Awkwertaining

There have been a few awkward moments in the last couple days of teaching as we tackle the thorny subject of censorship. For some of these kids, it's obvious that government censorship of all types of media is good. For others, it's clear that the system has problems and that the truth isn't being altogether being reported. Either way, standing in front of a class of 35 Chinese students and asking them "what kind of censorship have you come across in your life?" and "what are some reasons to censor material?" sort of seems like asking to get into trouble. I feel like I have to tell them that I'm not encouraging them to seek out "bad material" but in a way, I guess I am.
We discussed censorship in general and whether total free speech was a good idea. There seemed to be pretty general consensus that a society without any form of censorship would quickly descend into anarchy and 'social instability', would be confusing and full of truths and fake truths, but in the end, it would be quite creative.
My favorite comments though, were along these lines:

"It is a good idea to ban certain books in small towns and villages, because the people there are simple minded and cannot think well about all the ideas. They cannot understand what they should follow and they will be confused. They will believe everything in the books including some lies."
"Sometimes, censorship is necessary. For example, there is a religion that is evil. Information about the evil religion is censored otherwise, people want to follow it. The government protects the citizens from the evil religion." (we all know what she's talking about but no one is saying the words, though one student named the "evil religion" and everyone was shocked that she had said the F-G words.)
"The government censors some information because it is not good for the citizens to know everything. If they know everything, maybe they will not trust the government and there will be a unstable society... [pause for thought] I think this is not good."
"A society with no censorship is bad. One example is Germany... If before the Second World War there had been no censorship, we could have avoided the war." (as a colleague responded today when I related this, "I'm pretty sure there was censorship of things like "I like Jews"- by shooting you in the street". Another colleague who also has classes at my level said his students had also referenced WWII, but said that if there had been more censorship of books, like Mein Kampf, we could have avoided the war. What have they been taught?!)

There was also a reference to a period of Chinese history of about 10 years that was not taught or included in many books (at least not accurately) because it did not reflect well on the government and China in general, and talk about more abstract ideas like censorship in news being bad as we cannot get the whole truth if we only read government-approved stories, censorship of movies and books to protect kids and the like.

We then had a discussion about specific aspects of censorship that were mentioned in our book:
- Should publishing a book that some consider disrespectful to a certain religion be allowed?
- Should burning the national flag to protest government policies you don't agree with be allowed?
-Should distributing pornography be allowed?
-Should people be allowed to encourage young men to refuse military service because they disagree with a certain war or war in general?
-Should making fun of the U.S. president and making rude or disrespectful comments about him in the press be allowed?
-Should selling rap music with obscene lyrics or lyrics that encourage anti-police sentiment be allowed?

Some of these ideas were obviously easier to discuss and more relevant to the students than others, but mostly, they believed that publishing the book, selling porn to adults, making fun of the U.S. president and selling rap with such lyrics should be allowed. Selling porn to kids, burning the national flag and encouraging refusal of military service did not get so many supporting votes, though we did get a little debating going at least about flag burning. The idea that it was dangerous was shot down but a student saying "it is a powerful way to show that I disagree and it doesn't hurt anyone" got a few more responses from both sides. There seemed to be disagreement about what a flag stands for; if it was the country itself, then burning it to protest government decisions would be wrong, but if we hold it as a symbol of the government, then it might be more ok. Selling porn to children would be a good idea only in so far as it might encourage parents to explain things to them at an earlier age, but mostly, we unanimously voted for keeping kids' illusions about the birds and the bees. A student last year who was voting against distribution of pornography quickly changed his mind when another classmate pointed out that his vote would mean that he would not able to view it... there might have been a similar sentiment among my male students this time!
The military service question was a little harder to tackle with such platitudes as "it is our duty to defend the country" being thrown out but, for me, the best answer came from some who quite articulately pointed out that maybe the situation of war would make a different. She explained that, in her point of view, if the country is invading another one, refusing military service and encouraging same would be okay since it is not harming our own country. However, if our country was being invaded, it was our duty to protect it and therefore, refusing military service would be wrong, and encouraging others to follow us would be really bad. I really enjoy students thinking a little further and am very impressed when they can put such thoughts into coherent English words.
I managed to shock a few students by starting this discussion class with pictures and asking them whether they thought censoring them was a good idea by forming a line of opinion.











