Adventures in Guangzhou!

The first two are actually somewhat laughable in terms of effectiveness (or usefulness) since they mostly involve waving your arms around in different patterns, marching in place, and/or doing some sort of active stretching, but they're way better than nothing. On a curious sidenote, two groups in my classes debated the merits of the early morning exercise sessions (for their talk shows) and both mentioned heightened levels of CO2 as a negative. Umm, what? Is there some bizarre quality of the GZ air that involves a dangerous level of carbon dioxide that disappears after morning rush hour? I'm stumped.

The sessions in the morning last around 10-15 minutes but the afternoon exercise period is much longer. This is when the sports teams practice and when everyone else has an opportunity to play pickup games of soccer, basketball, table-tennis, badminton, or simply run around the track. This is all well and good, except for the fact that I noticed the other day that there were only about 3 or 4 girls total running on the track or playing on the field. This would be fine if there were only 5 or 6 boys around, but in reality it is in comparison to ~350-400 boys running, jumping, throwing, hurdling, and kicking.

What gives? There was an intra-class soccer match the other day and I watched the second half with my football buddies. I asked why there were no girls participating and they said that girls don't play soccer. I asked if the ladies had their own team or match and I got laughed at. Similarly, there is a school basketball team but it is strictly guys. Every once in a while a girl shows up to play some pickup but even that's a rarity. I poked my head into the badminton court and saw a much higher number of girls playing, but they were still a distinct minority. Same goes for the ping pong area. So where do all of the girls go every afternoon? I do not know but I am certainly going to ask around.

I believe this is indicative of a much larger issue here in China that relates to socially constructed conceptions of beauty and health. Admittedly, this is a major issue in America as well, but I think it's even more pronounced here and addressed even less. Chinese girls are almost all extremely skinny and have little to no muscle mass. It's not that they can't build muscle or don't want to, it's the fact that society dictates that athletic girls are somewhat ostracized. If you're a world class basketball player (for example) it's a different story, but for the average female being built is not desirable. Similarly, there is a burgeoning problem here with eating disorders. According to what I've read and seen, teenage girls are becoming more and more prone to anorexia (not bulimia as much) and no one is addressing the issue. I'm afraid that it's going to take a number of girls to die before anyone takes notice. I'm thinking about trying to do a lesson bringing these issues to light, but I'm not sure how it would be received.

On a completely separate note, I had the most eventful cab ride of my China career this afternoon. I started tutoring two Korean boys (ages 9 and 12--they rock) in English on Sunday afternoons and was running late today so I hopped in a cab. The trip started off without anything odd--basic weaving and cutting people off in congested areas. It started to get interesting when we turned on to a busy four lane street (2 lanes each way). We needed to make a right turn about 100m ahead but a red light and bumper to bumper traffic prevented us...or so I thought. Instead of waiting (and thereby following basic driving rules) the guy swung out to the left into one of the lanes with oncoming traffic.

Now this isn't the first time I've been in this situation so I wasn't panicking at the outset. The thing is, 100 meters is a long way when there are cars coming straight at you. Usually if a taxi heads out into the opposite lane, it's relatively brief and he'll nose his way back into the correct lane after a couple seconds. Not this guy though. We went the whole way and then made a hard right across two lanes of stopped cars and went through the red light to complete turn. Wow. Okay, no big deal though--I survived unscathed.

About thirty seconds later, the guy was weaving around a bunch of other cars once again when he had to come to a screeching halt. In a curious decision, a short barefoot merchant attempted to pull his goods across the street on a rickshaw-like cart in the middle of blazing traffic. My cabby started swearing in Cantonese (I'm assuming) at the guy as he finished crossing the street. The path was now clear but my driver decided he had a few things to say to the merchant before continuing on. At this point he rolled down the driver's side window and started giving the guy hell. He pulled forward about 10 feet after a few imprecations but then stopped again in the middle of the road. By now there were a number of other cars who could not pass and were getting quite angry with us for blocking the way. My first thought was, "Man, this guy is going to make me late for tutoring."

In a flash, the driver decided to exit the vehicle and confront the other guy face to face. At first he just stood by the side of the cab and yelled down the road but then they both started walking towards each other, seemingly sizing each other up. Oh boy. By now my thoughts had changed from concerns on punctuality to fearing for the life of this merchant who was tiny in comparison to the driver. They both started pointing, shouting, and kicking some dirt around. Meanwhile, I'm sitting alone in the taxi getting honked at by the increasing number of cars behind us. I started to imagine a riot ensuing and began to look around for an exit strategy. Luckily I was not forced to do my best Jack Bauer imitation as the conflict ended peacefully. The driver got back in the taxi and drove off in a huff, without so much as glancing at the red light he went through. All's well that ends well though as I got to tutoring with about 30 seconds to spare.

I am very excited to be heading out on the road once again this week to explore some more of China. Having a random week-long vacation, I decided to brave the 25 hour train ride and head out to Yunnan in southwest China. My kids are all spending this coming week learning how to farm out in the pastures of Guangdong Province so I'm free of any teaching responsibilities. I was invited to join them but opted to head to Kunming instead. Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, is supposedly a beautiful little city (of ~3 million, heh) surrounded by picturesque mountains and significant populations of non-Han Chinese. I'll let you know when I get back in seven or eight days...