1 October 2014

Gentlefolk,

October 1 is China's National Day. China is celebrating Mao's proclamation of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, 65 years ago, when the Communists prevailed over the Nationalists. The next 65 years have been a wild ride: from the collectivisation and Great Leap Forward of the 1950s, to the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s.  Finally sanity prevailed and Deng introduced the "reform & opening" which led to unprecedented economic growth - has any other country recorded an average of 9.9% p.a. over 30 years?  

Two telling statistics: In 1950 life expectancy was 36 years (now 75 years); and the literacy rate was 20% (now 95%).

But I won't dwell on all that.  This post is mainly about the move to our new apartment.

New apartment

For the three years we have worked at the Qingdao campus of the China University of Petroleum we have lived in two identical adjoining rooms on the 4th floor of the campus 'guesthouse' (rooms are let to visitors for $16 per night; the foreign teachers all lived on the 4th floor as Chinese don't like the number 4).

The university has just completed a new building which will house many of the 900 foreign students and also the foreign teachers.  We moved our belongings last Sunday, and are still unpacking and settling in.  Many teething problems (such as no internet connection), but no doubt we'll get there in time.

The positives about the new place are: lift access; kitchen; and great views.   The main negatives: lack of storage space, and further from teaching buildings.

Although we now have a kitchen, we have become accustomed to eating in the student dining halls and will probably continue to do so most of the time.

Here are some photos of our former and new digs:

Our former digs comprised 2 identical adjoining rooms - this was our living room.  Both rooms had toilets, and big cupboards.  South facing, so plenty of sunlight.  We quite enjoyed living here.

This was the bedroom in our former digs.

Vera spent 3 weeks preparing for the move.  Here are some of the 20 boxes she used to pack up our things.  We arrived in China with the bare essentials - it is surprising how much one accumulates over time.  

Vera on her bike in front of Residential Building #1, our former address.  She bought the bike from a Russian teacher who left, and is really enjoying cruising around the campus and along the esplanade of Tang Dao Wan Bay.

The new apartment has a kitchen, a small living area (see above), one bedroom and a bathroom.  In total area it is probably a little smaller than the two rooms we occupied before.  But it is a small, self-contained, one-bedroom apartment.  The orientation is south, so we get plenty of light, and the views are great (see below).  We are on the 13th floor and there is a lift, so no more trudging up and down four flights of stairs.

The bedroom (& bathroom) in our new apartment.  Back in June I asked the administration to give us a bed without a frame, as I like to stretch out.  Guess what?  The bed we ended up with has a frame!  Murphy's law.  Solution - they gave us a second mattress to raise the level.  It feels a bit strange being so high, but maybe we'll get used to it.

The view from the balcony window, looking south.  We are across the road from Tang Dao Wan Bay.  You can see Cow Island which is near the mouth of the Bay.  The open ocean (The Yellow Sea) is on the other side of the peninsula in the distance.

The view from our balcony window, looking north, towards the end of the Bay.  

I managed to get the camera around the open window for this shot.  This is the view directly in front of us.  The white building across the Bay is the 5 star Wyndham Hotel (formerly the Kempinsky Hotel) at Silver Beach.  You can just see the Yellow Sea on the other side of the Wyndham Hotel.  I usually ride my bike around the Bay and the peninsula, as it gets little traffic.  In a 20 km ride I only have to cross two roads.  And being right on the coast means the air is relatively good much of the time.  We really are fortunate to be in such a good location.  

A panoramic view from our balcony window.  The balconies are all enclosed, which is a pity now - but the extra protection will no doubt be a blessing when the icy winds blow in winter. 

Qingdao TV

Yesterday I spent two hours with a journalist (Zhao Qing Li) and cameraman (Yin Yan Wei) from Qingdao TV.  Three foreign teachers at universities in Qingdao received Awards as "national model teachers" back in April, and the TV channel is doing a 30 minute program on the three of us, to be aired next month.  Zhu Shan (Susie), the teacher who translated my book, participated in the interview, as did three former students: Li Lu Jing (International Trade major); Li Su (Economics major) and Bu Ping (Management major).

Interview with Qingdao TV.  From left: Li Lu Jing, Li Su, Liu Li Na (UPC International Office); Bu Ping; Zhu Shan; me; and Zhao Qing Li.

Vera's former pupil

When we were at the Dongying campus 5 years ago Vera taught English at the local primary school. Her star pupil was a young lad called Zhang Ya Xuan.  He is visiting Huangdao over the National Day holidays and we had lunch with him and his father today.

