Four Days - Four Places

On Saturday morning, I bid an emotional farewell to a bunch of high school students in HuangShi in Hubei 湖北, after a challenging week teaching them a bit of English, making digital maps, and sharing with them about life. In the afternoon, I left HuangShi for Wuhan, exhausted but on a high. On the one hand, these students are in a better position than many generations of predecessors. On the other hand, they still so desperately need exposure to the wider outside world, and opportunities to escape from their current stations.

On Sunday morning, I left Wuhan 武漢 for Hong Kong. The river flowing from the right (south-west) to the left (north-east) is Chang Jiang 長江, or Yangtse 揚子江. At the top of the photo, on the east side of Chang Jiang, is Wuchang 武昌. Wuchang is, of course, where the 1911 revolution started. The river flowing up the middle of the photo to join Chang Jiang is Han river. To the left (north) of Han River is Hankou 漢口. Hankou, at one point, had concession territories owned by five nations: England, Russia, Germany, France, and Japan. To the right (south), Hanyang 汉阳. Hanyang used to have one of the most importatn arsenals in China. So Wuhan occupies an important place in the modernization of China. Every time I come here, I was made to ponder the changes in China in the past hundred years or so. Having reeled from one disaster to another numerous times, China seems to be finally steadily climbing out of the depth of dispair. Yet the road to modernization ahead is still long and hard.

I spent Monday in Hong Kong, working in the university. A new head has been appointed to our department, and I am looking forward to have reduced administrative responsibilities. But the new administration has not said much yet and we are not sure whether there might be some major changes. Hong Kong is arguably the best developed among all of China. Yet it is facing an uncertain future and the leadership is not inspiring a lot of confidence.

On Tuesday, our family flew to Los Angeles and then went up to Shell Beach near San Luis Obispo up the California coast - on the opposite side of the Pacific. It can be considered one of the most developed place on earth. The people are prosperous. The houses are big. The roads are wide and straight. The sky is blue despite the soot from the forest fires. The oceanic view is just fantastic. We spent a lot of time watching the sea guls, the pelicans, the waves, and the sunset. From some perspectives, it can be considered paradise on earth.

In four days, I seemed to have passed through several ages of development. Is California the future China? I wonder.

Rivers

We flew above some interesting river formations en route from Hong Kong to Wuhan.

What do you think of the river bend at the left? Does it look like the head and eyes of a snake? Note how the smaller, greener river joins the bigger, muddier one at the right? The green one simply gets swallowed by the muddy one.


A good illustration of the Chinese idiom 涇渭分明. When the two rivers of comparable size merge, the demarcation line is very clear at the beginning, but gradually becomes more and more blurry.


A dragon flying through the clouds, with claws extended?

Love English Camp in Hubei

For the past week I could not access the Internet. It was because I went with 3 colleagues and 15 of our university students (and two of my daughters) to HuangShi in Hubei province again, to help run a summer camp.

Teachers and tutors from a number of Christian churches from Hong Kong, London and Los Angeles taught about 200 local high school students English, and our students taught them how to make a digital map of their campus. The high school students had to measure the longitude and latitude of assigned locations with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, take photographs and make recordings of stories in English about the locations. Our university students then used the measured GPS coordinates to draw a digital map of their campus, and linked the photographs and recordings to relevant locations on the clickable digital map.

While they were not working on the digital map the students learned phonics, sang, and played a lot of games. The digital map project and the camp overall was a big success. The local students were happy, their teachers were happy, the English tutors were happy, and we are happy.

This is what we call service learning. While providing community service, our university students learned a lot: information technology, English, Putonghua, education in mainland China, coordination, teamwork, and make a lot of friends.

It was very hot in HuangShi, as expected for this time of the year. But it also rained almost everyday while we were there, and the rain cooled it down a bit. I just came back this afternoon totally exhausted. More on the trip when I have time to recuperate.

1 July March

It was the first of July and the people were marching again. This time I went to the head of the march at Causeway Bay to take pictures. I saw the police motorcycles, the police vans, and the many police officers that cleared the way, the numerous reporters and amateur photographers (like me), and the volunteers that kept order. Perhaps a hundred people had gone by before the first real marchers appeared.

The main theme remained the demand for democracy and elections. But there were also demands for justice and equality, wage increases, migrant workers’ rights, sex workers’ right, rights of abode, independent radio broadcasting, justice for people who do business in the mainland, etc. It might not be a unified voice. But the depth of the discontent was palpable.

It was really hot. After standing in the sun for 30 minutes or so, I was drenched. Why would these ordinary-looking people be willing to endure such discomfort on a holiday? Unless they are really unhappy with something that the government is doing, or not doing? It is understandable that people (including those in government) prefer to listen to friendly voices. But a responsible government would also listen to those who are unhappy enough to march; and then to try to do something to reduce the amount of discontent.

Monstrous Tram Stops

These tram stops in Central used to be simple, unobtrusive structures: a flat top standing on slender pillars, all white.

Today, panels fill up all the space between the pillars, and a long one runs the full length of the station on top. Suddenly, a minimalist structure has been transformed into a monster. Now you cannot see the opposite side of the street.

It is understandable the tram company would want to maximize advertising space and revenue. But does that give it the right to block everyone’s view and stifle airflow throughout the busiest street in Central? And does the government even care?

Getting Baptized

Went to a friend’s festive baptism this afternoon. Before and after the service, everyone was having pictures taken with those who were getting baptized (in black robes). It is hard not to share in the joy even if you do not know them.

There were many touching moments. There was enough time only for two of them to speak, but all who were baptized wrote a paragraph on their experiences. A mother was brought to church by her daughter. Several spoke of how they were bitter and lost, but found peace and hope in faith. A man resisted going to church for more than 10 years; now that he has found faith, cannot wait to bring his wife and daughters to God. Many of our friends are taking beginner’s classes and will be baptized soon.

God is real and He can do wonders. Each person has his or her own sufferings, and each person who finds faith is a miracle. In the face of such life-changing moments, everything else suddenly becomes un-important. What can be more important than really saving lives?

Questioning Students

I found that, in general, there are three major types of students regarding questions and answers.

Type 1 are those whose answers to questions are always“don’t know”; and who usually say“no” when I asked them whether they have any questions. They are like black boxes - it is difficult to find out what is going on in their minds.

Type 2 are those who can answer my questions (they are paying attention), but rarely volunteer the answers, and almost never have any questions to ask or comments to make. They are a bit like sponges; absorbing everything, but rarely generating anything themselves. They seem to be the majority in Hong Kong.

Type 3 are those interactive students who volunteer to answer questions, and occasionally ask intelligent questions. They are most teachers’ favourites. At least among those teachers who believe in interacting with their students.

Are students born into these types? I don’t believe so. Can a student move from one type to another? I think so.

There was a student in my class last year who was a black box when I started asking her questions in class in the beginning of the term. Gradually she evolved into a sponge, and even a borderline interactive. Later she told me that when she realized that I would be asking her questions, she started paying more attention in class. So their behaviour regarding questions and answers is at least partially learned.