Dear Future/Potential HBA-er,
I'd love it if you could read the rest of my blog, as I think that it will give you a more full picture of what to expect from HBA. But, I remember what it is like to be a very busy Yalie, who doesn't really feel like reading through 20-odd posts on multiple blogs, so here is the short and sweet summary. (Bear in mind that by short and sweet, I mean it will seem long and painful, but compared to what I could be writing....)
**This is mostly for people who are just coming out of Chinese 110-120, but if you aren't, you can still get a relatively clear picture of what things are like.
I. Daily Life.
6:45AM--> alarm. This only works if this is actually when you get out of bed. Otherwise, you best set your alarm earlier. Eat breakfast in room.
7:00AM--> head over to the classrooms, since reviewing in my room is a bad plan when I can go on facebook (thank you, Yale VPN).
8:AM--> 听写 (aka, daily quiz. Teacher says a sentence from the text you have reviewed from the night before, and you write it down. It takes 5 minutes at the most).
8:03AM--> 大班课 (big lecture class). 1 hour and 15 minutes of new grammar rules and drills.
9:15AM--> Break
9:25AM--> reading drill class. You break into your smaller section and practice reading aloud the lesson from the night before.
9:50AM--> Break
10AM--> 小班课 (small class), you work on the same grammar rules, this time with the local teachers. It's a more relaxed and personal environment.
10:50AM/11:10AM--> Break. (Second Semester, they change up the second hour of 小班课. Details below.)
First "semester": 11AM-->second hour of 小班课
Second "semester": 11:20AM-->dialogue class. You, a classmate, and a teacher discuss/debate/role play in Chinese. Topics relevent to the days lesson.
12PM-->Lunch.
1:30PM/2:30PM-->单班课 aka one on sessions with a teacher for an hour. Broken up into two time slots.
3:30PM (most days)--> extra curricular activities/invited guest lectures.
II. Class-related notes
1) So, the first and major difference between the structure of HBAs curriculum and the structure of Yale's first year chinese curriculum (apart from learning between 50 and 100 new characters a night) is that you aren't learning individual characters. You are learning words. Upside: a lot of time, characters repeat themselves, so learn them well. Downside: you feel less familiar with individual characters' meanings because you just don't have time to look all of them up. It makes it a little harder to recognize them outside of the context of the word you learn them in.
2) Grammar. This was, in my opinion, the more frustrating part of HBA. I think that 周老师's first year Chinese class is an excellent one, and the grammar rules are not only clearly taught, but are taught in depth. Grammar is taught less in depth at HBA, and the order in which you learn grammar rules is based not off of what the teachers think you should be learning next, but rather off of your daily lesson. Because it is a very fast paced lesson, it's hard to go in depth into the grammar, so you don't really learn all of one rule's manifestations at once, but rather, scattered over the course of the two months. I found this exceedingly frustrating and it left me feeling very insecure when I tried to use some of the ones that aren't used on a daily basis.
3) The Local Teachers. They are your age, and they are wonderful human beings and great teachers. Twice a week, you get to have Chinese Table with them, which is one of my favorite parts of the week. I'm leaving here in a little over two day (scary thought) and I am not worried about missing my friends (who I can see in 美国 any old time), but rather missing my 老师们 who have come to become my friends and who, in all likelihood, I won't have the opportunity to see again. That said, a few of them hop the Great Firewall of China and get/already have Facebook accounts, but most of them don't.
4) The Workload.
Yeah. It's pretty big. But it gets more and more bearable with time, mostly because you hone your own learning skills as time goes on. Also, by the end of the program, around half of each night's new characters are characters you have already seen in new combinations. It's both super fun and super gratifying, especially on light vocab nights. Also, the back of your book has a CD. LISTEN TO IT. It makes your life soooo much easier. I promise. It also doesn't take long. It's one track per lesson.
