridicule a little child with such a terrible prank. But no one else felt this way. Actually, they thought it was funny. And fun.
Until next time,
Benjamin Seeberger
http://cultured.fishspeaker.com
The People's Republic of China,
Heilonjiang Sheng, Mudanjiang Shi,
Fuminjie dong xiao liu tiao Lu,
Jia Mei You Er Yuan
Cell: 011-86-1384-539-6271