A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
Emei Shan, Sichuan Province, China

My second evening in Emei Shan was considerably more interesting than anticipated. After wandering around town and temples for most of the afternoon I stopped into the Teddy Bear Cafe in the vain hopee of finding a book exchange and maybe a brownie. No luck on either count, but I did find a Coke and two local university students who hang out at the cafe hoping to practice their English.

After 20 minutes of lively conversation they invited me to join them for the final night of "English Week", a series of evening competitions, essay contests, debates and presentations sponsored by tthe university's English Club. Naturally I accepted with alacrity -- a second consecutive evening in front of Chinese television wasn't much competition. I mean, there are only so many Yao Ming NBA clips that I can stand.

The girls and I headed over to the campus, a branch of a university in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. The campus waas absolutely hideous, despite obviouss attempts at landscaping and beautification. Thereee's only so much you can do with 1950's and 60's dirty concrete buildings. No amount of willow trees and lily ponds can overcome that kind of architectural dead zone.

As I've come to expect, the moment I showed up I became part of the program, asked to give a short speech to the 75 or so students and teachers in attendance. Unfortunately for my general air of professionalism, I had experienced a small mishap during dinner at the campus dumpling restaurant. I managed to lose control of my dumpling (I'm still not totally expert with the chopsticks) and drop it into my little bowl of mixed soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, spicy stuff and MSG. I was, therefore, forced to begin my presentation with an explanation of all the dark brown spots all over my chest. Ever the international sophisticate, that's me.

I did mostly Q and A, and I can modestly say that I was quite a hit. At least, they laughed at all my jokes, and even clapped and cheered a couple times. Really my best audience so far for one of these impromptu speeches. It was something of a relief for me to be in a room with so many people who understood what I was saying -- I was getting a bit starved for chit chat. Or at least starved for an appreciative audience -- you people aren't nearly appreciative enough. As it turned out, the English Club was lucky I showed up, since their featured entertainment (a showing of a knockoff DVD of "Prince of Egypt") had insurmountable technical difficulties.

I learned several interesting things during the course of the evening. First, they hate President Bush. I was asked if I would be voting for him in the next election, and they all cheered wildly when I said it was unlikely since I hadn't voted for him the first time. I wasn't even that emphatic about it. They are strongly opposed to the war in Iraq as well, which is to be expected.

The thing is, the information they get is highly skewed, as it is all controlled by the government. For example, China, which was taken to task by the World Health Organization for its lackadaisical approach and reporting secrecy with respect to the SARS outbreak, has apparently been saying on TV that China's treatment techniques have received rave reviews from interrnational authorities and that everything is under control. Which, in fact, is what they were telling backpackers going through Guangdong Province in March, just before the shit hit the fan in Hong Kong and Hanoi. They've also been telling the Chinese people not to believe what they read on the internet, that the West has blown the whole thing out of proportion and there's nothing to worry about. I'm getting the sense that the Chinese government is not as contrite as the WHO might like.

On a completely unrelated subject, I also learned that in China you (or your parents) must declare a major before you start at university, and switching mid-stream is not allowed. So both the girls I was with hated the majors selected by their parents (commputer science and electronics -- both selected so they would be able to get good jobs) but were enduring and studying other things in their leisure time. They said that easily two-thirds of the student body loathed their course of study but had no choice but to finish. Very few drop out.

Well, this entry is becoming a rambling mess, so I'll just quit now. Stay tuned for Emei Shan -- the Ascent (or actually the Descent).


Copyright 2003 Katy Warren


posted by Katy at 3:31 AM