The mystery guest

I (JM) have been playing my violin a bit more since our return, having purchased a new violin bow over the visit back home. Lately, one of the spare bows in my violin case seemed to be losing some of its hairs: after opening the case, some of its strands would be dangling away from the stick. I examined it on a few occasions, and thought perhaps it was catching on some edge inside the case, snapping a few of the hairs in the process.

Today I again noticed this problem, and it became obvious that these latest hairs were snapped a few inches down from the edge of the bow stick. I looked again, and there on the underside of the bow hair was a small larvae, complacently grazing on my horse hair!

This is the first time something like this has ever happened to my instrument, so of course I thought “Only in China.” Somehow the little critter worked its way inside my case, perhaps while it was open during my practicing, and found its way to an unlikely feast. It had been shearing the strands of hair for the last week at least, getting nice and plump in the process.

My immediate concern was that he might have found his way inside the wood of my violin- worm holes are an unlucky and expensive repair to need on an instrument. But so far no other signs of damage.

So I’m reminded once again that our life here in China is much more in tandem with the flora and fauna around us, welcome or unwelcome. At least the fall will bring lots of great produce at the markets, and a break in the summer’s heat. I don’t look forward to the chill of winter coming ahead, but we’ll enjoy this cool weather while it lasts, along with whatever critters it brings along with it.

But other would be bow-munchers beware, lest ye suffer the same fate as poor little Wormy!

Posting by email

Well, we may have figured out a way to bypass the ‘Great Firewall’ for good.  WordPress recently added a way to send blog posts by email, and this is the result!  No more cumbersome proxies. Just a simple email away from updating you with our experiences, and the best part is the pictures come through too!

So, here’s newfound hope that communication will continue unabated into our next year here in Nanjing!

One-Child Revisions?

China instituted a one-child policy in 1979. The current generation of Chinese families rarely boasts a multiple-child family. The fine for having a second child is exorbitant, approximating an average person’s salary for a whole year by some accounts. For the small rich minority, the fine is no problem, but the majority of China’s 1.3 billion residents are restricted by this and other measures from having multiple children.

One of our textbooks has an essay devoted to this topic, or more exactly, devoted to discussing the benefits of this system. Children now are better cared for by their parents without competition from siblings. There is more food for them to eat, and more resources can be devoted to their education.

Obviously in the wake of the massive famine in the 60’s, the current order seems to be an improvement. But is it the result of the new population measures? Is it even a direct result of the Reform and Opening movement that is so often heralded as the new beginning for China? Or have other global forces been more direct agents for China’s growth and prosperity rather than national policy?

Our teacher today even expressed her own doubts about the one-child policy. If there are 4 grandparents, 2 parents, and one baby, there is a tremendous burden placed on the two working parents to support a family of 7, and afterwards on the child itself. Economic policy also exacerbates the challenges. The mandatory retirement age here is 50 for blue-collar women, 55 for other female workers, and 60 for men. Saving like crazy for a 20 to 30 (or 40!) year retirement is a huge concern. No wonder people pick through garbage cans with methodical patience in their spare time, dredging up pennies by finding a piece of cardboard here, a plastic bottle there.

Our teacher also said there is talk of reforming the policy (only talk, no actual measures as far as she knew). Perhaps doctoral degree holders should be permitted a second child, so the rationale goes, since they can provide a learned environment within which to raise another child. One wonders if this will really solve any problems, or just create resentment among the classes?

At least there seems to be some willingness to address the social challenges at hand, and perhaps revise the restrictive policy if the need can be proven pressing enough. Now is a time of unprecedented change in China- surprising and swift change is undoubtedly in the cards, if they choose to play them so.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We want to send our best wishes home to all of you friends and family. We are grateful for all the support you’ve been to us over the past 9 months- we know we wouldn’t be here now without your help!

Thanksgiving passed without ado here in Nanjing. We woke up, went to morning and afternoon classes, and Liz even went out for an hour in the evening to teach an English class! A few of our Chinese friends had heard of the holiday, but it came and went without any outward trappings. Certainly no football games to watch! We’ll have a small celebration of our own on Saturday when we can relax a bit. Our good friend sent us a no-bake pumpkin-pie recipe. If anyone has a no-bake Turkey recipe, that would also come in handy.

