A fun week this week, with some good stories. I had a really good Sunday, so I'm riding that vibe right now.
As far as classes go, not much to report. This week was a good reminder that Chinese is easily my worst subject, especially when I'm dead to rights. I'm still doing ok, but stuck in that B plus/A minus range, which kinda drives me nuts when I feel like I should be doing better. On the other hand, I don't feel like putting forward any extra effort, when I already feel like I'm working like a dog, so I ought to just suck it up, and take it like a man. I've noticed that my discipline regarding speaking Chinese has pretty much gone, and it makes me sad when I remember how hard I tried to speak Chinese in the past weeks. The other classes are going ok. We watched our professor's movie on Tuesday, which told the story of an old master monk's funeral on the sacred Buddhist mountain of Emei Shan. I like those kind of films, where you just watch a part of someone's life, and I like monks, so I dug this movie; reminded me of the old abbot's funeral in The Brothers Karamazov.
I really have fun with my roommate. Unfortunately, he's begun trying to use his English, which I don't really like because, for one thing, he was the only person I had to speak Chinese to, and it was good practice, and on the other hand, his English isn't too great either. He knows strange phrases: once, he broke out for my friend MC, his classmate, the term "kitchen drunk", and expanded upon it in Chinese, "Drinks and cooks at the same time!" Tonight, when I had dinner with him and MC, he broke out, almost at random, the term "garage sale". It's a lot of fun. To my embarrassment, apparently, in class with MC, he said, "Americans like to curse a lot. Dylan is always saying f***", and he has taken to doing an impression of my F-bomb, complete with an imitation of my goofy adolescent cursing voice. The other day he cracked me up. I went to open my door, and all of the sudden, I heard a voice behind me saying, "Boo!" I'm easily startled, so I cursed and freaked out and then laughed. Song Ben smiled and said, "Suplise", which had me laughing for pretty much the rest of the day.
As always, my language partner is generally the most interesting part of my week. This week, searching for things to talk about, I asked her if she had ever been to Burma, since Xishuangbanna, where she's from, is right on the border. Apparently, she had been once, to a city in Burma that's apparently like a Chinese Las Vegas (or more like a Chinese Tijuana), and did the Las Vegas things. She also paid a visit to the Long-Horn Miao (Hmong), whose women like to do the hair up around two giant horns they wear as a headdress, hence the name. Apparently, it used to be quite easy for the Chinese to get visas to go to Burma, until too many Chinese started losing all their money in Burmese casinos! It was kind of kooky for me to think about, since Burma is pretty much off limits to me, but that's Yunnan, a contact zone.
These language partner sessions are sort of like therapy sessions, in that we have two set topics, which take us about ten minutes to answer, and then we have to find something to talk about for the rest of the hour. A moment of comedy ensued this week when I took out my coursebook, which arrived in the mail this week, for lack of anything better to talk about. "See," I said, "In America, we can choose our classes. We have all sorts of departments." Since I had just opened to the beginning of the book, I pointed out the first department listed, "For example, the African American Studies department." My language partner opened her eyes wide and said, "Oh, because black people need to be put all together in one class, they can't be mixed with other students?" I laughed and quickly explained the situation. I was really able to engage her in China that session, since I also showed her a book of ethnic minorities, and she was able to talk about all the ones she had seen, and Dai customs regarding temples and monks. According to her, many of her friends, at the university and at home, are increasingly interested in Buddhism, to the point where some spend their vacations at monasteries studying sacred texts. She also mentioned that Kunming had a Tibetan restaurant, which I later visited with a bunch of my classmates.
A lot of good language partner stuff this week. For one session, she brought her friend, an English major, to chat with us. Somehow, we got on the topic of Marx. They asked me if I had ever read Marx, and I said yes. I asked them if they had ever read Marx, and they said well, they have mandatory Marxism classes every semester. Ok, I said, but have you ever actually read Marx? They said no, just primers. I started laughing, and said, never, not once? And they said no. We're interested in, their literal words, "Marx after he came to China", and then, the kicker, they said that they study, using that old shopworn phrase, "Marxism with special Chinese characteristics". We discussed various English works (The English major's read Chaucer, I have not, how's that for humbling) and I had the longest, slowest, most humiliating joke fizzle, where it was explained to me that my joke was not funny because I have "American humor" and so they didn't get it. I got a special recitation of the English major's Hunanese dialect, which was kind of kooky (Hunanese is about as different from Mandarin as French from Spanish), and that led us on to the discussion of English accents. I did a special performance of a heavy New York accent, but what really interested them was when I explained that I probably have more of a Jewish accent, and spoke a few words of Yiddish. "You're Jewish?", the English major asked, "You don't look any different." They begged me to speak Yiddish, so I taught them "Oy vey" and "kvelling", as they were the first two terms I could think of. So now my language partner can say "kvelling". What can I say, I'm kvelling.
