Christmas in China

If you think the commercialization of Christmas is bad in the US, imagine what it's like to celebrate Christmas in a country that doesn't believe in Christ! Christmas is literally a day to go shopping here. All the stores are decorated with Santa Claus and Christmas trees, but Chinese people are not Christian, so they don't understand the real meaning of the holiday.

Even all the myths and traditions of Christmas are unknown here. Chinese people call santa "Father Christmas" or "Christmas Old Man"- they don't even call him "Santa Claus". The girl I tutor never heard of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer or the North Pole- well she knows what the North Pole is, but she doesn't believe that's where Santa and his elves live. It was a really interesting experience to try to explain the story of the birth of Jesus in the manger and the three wise men to a Chinese friend.

Since we work at a "Foreign Language School", our school held a Christmas pageant. My American friends and I were made to sing a song in Chinese in front of the whole school. Our singing debut made the front page of the local newspaper, the Zhangjiagang Daily:

(PS. Thanks for the Christmas hat with the Mickey Mouse ears, Mom. It was a big hit with the 2nd graders)

Our Christmas pageant was Friday the 23rd. Later that night we got even more into the Christmas spirit, when the club we went to was decked out with decorations, including a fake snow machine:

The best part about my Christmas experience in China, though, was attending church. More or less, my impression is that the Chinese government doesn't allow churches for Chinese people. This isn't a big deal for most Chinese people though, because they are not Christian. There are a few churches in bigger cities for Chinese people, but churches must be registered with the government. Proselytizing is not allowed.

That being said, there are no Chinese churches in ZJG, however, since there is a large population of Korean people in our city, there are two Korean churches.

There are a lot of Koreans in ZJG because they own and run a lot of the factories outside the city. The school I teach at has a Korean department, and I teach a 4 Korean students English everyday. The mother of one of my students heard my friends and I were looking for a church, and she invited us to attend her church for the Christmas Day service.

The "church" was a couple of small rooms on the 4th floor of a random building, nestled in behind some restaurants off the main road. There were no signs, because the Chinese government doesn't allow them.
Of course it doesn't matter where you worship, but I've never been to a service outside of a church, so it was an interesting experience. Although there are no signs outside, the church managed to have stained glass put it. I wonder if they smuggled it in, haha (see picture below).

The congregation was small, but very friendly. The pastor knew some foreigners would be attending ahead of time, so he had his sermon translated. Most of the Koreans know some English, but the service was in Korean. The children did a couple performances, they even played the bells. The pastor played the saxophone, another man played the accordion, and some other foreign teachers from the Philippines did a dance. It was a lovely service, and made me feel like I was home. I forgot to mention, its a Methodist church- which is what I attend at home. We were even invited to stay and eat with the congregation afterwards:

Escaping class

A couple of weeks ago, out of 45 students, 16 students were missing from my sophomore class. A couple students were actually running out of the class when I arrived- so much for subtlety. The remaining students told me that the missing students had choir practice....


Being not too far removed from my time as a student, I knew they were lying. All the misbehaved students are not in choir! I had someone write down all the missing students names, in Chinese, to show their head teacher.


After class I went to the Chinese teacher's office and showed someone my list. They said, "Oh, last period is the worst, all the students have activities and miss class". Unconvinced, I told another Chinese teacher, but never got the list of names to her. Apparently I didn't need to. I made quite an impression on the students.


The next class not a single student was missing. I gave the students their exam as planned and at the end of the class I received a flurry of letters, one more hilarious than the next. The students apologized for skipping my class. Here are some excerpts:


"I'm sorry for escaping class. My English is poor and I don't have much English knowledge." -Charles


"I'm a naughty boy. I like playing basketball. When I saw a lot of students went outside I can't help following them. I'll work harder then. I don't know what to write...." -Venn


"I'm sorry that I escape from your class as a result of my poor spoken English." -Eudora


"I will show you another me in next lesson. That's all. I hope you can forgive me." - unsigned


"Now I've realized that being absent from foreign teacher's class is nothing good to me. I just lose an opportunity  to improve my English. The foreign teacher's class is the only class that we can learn and have fun at the same time. Also, it is the class that we don't have endless homework." - Shaw


"Before class, some people in the classroom said they would go out of the classroom because they thought your class was very boring. Someone asked me to go out of the classroom and I agreed. I really regret going out. I feel ashamed that I didn't respect you." -Joy


"We are students and listening to our teacher is our duty." -Tale


One student titled their letter "My self-criticism", and another signed their letter, "Yours, wrong student". Out of all the letters, only one student attempted to write my name, and that person spelled it wrong.