We definitely got some good conversations going about what it's reasonable and advisable to hide and what is unnecessary, among all the giggles those pics generated. I might be going for shock value, but I don't know.... I think they're old enough, no?

Not the right arena...

Some students believe that grammar exercises are the correct place to make political statements, as in the following examples:

Despite the fact that Japanese have killed thousands of Chinese people, they ignored it and told a lie to the public.
Although Taiwan is still free in the world, it will come back to china in the future.
In these two years, RMB is revaluing stably, whereas US is devaluing sustainedly.

And also, worryingly:
I eat vegetables in every meal although I worry about the insect in them! eww!!!!

Student businesses- class 3

Right after my second class left, we started round 3. It was quite awesome also, though I took fewer notes! Here is what I have and remember:

One group was selling clothes to give you superpowers. Their magic clothes (pictured worn by characters from The Incredibles) can give you the power of flight or fish-like swimming, among others. They were planning to get Phelps to advertise since he's basically awesome and already swims like a fish. Their choice of Phelps images though included one from SI which made him look like he was naked, wearing nothing but his Olympic medals and another that they had stretched sideways- he looked way more appealing that way, let me tell you! They then talked about guanxi and how "if you have a big relationship net, you can do anything"... well, maybe in China!

Another group offered to make your feelings known if you were too shy to do so. "Your feelings, we tell them" they declared! You could choose 3 different packages to tell people you loved them: one included a heart made of candles, another a hot air balloon ride floating over the city to a billboard announcing your feelings to the object of your affection, and the third was your very own set of fireworks, that might or might not have spelled out your thoughts word for word (sounds just ridiculous enough that they might have said it). Their flow chart of company employee policy went from recruitment through training to evaluation which would result in, appropriately, either praise or punishment. No word on what that might have entailed.

One quite creative and freaky group sold a product called "painted skin". Their product was simple: you have problems with your appearance- we give you a new face without the need for expensive and painful cosmetic surgery. The commercial was a tad un-PC with a kid not getting a job ("I failed in my interview for my face so I want to change it") but after his new painted skin makeover, he gets the job. Their claim? We will give you a new face, then we will give you a successful life!" Not sure how many would take them up on it as the price tag for this service was 1,000,000RMB (that's so little money)!

An ad for an Ebay-style service involved too sad kids whining about one getting another mp3 player from her boyfriend instead of the cellphone she asked for (boo hoo now I have 2 mp3 players) and one having received his second cellphone (aww, poor baby has 2 phones). Conveniently, the website helps them match and switch uneccessary technology... the wonders of modernity!

The last group made quite an impression with their $1 bodyguard. The repeated chorus of "one dollar" throughout the introductory section of their presentation made quite an impression. "Bodyguard of 1Dollar" doesn't actually fight for you, but you can call him and he will shine a flashlight at you and dial the local police number to get you some help. That's why he's so cheap. The advertising did have a guy assaulting another guy (pretending to be a helpless girl) with the words "your money, your body!" Even funnier if you know this mild-mannered student! They also aimed to "service the whole country" at some point in the future (cringe!) and claimed that I was so confident in their venture that I, myself, had invested 100 million RMB starting capital! They concluded with "don't you think it's significant to give money to charity? Then contact us and get a bodyguard!" Not sure about that!

Quite the marathon post and in fact, the marathon day of grading, but I am so proud of the students for being so creative. I suspect some ideas were not orginal, but the presentations were put together so quickly that they really impressed me! I'd even consider using some of those products!

One thing I both love and hate about oral presentation day, though, is discovering how good the quiet students are. In some cases, it might actually be better for my sanity not to have to struggle to decipher what they say on a regular basis, but it would definitely not hurt them to speak. In others, the pronunciation, grammar and fluency are so good that I wonder what keeps them silent- is it shyness? laziness? boredom? I'd be happy to get suggestions!