5) Office hours. Unless you are like me (and even if you are) and you think you understand a lesson until you are taking the test and realize you don't quite understand this particular manifestation of it, GO TO OFFICE HOURS. It's really chill, the teachers are really able to explain things to you, and, even if you don't have a question, you can just chat with them. It's lovely.
6) Language Partners and Host Families: HBA assigns you language partners, who are paid for spending up to three hours with a week. Some people don't meet with theirs. Others meet with theirs every day. It's up to you. You can go over homework/grammar, or you can chat and have dinner. Host families are also assigned to a pair of HBA students. Your relationship with them is based on what you want it to be, although you should have dinner with them at least once. Bring them a present, preferable something from America. Don't give clocks, or green hats, or umbrellas.
7) Social Study Week. This was some of the most fun that I had over the course of HBA, and it's one of HBA's specialities. It's a huge bonding time. Bear in mind that, unless you have just graduated from college, they arrange the project for you. Also bear in mind (if you a graduated senior, especially in second year) the trips that they arrange are very fun, and you might not want to figure something out on your own. LIGHT DOES NOT COVER YOUR SOCIAL STUDY TRIP, but you can usually fit some/most of it into your budget if you keep track of your money carefully.
III. Life related notes
1) You stay in the Conference Center. It's a hotel like and you get to live in singles. Singles are a mixed blessing. It's nice to have your own room and your own space, but I sometimes feel a little lonely and detached from the rest of my classmates because of it. That said, your bed is made every day by the wonderful maids and you don't need to bring towels, since they are supplied in your bathroom.
2) The Conference Center has two restaurants on the ground floor, a Chinese one and a Japanese one. The cafeteria is also about a 3-5 minute walk away. Bear in mind that the Cafeteria, whose food is good and cheap, closes after the social study week, making it a lot less convenient to feed yourself.
3) Extra-curriculars. They are fun. I took Taiqi and Calligraphy. The lectures take up the same amount of time, and can be very interesting or very boring, depending on what they are. The lectures and the extra-curriculars also take up a good amount of nap/work time, meaning you have to work more at night. If you are a night worker, no problem. I personally can't focus when the sun goes down...
4) HBA's weekend trips. GO ON THEM. THEY ROCK. And you get to hang out with your friends and teachers. Make sure to bring your own food. And water.
5) Tourist life: if you want to have real relaxing tourist time, go to Beijing early, or stay late. HBA is very tiring. Also, BLCU is not in the center of Beijing. It will take you about an hour to go anywhere you really want to go, except for the Summer Palace, which is quite close. Forbiddin City, Tiananmen, Temple of Heaven, Silk Street Market, etc. All about an hour away by subway. Cabs are sometimes faster, but much more expensive.
6) Shopping. Yes. Everything is cheap. Yes, you can haggle. Yes, they teach you important haggling skills as one of your fairly early lessons (it comes somewhere after learning how to order food and how to tell people two different ways of saying "I have diarrhea"). BEAR IN MIND HOW MUCH MONEY YOU WANT TO SPEND. Because everything is so cheap, it's sooo easy to justify buying things, and then not realize that you spent way more than you intended. Silk Street Market: excelllent example of place you spend more than you want. If you go to Silk Street though, you should also check out haggling markets that are not designed for foreigners. There are some near BLCU, and a pretty good one in Xidan, about half an hour away by subway. Also, if you intend to buy a lot of things, pack lightly on the way over, so that you have room in your suitcase to bring things back.
I think that's it. I hope it was helpful.
Peace,
Celia
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
False Endings
So, this past weekend felt ridiculously like the end. No, I'm not just saying that because I want to get home. It really really felt like the end. We had an end of HBA talent night on Saturday, as next Saturday night everyone will have gone their separate ways, and next Friday night, people will have be frantically packing and basking in the glory of their restored capacity to speak whatever language they feel so inclined.
