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Published: December 26th 2010
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School grounds, Yangzhou
Auditorium and music practice rooms Photos:
as usual you can click on the photos in this blog to enlarge them.
…..Sunny has been promoted. Our friend from the Bank of China is on his way up the ladder, from a teller a couple of weeks ago to a supervisory position now. Congratulations on his rise but commiserations on the lack of time he now has. For two weeks he has had to pass on Saturday evening dinner in town with Kevin, from the lighting factory, & whichever foreign teachers want to go. Only Kevin, George, Mike & I this time. It's a remarkably good meal, a little expensive at ¥50 each, or about Au$8. This is in a private room with one or two waitresses in attendance at all times & of course (I should no longer need to mention) includes a few drinks.....
…..after some modest success last year I attempt to give a much abridged account of the Christmas story to this year's Grade Three. It's worth considering how much of the English language comes from two sources, the Bible & Shakespeare. I don't consider myself a scholar in either but consider a word like manger. How many times
Street Workshop, Yangzhou
Repair man on a freezing cold day fixing Mike's jacket zip would you use it outside the context of Christmas, Away in a manger etc.? However, regardless of whether or not a native English speaker is religious or not (or a Shakespearian scholar), he or she is probably familiar with, “An eye for an eye”, “Salt of the earth”, “To be or not to be” or “ a rose by any other name...”. Despite the shocked reaction of Patrick, an American teacher, at the thought of associating Christmas with the birth of Jesus at a Chinese school I think they might benefit from knowing what's behind some of the acquired knowledge we take for granted.....
…..they enjoy playing the parts of Joseph & the heavily pregnant Mary, aided by a scarf or beanie stuffed up the front of a jacket, knocking on a door to ask, “Do you have a room” & being told, loudly & rudely, “No, go away”. I know, I'd be out on my ear in Australia, the UK or the USA, maybe even convicted (for what?). In a forty minute class I haven't yet reached those other iconic ingredients of the story, the Three Wise Men & the Star in the east, some of the things
Teachers' dinner, Yangzhou 2
My shout for my colleagues in my Grade 3 teachers' office that, to the Chinese, appear out of a cultural vacuum onto Christmas decorations in the shops around Yangzhou.....
…..there is still some residual confusion over whether December the twenty fifth is the birthday of Sheng Dan Lao Ren, (Christmas Old Person, better known to us as Santa Claus).....
.....I finally pin my Chinese colleagues down to a dinner date & also ask them to book a suitable place. We go to a restaurant in the middle of Yangzhou where I went with some Chinese & other foreign teachers earlier this year. I remember the boiled stinky doufu, which none of us could stomach. It's not on the table this time & the food is good & plentiful. A couple of teachers can't make it but in the end for eleven people (one teacher leaves before the photo shoot!) it costs ¥450, or about Au$6.50 each for a pretty substantial & varied meal.....
…..sweets, (or lollies, or candies, depending on which brand of English you speak), are distributed by Chinese & foreign teachers on Wednesday evening to the students, still in the classrooms they've inhabited since eight in the morning. They have amassed a vast collection of confectionery
Teachers' dinner, Yangzhou 1
My shout for my colleagues in my Grade 3 teachers' office already, adequate explanation for their behaviour over the last couple of days. They still react as though these are the first sweets, (or lollies, or candies), they have ever seen....
…..Thursday, my busiest day, with four classes in the morning, starting at just before eight am. This week the afternoon is given over to performances in the auditorium, for the elementary school students. An eclectic mixture of dance, theatrical performances, music & pantomime, in a mixture of Chinese & English. Our band performs a reasonable version of Bon Jovi's “It's my life” with Rainy strutting her stuff front of stage while we, less visually appealing (I exclude Gyu, looking stunning behind the keyboard!), keep the song together.....
…..it's a repeat of last year's disconnection from the usual commercial hype over Christmas, beginning around September, & a feeling that it is a festival driven by Mammon that has limited connection with us here in China, granted a day off in lieu of the Christmas that falls on a Saturday this year & provided with a Christmas dinner at the school by our Western cafeteria chefs Dennis & Mona, bless them, consisting of pizza, frozen salmon, some chicken wings, lamb
chops, pumpkin soup, pistachio nuts, the usual pyramid of canned Tsingtao beer & a few bottles of Great Wall red wine. Everyone is full of the Christmas spirit although Peter & I are required to leave the proceedings to regale the middle school at seven pm with our rendition of Leonard Cohen's “Hallelujah”. In my first public performance of the song I manage to remember the words.....
…..I get a call from Chen Chun (Susan), the English teacher who sits next to me in the office. “We have something for you. Where are you now?”. I cycle back from the town centre to find she is waiting at the west gate, in the freezing cold to give me a small electric oven / toaster which the teachers couldn't resist buying for me after I took them for dinner. It fits nicely on my worktop. I guess I'll need to make something palatable to take to the office next week.....
…..Gyu & George (the English English teacher) invite me to help them with Christmas carols at the small Catholic church just off Guangling lu. It's a very Victorian brick building, the iron roof supported inside by slim, red pillars
Christmas Dinner
The full works, just a part of the banquet, already parly eaten & curved wooden timberwork. I play the guitar for a medley which, with key changes to suit the voices of inexperienced singers could do with a little more rehearsal. The service itself is interesting. Hearing the peculiar, semi-sung liturgy done in Chinese & similarly familiar Christmas songs. The church is packed, (not normally so well-attended according to Gyu), with a mixture of people well-heeled & not so well-to-do who are really surprised to see so many foreigners (five, including Indonesians Gyu & her husband Halim), all together at once. They're very friendly though & farewell us with a very Buddhist salute, hands clasped together waved multiple times in our direction .....
…..the star of the east is flashing like crazy in a kaleidoscope of colours above the nativity display. I also notice the large queue at the back for the confession box. In typically Chinese style, where personal space is not as highly valued as we are used to, the line of waiting sinners appears to be uncomfortably within earshot of the confessions being made inside the box.....
…..Christmas dinner has been organised at a private room at a very swish restaurant. a sumptuous Chinese banquet organised for
foreign teachers & guests if we want, wine provided by the school, Great Wall Chinese wine, surprisingly palatable, especially to those of us from wine growing areas of Australia or California. Everyone is full & passes on karaoke afterwards! Otherwise Christmas day is a very quiet affair.....
…..the north westerly wind is bitterly cold, even on this bright, sunny Boxing Day morning. It's also a headwind as I cycle to town for Tianyi's Sunday morning English lesson. As I pedal along the west road by the school it's blowing a fine dust off the huge plateau of soil excavated from the huge building site on the other side of the bridge. It looks like a scene from a desert somewhere. Our little forest, created on Tree Planting Day earlier in the year, has been removed & the whole area currently looks like an open cut mine. The earth dam between the canal & the pool in the new development has been breached & the pool is filling.....
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