That Great Firewall of China...

Hello everyone, I am still alive, still doing relatively well, and still in China. Unfortunately, the place where my internship is located has very unstable internet, which makes it virtually impossible to use my Yale VPN and get around the GFW (Great Firewall).

I don't know how long this connection will last, so a few brief updates:

1. I am loving my internship here. It has exposed me to so many sides of Chinese culture that I would never have seen otherwise.

2. I have been teaching English to two classes of small children (5-6 year olds and 7 year olds), many of which compete for the title of "Most Adorable Little Kid Ever."

3. I am grudgingly learning more about traditional Confucian thought from the teachers here, while trying to demystify certain aspects of Western culture (particularly Christianity).

4. I am almost definitely coming back to China after graduation.

5. I may be going to see Guilin!! (I am all sorts of excited)

6a. I have been an unwilling vegetarian for about 80% of my time here, since the meals are all provided and the Academy is strictly vegetarian.

6b. I actually quite enjoy their take on vegetarianism. The food is surprisingly quite good, and unsurprisingly quite good for your body.

7. My Chinese has improved like crazy. It's amazing.

I will try to provide updates when at all possible, but a full summary of my experiences might have to wait for my return to the States.

Wish me luck!

...aaand WE'RE BACK!

It's official, I'll be heading back to Beijing for the summer of 2011!

Through the graciousness of the Tristan Perlroth Summer Travel Award Committee, operating out of the Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, I will be participating in an internship with the Confucius Education Institute in Beijing, where I will be teaching "cultural English" (we'll see what that means) to Chinese citizens (demographic details are currently murky). I will also be making a solid effort at general cultural immersion, since I feel like I was a little too concerned with my studies the last time around.

Here's what that means for my blog:

• Let's be honest, blogging about one's job, any job, carries a lot of personal and professional risk. Blogging about one's job in China during one of the biggest political crackdowns of the decade, while removed from the aegis of Yale University, is really just tapping trouble on the shoulder and asking it out for coffee. Ergo, details about my work itself will be sparse out of necessity.
• But you, my dear readers, few that you are, will hear plenty about any and all further adventures to be had around Beijing. I think, I hope, I've worked all of the "tourist" out of me; or at least, I've evolved into the more venerated "explorer." I'm going to try to get a better sense of the real rhythms of Beijing, not just the shiny facade presented to Westerners on their cultural sojourns. Can I do that in two months? Probably not. But trying is going to be so rewarding.

So please, stay tuned. It should be worth it. Maybe I'm just inflating my own cause here, but I truly believe that the events marking China's current evolution are crucial in their significance, not only to China but to the rest of the world.

P.S. YAY TO ME FOR MY 100TH POST! ...alright that's done.

The National Museum of China is... Open?

Finally, after over a decade, one of Beijing's largest and most prominent buildings will have purpose again.

National Museum of China during National Holiday

The National Museum of China, located in the heart of Beijing (and CCP headquarters), makes up one fourth of the glorified perimeter of Tiananmen Square, with Qianmen Gate, the Great Hall of the People, and Tiananmen Gate making up the other three sides. Recently, it has been a silent testament to the confusion felt by many over the tight-lipped nature of the Chinese Communist Party. For over ten years, it has been shut down for "renovations," although very few people could tell you what those renovations were. From every Beijinger I asked, the answer was always the same, "Who knows what they're doing? Who knows if the museum will ever open?"

Now that the doors are open, it will be interesting to see who chooses to walk through them. On one hand, the glorification of Chinese history that the museum purportedly displays may be uplifting to some citizens, while to others, it may only give rise to further frustration if the museum is found following a political agenda. This New York Times article suggests it very much does:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/world/asia/04museum.html?hp

I think many foreigners will go not only because it's a classic tourist trap, but also because it's a source of political, intellectual and historical fascination. How can a country so open be so closed at the same time? How can they present a historical narrative that is so obviously false? You would think that they couldn't, but people also thought that they couldn't open up their markets and continue to maintain a Communist regime. I suppose only time will tell.

The Protest Heard 'Round the World

At this point, most everyone has heard about the mass protests in Egypt that led to the ejection of President Mubarak and inspired similar protests across the African continent. While these protests kept igniting, I continually searched the official Chinese newspaper, The People's Daily, to see just how much the government would allow revealed to their citizens. I admit, I was surprised when I saw some pretty extensive coverage of the Egyptian protests as they reached their zenith. Of course, the articles also painted Mubarak as a horrible person who very much deserved to be ousted. I'm not saying that's false, but it was definitely an effort to craft a distinct separation between Mubarak's Egypt and the CCP's China.

Maybe it worked. I was surprised that I didn't hear much about protests on the news, nor even in the China blogs. But then came the protests across the rest of Africa. I found Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution," interesting the first time I heard it because it sounded quite a bit like something one would hear from the tumultuous years when China transitioned from a dynasty-driven empire to a party-driven nation. Jasmine, of course, is a popular flower and tea in China, and revolutions... well they were popular for a while too. But this was Tunisia, not China, so I got a bit lax about following every detail of their movement. (However, I do want to stop for a second to acknowledge the many lives that have been lost as people continue to stand up to the tyrannical and oppressive forces in their lives.)

Then, in today's New York Times, the story that I've been waiting for finally broke. A la Egypt, China saw its own national protests coordinated through social networking sites such as (sigh) Twitter. I really do have to congratulate these protesters on finding such an incredible and productive use for Twitter. Anyway, this mass national protest was called, surprise, the Jasmine Revolution. According to the article, one protest was in the middle of Wangfujing, which is like Beijing's Times Square. Also according to the article, according to one Twitter-er (Tweeter?) students at Peking University were warned not to take part in the protests. The Yale students at PKU this semester are so lucky.

I'll be following developments in China as much as possible. It will be very interesting to see if this story progresses at all, or just gets swallowed up by the censored media.

The End (or is it?)

In precisely eight hours, God willing, I will be back on Yale campus for the first time in eight months. In those eight months, I've sent a sister and a cousin off to college, hit up Hong Kong and Shanghai with my mom, watched my dinner be butchered on the plains of Inner Mongolia, hopped in and out of Seoul before things got crazy, explored more parts of China than I ever dreamed I'd see, and gotten to know the city of Beijing almost as well as I know Kearney. I've met so, so many incredible people, from my best friends and co-conspirators in my two programs to my Chinese friends who helped me understand the confusion that is Chinese culture.

This is supposed to be the reflection post, the post where it all comes together in this great big explosion of clarity and wraps up all my experiences in this tight little ending package. But... can you believe it, there is still so much more I want to say about my experiences that I can't bring myself to stop posting! It may be corny, but I feel like my China experience didn't end when the plane left the Beijing tarmac; it still very much colors my everyday experiences back here in America. To any loyal readers out there, no pressure to keep up, but I will continue to post my reflections on China, its people, its culture, and its events, as my junior year progresses. Who knows? I might be back in China sooner than you think. :)