Holidays Upon Us

I remember being shocked by the Christmas commerialism my first year in Shenzhen--I really didn't expect such an embrace of a Western religious holiday (granted, most of it was centered around the Bao'an district Wal-mart). I didn't realize then that China just enjoyed Christmas sans Christ.

This year looks like more people in my area have taken to celebrating Christmas. My current apartment building has decorations and a tree up, as does my old complex (I don't remember that last year). All of the small shops along my street are filled with cheap Christmas decorations that the children are grabbing up.

Considering orders from factories are well below levels of previous years, I have to wonder if instead of exporting the decorations and such that the factories are just selling the products to local vendors. I don't know this for sure, but it does seem like a logical possibility.

Some things about Christmas in China:

Last time I went to Carrefour, they were playing a dance remix of "Jingle Bells" with Chinese lyrics. I may not like it, but I'd rather listen to the original version as it does sound less annoying.

My co-worker said that Chinese enjoy celebrating all Western holidays. I pointed out that they didn't celebrate Hanukkah. I'm going to try to educate them on Festivus (I have a Seinfeld DVD).

Tomorrow (Christmas Day), I'm going out to dinner with a friend and his visiting parents. We're going to have a Jewish Christmas dinner at a Muslim-Chinese restaurant. Jia and I will probably then watch another classic James Bond movie.

Entitlement

As the term winds down (we have a few more weeks before exams), students tend to act a bit different than they did in first weeks when they were new to their surroundings. It really isn't any different from last year--I just seem to notice it more.

There's a lack of enthusiasm during class and a lack of effort when it comes to assignments. There's also the common occurrence of students showing up late to class--which is amazing considering they live five minutes away from the classroom. Even with these habits they can't seem to grasp the idea that it could have negative effects on their grades.

I don't believe this is just a problem here in China--I've heard plenty of stories from the US that sound similar. However, I do think there is a problem here as it pertains to English classes for non-majors. Many of these students have experienced an education system that forced English classes upon them for the past 10 years. That same education system also told many of these students that English is "fun" and doesn't require any work. This has led to the phenomenon of the dancing monkey backpacker who comes to China to do nothing more than play games and sing songs with minimal educational value. It also doesn't help when institutions will ensure that every student passes the English class and moves up to the next level despite the fact that a student doesn't do any work for the class. And this leads to a mentality that every student will pass every English class at every level of education.

Unfortunately for the these students, it is possible to fail at this university. You can ask one of my students from last year who is in my class again this year. He asked why he failed. Turns out he neglected to hand in some assignments and did very poorly on his exams. He is putting forth a bit more effort this year.

There are still those who show up 25 minutes late and wonder why I count them as absent, and then laugh when I tell them they will probably fail the course. I have to laugh because it's the same students that don't hand in assignments, don't have books, and don't take notes. I can already count 10 students who will more than likely receive a failing grade (not bad when you consider that I have 300 students).

Fortunately for me, there are some students that take the class seriously and make an effort to do the work well. Surprisingly, this Wednesday's class, which has some of the lower English levels of my classes, has been doing quite well. Even if they can't understand everything or provide the correct answer, at least they try--and I appreciate that more than they probably think.

Finally, Culture in Shenzhen

Saturday, we took a long bus ride out to Longgang district to visit the Hakkas Custom Museum. It took more than two hours to get there from Nanshan.

Hakka people are Han Chinese, but have different customs than the rest of China. The migrated from the north and settled south--there are many photos of Hakka villages from Fujian province.

The Crane Lake Villa was turned into a museum by the city in 1996. Prior that, it belonged to a single family--the Luo family, which began building the home during the Qing Dynasty. It is not the circular structure-style Hakka village that is shown in most pictures, but rather a trapezoid-shaped structure.


There isn't much in the way of exhibits at the museum. It appears that most of it is being renovated. Many of the 300 original rooms are inaccessible at this time. Most of the exhibits pertain to this specific Hakka village, with original tools and stories of the family. Other exhibits include stories of famous Hakka people, including Sun Yat-Sen. Unfortunately, they do not explain much about the customs and traditions of the Hakka people.

