Langfang’s “The Voice”

This past week there has been a singing competition here at LFU.  The competition was sponsored by MZONE, which is kind of like China’s version of Verizon Mobile.  All students were allowed to participate and the grand prize was a new iphone 5.  Hundreds of students showed up on three separate nights to try their stuff.  Each contestant was only allotted 30 seconds.  Some of the students sang in English but most of them sang in Chinese.  I went to the competition on the final night to cheer on my students.  My good friend, Apple, was also in the competition.

The competition was held in the main meeting hall on campus and all five hundred seats were filled each night by spectators and competitors. Big red banners were hung from the main stage to advertise MZONE and the competition.  Students waiting nervously in a long line that ran from the stage to the halfway up the auditorium isle.  A student would step up the microphone, sing for 30 seconds, the judge would say when the time was up, and then it would repeat.  Each night the competition last from 7:30-11:00.  It was long.  Some of the students did really well and had very pleasing voices.  Others… well… it did remind me a lot of the cat fights I hear outside my window at night. 

There was one boy in particular who was hilarious.  He got up on stage and started singing a famous pop song by a woman.  He purposely distorted his voice to mock the original girl’s tone.  The audience was laughing like crazy and I couldn’t help but laugh myself as this boy strutted around with his hands on his hip and played the part of the prima donna.  I doubt he won the competition but he should have at least gotten funniest in show.

My freshmen students were going last in the lineup.  All six of them were going one right after the other and I was waiting eagerly in the audience.  While they were waiting for their turn I was constantly getting texts from the girls to my cell that read, “I’m so nervous. I hope I do well.”  I sent them back each a text of encouragement.  It finally came to their turn and each of them sang their hearts out.  At this point in the competition it was nearly 11:00 and few people remained in the auditorium.  The few people who did remain couldn’t care less about clapping.  I on the other hand, gave a standing ovation for each of my students.  When they finished I greeted them all with a high-five and a thumbs up.  I think they were really pleasantly surprised to see their teacher taking such an interest in their lives.  They all apologized for not doing a better job with their performance.  I told them that it didn’t matter how they did as I was proud of them for trying.  They might not have won the contest but they were all winners in my book.

Dragons and Tai Ji Fight Club

First Rule of Tai Ji Fight Club: Never Punch an Old Man.

"Never Punch an Old Man"

 There are many times in our life when we might stop and wonder how it is they we actually got to where we are now.  I had one such moment as I was lying on the cold concrete floor of an underground parking garage.  Merely moments before I was so full of confidence that I thought I could take on the world.  Yet now… now I was so painfully aware of how fragile and human I really am.  But in order to really explain my situation I need to first start at the beginning of the story.

It all started during Langfang Sports Day at the University.  It was there that I met a half-Physical Education and half-English teacher funnily enough named “Don’t Change.”  He given himself that particular English name as more of a joke and the fact that the vernacular was close to his original Chinese name.  I affectionately gave him the nickname “Buddy.”  Buddy and I have been become fast friends in the short amount of time that we’ve know each other.  We are what you might call, “kindred spirits.”  It’s fairly common to find Buddy and I in the thralls of debate with one another discussing everything from Plato’s Republic to the teachings of Confucius and the poems of Robert Frost.  We are also what you might call, “nerds.”

Anyway, Buddy invited me to join his Tai Ji group.  Its proper English translation is “Shadow Boxing.”  Imagine if you will the scene of our first meeting… I’m lead to an underground parking garage on the outskirts of Langfang city.  It’s late and it's dark.  There is a gang of people all with wooden swords.  The leader of the gang cannot speak English but he desires to show me something.  Buddy translates his words.  The leader says, “Punch me as hard as you can.”  At first I am unsure.  The leader is an old man, bent over and fragile.  He stands with his hands behind his back and commands me to punch him as hard as I can in his chest.  He looks like he is ready to sit in the park and feed the pigeons, not engage in hand-to-hand combat.  But, I do as he says.  I punch with my right hand.  Before I know it I am on the floor.  The cold concrete is pressed against my back.  The master’s hand is at my throat.  My head is a blur.  I’m helplessly at the old man’s mercy.

That’s when I learned the first rule of Tai Ji Fight Club: “Never punch a frail old man because it won’t end well for you.”

