Monday, January 05, 2004
The Best of the Season...From China
See special photos related to this posting.
Christmas is not part of the Chinese experience. Although our Chinese friends and students knew about Christmas trees, and even had trees in their classrooms and offices, there was no understanding of how they fitted in to the Christmas experience. Some of our students could tell us about Father Christmas, but they had never heard of Santa Claus. They definitely know about getting presents, but a big man in a red suit with a sleigh and eight reindeer who flies around the world in a single evening giving everyone presents seemed too much of a fabrication to be taken seriously. Unlike North American kids who believe because they know it helps with the presents, our students had no reason to buy such an obviously far-fetched story! Although the part about bad children receiving only a piece of coal brought some serious consideration. Were they thinking of China’s huge coal reserves?
We tried to explain the religious traditions of Christmas, but we weren’t prepared for a full-scale explanation of Christianity and tried only to make the link between the birth of a baby who was called Christ and the name Christmas. Our listeners were polite. We probably made our best case when we talked about that aspect of Christmas related to a festival of light at the darkest time of the year. It gets dark here between 4:30 and 5:00 pm and isn’t light in the morning until after 7:00. All our students could relate to this since they are on their way to school by 7:00 am and don’t get to go home until around 10:00pm. Their world at this time of year is definitely a dark one.
However, none of this prevented anyone from celebrating Christmas both with us and for us. They were all up for a good party! And we had several during Christmas week. Most of the activities were related to the school, to staff members and to students. Everyone went out of their way to make Christmas memorable for us. On the Tuesday evening before Christmas, we went to a local restaurant for a meal with all the school’s English teachers, the VP in charge of academics and the Communist Party Secretary. Someone had carted a 5-foot artificial tree with trimmings from the school, and we moved it around during dinner to suit the occasion. A videographer/interviewer from the Huairou TV station was on hand to catch the festivities and to interview us and our colleagues about who we were and what we were doing at the school. We sang Deck the Halls (Ken and I both with very drippy noses and nasty coughs) and read dramatically The Night Before Christmas to the assembled 25 people there. We were presented with a copy of a beautiful scroll painting of a famous river city landscape, and a pair of cloisonné vases. We felt overwhelmed by such generosity. We ate good food and drank good Chinese wine and had a lovely evening.
Keyan had given time to her two senior classes to plan Christmas parties for us, each held in the final period of the day - 4:30 to 5:30 - one on Wednesday December 24th and one on Thursday December 25th. The students had a wonderful time planning and decorating their rooms, and practising some excellent plays which they performed for us. One class presented a shortened version of the Merchant of Venice which was extremely well done. The other class had prepared a very funny Chinese version of Cinderella. There was traditional Chinese dancing, some singing and of course, gift giving - gifts for everyone in the class. Keyan played Santa in her long red winter coat, red hat and scarf, using paper towels tucked in at her neck for Santa’s beard. It was hilarious. Ken received a lovely silk Christmas tie and Judy a beautiful warm long red scarf. We also were given a special calendar which all the students had signed, using their English names.
Oh yes, the videogirl from HRTV was also at the Wednesday party, interviewing the students about us. All of this was edited and presented on the local TV station over the weekend following Christmas. We managed to catch it on the Monday night, and then spent the rest of the week saying “Hello!” to total strangers on the street, who now felt they knew us because they’d seen the short program on TV! One man actually stopped Ken on the street and told him how pleased he was to meet him. We’re celebrities!
On Christmas Day, our classes greeted us with “Merry Christmas” and gifts that they had wrapped and placed on the teacher’s desk at the front of the room. We had bought bags of chocolate for each of our offices, and found that the treats disappeared as if vacuumed. Various teachers gave us gifts: a calendar of monkeys, traditional painted paste figures, a battery operated Chinese violin player who plays Butterfly Lover, good luck red socks and an endless number of beautiful greeting cards. Following the party at Keyan’s class, we went with her to her Primary school class where we were part of yet another Christmas celebration with candy and dialogues and little plays. After this we went to Keyan’s parents for Christmas dinner and more gifts! Dinner was very special because Keyan’s Mom had made dumplings (jaozi - jow zuh) the traditional food of celebrations. And of course, many other dishes which we thoroughly enjoyed.