It was gloriously fun. People sang, danced, performed Chinese Martial Arts. Pictures below:
What was the hardest part about the evening was at the end, everyone was taking pictures with the teachers. It really felt as though we were never going to see them again--even though we definitely had class this morning. While everyone was smiling and posing, there was still, lying dormant in the back of our minds, the fear of saying goodbye to the second year teachers with whom we have spent so much time and whom we have come to care about so deeply. Except for the older, American University professors, we don't know if we will ever see these teachers again and it is so very sad.
The next day, there was an inter-summer-program speech competition. I did not compete, but a few of my friends and I went to support our classmates as the unofficial HBA 拉拉队 (cheerleading squad). We used Scott's calligraphy ink and brush (I don't know why he had them with him) to paint black sports stripes on our faces, much to the amusement of our teachers, who hadn't seen such a thing before. We even convinced a few of them to paint some on as well. It hadn't occurred to me that this was a very American thing to do.
It was gloriously fun. People sang, danced, performed Chinese Martial Arts. Pictures below:
(some second year students' interpretation of Romeo and Juliet--HBA style, with a Harvard Juliet and a Yale Romeo)
(Stephanie sings a Chinese Pop Song quite spectacularly)
(me, during the Taichi Performance)
(some of the students who went to Inner Mongolia, and Siodhbhra the HBA secretary, perform a song we learned on the trip)
(me painting a character on Alec's back as a part of the Calligraphy performance. 哈佛北京书院--Harvard Beijing Acadamy--was painted onto the backs of six worthy 男生）
What was the hardest part about the evening was at the end, everyone was taking pictures with the teachers. It really felt as though we were never going to see them again--even though we definitely had class this morning. While everyone was smiling and posing, there was still, lying dormant in the back of our minds, the fear of saying goodbye to the second year teachers with whom we have spent so much time and whom we have come to care about so deeply. Except for the older, American University professors, we don't know if we will ever see these teachers again and it is so very sad.
(me with 冯老师 and 胡老师, two of the three 二年级 lecture teachers)
(me and 杨老师, thanks to whom I was able to buy this qipao!)
(HBA's 拉拉队）
Thursday, August 5, 2010
My Brain in Mayhem
So, my brain is currently being drawn into about six or seven directions, on eight or nine different plains.
The first, and most important, is homesickness versus my desire to stay in Beijing. Coming to HBA is not the best way to see Beijing. By the time you are done with class, (2:30 or 3:30, depending on what time you have your one on one tutorial), it's late enough that taking about an hour's worth of subway to see something interesting in Beijing seems a little scary, since you have to do it both ways and you won't have started your homework by the time you get back. It makes weekend time that much more precious. Indeed, I don't really feel as though I have gotten as much of a feel for Beijing as I would have liked. Maybe my expectations were too high, given that I didn't know precisely what I was getting myself into--both work-wise and size-wise. Beijing is massive. I remember in senior year of high school when we were discussing the capitals of China and Japan. My teacher said that, unlike European capitals, which just kinda sprung up, when you go to Beijing, you know it is the capital of an immense empire. She wasn't wrong.
For the first time since I was sixteen, I am feeling homesick. I don't think that I am necessarily homesick for the space of home; living in the Conference Center is as much like living in a dorm as, well, living in a dorm. I miss desperately the relaxation and down time of home. I miss my cats. I miss being able to watch TV without having to think too hard about language. I miss being able to drift out into the living room and see my mom playing spider solitaire, or the dining room and see my dad sitting at the table with about twelve piles of paper around him. I miss sleeping until I want to wake up, and I miss being able to give friends phone calls without having to worry about what time zone they are in.
So far, I guess my homesickness is winning, since I am leaving in just a little over a week and the anticipation is running hot through my veins. But I know that I will miss Beijing when I am gone.
The second thing is linguistic confusion.
Dear Chinese,
I speak French. You and French both like to use "de" and "le" in very important grammatical ways. Therefore, sometimes I accidentally speak using French grammar rules. Don't take it too hard. I'm working on it as best I can. Be patient.
