random bits

In one of my classes we were playing a game at the end of the class which involved dividing the class up into two teams. I let each team give themselves a name, and one team, headed by a very outspoken and somewhat cheeky girl, chose the name "Mao Ze Dong." The teaching assistant, a student from Qingdao university looked fairly shocked. The other team, which consisted mainly of boys, picked the name "AC Milan" after a soccer club. It's funny. The students in the class were all about 10-12, born 20 years after Mao's death, and the TA and I being in our very early 20s/late teens were born about 10 years after his death. It's strange to think that even though Mao had an incredible role in shaping China in the second half of the century, there are now two generations for whom Mao was never a presence. It was hard to tell if the girl was being irreverent or defiant or respectful or just trying to get a rise out of us in choosing that name. Playing along, when calling someone from the team forward I said, "Mao Zedong, come to the front of the class." All the students and the TA started to laugh, and I too couldn't keep from giggling. It was so strange to stand in a Chinese classroom and giggle at the thought of Chairman Mao.
China in many ways does not really seem all that communist. Around me, college students are chatting on-line and playing video games at the internet cafe, and consumer culture seems to be all over, there are billboards and advertisements posted everywhere, outstripping the occasional government slogan in every way. Across the street from our school is JUSCO, and upscale shopping mall full of designer shops and a large department and grocery store selling almost any product one could want, from barbeque grills to cell phones to lego. Of course, just because there are tons of material goods does not necessarily make a place capitalist (well, maybe it does, but I don't think the veneer of consumer goods necessarily means that CHina is just like the U.S.). It was interesting, I asked another class I had today of kids about 11-13 what they wanted to be when they grew up. Many kids said web designer (a vocab word), several said doctor and teacher, and one kid said beggar. All the kids started laughing and being silly, and one boy shouted out president. I asked him if he wanted to be president, and he looked really shocked. I asked the kids who wanted to be president, and they all laughed and shook their heads. I told them that in America many children want to be president, and they were really surprised. I then asked them if they wanted to be chairman, and they all shook their heads no. I suppose if the chairman is some old man who you can't elect and is swathed in numerous layers of corrupt bureaucracy, it's not a position to really try to aspire to. Maybe it's kind of like wanting to be the pope when one grows up.

On another note, I bought a bathing suit the other day, it's two pieces, one which consists of a long top that comes down to my belly button, and the other which is a bathing suit bottom with a skirt over it. All in all, it maybe shows an inch of my stomach and covers my upper thighs. It's in a red and white hawaiian print. Chinese women wear quite conservative bathing suits, most of them have skirts or short-type bottoms, and look like American suits from about 50 years ago, except in really bright nylon. The men on the other hand, only wear really skimpy speedos. (Dan was not willing to follow local custom). The beaches are nice, not white sand and clear blue water, but perfectly good for spending a day lying out or swimming (there is a mark-up on the ice cream, unfortunately). The beaches are fairly crowded, but not nearly as bad as I thought, there is plenty of room to find a spot and lie fairly undisturbed, except for the people stopping to take photos. The beaches are actually more crowded on cloudy days, because people prefer to go to the beach when it's less hot and the sun isn't as bright. Also, most people lie under umbrellas to avoid getting a tan. Tans, especially for women, are not very popular, yet lying on the beach is, so it can be difficult to reconcile the two. Most women in Qingdao carry parasols to keep off the sun, which is actually very practical, because summer is monsoon season and it can start raining at pretty much any moment, so most women have complete all-weather protection.