NOTE

As I was unable to access my blog in China due to government censorship of the internet, it is just now that I am able to publish it. I also included a story about my time in Paris.

Last Post in China--July 20, 2006

Since my last post (which was awhile ago, I know) I decided to stay in Shanghai as my life there was more comfortable than ever and that I would rather invest my resources into exploring other countries than to extend my stay in China. It worked out quite well as the second half of my year was by far the best. I ended up getting several part-time jobs instead of one boring full-time jobs and had various interesting gigs. One of these was teaching children once a week, which taught me that I absolutely love children... in small doses. In every one of my classes I found kids that reminded me of myself and I was constantly finding myself in situations that my teachers no doubt found themselves in, and it was definitely empowering to gain a sort of objectivity of my own childhood in this way.
Another part-time gig I had was teaching Grade 8 science, which is something that could only happen in China as science was my worst subject in high school by far, and yet here I was teaching photosynthesis and the chemical properties of the water cycle and burning. I wanted to do the job not because it paid well or was with a reliable and organized company (there was a ton of preparation required, and the company was the worst organized I'd ever seen) but I just wanted to be able to say that I'd done something completely removed from my experience.

After spending Chinese New Year's Eve with the family of one of my old student's, where I discovered the joy of lighting fireworks, I went on a trip to the Anhui province to the town where the famous mountain Huangshan is located and also saw some of the villages that surround it. The mountain is famous for being covered in fog (I believe it's the mountain that Zhang Ziyi disappears into at the end of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and I could definitely see how someone could get lost in it) and the day I went was no exception. I really enjoyed the surrounding villages (at least when I wasn't being hassled to buy things) as it was the closest I was ever going to get to "rural China" where people live lives that aren't too far removed from how they lived a hundred years ago, with live chickens, pigs and cows everywhere.

I enjoyed that trip so much that I decided to take up another student's offer to visit her and her family in the so-called small town of Wuxi one weekend. However, upon arriving, I noticed that Wuxi was significantly bigger than I expected: when I asked what the population was, she said that it was around 5 million! (It's therefore one of the top 50 biggest cities in China.) Her family there didn't seem too far removed from modern society and even asked me if I watched "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives." However, it was at least a novelty at the restaurant we were at to have a foreigner, so the owner of the place came to personally greet me, informing me that with the exception of Japanese, all foreigners were welcome at his restaurant.

After I finished teaching in June, I went to Beijing for a few days, knowing that no trip to China would be complete without it. I had kind of had some reservations about going there at all, thinking that seeing landmarks along with thousands of other tourists isn't incredibly exciting, with kind of a sense of "wow, okay, it looks pretty much the same as it does in pictures and The Last Emperor." I kind of felt that this was true for places like the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City (although Tiananmen Square was kind of interesting seeing how incredibly patrolled Tiananmen Square is, with the guards marching as the red sun sets in the background), but I really liked Beijing as a city overall, with much more grandeur than Shanghai and interesting districts with traditional buildings. I also went to the art district, where I saw the first (and only!) reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 (the English-language TV station in China only acknowledges that that year even existed when in reference to the "highly successful" Sino-Soviet Pact that any history book will tell you was completely overshadowed by the protest) as well as the Cultural Revolution. There was an old converted warehouse with Maoist slogans that hadn't been erased, and I saw an art exhibit by an artist who chopped off one of his fingers in protest to the massacre and photographed his hand holding old pictures.

The best part of Beijing, of course, was the part that is still worth going to despite tourism, and I was fortunate enough to stay in a hostel that arranged tours to a "secret" part of the Great Wall, which was completely unrestored and unpopulated by other tourists. I attached some pictures which probably do no justice but the experience was very humbling and yet empowering to see what people are capable of.

I'm back in Vancouver now, but only temporarily before I do more travelling! Right now I'm kind of in the honeymoon stage of being home where the home-cooked western food still tastes great, I'm relieved to be away from all of the things that annoyed me in China and people aren't sick of seeing me yet. Still, I think that now I can better understand the old cliche of appreciating where you come from after travelling, and I'm much more grateful now to live in such a clean, democratic, tolerant, quiet country.