I have to say that Chinese students are incredibly hard working. During the week, they attend class from 7:30 am until 9:00pm at night. They also have class on Sunday afternoons. They have no social life whatsoever. I was actually surprised that the students cut my class because their Chinese teachers are so strict, but as a "foreign teacher" I am not as intimidating. All in all, I think the students learned their lesson. And if more than three students are missing from any of my future high school classes, I'll be taking attendance!


On another note, you can see from the excerpts above that my students have chosen some odd English names. In second grade, the students are assigned names by their teachers. I believe the teachers use a list of names from the 1920s. I have many students named Fanny, Betty, Dorothy, Percy, Greta, Stella, and Shirley.


In high school, the students are allowed to choose their own English name. In one class I have one student named Cloudy and another student named Rainbow. Other personal favorites include: Camera, Meepo, Echo, Cico, Mars, Purple, Verse, and Cassipeia. The students truly believe that these are mainstream English names, despite my insistence otherwise.


Just last week, one of my students approached me about changing his name. His name was John, but he is henceforth known as Obama. I tried to ask him if he wanted to be Barack, since that's the president's first name, but I'm not sure he understood, so I said Obama was okay, while suppressing laughter.


But I saved the best for last. One of my students is named Lucifer! I could make him change it, but I love it too much when I get to call on him in class.

hello laowei

Despite what you may have heard not all Chinese people speak English, especially not outside the major cities.

Most Chinese people know how to say "hello" and if they are brave, they will say it to your face, followed by giggling of the school girl type.  For example,  a grown man says "hello!" then "hehehehe". On your average afternoon out, you might get 3 to 5 "hello"s. Alas, many people are not so brave, so instead all you hear is "wai guo ren" or "laowei", both meaning foreigner.

Yes, being white attracts a great deal of attention. Mostly it results in people staring, unabashedly. It takes some getting used to. In America, if someone was staring at you, you'd think it was rude. Also, you might think something was wrong- something in my teeth? a kick me sign on my back? What the hell is so interesting??? But not to worry, they like to stare just because you're different. And it is not meant to be rude. Most days, I'll indulge them in a hello or a quick hi and a smile.

But, I'm not always in the best of moods. And if you thought staring was annoying, worse yet is when people take your picture- without asking. Don't get me wrong, sometimes people will ask. If a little kid comes up to ask for a photo, I don't usually say no. However, I am not always so indulgent. When a twenty-something adult male was making a video of my friends and I in the Nanjing Massacre Museum- without asking, I was straight up angry! In this particular case, not only was it rude to me, it totally disrespected the sanctity of the museum, which honors the loss of hundreds of thousands of Chinese people at the start of WWII.

Not to say that I'm not guilty of trying to take pictures of Chinese people, but at least I try and do it with some subtlety and in more appropriate situations. There is one picture I've been trying to capture since I came to China- and that is a Chinese baby butt. Let me explain! Most, probably 95%, of chinese babies do not wear diapers, at least when the weather is above 50 degrees. Instead, they are dressed in split pants, so when nature calls, their mothers can squat them down on the nearest sidewalk to do their business. (An aside- Be careful where you walk! That puddle is not water!) Chinese babies really are adorable, and I think their butts sticking out of their pants are the funniest and cutest things ever. It's especially funny when the mother is holding the baby with her arm under the butt, so you just see a little bit of cheek. Anyway, I haven't captured a butt on film yet. I just cannot go up and just snap a picture without asking and my many stealth attempts to get a picture without the parents noticing have been unsuccessful.

I hope to eventually share a picture with you, but if you want to see what I'm talking about, just google image "chinese baby split pants". I promise you will not be disappointed.