There is also some rather confusing propaganda set as an exhibit. It seems some Hakka villages were mistaken as secret nuclear sites. Apparently, this is a true story. However, the way it's written makes it much more difficult to comprehend or believe. I particularly like the last line about Reagan.
















The neighborhood surrounding the museum isn't the most pleasant in Shenzhen. It's filled with numerous small shops selling cheap products and knock-offs. We came across a two yuan store that sold fake Crest toothpaste (the Chinese was the same, but the product was called Cvozt.

If you plan to go, I suggest stopping in at the nearby Jusco down the street for some food--there isn't much near the Hakka museum.

Views on a Friday

I'd like to share a story from my trip to Jiuzhaigou in the Tibetan region of Sichuan province. On our first day through the park, we spoke with college student who was home for the holiday. She was very honest with us about the villages in the area. She said that since 1986, the park opened, the village became increasingly wealthy. Most of the people were happy to use the money to send their children to the cities to get a better education. The only downside that she saw from the changes was that the government banned livestock (sheep and yak) in order to protect the area, thus completely shifting their means of living. She didn't see all of this as being government repression, but she did see some of the traditions of her people fading.

Today, one of my students asked about the whole problem between Western media and China. He's not the best spoken student I have (I'd probably place him in the middle of my 300), but he managed to get his point across. Unlike the nationalist comments I've read online or heard about from friends, this question was rather simple yet thoughtful.

He, more or less, asked, "Why do the newspapers in France and Germany hate China and the Olympics?" At first I responded that it was too complicated to answer it in a short time. After class I tried giving a small answer. "I think part of it is a cultural miscommunication on both sides," I said. He agreed. I then explained that part of the problem was that the Chinese government restricts journalists from doing their job the way they should. Therefore, many journalists will write negative stories and ignore the positive as a way of responding to the restrictions.

I'm not entirely sure if he understood that mentality, but he listened for the point of view and passed no judgment on the answer. I'm sure if I gave this answer to some students that they'd be upset and get defensive in some way. Having students like this one makes me feel much better about my job.

After this short exchange he asked if I was going to Beijing for the Olympics. I answered, "Hell, no." He thought it was because of the crowds, but I gave him other reasons why I don't like the city that much. He agreed with me. "I don't think Beijing people are friendly," he said, "I like western China much more." I told him I thought the places I've been in the west were also friendlier than Beijing--Sichuan and Xinjiang have had some of the nicest people I've met in China.

Spoiled Similarities

Over the past few weeks I have come to realize that I got the luck of the draw in classes this year. The other English teacher seems to be having quite a few serious problems with students (and this teacher was at the school last year as well without incident). I have few complaints about my students as I basically ignore the students who aren't doing their work and I focus on the ones who are in my class to learn. There are at least four or five in each class who make it worthwhile--and I truly enjoy teaching and conversing with those students.

Today during our meeting, my boss mentioned that the new class of master's and PhD students are the worst behaved out of any she's seen. Even the other professors are voicing their concerns. Unlike previous classes, this one is made up of students who graduated at the top of their undergraduate programs. These students feel superior to almost everyone and feel entitled to everything. My boss even mentioned that she's had some students entering her office to make some ridiculous requests as if they owned the place. She's obviously not happy with these students. I think she may be worried about how they'll react if/when they receive failing grades (and we already know there will be some).

The other teacher and I mentioned watching an English news program about the American generation that's entering the workplace and the similarities between them and their Chinese counterparts. The ones in our classes are mostly part of the one-child policy, and their parents probably spoiled a fair number of them--much like many American kids who are now finding their way into the workforce. I find it amazing that so many employers and educators are willing to bend over backwards for these "talented" individuals. Even J. has told me stories of some spoiled students he had to teach at his university in the U.S. He was rather disgusted at the behavior and has seen the same thing here with many of his students.

I believe that people need to pay their dues before they can show this sort of behavior. It's simply annoying and rude. These spoiled children of the world will cause more problems in the future as their sense of entitlement grows. How will they know how to handle a difficult situation when mommy and daddy aren't around to fight for them? I can only hope that the next generation will turn out better.