On Friday, as part of my ethnographic study type thing, I attended services at a mosque. Since Kunming is so multicultural, I don't really think about how strange my China experience is, because that's just the way it is. It's only when I think what it's going to be like for people to ask me how China was, and for me to say "Well, I spent a lot of time at a mosque...", that it strikes me as a little odd. The mosque is a funny little place, in that it runs a restaurant within the sanctuary which is patronized by Han Chinese, even right before services. It also serves a strange role as an embassy of Hui (Sinophone Muslim) culture for the Han. One great sign in the mosque is a long article with a heading that says "Why don't the Hui eat pork?" Another sign reveals the intimate arrangements these mosques must have, by necessity, with the state: "This mosque struggles to make a civilized city". The mosque has many old wooden signs with Muslim principles written in Arabic and Chinese calligraphy. It sort of resembles a Buddhist temple without any idols.
As for the service itself, I had never been to a Muslim service, so that was a first for me in any case, and once again, it's odd to think that my first Muslim prayers were in China. The prayers are recited in Arabic, and lead by a kaffiyed imam. The service in many ways reminds me of praying with my grandfather: these services, too, although better attended, were largely filled with alter kockers, and the sound of chanted Semitic languages always strike a certain note within me. Interestingly enough, the imam gave a reading of scripture in Arabic, which he followed with a reading of the same scripture in Chinese. He also gave a long sermon. I understood barely a word of it, but hilariously enough, it had a familiar drawling preacher cadence. I learned the Chinese word "chanhui", which means, to repent, since he used it a couple dozen times in a rhetorical trope: "They are not repentant men, they are liars". I hope to visit next week, and this time, I might actually talk to someone.
A fun story from this Friday. I went out to drinks with my friend MC, and as we were preparing to leave, the waitress had to run and go get change. We were among the last people in the bar, and another group of two guys were sitting at a table near the door. One of these guys was really drunk, and had a flattop. "Ice cream!" he barked out in Chinese. He asked us to sit, and pointed at my friend MC (a white woman) and said, "Ice cream!" When the waitress came back, he pointed at us and said, "An ice cream for her, and a beer for him." When the puzzled waitress said, "But we don't have any ice cream...", we made our exit.
Another Chinese family weekend. This time, since the apartment downstairs was undergoing renovations, we went out to the Bamboo Temple, near the outskirts of town. I really loved this temple. There was almost nobody there, since it's a little bit out of the way, and it was quiet and lovely. This temple is known for its five hundred clay statues of arhats (Buddhists who have reached enlightenment), carved by the master Li Guangxiu. These statues really blew me away. Each statue has an exaggerated, unique character and pose. It's an achievement that easily equals most achievements of Western sculpture, and I was pretty much in awe. To add to the experience, it happened to be the time for prayer for the resident monks, so I got to watch the monks chant in the temple, which was really neat and really peaceful. We had vegetarian food in the temple restaurant for dinner. Eating dinner in a Buddhist temple, with a Buddhist idol keeping close watch...now that's an experience.
Like I said, I had a great day today. Did a lot of reading, and even went to nearby Cuihu Park to read, since it was a really pleasant day. Reading good theoretical texts on China really makes me view the country with a more critical mind, which makes me really happy. Instead of just living day to day, I start observing. Especially in Cuihu, you feel the contrast between the stereotype of China and the real thing. Watching Dai, Yi and Tibetan women walk past in ethnic costume, you just stop for a second and think to yourself, what is this place like really. Well, I still don't know.
If I can get my act together (I have too much to do already, and I owe my host family daughter a mix CD), I'll start posting photos to go along with the copious text. I'll try to post pictures every week day or so, provided I have the time. Till next week.
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