The kind old master then helped me off the floor, dusted off my jacket and began to show me the ways of Tai Ji.  You may not have heard of Tai Ji but it’s more commonly known in America as Tai Chi.  Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese exercise that helps strengthen the body and helps develop a sense of physical balance.  It is mainly a series of slow flowing movements that strain a variety of muscles.  After one evening of practicing I was sore in places I didn’t even know I had.  Tai Chi is practiced very slowly but if speed up to a quicker movement it can cripple an opponent within seconds… as I experienced.

Now some of you may be worried that I’m getting involved with a Chinese street gang but I jest more than anything else.  This Tai Ji club meets in a very nice gated community and the majority of occupants in the club are old enough to be grandparents.  They don’t fight with each other but they fight with the air.  If you see a Tai Ji class you will often see a group of people perfectly lined up following a systematic pattern in unison.  It really does look like synchronized slow-motion martial arts. Buddy has been doing Tai Ji for a month now and it’s really helped him to get in shape.  I’m looking forward to doing the same.  

Flying High, Dragons in the Sky

The I Ching

 There is a lot of good that can be learned from Chinese culture.  Buddy has been helping me to learn about Eastern philosophy and its many practical uses.  There is a lot of mythology and mysticism wrapper up in Eastern philosophy but there is also a number of wise sayings and proverbs that could benefit anyone who takes them to heart.  Take for example the teachings of I Ching (Yì Jīng in Chinese).  I Ching is a very old book that talks about the path of man from birth to end.  In the book there is a series of pictures represented by three or six lines.  Each line represents a different stage of our development as we grow older.  The first line is our birth, the second is our adolescence, the third is our teenage years, and so on.  I Ching uses the Chinese dragon as a symbol for man at each one of these steps.  As a baby dragon we have great potential but we have not yet learned how to fly.  As we grow we should also be learning how to fly form the elder dragons.  It is not until we reach the third step, that period when we are starting to become adults, that we get our first real chance to fly.  However, young Dragons need to be careful of pride.  If young dragons are too eager to show off their abilities then other dragons may develop for them hatred and jealousy.  It is at the transition in-between the third step and the fourth step that young dragons must learn meekness and humility.  Life isn’t about showing off our skills but about developing respect for ourselves and for others.  It’s only when a dragon learns meekness and humility that he or she is able to reach the fourth step of adult.  After that they will reach the fifth step of teacher and elder.  Finally they will reach the sixth step of death without regret.  

There is an ancient Chinese saying that goes along with the transition between step three and step four.  The saying is 不三不四 (Bù sān bù sì) “No three, no four.”  It means that people may grow older in their appearance but they won’t always grow smarter.  We might think of it in modern terms as the young man or woman who is so busy chasing wealth and fame that they never grow out of being spoiled.  They still demand to have everything their way.  You could say “不三不四” to the man going through his midlife crisis: the kind of man that buys an expensive red convertible and dumps his wife for a hot young blond.  That man will never reach the fourth, fifth or sixth step because he is stuck on the third step.

It is quite funny sometimes how truth and wisdom are universal.  As Buddy was teaching me the story of the dragon and about I Ching, I couldn’t help but remember some of the Western stories of wisdom.  I thought about the Greek story of Icarus and how he flew to close to the sun with his glued wings.  I thought about the words of King Solomon who said, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  It made me wonder about myself.  What kind of dragon am I?  Am I flying high in the sky on the winds of meekness and humility or am I crawling about in the mud of shame and arrogance.  I hope I’m the former and not the later… but it’s something to think about…

A Dragon Flying High in the Sky

Acts of Kindness

These past few weeks have had a series of fun and interesting adventures.  It’s been a mixture of pleasant surprises, difficult dilemmas, and trying challenges.  But why don’t I just get right to the stories…  So sit back and enjoy some adventures from China.

The Bike Hero

The first of my stories takes place in Tianjin during the holiday.  At the time Jamie and I were spending the night with the Tianjin teachers in the Italian Style Town.  We had finished all of our activities in the city for the day and we were headed back to the school to bed down for the night.  Jim (the leader of IECS) had gone shopping at a nearby store during our time in the city and he bought some floor clearer.  Apparently floor cleaner is a rare commodity near the Tianjin school so Jim was very happy about his rare purchase. It was late and we found ourselves quite a ways away from the bus station.  We needed to get to the bus station before the last bus left so we took a couple of auto-rickshaws to save on time.

I should take a moment now to describe just what exactly an auto-rickshaw is: Auto-rickshaws are a three wheeled car that is designed more like a tricycle than a taxi.  There is a cabin on the back that seats four people in a very cramped space.  There is a roof and back wall but the sides are usually left open.  It is also a very bumpy ride on hard seats. However, it is cheap.

