CHINA TRIP Day 6: "Do you know Mao?"

Sunday, May 23

We had a group breakfast on Sunday at a cute little café across the street called Sculpting in Time. With our experience with breakfasts in Taiwan, I was expecting something traditional versus Western, which was fine with me. We were all in for a nice surprise though when the food turned out to be the kind of breakfast we were more familiar with, such as eggs, bacon, and fruit. I’ve never seen so many people gorge on fruit. I personally have always been a fan of fruit, but something about being in a country where you can’t drink or use the tap water to rinse of food made me feel as though I needed to eat as much fruit as possible when it was available. I also noticed that unless the water came out hot, I was hesitant at drinking it. We were all a little skeptical of water now, which I found ironic since water is a basic necessity and here we were in a restaurant unsure of whether or not it’d be okay to drink the water they were giving us. Our reasoning that since it was a restaurant, they wouldn’t serve us anything we couldn’t eat or drink.

After brunch we took the subway to a popular Catholic Church to attend their English Mass. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think because I wasn’t sure how accepted Catholicism was in China. I knew Confucianism and Buddhism had strong historical influences in East Asia and therefore was a little surprised at how popular at least this particular Church seemed to be. We attended the English service and consequently found ourselves among a very diverse audience. I’m not sure if it was because the Mass was in English or if it was because there a more diverse group of attendees than even at some Mass services at Notre Dame, but it didn’t feel like I was in China during that time. A couple young women sitting next to me asked me where I was from and we chatted for a bit during a break in the service. I remember reading about my generation in China being sort of lost or wafting in-between traditional Chinese ways of thinking and Western ideals. The text suggested that this young generation sought modern lifestyles and Western influences but they were being pulled back desperately by their traditional heritage and were consequently left with needing to figure out their identity in society. I wondered if these women talking to me were part of that group trying to find themselves, at least through faith. But I never asked.

Later in the day we had a tour of the TBC Library as well as a tour of all the artifacts decorating the offices. I was overwhelmed by the sheer quantity and variety of books and artifacts. It seemed as though that small area was more of a museum with items that showcased more of China’s history than any other place in China. What astounded me the most was how these priceless, ancient, seemingly fragile artifacts were on blatant display with no protection whatsoever. Many objects were part of the décor of a couple of different offices and in the general waiting area of the bigger office as well. I wasn’t sure if this stemmed from the seemingly lack of concern for the preservation of history and culture by the government but I was almost a little offended. I understood that the reasoning of wanting to share the culture and create a certain type of atmosphere and I was certainly humbled and saw TBC as more than just a learning center. The Center really embraced and embodied Chinese history and culture. I still felt that these amazing artifacts needed to be taken care of in ways that ensured its preservation and some part of me still feels that leaving them completely exposed is not the best decision.

At dinner we were given the opportunity to socialize with a few students at UIBE. I remembered how much I enjoyed talking with and getting to know the students from Yuan Ze University in Taiwan and I hoped that this would be our chance to really get to know China from their perspective. It was a little harder to communicate with the students at our table, their English wasn’t as fluent and I felt that many of the questions we asked were getting lost in translation. I know many of us wanted to ask about the censorship and if they felt that the political system needed to change. They either didn’t really understand what we were trying to ask or they didn’t want to talk about those sorts of things. I wasn’t really sure. They did a good job after dinner of giving us a tour of campus and pointing out things such as the laundry facilities and various convenience stores on campus. I noticed quite a few guys walking in and out of this building with plastic buckets and I asked if they were doing laundry. One of the girls just laughed and explained that at UIBE, while the girls had bathrooms in their dorms, the guys had to go to another building to shower. I just remember saying how inconvenient that was and to make matters worse, they also said that the showers were only open from 3pm until 10pm. I was glad though to hear that at least all the girls didn’t have to leave to shower.

When we got back to campus, we watched The Last Emperor as a very appropriate introduction to our learning for the next two weeks. I was excited to watch a film that made history as the first film to actually be filmed inside the Forbidden City, by a foreign director. In the back of my head I wondered how much influence the government had over the script and the editing process of the movie, especially as the movie briefly showed the Cultural Revolution. Since the movie focused on Emperor Puyi’s life and not on China’s history, the Cultural Revolution was shown only briefly. I felt as though the director utilized that scene and got the basic message of how unjust and wrong the Cultural Revolution was without needing to show much.

After the movie, a few of us went in search of the cafes/restaurants with free wifi. We eventually settled into a restaurant, figured out the wifi, and I managed to send a few emails before going to bed. I still couldn't access FB at the time, even with the VPN so after my emails were sent, I was basically done :P.