Soon The Dancers Arrive: Living and Working in China
There are no stars in China
or blue skies.
I feel sorry for the children
heavy haze constantly
shrouds the mountains
hillsides, the urban-scapes
obscured
China the abused country
every river,
stream and creek, every inch of sky
each piece of land, corrupted.
There are no stars in China
or blue skies…
just progress.
While in China my wife and I attended a New Year’s Eve celebration put on by the Jinhua High School Students and staff in their massive gym. I think the venue is large enough to seat about 3000 students. The Chinese have a propensity to build in monolithic proportions. It was a cold night and the thing about public buildings south of Shanghai is that they have no central heating. Think of a rural hockey arena in Canada.
We took our seats as two third year students appeared beside us to serve as our translators for the evening and to guide us through the performance. The gym was darkened, except for the neon like plastic lights that all students were waving and throwing high into the air. We didn’t really need a translator for many of the numbers because many were English songs.
My school, where I served as principal, had a population of about 250, but was really a school within a school. Trillium College was like as English Department housed within the Jinhua walled complex. Students from here were the elite of the province and graduated with both a Chinese diploma and an Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Most of the graduating class proceed to universities in Southern Ontario and register mainly in Math, Science and Business programs, a liberal arts education has not as yet found traction.
This is a wet climate (monsoon) and everyone owns several umbrellas, even when it snows, so to have the song, “Singing in the Rain” preformed in English was no big surprise. There was a song originally done by an American singer, Britney Spears. Other classes did themes relating to traditional Chinese opera meeting modern dance. There was a range of talent and although we sat in the cold, dark gym we were enjoying ourselves.
What we enjoyed most was the presentation by the Chinese teachers. The students went wild. The teachers teamed as couples, each dressed in formal wear and couple by couple male to female in turn sang romantic songs and in a scandalous show of affection held hands. Our student translators told us this would be great cause for gossip. What I appreciated about this was the fact that the student response was overwhelming and innocent. They were thrilled at the sight of their teachers showing affection. Our translators were quick to add that Chinese love romance. I thought how this same act in Canada would not resonant well with a student population in the same way, as it would likely be seen as corny and outdated and open to ridicule as a result. I’m thankful that these Chinese students are still socially and culturally back in the fifties.
One theme that the school likes to drill into the students here is patriotism. I can remember a day in my own youth in Canada when I sang, with hand over heart, “God Save the Queen” and in later years “Oh Canada”. We did a rendition of the “Lord’s Prayer”. Political correctness had not yet been coined. Today, in China, there is no public religious observance, but love of country remains a priority, almost a religion. At my school and others slogans are written on bright red banners around the school and in all of the classrooms proclaiming themes of love of country, “Love is in the heart and that is where you find country.”
Many of the songs presented that night spoke to patriotism and so I asked our youthful translators how they felt about that. With some thought and hesitation they said that they get too much of it. They hear it ever day and while they believe it to be true they don’t have to hear it all the time. I said, “I think you will enjoy Canada after graduation.”
I have taught in Alberta for 21 years and am also very familiar with the BC and Ontario curriculums as I am also certified in those provinces. I am very proud to say that I think Canadian provincial curriculums more than hold their own when compared to the Chinese. The Chinese depend on rote learning, have large classrooms and are glued to standardized testing and curriculum solidarity.
In fact, contrary to stereotypes on the topic I place Canadian curriculum in math and science over the Chinese. I think we may have the edge not only for content but primarily because of our teaching style and methodologies Chinese students begin some mathematical and scientific concepts at a much earlier age and by so doing may give Westerners a sense of precociousness. As Canadians we tend to see Chinese students in Canada who happen to be the elite of their country. We do in fact lose sight of the fact that academic achievement of the Chinese student population also follows a bell curve. Their numbers are just larger.
I have found that my Chinese students lack the spontaneity and the mental freedom to be curious about the world around them. If it is not on the curriculum it is of no consequence to them. They are driven and highly motivated in many ways, also consider that there is much pressure on them to succeed. Due to the “One Child Policy” a single child in the family must carry the academic- torch and make parents and grandparents proud and in some cases support them in an economic sense as well.
On a few occasions I have given my students some unscheduled “free time” and to my initial surprise they have actually become anxious and did not know what to do as there was no structure or direction to guide them. They seem to need to be told what to do in every situation. They are accustomed to regimentation and hard work with long hours, freedom is somewhat of an alien concept.
