A Very Chinese Christmas

A Merry Christmas to everyone reading this!
How does one celebrate this holiday in China? If this question has been nagging you since the day you were born, never fear for I have the answer. You celebrate with other foreigners and your good Chinese friends.
My contact teacher, Turner, is fantastic. He organized a Christmas outing for the English teachers on Tuesday afternoon. We went bowling and ate Japanese food. If you forgot, I live in Xili, which is very close to the Baoan border. Baoan is one of the outer districts of Shenzhen, with factories and such. However, Xili is still being developed, so we went to Baoan.
This outing made the day special. Even though I was rusty at bowling, I had a lot of fun. The Japanese food was to die for. The waiters greeted us all in Japanese (with Chinese accents). Our tables were the traditional Japanese style where you take your shoes off and sit on pillows. Dinner was a combination of sushi, sashimi, tempura, and any other kind of Japanese food you can think of. All at the school's expense I might add. We even drank hot sake, which the Chinese teachers did not care much for. It does not taste like baijiu (a Chinese wine close to turpentine), but it is still strong alcohol. Ben and I were the only ones at dinner that celebrate Christmas, so we brought presents for the English teachers. I continued a family tradition of giving oranges. If I could not spend Christmas with family, I could at least do something to remind me of home.
That brings us to Wednesday, Christmas Eve. Some of my students gave me presents, which was totally unexpected. I thought my students did not like me enough to give me a gift. One class gave me a card that every students wrote in. How sweet! I taught in the morning, and in the afternoon our foreign teacher group held a Christmas party at a hotel resort. We got goody bags and Santa hats. It was great spending a Western holiday with Westerners who understand what Christmas is all about. I would have had more fun with family, but my friends made the holiday special. After dinner and the Christmas performance, we Xili folk took a cab back home. Instead of spending the night at the hotel like most of the other foriegn teachers, AnnaRae, Ashlee, Ben, Alaina, and I returned to Xili. Our Christmas involved spending time together like a family. Christmas morning, we ate homemade pancakes. The mix said panjacks, but they did not taste any different. They tasted wonderful. We do live in China, but we wanted an American breakfast. No offense to the family in "A Christmas Story" that eats Peiking duck. We also opened presents. I could not have asked for a better first Chinese Christmas. My parents also visit in a few days, which is a great present.

Shenzhen Safari Park

I went to the zoo (动物园) on Saturday.
There were a lot of animals and space. In one pen were about forty peacocks; most of them were male. In another pen, there were at least ten ostriches. I could not count the cranes and pheasants. The large number of cranes is not surprising in Asia. But it seemed that China really likes birds.
We saw several plump raccoons, which are exotic in China. They were pretty rotund and cute. I thought it interesting that our pest is an exotic display in Asia. I wonder what China would think of our squirrels.
Of course, a Chinese zoo would be incomplete without pandas. However, the zoo only had one giant panda (大熊猫) and one red panda (小熊猫). Only one panda? Isn't that a sin in China? How bad do your ties with the rest of China have to be to warrant a small panda display?
The zoo also had tigers, lygers, and tigons! We did not see any normal lions. I guess the zoo wanted to be exotic. I had never heard of tigons before. The zoo has a special breeding program for lygers and tigons. The cubs are adorable.
For anyone interested in sociology or animal behavior, I have an interesting story about a chimp. All of a sudden the chimp blew his nose like a common Chinese man! He put one finger on one nostril and blew his nose. He adopted Chinese behavior! I was amazed and shocked. Of all the manners the chimp had to learn, he picked the grossest.
There were some problems with the zoo that I must mention. One of the leopards was missing fur on his back so you could see pink skin. In an American zoo, I assume that something is being done or that the patch is natural. However, at a Chinese zoo, I assume neglect. My suspicion of neglect was confirmed with the boars' cage. Three wild boars were in a cage just big enough for one boar. Is there a Chinese humane society?
The behavior of Chinese visitors also shocked me. They threw food at the cages and animals to get them to move, for entertainment. The Chinese visitors also yelled at the animals. One woman yelled "perform" at one monkey. (Dance, monkey. Dance!)One man made a little babboon scream. That would never be tolerated in the States.

Buildup to Christmas

The Christmas spirit continues to elude China and its people. There is no warmth, no togetherness. Whatever special feelings I have on Christmastide, China are absent here. No houses covered in blinking lights or lawns full of inflatable snow globes. And no hot chocolate! Instead of curling up in a blanket in front of a fireplace with family for company, I curl up by myself with the occasional mosquito trying to infiltrate my room. I must insert a pet peeve I have recently discovered: mosquitoes in December are an abomination!
I know China is not a Christian country, but Christmas did enter China thanks to Europeans and Americans. The aspects of the holiday that China retained were Christmas trees (randomly put up with little care) and sales. The warmth of getting together with relatives is put on hold until Chinese New Year.
Since Hong Kong understands Christmas, I wish it would influence Mainland China. There are a lot of foreigners in China and some Chinese Christians. The lack of holiday cheer, aside from random Christmas songs at McDonald's and trees outside of stores wishing you a "Merry Christmas," makes me feel alienated. I feel out of place.

