A more rural side of China

The first group of children I tutored. There were 28 children, all ages 12-14.
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When I first came to Hong Kong, the International Asian Studies program at my school asked us to sign up for "Teaching English in China" programs. At first, I was very excited, as I wanted to see more of mainland China. I signed up, and as the trip approached, I began to dread it a little bit. I had heard the lodging and food wouldn't be great, and as I already had a hard time with Hong Kong food, I assumed it would be a weekend of me being sick, living in a dirty place with less than hygienic bathrooms, and being completely unprepared to teach children English. Fortunately for me, it turned out to be one of the most enlightening and incredible experiences of my life.

My swedish friend performing contemporary European dancing for all of the children.
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On our trip, there were 4 exchange students and one local student who served as our guide. There were two of us from America, one from Korea, and one from Sweden. However, I was the only person who had a white nationality (the other American and the Swedish person had a Chinese heritage). We left for Zengcheng from the New Territories at 9 in the morning Saturday morning by bus. I had (like I normally do) vastly overpacked, but had purposefully brought my Chinese dictionary (so I could study and learn) and vast amounts of candy for the children we were supposed to teach. We had been told briefly before we left that we should bring candy and photos from home, but told us little of how we were supposed to teach. We also were told that we would be teaching in groups. When we arrived, however, we were informed that each of us was to teach 30 middle school aged children for two hours by ourselves. We quickly began brainstorming games and activities to do (pictionary seemed our best bet). My first impression of the school was that it seemed nice. It was certainly nothing like my middle school, but not as rural and backwards as people had implied it would be. The students were all playing badmitton and basketball, although when we arrived, they quickly stopped and stared at us. As we were deciding who would be in which classroom, we were standing outside in the hallway, and the classroom next to us had many children in it, and they were all looking intently. I was assigned that classroom, and when I walked in, they all burst into applause (I think they were excited about having the white person).

I found it so interesting that there was so much pride in this tiny little town, and I felt so lucky to be a part of it.

The nicest hotel in Zengcheng, all bough and paid for by the Chinese government.
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At first I was extremely nervous, but then I realized they were all extremely enthusiastic to practice their English. I began by asking them to introduce themselves, and talk about what flavor of ice cream they like, and what they like to do in their free time. The ice cream flavor was clearly misunderstood, and quickly dissolved into favorite food, which turned out to be just fine. I then asked them to ask me questions about myself. I assumed that the children would be too shy to ask me many questions, but they asked questions for nearly 45 minutes. They wanted to know about my family, why I was in China, what I liked about China, whether I had been to Disneyland (it was here where I learned the word for roller coaster in Chinese). I also got an opportunity to practice my mandarin, as I had to translate many vocabulary words into English. The children were studious, and wrote down every word I taught them, and when we reviewed them, they could easily translate all the new words I taught them. Some of the children were not as enthusiastic as others, but all were respectful, and even the children that I thought weren't listening ended up asking me questions.

A perfect example of the reforms in Xinyao village. One can see the countryside and rice paddies, but also a newly paved road and a newly built house on the left.
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After we asked questions, we played pictionary, which the children seemed to really enjoy. We did simple words, such as house, apple, and school, but nonetheless it allowed them to practice a bit. When class ended, they all wanted to take many pictures of me, which made me a little embarrassed, but the little girls were all very excited about it.

After an hour, we went to another classroom, and my Swedish friend showed the children a video about contemporary European dancing. He then demonstrated himself. While he was quite talented, the dancing he performed, and the song he used, were all quite sexual . However, I don't think the children realized the meaning of the song (an American rap song all about sex). Our local student tutor, Jackie, whispered to me he felt very nervous, but the children seemed to very much enjoy the performance. The Korean girl, Ally, had attracted many of the little girls, all of whom wanted to give her gifts, sing her songs, and watch her write Korean.

Older houses in Xinyao village
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It took us a very long time to leave, as all the children wanted us to sign their papers. Finally, we left, all very excited about our experience, and how wonderful the children were. We then went to a very small rural town for dinner, which was the town we were meant to teach in the next day. We ate traditional Chinese food, which included a purple colored potato, which I believe they translated to taro. I was extremely nervous to try it, but it tasted quite good. We also had a type of special bird, which was only local to that particular rural village. After dinner, we were given a bus tour of Zengcheng, and then taken to our hotel. We had been told we would stay in a normal hostel, but this time, for the first time since the beginning of this program, the Chinese government decided to pay for us to stay in a 4 star hotel, the nicest in all of Zengcheng. It was indeed beautiful, and much more than any of us expected.

The two young boys who I got to teach the most in Xinyao village. To my right is the 8 year old boy with the rabbits, and to my left is the son of the journalist.
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We put our bags in our room, and then went to explore Zengcheng nightlife. In the center of town there was a mall, and we did our best to try and find our way back to that area. On our way, we encountered a sort of town square, which reminded me of an Italian piazza. There, we discovered people playing games, doing karaoke, putting on musical performances, and other types of shows. The most interesting thing we found in my opinion was a man teaching dance lessons for 2 RMB (approximately 25 cents). We entered the square where he was teaching, and all of the steps were almost synonymous to American country line dancing. The difference was that it was stylistically different (they were hopping and jumping the steps) and the music was European techno music. Nevertheless, I caught on quickly, as many of the steps were line dancing steps. Which kind of dancing influenced which, I don't know, but I found it funny to find that kind of dancing in southern China. We then encountered a large stage, where it looked like they were having a fashion show. After watching a few minutes, we realized it was a very fancy way of announcing the town's upcoming activities. They had children in costumes walking down a runway, but the announcers were announcing future events in the town. The backdrop of the show said "我為增城 增光, 增城以我為荣," which loosely means "I bring honor to Zengcheng, and Zengcheng is proud of me." I found it so interesting that there was so much pride in this tiny little town, and I felt so lucky to be a part of it.

