An American in Chengdu
New office
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Before I left for a short trip to the States a couple of weeks ago, Samantha and I went to scope out our “new” office building. It’s actually an old building where Samantha used to have her office, but it’s been undergoing earthquake repairs. I was excited to see it, especially given that one doesn’t see many of these traditional buildings left around Chengdu.
Only a few people had moved in so far, and Samantha claimed a spacious office for us. She explained that it was past the office charged with the correspondence-course students, who have to show up by the hundreds twice a semester to take care of something or other in person. She didn’t want people coming by our office every few minutes asking where the correspondence-course office was, a problem we should avoid in her chosen location. She procured keys and told me to come to work in the new office on my return.
A few days in to my trip, however, she emailed me to say that the vice dean had decreed I should have an office with a heater, which meant a smaller one than we’d selected, and one on the path to the correspondence-course office. I’d finally learned to cope with unheated offices with the help of long underwear, an electric foot heater, and hot tea, so I was a little unhappy that the vice dean had chosen this time to treat me like a delicate foreigner, whether I liked it or not.
The smaller, heated office is spacious enough, though, and will be a nice place to work once the parade of students coming by to ask the whereabouts of Teacher Zhao passes. We tolerated it on Monday, but on Tuesday I found Samantha hiding out in our old office across the street, avoiding distractions.
Jumping fish
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On Friday Cecilia took me on a tour of the university’s new campus, a vast swath of land on the south edge of the city that’s mainly populated, for now, with first- and second-year students. We came across a part of the river where fish were jumping like I’d never seen before. I thought they were after bugs until we got closer; then I saw they were jumping back and forth across long nets. Some had already gotten caught in the nets and were a sad sight. It was enough to make me reconsider pescetarianism. But I thought it made for a nice video clip.
Aftershock
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“Did you feel the aftershock this morning?” Samantha asked a few days ago as we were sitting at our computers. I hadn’t. She said that she’d felt her bed shake at around 1:00 am, and had just been reading about the magnitude-4.9 aftershock that hit at that time.
This led to a conversation about the May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (as people call it here). Samantha was teaching at the time, she said–it was 2:30 in the afternoon. When the earthquake started about half of the students ran out of the classroom, and she stayed with the other half, telling them that they were safe. She knew that the building, less than a year old at the time, had been built to withstand a magnitude-8.0 quake, so she wasn’t afraid. But, she said, if she’d known how big this quake was, she would have been afraid. The building swayed for three minutes.
Afterward the staff and students weren’t allowed to go back into the buildings for two days, until they could be inspected. It took Samantha two hours to find her husband, who works on the other side of campus, because phones weren’t working and because he had gone to find their 12-year-old daughter at school. She and the other teachers stayed on campus with with students for the two days until their dorms re-opened because the students weren’t allowed to leave. The teachers at her daughter’s school did the same.
Samantha said she doesn’t like to watch natural disaster movies anymore, which is interesting since by her own account, the disaster itself wasn’t so bad here. As far as I know, no buildings collapsed in Chengdu. But the immediate aftermath–a city of four million people made suddenly homeless, unable to reach their loved ones by phone to be assured of their safety–is something I can’t fathom. And I certainly can’t wrap my mind around the enormity death toll, which official figures put at more than 69,000. That’s more than twice the population of Ithaca, NY.
Traffic (Part 1)
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We face off across the street like ragtag armies: bicycles, electric bicycles, motorbikes, pedestrians. Our numbers swell
Rush hour on campus. The light you see disappeared over the holiday; I haven't checked to see whether it's back.
by the minute, each new arrival angling for a strategic position. Finally, the traffic officer’s whistle, our battle cry, sounds, and we surge across the street, soon meeting a wall of determined travelers coming the other direction. Sometimes a car has tried to make it through after the whistle and gotten trapped in the middle of the onslaught, presenting an additional obstacle. We edge forward, the cyclists remaining stubbornly mounted, though most of us are forced to put a foot on the ground for balance. Finally the crowd thins and we’ve made it: we’re on the other side of campus.
There used to be a pedestrian tunnel under the busy artery that cuts our campus in half, Samantha told me, but it was closed because of subway construction. So now, especially at busy times, getting across the street is a battle. It can be even more interesting at less busy times, though, since the traffic officer seems to go home around dinnertime, leaving us to fend for ourselves.
I noticed back in Washington that people tend to follow others’ lead when it comes to jaywalking. That is, if you’re at an intersection waiting for the light to change and you see someone just stride across, your natural inclination is to go, too. But it’s psychologically harder to jaywalk past a group that’s standing and waiting for the light, even if there are no cars coming. This herd instinct, a curiosity in DC, is an important survival mechanism here. Drivers don’t always stop for red lights, but they do stop when a steady stream of cars, bicycles, and/or pedestrians is in their way. Similarly, the way to get across the busy street in the evenings is to wait until a few more bikes arrive, watch for a thin spot in the traffic, edge forward, edge forward, and go as a group (preferably positioning oneself safely in the middle of the pack).
Reception
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Last night I went to an annual reception held by the Sichuan government in honor of foreign experts working in the 
province on the occasion of China’s National Day. China turns 60 tomorrow (October 1), and it’s a big deal. Flags have cropped up everywhere, you see 60th anniversary displays in store windows, there’s going to be a terrifying military parade in Tiannanmen Square, etc.
I didn’t get my actual paper invitation until just before the event, so I didn’t know that I could have worn “Lounge Wear or National Dress.” It would have been fun to show up dressed as a cowgirl. In theory, anyway. Instead I wore the dress Cecilia helped me pick out a few weeks ago.
The reception wasn’t exactly the gold mine of blog material I’d hoped for. There were speeches, which were translated into English, and as a former Asian Studies minor I should have been delighted to hear these examples of Chinese pomp and circumstance. But I found myself zoning out amidst talk about socialism with Chinese characteristics and the spirit of earthquake reconstruction. Then we stood and toasted, and then the live music began, and we were free to eat and chat.After an hour and a half someone thanked us for coming, and the reception came to an abrupt end.
I go days at a time without seeing another Westerner, so it was strange to spend an evening with my fellow foreign experts. Back on campus I had a drink with two Brits, Jacob and Elisa. Elisa is a longtime resident who peppered us with advice on everything from where to get fake (pirated) books in English to fake (vegetarian) chicken feet to where to get clothes made, and not to touch that cat because it will take your hand off.
Making friends
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Today for lunch I went to the student cafeteria at the other side of campus. The food there isn’t great, but there are vegetarian choices and I can just point to what I want. I also thought it might be a chance to meet people, since foreigners are a bit of a novelty on this campus.
A girl at the next table talked to me a little, though conversation was made difficult by the noise level and by the fact that her English is poor and my Chinese is even worse. But before she left she suggested we eat dinner together, and wrote down her phone number for me. We met up at 6:00.
Junyu’s English is bad enough that I felt I could practice some Chinese without trying her patience too much, and we conversed a little awkwardly in both languages. She turned out to be a freshman in the school of overseas education with aspirations of studying in England in a few years. She’s from Sichuan, as are all the other Chinese students I’ve met so far. The Chinese like to stay close to home.
She mentioned that she was dreading showering that evening because she has to use a group shower, which she finds awkward. A little later, as we left, she told me she has four roommates. I wondered whether all the students have to live in such pornographic conditions, or only freshmen. And can one pay to live in a better dorm? I hope to infiltrate a dorm and find out the answers to these and other pressing questions. Don’t expect pictures of the group showers, though.
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An American in Chengdu 