« February 2007 | Main | April 2007 »
March 23, 2007
Mayday! Mayday!
Last night I had the pleasure of attending a rock concert here in Guangzhou. One of my best students from last year took a few hours out of her non-stop studying to invite me out for the show. The band, a young group of five Taiwanese guys, has the Chinese name "wu yue tian," which literally translates to "fifth month day," or rather, "May Day." I found this a little funny right away since that is, of course, the international distress signal. I explained this to Carol, my student, but she didn't understand why. Well, I didn't either until I just looked it up. It turns out that mayday comes from the French m'aider, which is shortened from venez m'aider meaning "come help me!" See? You learn something new everyday.
Anyhow, I had to jet out from my last class and meet Carol at the subway around 3pm in order to start our trek. It turns out the show was not a public performance, but rather a special gig for university students to showcase their new album and upcoming public performances. The show was way out at what's called "University City," a large area in the southeastern section of the city, where about five different local universities all have campuses for their freshmen and sophomores.
Though we could have taken a long bus to get there, we opted to take the subway instead. I'm not sure if we made the right choice, but we did end up having to switch lines twice which was interesting. The stop for the southern section of University City is located on Line 4 of the GZ subway system, a new line which opened up January 1st of this year. It was my first time in this part of the city and I was curious to see what it looked like.
Making our second transfer on to Line 4, there were a few stark differences that immediately stood out to me. First, the subway car itself. In Lines 1-3 there are English translations of the stops or, at the very least, perfect pinyin romanizations of the Chinese. In addition, on all three of those lines they make announcements in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. Not so, there on Line 4. Half the of the roman letters were pinyin but half were some bizarre pronunciation system unlearned by me. There were no English announcements and certainly no English-speaking employees.
The second difference was the people. Given that Line 4 services University City and other far-reaching locales, I guess it shouldn't have been too surprising that most of the people on board were younger college kids and poorly dressed workers. Not only that, but for the first time in ages, I noticed a lot of people staring at me. On the other three lines people tend to be slightly better dressed and accustomed to foreigners, probably due to the concentration of wealth and business. More often than not I am still the only foreigner on the train, but nobody looks at me like I'm on display. Not so on Line 4.
The third difference was the exit out of the subway. After we got out of the train car and walked up the escalator, I was shocked to see what was outside--a whole lot of nothing. Whereas in other areas of the city you exit to towering skyscrapers, chaotic traffic, and tons of people, over there you walked out into what could have passed as farmland. I looked a little farther down in each direction and saw the vague outline of university campuses, but the stop itself was pretty isolated. It was actually really cool.
So onward we walked to the South China University of Technology. It was apparent right away that we were not the only ones that had heard about the special concert. There were tons of people flocking out of the subway and many more exiting buses. As we arrived at the main gate, the first step was to locate our tickets. Apparently they were given out to the college students for free but outsiders like us were scalping them from uninterested students. Carol's cousin secured one seat for her and then we found another guy who would sell to me. He started to explain some caveat about my ticket but Carol pulled me away in search of her cousin. Fair enough.
We found her cousin and joined her friends in the waiting line. The first thing I thought was that half the campus must have skipped class in order to wait on line for a good view. The line to get in the gates snaked, literally, around almost half the campus. There were thousands of people there easily and I was very curious to see how long that many people would wait in a line. Well, it didn't take long for various "sub-lines" to branch off from the main line, quickly creating mass chaos. It was nice to chat with Carol's cousin and her friends but when the line finally started moving I told them to grab hold of me and not let go until we were inside. Sometimes, size has its advantages.
After an hour and a half of standing, we finally made our way to the gate and the ticket checkpoint. I had no problem initially getting in but I was slightly concerned about following the rest of my group into the special student section up front. This section was reserved for University of Technology students while the back section was reserved for other university kids and outsiders. I thought I would have to be relegated to the back but I should have known better. I guess in the end I just used my secret/invisible "foreigner's card" to get in. In other words, they were temporarily mesmerized by my white skin and let me in without a single question. I wasn't too surprised--in the entire area of roughly 10,000 fans there was not a single non-Chinese person there besides me.