More Shanghai--November 28, 2005

In the last few months I've found a job close to my apartment, which is nice because before I would spend an hour on the subway each way, teaching mostly adults. This has been quite interesting as most of my students are not beginners and come from all over China, mostly rural areas in the provinces around Shanghai. It's interesting learning about their lives, which have all seen enormous changes, and what they think of China's present and future. The management is very laid-back, for better and worse: in what is said to be characteristic of Chinese bureacracy (the company is owned by a university which of course is run by the government) decisions are not made unless it is absolutely necessary. There's a bit of a problem with the other full-time English teacher, an Englishman in his mid-forties. When I started working for the company I thought he would be gone in no time. He's still here despite the fact that he throws frequent temper tantrums, is impatient with students and has had complaints from students of being drunk and sexual harassment. Surprisingly, there has been a steady decline in students since he started working for the company, and after my contract is finished they will only hire teachers part-time because they're losing so much money! Today I only work one hour, although I have to be on call for six other hours in case a new student shows up. Sometimes I just go home and read or watch a DVD or explore the area (there is an old-style Shanghai market closeby, with raw meat, live fish and vendors everywhere).

One thing to note about China is that my coworker is in many ways an example rather than the exception of foreign men living in Shanghai, which is the type that are unable to find a woman in their own country but find themselves surrounded in China. This guy, another teacher at my school and the teacher I replaced all have Chinese wives... and girlfriends. They are all getting divorces, and two of them have the problem that their wives are trying to take all of their money. There's a lawyer who deals with cases like that and one of the teachers recommended him to the other one. It's not unusual to see or meet men who just seem kind of "off" who have a Chinese woman at their shoulder.

Perhaps one of the most striking examples of this phenomenon is a man named Mark Rosewell, who along with Norman Bethune and Celine Dion is one of the most famous Canadians in China. He's a tall, awkward-looking, nerdy type with an embarrassingly strong Canadian accent (I confess that I bought his "learning Chinese" DVD). He speaks perfect Chinese and has reinvented himself as "Dashan" and has made a fortune with his language-learning programs. My Chinese is improving bit by bit although I have a long way to go... at least here people are very nice and friendly when you try to speak their language, unlike certain places I have visited...

Regarding the current situation in China, I have found many complications and contradictions that I am only starting to scratch the surface of. On one hand, most people I've met seem to believe the propaganda that you see in the newspapers and on TV that Japan is still a threatening enemy, Taiwan is not a country, the "progress and development" in Tibet is something to be celebrated, and nobody wants to talk about 1989. The rigourous education system makes the Napoleonic French system look like the hippie-run alternative school I went to as a child. On the other hand, millions of people have been lifted from poverty, and I have met many of these beneficiaries. Of course Shanghai is where much of this is happening, and there seem to be more opportunities than ever before. A result of the one-child policy is that the young people are the best-educated and well-taken-care-of generation that the country has ever produced.

I've gotten to see some of China's history, although in Shanghai opportunities for this are limited. For the National Day holiday in October I went to an island called Putuoshan which is said to be holy and it has many Buddhist monasteries. It was the first time that I really felt like I was seeing the China of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." It was very beautiful with a lake of lotus leaves and a huge statue of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy on top of a cliff. The only problem was that the way holidays work in China is that everyone gets a holiday at the exact same time, and do not have many days at that so of course there were special prices and lots of company. I'm planning to go to some more places like that in the next few weeks, which should be much less busy.

I find that it seems kind of contradictory to live in a country with so much fascinating history and yet live in a city that's about the same age as Vancouver. The most famous sites of Shanghai are all office buildings: the Bund, where the Europeans did business, and Pudong, the futuristic-looking business centre in the not-so-distant future. After my contract is over I'm planning to move to Beijing, which in addition to having so many historic sites and the next Olympics is also the political and cultural heart of the country, whereas Shanghai is too commercial for me. Still, it is interesting to understand the trends towards this in the future and to travel around the area. Anyways, I realize that this email is already very long; I miss you all and hope everyone is well!

Life in Shanghai--August 3, 2005

I've now been living in Shanghai for five and a half weeks. It's already going by very quickly, so I didn't hesitate to sign a year-long lease on an apartment. I started working full-time a week to the day that I arrived so it's only now that I'm really starting to get a bit settled and I plan to finally do a bit more sightseeing. This also means that it's a bit too early to comment on my ideas of Chinese history and culture; the only thing I've realized is that my grasp on it is about as good as my Mandarin, and to look at China as only one country is like looking at Europe as just one country, except that China is bigger, has three times as many people and a longer and more complex history.

As far as teaching, I've already done a bit of everything working part-time and have been very picky in terms of finding a full-time job. Of course, for the last few weeks my "part-time" job has been 18 hours of teaching (given no preparation) 6 days a week. If something's just a little bit wrong, I don't take it. There's so much work offered that it's a luxury that I'm trying to take full advantage of. I'm teaching two business English classes, one with students so advanced that most don't need lessons and just want to practice, which means that it is often quite interesting. I also taught an intensive class with junior high school students, very rambunctious products of the one-child policy who were a lot of fun but maybe a little stressful at times, as they were so loud that the teacher in the next classroom complained a few times. On top of that, I've done three demo classes with young children! So basically I've gotten to meet a lot of Shanghainese people.

