Interesting People Doing Interesting Things

My good friend and fellow martial arts athlete, Sarah, has been living in Nanjing for about a year now, performing research as guided by her receiving a Fullbright scholarship. On one of my Monday days off, I was able to catch up with her and shadow her around for a “day in the life of Sarah.” What a life it is!

Sarah is living in a part of Nanjing that has become rare in the city: a neighborhood with houses. These are not houses by American standards, but they are one or two story dwellings, unlike the large apartment structures that are so commonplace to the rest of the city. The homes here are about to become something more commonplace to the city: construction sites. 

Here you can see the rooftops of small houses against the backdrop of some apartment buildings and a large school.

Sarah is researching a neighborhood that is considered historical Nanjing: houses that were part of the city before the mass-migration from countryside to cities began about thirty years ago. Now, as is the case with developing societies, some of the old is slated to be replaced by the new. Enter Sarah.

Her research is qualitatively focused on those families that have lived here, sometimes in the same home, for generations. Some of her research participants have already been re-located, some are waiting for that day to come. For many, the moving day is uncertain. She told me that the people feel a bit in flux, not knowing when they’ll move or where they’ll end up. The government provides apartments in the suburbs of Nanjing for them when they do leave.

Here is a picture of some houses at ground level.

Her research was interesting, but I did not get to take in much during my short visit, and part also because of my limited Chinese conversation ability. Sarah is fluent in Chinese, her research being otherwise impossible.

She wakes up, happy she promised me, and immerses herself in the neighborhood community. She feels very welcome and eats dinner with her neighbors on a regular basis. Since she is a very nice person and a foreigner—an attractive girl at that!—the locals really do like to talk to her. She gave me a tour of the neighborhood, which is visibly poorer than what I am familiar with in my downtown area.

The homes are old and in disrepair, the decorations and furnishings, minimal. Many homes and shops did not have floors per se, just the concrete that the house was built on. Sarah pointed out one street where the majority of the shops, about twenty, were second hand clothing stores. Some of the stores serve a double purpose as the home for the shop-keepers, who sleep on a small bed hidden by a curtain in the back of the store. Some of the shop-keepers are local Nanjing people attached by a long family history to the city; others are migrant workers from the country.

Even here, in one of the oldest neighborhoods of Nanjing, there is no short supply of workers who come looking for opportunity. Yet even those living/working here have, in most cases, been doing so for several years, some as many as 10 or 15 years, and returning home during Chinese New Year to visit their children who are being raised by the grandparents.

In addition to the incredible research and language experience Sarah is producing, I absolutely admire her strong, indomitable spirit and her compassion for the people of China. By contrast to my living situation downtown, her apartment makes mine really look American! In fact, she told me she felt lie she was “camping” for the part of her research that involves living and sleeping in one of the homes. She does not have a toilet in her house, and must walk a few hundred steps to the community bathroom. Her shower is not ice cold, but it ain’t warm either. She sleeps in the same bed as her roommate, a Chinese college girl whose parents live in a different part of Nanjing. Yet when I told her that she could easily find comfortable, affordable accommodations more familiar to westerners, she said that she really did enjoy being a part, truly a part, of the community. She used to live in a nice apartment but felt that it was dishonest to her research since she wasn’t immersed, and that despite the “camping” nature, she felt she was more happy living there this way. I really admire her work and dedication to her project!

Here is a picture taken from the Nanjing Wall, looking back at the city.

Birthday in China

Since I also share my birthday with my twin, and our time zones being separated by 15 hours, I actually celebrated over the course of two days: February 17^th in China (16^th in Colorado) and then February 17^th in Colorado (18^th in China).

It’s a long-running family tradition to have something special and sweet for breakfast on your special day. So for the first of my birthday days, I made some delicious chocolate chip banana bread for breakfast. Always the experimental-chef, I made this in my rice cooker, trying a recipe I found online. Conclusion: it’s better to bake the bread in the oven. The taste was fantastic, but the look and texture was sub-par.

For the second day I put together some pancakes using my dad’s recipe from his cook book at home (thanks dad!) and topped them with strawberries and honey. There is maple syrup here, in very limited supply, and far more pricey than I am willing to pay. So honey will have to do. The pancakes were delicious!

