The Man in China Home

Disclaimer: The opinions on this website are mine and do not reflect the views of Jiangnan University, Lambton College, or anybody else.

Gophers in the park in Winnipeg, Canada, at the start of our summer holiday.
The Man in China headline.

Chinese Word of the Day: 忙得
(mang2 de) = busy

September 23, 2012 Apparently I'm not Updating Often Anymore

I've made updating this website too complicated, and I simply haven't had the time to do updates this month. My sister Catherine is visiting from Canada. She's been here three weeks, and she flies home this coming Saturday. Between rushing off to various sites of interest with her, preparing classes, and teaching there's been no time for website maintenance.

Student Polls - what they think about things.

It's very easy to think that these students, who dress so very much like their counterparts in Canada, are the same as our students back home. Every once in a while I get their opinion on something, and I'm often surprised.

As part of teaching about generating a thesis for an essay, I told my students about Li Yinhe, a sociologis, sexologist and actrivist for LGBT rights in China. Li Yinhe pointed out that nobody had been charged for twenty years under the law forbidding orgies. There is no such law in any modern first world nation, and having such a law on the books makes China look authoritarian and repressive. She was immediately vilified in the press, with many writers calling her a slut who was trying to destroy Chinese culture.
The authorities looked at the situation and realized that Li Yinhe was right. They hadn't charged anybody for twenty years. So they found somebody to charge. Ma Yaohai was a Nanjing university associate professor. He'd left an unhappy marriage, found the swinger community on the Internet, and started attending and eventually organizing parties of consenting adults with the understood purpose of enjoying sex with each other. Ma Yaohai did not think he was breaking the law, and did not see any reason why he should get into trouble. But the authorities felt different. He was charged and sentenced to three and a half years in jail. "Ma admitted the facts, but argued that, as all the defendants were voluntary adult participants, they were not guilty of any criminal activities. However, the chief judge said group licentiousness infringed public order. "(China Daily)

To a westerner this looks like utter hypocricy. How does a private party held for consenting adults infringe the public order? Who was hurt? Who is the victim of this "crime"? And naturally I expected my students to agree with this. I would have been shocked if I hadn't asked this question in previous classes.

Picture: The class voted to keep the professor in jail.

Picture: I think I'm seeing a trend here.

The thinking of these students is totally beyond me. But the fact is obvious. If China is a repressive country, it's because the Chinese like it this way. They do not see the value in individual freedom, and feel perfectly justified in telling others what kind of private behavior is acceptable, and enforcing their view with severe punishment. It's their country. And foreigners coming here expressing liberal attitudes might not be contradicted, but they won't gain respect and they probably won't convince anybody to adopt a western view of individual rights.

I did have one class of liberal dissenters, so I must be careful not to paint all these students with the same brush. It was a close vote, but this class would not have jailed the professor.

Picture: But one class was liberal and dissenting. They would have set the professor free.

Here are a couple of other informal opinion polls from my students. Not as shocking as the attitude to the hapless Nanjing associate professor, but somewhat surprisng none the less.

Picture: Most of the students don't give money to beggars.

Picture: Most of the class does not want to be a leader.

Class vote: Arranged marrriage is not out of the question.

And that's all I have time for this evening. It's past midnight and I still have marking to do before tomorrow afternoon.

September 4, 2012 Back in Wuxi, China

We landed on Saturday, were called to an orientation early on Sunday morning, and hit the floor teaching on Monday. Whew. It's been a jet lagged scramble but here we are and I'm finally updating this site after not even looking at it for the entire summer. If I had any regula readers, they are probably gone by now.

Summer Report

We flew to Vancouver, then on to Winnipeg. Highlights of the summer included a family reunion in Alberta, a train ride from Saskatoon back to Winnipeg, a drive down to Minneapolis for ConVergence, a big science fiction convention. After our Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Minnisota adventures we flew out to B.C. to visit my family and friends. We had six nights on my son Casey's boat in Ganges Harbour, Saltspring Island. A few days in Gibsons Landing. And then, before we knew it, it was time to get on the plane and return to China.

The train station staff in Nanjing assemble for their pre-work pep talk. Nanjing, China

Chinese Word of the Day: 耳语
(er3 yu3 literally "ear words") n./v. whisper

June 20, 2012 A Month Since my Last Post. Been busy.

We've been really busy with the end of the term, and with working up our song list in case Via Rail decides we can ride for free if we will entertain the other passengers. Great motivation. So this should be a massive update. I'll start with today.

Breaking news: it is now June 23, and we fly home tomorrow morning. It's taken me this long to get this update done. Have a great summer.

Teeth Cleaning Before Heading Home

It was time for our anual teeth cleaning. Actually, I've been having gum problems so I've been getting my teeth cleaned every couple of months.

Ruth getting her teeth cleaned, Wuxi, China

At first I was reluctant to have dental work done in China. Not any more. Their equipment is cutting edge and their technicians are excellent. Best of all, their price is a fraction of what dental work would cost me in Canada. For example, cleaning our teeth cost about twenty five dollars Canadian, and this xray of my teeth, taken with a machine the likes of which I've never seen before, cost about twenty bucks. I don't think I could get this in Canada for under a couple of hundred.