I got an apartment in the French concession area of Shanghai, which is considered to be "Old Shanghai." This is because there is also a "New Shanghai" that is still currently being built and is where one of my jobs is. There's so much construction that it's like being in a construction site. To give you an idea, there are currently 4 subway lines in use but within a couple years there will be 9. As a result the subway is ridiculously overcrowded and I avoid it as much as possible! I've already turned down a couple jobs for that reason. My apartment however is quite nice and in a good location not too far from the subway and lots of shopping. There's stuff to buy everywhere I look. I thought that I would only be able to buy the latest Hollywood movies on DVD here (which for me would be rather useless this time of year when nothing but crap comes out) but so far I've seen a few silent films from the 1920s, little-known Ingmar Bergman movies and even--get this--CANADIAN movies such as Leolo, Exotica and Margaret's Museum. I was also able to get the fourth season of Six Feet Under, which I was very excited about. Unfortunately, this does not apply to books and I am glad that I brought 20 (of which I've read 3 so far).

It would have been much easier for me to go to Korea or even Japan, but I haven't regretted my decision to come here for a moment. There's so much fascinating history here that it would even take more than one year to be able to take it all in, and I'd like to learn some of the language as well. It's not too hard to meet people, and it's not much of a culture shock when I grew up in a city with half a million (at least) Chinese people and the city not only has every comfort from home (pretty much) but is also very cheap and to top it off I'm getting paid. I've never lived so well on my own in fact. I'm able to go to restaurants all the time, which is quite a bit from Paris where I barely stepped in one restaurant during the entire time I was there. I think my experience in Paris helped a lot for coming here in terms of dealing with a new environment, new people, a language barrier and of course I also know how NOT to teach a language.

Salut from Paris--December 3, 2004

Things are going well here in the final leg of my stay here in Paris. I can hardly believe it, but I'm coming home three weeks from today. I wanted to delay my stay here to as long as possible before Christmas so now I'm coming back on December 24th at 8pm! While it will be very nice to be home for Christmas, it will also be hard to leave here as I'm just starting to visit here, although I'm very happy with how things have gone and what I have learned. However, I have to admit that my decision to come back does have just a bit to do with the fact that I'm sick of school and can't work here...

The highlights of the past month since I last wrote are that I went to Berlin for a weekend which was very interesting as it is very different from Paris and I even felt kind of at home here when I came back! The connection I had to history there was much more vivid and upfront as it is basically the entire twentieth century all in one city. That was a nice change from Paris which could be thought of as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in one city. I went to a war museum, the Jewish museum, a museum about the Berlin Wall and an art gallery and I also took a really cool walking tour around the city. Since I got back I've played host a couple times, having my cousin Patrick and a friend from Queen's coming to visit and giving me a taste of my life before I was here; it was great to see them and it gave me an excuse to be a tacky tourist. Otherwise, I've been studying absorbing as much culture as I can; the other night I went to an avant-garde theater performance and I've been to tons of museums and readings at Shakespeare and Company and some films as well.

The only disappointment with my stay here so far has been the course I'm taking. I could probably dedicate an entire email talking about how the classes are twice the size as they were advertised to be, the content is also different and is nothing I couldn't learn from a book (ie a grammar book), how the teaching methods are completely outdated with little interaction with students or even attention to teaching methods, and I could even put it into a historical context as the education system dates back to the Napoleonic era, is free and thus has a history of trying to get people to drop out, which was a major reason for the student rebellions in 1968 which resulted in the resignation of the French president the following year, and yet they still failed to create significant change to the system... but I'm having too much of a good time and am too stimulated culturally and intellectually to rant any further.

When I come back I am planning on staying at home for a few weeks for Christmas before looking for work teaching English in China. While I have been here I have taken great efforts and made sacrifices so that I can really feel settled in a new place and not rush everything and I think that as a result I will return eager to do more of what I'm doing, living and experiencing new fascinating places. I'm also looking forward to having a real job and being self-sufficient. I've been doing lots of reading and writing here; I would even say that I've read more books than seen movies, which would definitely be a first, and for the next part of my path I'm planning on reading more and working on my creative writing. I feel I have a lot to say and I've discovered that I get a better experience from reading a book than from seeing a film. It's very exciting to discover all of this and I feel that I've got from this experience here what I was looking for, which was to continue on the same path that I was on before and yet continue to grow and not lose my focus. From this experience I feel stronger, more confident and hungrier to do have more adventures.