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!