Cultural Exchange

So it's Halloween! Want to hear a scary story? It's called "Eating in China." It's about a girl who is haunted by ghosts of pesticides past, GMO-zombie produce and creepy additives. Read this article to learn more about the horrors she faces.

China's a fun place to live, and it's easy to get complacent about all of the things you know are going on. For example, the air quality. Some days I can't even see the massive skyscraper that's a mere ten minute walk away from my house. I don't even want to think about my poor lungs. A more pressing problem is the water contamination. I have no doubt that even the bottled water I'm drinking is laden with heavy metals. The food issue is almost always at the forefront of my mind, though. When I first got here, it was almost debilitating. I couldn't eat anything without considering the fact that if I didn't cook it myself, it was doused in MSG and possibly worse. Even if I did cook it myself, the produce is either GMO or is coated with toxic chemicals (the lettuce is sprayed with formaldehyde...cool.) - or, more than likely, both! At the end of the day, I've opted to put my head in the ground and eat as healthily as possible; however, this is still not a country that I feel comfortable staying in for an extended period of time. 

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Lately I've been realizing that I'm going to be coming away from my experience teaching in China with some skills. The skill that I've acquired this week is the ability to sleep through anything. The screams of school children are my natural alarm clock, Monday through Friday at 7:45am sharp. If, by some miracle, I manage to sleep through their banshee-like descent upon the elementary school, I have the morning ceremonies to look forward to. Every morning from 8:10-8:30, I am subjected to patriotic marching music, blared through loudspeakers. In the past week, my body seems to have finally adapted (or succumbed to exhaustion, it's unclear). 

While we're on the topic of sleep, I don't think that I've mentioned one of the greatest delights of China: nap time. Every day, I have an extended afternoon break from 11:50 - 2:40. The children go home to eat lunch and "have a rest." Miss Melanie passes out for a solid two hours (until the sounds of children wake me from my slumber). This was an incredibly welcome feature of my schedule, as I had fostered a new "daily nap" habit over the summer. I can only hope that my next job will afford me this same luxury... 

My lessons for the past two weeks have been Halloween themed! This week I figured out how to download YouTube videos so that I can show them to my classes (the "Great Firewall of China" had previously prevented this). This gave me a major advantage in teaching the nuances of Halloween, such as carving Jack-o-lanterns. These lessons have been simultaneously fun and depressing. Fun, because I get so much enjoyment out of the kids screaming at scary things (does this make me a bad person?) and depressing, because for the first time in my life, I'm far away from the holiday spirit. 

Teaching a lesson about my culture to a group of Chinese students was an interesting experience for a couple of reasons. First, I have never lived somewhere where people don't celebrate the same holidays as I do. Nothing has made me feel like so much of an outsider as talking about an experience that they've never had and can only partially comprehend. I say they can only partially comprehend it, because a holiday is so much more than just the nuts and bolts. Just because you have a carved pumpkin and a costume doesn't mean you've got Halloween. There's just this intangible element to a holiday that can't be explained. I've never been without it the way that I am in China. And I miss it. On a more basic level, I've simply never taught someone else about my culture. I'd taken it for granted up 'til now. For the first time, I saw things that to me are commonplace through new eyes. The origins of Halloween are so interesting; there are so many traditions that we still practice. What's even more interesting is seeing what the holiday has morphed into in the modern day. It just reeks of that same commercialization that's taken over all of our other major holidays. What a shame. I can't remember the last time I saw a child wearing a homemade costume. I personally wish that America was still safe enough that you could be invited into people's homes to enjoy some homemade caramel apples. Also, when is the last time you went to a Halloween party and bobbed for apples? When I get home, I'm bringing back the basics. 

All of these Halloween lessons have included that most important element of the modern Halloween holiday: candy. Looking at it every day has been wearing on me, and yesterday I was hell-bent on getting my hands on some candy. Naturally there is no Halloween candy here, so I opted for Snickers. They do not taste quite the same, FYI. I asked Dave to share this candy with me equitably, but I soon found that he was not the ideal candy-sharing partner. Not because he ate more than his share, but because he ate significantly less than his share, leaving me to eat the majority of the Snickers by myself...plus all of the other candies that I purchased. Thank god for the rice diet.  

We did take the opportunity to celebrate as best we could in China, costuming ourselves in the official apparel of Shenzhen public schools. We were able to find a store that sells student uniforms, so we purchased one girl's uniform and one boy's uniform and made ourselves look as youthful as possible. We definitely turned some heads. 

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Today I went to my office and was presented with a stack of apology letters from Grade 5, Class 3. It was a surprise, but by no means unwarranted. These are 50 of the devil's own minions, in the form of Chinese students. Every time I teach them, I'm on the verge of walking out of the classroom within ten minutes. 

Luckily, I have some really wonderful students as well. In the past few weeks, I've been flooded with tutoring opportunities. I'm now incredibly busy teaching kids ages 4 - 10, and each is wonderful and different. These opportunities come with multiple benefits. I've gotten to enjoy a real look into Chinese family life. Every Friday night I am fed a home-cooked Chinese feast. I've also acquired a wonderful private Mandarin Chinese tutor (the mother of one of my students), who teaches me at my home three times a week for two full hours. She is incredibly patient with me and is teaching me exactly how I want to be taught - like a child. I'm so glad to be learning Mandarin; nothing is more frustrating that not being able to express yourself, especially with children. Several of the parents speak English very well, and I'm able to talk with them at length. I really am loving being able to meet and connect with these Chinese mothers and learn more about Chinese culture just by spending time with them in their homes. 

Still can't believe the end of the year is creeping up on us already; how is it already November?! A year in China is going to be over before I know it.