My China Musings

This blog is my thoughts on many things and about my adventures of living and traveling in China.

Another day....

There is an old saying, "you can take the boy out of the country, but you cant take the country out of the boy." Many people move to the cities in China from the rural areas with dreams of a better life and more money. Most of the time their dreams are dashed, but that is fodder for another musing. I live in an older apartment complex. Lots of people living here have been here a long time. Some of them moved from the countryside....and they still practice some of their country ways. In the building across from where I am sitting typing, someone keeps chickens. I think they were being kept in a cage on the roof. I watched with a big smile on my face as a lady was trying to catch her rooster. He had gotten free....and managed to get into places on the roof she couldnt follow. A couple of times the rooster looked down like he was contemplating a flight...but at more than 6 stories up....maybe it was a little on the undaunting side. She was trying to catch him in a fish net when he got down in an area below her....that was hilarious.  She got very exasperated. He was still the king of the roof when I went to Changsha. I didnt hear him this morning, so maybe she won. He probably ended up as chicken soup. It is very hot and humid in Guangzhou...and many older people move their beds to the roofs. So one can see  mosquito netting tents on the tops of the apartment buildings. People living in the country do that all the time in the summer. Many do not have electricity or air conditioners.  Some people haul a lot of dirt to the roofs and plant small gardens... There are few street markets in Guangzhou. So I guess this is the next best thing. The body may be in the city, but the spirit is still in the country.

Another thing that has been dancing in my mind since I went to the training camp.  Is it really a good idea to give people a taste of life they probably will never experience. Doesnt this open a Pandora's box in a way? If the person tastes of freedoms and ideas that they cannot have later, is that so good?  Doesn't it breed unrest and resentment. I wonder sometimes if all of this change so fast is good for those who cannot have.

Till next time.....

posted by: CarolenChina at 03:13 | link | comments |
china, living in china

June 26, 2007

I just returned home from a weekend in a training camp area....I am going to go there, I think. I am tired of teaching esl....the kids are great...for the most part. But I am tired of the Chinese school official B/S...so I am getting away from it. The premise for this camp or should I say "main street" is that people come there and have to speak English. At the same time, they are exposed to western culture. My traveling buddy, Zhao Hai, learned English from me and the other foreign teachers. He was around when we interacted with each other. My Chinese little sister learned English from a book. She has said more than one time that Zhao Hai had the advantage, because he learned living English. He does understand concepts better than she does although she has been speaking English for more than 20 years, she gets lost sometimes... Zhao Hai understands the culture of the language better than she and she has had to unlearn many things....This main street will have businesses and classes in currency exchange and many other off beat things. Kind of exciting to be part of a new idea. And it is in the country, on a lake and very beautiful setting. I wont get to see my friends very often, but I get to make new ones. And the comers will have the advantage of seeing how English speakers interact....should be good for them, if they want to speak English. Not all students do.

Sometimes, I cannot believe how some Chinese people act. On the plane back from Changsha, it was announced in English and Chinese that no mobile phones could be used or any other electronic device. It was amazing how many Chinese on the plane ignored that. I got angry at the man sitting next to me when he started to use his phone...he understood English. It is like Chinese people think that the rules do not pertain to them, personally. They expect YOU to obey, but they dont have to. Amazing. If you cannot stand queue jumpers, dont come to China. I have gotten where I tap a queue jumper on the shoulder and point behind me. I get plenty of dirty looks, but I dont care. I point behind me anyway.

More and more stories about slave labor keep coming to the surface. Last update I read is that maybe, over 44,000 were kidnapped from bus stations and school grounds. More than 400 young students are still missing.  Kind of sad....I think. Anyway, until next time.....

posted by: CarolenChina at 12:22 | link | comments (1) |
china, living in china

June 18, 2007

First order of business, the story about the 30 some men being rescued from being slaves at  a brick kiln was just the tip of the iceberg. It's estimated that nearly 1000, maybe more, are being  held. And some are teenage boys. It seems as though the parents of teenage, and in a couple of cases, younger, boys went to the newspapers and posted on the internet, when the officials of a province wouldnt help them locate their sons, reportedly, kidnapped and taken to that province. Never underestimate the power of the pen, even in a country with strict rules regarding it's press. The newspapers were even braver, they printed the stories. Got picked up by TV... Chinese TV and the public was outraged.  Around 500 people have now been rescued. But at least as many are still missing. You, who do not live in this country, have no idea how brave they were. You cannot imagine what the ramifications might still be....My hat is off to the parents and to the brave newspapers.

I found out what  pure joy and happiness can, sometimes, look like. Dennis and I teach halves of the same class...We are at the end of the term and probably because the school is reorganizing its classes, we won't be their teachers any longer. So we had a picnic, cookout on Sunday at a local park. It has shelters in case of rain and, boy, did we need them as it rained and t-stormed all day. But the kids were undaunted and Dennis and I followed suit. The kids took up money collection and went shopping and bought the foods that they cooked. I was treated to shrimp, corn on the cob, pork ribs, steak, eggplant, green vegie that i dont know the name...looks like grass...but tastes very good, at least that is what I remember.  Wait, I remember eating bread browned over the fire, cucumber, tofu, browned over the fire, fish balls and more chicken wings than you can imagine. We had the best time...the kids all pitched in and cooked and fed Dennis and I more food than we wanted. But it was good. One hundred plus kids were great. Noone drank booze, altho they could have if they wanted to. Dennis and I were the only adults. I wonder if  100 kids in the west would have been so well behaved. Lots of pictures were taken and lots of hugs were given. I would say, the party was a success.  I always hate the end of the school year. I hate to say good bye...these kids are fun. At times exasperating, but  always hard to say good bye to.