Thanks,
Celia
Dear French,
I love you. You and I get along very well. I miss you terribly. But will you please back down while I'm trying to learn Chinese? The other day, I made up a word (treng--halfway between "trainer" (French: to drag along) and "reng" (Chinese: throw out)) because you won't leave Chinese alone. Kindly play better with other children.
Gros bisous,
Celia
Dear English,
One week, and then I can speak you freely again. I know you can't wait, but can you please leave Chinese alone. Honestly, it's getting a pretty bad beating from French, and it doesn't need you invading during our new dialogue class.
Please apologize to Chinese,
Celia
P.S. Can you please remember that when I am using you in emails, unlike Chinese, typing you phonetically is a bad plan? It makes me look like a 12-year-old who is too in love with LOLspeak, and, while I'm ok with that sometimes, I usually like to choose when I write in LOLspeak. I shouldn't have to tell you this.
This post is already getting pretty long, so I will leave out the other, lesser conflicts.
Time to study for tomorrow's test.
The first, and most important, is homesickness versus my desire to stay in Beijing. Coming to HBA is not the best way to see Beijing. By the time you are done with class, (2:30 or 3:30, depending on what time you have your one on one tutorial), it's late enough that taking about an hour's worth of subway to see something interesting in Beijing seems a little scary, since you have to do it both ways and you won't have started your homework by the time you get back. It makes weekend time that much more precious. Indeed, I don't really feel as though I have gotten as much of a feel for Beijing as I would have liked. Maybe my expectations were too high, given that I didn't know precisely what I was getting myself into--both work-wise and size-wise. Beijing is massive. I remember in senior year of high school when we were discussing the capitals of China and Japan. My teacher said that, unlike European capitals, which just kinda sprung up, when you go to Beijing, you know it is the capital of an immense empire. She wasn't wrong.
For the first time since I was sixteen, I am feeling homesick. I don't think that I am necessarily homesick for the space of home; living in the Conference Center is as much like living in a dorm as, well, living in a dorm. I miss desperately the relaxation and down time of home. I miss my cats. I miss being able to watch TV without having to think too hard about language. I miss being able to drift out into the living room and see my mom playing spider solitaire, or the dining room and see my dad sitting at the table with about twelve piles of paper around him. I miss sleeping until I want to wake up, and I miss being able to give friends phone calls without having to worry about what time zone they are in.
So far, I guess my homesickness is winning, since I am leaving in just a little over a week and the anticipation is running hot through my veins. But I know that I will miss Beijing when I am gone.
The second thing is linguistic confusion.
Dear Chinese,
I speak French. You and French both like to use "de" and "le" in very important grammatical ways. Therefore, sometimes I accidentally speak using French grammar rules. Don't take it too hard. I'm working on it as best I can. Be patient.
Thanks,
Celia
Dear French,
I love you. You and I get along very well. I miss you terribly. But will you please back down while I'm trying to learn Chinese? The other day, I made up a word (treng--halfway between "trainer" (French: to drag along) and "reng" (Chinese: throw out)) because you won't leave Chinese alone. Kindly play better with other children.
Gros bisous,
Celia
Dear English,
One week, and then I can speak you freely again. I know you can't wait, but can you please leave Chinese alone. Honestly, it's getting a pretty bad beating from French, and it doesn't need you invading during our new dialogue class.
Please apologize to Chinese,
Celia
P.S. Can you please remember that when I am using you in emails, unlike Chinese, typing you phonetically is a bad plan? It makes me look like a 12-year-old who is too in love with LOLspeak, and, while I'm ok with that sometimes, I usually like to choose when I write in LOLspeak. I shouldn't have to tell you this.
This post is already getting pretty long, so I will leave out the other, lesser conflicts.
Time to study for tomorrow's test.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
I had a nice weekend
I took over an hour of subways to go places each day, and the sun was out for a little bit today. It was nice.