When it comes to problem solving Chinese students are fearful of failure and are therefore not risk takers. Their Chinese classes are guided by rote learning and definitely inside the proverbial box, while classes on the English side encouraged individual thought and creativity, concepts many students are not as yet comfortable, or even familiar with, at this point in their academic evolution.
My primary job as principal was to direct my staff in creating analytical thinkers and problem solvers who could view the world in terms of solvable issues in both a group and individual context. At times this got me into trouble with the Chinese side of the school as some Chinese teachers wanted desperately to learn our ways, discuss “issues” and be introduced to new teaching methods. However, I also had to act with prudence in regards to what I could say or discuss with Chinese staff members as an official of the communist party also had an office on campus. My contract did not allow me to talk about many topics such as Tiananmen Square, Democracy, Falun Gong, Tibet, and the Deli Lama to name a few. I had my limits despite my curriculum and inclinations.
As I sat in on a grade 12 University level prep course in Physics on the topic of acceleration presented by one of my staff members I was taken by the presentation and found myself asking questions. Like my students, I had to hold myself back. But there were other topics, such as quantum mechanics in which the students had no background from their Chinese curriculum. When this situation arises they get into a swarming panic, hiring tutors and “go to mattresses” until they have mastered the topic. If nothing else they take studies seriously, something sometimes lacking when it comes to their Canadian counterparts.
Chinese students in the upper level schools, are hard working, but as I watch them I see that they are very narrow in their focus. They do not do extra curricular. The curriculum is all there is. The curriculum is life. Now we may wish for students like that in a “perfect world” and admittedly it is wonderful, but outside the curriculum the Chinese students are largely ignorant. Their general knowledge is lacking. They don’t play games, our school of 2700 has no teams, there are no clubs, they are not allowed to date. “Love is not allowed” is actually a school rule here, although I suspect something got lost in translation.
While I admire their many accomplishments in the academic arena I also feel sorry for my students. They know little of current events and the larger world. In an issue recently in the news concerning territoriality concerns with Japan students are literally taught to hate. Anti Japanese banners were in abundance on campus and around the city.
Our school celebrated its 110th anniversary while I was there. I had the honour of editing the English edition of their anniversary publication. It contained a proud history outlining the genesis of the first anti-Japanese League which was established at the school following the expulsion of the Japanese imperialists after World War ll. This type of content and way of perceiving the world is current, accepted and engrained in our Chinese students who tend to be xenophobic, they lack a sense of tolerance to other ethic groups and nationalities.
Sadly the Chinese do do not always know the facts because that is how their world is orchestrated and filtered. Ironically, in a way, my Chinese students hope to come to Canada, specifically Southern Ontario, and they all want to get into U of T. Toronto is likely the most multicultural city in the world. These students are in for a real culture shock because they do not understand multiculturalism and especially the tolerance and understanding of minorities that goes with it.
I am proud to say that in so many ways Canada has done “it” right. Our curriculums and cultural sensitivities are incredibly reasonable. Our system has, for the most part, created a generation of more tolerant and more holistic students. And don’t be fooled there is an abundance of special education students in China too. In fact by numbers I would wager they have more special needs students than we have students in total. The thing is not one of them is recognized and none of them are assessed, as there is no special education in Jinhua as it brings shame to the family. China has a long way to go in terms of educational excellence.
I once tried to remove one of my Chinese students from the English Program because of her mental health issues. Her parents were furious with me and found a doctor who gave her a clean bill of health. The Chinese Ministry forced my hand and I could not get the girl out of her stressful educational situation. Parents in an elite school have significant influence and high expectations of their children.
Living and working in China has many challenges outside of the classroom as well. Naturally, the cultural, economic, political and linguistic differences are immense. I lived on a new campus beautifully landscaped with a charming meandering creek stocked with fish running through it. Despite the Chinese love of nature and beauty one serious problem in China, which is not adequately being addressed is the wide spread pollution. Rarely could we see stars at night nor despite the fact that we lived only ten minutes from a mountain range could we see them as there were so few pollution few days. Blue skies were a rare treat. The locals kept insisting that the smog was not pollution just mist.
I enjoyed my work with my industrious students but I also enjoyed my time away from campus when my wife and I travelled or just escaped on our e-bike. I have never felt more part of the Chinese cultural fabric, or closer to road kill as I have while driving my scooter through the congested streets of Jinhua.