We hustled in and grabbed seats. Well, actually, the seats weren't seats at all, but rather standing space in a giant open field. The place was mobbed and, not surprisingly, the crowds were not shy about pushing. As I jockeyed for space close to the stage, I had to fight off a number of people all trying to shove me out of the way. Just imagine what it's like in the States and then imagine it in a situation where pushing is not rude. Oy. Anyway, I boxed out like an all star power forward and made room.
Eventually the sun went down, the lights went up, the concert started, and people went nuts. It's always exciting to be at a concert when the crowd and the band is really into it and this was no different. I would say that Mayday's style was some sort of combination of the Beatles, Guster, and J. Geils Band (without actually being as good as any of those groups). They were a fun pop-rock group that really got the crowd into the show. I could follow some of the slower songs but was forced to rely on Carol for translations of most of the other tunes. Some of them were laughable (e.g. a hard-rock sounding song about puppy love) but overall I really enjoyed it.
The trip home was a major test of claustrophobic inclinations, but I guess the mass exit of every major public event is the same way. I did survive the crowds and went to bed very pleased with the experience. The next day I even went out and bought their CD--consider me the newest wuyuetian fan.
Posted by awolfe at 3:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 15, 2007
When It Rains, It Pours...
...or is just extremely humid, in this case. We've reached that time of year when there is so much moisture in the air that the stairs inside the building become wet. We've reached that time of year when you go to sleep at night and your pillow feels like it was out in the rain because it's so damp. We've reached that time of year when it takes jeans approximately a week and a half to dry since they're so heavy with water after a washing. And we've reached that time of year when it doesn't exactly rain but yet it's gray and misty everyday, with just a hint of an actual rain storm. Hey, it beats having monsoon season, right?
Going along with the theme of this post, I've had some major technological difficulties in recent days. I've been chain-watching a ton of "West Wing" episodes in the last few weeks and I think President Bartlet put it best when he said that "the worst problems always come from the things we take for granted." Sure, he was referring to the cleanliness of beef products, but I think deep down he really meant my computer. My trusty G4 powerbook is currently out of commission, and potentially on the way to becoming a really grandiose coaster.
Something as simple as plugging the power cord into the computer--an action we've all done hundreds of times--may be the end of this computer and I'm still reeling in shock. I guess it put it in at juuuuust the wrong angle and pushed at it with juuuuuust the wrong amount of force and voila--it's busted. Now in the States this would be a problem but not a catastrophe. I'd reluctantly trudge out to one of dozens of Apple Stores in the area, shove the machine in front of a so-called "genius," and get the thing fixed. But here? In China I have learned that things are never so simple.
First I had to enlist Kelly to look up the address online for the one and only authorized repair shop in the city. Tucked away on the 7th floor of an unmarked building, my confidence was waning. After waiting in line (and boxing out two ladies who tried to cut me in line), I attempted to explain the problem to the guy at the counter. Forunately, he understood the problem despite my lack of Chinese vocabulary for things like "cord," and "power source." Unfortunately, I didn't have my entire hard drive backed up. We had a conversation that went something like this:
Him- Do you have important data on your computer?
Me- Of course.
Him- Is it all backed up?
Me- Unfortunately not.
Him- Well we can't take it unless you have it backed up.
Me- I understand, but how can I back it up when my battery's dead and power charger can't be connected?
Him- You can't.
Me- So what do you suggest I do?
Him- Back up all of your data.
Me- But I can't do that.
Him- Correct.
We went back and forth like that a while longer until I decided that my computer was not getting fixed in Guangzhou. On the way back to my apartment, I stopped by one of the other Apple authorized resellers and inquired about the price of a new charger (which I would need to buy at some point in the future). They quoted me a price approaching $200 which I couldn't even believe. I started to bargain with them but walked out almost immediately. And, naturally, to make matter even worse, on the bus ride home I took out my iPod and noticed that one of the earbuds was broken. Perfect.