Student businesses- class 2

In the afternoon, I returned for the following entertaining startups:

This class opened with "Damnbowl guys" who help you break up with your girlfriend for a low low price. Apparently, "danbo" in Chinese means something like that. I didn't get the joke, but they did. Their phone number, 666, might be too hard to remember for some people, but a student's suggestion that they just remember "sexy, sexy, sexy" (written across some rather bootylicious female outlines) probably helped. The advertising was sightly disturbing and possibly a tad homophobic and gratuitous with a guy calling for help to break up with his girlfriend. The plan gets approved and when the lady in question arrives to meet with her future ex-boyfriend he is distracted by two girls walking by, giggling and holding hands. The girls then proceed to pet each other on the head and arms and hug in ways that made me feel uncomfortable! The girlfriend accuses her guy of checking them out and tells him that they are "homosexuals!" in a disgusted tone. She then rants about how her parents don't approve of homosexuality and how she finds it immoral. He breaks up with her by simply saying "oh! I need to tell you, I'm a homosexual too!" then walks off and hugs another guy. Priceless and ever-so-slightly offensive and inappropriate.

The other groups were less ridiculous, but still had their "did they really say that?!" moments. Par exemple: the next group's product "Cleaning Panacea: the only cleaning machine you'll need" is so awesome that a famous dancer/ singer person has a speech bubble sayig "Using cleaning panacea makes me want to dance while I am cleaning" and another girl begs her boyfriend to get her one too- "it's a great gift for your girlfriend!" "Why not your boyfriend?!" I ask.

A group of Doraemon fans were selling magical items from the show/ cartoon/ whatever, including a door to get anywhere (I am here, then once I step through it and "oh my god!" I am at home) and memorizing bread with stuff written on it that you instantly remember after you eat the bread.

One group was having some communication problems when they couldn't recognize their own names when called by another student. After they got over this fairly major hurdle, they introduced their product "Heal Can" from "King Air". These are cans of air from all over the world (high mountain air, ocean breezes etc) mixed with chemicals to help you enhance your looks (no need for makeup) or to make you fitter (you no longer need that gym membership). A handy robot (aptly played by a student) can help you by dispensing a can or refilling one you already have and teaching you how to use the cans themselves. The advertisement also included one of my students walking us through the steps of air collection with the words "go to the cliff! go to the cliff! don't fall off!!" and another pretending to climb the air conditioning unit.

The next project was for a home exchange website, a la The Holiday. Their slogan? "Exchange your home, exchange your life". The girl who was explaining the process had the word life accidentally projected onto her decolletage the whole time she was talking, which I found both artistic and awkward. This group also declared that "if you want your company to do well, you should spend money" and their service was "quite expensive... oh it's quite cheap" by turns.

3GB (3 girls + 1 boy) offered "perfect services, serve perfectness" with their Shopping guys' checkroom. Thir slogan was short and to the point: "Waiting? Enjoying!" This service was described as a room where girls can check their men, like they'd check a coat or bag, so that they can shop without their boyfriends or husbands complaining about the waste of time and money. However, as the man's job is to carry things, the service also provides a handsome escort to carry heavy things and protect the money. Also, a good way to have walking advertising, as they pointed out. The men would have access to drinks, sports on TV, movies, internet games etc... all the stereotypical male entertainments. At the opening of the service, it was promised that they would recruit more staff so that "our staff can have intercourse with the customers"... sketchy? They meant interaction/ provide more personalized service but... yeah, lost in translation. I ran this idea by Philippe who was less than excited about the handsome male escort, but other than that, quite willing to patronize this kind of establishment.

The 7th group offered the services of Pet Pet Love, which might have been copied from a real service- I choose to remain ignorant. Their group ran a pet hotel/ cafeteria/ salon and spa for animals of busy people, vacationers etc. They ahd some pretty amusing pictures of celebrities with their animals and one photoshopped to show Putin shaking hands with a student in the group. One hilarious option was the swimming pool/ diving area for hamsters... not sure how that would work out.

The closing performance was about an "idea sharing" business. For example, you need to get your girlfriend a gift. "here, dear, have my credit card, buy what you want"- "Oh! It's so boring!"
Therefore, you invest in this company that says "we need people, we need their brains". Sounds like it's a zombie powered firm, but at least, their ideas are better than yours!

Student businesses- class 1

Turns out I can access the homepage and post blog entries, I just can't read Blogspot... curiouser and curiouser.