Chinese streets are generally wide and often have special lanes for e-bikes because there are so many of them. In some places cars, trucks, people, dogs, kids, more trucks, bikes, taxis all have to merge into one chaotic mixture and that’s where the challenge begins. There are rules of the road, because I was told there are 1700 questions on the Chinese drivers license test of which at any one time the new driver has to answer a random selection of 100. However, the rules are more like “guidelines” and car mirrors as useful as an appendix. From chaos theory to the reality of the conditions on the road comes a curvilinear flow of traffic that no simple algorithmic function could describe. There is motion. It is constant, often random, but it seems to work if one is bold decisive and goes with the flow.
I keep my thumb on the horn to resonant with the cacophony of the urban symphony. One must yield to the driver making the turn, red lights are discretionary, if they work, cars go in bike lanes, bikes go in car lanes, parked cars have open doors, everyone who has a cell phone at some point while driving will use it, pedestrians do not look before crossing, neither do most drivers, they are either blind or operate on blind faith.
Shopping is another challenge in every day life. Since I have to confess to being a poor linguist shopping and ordering food in a restaurant are problematic. I have several Aps on my smart phone for translations but they only work when I have Wifi and that is not very frequent. Going to a public market one is assaulted by the many smells, the motion the colours. One stall specializes in organs, another in dog bred specially for consumption, there is street food to be avoided unless like my young teaching staff you have a cast iron stomach and even they were not always immune. The meat section of a grocery store looks to me more like a pet department with eels, frogs, snakes, turtles, fish and numerous other things that I have never truly identified on display. Unwrapped chicken parts are heaped on a table for people to pick through for the ideal piece they seek. In another part of the store large rice bins which resemble sand boxes are also available for people to reach into with their hands to scoop out what they require.
We cooked in our little kitchen which measured 6 and a half feet square. There was no oven as we used a wok for most everything. The fridge we kept in the bedroom. Our building had rats and each morning I killed the millipedes that crawled across the floor. Mine was one of the better apartments.
Hygiene in China is not a priority. One small quest I had in my section of the school was to get paper products including toilet paper and soap into each one of our washrooms. I was promised these things and only got them temporarily when there was a school inspection. Once over and the supplies used up they were never again replenished. The cleaning staff continued cleaning with their mops by drawing water from the toilet bowls.
I spent much of my time being sick. At one time over Christmas my wife and I removed the hard mattress from the bedroom and camped out on the living room floor where with the aid of a VPN service we were able to by pass the Chinese internet firewall and watch netflix from San Francisco while we slowly recovered on the floor sipping our green tea.
Over seas living has its challenges but despite everything I enjoyed working in China. I liked my Chinese colleagues and support staff and especially my students, some of whom I have made contact with back in Canada. I was able to travel much of Eastern China and SE Asia and gain an appreciation for a culture and a way of life that both loves the West and mistrusts our ways as well.
The Chinese are tripping over themselves in trying to copy us and that’s all they are capable of at the moment. They are not innovators or inventors. But their image of nation is growing and there seems to be a greater awareness of the world and in this realization China will succeed by using its new knowledge, from schools like mine, and elsewhere to grow an internal economy for its own people and raise its own standard of living and quality of life.
After a busy day at school or after a tenuous drive be e-bike through the noisy congested streets my wife and I enjoy walking by the river where we watch the group dancers, some doing ballroom western style, some exercises and others Tai Chi. We enjoy a calming walk along the river bank exposed after weeks of no rain, a long continuous row of willow trees lines the length of the park, roots seek moisture from deep below. Scooters, bikes, walkers, old, young, families, all walk the inlaid stones and view the sluggish brown river below. The constant fisherman, some on flat rafts, others along the receding shore, in the dry season spending the day in futile pursuit of a meager catch. Young couples hand in hand oblivious to those around them, men in tense groups thrust cards to a small table, two brown poodles play on the grass, an old man crippled and bent walks with his wife every night, small boys play with their bubble makers, they eagerly run past and stare at my strange western face and my wife’s blond hair; soon distracted they run along the path. The evening cools, its been such a long hot day. The gardener brings out his record player. He tentatively sets it on an old wooden table soon opera transcends the willows. The dancers will arrive soon. It is evening in China.
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