Sturm und Drang

It’s been an uneventful week here in Guangzhou. I can think of only ere only two things of note. One, the weather has been delightfully bad, with the skies going pitch black at three in the afternoon and serving up a deluge worthy of Noah, if it lasted more than a couple hours, complete with thunder, lightning, and gusting wind. I’d show you a picture, but it turns out to be quite challenging to take good pictures of a storm. I have a whole new level of respect for storm photographers. Come to think of it, it’s getting unusually dark outside as I type this. Perhaps we’re in for another spat of rain. And, it’s warm rain. You hear about this warm rain in books and movies, but growing up in Maine you don’t really experience it much – rain is rather cold, for the most part. Down here below the Tropic of Cancer, though, we’re well into what I consider hot weather (90 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, 88 today) and it’s humid on top of that. So, when a storm moves in, it doesn’t bring in cold air (the only thing blowing cold air is my air conditioner, bless it), and the rain falls through warm wet air and voila. Warm rain. Now I really need to invest in some galoshes.

Hmm. These galoshes are cute.

Two, I finished reading the Old Testament this week. I’ve been reading since August 1^st, at a rate of approximately 3.1 pages per day. Interesting fact: did you know the Old Testament is just over ¾ of the whole length of the Bible? Anyway, I’m on schedule to finish the whole book by the end of July. It’s very exciting. Not so much the text, although there are some pretty exciting bits (also a lot of horrifying bits), but the idea that I’ll have actually read the whole thing. I calculated what I’d read before beginning this project, and it amounted to less than 1/5 of the book (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Genesis, and Ruth). Hardly a sound foundation, now is it? I credit the read-through plan to Reverend Langworthy at United Parish in Fort Fairfield. She mentioned in church one Sunday that if you divide the Bible into 3 to 4 pages of reading per day, you can read it in a year. That really stuck to me, because reading the Bible feels like a monumental, nearly unconquerable task. On the other hand, reading 3.1 pages a day is the work of 10 minutes before bed. That’s nothing. Still, I expected to have given up by now, much like I half expected to have given up on regularly updating my blog by now. I haven’t quit either, though, which is personally satisfying.

Look in the lower left window quadrant. See the green and yellow?

It’s amazing what you can do in a year. What have you done this year? What do you want to do? Break it down into manageable chunks, and I think you’ll succeed. This is all I’m going to write today, after torturing you all with last week’s magnum opus of rambling. I’ll leave you with two pictures, to show what the construction workers outside my window have accomplished in the 9 months that I’ve lived here.

It got bigger (I think this is the final height, but I'm not sure).

A Matter of Perspective

I don’t write much, if at all, about my work here. Honestly, my classes aren’t usually that interesting. But, today’s topic has its origin in one of my classes, so I’ll take a moment to tell you about what is it I do with the bulk of my time.

I teach English to students ranging in age from four to seventeen, in levels from basically a beginner to functionally fluent. Classes are two hours long and are English-only immersion, although honestly the bulk of “misbehavior” in my classes is students speaking Chinese. There are usually around 5-16 students per class, and my students are predominantly from wealthy families and attend one of the schools within a 30-minute commute of our center. Many of the teenage students attend Monday through Friday boarding schools. I teach eleven different classes, which is on the low side of average for our center – because we often co-teach (alternate weeks) classes, you can theoretically have up to eighteen or twenty classes.

So, last Sunday I was teaching my Sunday morning high-level class for teenagers. This class has five students, all of whom are fourteen-sixteen years old. The topic of the day was education, specifically educational systems and their differences in different countries. Sadly, this is one of the more interesting topics in that particular level’s textbook. We spent the first hour of class discussing the US and Chinese schools systems, whether or not tracking and entrance/exit exams are good things, and going over some vocabulary of areas of study. The second half of the class, according to my lesson plan, was going to be a quick reading about homework in high school, followed by a semi-formal debate about the usefulness of homework. But, right before the mid-class break, one of my students derailed the train entirely.

He asked me if I’d seen “Kony 2012.” I said yes, and the other four students said no. Then he asked if we could watch it over the break. I often let them watch videos/listen to music on the computer during this ten minute breather, so I said yes and found it on the net. I know it’s 29 minutes long, but I figured they’d lose interest by the end of break. Well, I was wrong. They watched quietly and intently for the entire time, so I let the video play through to the end. Then, I asked them for their reactions. It was both a way to get them talking (the entire purpose of my class, after all) and because I was genuinely curious. I know my own reaction to the video (as a white, middle-class, college-educated socially liberal American woman between the ages of 18-30), and I was interested to see how their reactions would be different.