Friday, following our weekly test, five friends and I went to the biggest tourist trap of them all: 秀水街--The Silk Street Market. This place is the definition of a tourist trap: tourists go, and they are trapped by what they believe to be good prices, but end up being outrageously 上当受骗 (tricked) by the very well practiced shopkeepers. You see, China lets you haggle. China also can mass produce many beautiful things for very cheap. So, even if it is something that would cost the equivalent of 10$US, you probably could have gotten it for the equivalent of 3$.
As with everyone who goes shopping there, I bought much more than I intended to. But I do not regret buying a single thing, and I got to see some pretty outrageously awesome things.
For example, this cat made out of pearls.
Friday, following our weekly test, five friends and I went to the biggest tourist trap of them all: 秀水街--The Silk Street Market. This place is the definition of a tourist trap: tourists go, and they are trapped by what they believe to be good prices, but end up being outrageously 上当受骗 (tricked) by the very well practiced shopkeepers. You see, China lets you haggle. China also can mass produce many beautiful things for very cheap. So, even if it is something that would cost the equivalent of 10$US, you probably could have gotten it for the equivalent of 3$.
As with everyone who goes shopping there, I bought much more than I intended to. But I do not regret buying a single thing, and I got to see some pretty outrageously awesome things.
For example, this cat made out of pearls.
(jamey and andrew lookin' gangsta in their new panda hats. andrew got down on his knees to knock off a few more kuai while haggling.)
On Saturday, we made the trip to The Temple of Heaven, another of Beijing's most visited places. It was very beautiful, and we went on a the perfect day. It was supposed to rain, so it wasn't too hot; it was overcast, and there was a breeze.
On our way to the Temple, we passed a man painting water calligraphy. He used water to draw characters on the ground and, by the time he was done writing something, the first characters had vanished.
(a little girl gives it a try)
Naturally, Stephanie wanted a go, and we ended up spending about 20 minutes learning helpful ways to remember characters. It was very fun, and many Chinese people took pictures of Stephanie as she painted her Chinese name on the ground.
(天坛--Tian Tan-- The Temple of Heaven)
At the temple itself, I ran into a friend of mine from High School which was beyond weird, seeing as I had had no idea she was in Beijing, and Beijing is one of the world's most populous cities, so the chances of us running into each other were tiny to begin with. She is also in Beijing doing a summer program, but hers does not have a language pledge. I was very jealous.
That evening, we went on HBA's arranged trip to a 茶馆儿--Tea House--where we drank tea, chattered, and watched Chinese folk songs, dance, acrobatics, music and kungfu. It was very fun, although I was exhausted from my foray to the Temple of Heaven.
(中国的功夫--Chinese Kungfu)
Today, I met up with a friend of mine, Eric, who is at PIB on a Light Fellowship. He was one of my first friends at Yale, being on my Harvest Farm during Yale preorientation. We hadn't managed to meet up over the course of the past few weeks, and it seems unlikely that we will see each other before we go. We went and ate dim sum, over-ordered, and over-ate. It was wonderfully fun. He also gave me a belated birthday present which I have named 小胖子(xiao pangzi - small fatty, a term of endearment). It was wonderful fun to see him, and even more amusing that I ate more than him, considering that I have seen this kid put away two full Chipotle burritos without any problem.
(我和小胖子)
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
A series of random thoughts
I am sitting in my room on a Tuesday night, having just completed my homework (less than two pages of 生词!) and, while preparing for bed, I am remembering a few things that I thought that I wanted to write blog posts about, but didn't end up doing.
So, here they are.
I. Soy Sauce
So, as a patron of New York's many Chinese restaurants, I expect every Chinese meal to include either a bottle of soy sauce on the table, or a packet of soy sauce in my delivery bag. Well....
According to my new language partner (they switch at the "semester"), that's a Japanese thing. (The Japanese need soy sauce for sushi, after all). The Chinese, while cooking their food, use lots of soy sauce. (Indeed, one of our earlier vocabulary words was 红烧--fried in soy sauce. It was in the ordering food chapter.) But on the table? With dumplings? On rice? Nope. Not there. If you are eating dumplings, you dip the dumplings in vinegar, something which I find not in the least bit tasty. Eating my dumplings with vinegar is the biggest problem I have ever had with 入乡随俗 (the Chinese equivalent of "when in Rome, do as the Romans").