At last though, here are the comments and notes from my presentations. I tend to write random notes about funny things they say (on purpose and accidentally) while they talk and I grade so some things might not make sense. I'll post this in 3 more manageable sections:

Class 1:

R-Zone: a bus that has a massage/ relaxing treatments room in back

One group offered to sell a robot superboyfriend: "if you have no boyfriend, he will be there for you. if you have a boyfriend already, he will be stronger than him". One of the students was the robot in the commercial they wrote, then was also the CFO. In his words "I am the financial manager. Also, the product!"

The next group sold materials and offered counseling for people with insomnia because "if you don't sleep well, your money will fly away or you will fall in the river unfortunately and forget how to swim"... wouldn't want that happening! To solve the problems, they have emplyed some "scientologists" who have some knowledge and technical skills... I worry! It is also good to get advice and more sleep because that way, you can (hallelujah!) avoid awkward conversations such as:
"-I have found my true love!
-I know! It's me!
-No it's not! because of your panda eyes!"

After this, I discovered, that there is a way to go back in time with a new time machine. The advertising for this went like so: "Do you miss your ancestors? I'm sure you so, so you can travel back in time to chat with them. Or do you like to go back to the Jurassic? You can go back and enjoy the deep forests and the dinosaurs"... I'm pretty sure that Spielberg already showed us just how bad an idea that is!

My next group of businessmen wanted to market paintbrushes made of baby hair to help you keep memories of your child's first few days. But if you want uch memories and the idea of such a thing makes you uncomfortable (as it did me!) you can opt for wax molds of their little hands and feet, which, though I know it's a real business creeps me out somewhat.
This same group uttered the line "advertising for a company is like a face for human beings; without a face, how can you be known?" before they teased us about the location of their business: "do you know why we choose Hangzhou? I don't want to tell you, because it is a secret!" Their phone number 13411988888, I believe, has a special meaning too.

The second to last group started their presentation with an imagined scene from Heroes where Peter Petrelli who can absorb powers meets with a friend who is powerless. They eat their dinner and Peter falls dead while his powerless friend survives... why?! because of a tiny smart chip in the other guy's watch! This chip can not only help you keep a balanced diet by analyzing your nutrition and make suggestions, but also reverse harmful chemical processes in your stomach and counter poison. Pretty amazing, huh? The students' company was called HK (do you know what it stands for? Hong Kong? No, you are smart, but I am smarter!) and they included a fashion show to showcase how the chip could be incorporated into a student's, a fashionista's or a worker's outfit.

I had a straggler group the week after whose product was "magic seeds to grow all kinds of food". They marketed them under the name McDonDon, a very obvious rip-off of McDonald's complete with yellow arches. An awesome idea though, with such things are icre-cream seeds, hamburger seeds, spaghetti seeds and the like. Just add water and you get the real thing. Perfect!

Playing catchup... again

I know I'd promised myself to be good and blog regularly but it just didn't happen. Also, Blogspot just got blocked in China which isn't going to encourage me to post. If anyone is reading, just remind me you care or ask questions, then I'll feel useful and get my act together!
Anyway, right after my last post we had the English Festival semi-finals. Rehearsal all afternoon Saturday which was very frustrating as nothing was going according to plan: singers were late, dancers were AWOL, a band took 45 minutes to set up, then didn't practice, speakers were really loud or really quiet, the music sometimes had too many backup singers, the powerpoints weren't 100% official-looking, the MCs' clothing had some issues... it was a neverending list of worries. Then, the speech contest went passably well, with the student/ friend I had been coaching making it to the finals along with 2 of my former students, a student of HP's and one of M's. Sadly my current students who were involved didn't make it, but they did pretty well anyway. The only disappointment was the abysmal performance of the purported star of the show, a senior law student who forgot his speech several times.
During Singing Contest, my favourite act (a current student and her partner who I had in my class my first semester) did really well as did most of the other singers. The songs were, sadly, all slow and love-y (apart from the last Avril Lavigne entry) but the entertaining clothes and mostly good singing helped make the evening less tedious than I'd anticipated. For the most part, the contestants did way better than they had during any of the workshops and rehearsals and I was really impressed by a few. The ones who were chosen for the final were basically the ones I expected and I hope they do as well in front of a bigger audience and can give our guests a run for their money (might secretly be hoping that pair I mentioned is so awesome they win)!
After the semifinals, I had the joy of grading quizzes and written assignments. The quizzes went fast, as they usually do, and were graded and ready to be returned by the end of the day I got them. Not so for the papers! As a level, we decided (more or less enthusiastically) to assign both a resume and a cover letter. As most of the students have never written either one in Chinese, let alone English, it was quite a challenge for them. And a challenge to grade. There were some stellar ones that might have gotten interviews and some that were so mediocre I wondered if the students had been in class when I assigned the topic. There were also the exciting and entertaining quotes, such as "the snakes called "JKAOMT AMERICAN FIRES". It is very crisp and delicious", "You can touch me by my telephone number" and "I have been responsible for surprising the accounting and billing department". One student claimed he worked for a long "pyramid of time" and another had the award of "Sock dolager of military training"... nope, I didn't get it either!
In the end the scores were less delicious than the AMERICAN FIRES and the students seemed to realize that. Now, a couple of weeks after a quiz, an oral and a paper, I'm asking them to start on the next written assignment, a compare and contrast essay about culture. It promises to be interesting.

