Living in China: Stories and Photographs: Hong Hu: 3 Gorges: Beijing: Shanghai:
Part Two of: A Story about Hong Hu.
The people of Hong Hu are generally quite friendly, and even though many are quite poor, they will gladly invite you into their homes to have supper. Recently one of my Students, whose preferred name is 'Rain', invited me to dine with her Family. Mother, who cooked dinner of course, and who obviously spared no expense, spent the entire night running backwards and forwards, and would not eat until we had all finished. In this case, 'running backwards and forwards' is an appropriate expression, as the kitchen was located on the other side of the public walkway. In attendance this night, there was Rain's Father, her mother's father and his sister, as well as her husband, Rain's classmate, and Zhan Yan, my weekend lodger.
These next two shots are of Rain's Family and of Rain herself.
Rain's Great Uncle (sans chapeau) sitting in front of the refrigerator was, years ago, the headmaster of the school in which I now teach, and his personal 'expertise' was Russian.
This is a formal dinner with appropriate crockery and lavish amounts of food.
And here is the cook herself. Let no western woman complain about how much work she has to do!
'Rain' of course, comes from a 'poor' family, so after my visit, I sent to them some nicknaks from Australia; Some socks with Australian emblems, a book about Brisbane, a beanie, some hand cream, a Fridge magnet etc. Tomorrow (Thursday December 18th I will see 'Rain' in class and give her a copy of the photos that you see above.
But not all the people of Hong Hu are poor. Far from it. My school, which is the number one school in every sense of the word, is a 'fee' paying school. Now only the 'best' and most academically qualified can attend. But if you have enough money, you can BUY your way in. My observations of the behaviour of these students however, leads me to conclude that a high proportion of them should not be there. 2006.06.16 - I am now seeing such kids at university.
This is not to say that rich people are not nice or that their children are not bright. Zhan Yan's parents caught me in the street one afternoon and begged me to 'teach' their son. By contract of course I am not permitted, but as I pointed out, my contract does not forbid me from having visitors in my home, irrespective of their English Speaking abilities. So the next day they dropped in to deliver him for his lesson, and after a little polite conversation they left, informing me that they would return later to collect him. (all translated for me by a student of course). They came back one week later.
Michael Jackson has nothing on me. Come bed time, Zhan Yan was not impressed with the idea of sleeping in the lounge, so without further ado, he stripped to his briefs and climbed into my bed. Such is the custom in China. I finally moved the bed into the lounge room where I have up to four boys sleeping with me. It's a case sometimes of - The little one said: "Roll Over! Roll Over!"
Even my son had to learn to sleep with other boys: He's the White fella on the left.
Xie Qin Chao is my boarder and has his own room, but he prefers to sleep with me and whoever else is sleeping on the floor. Mind you, he sometimes feels a bit crowded and retreats to this room. This following picture I have entitled: "PETER PAN". Now this is NOT a pose. I looked up and there he was coming out of his room. He stopped to see what we were all up to and this was the pose he was in. I told him to stand perfectly still and not to move. This is the result. It's just the colours that are not right.
This is another boarder. He is not MY boarder. He boards at school, and even though he has no pass to get out of school, somehow he manages to turn up at my place every night. He does his homework, his washing, showers in the HOT water, and sleeps on the floor with me and whoever, although recently he has been sleeping on the new lounge I bought. Here he is 'Au Naturel' so to speak. He wouldn't let me display the shot of him running around the house in his jocks.
This is my weekend boarder ZHAN YAN - such an angelic face. I don't know who took this photo or how they managed to get it taken at that perfect moment. I often take a photo or two then load it up to my computer. Sometimes the photos that load are certainly not the photos that I have taken. It seems that the other boys like to burst in on Zhan Yan in the shower and catch him 'Au Naturel'. (Not to mention one I found of me - taken through a crack in the door)
I've entitled this one: The Future of China
But in Fact, for a 14 year old, he is such a baby.
This is another face of the future of China. His dream one day is to be known as 'Chairman Wu'.
How many 14 year old western boys do you know that need their mothers to dress them? Or would allow it?
It used to be that every time his mother would drop Zhan yan off (pronounced Jun Yen in putonghua [Mandarin] or Zar yeah [said very nasally] in local dialect) mother, aunty and grandma would set to and clean my house do my dishes and fold my unmentionables.
Mother and Aunty
In time I managed to convince them that in my custom, I will lose face if, knowing that I WILL HAVE visitors, I allow my house to be seen in a dirty and untidy state, and that if I know they are coming it is then embarrassing to have them clean my home after I have already done so. So they stopped cleaning. {Damn I'm stupid}.
Actually I spoke to soon: On Thursday when they came to fix the aircon, I was intending to clean the house. Friday was a busy day, and on Saturday I cleaned everything but the dishes, and this, because I kept getting interrupted. 30 minutes ago, mamma arrived for a visit. The kitchen looks like a brothel (although I am assured Brothels are quite clean). So mother immediately commenced to clean. I tried to stop her, but no use. So I snapped this picture of her just now. That is Peter Pan to her left.
So now Zhan Yan arrives with food. Hot/cold, dry/wet, sweet/spicy it doesn't matter, there is always something. Since they cannot pay me in cash, and their custom dictates that they must pay me, this food is my payment.
Sample of food for lunch at Zhan Yan's House.
