one that got away...
In re-reading what I had posted this summer, I didn’t see one post I thought I remembered writing…I was able to find it hidden away in some e-mail files, so here it is, a couple of months late.
~~~~~~~~~~
Yesterday afternoon I set out on another voyage of exploration, this time deciding to brave the subway. I was planning to visit Tiananmen Square, and was happy to discover that the subway stop closest to the square is conveniently named "Tian'anmen." This was especially exciting, as I actually know the Chinese characers for this name and thus could find it on the subway map. I had lunch near the campus with some classmates and then set off. It took me almost an hour to get to the square; I had to change subway lines twice, but this really wasn't as scary as I had imagined it to be. The subway is fairly new and really pretty nice; it beats London's as far as cleanliness and comfort. The closer I got to the center of Beijing, where Tiananmen Square is, the more crowded the trains got, but if no one was especially friendly at least no one was hostile. I'm finding that in Beijing people pretty much look out for themselves and don't worry very much about inconveniencing others, so I guess it's pretty amazing that things are as civil as they are. I think maybe this is because people expect other people to look out for themselves and so are not offended when they do. In a city of 1.2 million people expect to be bumped into, so unless you just bowl someone over, no apologies are necessary.
I arrived at Tiananmen station and began to look around. I found the Square by following the kites; many people fly them there. The Square is massive--bigger than I expected. I remembered news footage I had seen from the 1989 demonstrations...visualizing tanks rolling down the street was strange in broad daylight with old people practicing fan dances and kids flying kites all around me. People were everywhere. I was there less than five minutes before I was discovered by the 'soo-vee-nieh-er' vendors and had to fend them off and start walking around. I was approached twice by people who wanted to have their picture taken with the strange foreigner; I'm not sure that they understood why I found this so funny. Then I heard, "Excuse me, miss," in English, and turned around; the speaker, a young Chinese man, asked if he might walk with me for a minute and practice his English. I know from experience how much it helps to have someone speak (patiently) with you when you're trying to learn a foreign language, so I was happy to talk with him. He explained that he is an English major at Beijing University. He asked what I where I was going, and when I told him that I was just wandering around he suggested that I go look at the art gallery in the museum next to the Square. He said that the exhibition was the work of students and professors at Beijing University, and that he had discovered that a lot of foreigners came there and he could translate for them and practice his own English.
The exhibit was really interesting; the paintings were really good, and I enjoyed practicing my Chinese with Wang Ke, whose English name is Oscar (because he loves American movies). After the exhibit, we went to McDonalds (they’re everywhere!) for ice cream and a little more language practice. He was speaking English and I was speaking Chinese (we were being stared at by everyone who walked in), and he asked me if many people in the U.S. know about China. I explained that of course, almost everyone knows about China. I talked about the large Asian population in the U.S., the fact that almost everything we buy is made in China, and I mentioned that we study a little about their political system. This really seemed to confuse him, so I switched to English and continued to explain. After I talked for a bit, his face lit up and he exclaimed, “Oh! I get it! Communism vs. Capitalism, right?” Yeah, more or less. He continued, “Oh gosh, I can just imagine what your textbooks said about China. When I was in elementary and middle school, our textbooks stressed that Capitalism was the great evil of the world that we were fighting against. It’s interesting, though; we all grew up to realize how stupid that is.” Wow. I of course found this conversation fascinating. And what it says about the sustainability of the Communist Party’s grasp on power…I don’t know. The people of my generation in China grew up inundated with the propaganda, only to grow up to discover a world becoming very Capitalist very fast. I suppose time will tell.
~~~~~~~~~~
Yesterday afternoon I set out on another voyage of exploration, this time deciding to brave the subway. I was planning to visit Tiananmen Square, and was happy to discover that the subway stop closest to the square is conveniently named "Tian'anmen." This was especially exciting, as I actually know the Chinese characers for this name and thus could find it on the subway map. I had lunch near the campus with some classmates and then set off. It took me almost an hour to get to the square; I had to change subway lines twice, but this really wasn't as scary as I had imagined it to be. The subway is fairly new and really pretty nice; it beats London's as far as cleanliness and comfort. The closer I got to the center of Beijing, where Tiananmen Square is, the more crowded the trains got, but if no one was especially friendly at least no one was hostile. I'm finding that in Beijing people pretty much look out for themselves and don't worry very much about inconveniencing others, so I guess it's pretty amazing that things are as civil as they are. I think maybe this is because people expect other people to look out for themselves and so are not offended when they do. In a city of 1.2 million people expect to be bumped into, so unless you just bowl someone over, no apologies are necessary.
I arrived at Tiananmen station and began to look around. I found the Square by following the kites; many people fly them there. The Square is massive--bigger than I expected. I remembered news footage I had seen from the 1989 demonstrations...visualizing tanks rolling down the street was strange in broad daylight with old people practicing fan dances and kids flying kites all around me. People were everywhere. I was there less than five minutes before I was discovered by the 'soo-vee-nieh-er' vendors and had to fend them off and start walking around. I was approached twice by people who wanted to have their picture taken with the strange foreigner; I'm not sure that they understood why I found this so funny. Then I heard, "Excuse me, miss," in English, and turned around; the speaker, a young Chinese man, asked if he might walk with me for a minute and practice his English. I know from experience how much it helps to have someone speak (patiently) with you when you're trying to learn a foreign language, so I was happy to talk with him. He explained that he is an English major at Beijing University. He asked what I where I was going, and when I told him that I was just wandering around he suggested that I go look at the art gallery in the museum next to the Square. He said that the exhibition was the work of students and professors at Beijing University, and that he had discovered that a lot of foreigners came there and he could translate for them and practice his own English.
The exhibit was really interesting; the paintings were really good, and I enjoyed practicing my Chinese with Wang Ke, whose English name is Oscar (because he loves American movies). After the exhibit, we went to McDonalds (they’re everywhere!) for ice cream and a little more language practice. He was speaking English and I was speaking Chinese (we were being stared at by everyone who walked in), and he asked me if many people in the U.S. know about China. I explained that of course, almost everyone knows about China. I talked about the large Asian population in the U.S., the fact that almost everything we buy is made in China, and I mentioned that we study a little about their political system. This really seemed to confuse him, so I switched to English and continued to explain. After I talked for a bit, his face lit up and he exclaimed, “Oh! I get it! Communism vs. Capitalism, right?” Yeah, more or less. He continued, “Oh gosh, I can just imagine what your textbooks said about China. When I was in elementary and middle school, our textbooks stressed that Capitalism was the great evil of the world that we were fighting against. It’s interesting, though; we all grew up to realize how stupid that is.” Wow. I of course found this conversation fascinating. And what it says about the sustainability of the Communist Party’s grasp on power…I don’t know. The people of my generation in China grew up inundated with the propaganda, only to grow up to discover a world becoming very Capitalist very fast. I suppose time will tell.
posted by Mike and Jean Anne at 11:03 AM
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