Other than work, I haven't done much! I went to a J-School party last week, where they celebrated the 5th anniversary of the school, and I got to see the dance team which features a number of current, former and known students perform a nifty show where the umbrella-carrying statues of the public art by the reservoir came to life during a rainstorm. I was whelmed. :) That night I also went clubbing/ bar-ing with a colleague and it was quite fun! I got to meet some of the downtown laowai who were quite the step up from the last batch I knew! I went back downtown for a drink and a dance this Friday night, with almost all my foreign colleagues to support another colleague who was making his DJing debut. Sadly he only got to play 3 or 4 songs, but his selection did get us moving more than the 'professionals' who are actually regularly employed there.

That's about all until I get my act together and summarize those oral presentations I've babbled about several times! Next week we do feng shui and design a house with good feng shui!

Busy as bee

You know how the work just comes crashing down and even when you're pretty darn busy you volunteer to do a gazillion more things? It's a little like that here, especially since when I'm not actually scheduled all day, I'm worrying about overscheduling my life!

Friday was fine as far as I can remember with EC in the evening watching Philippe behaving like a cartoon for an hour explaining circumlocution, drawing and miming to explain words you don't know (way too much energy and lack of time management, but entertaining and I think the students learned something). Well, I was working on the quiz till midnight after EC and met with my speech contest coachee for an hour right before EC, but other than that, it was fine!

Saturday I had auditions for the Opening Night of English Festival from 10am to 1pm then a singing contest workshop from 1pm til after 3pm and I was feeling sick most of that time.

Sunday we Frisbeed in the moring and I turned a nice shade of splotchy purple then we went downtown, got massages and spent time not working ahead of this week of insanity. Then I planned class when I got home. Probably the most relaxing day I'll have for quite a while.

I'd planned to make dumplings Monday but that fell through due to Chinese, speech contest coaching, running errands and more auditions in the evening.

Tuesday was no better: 6 hours of class, 1 hour meeting for English Festival, 1 hour singing contest workshop. The evening made it better when Lok and Daniel (very cute, sweet student couple) came over to make dinner and I managed to find a little time to make a chocolate cake. HongNgoc and Micah came over and joined in our little slice of normal life.

Wednesday, there should have been dumplings, but that's still in the works, due to writing of multiple exercises for quiz review for a few students who seem to think that my day between classes is entirely devoid of entertainment so they need to find ways to help me fill my time. Most students are fine but a couple (this morning) seemed shocked and appalled that I hadn't had time to go online and add the latest powerpoint to our class site and write more exercises between 6pm Tuesday and 8am today. Wednesday ended with office hours- no students.

Today is pretty busy too: 6 hours of class, a level meeting where I have to pretend I know what I'm doing (and should be getting ready for now!) and 1.5 hours at English Lounge. The good part of today is that my active role in class is fairly minimal as it's presentation time. I'll post some highlights of students' business plans to take over the world. The assignment was to come up with a business plan and then present information about the company including budgeting their 1,000,000RMB for the first year and making an advertisement. It's fun and they have some great ideas.

Off I go back to the land of work.

What is art?

