Horse Saddle Mountain, "The Disco", and The Nobel Peace Prize

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Sometimes when I wander around Ma’anshan I feel like a great American panda…
Everyone staring at me, like I’m some gem near the edge of extinction, about to do something magnificent. The popularity and fake famedom of westerners, Americans and West Europeans alike, I’m sure will be decreasing over the next few years in China - so in a way, I feel as though I am an endangered species.

On Friday of this past weekend,

I went with another American teacher at Anhui Uni. Tech. (Josh) to a “Disco”. We met up with two of his students Larry and Alexander and Brady, an American English teacher from a different school. On the way there I talked with Alexander about a bath house that’s very famous in Ma’anshan and talked with Larry about his life, the auto industry, life philosophy - happiness vs. success (some would argue they’re the same), and whether he would go to graduate school or not. He is a mechanical engineering major who’s expected to financially back his family after college. He comes from a rural part of China and receives a lot of pressure (socially, financially, mentally). He is very ambitious, hard working, studious, and pretty good at speaking English, but he is under so much stress. The average income for a family is about 3000 yuan/month or 425 USD/month, which has to support a family (granted purchasing power is different, cost of food/shelter/etc). If you come from the country side here (your parents are farmers) and you’re enrolled in college, the pressures on top of you are quite unbelievable.

When we finally arrived, it was quite the interesting scene at the disco - a raffle for a moped, an acrobatic dwarf who sang while doing hand stands, and thumping house music. The dance floor was on top of a series of springs, so everyone bounced up and down in sync. My calves and legs got pretty sore from the trampoline dancing. The night for the Chinese ended when they turned on the lights at 1 am and they all just INSTANTLY left at the same time. It was a diaspora from the disco which was empty within a minute. Josh and I hailed a cab and headed back home. Had a conversation about whether mathematics was real or not, why it should be studied or disregarded, entropy, pop music, geometry - Euclidean and non Euclidean, human interactions, atoms, etc. - keep in mind this was at 3 a.m. and we might have been fairly intoxicated.

On Saturday

I woke up the next morning round 10 am to meet Zhang lao shi’s (my Chinese tutor’s) son at the big entrance gate of campus. We walked to his family’s house for lunch. I talked to him about his hobbies, schooling, plans, and aspirations. He’s a high schooler at one of the better High Schools in Ma’anshan. You have to take entrance exams before high school. He wants to become “a teacher or some kind of a worker”. He was a very practically minded kid. “I must get a job, be successful, and have a family.” He plays violin, basketball, and speaks English WELL. Made it to his house where there was excellent food, conversation, and lessons to be learned. Shrimp, pork/turnip stew, fried greens, pickled cabbage and carrots, garlic cucumber, gui yu, fried tofu, green peppers and beef… yum. Talked about differences in school systems, basketball, and met Zhang lao shi’s wife and his sons friend. Very good meal!

Somehow ma’anshan seems to get better and better throughout my time here.

On the way back home Zhang kai (Zhang lao shi’s son) told me a story about where the city name Ma’anshan comes from. Shan yu this ruler fought with another ruler during the Han dynasty and lost many soldiers. He fled across the Yangtze and there were attempts to cross the river and assassinate him, but the fisherman controlling the river passage would not allow it. Then when he was so sad and ashamed of losing so many soldiers, he killed himself on the other side of the river and asked the fisherman to send his horse to the other side. When the horse was crossing the river, it became very sad that it didn’t have its master and jumped off of the boat into the river. The saddle of the horse floated up on the other shore of river and the mountain there was named Ma’anshan (Horse Saddle Mountain). The town was later named after the mountain. No one actually knows where this mountain is or if it exists now though…

Sunday came,

and Victor (a Chinese English teacher at AHUT) invited Peter and I out for lunch. Victor speaks English pretty well and knows a TON about American culture, politics, and attitudes. He uses a VPN and knows about most Chinese propaganda. We met two of his friends at a restaurant where he wanted to talk about political issues as usual. He specifically wanted to talk about the Nobel Peace Prize. If you have been following the news, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Chinese man, Liu Xiaobo, who is a human rights activist. He's been in prison since christmas of 2009, which is the fourth time he's been thrown in jail. He basically designed a charter to give Chinese rights similar to those of Americans - freedom of speech, freedom of association, assembly, religion, etc. etc.

This news has spread very slowly through China. You would have to search real hard to find that he won this award.

Victor knew almost immediately though and told his students all of the facts about it. He specifically said he did not specify what his opinion was at any time (like any smart Chinese teacher would do).

Its hard to state my real opinion about such matters sometimes. I feel pretty safe in this country, but I've never really been a radical political activist. There are a minority of students who would feel angry if I were to bring up said subject in class, but it's their human rights we're talking about right? I'm sure I could get locked away for doing something brash and controversial, but for informing them about the peace prize in a purely factual manner? I guess I'm just struggling thinking about it. The safe play is always being neutral and allowing others to facilitate conversation, but what Liu Xiaobo was doing is a righteous beautiful act. It definitely makes me value my freedoms in America a lot more. I could say practically anything (which results in a bunch of idiots broadcasting their dumb opinions through all mediums, including this blog) and not have to worry about repercussions.

I've been pretty successful at avoiding taboo subjects with Chinese such as Tienanmen, Tibet, and Taiwan, but this is a lot harder to hold back my feelings...

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