It was while we were driving to the bus station that a rather harsh bumped jerked Jim’s bottle of floor cleaner out of the open door and into the street.  I watched helplessly as the bottle stayed in the busy street while we kept moving forward.   Just then I saw a young man on a motorcycle reach down and grab the bottle without stopping.  I thought to myself that this young man just got himself some free floor cleaner.  However, to my surprise, he raced to catch up with us, drove along side us as we went, and actually handed the bottle of clearer off to me without stopping.  It was like one of those action scenes from a movie, only with the hero handing off floor cleaner. 

An Unlikely Friend

Each week I have to take a 45-minute bus commute to the western school campus in Gu’an to teach classes.  Gu’an really is the middle of nowhere and there is zero public transportation on the back roads.  I take a special school bus along with several other teachers each time I go.  However, I painfully learned that it’s a good idea not to miss the school bus.  The whole incident happened just last Saturday.  It was cold that day in Gu’an and I was not wearing a thick enough coat.  I almost missed the noon bus due to talking with my friend, Mr. Liu.  We both ran down the street banging on the side of the bus as we saw it pull out.  You’d think that this lesson would be enough for me to learn that I need to pay more attention to the time but I guess I’m a slow learner.

I had just finished teaching my classes when I realized that I only had a few minutes to catch the bus home.  So I ran.  However, I was too late.  The bus had already left.  I wasn’t exactly sure about the bus schedule but I knew that there were multiple busses that left form the school.  So I decide to wait for the next bus.  Unfortunately there was no one around to speak English so I was unable to find out if there actually was another bus coming.  I waited for about an hour and a half but there were no more busses.  It was suddenly then that had a deep sinking feeling of utter loneliness and isolation.  It was cold, dark, I couldn’t speak to anyone around and I had no way to get home.

It was at this moment that a familiar face came walking over to me.  It was the police officer who had thrown me out of Gu’an during my first visit (Click Here for the Story).  This time, however, the police office brought with him two English speaking students to translate.  He told me that he did not want me to be waiting out in the cold so he invited me into his quarters to get warm.  There I was offered dinner and he was even going to help me find a place to sleep for the night.  There was a local hotel and he was going to take me there himself.  I was really touched by the guard’s kindness.

Fortunately I did not have to stay the night in Gu’an.  Dean Wayne called me and told me that he was sending a driver to bring me back to Langfang.  I had not called the Wayne but I had sent a text to the other IECS team members.  Luke had gotten my text and then immediately called Wayne.  Wayne was quickly on the case to help me get back home.  The driver showed up promptly and before long I was back home in Langfang for bedtime.

Away on Holiday

So recently I've been away on Holiday...
 

Jaime, Beth, and I in Tianjin

The first month has passed like a blur and the autumn term is underway.  However, before the month of October really gets going the good people of China have a two-week holiday period associated around the Mid-Autumn festival and National Day.  It’s a two-week period of rest and relaxation.  Most of the student here at Langfang either travel home to see family during this holiday period or they find part-time jobs to help them earn a little money.  The university empties out, the doors are locked, and the teachers have off.  It seems a little odd to me to have two-weeks off right after only one month of teaching but there will be no more days off until February so it makes up for itself in the end.  Nevertheless, it does leave me in a position of trying to decide what to do for two-weeks.  But it all worked out.  The IECS teachers in Tianjin invited Jaime and I to come and spend the holiday with them in the city of Tianjin.  Jaime and I accepted their gracious invitation.
 

The City of Tianjin at Night

I’ve writing about Tianjin before, but just a reminder, Tianjin is a modernized city of 9-million people living in a space that’s half the size of New York City.  Tall elegant skyscrapers reach to the sky with their decorum of different colored windows arranged in a checker board pattern.  Streets are filled with stop lights that actually have large counters so you can see how long the red or green light will last.  People dressed in the latest fashions make their way busily between the window shops with loads of bags in the arms.  Tianjin is a hustling and bustling city.  There are also a lot of foreigners in Tianjin.  The foreigners are mostly European trades here to tap into the growing economic development of China and Tianjin is where it’s all made possible.

 

Apple, Sarah, and I Lighting Sparklers

A lot of money flows through the city of Tianjin and the city’s development committee have dumped a lot of money into making the city a nice place.  The city is actually clean, which isn’t normal for China.  There is a beautiful river that flows through the center of the city (that doesn’t smell) and a large area around the river has been developed using European influence.  This area is known as the Italian Style Town.  It’s really odd to be riding a bus through the city, looking out the window and seeing Chinese architecture suddenly replaced by what looks like Venice.  The houses in the Italian Style Town are built in a Venetian style, the restaurants are all Italian, and there is even a European castle centered near the central bus station. 