My Korean friend Ally and I, holding the rabbits belonging to the young boy. You can also the nicely landscaped backyard of the newly developed residential areas.
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The next day, we went back to the small village of Xinyao, where we had dinner the first night. When we got there, we met a local resident of the village who was a news reporter, and had written a fair amount about the programs occurring in Xinyao. Studying history, I found the village of Xinyao extremely fascinating. Xinyao is a village of only approximately 180 people, and according to the reporter, has been largely affected by the new open reforms in China; however "Xinyao village, like other rural areas, is increasingly lagging behind [urban areas]." Thus, the government has created a new program called "New socialist countryside of Xinyao village."

My friends Eric and George trying to ride a three person bicycle, and failing.
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In this program, there are 6 main areas of improvement: housing improvement; new sanitation standards; "greening of the village," which includes controlling the plants grown in the area (destroying plants that damage the environment, and planting sweet scented plants) and also assigning each resident a certain public space area to maintain; economic development, such as encouraging urban migration, and eco-tourism; educational reforms, which includes new rewards for excellent academic work, and a system of "civilized households"; and finally, public financial management, which more or less encourages citizens to be involved in our government. We could easily see the improvements already taking place. For instance, the treatment we were given by the government clearly shows an effort to increase education in the area. Also, we saw old houses in the area, and new developed ones as well. We also saw the original roads of the area, and the new ones as well. I was able to have a long discussion with the journalist. He criticized the communist government, saying that he wished they could have more freedom, and could openly criticize communism. At the same time however, he was happy with the improvements the government was making in their town, as he felt his life was directly getting better as a result of the government. He also felt that the Chinese people were not yet ready to have a say in their government. He seemed like a thoughtful and educated man, who wanted to see his country stepping forward in a slow fashion towards liberalism and freedom.

The breathtaking countryside of the Xinyao village.
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We were given a short tour of the town, in which we met a few young children. Some of them had a three seated bicycle, which we tried to ride (and failed miserably). However, many of the townspeople were not there, as they were visiting their deceased relatives. We then began to informally teach outside underneath a large tree. The children knew very little English, and were largely distracted, as it was Sunday, their day off. Therefore, we played a game, where I taught them nouns, and I taught them to say "everybody go." I then commanded them in English to run all over the center of town to various nouns. AFter that, I just sat and talked to many of them, mostly in Chinese, which was a lot of fun. I also talked to the wife of the reporter, who didn't know English, but was a Chinese teacher, and therefore spoke to me very clearly and slowly.

The school that we taught at on the first day.
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They had planned to take us to many areas around the countryside, but as we continued to teach and talk with the children, they rearranged our schedule, and we ate lunch in the village again. Many of the children and their families came and ate with us. I was introduced to a little boy who was at the top of his English class (they have speech competitions every year as a part of the "new socialism"). His English was clearly better than many of the children in the town, but he knew mainly knew nouns as opposed to sentences. Thus, I didn't eat much lunch, but instead taught him English phrases, which he learned quite quickly. After lunch, he invited me to his house to see his rabbit, so we all went to see his rabbits. After that, we (the 5 of us, the director of the program, the reporter and his family, and some of the children)went to this large vine in their village that they claimed was 1000 years old, and was clearly well preserved. The children clearly spent a lot of time there, and treated it as a playground. After we saw the tree, they took us back to Zengcheng, where we shopped a bit. After that, we headed home.

In this experience, two children stuck out in my mind. The first child was the young boy who had the rabbits. He was 8 years old, and although he was at the top of his class, I saw how his English class was vastly different from those in other parts of mainland China, and especially the children in Hong Kong. I even saw a difference between this boy and the children I tutored the first day. I now tutor a young 8 year old girl in Hong Kong, whose English is almost as good as many 8 year old children in America. Hong Kong is clearly different from China, but nevertheless, I understood why the government wanted us to go to these villages so much. The 15 year old children I met in Xinyao clearly didn't have the education that the 12-14 year old children in Zengcheng. However, the young boy was clearly very interested to learn, and very polite. When I left, he gave me a small flower. The other child that I remembered very well was the son of the reporter, who was clearly at an advantage. He was 13 years old, and his English was very strong.  He also had more material things than many children, as he had a cell phone and a computer, which other children didn't. He had a long conversation with me about American media, which he enjoyed very much. He liked American video games, such as Grand Theft Auto (which many American boys play), and he loved the Lord of the Rings books and movies (which he read in Chinese, but still). He followed me around much of the time, wanting to talk to me not only about books and movies, but he was very interested in history and religion in America. I showed him a picture of my grandfather, and he asked me if he was in WWII. He also taught me some Chinese. I think he was quite interested in western girls, because he often referred to a german girl who had come to his town in the same program 2 weeks earlier. I found interesting not only the income discrepancy, but also how much he was influenced by American media. I also found interesting how much he wanted to learn English.

When I returned home, and talked with my local friends about my trip, and how much I enjoyed seeing a different part of China, they reminded me that I saw what the government wanted me to see. This type of statement in America would seem a bit on the "conspiracy theory" side of things, but in a way I realized they were right. While I was vastly impressed as to what the government was doing in their town, what I saw was only a weekend in a town where the government had paid for me to go. I realized that this was hardly the whole story of rural China, and possibly not even the most true. Nevertheless, it was such an interesting experience, because even if it wasn't typical of rural villages, it was still happening in this one. I saw these children that saw in me new opportunities, and saw in the new government programs a promise for a better life. I saw thoughtful individuals who understood where they were in the world, and understood what they wanted and where they thought their country was going. I saw a people proud of their village, their country, and where they saw their country going in the future.