This is a picture of my Chinese friend's family.

With the exception of the two foreigners, this picture depicts the demographics of the population in contemporary China: old, female and the very young. Men of working age are present, but in the experience I had they were always working. My friend's father only came home from work when it rained (he did road construction). The young adults are either migrants working in the cities who send money back home or studying at a university like my friend.

This has been a trend for many years, even going back to the Maoist years, but especially since China initiated economic reforms beginning in the late 1970s. I believe many of these individuals who leave the countryside for the city deal with challenges many in the developed world do not know. Among those challenges, for instance, many of them will have to deal or already are dealing with aging parents and grandparents. As a result of the one child policy, many of them will be taxed emotionally and financially.

My friend is no exception to this. Not only is she a college student, but she has the added responsibility of helping her mother manage the land they farm. In addition, her grandfather (on the right in the above picture) is over 80 years old and appeared to be in faltering health. During our visits, he would often mix up the nationalities of me and the other foreign student. The day before we left, he was refusing to eat and a very tearful confrontation took place behind doors between them. Afterwards, when she came out of his bedroom she wiped her face and said nothing. As an American, who is used to the notion that sharing your emotions and complaints is a good thing, this was new to me. Her silence in the face of all this seemed powerful.

The Heat Is On

Wuhan is famous for being one of the hottest cities in China. The winter and the short spring we had made us question whether or not Wuhan truly lived up to it's reputation. This is no longer true. Since I have returned from the countryside on Thursday night, we have had 90+ degree weather with high humidity everyday. It feels like July in Michigan at its hottest. It's only May and I can only imagine what the future will bring.

The weather has made Wuhan a little more lively especially at night when it cools down, a little. The street vendors are now doing good business out there. Chinese men everywhere walk around with no shirts or roll them up to their chests. The women now wear a little less as well. There are people everywhere outside drinking beer, playing cards or mahjong. The smells around the city now range from the putrid to the appetizing. And, I can see that as the heat continues to build, the number of arguments in public will only increase. This makes China all the more appealing to me.

Expect a series of posts about my recent travel experiences over the course of the next week.

Goings On

So, it's been a little while.

I lost access to this blog, for whatever reason, more than a month ago. I am back for now and who knows whether or not it will disappear on me again. I haven't really had time or made the effort to write emails because so much has happened recently, both good and bad. All is well now though. Eventually, I will get around to detailing some of the things that have occurred.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the May Day Holiday here, which is China's labor day. We have no classes for 10 days. Late tonight, I leave on a train for a city called Yichang. It's located at the western end of Hubei Province and it is approximately 5.5 hours from Wuhan. I was invited by a Chinese student to see her hometown in the countryside about 3 hours from Yichang. I am not exactly sure what kind of countryside I will be seeing because it can vary all throughout China. However, I was told the conditions were "not good" and that the experience will be "comprehensive". Regardless, this is something I have been wanting to do since I arrived in China. Afterwards, we plan on visiting the Three Gorges Dam, which is near Yichang, and, if it is possible, the Three Gorges themselves - or whatever is left of them due to the rising water.

I don't know if I will have a chance to get access to the Internet (it's something I am not too concerned about honestly). But, expect pictures and more posts after I return.

Stares

For those who don't much about China, one thing you learn to deal with is the stares. The Chinese do it all the time and they are not at all subtle about it. It's not out of hostility though, but more just out of sheer curiosity of seeing a foreigner. Sometimes, they will stop and ask for a picture with you. Other times, you will get a "helloooo" or they will try to speak English with you. More often though, they will just keep walking. You quickly become numb to it. Although when you leave the university, the amount of stares increase drastically. For instance, when I was in Hankou, a Chinese man, after giving me a long look, begin shooting me questions about where I was from, how old I was, etc.