Well, they hadn’t known who Kony was before watching the video. After watching the video, they said they felt motivated to do something. They agreed that he should be stopped, but didn’t feel the timetable (by the end of 2012) was realistic, especially considering the small number of committed troops. I believe they asked me how long it took us to find Osama Bin Laden with an entire army as a comparison. Then I asked them if they felt the video was speaking to them. We talked about this for quite a while, and the general consensus was no, not really.

So what I want to talk about today is why I feel the Kony 2012 video is a representative sample of modern activism that purports to speak to a worldwide community but actually displays a Western bias and unconsciously perpetuates many of the problems of the current political leadership’s attempts to address global issues. If this sounds like I’m about to write a college essay, fear not. While it would make a great topic for such a paper, I’m not going to do any research or cite any outside sources or attempt to write formally. This is my opinion, expressed hopefully logically. If you’re bored already, I won’t blaming you for leaving now and going to play Sudoku while catching up on season five of The Guild (do it! Nathan Fillion, Grant Imahara, Kevin Sorbo, Colin Ferguson, and Brent Spiner all guest star as themselves. It’s hilarious.)

Okay, first things first. Have you seen the Kony 2012 video? If you have, I’m willing to bet serious money that you watched it on Youtube. I’m willing to bet 90% of the videos you’ve watched online in the past week were on Youtube. Perhaps you heard about it on Twitter. Or read about it in a blog hosted on Blogger or Wordpress. Then you joined the Facebook community.Well, if you are living in mainland China and don’t have access to a VPN, then you haven’t done any of these things. Youtube, Google, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress, and Facebook are all blocked in China (although you can access Google Hong Kong). Oh no! What do Chinese people do? Well, clearly, they have their own versions – Weibo is a blog/microblog platform, Youku is your source for cute cat videos, and Baidu not only searches the internet but also is your convenient source for free music downloads.

Secondly, even if these sites weren’t blocked, they are still all in English. While many people study English in China, and many are functionally fluent, not everyone is, and even if you are, you have to make a conscious effort to enter the English sphere of the internet. So any video or website that claims to speak to an international community, but is solely accessible or searchable by English speakers is actually limited to the English-speaking world. One of my favorite xkcd comics is #256, the Map of Online Communities. It’s funny (not just because Myspace is bigger than Wikipedia[it’s from 2007]), but it’s important to remember that it’s not a map of the Internet, it’s a map of the English internet. Like a map of the US that blurs out Canada and Mexico and omits the entire rest of the world, we must remember that this vast, limitless internet that we work and play in every day is just a small, monolingual slice of what’s actually out there. (Chris Harrison also has some interesting maps of internet connections using 2007 data).

There are an estimated 400 million Chinese internet users. That’s more than the population of the US and Canada combined. So it is hard to see Kony 2012, an English language video on a blocked video site, as speaking to them. The video talks about the global community while ignoring a huge part of it. But, we watched the video in class, right? So clearly it is available. We found it on a Chinese video hosting site, and someone had gone to the effort of subtitling the entire video in Chinese. It’s potentially interesting to note, however, that the subtitles were written in traditional characters, which are predominately used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the overseas Chinese communities and not on the mainland. Still, this makes the video available to the Chinese internet community.

Kony 2012 isn’t just an internet movement, though. The video exhorts viewers to be involved in physical ways, from speaking to political leaders and sharing the video through word-of-mouth to donating money and helping hang posters and cover the (physical) world with awareness posters on the night of April 20^th.  I don’t think I’ll be seeing any posters on Saturday morning here in Guangzhou, but I’ll let you know if I do. Tellingly, the Kony2012/Invisible Children website is also blocked here. I doubt you could order an action kit and actually get it through customs. And even if you could, we’re back to the language problem.

