Thurs., May 14
Shanghai! Wow! This is an exciting city. The first thing
that struck me was the architecture. There are so many funky modern buildings. The
second thing that struck me was all the stylish people – especially the women.
Classy. We went to the Shanghai Museum which housed beautiful collections on 4
floors of Chinese ceramics, scroll paintings, jade, calligraphy, etc. I
particularly liked the gallery of the art and craft of the Chinese minorities
showing masks, clothing, pottery, and everyday objects from the non-Han people
of the different areas of China (Tibet, Mongolia, Taiwan, etc.). China has 56
minority groups.
We were treated to lunch in a private room of a fancy
restaurant by a colleague of Luo Ling’s, an administrator of the Great One (the
company that coordinates sending the students to Tufts). Another amazing meal
where the dishes just kept coming. Then we walked around a shopping area that
was designed like a European neighborhood. We ran into a British guy who lived
there who directed us to a beautiful park designed like a French garden. It was
a beautiful sunny day and people had music and where waltzing, kids were riding
scooters, people were fishing in the pond. We had a lovely afternoon of just
walking. Luo Ling took us to the famous area of Shanghai, the Yuyuan Gardens
and Bazaar, which is a network of streets with buildings designed like grand
old style Ming constructions. There were restaurants and shops and lots of
stuff you don’t need but that’s fun to look at. And a great place to people
watch. We had dinner here at an amazing dumpling restaurant. I can’t say enough
about the food here! The Chinese are very fond of food and every area and city
has its specialty.
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| Luo Ling Photobomb |
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| Porcelain in the Shanghai Museum |
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| Tibetan Masks in Shanghai Museum |
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| Yuyuan Bazaar, Shanghai |
By the time we were done eating dinner it was dark and that
is when Shanghai shines. Wow. This city has more lights than Las Vegas. We
walked to an area called “The Bund”. It is a big financial district and there
are many buildings built in European styles as Shanghai used to be home to
trading and finance of France, U.S., England, etc. The Yangtze River runs
through the city here and up on the river walk you can see the whole expanse of
the city. Every building is vying for the glitziest lights. Flashing colors,
moving messages in lights, animations all on the side of skyscrapers. And
because this area is teaming with people, companies take advantage of
advertising on light bedecked boats that travel back and forth on the river in
front of the river walk. It is mesmerizing. I could have looked at it all
night. I can understand if you grow up in such a vibrant place that the idea of
moving to the country or a small town might seem “out of it”. Where are the
people? What is there to do? I think of some of the students I teach who get
accepted at U. S. universities away from cities. That would be an extra culture
shock to them.
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| Big City Lights, Shanghai |
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| In "The Bund", Shanghai |
Friday, May 15
Day 2 in Shanghai we went to the Expo Center which was far
from the city center and created in 2010 when the World Expo was here. It’s
kind of a sad monument to what happens when a city builds too much for one
event and doesn’t plan for the use of those building once the event is over.
There was a ticket booth but barely anyone vying to get in. The one redeeming
building, though, was the China Pavilion also known as the China Art Palace.
This upside down pyramid of a building houses a fantastic art collection. Large
oil paintings dripping communist propaganda, modern abstract sculptures,
traditional Chinese paintings…It was huge and there was so much to see. We only
got through one floor. The highlight was the animation of a scroll painted by
Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145), depicting life in a town by a
river, Along the River During the Qingming Festival. The artist painted all the
details of everyday life – people eating, children playing, merchants,
fishermen, horses, a camel caravan, etc. It’s detailed. Well, an animator
brought it to life. You walk into a dark room and projected on one long 12 foot
high wall is the scroll about the length of a football field but now all the
people and animals are moving! And there is sound. At one point the day turns
to night and all the lanterns come on in the houses and on the streets. It is
magical.
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| "Comrade's Orphan" |
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| "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", Animated |
Then, we had the flight from hell. Considering we’d been
getting on and off planes for the past week (6 flights total when this journey
is complete), I anticipated that one of them might not go smoothly. We were
supposed to fly from Shanghai to Wuhan around 9 but the flight was delayed. The
weather (heavy rain) in Wuhan was too severe. We were falling asleep in the
airport lounge when they announced boarding around midnight. As the plane
approached Wuhan the turbulence started. The pilot made the decision to fly
north and land temporarily at another airport. When this was announced, the
uproar was surprising. Everyone was yelling in Chinese (we were the only
foreigners on the flight), clearly pissed off that the flight was diverted. But
I was glad! I thought the pilot made the right decision. They wouldn’t let us
off the plane and we sat for about 45 minutes and took off again for another try.
The turbulence as we approached Wuhan was SO bad, I honestly didn’t think we
were going to see the city our students are from. Dying in a fiery blaze with a
bunch of people who didn’t speak my language and three coworkers was not really
how imagined going out. I focused a prayer at the pilot and prayed we’d make it
through. The plane was being thrown up and down and side to side. I’ve never
been in something that bad. Obviously, we made it and touched down in Wuhan. I
wanted to applaud the pilot! Whew. Lived to see another Chinese megacity.
Of course, by now it was 7:30 in the morning and we hadn’t
slept all night. We got an hour’s reprieve after we got to the hotel before we
were whisked off to our student’s graduation ceremony at Wuhan Foreign Language
High School! It was so great to be part of this. Our host, May, the woman who
had been paying for this whole trip, placed a student next to me and each of my
coworkers and demanded they be our translators. May is a 70 year old commanding
business woman. She is very nice but you don’t argue with her. The students,
and everyone else, have a lot of respect for her.
After standing to the Chinese national anthem, the
graduation ceremony only lasted about an hour. Then the parents of one of our
students took us to lunch in another private room in a fancy restaurant with
dishes of food that kept coming. Trying to keep up conversation with people who
don’t share your language is difficult but we had our students to translate and
I tried to keep up a conversation with her parents as they were very nice and
buying us lunch! They were typical of the parents of many of our students, I
think, in that they were fairly well off (we had their driver take us to lunch!).
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| Wuhan Foreign Language School Graduates |
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| Lunch with Students and Parents |
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| The Food Keeps Coming |
Later in the afternoon, we attended a “coming of age ceremony”
for the students who had turned 18 this year. This was held outside behind a
banquet hall on a platform with a flower arch and a master of ceremonies. We
were ushered into the front row of the rows of chairs and again, May gave us
each a translator. The MC announced each student who came up and walked through
the flower arch with his or her parents, down the aisle and came up on stage.
In the announcement was some description about each kid. “He is considered the
smartest in his class”….”She is a wonderful artist”…. Some of the descriptions
were reaching – “He is unique.” “She wears high heeled shoes.” I had to chuckle
at these because they were said of students that were….not the brightest bulbs
and really didn’t try in class. I looked at these few and thought, “yeah,
that’s about what I’d say about that one”. There was a cake on a table on the
stage that the Director and the President of the school cut in half symbolizing
the students breaking away from childhood, May pushed us 3 teachers up on stage
to open a big bottle of champagne and pour a champagne fountain for the
students, and then the students had to recite an oath of sorts about being good
citizens, respecting their elders, etc. And, of course, more food followed.
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| Student, Cyril, who Loved my Class |
It was all very touching. During the meal afterwards,
students kept coming up to our table and telling us what they learned from us.
It’s what makes this job rewarding and made me really glad I came.
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| "Coming of Age Ceremony" for the 18 year olds |
Saturday, May 16
Today we are sightseeing in Wuhan and then I head out alone
to Beijing and on to Boston. I am not looking forward to flying again after
that last incident but I am very much looking forward to getting home.
