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Published: September 24th 2011
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Ting Che
Stop vehicle. Don't go over the line until THEIR visit is over Photos:
…..on my way to the DVD shop there seems to be a strange absence of street vendors. The usual tangle of little food stall near the Electronic market just isn't there. The DVD shop, & another nearby, is locked & shuttered. On the way teams of red capped volunteers are observing traffic while at EACH junction up to half a dozen police are on duty, ensuring traffic is travelling in the right direction &, (an unheard of invasion of basic rights), ensuring that no one crosses the white line before the light turns green. The internet is at times running like dialup on Valium & certain sites, (say Google, Australia, which I use for searching), will often automatically revert to a screen in Chinese. Fighter jets make occasional passes over the city.....
…..what was all that randomly selected, apparently unconnected information about? Well, we foreigners discover from our English speaking friends & colleagues that some very important people from very high places are to visit Yangzhou & the city needs to make a good impression. I'm impressed, in addition to being puzzled & irritated .....
…..”We'd like a volunteer to do an interview, Thursday afternoon”. “Well,
Laoma, Yangzhou
Another great dinner Angel, I have three classes. Isn't there someone with free time who can do it?”. “The principal asked me to choose someone who takes part in the community activities in Yangzhou. You play music at the coffee bar, you have a lot of Chinese friends.....” “So, if I don't “volunteer” you'll be in trouble? OK, if I really have to, I'll volunteer”.....
.....OK, if they can schedule the two classes affected for a morning next week, what do I have to do? I initially get the impression it's a TV interview. Wear the suit. But it's for the Yangzhou Ribao (daily newspaper). Later I hear something about it being online. As usual, by the time Rainy, who will need to translate for me, & I leave the school in a taxi I have no clear idea as to what is expected, except that it is connected to the other activities to impress THEM when they arrive in Yangzhou.....
…..after a protracted search around the desolate lower levels of the massive Yangzhou media building in the west end we find the newspaper's entrance. There is a big sign in Chinese in the foyer & I notice my name, in
Wenchang Ge, Yangzhou
At the centre of Yangzhou Chinese characters & English, is on it! We are eventually led into a sort of boardroom with computers set up around the table. A volunteer with a red cap at one, other people, singly or in pairs, at others. Rainy & I sit at one. It's an online question & answer session for an hour. People post questions to the interviewees who type their answers. Rainy is there to convert mine to Chinese & also, it turns out, to add what Paul describes as, “another level of translation”.....
…..let's get on with the questions. “What is the foreign teachers do, make Yangzhou civilisation city?” What??? Let me get this right; you are asking someone from a country that started off 200 or so years ago as a gigantic prison for England's excess criminals to give advice on how to create a “civilisation city” which has been in existence for well over 2000 years & at some stages was one of the most important cities in a country with a 5000 year old civilisation!? Rainy, what's the Chinese for “Get real”? I start to make some comments about avoiding the worst aspects of western culture before the “additional level” of
New development, Yangzhou
Recently illuminated Wenchang Da Qiao & new Canal Exhibition centre translation is applied. “Maybe say something about when you volunteer to make dumplings with other foreign teachers & Chinese people.....” and so “civilisation city” is built, dumpling by dumpling as the responses are tailored to suit the "correct" answer.....
.....Rainy looks a little embarrassed. "I'd rather be in our school, doing my work". Actually, so would I.....
…..unusually I hear the street cleaning truck on the west road near the school. Easy to pick out as here they play happy tunes in the tones of a very cheap electronic keyboard with batteries almost expired. The city, at least, the parts I've seen, are being picked, swept & scrubbed to a level of cleanliness that has left the red capped volunteers with their large wooden tongs wandering aimlessly in the vain hope of finding a cigarette end, or maybe a leaf, to pick up. It's possible that, despite the approach of autumn, THEY have forbidden the trees to drop leaves for the duration of the government's visit to Yangzhou.....
…..the new constructions near the Wenchang Da Qiao, (Wenchang Big Bridge), near the school are really taking shape. The lighting is now being tested at night on one of
The Porch, at the school
Foreign Teachers meeting on the third floor the buildings, not a strip of lights picking out the edges but the whole damn roof totally illuminated in a cascading torrent of colours. Not only that, hundreds of workers have been chipping & painting & laying cables under the pavement on the bridge. Both sides of the bridge over the Grand Canal are now a blazing riot of constantly changing colours. It's over the top for sure, but it's almost impossible not to be impressed.....
…..the opening of the Canal Exhibition Centre appears imminent. People mill around in the evening looking at the recently completed structure while workmen patrol the roof trying to get the colours to change consistently, people walk their dogs under cherry-pickers full of hard-hatted workmen inspecting the panelling overhead. Children & adults press noses against the immaculate new glass walls to see the opulent décor inside while ancient trucks with engines exposed at the front ferry materials in & out of the site. Hoses & wires on the ground are there to trip the unwary as they gaze at the fountains & laser display being tested on the out-of-bounds far banks. It's a place all aspiring Occupational Health & Safety managers should visit, at
The Porch, at the school
Women, taking a break from their rightful place in...Ouch! least once.....
…..I managed a workmanlike, but not very exciting show at Gloria Jean's coffee bar last night. I almost cancelled as I have a bad cold &, for the last 2 days, a very sore throat. The first contributing factors was, a very cool, if not cold, snap, two days of cold winds & grey skies, followed now by the most beautiful clear, blue, sunny skies & warm but not unbearably hot & humid weather. The second contributing factors was a lapse in my intention not to raise my voice in class. Class 8-3 got me. Trying to teach English to a crowd of teenage cave dwellers with the same attention span as a Grade 3 class finally led me to yell, “Shut up”. I could feel something in my throat as soon as I did it. Too late. Ah well, another lesson learned, by me, if not by my class.....
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