Becoming a China Expert

I never in a million years would have imagined myself debating China and democracy in a bar, talking about Chinese parenting issues over lunch, or explaining the complex China-Tibet relationship while waiting for dinner. And yet, all three of these scenarios have happened over the past few weeks.

We have every Wednesday off, and last Wednesday, I had the privilege of interviewing Sister Angela Theresa for my final project: a paper placing a Chinese person's life story in the context of modern Chinese history. I had originally planned to interview one of the English-speaking priests at the Church I've been going to, but they were busy preparing for the New Year celebrations. Instead, Father told me that I needed to talk to Sister Angela Theresa and  led me to the office next door. He put his arm around the elderly nun and smiled as he told her: "This young lady here wants to know about how the cadre has influenced your life." I sat down and quickly discovered that she didn't speak much English. Problematic, since I can barely speak Chinese. After struggling for a few minutes, I managed to tell her that I'd come back with a translator. So back I came with a wonderful Singaporean friend from Brown who graciously took three hours out of her day to help me, even though she had her own project to work on. Sister Angela Theresa, I found, was just as sweet and kind as she seemed. But I was amazed: at 80, she has been around longer than the Chinese Communist Party, living through civil war, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Massacre, and everything else in between. Jackie wants to transcribe the interview, so I'll post that whenever she's done.

Me, Sister Angela Theresa, and Jackie after the interview

But even though I could barely understand a word, I was fascinated just listening to Sister speak, telling us her thoughts and opinions and telling us about her life. At the beginning of the interview, she gifted me with an old bound case of Chinese/English pamphlets, detailing the history of the Catholic Church in Beijing. It's sitting on my bookshelf now, next to my Bible and my other books for class.

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (among various other names)
was originally built in the 1600s by Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci

The case of pamphlets on my bookshelf 

We finished our first class block last week, and tomorrow, I will be diving straight into Modern Chinese Literature, while the other half of my track starts Chinese Government and Politics. There are 18 people on the Contemporary Issues track, while the rest of the 60-ish people here are on the Language Intensive track. The CI program was the only one I was eligible to do, since it doesn't have a language prerequisite, but I'm really glad I'm on it. It is a lot more work than the LI program, but the amount of information and range of topics we're covering is pretty incredible. It often feels like all I'm doing is studying, however. I am in my Area Studies class (Which is Understanding China, Modern Chinese Literature, China in International Affairs, or Ethnicity in Contemporary China, depending on the block) for 2.5 hours four mornings a week, before my 2 hour Chinese lesson and half hour one-on-one three afternoons a week. I don't finish until 4 pm, when I have to start thinking about the next day's readings and vocab quiz (twice a week), so it's been pretty overwhelming at times as I settle into a rhythm.

For the first block, "Understanding China," we spent ten classes getting a general overview on Chinese history, politics, and social issues, ranging from censorship and corruption to gender, poverty and ethnicity. Our teacher is the director of the IES Beijing Center, has lived here for over 10 years, occasionally writes for The Economist, and is an extremely passionate and knowledgeable lecturer, even if his jokes sometimes try to hard. I was nervous that I wouldn't enjoy being in Humanities classes for so long, but I am participating as much as ever and have managed to remain mostly engrossed in the topics at hand. I guess the real test will come when everyone at home starts asking about my opinions on China...

But it brings me to something I've been pondering lately, thoughts inspired by my classmates, teachers, and even the homilies I've heard at mass. When I go back home, what am I going to do with all this knowledge I've acquired? I came here mainly for my own personal growth. I needed to go far away from home and figure out how to survive in a new place. I wanted to open my eyes to the world and get a broader my perspective on life. I yearned to explore my Asian heritage, speak a new language, and learn about this major world power. But all those things are so focused on me; I really never thought beyond that, being understandably preoccupied with the fact that I was going at all. Being a planner and a problem solver, however, it's been a struggle for me to not know exactly how I'm going to apply the things I'm learning in class right now, when my future plans don't really involve China at all. So I've been working on the acceptance that it's ok not to know. I just need to have some faith that someday down the road, be it months or years, my understanding of the Great Sparrow or Hundred Flowers Campaigns may prove useful.

<3 Myks