One of my favorite things about teaching is asking the students for personal responses to weird questions, so before we finished talking about the arts, I played Albinoni's Adagio in G minor and asked them to answer the question "What is art?" I'm personally happy I never had to answer it, but among the many misuses of vocabulary words such as haunting, mournful, exuberant and repertoire, I found a few well thought out responses and interesting sentences of which I want to share some excerpts, spelled and punctuated as they did:

Class 1:
It doesn't need to be beautiful, but it touches your heart.
The music is like a river moving in my heart.
Art should be something that can share the same feelings and comfort our souls.
It seems a time machine creates art (Vango's paintings were a kind of bullshit when he was alive, now they are considered art).
Art is created with emotiong. It will tell you stories or feelings without words.

Class 2:
The monrody of sad music will touch my heart.
Vango's paintings play an important role in the exploration of mankind's soul and heart.
Without art, maybe we can eat but we cannot live.
They can soothe, inspire and unite us.
Art is the bridge between artists and audience.
Art is something that can brings us to another place.

Class 3:
Art can delight, alert or comfort us. Anything that can evoke such feelings can be termed art in my mind.
Art is something that can affect people in a spiritual way.
Art in an instrument to release people's emotions,
Art can give us a tool to soothe our pain.

I'm pretty impressed with their creativity. I don't think I could ever come up with some of those turns of phrase. Now, all I need to work on is ridding them of the tendency to say "maybe" all the time and to use "such as.... and so on" and "in a word.....[gazillion words]". Their writing, definitely a work in progress.

Off Topic

Last night was the weekly installment of the craziness known as English Corner. Last year, for the first semester, this club was exiled to the dance room complete with terrible acoustics and gradually declining attendance. This year, it appears to have started on a high note!
By the time I got there, about 10 minutes before it was due to start, all the chairs were taken and there were 2 rows of people standing at the back. It had also already begun, I guess to calm the assembled masses. HongNgoc, the leader of EC and subject of "Teacher Conversation" was supposed to give a talk about tips for improving the students' English and making them more confident when speaking to foreigners. I said I could help and before I knew it, the interviewers of TC were informed that I would be doing the talk with her.
At the given time we were introduced and asked questions like "how can students overcome their fear of making mistakes?" (get over it), "how do you (teachers) react when noone wants to volunteer or it's always the same people who volunteer?" (we get sad, then just pick on the quiet ones... mwahaha), "should we be working on learning slang and idioms to make the conversations go more smoothly and to sound more native?" (you can, but if you overuse it, you'll sound like a weird movie-quoting machine) and, bizarrely, "to the teacher with red hair, is that your natural hair color?" (my dear, noone naturally has hair this color). Why the student thought that this was a question people wanted the answer to or that it was the right time to ask it, I have no idea!
The biggest issue, other than departing from the topic quite so thoroughly, was that the students couldn't keep quiet while others were speaking. Be it tomyself, HongNgoc, the MCs or to other audience members, it was basically impossible for the students to listen quietly. We asked them to be quiet, I walked around and sushed them, we all tried but totally in vain. They could not physically listen quietly. Have they learned this impressive skill, or is it genetic?

Yet another China mystery to add to the list!

False Advertising

This country is full of it, and I keep falling for the delicious-looking cookies that turn out to be little better than sweet Ritz with tiny bits of chocolate, the reasonable-seeming hair colors that claim to be 'Terracotta' and turn out to be nothing short of purple (not offensively so, but still, blatently NOT terracotta!), the 'milkshake' mix which was supposed to make delicious chocolate milkshakes but basically turned out to just make milk vaguely synthetic strawberry flavoured and the CD of Xmas carols which was a weird collection of karaoke-style songs with not entirely accurate lyrics and cartoons as background. There was also the hair dye that should have been auburn-ish and turned me an odd shade of dark copper blonde.
This short rant of the most memorable WalMart lies comes as result of using the hair dye and trying the cookies in the space of 2 hours and not being entirely satisfied with my purchases.

The Cellist of Sarajevo, take 2 (now with musical accompaniment)

And here are the results of my students' second attempt at creativity:

Class 1: This piece of music makes me think of Prison Break. It tells the story of Michael Scofield and [someone] escaping from prison in Panama. As they are running away, the police shoot at them and [the other guy] is wounded. Scofield stops running to help him but [a third guy] is still trying to escape and yelling"run, run". Scofield is sitting holding [the wounded guy] who decides to try to make it even though he is hurt really badly. As Scofield supports him and they try to escape, Scofield also gets shot and they both die.