I am amazed at how much spam email I  get. I have been notified that I have won so many lotteries, I must be a trillionaire, a thousand times over. I have been buried with propositions from Nigeria for helping settle oil claims or inheritances or something.... Just today, I was offered a 60/40 split to help a man take unclaimed money from a bank. That's not even counting all the business deals I have been offered. Without spam mail, I wouldnt get any mail at all.....just kidding.

Till next time.  

posted by: CarolenChina at 13:26 | link | comments |
china, living in china

June 9, 2007

Boys and Girls, Ladies and Gentlemen, I dont care where you are in this world, (I think I have people who live in Europe and the US reading this blog...) when you are having a bad day and think you cannot stand your boss one more minute....think about these poor guys. This news was on the Shanxi Evening news...and was picked up and put out by the English Version of Beijing News.  You cannot imagine how poor some of the people are that live in rural China.  After reading this, maybe, you can imagine just how deparate people can be. Can you imagine yourself so desparate to help your family that you would fall into this kind of trap? Can you imagine men with absolutely no soul, that can do this kind of thing to other men? May none of you ever find yourself in such dire straits.

Shanxi Province is a poor province that is in the northwestern part of China. It has lots of coal mines and many poor villages.   Till next time.

"Thirty-one dirty and disorientated workers have been rescued from a brickwork factory in China, where they were being held as virtual slaves.
Eight workers were so traumatised by their experiences that they were only able to remember their names.
The labourers had to work unpaid for 20 hours at a time, and were only given bread and water in return.
The brickworks, in the poor inland province of Shanxi, is owned by the son of the local Communist Party secretary. Local police told the BBC that the owner, Wang Binbin, had been arrested, and that his father, Wang Dongji, was under investigation. Several other people have also been arrested, although the foreman is still on the run.

Harsh regime
According to a report in the Beijing News, citing the Shanxi Evening News, the rescued workers had been duped into working at the factory. Once there, they faced a harsh regime. One man was even reported to have been beaten to death with a hammer, because he did not work fast enough.

The workers were only given bread and water
When police raided the brickworks they discovered foul-smelling workers who had been wearing the same clothes for a year. They had no facilities to wash, and they had not had their hair cut or brushed their teeth. "The grime on their bodies was so thick it could be scraped off with a knife," the Beijing News said. They had burns over their bodies after being made to carry bricks that had not cooled down properly.

Police are now arranging for the workers to get the wages they should have been paid, and then they will send them home, although the eight disorientated workers cannot remember where that is.

Local people said the brickworks, near Linfen, would have been closed down a long time ago had it not been for the protection of the party secretary.

China has tens of millions of migrant workers.
They leave their rural homes in search of work, but often have to endure harsh conditions, bad treatment and low pay.

There is little they can do about their lot, particularly when, as in this case, factory owners are protected by powerful local officials."

posted by: CarolenChina at 09:19 | link | comments (1) |
china, living in china

June 7, 2007

Outside my classroom is a small park built between two classroom buildings. At one end of the park is the vinecovered walkway, where I see the butterflies dance. Towards the middle is a fish pond,  where gold fish can be spotted every now and then. Sitting on the edge of the pond is a small Chinese gazebo, with upturned eaves. Surrounding this, is green grass, bushes and palm trees of various heights. I  never gave palm trees much thought before, however, after watching these from my fifth floor perch, I find that they are quite a show unto themselves.

I never realized that palm trees flowered. If I  think about dates, I should know that there had to be a flower stage, I just never gave it much thought.  The flowering  process is quite different than anything I have watched before. First a place on the side of the tree starts swelling. It keeps getting larger and larger until it finally opens. It looks like a layer of the tree bark peels back. But not really. Out comes this flower that looks like (to me, anyway) a brittle starfish...the one that looks like coral. The flower looks stiff and not flowerlike. It is stemmy with cream colored tiny blooms. When newly burst opened, the flower is compact, all the stems close together. As the days pass, the flower looks straggly and turns a brownish color. The bloom has passed.  A few weeks later, the fruit appears...in this case, dark rusty red dates. It seems that only one blooming per tree, happens. I havent seen any of the early bloomers with a second swelling. I dont know if the dates are edible. They are very beautiful hanging in a cluster and against the green of the tree.

Palm fronds opening are another act in this tree's play. A new frond starts out looking like a sharp sword blade. It appear from the top of the tree and goes straight up. After a couple of weeks of growing skyward, it begins to open. Each section of the frond separates from the sword without a particular order or so it seems. One of the bigger trees has a frond that has opened in the middle and one section of the frond is in between sword sections. Another tree's frond is separating at the side,  looks like a tassel hanging from the sword. Like I said before, Mother Nature puts on the best shows! Till next time.

posted by: CarolenChina at 13:58 | link | comments |
living in china, guangzhou, guangdong, palm trees

Template by motime.com  |  header image credit: Markus Gann © www.begann.de