September 6, 2000
Dear All,
This message comes to you from Sichuan University in Chengdu. I don't know if SU has a mascot but if it does, I'll bet it's the Fighting Pandas since this is the province where pandas are found -- up in the mountains, not here in the city of 3 million.
School began this past week (as it does on the first of September in every school at every level in everyplace in China) with the usual hubbub and chaos. SU is has about 30,000 students so there are lots of people walking around with confused looks on their faces, or perhaps I am just seeking kindred souls.
In addition to the usual start-of-school activities, SU is the host for the sixth University Games, an all-China intercollegiate athletic meet in a variety of sports. When President Lu told me that this would be happening, my first reaction was "That's nice. Probably prestigious for the university." I didn't realize that this is a REALLY big deal here for several reasons.
First, there has been a lot of new construction related to the games. A new sports stadium has been built right in the middle of the campus. It may be the most futuristic building I've ever seen (I'm not sure it's good architecture but it certainly is striking!) But I found out that innocent assumptions can be difficult questions. I asked the grad student who was giving me a campus tour, "And the students will use the stadium once the games have ended?" to which he replied that this was a hot issue. The students hope so but they are thinking they will not.
Then there are a series of dormitories to house the 3000 athletes here to compete. The university got special dispensation to have entering graduate students arrive in the middle of September so that the athletes could use these dorms. Or are the graduate students getting to live in the athletes' housing? I suspect SU got extra funds from provincial or central government sources for this construction. And then all over campus there are newly planted trees, fresh coats of paint, and pots of flowers placed strategically around. The university put up big campus maps and new directional signs in Chinese and pinyin (Chinese words in Roman letters) which have been vital to my survival, no matter what the athletes do.
Sichuan is a province that suffers from several disparities in China--urban/rural, coastal/interior, plus the snobbery of the residents of Beijing and Shanghai against the hicks in the hinterlands. (In many ways I think of Chengdu as the Denver of China. Remember how important it was for Denver to get a major league baseball team? It was a symbol of having arrived as a city.) The regional disparities are real. China Daily, the official government English language newspaper (so immediately suspect in my book) gives the average worker's income in urban areas as more than twice the average rural worker's income.
The government has recently proclaimed a special initiative to promote economic development in the west, which means Sichuan, Tibet, and several other provinces around here. The goal is to narrow the gap somewhat--and perhaps to keep some of the more educated people from moving to eastern cities or overseas.
On Sunday I watched the opening ceremonies of the University Games on live national television. After about a half hour of speeches (you don't need to understand much of the language to figure out that officials and bureaucrats are making official, bureaucratic statements) there was quite an extravaganza on the field, much like halftime at a bowl game sans marching band. It involved hundreds of people. First a wave of brightly costumed men and women came out with banners and made various formations on the field. (It takes a lot of coordination to spell out Chinese characters in such circumstances!) Behind them, in the grandstands opposite the TV cameras, a huge card section created colorful designs appropriate to the action on below.
After some action synchronized with broadcast music, the banner wavers were replaced with hundreds of women in green flowing gowns carrying fans shaped like ginko leaves. They did more graceful movements...and were followed by young men and women in berets and quasi-militaristic outfits. And they were replaced by hordes of energetic types in minority group costumes (seemingly paternalistic to me but then I don't understand the nuances of ethnic politics in China) And on and on.
After about an hour of this, I began to speculate about the message here. I decided that it was at least in part Sichuan Pride Day, showing those prejudiced folks in eastern cities that by god we can put on a sophisticated show to match anything they might have seen at home. And I also suspect that this is a strategic PR move for SU. My guess is that the university games before this have been held on the east coast, and this was a chance for SU to puff up its collective chest. President Lu told me that the Ministry of Education ranked SU #12 last year and that he has ambitions to be in the top ten. This is not just glory and feeling good a la US News -- apparently the ministry is investing differentially in the top ten compared with everyone else. So I saw a lot more about the university and about local politics than I had expected.
Let me describe a bit about my personal circumstances here. One of the interesting factors of Chinese universities is that they provide everything for their employees -- subsidized housing, health care, schools for the children, and burial plots for all I know. And it's not just universities. Government agencies, hospitals, factories, businesses, all provide the social safety net for their workers. That's why going into private business is so risky -- it means giving up all of that, despite the problems entailed with Chinese bureaucracy.
So I have housing provided by the university in my capacity as visiting scholar in the College of Foreign Languages and Culture. The Foreign Experts Building (don't you love that phrase!) is a four story dorm/hotel that may be 10 or 15 years old, housing international students as well as foreign guests. I have been given royal treatment in having an apartment, not just a single room. It's one bedroom, sitting room, bath and kitchen. By Chinese standards this is unbelievably luxurious for one person. I've peeked in the windows of faculty housing and it looks as if there are three generations living in the same amount of space that I have!
The apartment is on the third floor (no elevators until you get to seven floors) so I get lots of light. But Chengdu is overcast much of the time, and even though the building is relatively new it's pretty dingy. Maybe the previous foreign experts were as hard on things as American college students can be. Makes me think of grad student grunge.
But I have found the local supermarket (a rare and new phenomenon in China, it seems) so with the local equivalent of Mr. Clean, plus some fresh flowers and brighter light bulbs, I've settled into my home away from home. I was told that the real foreign faculty housing is under renovation and won't be ready for a month (all the construction workers were probably preparing for the University Games) and I should be moving over there in October. But Chinese bureaucracy being what it is, it will probably take until November, and then they will say "But you are only a short time visitor..." so who knows.
Yesterday I met with my class for the first time. They are first and second year graduate students in the English department who, by and large, have excellent language skills. Fewer than 5% of all young adults get into college in China, and then graduate students are even more select, so I am dealing with the cream of the crop. I really didn't know what to expect in terms of language so I'm pleased with these students. And many of them are very curious about the US. Of course I sense some variation in the group -- some faces look puzzled, some look blank, when I talk. And I am trying hard to speak slowly and distinctly. We'll have to see.
The course is American studies which covers a lot of territory. When I communicated by email earlier this summer and asked what topics I should prepare for, I got a polite version of "whatever you want -- we're not going to presume to tell you what to do." So I have asked the students about their interests, which seem to range from feminism to general American history to black literature. Since I shipped a lot of different books over here, I can at least touch on some of those topics, even though I'm not an expert in many of them. But by Chinese standards I may be!
Third year graduate students don't take classes -- they just work on their theses. I suspect I might be asked to help some of them one on one, which I will be delighted to do.
I've also been invited to meet with administrators and even deans of foreign language from other schools in Chengdu to share my perceptions of teaching and learning, and administration, with them. It will be intriguing to see what they are most interested in.
I suspect my time will go very quickly. Lots of things take time to accomplish, in part because I'm new, in part because I need help in negotiating the university bureaucracy (Where is the foreign affairs office? How do I get a library card? Where is the internet access? and so on) and in part because I don't have the language skills to be self-sufficient. And things will go quickly because there is so much to learn and see and do, above and beyond my official duties.
So that's it from a first week freshman at Sichuan University. More to follow.
Cheers,
Kathryn