Hello, all my dear friends, I know, I have been neglecting you, so sorry! I have a valid excuse, however: my studies of Mandarin! Yes, I am not done yet, still lots of things to learn before we can see the light at the end of the Chinese tunnel! You might want to know how things are going in that department. Oh well, like a roller coaster. There are days when I actually feel, or even am convinced that I can hold a small and simple conversation and get some meaningful ideas across to my conversation partners, and on those days, I feel proud of myself and very satisfied that I must have already accomplished something. Then, the very next day in class, all the mental lights start flashing and then go out, and darkness and confusion take over. It feels as if I never heard of Chinese before - all the words I learned and knew yesterday have vanished in a thick fog of uncertainties. That is the most frustrating feeling one can ever know. I wrote the list of new words several times, I memorized them, I read them out loud and all was well, then I close the book and want to write them one more time, and they have all vanished. Very strange!Our home room teacher keeps telling us we need to study more, but I have a feeling that a break now and then is far healthier than pushing the study part to the extreme. Chinese teachers are like that: a good student will die studying and fight for the last vocabulary with her or his last breath!Well, I decided this is not what I need, I need a day off! So, this afternoon, instead of being a good student and doing my homework, I just went out and looked at CDs and DVDs, to find some entertainment and change and refresh my mind. I bought a Chinese song/video CD by some singer who used to be very popular here some years ago. Our pronunciation teacher had a song of his on his exercise tapes, entitled "Friend". He promised to teach us this song. The CD I found has the Karaoke feature on it, so I can see the Chinese text on the screen and learn it. I also bought a video: Henry and June, a great movie about Henry Miller, his wife June and Anais Nin's adventures together, based on their writings. It is a beautiful movie, and I highly recommend it!
I also purchased an album by the good ole Rolling Stones, their top 20 songs. These, my friend Lisa and I played this afternoon in my place, and on maximum volume, just to give back a little to my neighbor friends, who have been wrecking my nights' sleep for the past 2 weeks, with jack hammering through the night in their newly renovated apartment next door. This, too, was a highly satisfying activity! We danced around and relaxed, and sang along as loud as possible, too.
On the creative side, I also have not told you yet about Ed's and my cultural adventure in Dongguan while I visited Ed there. The Crown Prince Hotel has what they call the "Opera House Club Prince", a very large theater. Actually, it is large by its dimensions, the auditorium and stage in size comparable to the Fox theater. The layout of the seating is, however, so different that only a relatively small number of patrons can find a place in there: they have tables with benches for guests, each table arranged in a separate booth. This takes up a lot of space! The only places where I had seen this kind of setup, is in Paris, in the Pigalle nightclubs, where they present striptease shows and such, plus a variete program of magicians and acrobats. Here, this venue presents some kind of dance and song show, with various artists. Ed had mentioned it to me before I got there, saying how grandiose these shows were: great dance numbers, great music, formidable acrobatics..., and that we had to make sure we could go while I was there with him. So we made reservations for a table for the Saturday night show.
One basically has to rent a table for the show, and the price includes service and dinner. Depending on what level of ticket one buys, they will bring food until one has exhausted the value of the tickets purchased.
The show starts of with a series of songs, presented by one female and two male singers, who take turns singing for us: first the one singer, then he takes over as the MC, while the girl sings, then the second guy gets his turn to sing song number 3. All of them are on the front stage, while in the background, and on several levels, all kinds of other actions are occurring: people jumping, rolling and running all over the place, in wild bric-a-brac of costumes of all colors and creations: from pseudo Roman Empire style soldiers with plastic swords and each with 5 medium-sized flags on 3 foot poles planted in the back of their pants, via young, seductive females in red, long dresses slit open on the side all the way to their butts, are trying to dance to some very confusing choreography, to acrobats doing forward and backward rolls and flip-flops all over the stage, whilst our brave singers are standing in a shallow water basin, protected against wet feet by a set of rubber boots, the whole theme set against a thin curtain of water falling down from above. I don't know if you get the mental picture!Add to that, scenes with characters resembling Disneyland figures, a yellow pig, a blue dog, a duck with its oversized head gear pushed back too far, probably because the actor inside the costume needed to be able to see something! Some
Alice in Wonderland in a red dress, dancing with some Peter Pan-before-his-nose-grew-long type of puppet, in between the individual song numbers. And when they insert a passage with music from Shiloh Ranch, I suddenly get the feeling that the air is getting thinner in that place, and I have to leave quickly, before mental suffocation sets in. Even Ed who told me how grandiose this show was, has no idea anymore by now what the heck is going on in his favorite Chinese opera, but of course, he pretends it is wonderful, at least that is what I interprete from his mimics and hand signs with which he tries to communicate with me over that mind numbing cacophony of noisy music and drum rolls. I only want to flee from the scene of crime, so I wave Ed goodbye and vanish as fast as I can make it out of there.
Even before I reach our room, I have decided that I won't mention it later on or discuss it with Ed if he won't bring it up. Ed did not bring it up.....
Let's close the chapter "weekend in Dongguan".
