Ask the natives

International flights to China typically enter via Beijing, Shanghai or maybe Hong Kong, and usually involve an overnight in the city of entry. Typically, when I’ve taught in Nanjing or Weihai, I’ve Googled Hotwire.com and booked a room at the airport hotel in Beijing. It cost about $100—sometimes $60 or $70 if I was lucky. “Too expensive!” said Li Ping, a friend and international scholar who returned to Beijing earlier this month after a stint at ETSU. I giggled. Chinese people use money sparingly and find ingenious ways to conserve it. I asked what he’d recommend. He showed me some possibilities on Ctrip, a Chinese equivalent of Hotwire and or Expedia.com. For 120 yuen a night, which is about 20 dollars, you could get a pretty adequate accommodation. He recommended I choose something in a better location, with Internet access and breakfast included. It’s costing me $40 a night. Li Ping uses the Chinese version of Ctrip, but there is an English equivalent, which is east to Google. Moral: When traveling, talk to the natives.

Gates

The Chinese are fond of erecting ornate gates. They're cultural markers. The word 'men' means gate in Chinese, and Tiananmen, as in Tiananmen Square, means 'Gate of Heaven.' This is an ironic moniker, given recent history.

The visa process is likewise a kind of gate. As time goes on, the paperwork becomes more onerous-- this time I had to provide the names and occupations of my children in addition to mine and Joe's. I am told the US process is worse, and our visas cost more. Chinese visas cost about $200 when you count processing fees, and I've been told a US visa costs $800.

Going back

Summers awaken my wanderlust. I avoid teaching summer school, for fhis is the time of year when professors have time to write books, walk the Appalachian Trail, or explore educational bureaucracies on the other side of the world. I actually like my job at ETSU, but staying in one small corner of earth is a confining. I like to get out and see what's happening elsewhere. I haven't been invited to China the past two summers and wasn't sure I'd be going back. In 2012 and 2013, I helped put together an ESL center for the English Speaking United Methodist Church in Prague. They're going through a leadership transition now, and meanwhile my old friend Zhang Dianyu, pictured below with his wife, daughter and colleague, arranged an invitation.

I'll be doing a course on the American education system at the University of Shandong, the school where I taught for a full semester in 2006 and to which I periodically return. I have a lot of good friends there. Shandong Province was the birthplace of Kongzi, whom Westerners call Confucius, so statues of him abound all over the region. This one stands in front of the English building at the university.

Alas! Joe isn't coming this time. My expenses are paid by our Chinese partners, and I'd set the money aside for Joe to come, but in April we learned there was black mold growing in our crawl space, and it took $8,000 to clear it out.

When thugs go unpunished

Carl Mather, a visual artist and one of the best English teachers I have ever known, is now out prison. For six months, he was incarcerated in a Nanjing prison, after defending his mother-in-law and child in a home invasion. He injured an intruder’s hand in the process and was charged with assault.  The toughs who broke into his home went unpunished. Carl was kept under abysmal conditions in a crowded cell. Wanting to spread awareness of the Chinese legal system, Carl gave an interview to Australian Public Radio upon his release. It was a brave thing to do, especially after what he has been through. Here is a link to the article and news report.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/onairhighlights/australians-say-chinese-legal-system-unfair-even-on-foreigners/1132368

Carl plans to move with his family to his native Australia or else New Zealand; he and his wife are selling off property in preparation. Their problems continue. Carl’s wife Jenny, a Chinese national, owns a small business where she exports candy and toys. This makes her visible in the Nanjing community. Following Carl’s release, local police interrogated Jenny suggesting that she had been bribing officials, though fortunately she was not arrested. Later, she was cornered by gang members and roughed up when she refused to sell off her holdings at much reduced cost.   The thugs are cozy with local authorities and are functioning with impunity.   

Above: “Reeducation” in a Chinese prison.
Below: Carl’s joyous reunion with his wife and daughter.

Solely a Chinese problem?