Even on Boxing Day, students continued to arrive with small gifts of fruit and cards. We were truly overwhelmed by this outpouring of kindness and generosity. Later that day we went to Beijing with the school driver to pick up our visas for our trip to Hong Kong later in January. After almost an hour in line, we had our passports back and could go to the hotel we’d reserved for our weekend getaway - foreigners must present passports to register at any hotel in China. We had a lovely relaxing three days, eating Western food - in the coffee shop of the hotel, Ken tucked into the biggest hamburger we’d ever seen -- sight seeing, attending the Beijing opera and of course, shopping.
When we returned to classes on Monday afternoon, we were caught up in the great plans underway for celebrating New Year’s Eve. This the Chinese know all about! And what plans there were! Invitations arrived from many of our classes to attend their classroom parties on the afternoon of December 31st. We began to wonder if we’d have time to attend them all. Students were rehearsing in their classrooms for a variety show on the same morning. Flutes squeaked; voices were raised in song; dancers floated by in silk costumes.
On the morning of December 31st, we were urged to be at school by 8:00 am and were directed to seats in the gym, where the floor had been covered with a bright red carpet, a piano had been installed and half a dozen floor mikes stood at the ready for the morning’s performers. Three hours later we had seen numerous dancers in traditional costumes; many individual girl and boy singers of popular and traditional songs, including an opera singer; several comedians, including an entire court scene with traditional costumes; an outstanding single dancer who performed a prize-winning contemporary dance; an orchestra of flutes and snare drums; a phalanx of Chinese zithers; a demonstration of board breaking by a troupe of kungfu/karate experts. The morning ended with a song from a large group of young first and second year teachers.
After a quick lunch, we spent the afternoon visiting various classes where we were asked to sing a song, given fruit and tea, and welcomed enthusiastically to the party. Each room was decorated with lights and garlands and most of the windows had been covered over to give a disco atmosphere. Desks had been arranged around the edge of the room, and the main activity was eating - oranges, apples, peanuts and sunflower seeds. The space in the middle was for individual performances and games. We didn’t see anyone actually dancing, although there was a tape player and tapes of contemporary music on hand.
That afternoon was also busy with other activity – the moving of 50kg bags of rice from the school grounds to the homes of school staff members. The administration gives each teacher a cash gift (we each got 150Y) and the bag of rice as a New Year’s gift. Ever try to lift a 50kg bag of rice? Many students were pressed into service, carrying bags to waiting taxis at the school gates, or into the bike carriers of more hardy souls. Several teachers got together and hired one taxi to make several deliveries. All very interesting to watch. We were able to negotiate cash instead of rice, since 100kg of rice would last us many, many years - far beyond our time in China!
That evening, the school had arranged a huge New Year’s Eve banquet at the large hotel across the street from the school. We arrived at 5:00 pm. And were warmly greeted by members of the administration, who gave each of us a bag containing a large container of liquid dish detergent and a bar of Lux soap. (We really needed the dish detergent and Judy was most pleased with the gift.) There were 200 people attending, and the dinner began with performances from many groups and individuals, mostly singing to a karaoke prompter. Two staff members sang exerpts from the Beijing Opera. We had two hours of entertainment. When the food started to arrive, we were all ready to tuck in. Then the inevitable toasts started, and the competition to keep everyone’s glass filled to the brim. Etiquette insists that if someone says “Cheers!”, you don’t have to empty your glass but if someone says “gambei!” you are honour bound to drink it all. However, these rules don’t seem to apply to women, who can sip decorously and thus stay sober enough to help their male companions home. We find that if we drink only beer, we can manage quite well. It’s the clear alcohol which can really cause you grief.
Following the banquet, there were free tickets to go bowling, swimming, karaoke, have a sauna, all within the hotel. We were both pretty tired - our colds were still hanging on with great fits of coughing and subsequent runny noses - so we decided to go home, planning to return at midnight for the fireworks which were to be let off at the school gates. But our plans were thwarted by the security of our building, which has its own fence and gates which are locked at 10:00pm. That meant the only way we could get out of our compound was to climb an 8 foot fence which is topped with very pretty but very sharp iron fleur de lis! We decided to watch the celebrations on TV and saw 2004 arrive in Guangzhou (formerly Canton), Southern China.
On New Year’s Day we took Keyan, her husband and daughter, and her Mom and Dad out for dinner at the Tuan Tuan Yuan Yuan Joazi Cheng (Dumpling City) just around the corner from our apartment. And as yet more firework explosions resounded among the courts of the apartments on Qing Chun Lu this first day of the first month in 2004, with Dylan Thomas, we ‘said some words to the close and holy darkness’ and then we slept.