Professor Zhang (UPC Geology faculty); Vera; and Ya Xuan.  What a difference 5 years make: then Ya Xuan was up to Vera's shoulder - now he towers over her!  He is 16 now, in the first year of Senior High School, and an impressive young man.  When we asked what he wanted to do in the future, he said that he was only sure that he didn't want to study Geology or attend this university.  His father took it all in good spirit!

Han Han

A few posts ago I described Yao Chen, a Chinese actress who has the most "followers" in China (and probably the world).  I'd now like to introduce the person who many say is China's (and probably the world's ) most popular blogger.

He is a 32 year old Chinese who goes by the unlikely name of Han Han (English pronunciation Hun Hun). 

Han Han

I must confess that I hadn’t heard of him until he appeared on Time Magazine’s 2010 list of the world’s 100 most influential people.  I recognised the other three Chinese on Time's list but I had never heard of Han Han (he gets almost no mention in the official media, for reasons which will become clear). 

Han Han (Chinese: 韩寒; pinyin: Hán Hán) was born on 23 September 1982 in suburban Shanghai, the son of the editor of a small journal. 

His name comprises two different Chinese characters, although the pronunciation of both characters happens to be the same.  The first character is his family name ‘Han’ and the second character is his given name, also pronounced Han, which means ‘cold’.  

Often a child’s given name reflects the parent’s hopes for the child’s future (eg success or happiness).  But in this case HH’s parents probably selected his given name because of the alliterative combination with his surname.

As well as being China's (and the world’s) most popular blogger, Han Han is also a best-selling author, singer, professional rally driver, and now movie director. 

In 1999, during his first year of senior high school, HH won China's New Concept Writing Competition with his essay, ‘Seeing Ourselves in a Cup’, on the Chinese character.  Later that year he failed all subjects in the year-end examination (including Chinese), which caused a huge uproar. How could someone who was a total academic failure possibly win a prestigious literary award?  It was contrary to all tradition.

Han Han repeated the year, but failed everything again, and quit school.

HH's first novel, ‘Triple Door ‘(三重门), on his experience as a high school dropout in Shanghai, was published in 2000 when he was only 18 years old.  Millions of copies were sold and it became China's bestselling literary work in the previous 20 years.  He wrote five more books and many articles.

Older people find him puzzling and rude, but to young people, the so-called ‘Post 80s generation’, he is their torchbearer and hero.  They love his cleverness, his irreverence, his willingness to speak his mind, and his stinging humour.  He has been described as a combination of James Dean and Hemingway.

As HH got more involved in his other passion, rally car racing (he has won three championships with VW and now Subaru), his writing slowed and he started blogging.  At last count his Weibo blog recorded 599,675,895 hits.  Almost 600 million!  Only in China!

HH has a sharp wit, but he is careful to deliver his barbs through sarcasm and humorous anecdotes that obliquely take on corruption, censorship and everyday injustice.

He doesn’t spare officialdom.  He once described Communist Party officials as useless. “Their lives are nothing like ours,” he said. “The only thing they have in common with young people is that like us, they too have girlfriends in their 20s, although theirs are on the side.” 

Ouch!

I’m surprised he hasn’t been muzzled.  They could be forgiven for not taking him seriously at first - after all he was just an uneducated kid - perhaps they thought he would be a passing fad.  But he became popular overnight and his fan-base is huge and loyal.

In September 2009 HH participated in the World Rally Championship in Australia.  On returning, he wrote a long article unfavourably comparing conditions in China with those in Australia. 

HH is no angel.  He is married, and they have a 4 year old daughter.  Last year he admitted to having a girlfriend, which led to a chorus of criticism for 'loose morals'.

For years HH refused approaches to translate his work into English (he thought it would make him more vulnerable).  But in 2012 "The Generation", a collection of blogs and essays, was published. 

The cover of HH's first English language book "This Generation".

HH has now turned his attention to movies.  On 24 July 2014 his first effort at directing was released in China.  The film's title is Hou Hui Wu Qi (English title "The Continent").  It is about two young mates who drive across China, and their experiences during the road trip.  Some critics have canned the movie, but the public have voted with their wallets - it grossed over $100 million in the first month!

HH continues to amaze and excite.  He is a modern-day folk-hero; a legend in his own lifetime.

...

Well, that's it for this post.  Vera & I are off to Dalian tomorrow for a few days during the National Day holidays.  Will do a post on that trip when we get back.

Best wishes, and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Wednesday, 1 October 2014