Visitors to China take censorship and other abridgments of freedom for granted.  Many websites are blocked, including maps, Facebook, blogs, foreign news sites, and many scholarly resources. Gangs may be cozy with local government, and can thwart the rule of law, as my friend Carl discovered. In China, “information control” is an industry, and email routinely monitored in the name of national security.

To what extent is the US becoming like China? The email surveillance initiated here out of a putative need for homeland security, runs counter to constitutionally protected privacy rights.  While we do not torture prisoners within our borders we practice “extreme rendition” and detain prisoners without trial at Guantanamo.

I actually think the Obama administration acts as it does out of concern for public protection.  Much of the surveillance here occurs in response to what countries such as China are doing, but I know it is difficult not to react in this way. Ours is a global society, and we must take account of the dangers posed by our rivals and enemies.

But copying the practices of totalitarian nations is extremely dangerous.  The American Constitution and our Bill of Rights must be respected. Electorates make bad choices when they are fearful, and governments go bad when they have too much power. 

The right of self-defense

In the US, controversies concerning gun control focus on the right of legitimate self-defense.  While many question the wisdom of “Stand your ground” laws, which remove the requirement to retreat from public altercation, protection of our homes is undisputed.

This is not true in all societies, as Carl Mather, an Australian friend learned.  Civilians may not possess firearms in China.  In the case of a home invasion, a person may shout, but the use of a weapon is not permitted.

Carl is a long-time resident of Nanjing.  He and his wife have substantial business holdings. One of the local gangs wanted their business assets and sent several thugs to invade the Mathers’ apartment.  Wielding baseball bats, these men forced open the door of the Mather’s apartment, and demanded that Carl sign over his property.  Carl’s ageing mother-in-law and five year old daughter were home at the time.        

 Carl picked up a knife and slashed the hand of an intruder.  For this, he was sentenced to a year in prison, while the gangsters went unpunished. They had not dealt the first blow and had better political connections.

The court found that while the home invaders were wrong to force open a door, Carl’s use of a knife was not appropriate.  By this time, Carl had served nearly six months in prison.  The court agreed to shorten the sentence to six months, and Carl is now home. No charges were filed against the gangsters.

We acknowledge cultural differences regarding interpersonal relations.  But protection of family is a human instinct. One would hope that in a global society, human beings could agree on common definitions of right and wrong.  

Above: Carl in shackles.

Rule of Law

As Americans, we don't think much about the rule of law. Although our system may sometimes malfunction, the uniformity of our legal system is something we're able to take for granted. In other countries, this isn't always the case.

My longtime friend, Carl Mather, is currently imprisonned in Nanjing.  An Australian national, Carl is an artist and English teacher.  He is married to a Chinese woman, and they have one daughter, pictured above. He and his wife own an export business and some rental properties.  Carl and I worked together on a project at the Oxford Language Academy of Nanjing during the summer of 2006 and helped me learn to navigate China. Joe and I have stayed with the Mathers during subsequent trips to Nanjing.

Some time ago, thugs broke into the Mather home wielding baseball bats demanding that Carl sign over the family assets.  Carl defended himself, his daughter and mother-in-law with a kitchen knife, slashing one on the hand.  The intruders withdrew.  But their connections to the local government were better than Carl's, and the Nanjing authorities charged Carl with assault.

The case dragged on in the Nanjing courts for over a year. About a month ago, Carl was sentenced to a year in prison.  Carl is now interred at the notorious Nanjing Detention Center.  No one but his lawyers may see him; he has developed health problems, and they report that he isn't doing well.

Few people reading this will know Carl, so I hesitate to ask you to bombard the Australian Embassy with emails, though if you do want to reach them, the address is infoausaid@ausaid.gov.au  The mere act of reading this will be extremely helpful to Carl and others like him.  China is in a state of flux, and its officials are sensitive about the degree of corruption in local government and even more sensitive to its exposure in an international venue.

You may contact me for more information at rrgann@gmail.com
Happy holidays to all, and let's hope for a world where no one is imprisonned unjustly.