Choices

In Chinese society, individual choice is circumscribed. A university student may change majors only once, for example. I would have been in trouble-- I changed majors three time. So did Emily Heidt, my daughter. Travel is restricted. Passports are difficult to obtain, and one must request governmental permission to move to another city.

Because of over-population, China allows only one child per couple. Ethnic minorities are exempt, and the policy is poorlyl enforced in the countryside. But in cities and institutions such as universities, the policy is strictly enforced. When female faculty who have children become pregnant , they can be apprehended, taken to a hospital, and forced to abort the preganancy. If they evade this procedure and carry a second pregnancy to term, they lose their positions and are barred from working at universities thereafter. Abortion carries no moral or social stigma here.

Among those with whom I talked, the restrictions on travel are unpopular; however strict enforcement of population control is considered necessary. In a nation of 1.3 billion, perhaps it is. Above: young women in a tiny dormitory suite. Below: flags in the wind on campus.

Small World

Chinese universities are well guarded and self-contained like military bases in the states. "The People's Police" monitor each of four gates (below). On campus there are small restaurants and shops, so there is no need to leave campus unless we want to get away. Today, I found a little barber and beauty shop. Had I told one of the graduate students I needed a haircut, she would have located one in town and accompanied me with great fanfare, but I like working things out for myself.














Seated in the beauty shop was a young man sporting a spike hairdo like mine, so I figured someone knew how to do the haircut. Using gestures and limited Chinese, I conveyed that I wanted my hair cut like the young man's. The shop personnel started laughing-- no self-respecting Chinese woman wears her hair that short. But foreigners are known to be strange. go My haircut looks as good as any I've had back home. Price: 5 yen-- about 63 cents. Below, my hairdresser, and his buddy wearing a spike.

Someone has a sense of humor.

Classes have begun (below). The students work very hard. I am teaching advanced writing, but in any EFL (English as a foreign language) class, pictures are important in helping students learn to think in the new language. It helps people associate English words with images rather than Chinese equivalents. So with my portable data projector (above), I am prepared to show a variety of images when I teach.

But buildings are not always wired ideally, and yesterday I couldn't get the equipment to work. I had it hooked up right, I thought. I turned everything off, checked all the connections, rebooted, and it still didn't work. What a shame! I can teach without the technology, but it really helps. As a last resort, I half seriously laid my hands on the data projector and briefly bowed my head. Then the thing started working. A few students giggled. I am definitely not here to propogate religion, and I quickly commenced the lesson. Nevertheless-- someone has a sense of humor!

Juicy Dried Fruit

The other day, I bit into what a friend had described as a dried persimmon (above). I thought a dried persimmon was a dried fig or prune until juice spurted out and got all over my shirt. In China, even drived fruit doesn't behave as you would expect.

Lots of things are like that. I'd know China was a gift-giving culture, so I brought several dozen small gifts to represent American culture-- baseballs, T-shirts, miniature liberty bells. Thing was, I should have given them out as soon as I got here. I'd been saving them for the end of my visit. David Liu, formerly of the international office here just told me that in China, gift giving helps people bond. I hadn't run across this information in my reading.

Below, at a small shop on the square, a woman prepares a sandwich composed of egg, tofu, green onion and sausage wrapped in a taco like crust.

New arrivals

Another two teachers have arrived from Tennessee-- Alyssa Chamberlain, a recent ETSU graduate, and Neal Palmer, who just completed his BA at Vanderbilt. I'm trying not to crowd them with concern-- don't want to be "matronizing." Ben and Mike Gann, and their married sister, Emily Heidt will tell you how annoying I am when my motherly protectiveness kicks in.


Alyssa and Neal, both honors graduates, are resourceful young people, who will manage quite well without what Mike Gann would term half- _______ surrogate parenting. But my motherly hormones break through now and then. Whenthe international office scheduled Alyssa's physical two hours before she taught her very first class, I told them this was a poor idea. After some resistance, they decided to reschedule.

Above: Alyssa shops for cleaning supplies at a nearby market.

Below: Neal Palmer in the hallway of our residence.

Assertiveness and Respect

Almost every day, Sir Barry Jowett my former director from Nanjing, phones, texts, or emails. His message is always the same: Don't get walked on! His concern is that I'll act too timid because this is a foreign culture, and I will be assigned all manner of extra duties. Barry is unique, so I really can't use him as a role model, but to my surprise Professor James Zhang, who had been my Chinese teacher at ETSU told me the same thing. So did another friend, a junior faculty member, who had visited Johnson City at one point.

So, when my course load seemed inappropiate, I negotiated my with the Vice Dean of my department. And, when our water was abruptly shut off one morning, I went down to the international office to find out why and insisted they make some phone calls when they shrugged and said they didn't know. (Turned out it was a water main break, and it was fixed in a reasonable length of time) Someone my age is permitted, even expected, to question things. And it's true-- I do get respect.

So for this semester, this is my campus. Above: students hawk cell phones on the main campus square. Below: A work crew clearing away some brush.

Where two or three are gathered

I'd been hoping to find a worship community, both because I'd been feeling lonely and I'd been missing my home church, Cherokee United Methodist in Johnson City. On Sunday, one of my fellow teachers, a lady from New Zealand who's been here several years, invited me to the house church she attends. Call it an answered prayer. We read the Bible, prayed,sang, had a discussion, ate a light breakfast. We we're a multi-national group-- from China, Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, Australia. We are also theologically diverse. While a few of us are from middle of Most of the regulars are evangelical fundametntalists, and I think it's obvious that I'm a dyed-in-the wool liberal. Back home, I'm sorry to say, we would not be worshipping together. But here in China, it doesn't matter. We are strangers in a strange land, bound together by a tradition we understand in differnt ways. And we form a faith community.