You’ll have to forgive me for a short post
this week. I’m leaving China in just over a week, so my life has gotten a bit
more hectic as of late. To be honest I have little desire for reflection right
now, there will be plenty of time for that at 4am on jetlagged nights when I am
attempting to will myself to sleep. For now, the focus is on taking in the last
of my time here, for it will most likely be a long time before I return to the
Middle Kingdom. A brief story from the past week:
My freshmen students are giving presentations
for their final projects. They range from the mundane to the fantastic, the
known to the unknown. Some of the highlights: An abridged performance of
Shakespeare’s Richard the Third, recitation of Tagore’s poetry, an adapted for
the stage performance of an episode of The Big Bang Theory, a gal singing Adele’s
Rolling in the Deep, shortly thereafter followed by a stirring rendition of Richard
Marx’s Right Here Waiting (a bit of sarcasm there, but I thought it was
entertaining nonetheless), and several excellent traditional Chinese
plays/stories/songs translated and then performed in English.
However, my favorite so far was a presentation
my student Angel gave on her hometown. Reminiscent of Laura’s SARS story, she
told a tale that I thought was amazing, yet she (of course) viewed as quite unexceptional.
I cannot do the story justice, but the most intriguing parts of the story were
based upon her commute from her small farming village in the mountains to her
various schools: Two hours by foot to her primary school until the headmaster
decided she could just stay at the school during the week, a five hour boat
journey to her middle school where she also boarded, and another five hour boat
ride plus two hours on a bus to her high school. Now she is one of my most
outspoken freshman students at the university. All of this coming from a tiny
village (I saw the pictures) surrounded by terraced rice paddies, and a family
where her parents almost certainly did not even attend school beyond their
childhood. Stunning stuff.
Next week I’ll have some final thoughts and
I’ll try to get up some pictures as well. Until then.
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