Rural China -- New Experiences, New Friends, Warm Hearts...and a Strange Translation!

Last weekend Bonita and I had a marvelous experience – again. But this experience was so unexpected that it made the marvel all that much more delicious.

We had been invited by a woman with whom I work to accompany her to the village she grew up in, which was in eastern China. She wanted to show it to us before it disappeared. Her name is Zhao Wenjing. It sounded like a nice trip, but we weren't expecting much in the way of pizzazz.

Zhao Wenjing -- Deputy Director, International Student Department, Shandong Shi Fan Daxue (Shandong Normal University)

Her village was disappearing because the Chinese government decided to build auto parts factories in a large area of our province, which happened to be on the land where her parents and five other villages of people lived. In China, the government owns all the land. Her citizens are allowed to build homes and farms, etc. on the land, with the understanding that they could be displaced at any time.

And they were. The government built a number of apartment (called flats here) complexes, for the villagers to purchase if they could afford them. The flats were built in the nearby village of Qingzhou (900,000 population). The government razed all the homes in the five villages, and compensated the farmers for the homes they had built. Wenjing’s father had been industrious and had built a large, lovely home, and was therefore compensated handsomely for his industry and labor. Others who hadn’t been so industrious were also compensated for the homes they had built, but it was not enough for them to purchase a flat. So they had to find alternate accommodations.

Wenjing told us many stories about her village, growing up and going to school there, how fortunate she had been to be able to attend our university and thus change the trajectory of her life. It was a wonderful, rich, learning experience for us.

Statue in the courtyard of Wenjing's former primary (elementary) school. Note the red scarves -- symbols of the Communist party.

We met her parents, Mr. Zhao Guofu and Cui Guixiang, and had a wonderful, warm time with them. They invited us to their new flat, which was a large-ish 115 square meters (~ 1,250 square feet). Wenjing’s mother taught Bonita and me how to make jiaozi (dumplings), which were then cooked and served for dinner, along with a lot of other delicious dishes.

Learning how to make dumplings!

Dining on dumplings we made at the Zhao residence, Qingzhou, Shandong Province, China

We had the opportunity to visit the farm her father had worked his entire adult life. The edge of the property line of the nearest new factory runs through the middle of their farm. The lovely home her father had built was now rubble, but a smaller abode, which is slated for destruction shortly, is still standing (above -- in the picture behind us, and below -- behind Wenjing and her father). We sat out front of their other "home" structure on the property as he peeled and served us delicious pears from his pear orchard. (Note the pears in Wenjing's and her father's hands -- huge!)

<-- Zhao razed family home -- the rubble behind Mr. Zhao's first car -- an electric car.

I had told Wenjing that we would be happy to teach a lesson at their local elementary school while visiting, and the offer was snapped up by the school. So Quillen laoshi and Quillen laoshi taught fifth and sixth grade classes for about an hour. After class was over, we were treated like celebrities. (Laoshi is Chinese for Teacher.) J

I taught the sixth grade class and Bonita taught the fifth graders. Aren't they too cute?

It was a wonderful, enriching experience for us. Several of the other China Teacher Program teachers expressed envy that we had been able to visit rural China – they had been trying to do that for several years.

One of the other CTP teachers uses Google Translate extensively in his and his wife’s jaunts around Jinan and beyond, particularly the voice translation portion. With that, he can speak into his phone, push translate, and it will translate what he said into written Chinese. It's a great assist to Weigou ren (outside people, aka foreigners) in China who speak little or no Chinese.

While out and about on the buses, he noticed that a mechanized Chinese voice always said certain phrases as they were nearing or leaving bus stops. He was able to emulate one of them – Dao le – in his translation software and learned it means “Arriving.” But there was another phrase which sounded as the bus left each stop, which he simply could not get a good translation on. He tried to say the same words he thought he was hearing into his translation software, but he continued to get some odd translations.

Today we were on an outing with other foreign teachers, and our friend thought to ask our Chinese guide what the phrase was. With the caveat that he was probably mis-pronouncing the phrase, he did his best to share it with her. She furrowed her brow and thought about it. She had him repeat it several times. Then sudden realization came: “Oh! What they are saying is: ‘The bus is leaving, please sit down or hold on tight.’”

The Pinyin (English-language letters that help with pronunciation of Chinese words) for the first half of the phrase (the part he had been trying to enter into Google translate) is:

Che liang qi bu (the second half of the phrase was: qing zuo wen fu hao) -- he couldn't recall the last half of the phrase, but our guide had ridden the bus enough that she recognized it.