See special photos related to this posting.
Christmas is not part of the Chinese experience. Although our Chinese friends and students knew about Christmas trees, and even had trees in their classrooms and offices, there was no understanding of how they fitted in to the Christmas experience. Some of our students could tell us about Father Christmas, but they had never heard of Santa Claus. They definitely know about getting presents, but a big man in a red suit with a sleigh and eight reindeer who flies around the world in a single evening giving everyone presents seemed too much of a fabrication to be taken seriously. Unlike North American kids who believe because they know it helps with the presents, our students had no reason to buy such an obviously far-fetched story! Although the part about bad children receiving only a piece of coal brought some serious consideration. Were they thinking of China’s huge coal reserves?
We tried to explain the religious traditions of Christmas, but we weren’t prepared for a full-scale explanation of Christianity and tried only to make the link between the birth of a baby who was called Christ and the name Christmas. Our listeners were polite. We probably made our best case when we talked about that aspect of Christmas related to a festival of light at the darkest time of the year. It gets dark here between 4:30 and 5:00 pm and isn’t light in the morning until after 7:00. All our students could relate to this since they are on their way to school by 7:00 am and don’t get to go home until around 10:00pm. Their world at this time of year is definitely a dark one.
However, none of this prevented anyone from celebrating Christmas both with us and for us. They were all up for a good party! And we had several during Christmas week. Most of the activities were related to the school, to staff members and to students. Everyone went out of their way to make Christmas memorable for us. On the Tuesday evening before Christmas, we went to a local restaurant for a meal with all the school’s English teachers, the VP in charge of academics and the Communist Party Secretary. Someone had carted a 5-foot artificial tree with trimmings from the school, and we moved it around during dinner to suit the occasion. A videographer/interviewer from the Huairou TV station was on hand to catch the festivities and to interview us and our colleagues about who we were and what we were doing at the school. We sang Deck the Halls (Ken and I both with very drippy noses and nasty coughs) and read dramatically The Night Before Christmas to the assembled 25 people there. We were presented with a copy of a beautiful scroll painting of a famous river city landscape, and a pair of cloisonné vases. We felt overwhelmed by such generosity. We ate good food and drank good Chinese wine and had a lovely evening.
Keyan had given time to her two senior classes to plan Christmas parties for us, each held in the final period of the day - 4:30 to 5:30 - one on Wednesday December 24th and one on Thursday December 25th. The students had a wonderful time planning and decorating their rooms, and practising some excellent plays which they performed for us. One class presented a shortened version of the Merchant of Venice which was extremely well done. The other class had prepared a very funny Chinese version of Cinderella. There was traditional Chinese dancing, some singing and of course, gift giving - gifts for everyone in the class. Keyan played Santa in her long red winter coat, red hat and scarf, using paper towels tucked in at her neck for Santa’s beard. It was hilarious. Ken received a lovely silk Christmas tie and Judy a beautiful warm long red scarf. We also were given a special calendar which all the students had signed, using their English names.
Oh yes, the videogirl from HRTV was also at the Wednesday party, interviewing the students about us. All of this was edited and presented on the local TV station over the weekend following Christmas. We managed to catch it on the Monday night, and then spent the rest of the week saying “Hello!” to total strangers on the street, who now felt they knew us because they’d seen the short program on TV! One man actually stopped Ken on the street and told him how pleased he was to meet him. We’re celebrities!
On Christmas Day, our classes greeted us with “Merry Christmas” and gifts that they had wrapped and placed on the teacher’s desk at the front of the room. We had bought bags of chocolate for each of our offices, and found that the treats disappeared as if vacuumed. Various teachers gave us gifts: a calendar of monkeys, traditional painted paste figures, a battery operated Chinese violin player who plays Butterfly Lover, good luck red socks and an endless number of beautiful greeting cards. Following the party at Keyan’s class, we went with her to her Primary school class where we were part of yet another Christmas celebration with candy and dialogues and little plays. After this we went to Keyan’s parents for Christmas dinner and more gifts! Dinner was very special because Keyan’s Mom had made dumplings (jaozi - jow zuh) the traditional food of celebrations. And of course, many other dishes which we thoroughly enjoyed.