Now, the biggest issue with the video is that it’s very US-centric. The organization is US-based and seeks American government intervention. On a personal political level, I question the idea that it’s the US’s place to go hunt down Kony. This continues the post-WWII trend of American interventions in foreign countries that seem to follow the logic that because we have the ability to do it, we should do it. Personally, I’d like to see this go through an international body (say what you will about the ineffectiveness of the UN. Maybe that’s the problem we need to fix first). This is where the video is perpetuating some of the political beliefs that are causing international friction, that are really at odds with the idea of united global activism. When things like the current unrest in Syria happen, China and the US and everyone else often divide on opinions of what should be done. We can choose to view this as political antagonism and posturing, or we can do an more nuanced reading of cultural beliefs and standards which inform major decisions. What we absolutely cannot continue to do is act as if other country’s opinions are something to note and then ignore in favor of our own decision. We are not the world’s mother. We don’t get to make decisions based on our own moral/economic/military/political superiority (semi-related note: you know why Iran wants nukes so badly? Because thanks to the UN Security Council, we have a de facto policy of only listening to people with nukes. Way to go, people tasked with protecting world peace!)

The second biggest (and related) issue is that it assumes that capturing Kony will solve the problem. Yes, just like deposing Saddam Hussein fixed Iraq and killing Bin Laden has put an end to our worries about terrorism. As much as Africa isn’t the heart of darkness that Westerns tend to see it as (just as China isn’t the corrupt Communist dangerland that it get portrayed as), Africa’s got a lot of problems. Kony is one of them, yes. As the Kony 2012 video points out, he’s abducted 30,000 children into his army through the years. And yet, that many children die each month from hunger and related problems, many of them in Africa. Catching Kony won’t solve Africa’s issues related to food, education, disease prevention, and economic opportunity.

The Kony 2012 video feeds into the same core belief held by many in my generation that if you just care hard enough – if you really, truly believe – then things will change. This is the belief that got Obama elected, and this is why so many people feel betrayed by him. We believed so hard, you see, we cared so much about change, but Obama went on to be a decent and human president, when he clearly should have walked on water and returned us to a boom economy in one fell swoop (a fell swoop, apparently, being less than three years). So this youthful activism encouraged by the Kong 2012 video tells us that if we hang enough posters and wear enough bracelets and send enough letters to our senators, then Kony will be caught and our efforts will be validated and we can all feel good about ourselves for solving the problem. In fact, the only way that group enthusiasm will capture Kony is if we all fly to Africa, link hands, and walk through the jungle in a brute-force search. I’m not saying enthusiasm and activism are worth nothing. Sometimes, though, I’d like to see some pragmatism with my idealism, you know? It means there’s a smaller opportunity for your opponents to say ‘I told you so’ when your results are human-scale, not godlike miracles.

I do quite a bit of reading in my daily online life about privilege. We experience privilege every day without being conscious of it – but if we’re going to be activists, I think we need to take a deep look at ourselves and understand the ways in which we’re privileged. This isn’t so that we can thus feel guilty (or challenge each other to the Oppression Olympics), but so that we can thus reach out to different people without unwitting condescension or offense. The Kony 2012 video assumes you have internet access, speak English, live in an uncensored society, have time and/or money to spare, and believe that first-world countries have a duty to intervene when horrible people do horrible things, regardless of where it’s happening or who it’s affecting. It assumes that good intentions will result in good actions that will help the greater good. Is that wrong? Maybe not. But it is a simple and narrow way to view the world, and one that we need to modify if our generation is really going to change the world. 

"I think self-awareness is probably the most important things towards being a champion."

Billie Jean King

Greetings from Goat City

Lots of cities have nicknames. The Big Apple, Sin City, the City of Angels, the Twin Cities, Steel City, City of Roses, Old Gold Mountain (okay, that's cheating, that's just what San Francisco is called in Chinese), the Cradle of Liberty, the City of Lights. Well, Guangzhou's got a nickname, too. Say hello to Goat City, everyone.

I am not a goat.

Yes, I know. It's not a very glamorous name. Goats are rather humble, and even the glorious goats who produce mohair and cashmere won't be winning any animal kingdom beauty pageants (take a moment and image the swimsuit competition). So, why does Paris get lights, and Pasadena gets roses, and Guangzhou gets goats? It's actually an interesting story.

presenting wheat to the people

It begins, as all good stories begin, in a distant time. Long, long ago there was a small village on the banks of a little river. The soil was poor and the fishing wasn't great. The villagers lived a wretched life, until one day, five immortals came down to the village, accompanied by five goats with sheaves of wheat in their mouths. The immortals taught the villagers how to plant the wheat and improve the soil, and then they returned to their celestial home, leaving the goats behind. The village soon flourished and grew. Soon it was a town, and then a city, until now it is the heart of one of the largest urban areas in the world.

That one on the right? So not a ram.