I don't watch Prison Break, but am told that the chances of Scofield getting killed are very slim. I also, obviously, have no idea who the other people are!

Class 2: This makes me think of an old man thinking about his life. He is sad, like the music is sad. Sometimes he thinks of a good memory and the music is a little happier. But most of the time it is sad.

Not bad, but very 'detail-lite'.

Class 3: I don't know. It is a sad music [sic]. Maybe it is about people dead in a war.

Yes... that would be sad... Almost 7 minutes of music and noone could provide more than "it is sad". That makes me sad!

It is a good piece though (by David Wilde, performed by Yo-yo Ma) and I highly recommend it to anyone, especially those who like sad cello music!

The Cellist of Sarajevo

In class, right now, we’re doing a unit on arts. The listening section was about “boosting brain power through the arts” (Mozart effect, keeping music in schools etc). It’s appealing to me because there’s plenty of material to bring in and if I had time I could try some cool experiments with the students. Things being as they are though, it’s mostly adding a youtube video here and an abstract reasoning test there.

When I read the first passage of the reading section though, I was surprised because it was well-written and interesting (unusual for our texts). It’s about Vedran Smailovic, the Cellist of Sarajevo. The reading talks about the world premiere of the cello piece of the same name, composed by David Wilde and played, on that occasion, by Yo-yo Ma. It also tells the story of Smailovic who, after witnessing the deaths of 22 people from a mortar shell, went down to the crater, systematically at 4pm (time of the bombing) for 22 days and played Albinoni’s Adagio in G-minor in memory of the dead. A striking story, if I’ve ever heard one.

Anyway, the chapter opens with a picture of a man in a tuxedo, sitting at a cello in a cemetery. His eyes are covered by his hand and it seems like he might be in front of a grave. His right hand holds the bow but he isn’t playing. I asked my students, in groups to come up with the story behind the picture. They hadn’t read the story of Smailovic so I was really just working out their imagination. Here are some of their answers:

A long time ago, this man had a music teacher but he didn’t appreciate him and didn’t want to study with him. In the end though, he became famous for his cello playing so he looked for the teacher to tell him and thank him. Unfortunately, he discovered that the man had died. Now he is at his grave and plays a composition for him.

When he was a child, the man told his parents that he wanted to be a musician. They were very poor, but because he wanted this so much, his parents worked very hard and eventually were able to send him to music academy. He became very famous but as he got famous his parents became sick. He was worried about them but had to go perform a very important concert far away. He came back as soon as possible, but his parents died before he made it back. Now he is playing for them and is overcome with sadness and shame for having chosen his career over them.

The man is playing for his family and friends who were the victims of a big war. Maybe the cemetery is full of war victims and he is also playing for all of them, to calm their spirits and help them rest in peace.

The man is playing for his dead lover. When he was younger he met a woman. They were both poor but because he was a good musician, they put together all his money so he could study music and become famous. Eventually he did become famous, but she was sick and died. He wasn’t there when she died because he was at a performance, but now he comes to play for her every week to remember her and honour her memory.

There were more in this vein, where a beloved family member/ spouse was supportive but has died while the musician was away. The details varied, but the theme was common.

Then there were the bizarre answers:

The man is in the cemetery playing for his wife who died a long time ago. He has been doing this for many years, but today is different. Today he plays so well and with such strong emotion that the ghosts are pulled out of their graves and come out to hear him. He is hiding his face because he is scared of them.

He comes to play for his wife every week. He practices a new piece for her every time (or plays the same one) and always is very careful to play well, to ease her spirit. Today though, he doesn’t know why, but he cannot remember the piece he was going to play so he stops in the middle and hides his face in sadness and shame.

He is such a bad cellist, that noone will listen to him so he can only play in the cemetery where noone will need to hear him.

He is a composer as well as a cellist and comes to the cemetery for inspiration. Today, he cannot find any inspiration so he is sad and hides his face in frustration.

Alternatively, He is hiding his face to concentrate and get more inspiration.

