Standing Room Only

In China, church is no longer illegal, but it's still somewhat frowned on. A member of the Communist Party took us to church this past Sunday. I believe our visit gave this person an acceptable reason for going. There were several services; the one we attended was packed to overflowing. Those who could not be admitted sat in the courtyard on blue plastic stools and watched the proceedings on close-circuit television.














Above: The throng pours out of church.

Life's minor problems

The staff of the international office is very solicitous about helping us deal with minor catastrophes. But I don't like bothering them-- they've looked tired ever since the quarantine nightmare.

So when our toilet went on strike a few days ago, I decided to deal with it myself. Unfortunately, the term "plunger" was not in the pocket translator we carry around with us, so I looked it up online.
Here's what I found:

plunger ['plʌnʤɚ] ['plʌnʤə]
1. 名词 跳进（水中等）的人；跳水人；潜水者
2. 名词 （弄通堵塞管道用的）揣子
3. 名词 [机械] 活塞；柱塞；撞针杆
4. 名词 [口语] 鲁莽的人；（尤指）滥赌的赌徒；不顾一切的投机家

Your computer may not have the software for decoding Chinese, so if you're interested, you can follow the link to what I saw:

http://www.nciku.cn/search/en/detail/plunger/73308

I had no idea how to pronounce these words, nor which of them was applicable. So I found a picture (above) and took it with me to the campus store. The sales people laughed when they realized what I wanted, but they said, "Mei yao" i.e. "Don't have." Before we could arrange an excursion off campus, the toilet spontaneously recovered from its malaise.

Beijing Opera

This past weekend, we went to the Beijing Opera (above). The music utilizes a different scale from ours, and the singing sounds a bit screechy, but the instrumental parts are lovely, and the dancing and acting glorious. It's a lot like ballet. Beijing or Peking opera-- I hear it called both -- is performed at several theaters and is of course government subsidized.

We had very good seats near the front of the auditorium, where we were served tea, cakes and fruit-- a performance in and of itself. Before the opera begins, the actors apply their makeup publicly, in a little vestibule adjacent the auditorium. It's a very different practice from Western Theater, where actors enjoy the privacy of individual dressing rooms and any such observation by spectators is thought to detract from the atmosphere surrounding performance.































Above: an actor transforming himself into the "Monkey King."
Second Above: The Monkey King in performance.

Below: Actor, Musicians, and the tea ceremony performer

Chinese acrobats

I think the quarantine debacle upset our hosts as much as it did the Americans. There were government guidelines which had to be followed. According to the international office, the rules were based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. From the beginning, International Office staff doubted that Nicole had the flu, but the rules were clear. A concern was whether the student from Southern Polytechnic would go to the hospital and be exposed to patients who actually did have the flu. Turned out she was the only patient in the isolation wing of the hospital.


The day afterwards, they treated us all like children who have been through an ordeal, putting us all in a bus, feeding us burgers and fries from the Chinese McDonald's, and taking us to see the National Chinese Acrobats.







Chinese acrobatics is an ancient art, more like ballet than circus performance. A slack wire is used rather than a tight one. Performers accomplish amazing feats such as piling on top of a bicycle fourteen at a time in flower formation. The acrobats are all very young; they train from early childhood. This is a career, and like ballet, it is an extremely short one.



























If you'd like to read about the Chinese acrobats, here's a link to a wonderful educational pamphlet about them with great pictures:
http://cpinfo.berkeley.edu/information/education/pdf_files/2008/National_Acrobats_of_China_Study_Guide_0809.pdf

Can a virus be made to carry a passport?

The quarantine here at NCUT ended on Thursday. The American graduate student involved attends Southern Polytechnic State University, not Central Michigan State as previously stated. Her name is Nicole. She is participating in a 2 week study program on China. Nicole likes to travel and has been abroad several times. On Wednesday, she awakened with swolen eyes and congestion. The allergy medicine she had on hand did not work, so she asked to consult a doctor. She had no fever, but when anyone from the US becomes ill people here become panicky.

Nicole was rushed to a hospital and placed in isolation. She was well-treated, though the standards for hospital cleanliness are different in China than the US. She saw a red spider in her room and was not allowed light in the early evening, lest it attract mosquitoes. Translators were provided. Her classmates, who had been all over campus before this, were quarantined. The medical tests were performed quickly, and the period of confinement lasted less than a day. They came back negative, which Nicole was sure they would.

"At first, I was really angry," she said. "I've never been to prison, but now I know what it's like. I just wanted to get back to the US. We would never do things this way. But then I thought: I've had an unusual experience. It makes a great story."

I admire this young woman's attitude. In such situations, I am apt to become suspicious and irritated. Truly, Nicole has the spirit that allows a person to travel the world.

Language Immersion

I am not a "quick study" when it comes to learning new languages, though I have a passion for language and what it allows human beings to do. I plod along in my effort to learn Chinese, and I'm making some progress.

Chinese is all around us. We need it when we go to the grocery store, take a taxi, or open an account at the bank. We have to use the computer in our room instead of the laptop we brought to access the Internet. Most of the screens come up in Chinese, which is challenging.

NCUT has provided us with a tutor-- a clever young undergraduate named Chen who helps us use our Chinese for practical purposes. Payday here was the day before yesterday, and we were given far too much cash for my comfort. We needed a bank account. At the Bank of China, I tried to fill out the necessary forms, but kept on making mistakes. Very sternly, the bank manager said there could be no crossings out on the paperwork. Chen did them for us.

Above: The sort of directions we see on the computer screen.

Below: At the bank.

The pandemic moves closer











A group of visitors from Central Michigan State is visiting this campus. An excursion to see Chinese acrobats had been scheduled by the Office of International Affairs. Joe and I were scheduled to attend the performance along with the Michigan guests. Bur when we arrived at the meeting place, there was no sign of the party, and I found myself getting frustrated.

We were able to reach the International Office. They apologized profusely for not informing us that the outing had been cancelled. One of the Michigan visitors turned up with flu-like symptoms. He was whisked to the hospital,and everyone else from that group is quarrantined until officials say whether this is H1N1.

I will leave it to medical people reading this blog to decide if this makes any sense. The Michigan guests have been all over campus, not just interacting with each other. Then again, they probably came to China on the same flight and would be spending lots of time together.

We thought there was something about the problem on the evening news, though neither Joe nor I is really able to understand Chinese broadcasts too well.