We miss you all back home. We are giving thanks for you and for all of our blessings!

Please leave a message

Back home we each had a cell phone in addition to our work numbers. No need for a land line anymore since we could be reached directly, and voicemail worked great for whenever we couldn’t answer a call. JM even tested a program that turned his voicemails into emails, receiving them in his inbox just minutes after a missed call.

They don’t have that here. The land of 1.3 billion people, with probably half as many cell phones, notoriously lacks phone message services. It took us awhile before we realized it, but after a few months of ringing up friends, colleagues, and even businesses, we began to realize that when they didn’t answer, they really weren’t going to answer. We thought it strange that the phone company took the liberty of interrupting calls with a recorded message: “The person you dialed cannot be reached right now. Please try again later.”

This inexplicable fact took some getting used to. No leaving messages about important business that couldn’t wait. No making plans with friends by leaving messages with options on their voicemail and then getting a call back from them later. Now when we want to connect with someone, we have no choice but to persistently call back until we reach them.

People here are typically more available, however. Without voicemail, people do seem to take more initiative at answering phone calls. It even seems to introduce a personal element in daily interaction- less playing phone tag back and forth, and actual communication with another human being.

Unless, of course, we send text messages! These have seemed to supercede the place of voicemail by and large- a written communication that you hope will be received by the person you want to reach, but are still unsure of the timeframe of a response, if there will be any.

Just another way we didn’t anticipate life would change drastically on this side of the globe.

As of late

We’ve been delinquent in keeping up our blog! This hasn’t been intentional, but is the result of our new load of school and work keeping us busy. Each of us has taken on some English teaching, which brings a whole new level of cultural exposure through our students’ conversation and writing. When a student writes openly about the effects of pollution on daily life (the stench of factories, toxicity of the water, and lung cancer), it reminds us that this isn’t the same picture of the Chinese people that comes through the American press. People here know that their country is far from perfect, and needs some real progress towards a better standard of life for all. But, it can be hard to push for some advancements like melamine-free milk, especially when the historical perspective is something like: “50 years ago millions of citizens died from starvation. Now you want every item on the food shelf to be certifiably sanitized?”

Life in a country with 1.3 billion residents brings some distinct challenges, and calls for a good measure of perspective and patience. In their defense, the Chinese like to point to America’s own period of development during the 19th century, where there were similar problems of disease, quality control, and living standards. In fact, we saw an article detailing the ‘Swill Milk’ scandal in New York that caused many infant deaths about a hundred years ago. The death toll then was even higher than the one here from the melamine. At least China has the benefit of modern medicine to ameliorate many problems that would have been life threatening just fifty years ago. Progress continues, but it will be awhile before it reaches every corner of this vast country.

Our Chinese speaking teacher continues to amuse. Her latest quip was about how female Chinese doctoral students don’t have a good chance of finding a husband. First, they are too old, nearly thirty. Second, they are not very pretty, because all they like to do is study. Third, women tend to marry up in status here, and it’s hard to find other men more accomplished than their own Ph.D’s. Not impossible, but definitely a challenge. This class has fast become our favorite since we get to discuss these issues and bring perspectives from the ten or so different countries represented in our class. It’s a mini world forum at times, and always promises some surprising perspectives on the ways of life we take for granted!

We’ll try to keep up the posts. Don’t abandon us!

Everyday Life

I sit here writing with a VERY full stomach because I’ve just been stuffed to the gills with Jiaozi (dumplings) and fruit by my neighbor downstairs (this happened after I’d already eaten lunch, but I couldn’t refuse…). She is one of Leo’s many good friends, and we don’t pass by her place often without taking a piece of fruit or a little toy home with us. She also happens to be a chef (lucky us!). Our nanny brings Leo down to her place to visit every once in a while, and I have the sinking suspicion that she’s told them we don’t cook (which right now is basically true – things being as busy as they are and food being as cheap as it is, we eat out rather often during the school term to save time). I think our neighbors and our ayi feel like they need to take care of us ‘poor kids’ right now because gifts of food have suddenly become rather frequent. Our Ayi made us lunch once last week without us asking, and our other neighbor brought us some big giant stuffed dumplings last week as well. I now have a pile of beautiful homemade jiaozi in my fridge ready to be warmed up and eaten. I have no idea how to repay all this kindness!