I miss the soy sauce. Even if it is "American Chinese food" and not real Chinese food.
II. China and Clothes.
So, it is summer in China, and the streets are filled with people. The men dress very similarly to the way that men in the US dress. There is only one difference. When the days are hot and humid (which is pretty much every day), these men will pull their shirts up over their bellies to get a breeze on their stomachs. While it is not a universal move, enough men do it to warrant a surprised glance from an american.
Small children (i.e. children under the age of two) don't wear pants or underpants. If they wear pants, these pants have large holes in the crotch area. They just hang out as if this is totally normal--which, in China, it is. To be fair, it is probably great for the environment (no throwing out massive amounts of diapers) and money (no having to buy massive amounts of diapers, or pants that the children will quickly grow out of). It also makes it very easy for these small children to go to the bathroom--well--anywhere. I have seen children squatting down on the sidewalks to pee, and have seen a father holding his child over a trash can while the kid did his business (this parent was more a considerate one) simply because they can.
I guess it makes life easier for parents (and for children), but I--the 老外 (foreigner)--still feel exceedingly uncomfortable every time I see a pantless small child.
III. 六岁的汉字 (six year old's characters)
When I was in Inner Mongolia, writing letters on the over two days that I spent sitting in the HBA bus, I wrote a quick note in Chinese to a friend who would not be able to read it. I later asked my friend Andi to have a look at my grammar to make sure it was kinda ok. He looked at my characters and laughed a little bit. "你的汉字跟一个六岁的小孩子的汉字差不多." (1. This means "your characters are a bit like the characters of a six year old child." 2. I am definitely misquoting and probably botching grammar to the extent that my teachers would be very sad. But I wanted to give it a shot...). As he wrote his corrections onto my letter (telling the mutual friend who was the recipient of this letter hello), his characters, to me looked lovely. But he laughed at his own characters and said "跟一个九岁的孩子的汉字差不多" (1. "nine year old child's characters" 2. also misquoted and incorrect grammar-wise.)
It was a very strange experience, having it driven home to me that, while I can read and write these characters, my self-termed chicken scratch is, indeed, chicken scratch in the eyes of the chinese, now matter what my teachers say as they correct my homework.
So, here they are.
I. Soy Sauce
So, as a patron of New York's many Chinese restaurants, I expect every Chinese meal to include either a bottle of soy sauce on the table, or a packet of soy sauce in my delivery bag. Well....
According to my new language partner (they switch at the "semester"), that's a Japanese thing. (The Japanese need soy sauce for sushi, after all). The Chinese, while cooking their food, use lots of soy sauce. (Indeed, one of our earlier vocabulary words was 红烧--fried in soy sauce. It was in the ordering food chapter.) But on the table? With dumplings? On rice? Nope. Not there. If you are eating dumplings, you dip the dumplings in vinegar, something which I find not in the least bit tasty. Eating my dumplings with vinegar is the biggest problem I have ever had with 入乡随俗 (the Chinese equivalent of "when in Rome, do as the Romans").
I miss the soy sauce. Even if it is "American Chinese food" and not real Chinese food.
II. China and Clothes.
So, it is summer in China, and the streets are filled with people. The men dress very similarly to the way that men in the US dress. There is only one difference. When the days are hot and humid (which is pretty much every day), these men will pull their shirts up over their bellies to get a breeze on their stomachs. While it is not a universal move, enough men do it to warrant a surprised glance from an american.