 

A Father and his Daughter are Preparing a Wishing Lantern

The Tianjin teachers (Jim, Nikki, Sarah, and Beth) took us into the city twice and both times we went to the Italian Style Town.  The first night we ended up getting lost but it worked out.  We walked around the castle for a while, wondered up and down the streets, and eventually found our way to the restaurants.  We ended up eating at this outdoor restaurant where one could hear live Italian style music being played in the street.  It really is a different atmosphere then what I’m used to here in China.  The trees along the streets are filled with halogen lights that look like bright white raindrops descending through the leaves.  Mandolins and guitars are being played at every street corner.  Iron sculptures full of small lights look like horses and carriages making their way with gentry down the streets.  People fly electric kites that are lit up like Christmas trees in the night sky.

 

The Sky is Full of Wishing Lanterns

The second night we went to Tianjin we actually brought with us one of the students from the Tianjin Vocational Institute.  Our guide, whose English name is Apple (but not the Apple from Langfang), helped us find our way through the city so we wouldn’t get lost.  We went to a tall eight-story shopping mall where we found an eatery that served authentic spaghetti…  Yummy!  Yes, we eat a lot of Italian food this holiday.  Afterwards we went to the river walk to see the wishing lanterns.  All along this walkway we found couples, families and children who were writing special wishes on these balloon bags.  The people would then light a special brick in the bottom of the bag that would fill the lantern with hot air.  After a while the lantern would become lighter than air and would begin to lift high into the sky.  Hundreds of these wishing lanterns were raising high into the sky all night.  The last thing we did that evening was ride the Eye of Tianjin (a 394 foot tall giant Ferris wheel built above the Yongle Bridge).  From the top of the Ferris wheel we were actually able to look down on the city and the tall skyscrapers.

 

The Eye of Tianjin

Our time in Tianjin was really fun but soon it came to an end.  However, the holiday wasn’t over.  The Tianjin crew joined us in our journey to the next stop in the city of Boading.  We were meeting with the other IECS teams from Hebei Financial University and Hebei University.  It was a big team reunion with only four missing parties: Luke and Shannon where vacationing in the south, Jim was staying in Tianjin to do some work, and Regan was meeting with her Mom and Aunt in Beijing.  However, it was great seeing almost everyone together again.  Jaime spent the weekend with the girls while I stayed with our IECS man on the ground in China (Frank).  Frank, his wife Helen, and their son Caleb, are a huge part of what makes IECS work in China.  They are a Chinese family who work full-time keeping us Americans out of trouble and on the right path.  It is difficult living in a country where we can’t speak the language and Frank is a great help.
 

Frank and IECS Founder Newt

Spending time with Frank is always an encouragement.  He’s a great friend and a truly joyful person.  We spoke late into the evening swapping stories and playing the guitar.  Helen cooked breakfast for us on both days.  She is a good cook.  We had eggs, tomatoes and muffins each morning and it was delicious.  I got the privilege of being Caleb’s babysitter for the weekend and this little almost two-year old is such a bright kid.  He’s learning both English and Chinese so even I was able to communicate with him on a most basic level.  He grabbed my hand and led me over to his play area where we colored, played with balls, and I read him his favorite books.  By the end of the weekend Caleb was calling me, “叔叔 (Shūshu) Ben,” which means “Uncle Ben.”  It made me both happy and sad at the same time.  I was happy that Caleb liked me so much but it reminded me of my own nephews and how they would also call me, “Uncle Ben.”  I miss my nephews and niece very much. 

(Sorry... No pictures of the baby.  Maybe later.)

Eventually the holiday came to an end.  It was time for Jaime and I to make our way back to Langfang.  We crammed into the Boading bus station with the hundreds of other people making their way to their destination.  Thousands of people were traveling this weekend and the rule of Chinese bus stations is that you have to be the one who shoves in first or you’ll be left behind.  Someone needs to teach the people of China the principle of “waiting-in-line.”  But, we shoved our way onto the bus and we were headed back to Langfang.


As we traveled the final kilometers to Langfang I couldn’t help but reflect on the whole holiday.  Each of the schools looked like really nice places to teach.  They all had their ups and downs.  But Langfang is starting to feel like a second home.  I was happy to be back.  I couldn’t wait to see my students, to spend time with my new Chinese friends, and to have all sorts of new adventures in the city where I teach: The good city of Langfang. 