Even on Boxing Day, students continued to arrive with small gifts of fruit and cards. We were truly overwhelmed by this outpouring of kindness and generosity. Later that day we went to Beijing with the school driver to pick up our visas for our trip to Hong Kong later in January. After almost an hour in line, we had our passports back and could go to the hotel we’d reserved for our weekend getaway - foreigners must present passports to register at any hotel in China. We had a lovely relaxing three days, eating Western food - in the coffee shop of the hotel, Ken tucked into the biggest hamburger we’d ever seen -- sight seeing, attending the Beijing opera and of course, shopping.
When we returned to classes on Monday afternoon, we were caught up in the great plans underway for celebrating New Year’s Eve. This the Chinese know all about! And what plans there were! Invitations arrived from many of our classes to attend their classroom parties on the afternoon of December 31st. We began to wonder if we’d have time to attend them all. Students were rehearsing in their classrooms for a variety show on the same morning. Flutes squeaked; voices were raised in song; dancers floated by in silk costumes.
On the morning of December 31st, we were urged to be at school by 8:00 am and were directed to seats in the gym, where the floor had been covered with a bright red carpet, a piano had been installed and half a dozen floor mikes stood at the ready for the morning’s performers. Three hours later we had seen numerous dancers in traditional costumes; many individual girl and boy singers of popular and traditional songs, including an opera singer; several comedians, including an entire court scene with traditional costumes; an outstanding single dancer who performed a prize-winning contemporary dance; an orchestra of flutes and snare drums; a phalanx of Chinese zithers; a demonstration of board breaking by a troupe of kungfu/karate experts. The morning ended with a song from a large group of young first and second year teachers.
After a quick lunch, we spent the afternoon visiting various classes where we were asked to sing a song, given fruit and tea, and welcomed enthusiastically to the party. Each room was decorated with lights and garlands and most of the windows had been covered over to give a disco atmosphere. Desks had been arranged around the edge of the room, and the main activity was eating - oranges, apples, peanuts and sunflower seeds. The space in the middle was for individual performances and games. We didn’t see anyone actually dancing, although there was a tape player and tapes of contemporary music on hand.
That afternoon was also busy with other activity – the moving of 50kg bags of rice from the school grounds to the homes of school staff members. The administration gives each teacher a cash gift (we each got 150Y) and the bag of rice as a New Year’s gift. Ever try to lift a 50kg bag of rice? Many students were pressed into service, carrying bags to waiting taxis at the school gates, or into the bike carriers of more hardy souls. Several teachers got together and hired one taxi to make several deliveries. All very interesting to watch. We were able to negotiate cash instead of rice, since 100kg of rice would last us many, many years - far beyond our time in China!
That evening, the school had arranged a huge New Year’s Eve banquet at the large hotel across the street from the school. We arrived at 5:00 pm. And were warmly greeted by members of the administration, who gave each of us a bag containing a large container of liquid dish detergent and a bar of Lux soap. (We really needed the dish detergent and Judy was most pleased with the gift.) There were 200 people attending, and the dinner began with performances from many groups and individuals, mostly singing to a karaoke prompter. Two staff members sang exerpts from the Beijing Opera. We had two hours of entertainment. When the food started to arrive, we were all ready to tuck in. Then the inevitable toasts started, and the competition to keep everyone’s glass filled to the brim. Etiquette insists that if someone says “Cheers!”, you don’t have to empty your glass but if someone says “gambei!” you are honour bound to drink it all. However, these rules don’t seem to apply to women, who can sip decorously and thus stay sober enough to help their male companions home. We find that if we drink only beer, we can manage quite well. It’s the clear alcohol which can really cause you grief.
Following the banquet, there were free tickets to go bowling, swimming, karaoke, have a sauna, all within the hotel. We were both pretty tired - our colds were still hanging on with great fits of coughing and subsequent runny noses - so we decided to go home, planning to return at midnight for the fireworks which were to be let off at the school gates. But our plans were thwarted by the security of our building, which has its own fence and gates which are locked at 10:00pm. That meant the only way we could get out of our compound was to climb an 8 foot fence which is topped with very pretty but very sharp iron fleur de lis! We decided to watch the celebrations on TV and saw 2004 arrive in Guangzhou (formerly Canton), Southern China.
On New Year’s Day we took Keyan, her husband and daughter, and her Mom and Dad out for dinner at the Tuan Tuan Yuan Yuan Joazi Cheng (Dumpling City) just around the corner from our apartment. And as yet more firework explosions resounded among the courts of the apartments on Qing Chun Lu this first day of the first month in 2004, with Dylan Thomas, we ‘said some words to the close and holy darkness’ and then we slept.
All text and photography © copyright Harkaway, 2003 - 2004