We had quite a conversation about why our parents aren’t here living with us and helping out. I explained that it’s just not the custom, although we’d welcome their presence if they wanted to come. I didn’t even go into how many brothers and sisters we each have, because it’s just such shocking news here sometimes! She then gave me instructions about how to feed Leo and proceeded to give me some food that she had bought for him. I invited her to come over for tea, and I’m sure she will. She’s a delightful neighbor and Leo gets a HUGE kick out of her. It took me 45 minutes to calm him down for a nap after our visit!

Our neighbors and the shopkeepers in our neighborhood have generally accepted that we are going to be here for a while. I have to plan extra time for errands because we make many stops along the way, chatting with different shopkeepers and bosses, security guards and merchants, neighbors, and old ladies taking walks.

Classes are going well, and we continue to learn much, especially from our mistakes. My latest gaffe was to proclaim, “Women only have to start smoking cigarettes, and then they will become pregnant.” Thankfully, I was only with my good friend and tutor, and after she stopped laughing at me, she corrected my faulty speech.

We have repeatedly encountered a cultural difference here in China that can only accurately be called ‘now’ time. Basically, everything that needs to happen is most suitably done right now, no matter what else might be occupying one’s attention. Can you come for a job interview? Sure, when? Right now. Can we find time to come look at that apartment? Sure, how about right now? Can you decide right now if you will be buying/renting this? If ever one asks for time to think things over, the responses range from puzzlement to plain dismissal.

One example of this is the midterm in our speaking class. We had been completing small dialog assignments at home all semester, when out of the blue our teacher announced, “We need to have a midterm now, so your last homework assignment will be graded as your midterm test.” Our jaws dropped, because of course we would have worked more diligently on the assignment had we known it would be graded more heavily. There was no anticipating this. Our other teacher even replied straightforwardly that she didn’t know the next time we’d be having a test. “When we need it, that’s when we’ll do it.”

This all has the effect of making advance planning rather difficult. If you ever expect something to happen in the future at a given time, there is always a strong chance the timing will change significantly due to last-minute circumstances. Music concerts are rescheduled not a week before the performance. The 10-day summer camp JM taught for changed its dates less than a week out. The administration at our school still doesn’t know the day classes will be starting next term. It’s a new way of life for we who like to plan things out months in advance. This is simply not the way our new cultural surroundings operate.

In the thick of things

We haven’t been keeping up very well with this blog lately. We realize you will all get bored and find better things to do with your time than keep up with our mundane happenings. The reason we’ve been out of the loop is simply a busy schedule, going to school every day, studying in precious spare moments, and child rearing.

Work opportunities also pop up in many unexpected places. JM has been doing TOEFL lessons and translation on the side, while Liz has found a nice weekly speaking practice class to teach. English jobs pretty much have constant openings, for anyone wanting to know what the situation is like on the ground here. There are far more students of English than there are teachers, which means one can be fairly choosy about the work taken on.

Keep checking back, as we have plenty of other interesting stories to tell, if only we could find the time!

Tainted Milk

We came to China knowing that food quality posed a large issue. If you’ve followed the news recently you’ve seen that Chinese milk products have been pulled from the shelves, again showing that melamine (a fertilizer chemical) has been added to them by some of the dairy farmers. This has caused some infant deaths from tainted formula, and has sent thousands of other babies to the hospitals.

We only recently started letting Leo drink some milk in addition to nursing, but we only let him drink highly pasteurized organic milk from Australia. Our prudence has seemed to pay off for now. But we know that over the long run we’re all being exposed to some toxins that we’d rather not be, and we’re trying to make good choices about how best to avoid them.

You just can’t trust government regulations here to the same degree as back in the States. We really hope that China will take some initiative to correct these widespread problems, rather than just arrest and execute a few people. The scare factor is high with the latter, but it doesn’t deter people who have little scruples (or knowledge in some cases) about what harm they are doing.