To commemorate this historical narrative, there is a famous statue in Yuexiu Park, called the Statue of the Five Goats (sometimes called the Statue of the Five Rams, but one look at the statue shows you that's patently untrue). I figured my stay in Guangzhou wouldn't be complete without a visit, so I took advantage of yesterday's lovely weather to visit Yuexiu Park.

Hey, why is no one crowding this side of the statue?

Yuexiu (越秀), which means something like "surpassing beauty," is indeed a beautiful place. It has three man-made lakes, a Korean garden, a children's park, a soccer stadium, the Guangzhou Museum, a piece of the Ming-era city wall, and a memorial to Sun Yat-sen, among other points of interest.

You can paddleboat around the lake.

Take a stroll through the formal gardens.

Skyscrapers, in case you forgot you were in the city.

The Guangzhou Museum (I saved it for another day)

Dr. Sun Yat-sen memorial. You can climb it. I didn't.

Yuexiu Park is huge. I walked around for about three hours and never even made it to the far end of the park. You can get to the main gate right very conveniently from the subway (Line 2, Yuexiu Park stop, exit B1, turn right). The rest of this post is just going to be pictures of the park. I'm back in my apartment today -- my artificial box, full of ninety degree angles, plastic and metal -- high above the skyscraper city. It's hard to remember that just yesterday I had the silence of birdsong and croaking frogs, the wind through the trees, butterflies wafting and sun shining. I don't mind living in China. There is beauty and diversity here, and so many beautiful people and things. City living, on the other hand, would require a lot longer than a year for me to acclimate. I miss seeing unstructured greenery, you know? 

"Poisonous mushrooms may cause death. Do not casually pick and eat."

Lovely day for a promenade.

The woods are full of little places to sit. Oh, and old tombs.

Really, I'm standing the middle of 40 million people or so.

I can't decide if these guys are scary or adorable.

This makes me want to landscape the backyard back home.

Koi in the pond / fish in a barrel, you decide.

This is the official flower of Guangzhou.

A little Chinglish to make you smile.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this visual tour of Yuexiu Park. Spring is well underway here, and it turns my mind toward thoughts of home. My contract ends three months from yesterday. I will be going home after that, although I do not know yet what will come next (except for blueberry season, to which I am very much looking forward). As for what I will do in my time remaining here -- who knows? Anything, everything, nothing, something. We'll see.

A Clear and Bright Holy Week

Happy Easter season, everyone. I hope everyone is enjoying mother nature's slow and steady march toward summer. I have to work Sunday, so this will be the first year I'll miss Easter services. This makes me quite sad, but the unhappiness is mitigated by the joy provided by the scoring of a half dozen hot cross buns today at Boomerang Bakery. Boomerang is over in Zhujiang New Town, and is, I believe, run by Australians, judging by all of the staff's accents. They make a dizzying assortment of breads and pastries, as well as pies and sandwiches. I had a pastrami sandwich on multigrain with cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mustard for lunch. It was delightful. I really miss sandwiches.

It's not just Holy week, though. Today is a holiday here in China, too. Today is Tomb Sweeping Day (清明节 Qing Ming Jie). On Tomb Sweeping Day, which is set as 15 days after the equinox, you are meant to go to the countryside, take in the fresh air and new Spring greenery, and pay your respects to your departed ancestors. The Chinese afterlife is an interesting place. For one thing, it is interestingly like the real world in the sense that you still require basic necessities, like food, clothing, and shelter. Luckily, the afterlife economy takes cash. So, as dutiful descendants, your task is to take paper spirit money and other paper-model gifts to the tombs of your ancestors and burn them (which transfers them to the spirit realm, I guess). According to my students, they've seen some interesting paper gifts, ranging from 1-billion-yuan banknotes to a paper BMW to a paper iPad. I guess Steve Jobs is there to help your great-grandparents figure out how to use it.

What that means for me, really, is that we have a messed-up schedule at work this week. You see, when Chinese students have a midweek holiday, they don't get extra days off. If we had a Wednesday holiday in America, the kids would get Saturday through Wednesday off. In China, the kids get Monday through Wednesday off -- but they have to go to school on Saturday and Sunday to make up for the Monday and Tuesday. Alas, this means they can't attend their usual weekend classes at our school, so we move our weekend classes to Monday and Tuesday. To make a long story short, that means that this week I haven't actually had much free time, so there isn't much of interest to relate to you. Rather than bore you with a description of the carrot cake I baked today, I shall just leave you with a "Happy Easter!" and a promise to think if something interesting to tell you about next week.