An exdray of my teeth. All of them. Taken in Wuxi, China
Remember those uncomfortable cardboard squares we had to bite down on. Not any more. This maching zipped around my head and took an xray of all the teeth at once.

Now it turns out my old caps should be replaced. I'll find out what it costs to do this back in Canada, but I suspect it would pay for the air ticket to have it done in Wuxi. The price here for the high quality all ceramic molar caps is $564 Canadian. There are cheapers ones available for $240, but this seems like a bad place to economize, so I'll go delux with these. I'll have the two in the upper left of this xray done in September, and hopefully this will calm down my gums.

Dinner with Students

H'orderves and elegance. H'orderves. Delicious. H'orderve. Tofu.

I had some misapprehesions about the Lambton students. I'd been told that they were mostly spoiled brats, underachievers, xiao huang di (Little emperors). But that's not how I experienced them. Certainly many of them have more discretionary money than my Jiangnan University students, and that gives them a confidence that other students might lack. But mostly I found them to be the usual sweet Chinese young people. Like young people everywhere, they tend to only work as hard as they think they need to work. Who can blame them for that?

Teresa and Kevin, North American College of Jiangnan University Students, Wuxi, China Teresa and Edward, North American College of Jiangnan University Students, Wuxi, China Teresa and her boyfriend, Kevin, or off for a couple of weeks in Switzerland this summer.

Lucky, North American College of Jiangnan University Student, Wuxi, China Sarah and Dorothy, North American College of Jiangnan University Students, Wuxi, China

At the end of this term, one of my classes invited Ruth and me out for a dinner. It was the usual Chinese feast. Elegantly presented and very tasty food. And the dinner turned into a mixture of Chinese lesson for us and English lesson for the students. Win win all around.

To make it even better, Teresa volunteered to exchange our money for us. This saved us a great hassle and we are grateful. Thanks Teresa.

I have no complaints about the work ethic of these students. Great kids.

Watermelon, the standard end to a Chinese feast, Wuxi, China
Watermelon is the traditional finish to most Chinese feasts. Cleans the palate and refreshes.

Wrapping up the Term, and Another Year in China

This is Winkle. We had dinners with students and former students in our last couple of weeks. Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
Our friend Winkle met us down town to deliver a huge box of lobsters from her home town. We took her to dinner at our favourite Tepanyaki Japanese restaurant.

Another one of our favourite people in China, our dear friend Jenny. Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China Jenny is getting married next year and we're invited to the wedding. Wuxi, China
And Jenny came by the campus to have a visit, and to gift us with some special tea. Jenny now lives and works in Shanghai. She's getting married in October, and we're invited.

We went for dinner in the village with our friend Water. I'm going to miss the friends, and the street food. Wuxi, China Street food in Shitangcun, Wuxi, China
Another young friend, Water, came by and we all went out for street food in the nearby village. I'm going to miss these young friends, and the street food.

Tibetans Bearing Gifts

Our Tibetan friends dropped by to wish us a great summer. As usual the Tibetans came bearing gifts. These people are just wonderful.
Our Tibetan friends came by to wish us a happy summer, and of course they brought gifts - elegant gold Tibetan book marks.

Nanjing with Panda

Ruth and Panda in Nanjing, our gift shopping day.

Panda is now living in Nanjing, about a fortry minute train ride from Wuxi. We met her there for gift shopping.

Nanjing has a classic market. Great fun to wander through. Nanjing, China

So many colourful things to think about buying as gifts. The question is, could we find it in Chinatown, Victoria? The market in Nanjing.

Then we dragged Panda back to Wuxi for a visit with GouGou, and us of course.

Bike Helmets Showing Up in China

We were years in China before we saw a single person wearing a bike helmet. Now they are starting to appear, just as I predicted they would.

We're seeing more and more bike helmets here. It's very new. Wuxi, China

In fact, we saw four helmeted riders in one short ride to the supermarket. Amazing. Wuxi, China

We saw four bike helmets on a recent ride to Auchang, the local supermarket. It's happening. I've been telling students that in twenty years they will see helmets everywhere, and I want them to remember the crazy foreigner who told them it would happen. I'll never know, of course, but I'm hoping some students get a smile out of this someday.

China's Dragonflies

I love dragonflies. They eat mosquito larva when they themselves are under the water int he larval stage. Then when the mosquitoes pupate, the dragonflies follow them through their life cycle and eat the mature mosquitoes. How cool is that?

Dragonflies, my favourite bugs. They eat mosquitoes. Wuxi, China

The dragon flies we are seeing around campus right now don't look like our big blue jobbies. They are slightly smaller, with a bright yellow band on their abdomen. I found this dead one on the road. The yellow band has faded a bit, with dehydration. Alive they are much more vivid than this.

Comment on this Post
First time comments will not appear until they have been approved.
No new comment will not appear until you have refreshed this page.

To the archives to see June 09, 2012 to May 20, 2012