Sunshine Students

This past Monday, there was a special performance at my school. In English it is called, Sunshine Students. The purpose was to give some students from the Senior 1 classes an opportunity to perform in front of the school and to instill confidence. Twenty to thirty students from each class prepared a performance of modeling and dancing. There was a red carpet that acted as a catwalk for students to model normal clothes. Some students still wore their school uniforms, which I thought was unfortunate. But if the students were more comfortable in uniform, I should not complain. Some of the girls wore really short skirts, so of course the boys in the audience paid special attention. The dances were all student choreographed. I could easily tell which student choreographed the dance because everyone else kept messing up. Some of the students started breakdancing. One of my boy students was pretty good.
I really enjoyed myself. I took a lot of pictures of my classes. If I took photos of everyone, I would not be able to recognize who were my students. It was fun seeing my students not in class and enjoying themselves. I hardly recognized my students out of uniform. They looked normal!! However, I must critique what I saw. The students just went through the motions of performing. Their faces looked like they had recently received botox. I only saw one smile! ONE! How can I know that my students are happy when they do not smile?
There was one surprise for the students. The other foreign teacher was asked by one of his classes to dance with them. So he and that class' head teacher waltzed during that class' performance. The crowd went nuts, at least those of the female persuasion. I saw students scrambling for their cameras to get a photo. I tried not to laugh at the students' reactions. I should mention that I was not asked, so I enjoyed myself as an audience member, much more fun.

Shenzhen International Expo for Tea Trade & Culture

Instead of going to Chinese class on Friday, AnnaRae, Ashlee, Ben, and I went to the 2008 China (Shenzhen) International Expo for Tea Trade & Culture (2008中国深圳国际茶业茶文化贸易傅览会). Even though the expo is free, China still wants people to register to stuff. So we filled out a pointless piece of paper that asked for names, phone numbers, favorite teas, and purpose for attending the expo. For the purpose, we all ticked the box for "market and product information." This must have been the incorrect box to check. Instead of normal admission tickets, each one of us received badges that read "buyer." Maybe it was because we were foreigners or because we ticked a different box. Our white faces and badges did attract extra attention from the tea vendors. I don't know which made us more noticeable. We were the only foreigners present. Also, the photos of foreigners at some of the stalls were of vendors. Maybe Chinese people assume only foreigner buyers, not average foreigners, are interested in Chinese tea.
We sampled several types of tea: oolong(乌龙茶), puer(普洱茶), green(绿茶), jasmine(茉莉花茶), and chrysanthemum(菊花茶). I tend not to like puer, but it didn't taste horrible at the expo. Most of the time, puer tastes like dirt. However, this tea is similar to wine; the taste improves with age. At one stall we sampled two different puer vintages. The younger one did taste of dirt, but the older one was not as strong. At this stall, the female tea servers wore minority dress. I could not identify the minority group, but it definitely succeeded to capturing our foreigner eyes. There was one puer tea at another stall that had a sweet aftertaste. We all agreed that this tea was nice, and we bought a block of tea each. For those who do not know, puer tea is compressed into various-shaped cakes for sale. These cakes are pretty solid but do not weigh much. It might break if you hit someone on the head with it. This is mere speculation; I have not attacked anyone with a block of tea.
We did not sample every kind of tea because there were so many. I was happy just to taste some tea.
In the hall next to the tea expo was a "winter fashion" sale. I can understand why some of the clothes were so cheap. The clothes lacked the style that the West prefers. I know China has a different sense of fashion and style, but....

Originality in China

Once you cross through Chinese Immigration, the definition of "originality" changes. We Americans recognize and appreciate original flavor. I can easily find Double Bubble original flavor at CVS. I can eat original flavor Pringles. Somehow the Pacific Ocean modified the meaning.
Earlier this week I went food shopping at Ren Ren Le with a small craving for potato chips. There were several brands of potato chips in a can, including the American classic, Pringles. China has some interesting flavors: blueberry, cucumber, lime, barbeque, prawn, tomato. Everyone wants to be different in a land of conformity, even food. Yet the quest for original flavor was impossible. The closest flavor was potato flavor.
That was only one example of Chinese conformity vs. originality. Conformity is at its strongest in Chinese schools. I can't tell some of my students apart. I've been here 4 months and I still get confused! It definitely doesn’t help that they all wear uniforms. The only visual difference is that the boys wear blue shirts, while the girls wear white. A lot of the boys also have the Jay Chou haircut, the Chinese emo look. When classes start the students all stand up and sit down together. I try to notice little things about the students to help me distinguish them, like sunglasses. If the students are not borrowing their classmate’s glasses, the glasses are the same style and color. Moreover, a lot of them share the same last name. Argh! I wish some of my students would dye their hair, get a nose ring, or shave their eyebrows. Something that helps me identify more of my 800 students. My sophomores are lucky that I see them every week. I only see the juniors once every two weeks. Chinese schools should encourage individuality among their student population. It will help me remember who I’m teaching.