Small children (i.e. children under the age of two) don't wear pants or underpants. If they wear pants, these pants have large holes in the crotch area. They just hang out as if this is totally normal--which, in China, it is. To be fair, it is probably great for the environment (no throwing out massive amounts of diapers) and money (no having to buy massive amounts of diapers, or pants that the children will quickly grow out of). It also makes it very easy for these small children to go to the bathroom--well--anywhere. I have seen children squatting down on the sidewalks to pee, and have seen a father holding his child over a trash can while the kid did his business (this parent was more a considerate one) simply because they can.
I guess it makes life easier for parents (and for children), but I--the 老外 (foreigner)--still feel exceedingly uncomfortable every time I see a pantless small child.
III. 六岁的汉字 (six year old's characters)
When I was in Inner Mongolia, writing letters on the over two days that I spent sitting in the HBA bus, I wrote a quick note in Chinese to a friend who would not be able to read it. I later asked my friend Andi to have a look at my grammar to make sure it was kinda ok. He looked at my characters and laughed a little bit. "你的汉字跟一个六岁的小孩子的汉字差不多." (1. This means "your characters are a bit like the characters of a six year old child." 2. I am definitely misquoting and probably botching grammar to the extent that my teachers would be very sad. But I wanted to give it a shot...). As he wrote his corrections onto my letter (telling the mutual friend who was the recipient of this letter hello), his characters, to me looked lovely. But he laughed at his own characters and said "跟一个九岁的孩子的汉字差不多" (1. "nine year old child's characters" 2. also misquoted and incorrect grammar-wise.)
It was a very strange experience, having it driven home to me that, while I can read and write these characters, my self-termed chicken scratch is, indeed, chicken scratch in the eyes of the chinese, now matter what my teachers say as they correct my homework.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
A day of art, a night of music
Before I get started, here is a quick thought that has been poking about in my head for a while: Beijing is a very hard city to get to know. It is, first of all, massive. Then, on top of that, unlike most of the European and East Coast cities with which I am acquainted, it is not designed for the pedestrian. Without a bicycle (a state that I am currently in), it is very hard to actually get to know your neighborhood, as they are so big. Blocks are massive, and, at least in Wudaokou (五道口--the neighborhood of Beiyu) there are not very many alleyways (胡同-- a Beijing center). Being so far from the center of town also makes it difficult to see the city on a weekday, when homework swamps our free time.
On to the actual content of this blogpost.
Yesterday, HBA organized a trip to 798 art district (whose Chinese name is a pun involving going to bars). It is a part of Beijing that was originally filled with factories and was at the center of Mao's first five year plans. In the years since, it attracted poor artists and now it is one of the most interesting parts of Beijing. We went there for about tow and half hours, and I spent most of the time wandering the streets. It was as much an outdoor area as it was filled with galleries. It was so refreshing to be able to wander streets again (as it's proportions were not that of many of Beijing's quarters).
It was filled with people, and, given the heat of the mid-afternoon, it made an already fascinating area an even more bustling environment.
From 798, I met up with a student, who is the friend of a family friend, and her parents. I went with them to a concert that we believed was going to be a symphony conducted by a very famous Chinese conductor. It turned out to be a benefit concert to raise funds and awareness for the disabled. There were singers, dancers, and instrumentalists, who all had some kind of disability. There were blind performers, performers who were amputees, and several dance troupes who were deaf and were conducted by two people on either side of the stage who signaled to them where they were in the music using Chinese sign language.
The headliner of the show was indeed this very famous Chinese conductor. His name is 舟舟 (Zhouzhou), a man who is very severely mentally disabled. When he spoke, the Chinese could not understand him, and when he sang, he could not carry a tune, and yet he was a brilliant conductor, and was able to lead an orchestra brilliantly. The orchestra consisted of Chinese instruments (except for percussion, cello, and bass from the west) and the pieces that it played were all Chinese pieces (except for their closing number: the Radetzky March.)
It was a fascinating concert, and very moving on many levels.
On to the actual content of this blogpost.