What he was saying was:

Chi wai fu -- Which Google Translate interpreted as: Eat the foreign woman. Close, but not quite right... 😎 

Here are a few other pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Whenever we go places, we are celebrities of a sort. We are on many surreptitious photos and videos, and some of the folks even have the courage to ask us if they can take pictures with us, and we always say of course.  Today we visited an International Vegetable Exhibition (it was awesome). While there, we had one of the most heart-warming experiences of our entire China adventure. Bonita noticed a young man use sign language to tell someone he was with that he wanted to ask if he could take a picture with Bonita. She responded in sign, saying she would be delighted.  Oh my...he was beyond thrilled and signed back to the group he was with. They crowded around Bonita and loved, loved, loved having their picture taken with a Meiguo ren (foreigner) who could also sign.  Many pictures were taken, many smiles and very warm handshakes exchanged. At first I thought we had truly bettered international relations, but realized that what we really bettered was human relations. Bonita and the little girl in the front row were the only non-hearing-impaired individuals in the picture. The young man who wanted to ask Bonita to take a picture with him is in the back row with the NY Yankees hat on, as well as in the close-up.

Saturday we attended a world-famous Kite Festival in Weifang.  Here are some of the pictures from that:

And a couple pictures from Qingzhou, which we visited as part of our rural China trip:

What is Beauty?

So -- if you were asked that question and had to answer it within say, thirty seconds, how would you respond?  Go ahead -- I'll wait thirty seconds for your response.

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 Okay, time's up.

A couple months ago, the title of one of my blog posts was Chinese vs American Schools -- There's a Big Difference! (December 30, 2018). This past week I had an experience that reminded me of another significant difference between (most) American universities and the university at which we teach. As usual, I wasn't even looking for this insight, but it practically stepped right up and shook my had.

I have an activity I sometimes do with my classes which is designed to help them get over their fear of speaking English in public.  I have a list of 200 questions -- things like:

                                  What is your favorite hobby?

                                   If you could have a super power for one day, what would it be?

                                   If someone gave you 10 million yuan (about $1.5 million), what is the first
                                   thing you would do?

                                   If you could live any place in the world other than China, where would that be and why?

When I call on a student, I ask him or her to pick a number between 1 and 200. I have them give me the number in Chinese, so I can practice listening to and understanding Chinese. They think it's hilarious when I get the number wrong, but now I seldom get one wrong. (Hopefully my mistakes also send the message that it's okay to try and fail in my class -- but they just have to keep trying.)

Anyway -- the other day, the student below drew the question:

"What will you teach your children about what the true meaning of beauty is?"

Aze (Zhang Xuan Xuan)

Aze's initial response was an immediate: "Me!" But then she got serious, and said, "The definition of beauty is virtue."

I loved her response!

Her response reminded me of a similar experience I had my first or second day of class at the beginning of the school year. I had each of the students prepare a short personal introduction of themselves, and then introduce themselves to their classmates.

In her comments, one of the young women concluded her intro by saying that she thought one of the values most important to her was her modesty. As I looked around the classroom, I saw the vast majority of the students vigorously nodding approval and acknowledgment of that great value.

Amara (Dong Zhitao) 

As delighted as I was with their answers, upon reflection, I think that is another significant difference between US universities and Chinese universities, or at least the one at which we are now teaching. I can't imagine either that answer (Beauty = Virtue) or comment ("I value my modesty.") being accepted, much less agreed to, by the vast majority of American university students. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they would get heckled or mocked for being courageous enough to share those personal values if they did so in the classroom of most American universities.

And it made me sad.

China is a wonderful place, but I see one major weakness.  That is -- they are maybe a little too quick to adopt western fashions and values. They wear clothing from western countries -- Pink, Adidas and Nike t-shirts adorn their bodies, North Face and Columbia coats keep them warm, Converse tennis shoes cushion their feet.

New York Yankees baseball caps are exceptionally popular.  They are beginning to develop a bit of a sweet tooth as more and more western candies (like Snickers, Dove, and Hershey candy bars, M&Ms, Skittles, etc.) find their way into China.  They love western music -- not REAL western music, like Garth Brooks, George Strait, Blake Shelton, etc. -- just music from "the West" (eg: Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Charlie Puth, Riyanna, Taylor Swift, etc.).  They are huge cinema fans, and love American movies and television shows.

I hope they don't adopt America's casual attitude about morality. But I see signs those values will erode here ere long, as they now allow movies and television shows into the country like Fifty Shades of Gray, Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad, all of which are very popular.

Here's to hoping that China is somehow able to maintain the lack of worldliness for their children and young adults.

(Note: Amara wants to be an English-speaking tour guide in China [and in fact, she has already been doing that as a summer job the last few years], and Aze wants to work in the travel management business in media. Both speak English very well.)