And last of all, while there was a very large black bee buzzing around the classroom:

The man comes to the cemetery to play for the dead people and help them be at peace. He does this every week. Today is different though because he cannot finish his playing. This is because a very large bee has stung him in the eye, so he covers his face because he is in great pain.

So creative sometimes! I can’t wait to see what they make of the actual piece of music tomorrow and what new stories I get.

A Chinese idea of utopia

I just got back from a whirlwind tour of Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai in about 6 days. I'll post more about it in the next couple of days when it's not really late, but I wanted to mention something I encountered when wandering through the Shanghai Museum (awesome museum, by the way, and worth the incredibly long wait in "line") that really struck me:

A Chinese painter's works are exhibited in the Painting Gallery and one is a representation of his idea of utopia. It's a landscape completely devoid of people. There are mountains, trees, a river, probably a few fish, but not a single human.

I'm not going to lie, after a week of being shoved, stared at, honked at, almost run over, squeezed between people with varying levels of concern about their personal hygiene and of getting angry at the rudeness of Chinese people to each other (a few were yelling to each other during a traditional opera performance in a garden in Suzhou- squeeky Chinese singing + squeeky instruments + yelling over it= my personal aural hell), my utopia would definitely also be "people-lite". I wouldn't necessarily ban all people from it, but they'd have to take a test before getting in!

So far this semester

I'm not even going to try to catch anyone reading this up with life since my last LJ post (roughly 5 months ago!). However, there have already been a series of weird/ noteworthy events since I returned to Shantou almost a month ago. Therefore, so far this semester, I have....

• Resettled into the apartment, first with Jamin as a very temporary roommate and now with Daniel (only slightly less temporary)
• Been sad that Bucket (the kitten rescued last semester) had been adopted
• Been reunited with Bucket for the semester (his new pet human not having factored in the roommate issue when she took him home)
  
• Met 7 new ELC teachers, all of whom are nifty colleagues
• Returned to Xiamen (I went last semester with Philippe and his parents) with 2 of the new group and spent 3 days between the beach and the non-Shantou scenery- it was awesome!
• Gotten 2 leg massages
• Eaten long awaited sushi (far too expensive in Paris)
  
• Taken part in Freshman Orientation, complete with "Going to the Movies" skit and the Hokey Pokey
• Graded 87 oral placement tests and over 100 written placement tests, some of which were pretty entertaining and others really impressive
  
• Have become a level coordinator, which just means I have to send more emails than a regular level person
• Celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese-style, by eating mooncakes and youzi (kinda like a cross between an apple and a grapefruit) and staring at the moon
  
• Have had 2 meetings for English Festival and still no decided list of universities who will come compete
• Have prepared and taught 2 sets of classes (and really should get on with planning prep 3 since I teach it in 24 hours)
• Have met, taken pictures of, read quick bios about and assigned homework to 105 new students (there might be 3 more at some point)
• Have had at least 4 students confused about the homework
• Have been to EL where I was interrogated about my dislike of beer, my hometown (France...), introduced to Haerbin, asked about the meaning of my Chinese name (then asked again right after I had answered- it means "delicate/ skillful cloud), had someone snap his fingers at me to get my attention and where it was explained to me by a confused student that because his computer is old, if he looks things up on the internet, he'll get less good results than if he uses a new computer (whaaat?!)
• Have booked tickets to Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou for my October vacation (starting tomorrow night, already!)
• Made several trips to Wal-Mart, land of the laowai
• Blended several recipes together to make a new one for Roasted Red Pepper, Onion and Tomato Quiche for a pot-luck
• Hosted said pot-luck
• Swum in both the pool and reservoir
• Been creeped out by a freshman called Benz.

I think that's it! Oh yeah, and...

• Procrastinated away significant parts of my time since I started teaching by doing "useful things" like setting up mail forwarding and this new blog....
  

Temporarily Displaced

Due to the strange instability of posting to blogs and accessing them in general in China, I'm having to switch hosts for a while. Blogspot is accessible here, but not Livejournal. I was, until about an hour ago, able to get to Livejournal anyway but now, it's blocked. I'm hoping that will change, but until then, I'll be over here.
Someone mentioned a couple days ago that I'm a posting camel- nothing for a really long time, then a huge life-catching up post. I'm planning to be better this semester, especially as I look towards changing locations and jobs and try to get my mind around leaving this crazy place.