Yesterday, HBA organized a trip to 798 art district (whose Chinese name is a pun involving going to bars). It is a part of Beijing that was originally filled with factories and was at the center of Mao's first five year plans. In the years since, it attracted poor artists and now it is one of the most interesting parts of Beijing. We went there for about tow and half hours, and I spent most of the time wandering the streets. It was as much an outdoor area as it was filled with galleries. It was so refreshing to be able to wander streets again (as it's proportions were not that of many of Beijing's quarters).
It was filled with people, and, given the heat of the mid-afternoon, it made an already fascinating area an even more bustling environment.
(a former factory)
From 798, I met up with a student, who is the friend of a family friend, and her parents. I went with them to a concert that we believed was going to be a symphony conducted by a very famous Chinese conductor. It turned out to be a benefit concert to raise funds and awareness for the disabled. There were singers, dancers, and instrumentalists, who all had some kind of disability. There were blind performers, performers who were amputees, and several dance troupes who were deaf and were conducted by two people on either side of the stage who signaled to them where they were in the music using Chinese sign language.
(one of the deaf dance troups)
The headliner of the show was indeed this very famous Chinese conductor. His name is 舟舟 (Zhouzhou), a man who is very severely mentally disabled. When he spoke, the Chinese could not understand him, and when he sang, he could not carry a tune, and yet he was a brilliant conductor, and was able to lead an orchestra brilliantly. The orchestra consisted of Chinese instruments (except for percussion, cello, and bass from the west) and the pieces that it played were all Chinese pieces (except for their closing number: the Radetzky March.)
（舟舟）
It was a fascinating concert, and very moving on many levels.
Friday, July 23, 2010
I'd be in the money
There was a time over Magevet tour last winter where the subject of "if food were currency, which would be your currency？" came up. My mind immediately flew to the 包子 (the steamed stuffed pork bun), much to the chagrin of my kosher-keeping friends.
Today, I returned to my childhood. If the same question had been asked of 9-year-old Celia, she would have immediately said "dumplings!" (饺子） with a broad grin over her face. Today, instead of having our regular 中文桌子 (Chinese Table--a Tuesday and Friday lunch with our teachers), we and our teachers wrapped dumplings.
I wish I had had my camera. It was truly a phenomenal experience, salivating the uncooked dumplings. First, you put a little globule into a small pancake. Then you pinch it shut. Then it is steamed. Then you eat it. Our teachers dumplings were naturally the best looking. Then came a few of the heritage speakers, who had been making dumplings in their home most of their lives. Then...there were the goof-off ones. A few boys made oddly shaped ones, including a ravioli-shaped, 包子 shaped, and other shapes that cannot be easily described. One boy even put his meat in the shape of eyes and a smily face, and then put another pancake on top to make a face-shaped dumpling.
The only mild problem that we faced was that, on top of the rest of the 中文桌子 food that we ordered, there was no way we could eat all of our dumplings! But I suppose that this is the curse of the Chinese Restaurant. 眼大肚小。。。
Today, I returned to my childhood. If the same question had been asked of 9-year-old Celia, she would have immediately said "dumplings!" (饺子） with a broad grin over her face. Today, instead of having our regular 中文桌子 (Chinese Table--a Tuesday and Friday lunch with our teachers), we and our teachers wrapped dumplings.
I wish I had had my camera. It was truly a phenomenal experience, salivating the uncooked dumplings. First, you put a little globule into a small pancake. Then you pinch it shut. Then it is steamed. Then you eat it. Our teachers dumplings were naturally the best looking. Then came a few of the heritage speakers, who had been making dumplings in their home most of their lives. Then...there were the goof-off ones. A few boys made oddly shaped ones, including a ravioli-shaped, 包子 shaped, and other shapes that cannot be easily described. One boy even put his meat in the shape of eyes and a smily face, and then put another pancake on top to make a face-shaped dumpling.
The only mild problem that we faced was that, on top of the rest of the 中文桌子 food that we ordered, there was no way we could eat all of our dumplings! But I suppose that this is the curse of the Chinese Restaurant. 眼大肚小。。。
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