This Korean classmate on the right agreed to let me take her picture wearing her NY Yankees cap but was shy and didn't want her face in the picture. The mask she's wearing is very typical for people to wear here, to protect them somewhat from the pollution.

Below are a few pictures (unrelated to the topic of today's post) from recent days / weeks:

DQ and two of my Laoshi (teachers) -- He Li Na and Liu Yi Fei (He Li Na is one of my Basic Chinese teachers and Liu Yi Fei is my Chinese tutor.)

My classmates in my three Chinese classes (Basic Grammar, Reading and Listening). They hail from Korea, Tanzanika, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan and Brazil. Oh -- and one old guy from America! All are marvelous human beings. (It was a bit of a rainy / misty day.)

Ran into these beauties on the Food Street I mentioned in a previous post -- L-R -- grasshoppers, scorpions, cicadas. I tried the scorpions, and they were surprisingly tasty.  Crunchy, but the seasonings they used were delicious.

                                                                                                     In case you don't recognize them skewered on sticks...

                                           I don't believe this product will catch on in America...at least not with this name...

                                            Elderly man I ran into and chatted with (briefly) during last weekend's sightseeing.

Are all Chinese short (remember my Stereotypes lesson)? Um...no.  Here are three of my students from one of my classes.  Almost all my classes have several boys and at least one girl taller than me.  I look not unlike a Hobbit in this picture (without the hairy feet...)

Signs of the Time -- Lost in Translation...

Anyone who has traveled much in this great big old world of ours has seen signs in English that have obviously not been written by native English speakers.

I often wondered about that, and thought, “Why don’t they hire native English speakers to do their signs and advertisements? Surely it would be more impressive to have flawless English on their signs.”

Such was my logic.

But a few months ago, one of my Chinese friends helped me view it from a different perspective. He is the Director of Translations at the University at which I teach. One day I mentioned Bonita and I had recently visited one of the more famous scenic spots in Jinan.

With a smile, he said, “Did you see the English signs there?"

My first thought was, “Oh no! He’s going to proudly tell me he translated them!” I just smiled and said, “Yes, I did.”

He said, “They’re awful aren’t they?”

Relieved, I said, “Yes, some were pretty bad.”

Then he explained. “Those signs aren’t intended for English speakers. They are meant to impress the Chinese people that this is such an important site, that English speakers travel to see it.”

As with many things in China, this incident has helped me continue to learn the value of different perspectives.

So – with that said, following are a few of the more memorable English signs we have run across in our travels in China.

Sign in a park in Dali, in SW China. Basically: Don't walk on the grass.

Perhaps needed in case your horse is running wild during a fire?  (In our hotel.)

 

Lover's Valley...

Shake milk? Milkshake.  Same words, but...(nice, neat lettering, though!)

 

Use an old-fashioned water pump to put water in your computer. (Actually, it's Chinese for: Slow)

Um...okay. I think they should have chosen Do not climb instead of No Surmounting...

Okay -- some of you who have traveled to China or other Asian countries have probably seen these signs before:

 Chinese typically use toilets that are basically a hole in the floor, as pictured above. That green waste basket in the top-right corner of the picture? That's where you put your used toilet paper (which you have to bring, since probably 95% of the toilets in China do not provide that precious commodity).  I always look for the Potty (Western) Toilets, myself. (Most Chinese despise western toilets, considering them very unsanitary.)

Keep it civilized...

In the event you need an artificial ticket, or maybe a ticket to Artificial, China?

From time to time, I've needed a sign like this in my life!

The translation is something like "No playing during office hours."

Okay -- just a couple more:

I have no idea, unless it means Bus Only Exit and Please get out your Credit Card...

 In case a flashlight is part of your normal photography set-up

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And now just a few random pictures of signs that struck me as interesting or funny:

(Poor) Knock-off of a popular hoodie message here: May the bridges I burn light the way. Modeled by one of my favorite students last semester (now Bonita's student) Echo (Han Yao Yao).

Check out the spelling of Chinese...

Boy, can I relate!

Probably a knock off (I hope so!)

Bonita and friends...in Shanghai

Pretty baby and proud grandma in Dali

Heart-broken little boy in Hanoi

A pretty little Hanoi doll

This young woman (~ age 10) in Hanoi absolutely fascinated me. I sat across from her and watched her interact with her grandmother for about 45 minutes, and she was a pure joy to watch and photograph.

And a special bonus for those of you who stuck with me through all the pictures.  This sign was next to a table of tourist knick knacks:

Given the context and location, I would wager they were shooting for something more along the lines of "Handle with care." (Sorry for the PG-13-ish nature of this sign...)

Thanks for reading!