Langfang Sports Day

"Let the Games Begin!"

 

  Every year LTU puts on a two-day sporting event where teachers and students compete for medals in Olympic style games: "The Langfang Teachers College 2012 Sports Day!" As a teacher I got to participate in this year’s festivities.  It was a lot of fun!  The two-day celebration began with an amazing opening ceremony where hundreds of students would march around the track, dance in the center field, release balloons and fireworks into the air, and all of this was done in completely synchronized movements.  There was also about 50-75 fan dancers that took the field and did a traditional Chinese dance to music over the loud speakers.  There was a parade of old retired faculty members who carried a big banner in front celebrating their service to the university.  There was a marching drum band in traditional Chinese garb.  There were also a hundred young freshmen boys marching with flags.  There was a lot of marching!  The one part that impressed me the most was when nearly two-hundred freshmen dressed in military fatigues all took the center field and did synchronized martial art moves at the calling of the loud speaker.  Each move was followed by the signature calling out of the word “kai” by the students upon completion of a move.  People in the States might be familiar with this technique from seeing it performed on a movie or a TV show depicting training in a martial art’s studio.  Simply magnify that in your mind a hundred times over and you’ll have something akin to the experience.

 

Most of my time during the events was spent in the stands sitting with my new students.  All freshmen are required to watch the games and there are even officials taking attendance to make sure no one is missing.  Rain or shine the students have to participate… and it did rain.  Around 2:00 pm on the first day we had an hour of showers where hundreds of umbrellas came out and filled the stands.  I thought it was foolish to make the freshmen sit out in the rain and eventually the college felt the same way.  The games were canceled for about two-hours and the freshmen were allowed to seek shelter from the storm.  The games then resumed at 4:00 pm.  Siting with the students was a lot of fun.  All of the departments are forced to sit together so I sat with the English majors in the “English Major Section.”  You could tell it was the English Major Section because they were the ones with giant letters in English that read “Come On!”  I got to learn a new phrase while sitting with my students.  I got to learn the phrase, “加油 (Jiāyóu)!”  It literally means “refuel” but students shout it at their athletes as a form of encouragement.  The actual usage of the term is more akin to shouting, “Let’s go!” Or, “You can do it!”  I got to hear this phrase shouted a lot during my stent in the stands.

Finally it came time for my own participation in the events.  I was volunteered by the university officials to take place in the male-teachers’ long jump competition.  I would have preferred to do a relay race but I was not given the option.  Instead, I had to compete against 30 male teachers from the university.  At first I was feeling pretty confident.  Most of the teachers are overweight and are heavy smokers.  I knew I could beat ‘em.  But then the PE teachers came out!  One of the PE teachers came directly after me so I got to try my best first.  I jumped about seven feet.  The PE teachers, on the other hand, jumped nearly 15 feet.  Let’s just say, none of us stood a chance against them.

Me and the PE Teacher

Jiāyóu!

The other teachers on my team also got to participate in their own events. Shannon got to do the shot put.  She placed fourth.  Jaime got to do the women’s long jump and she did a relay race for the English department.  She did really well on the relay but unfortunately the other three members of her team did not go as fast as she did and the English department still placed last.  Luke did not participate due to his event being canceled by the rain.

Shannon and the Shot Put

Luke and Shanon

Both days were a lot fun.  But it wasn’t over for us even when the sun went down on the stands.  Jamie and I were actually invited to a celebration dinner with select faculty.  As we were leaving the stands to go to dinner I got to meet one of the English and PE professors whose English name was “Don’t Change.”  He chose the name more as a joke but by the end of the night I was already calling him “Buddy.”  I guess it changed after all!  Buddy and I walked all the way to the restaurant where the dinner was being held and the entire walk was a rather lofty conversation about philosophy, life, the universe, and everything.  Buddy is incredibly knowledgeable in the teachings of Friedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, René Descartes, Aristotle, Plato, Gautama Buddha, and Jesus of Nazareth.  We discussed all of the above and much more.  It’s a lot of fun to find someone who shares a love for deep thinking.  However, Buddy is a little out-to-lunch sometimes.  I had to stop him from walking in front of a car at least three times different during our walk to and from dinner.  Buddy has invited Jamie and I to join him and his family for dinner sometime and it is an invitation I highly look forward to accepting.  

Do I at least get a participation medal?  No?

Shannon, Danny, and Lynn