So on and on I went, trying to figure out how in the world to go about getting my computer fixed. In the process of my research, I discovered that I managed to buy my computer about two weeks before they took my model off the shelves. So, despite being only three and a half years old, they've virtually stopped making any of the parts anymore.
It became clear pretty quickly that I was going to have to cross the border and get assistance in Hong Kong. I figured there would be several options for Apple stores in HK but actually they too only have authorized resellers. Something about Chinese government regulations? Who knows. Anyhow, I found out where the repair place was and headed out with my fingers crossed. Though also tucked away on the 20th floor of a building in Causeway Bay, the employees spoke English and managed to look up which parts needed to be replaced. Though the woman helping me had to check with her supervisor whether they could still acquire the part I needed, she did take the computer from me and said to come back in two weeks. Right now I am cautiously optimistic but I really don't know.
What I do is that my entire day to day existence changes without my computer. It's scary. What did we do without them? I don't compulsively check my email. Job searching seems almost impossible. Powerpoints are automatically left out of lesson planning. My knowledge of world news goes down to a single check of nytimes.com a day. My level of Yankees news goes down to almost nothing. On the other hand, I played football today with some of my old students for twice as long as I may have otherwise so maybe it's a good thing. No reason to be attached to the computer all the time, right? God forbid I ever get a blackberry...
Posted by awolfe at 9:48 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 6, 2007
Resolutions
There's nothing better than the feeling of being home. I don't necessarily mean the feeling of sitting around the building where you sleep, but rather the indescribable perception that you are where you belong. After more than a year and a half in Guangzhou, it is absolutely and unequivocally my home. That's saying quite a bit. I haven't spent this much time in one place in a long time and it feels great. I know the people around me. They know me. I know my surroundings. And most importantly, I feel completely comfortable here.
This feeling is nothing new, really, but you always forget about it when you're away from home. When I was little, I remember feeling this way in West Hartford after a long day trip to New York or Boston. In college, I remember feeling this way at Wesleyan after a weekend road trip to a friend's university. I always feel it when I return to the Vineyard. And now, after a three week trip around Southeast Asia, I'm relishing it in Guangzhou.
Though the trip was unforgettable, it wasn't home. I couldn't walk down the street in Laos and have a shopkeeper say hello to me. I couldn't go to a restaurant in Thailand and have the waitress ask if I wanted the usual. I couldn't jog out to the football field in Malaysia and be greeted with the smiles and jokes of old teammates. I couldn't go to the market in Singapore and have the fruit woman ask us where we've been. So, to be brief, it's nice to be back.
For my first week back in the classroom, I had my students think of new year's resolutions for the new lunar year. Though this is a surprisingly western phenomenon, I think they got something out of it. I got the usual responses of "I want to improve my studies," "I want to make some money," and "I want to get taller," the latter of which caused me both laughter and confusion as I tried to explain that it wasn't a resolution; but, as always, a few students caught me off guard. I had one bright young girl tell me that she wanted "to learn how to look at the world in a different way," and another tell me she hoped "to help those more unfortunate." If we all made resolutions like that, can you imagine how much better the world would be?
Anyhow, my first week back was also highlighted by a visit from my friend and PiA mentor, Professor Lynn White. Though busy writing a new back on his sabbatical, he and his wife made their way up to Guangzhou from Macau and treated Nick and I to lunch. As both an overwhelmingly intelligent guy and a China scholar with close to thirty years of travel experience here, it was great to chat for the afternoon. Spending time with such an incredible person, it made me wax philosophical a bit about what my life could be like if I went the route of academia.
I think many students at good liberal arts colleges consider this for at least a brief period of time because education and academia is all we know when we graduate. The romantic notion of the professor in a tweed jacket surrounded by stacks of books and research materials is an attractive one. In reality, nowadays it's a tough road to make it as a professor, but it's still nice to dream. I'd give almost anything to get paid to teach curious, intelligent students, research interesting ideas, travel the world, and simply learn. While it can be done at the high school level, it's just not the same.
Posted by awolfe at 5:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack