Perspectives on China
29 Nov 2009 Leave a Comment
in Traveling Tags: blogs, capitalism, New China
November was nearly over here in the heartland of China. The days alternated between short manic bursts of sunny, blue skies and longer periods of sunless, chilly days full of drizzle and melancholy. It was weather most conducive to studying Mandarin, writing for my own site, and reading other people’s blogs. One of my favorite China blogs was Matt Schiavenza’s A China Journal. The Kunming-based blogger brought my attention to the Folger Shakespeare Library’s podcast on Perspectives on China in which two correspondants and an author discuss their “boots-on-ground” perspective on the rise of New China in an informal panel. The moderator asked them to describe their first impressions, especially ones that immediately overturned any preconceived notions.
As for my 2 fen: I had no clue what I was getting into when I first stepped into the blast furnace of a summer day in southern China. I knew little more than that I was going into a part of the country known only for its honorable mention on Chinese takeout menus across America. Only after doing some homework did I realize that it too was Mao’s home province. It was my second day incountry when my employer drove us from the coastal megacity of Gaungzhou to Chenzhou, a “small” city farther inland in Hunan province.
It's Gettin' Hot in Here (So Hot)
25 Nov 2009 1 Comment
in Teaching Tags: gym, oppression, recreation, smoking, yoga
“Wow, you ah sooo stro-ooong.” The tone of his voice turned each of the last two words into something bisyllabic. The student had been scoping me out. This is what it feels like to be a zoo animal or a celebrity in America, and just an ordinary foreigner in Chenzhou, China. My job was to be a teacher. But I was also working off the clock as a professional foreigner.
I was in the university gym and recreation center. It was below freezing outside and Crazy English Mountain was dusted with snow. There were no heaters in the school, and you could see your breath in the air. I had been working up a good sweat. Steam rose up from me. An exotic mélange of hip hop and Persian traditional came from the aerobics floor — and there was a sharp crack as somebody broke an eight-ball rack. A dying treadmill droned and squeaked.
Now the student wanted to touch my biceps. “Can I feel it?” he asked.
Preserve the harmony at all costs. That was the cowardly lion inside me. “Oh no, you better not. I have a bad cold right now. Maybe H1N1.” By now, I had been in China for three months and had grown used to the Chinese practicing weird English.
Bear Fighting in Cyberspace
20 Nov 2009 1 Comment
in Traveling Tags: America, anomie, CASPA, China, College of William and Mary, global economic downturn, grail, jobs, T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land, University of Vermont, Yale University
Some have wondered if I will one day practice medicine in China. During an interview at Rocky Mountain College, home of the Battlin’ Bears, the director had even suggested that I could do a clinical rotation here. The thought had occurred to me many times. Many friends and fellow Bull Dogs from Yale University’s PA program completed international rotations in Latin America, South East Asia, and the Middle East. Yale even has a tropical medicine rotation in Kampala, Uganda. This feature was one of the major draws that lured me into their program back in 2007. In any case, I believe my international experience – of which my time in China is the backbone — will be an asset as the PA profession continues to globalize, and more international students attend American PA schools to bring the Rod of Asclepius back to their own countries.
A Journey to Hengshan Mountain
13 Nov 2009 1 Comment
in Traveling Tags: Buddhism, dreams, fox women, guanxi, Hengshan, nature, Students, Taoism
We took the midnight express back to Chenzhou from Hengshan late Saturday night. This meant getting dirty. I once spent four years as a grunt. Digging foxholes and wading through marshes was dirty work too. I look back at this previous incarnation with nostalgia as I board a crowded train in which tickets were sold beyond seating capacity for people to stand or sit in the aisles. The windows were sealed shut. There was the sound of people hawking up snotty yellow mucous. Chewed up sunflower seeds and cigarette butts scattered upon the floor. Old men with rotten, nicotine stained teeth smoked in the thresholds between cars. They came back to their seats smelling like death and brimstone. One such man hovered above me in the seat behind me. He was listening to the banter of my seat mates: five college age boys with long finger nails and high hair were engaged in a riveting discussion with my two guides and a lady returning home from a Shanghai shopping trip.
