My pathetic lapse in blogging has been bothering me.  I now have nine days left here in Hunan before I fly back to the States for a month of summer vacation and there is so much I haven’t written about.  Unlike my last weeks in America before a move to China during my last month in China leaving has been on my mind in a big way and wrapping up my life here has been a full time job.  Though, to be sure, it has been a kick ass month.

For the past eight weeks or so my weekends have been spent traveling or hosting friends here in Huaihua.  Certainly a fun, though busy, way to spend one’s time.  On top of that my year of being a volunteer teacher in China ended last week.  The weather in Hunan is now at the Summer levels of heat and humidity characteristic of this sub-tropical region and it can only be described as oppressive.  After an extremely long, rainy and cool Spring the weather was a nice change but now doing anything outside of my air conditioned bedroom during the daytime is a sweaty and exhausting chore.  Even writing this post in my stifling office requires a towel to mop up my sweat.  My computer that has been slowly dying all year long seems even more disabled in this weather.

So, after my long absence here are some things that have happened this month.

My trip to Simeng (思蒙)

Almost unknown outside of western Hunan this small “scenic district” is nicknamed Little Guilin for its beautiful carst-like hills that surround a beautiful river and richly forested area full of fascinating plants and birds.  The air was fresh and after a year in a Chinese city being able to breathe deeply and enjoy the smells might just be my favorite memory from this trip.  The hills were made of a stone that is almost exactly like Boston pudding stone, which is all over my neighborhood back home.  I went with two fellow teachers from the grade I teach at my school (senior one).  It was my first time taking an overnight trip with any of my Chinese colleagues and it was a fine time.  My Chinese friends often have the bad habit of trying to help me do anything when I travel with them, even mundane tasks that I can easily handle in Chinese, and this was the case in Simeng too.  But Simeng is a very rural area and the dialect is not easily understood so it wasn’t as annoying as it could have been.  One great reason to travel with Chinese friends is that they open you up to experiences you never would have found on your own and traveling to Simeng, which is located in the Huaihua city Prefecture, was a great example of this for me.  I’ll try and post more pictures online if my computer doesn’t die.

The Gaokao (高考) College Entrance Exam

A little while back I wrote a post about the lack of creativity in the Chinese classroom.  One striking example of the Chinese education system’s disregard for critical thinking, creativity, and outspokenness is the nation college entrance exam known as the Gaokao.  This year it took place on June 7 and 8th in every high school across the country at exactly the same time.  It was my first time seeing the test from the viewpoint of a teacher who works in a Chinese school and there were a few things I noticed.

The school shuts down for the exam.  Anything that would create noise or be a distraction to the students taking the exam is put on hold.  Because of this I had a very nice break from teaching and my students all went home to see their families.  The daily bell system that my school uses to wake everyone up and mark the beginning and end of each class was turned off, the first time ever in over 10 months, and only some calming yoga-like music was played before the students took the exam.  There were about a dozen police officers that joined my school’s security personnel (all of whom were on duty for both days of the exam).  The police officers were mostly there to close down the street in front of the school and make sure there were no outside interferences during the test.  A large section of the campus was cordoned off and only the students taking the test and the test proctors, some of them were not teachers at the school and seemed to be government officials with the education department carrying impressive looking IDs around their necks.  The classroom buildings were decorated with colorful calligraphy to bring good luck to the students.

The students did not wear the school uniform.  I saw them at around seven in the morning and there was a general tenseness in the air that reminded me of my weekend mornings spent taking the SAT.  Unlike the SAT however this test really does determine a large part of their life.  You can only take it up to three times in your life and it decided what university you attend.  You do not pick what school you want to go to in China, you take a test and the government tells you where to go.  Public buses were used to ferry students from other schools and smaller towns to my school so they could take the test.  Some of the kids looked petrified though most were their usual calm selves.  They carried only a small see-through plastic case that held their pencils and what not.  Being found with a cell phone during the test gives you an automatic zero on the section you are taking.  Outside the closed gate anxious parents waited on the sidewalk that was lined with advertisements from private universities.

What was in the test this year?  Danwei did a nice summary of the big essay question found in this year’s test.  In Hunan the students had to write an essay with the title Stand on Tiptoe (踮起脚尖).

At the end of the day the police left, the barricades were lifted and the school looked like it’s old self, just oddly quiet and empty.

My Last Weeks of Teaching

After a year of teaching here in Huaihua this June has been my time to wrap up my year and say goodbye to my students.  During my second to last week of teaching I taught a class on stereotypes, something I have wanted to do all year but somehow put off until now.  Chinese students live in a world where everyone looks the same and because of this and other reasons Chinese students have pretty harsh stereotypes.  I’ve had students often tell me they don’t like so and so because he is black or they think so and so is very beautiful because of her white skin.  When as a teacher in China you admonish a student for saying such things they do not understand why you are angry at them.  Chinese teachers do not help the situation at all.  So I wanted to explain to my students what stereotypes are (they have never heard of the term) and why they can be wrong and harmful.  I think I got through to some of them, but still they can’t really understand the harm of a stereotype.  They’re constantly told all the different minorities of China get along just fine and at the same time they make fun of those same minorities for being different.  Even if they don’t make fun of those who are different there is a strong feeling with the Han Chinese that some people are better than others because of the way they look.

One thing I wanted to bring up was homosexuality.  In the end after talking to some people and thinking about it I did not.  I didn’t want to ask my school if it was okay, I didn’t want to deal with the possible aftermath of such a discussion and I didn’t want to single out the gay students (of which there a few I am aware of).  In the end though I think the biggest reason I didn’t talk about it was because I didn’t want my students to laugh at me and my sexuality.  Having a deep and honest discussion about such a subject is hard with Chinese 15 year olds.

I did however bring up Hitler.  Few Americans know just how loved this man is in China.  Nevermind his empire was a complete failure or that he killed millions and millions of people in mankind’s worst genocide my Chinese students think that he was a great leader and speaker.  A few of my students are fully obsessed with World War II and often show me the books they are reading about the era’s tanks or I find them carefully doodling the Nazi army’s flag in their Engliah textbook.  It’s always disconcerting when you bring up Hitler and a student jumps up and says: “I love him!”  I wanted to teach these kids a thing or two about this monster.  While my students love Hitler they also hold the Jewish people in the highest regard.  When I asked them for stereotypes they had of the Jews I got suggestions like: genius, rich, doctor, beautiful, business leader, and so on.  So I explained Hitler’s hatred of the Jews and how his idiotic stereotypes led to the Holocaust, which my students knew little about.  Still though I don’t it really changed their mind about Hitler’s greatness.  I mean, this is still the country where Mao is idolized after all he did.

My last week of classes was a time to relax and enjoy my last time at the front of the classroom.  Both the students and I took lots of pictures and I will post some of them soon.