Zhan Yan's family lives in the rich part of town, so rich in fact, that I can never remember how to get to it as it seems to be hidden in a maze of little back streets.
Photo taken outside of Zhan Yan's house - looking down the laneway.
Compared to some other homes I've visited, Zhan Yan's home is quite palatial. The only ones that outmatch it, are those provided by the school for the teachers. If you are a 'first time' teacher however, you don't count so consequently you don't get much. The school is always complaining about how little they have and how much they owe, but that has not stopped them from building a new block specifically for the Grade three students (last year of High School).
Various shots of the School. The little red building contains two flats. I live up by the Fence. The'Public' Outhouse is right outside my door.
The groundwork is laid for the new building.
It's almost done.
As you can see in the photos above, we are surrounded by farmland. From my bedroom and bathroom windows I have magnificent views (when the fog lifts) of the fields, and have managed to gain a reasonably firsthand understanding of how rice grows. When I read in the papers that Australian women are 'bitching' about the Government's calls to have more kids, and the 'glass ceilings' that they face I find it hard to be sympathetic.
Woman nowadays in China can only have 'one child', and their lives are anything but easy. They build and demolish buildings by hand and dig roadways side by side with their husbands, grandparents and babies. All just to earn a meagre living.
The Rice Being Harvested. If it wasn't so cold I would ride the bike down the levee road and snap some shots of the women working there.
Another equal opportunity job is that of 'bus conductor'. Each fare no matter which bus nor where it goes, is only one yuan. That is about AUD $0.15 cents. This you give to the man or woman sitting just inside the door. Mind you, you don't actually give it to them, you take a seat and wait for them to come and get it, and then you usually take your time. The locals actually find it funny that I pay my fare as I enter.
These buses have no schedule. They just run. And heaven help you if it is a slow day, because they will stop at their allocated bus stops (the people know where these are, not that it matters they will stop anywhere), and just wait and wait for more people to turn up. Of course, if it is a busy day, they will physically grab you and pull you in the door as it takes off and shove you down the back of the bus.
Get down there now! Hurry! Hurry!
Different buses will race each other, even if going to the same place, and you really have to hold onto something or you will be thrown out of your seat. Smoking is permitted in these buses, and spitting, and chickens, and 2 metre lengths of wood, and shovels and anything else that fits in the door.
Can you see the pain on the face of the man sitting at the front? There are about 6 men with shovels crammed together and that was real pain. Not a fluke of photography.
News Flash.
My air conditioning is being repaired right at this very moment.
Question?
How many men does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Not sure! Ah!
But how many men does it take to fix an airconditioning unit?
Believe it or not!
(Not to mention the 5th one who arrived later.)
One should never rush such things, especially when there is an interesting War movie on the T.V. So far they have been here for over two hours. Nothing happens quickly in China, although to be fair, I must point out that they hastened to respond to my complaint this time. I only made it 4 weeks ago.
Final Result:
After over 3 hours, it is done, but not before they decided that there was not a strong enough airflow. Now the Chinese know a lot about 'HOW' and almost nothing about the 'WHY'. Now if you want to increase the airflow, what could be simpler than scrapping off that stuff (the air filter) that covers the grid through which the incoming air passes???? Easy done, and don't worry about the mess. Someone will clean it up!
Two months ago when I asked the maintenance man for a metal Chisel so that I could gouge a groove in the floor of the balcony beside my classroom, he naturally wanted to know why. The Reason? When it rains, water collects like a swimming pool, because the floor sits at a lower level than the drainage hole. He respectfully informed me that 'he' would take care of the matter. So an appointment was made to meet me at the classroom, and several officials turned up. Having inspected the area, my translator informed me that it would be rectified.
A week later I enquired when this rectification might take place. "After the next rain!" I was informed. Why after the rain, you might ask. Well, we have to wait until it rains so that we can determine how low to gouge the floor. Aaahhhh! Like a bucket of water would not give you sufficient indication? Well needless to say, it has rained several times since then, and there is no rectification in sight. Even though it has been 8 weeks now, one should not worry, 'Someone will fix it!' (Some bloody day!) You can't rush these things.
In one month's time, it will be Chinese New Year. Everyone knows this. But ask the school officials when it is exactly and they will reply; "Oh we do not know, we haven't been told yet. It changes every year". A 15 second internet search resulted in a date of January 22nd 2004 for the event. "Oh, you are so wise!". and they have internet too!
Now some Chinese politician was recently interview by the American Press and was asked when China might undergo some democratisation. His reply was that it will take a very long time, perhaps 50 years, "Because the people are not very educated". Now I know that YOU in the West THINK that he is lying. But I KNOW that he is being very optimistic. I think it will be more like 100 - 150 years before the people will be ready for democracy. This by the way is not a slur. I have had discussions with academics in other cities who, despite their longing for democracy, admit that it is too soon, and if brought on too early, would result in a catastrophic fragmentation of the entire country, if not outright civil war.
Anyway, this article has gone on far longer than I expected, and I still have some photos to add. So I'll finish here.
R.P.BenDedek is from Brisbane Australia and is the author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' at http://www.kingscalendar.com His academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
He writes photographic 'Stories from China' and social editorial commentaries, both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing newspaper columnist. He currently teaches Conversational English in China and in addition to his English Lessons at KingsCalendar, he has created specific sites for Students of English.