One of my roommates gave me a nice pot of fake flowers. It was funny because he placed them on my desk while I was away, then he asked me to go bring him different stationery items from my desk: paper, pen, etc., and every time I went in and returned with the item, I did not notice the flower pot or his birthday note! Finally, he told me and made fun of my “powers of observation.”

Unfortunately, the rest of my two days were pretty absorbed with work. Fortunately, I like work so I did not mind. Some of my students gave me chocolate J

On my official birthday according to the China time zone, a good Chinese friend of mine treated me to some long noodles which the Chinese believe will provide “long life” when eaten on a birthday. I’ve made it this far—to 25—so I trust that these noodles will continue to work!

Happy birthday to my twin and best buddy, Ryan!

Lantern Festival

Chinese New Year is closely followed by the Lantern Festival. This year, the festival falls on Monday, February 5^th. The biggest celebration, in my town, is held at the Confucius Temple. Remember: “big” means something very different in China. The turnout was expected to be 500,000 people, based on last year’s attendance, with 5000 police officers on hand for crowd control! That is just too big a crowd for me, so I went the night before with my friend and native of Nanjing, Ray.

In ancient times, Chinese scholars would visit Confucius Temple to pray before taking the National Exam, the qualifying exam to work as part of the government. Today, many students can be seen following the same ritual: praying at the temple before a big exam at school. Ray advised that I do the same before I take exams when I start to study Chinese at Nanjing University this fall. This lantern display shows students in prayer:

I saw my first Chinese puppet show: a narration and act of the story of the Monkey King.

 The night ended with watching some fireworks light the sky. The Chinese really, really love fireworks! Case in point: the next morning began by hearing more fireworks, since Monday was the official Lantern Festival holiday. The fireworks started at 7am and continued for a full hour! Fortunately, I was already well adjusted to 7am wake up calls from the construction that has been regularly beginning at that time, right outside my window. And fortunately, I am a morning person anyway!

Fireworks continued in random intervals throughout the day, and then went on "full blast" for most of the evening. A good end to my first Lantern Festival!

Chinese New Year

Central to this week long holiday is the mass migration piece, the largest movement of humans every year: around three hundred million (300,000,000) people trains and buses from the city centers to the surrounding countryside to visit relatives. The families gather together for feasts, fireworks, and celebrations, before returning in a flood of humanity back to the cities.

This means that the cities are, for the most part, shut down with very little in the way of shops, restaurants, offices, etc., open. For an American living in the city and a holiday week from work, there’s not much to do. And with plans to travel to South Korea hitting several snags, the perfect ingredients began to fall into place for a surprise trip home to Colorado.

Ingredient #1: My mother’s birthday was on January 20^th, and my holiday would last from the 22^nd to the 30^th, just barely missing the holiday. However, a family celebration was planned for January 28^th.

Ingredient #2: My little sister (mei mei in Chinese) Shannon was moving back home from Chicago, but this was to be kept a surprise until my mother’s birthday party.

Ingredient #3: My twin bro (di di means little bro in Chinese) agreed to meet me at the airport Sunday evening and to keep my arrival a secret.

Ingredient #4: The element of surprise! No one was expecting me home until March. As I dreamed about the many surprises I could arrange for family (family is jia ting) and friends, the long trip home and the high ticket price began to pale in comparison to the value of seeing those close to me, and the memory of their reactions. I am but an amateur cameraman, but on my trip home I captured some award-winning, heart-felt moments with the moving actors and actresses that are my family J

Ryan “hinted” that I might be home-sick on Sunday, the 22^nd, before he snuck away to the airport to pick me up. I haven’t felt too home-sick in my time away, but ever since I booked my flight to come back for Easter in March/April, I have admittedly been counting the days. My excitement grew every day! I think this was further accelerated when, in Hong Kong, I saw a nice American family at a gift shop. The mother was calling to her two sons and they joked about a gift item, then the dad and sister came to join them. I was immediately jealous of the family travelling and laughing together, and yearned for the days of our dance family vacations throughout the states, our trips to Pueblo, bachelor parties in L.A., etc.

Now I sit in DIA, writing the next portion of my blog. My heart is warmed by the memories and time spent with family. Time well spent! It is hard to leave so soon, but it will only be a short while away, at least this time. I can’t wait to see everyone again in March, and to be able to visit with some of my relatives on my dad's side as well. His siblings are a little more spread out outside of Denver and Colorado, but my next trip will be able to involve some of his family in Montrose!

Happy New Year!