This and That....March 4, 2009

This week is the second week of teaching for the second semester of the academic year at the university where I teach. Some student reactions to the global economic crisis:
1. We don't think it is here in China. We all still have the same amount of pocket money to spend. I suggested this may be because their parent's have stable jobs.
2. Parents are beginning to have to make difficult decisions. If a child cannot find a job after investing in a four year college degree then that investment will not pay off. Should the parent continue to fund college or should the student leave school and go to work?
3. One student suggested that President Obama should control prices in the United States. I explained that he does not have the power to do that, it would have to be accomplished through Congress.

I've been to my Chinese dentist the past two weeks for work on a root canal and crown. I have noticed that his tools look like miniature power tools. I commented to him as such and wondered if people who go into dentistry like working with power tools. He looked at me and said, "Teaching is a little boring?" My dentist in China, by the way, bicycles to work!

In my classes these two weeks the subject of brothers and sisters has come up. I have asked students who talk about brothers and sisters how can this be with the one child policy in place? One female student said that her parent's had four daughters. They were trying for a son but after four girls they could not afford to continue trying -- I assume they had to pay fines for three of the girls. One female student has an older brother. It turns out that she is a Muslim from an ethnic minority and the government allows her minority to have more than one child so that the minority does not disappear. It is highly unusual for a girl to have an older brother, it is almost always the case that the girls have younger brothers or sisters. If a couple has a boy they will stop with that one child. If they have a girl they may try again. This is why the girl with an older brother was particularly significant to me. I also had one female student talk about her little brothers and sisters; it turned out that they are nieces and nephews, she has two uncles and two aunts and each of them has a child.

Sunday I went to another area of Nanjing to visit another Amity teacher, a friend who I enjoy spending time with. Her apartment is much newer than mine, and it was warm. We walked around the campus, eating at a restaurant where the people who worked were very kind. We shopped for me for hair clips and barrettes and stopped at a table outside where a young woman was selling earrings and other jewelry. I ended up buying some things from her because I was pretty sure if I didn't she wouldn't have much to eat that night. Sometimes it is so difficult when I see college age people living hand to mouth and working in the cold in the winter, and the hot in the summer. So many people live without hope for a different tomorrow here. I saw this also in the Philippines. I have wondered lately where the mentally ill or handicapped people are here in China. I read on-line today that under Mao they were considered useless. Now they are being given more respect. The article told of a father who had opened a restaurant in order to expand the world for his son who has cerebral palsy. I wish that there were such opportunities for more of the young people.

My students have talked of moving on to graduate school after their BA in order to avoid for the short term the difficulty of finding employment. They said though that what will happen to those with a BA is that they will be competing with those people who have Master's degrees and it will make it even more difficult for the ones with only a BA.

Heidi took me to a hair salon where I had my nails painted. The nail artist spent at least an hour carefully painting a garden on each of my nails. It cost under $4.00 US for this art. Another friend had her duffle bag repaired here in China and paid 3 yuen, less than 50 cents. My tailor, who has specialized training and skills, is paid so little that he and his family live in the tiny shop where he and his wife sew on their machines. I don't know what in China is given the respect for labor which I believe it should be, but it is clear to me that labor of the hands in art does not.

Something else which comes to mind this evening is both a conversation I recently had here in Nanjing with an American friend, and also information which related to the conversation which I have heard several times. I had hoped to be able to level the playing field in my classes for the students whose families could not afford a high quality pre-university education for their children. I have realized that this may not be a realistic goal. What I am discovering is that some of my students have actually attended English language school previous to this university and have English abilities on the high end in terms of comprehension, speaking and vocabulary. What seems to happen in China is that the students who are deemed the best continue to have doors opened for them. So it is quite possible that the students whose parents can afford private schools are also the students who will receive the scholarships to go overseas for further education, leaving the other students with no windows and no doors to walk through. I am praying that scholarships and other opportunities here in China, and at this university in particular, will become need based and not merit based in order to open the world up to more people.

After flying to several destinations in Asia I do ponder the question: are the Chinese the only Asians who yell out loud with each other over assigned seats?