Today, I finally got the postcard which Ed had posted from Hong Kong about two weeks ago. Not that this postcard took so long to get here, oh no. It took me so long to find it. This afternoon, Lisa and I passed by the guards' booth, where the mail for the entire little city block is stored in wooden boxes, sorted by building numbers. My building has the number 801. For the past two weeks, ever since Ed had mentioned the postcard, I had been checking out the contents of our box, and to no avail. Today, there was a uniform-dressed lady in the booth, sorting mail and re-arranging the furniture which had been sitting on the sidewalk for the past two days, due to renovation work inside. She wanted to know where I live and then pointed to the corresponding box, with the 801 painted on it. As I sorted through the stack, I recognized most of the pieces from previous screenings. Some mail seemed to have gotten stuck in there for many months, their addressees having moved away or, who knows - ignoring the very existence of this mail depot. Well, still no postcard from Ed in the box! Just for good measure, I decided to also go through the stack for 802, but the post lady told Lisa that mail for 801 was only in the box reading 801 on it. At the same time, I see her taking some envelopes from one box and stuffing them into another. So, with Lisa's help, I inquire why she just swapped mail boxes for these pieces, if they were supposed to be for this box, not that ? I find out that these belonged into the other box. Now, I ask her how then I could be certain that my postcard was not also stuck in any of the other boxes instead? Oh no, she says, that can't be, because I live in 801, so therefore, my mail will be in the box marked 801. Fine, I say, but I just saw her swap other pieces of mail from one to the other box. Now, how is she so sure that my postcard does not also need swapping, because it ended up in the wrong box? Oh no, that can't be, she repeats, because I live in 801. It is a hopeless undertaking! I decide on a different strategy: I will just inspect the other boxes myself. The postal lady does not like this too much, I can see from the way she looks at me, just a tad disgusted. This, however, is not enough to deter me! I keep digging through the other boxes, one after the other, and at box number 4, I catch a glimpse of a big, red postcard sticking out from the stack. I pull it out and what do I see? My name is on there! Aha! I wiggle this corpus delicti right under Mrs. Postal Worker's nose: Ha! What have we here? Does this say my name here? Now she is at a loss how to explain the whole situation. I smile at her and ask Lisa to please convey to her that, should this happen again, I will have to give her a good spanking! Lisa reluctantly and blushingly obliges me, and I can see from Mrs. Postal's facial expression that she is actually pondering whether is might be worth her while to misplace the next postcard, too! Lisa, however, is quite embarrassed. As we leave, she waits until we are out of earshot, then says: "Oh Moneva, you are crazy! But it worked, you found your postcard. I don't know how you do this. You just talk American to the Chinese, and they don't understand you, but you get what you want". I reassured Lisa that this way, we are even!
In class today, our teacher distributed questionnaires. It seems the university officials wish to know how we feel about our classes. Hence, they handed us an 8 page questionnaire, saying: Dear Friends, we are doing a research in order to help you with your Chinese learning and to improve our teaching environment. This questionnaire is part of our research. All your information will be kept strictly secret. Note: Your natural and instant reaction is expected!Hmmmm, let's see...
Let's begin:
1. I learn Chinese for my further studies in China. (So far so good)
2. I study Chinese, because I am interested in China. (OK...)
3. I study Chinese, because I want to understand the Chinese culture. (Yes, that too.)
4. I study Chinese in order to be better educated to serve my country. (I beg your pardon?)
5. I study Chinese as I want to think and behave as Chinese do. (Ahem, yeah, I was going to mention that)
6. I came here since my country encouraged me to come and paid my tuition. (No, not really!)7. I study Chinese, because the Chinese in my country have made a great contribution to the richness of my country. (Ahem, yeah, Chinese restaurants!)
8. People in my country should make a greater effort to meet more Chinese people. (Where? In my country or your country???)
9. I want a Chinese roommate when I am in China, and even after I go back to my country. (I think we will have to talk about that a little more first, ok!?)
10. Generally speaking, the Chinese people I have met are trustworthy and dependable. (True, just not the one who now has my little red bike, not that one, nope!)
11. It is possible for me to fall in love with a Chinese boy or girl. (Hey now, wait a minute, what's that got to do with my studies????)
12. I like participating in Chinese parties. (Yeah, Campay!)
13. By bringing their traditional Chinese folkways to the world, Chinese have contributed greatly to our way of life. (I am confused, still thinking about that boy or girl thingy from above!)14. Chinese economic development has made great contribution to the world economy. (OK, can you help me remember what the purpose of this questionnaire was? I seem to be confused, just a little!)
15. Chinese traditional virtue beliefs are positive to modern world. For example: filial piety, self-cultivation, hard working, thrift, kindness, etc. (ahem.. nice to meet you, too.. what was your name again?)
16. China is much better than what I thought before I came here. (What AM I thinking?)
17. We can learn better life style from Chinese people. (This is all a little too fast for me!)18. Although I don't know China's actual economic situation, I feel that the economic level of China is the same as my country. (No, it is better, I am from Africa!.)
19. According to what I have seen here, I feel that China is a democratic country. (Do you REALLY want me to elaborate on this ? No you don't!)
20. Chinese have set good examples for us by their family virtue, such as remaining a devoted couple to the end of their lives. (Right, and by aborting any child over the count of one per family)
21. Chinese people have every reason to be proud of their economic development. (That, they do and what was the purpose of this questionnaire again? Please remind me!)
22. I have a lot in common with Chinese. (Indeed, I do: ears, nose, arms, feet...)
23. The people in my country have a lot in common with Chinese people. (No, most of them are much fatter.)
24. I am an extroverted person. (Oh yes, that I am! I'll mark 6 on the scale of 1 - 6 for this one)
Thanks!
(Come again?????)
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