Why all the staring? It's generally argued that for most of its history China was isolated from the rest of the world (however, if you look deeper this is not always the case and China has a long history of interaction, or encounters, with the rest of the world). In the first half of the 20th century, China experienced a great amount of revolution, foreign invasion, and civil war. Then, after the Communists took power, Mao closed the country to most of the world, including the Soviet Union. It wasn't really until after 1978, when Deng Xiaoping instituted gaige kaifang, reform and opening, that China re-entered the global scene. It's really only been 30 years then and in certain ways the Chinese, especially regular Chinese, are fascinated by and new to all things foreign (which I will write about soon). Along with these historical reasons, about 90% of China's population consists of the Han ethnicity, so maybe a guy with blonde hair sticks out a little bit.

Besides my two Wayne State classmates, I have only seen or met less than a handful of Americans since I have been in Wuhan. As I was walking back from lunch today, I saw an older lady on a bicycle on the other side of the street. She was clearly talking with an American accent. And so, I found myself staring.

Some Clarity

It was a surpisingly clear day on Saturday. It's not uncommon to have difficulty making out the smokestack on the left in the first picture below.





I would say I have become a little comfortable and accustomed to life here. Being a student here is quite conducive for living a simple lifestyle. Although my language skills are an ever ongoing project. The classes throw words/characters at you sometimes like rifle fire and it is still a challenge when the Chinese speak very fast. Of course, there is still that difference between between the language in the classroom and the language on the street. I would say I have a long way to go and I have come to accept that.

Some may wonder about what the reaction to the Impeccable incident may have been like here. The Chinese media have covered the story with a completely different perspective, of course. But on the ground here everything is mute, which is not surprising to me. The whole incident was completely weird to me.

I am sure some may wonder about a few other recent happenings as well, but that's for later.

Hankou

Wuhan actually consists of three cities (or what they call districts): Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang. They were consolidated in 1927 under Jiang Jieshi, aka Chiang Kai-shek, and his political party, the Guomindang. Hankou is the more commercial area whereas Wuchang (where I reside) is where most of the universities are located. I don't know much yet about Hanyang, but I will get around to it. Wuhan is much like Chicago in the sense that it is one of China's major transportation hubs. You can easily hop on a train to Guangdong in the south or Beijing in the north. I believe it's also the only major city to sit on both sides of the Yangzi, China's longest river - but I may be mistaken here. So, it's also a city of many bridges.

As is the case with most of China, there is a lot of history in this region. During the 19th century, Hankou was a major treaty port for Europeans who sought to make inroads into the Chinese economy. And in 1911, Wuchang was the site of an uprising that brought down the Qing government and ended two thousand years of dynastic history.

Last weekend, I went to Hankou for the first time with some friends. We initially intended to see the Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuchang, but the line to get in rivaled waiting to get into Disney World or a rock concert. As my Iranian friend has said, "This is China, so there are always lines." After observing the scene, we decided to check out Hankou. From Wuchang, it took nearly 40 minutes by bus and for a Saturday afternoon traffic was quite hectic. By Detroit standards, the Chinese easily overshadow us. Then again, this is a city of approximately 8 million people. Being in a city this big is not something I am accustomed to, but it makes me appreciate the fact that the university really is quiet. We didn't do too much in Hankou though. We ate a Chinese Muslim restaurant, strolled through the main commercial district (note the 19th century European style architecture in the photo below) and then walked to the Yangzi River where we took the ferry back to Wuchang.

One of the things you notice while walking around the city is that there is a vast number of poor people, but also a vast amount of wealth. I've always read that the income gap in China is larger than in the US, but being here it is physically visible. It's not just a bunch of statistics in a news article. Not only that, wealth and poverty seem to be thrown and mixed together unlike in the Detroit area. Given this, for an American who is new to China, it can be a little disorienting to observe this but it is equally all the more interesting for the sake of experience.

I took many pictures during this outing. However, I managed to somehow delete all of them in the process of transferring them to my computer. The picture below is the only one I salvaged.

太忙了！

It rained for nearly three weeks in February. As of right now, it's about 70ish degrees and the grass is turning green. As is nearly always the case, it is hazy, but you can seen the sun. Everyone still dresses in warm clothing, which makes me think that the cool weather is not completely over. Despite the fact that I've stopped running the heater in my room, the classrooms are still quite chilly. Spring is definitely on its way though.

I've been busy with classes and a little research lately, but expect more regular updates in the days ahead.