I heart guangzhou

A friend of my sisters who had traveled to Guangzhou said I would like the capital city of Guangdong province, but I didn’t think I would like it this much. During National Holiday week I decided to spend three days exploring the city. I had key places I waned to visit and I’ll give you just a few highlights of my trip.   

1.              Shamian Island. Basically old European buildings in the formerly French and British island conceded by the Qing dynasty in the 19^th century. There stand old colonial British, French, and Soviet and American embassies. Some of the buildings are now private residences and some are now hotels or shops. Between the buildings tower beautiful trees, designated as historic and protected by the state. I’m not sure which I liked better, but both the buildings and trees were reminders of a distant past.

2.              Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street. The street was probably my least favorite place because it reminded me of the slow moving crowds around Times Square coupled with the crowds that flock to 33^rd Street or Broadway to shop. It was just cool to see where many different types of people hang out at night. (I couldn't even get a good picture. Too many friggin people!)

3.              Sacred Heart Cathedral. Such a randomly beautiful church in the middle of a busy district of Guangzhou. Apparently, it was hard for the French architect who designed it to communicate with workers who had never built in such a style. I think it turned out alright.

  

4.              Yuexiu Park. This place seriously feels like a Chinese Central Park. So beautiful and so peaceful! I could spend hours here.

5.              Bright Filial Piety Temple. The oldest temple in Guangzhou with the largest bronze Buddhist statues I have ever seen (weighing in at 14 tons!)

6.              The Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. Sun Yat-Sen was the first president of China. This octagonal hall and park were built from funds from Chinese, including those of the Chinese diaspora in the 1920s.

7.              The Temple of the Six Bunyan Trees.  I am just amazed by how many ancient historical sites in this city are still in regular use. The temple was founded 1,400 years ago. Monks still live here and run the place. The Pagoda alone was a pretty impressive sig

ht.

8.              The Huaisheng Mosque of Guangzhou. (Huaisheng literally means "in memory of the sage") The Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in all of China, was first founded 1,300 years ago. It was rebuilt several times due to fire, among other events. I knew even before coming to China that I had to visit this place. I came here for Friday prayer just early enough to explore the whole mosque. People actually said salaam to me instead of giving me funny stares or shouting “hello!” which was a nice change. Soon enough, as more men entered to pray, I tucked away into the women’s room. It was much smaller but just as inviting. The women ranged from Chinese to North African and some South Asian women. It felt good to not be the only foreigner. All the women said salaam as they entered and it felt like I was exactly  where I needed to be. I stayed here for about two hours and wished I could stay longer, but unfortunately I had to head home. I’m definitely making a stop here again next time. I also want to go to the tomb of the founder of the Mosque, Sa'ad ibn abi Waqqaas who is a maternal uncle of the Prophet Muhammad and is said to have died in Guangzhou.

Other things I want to do next time are: a night cruise of the Pearl River to see the nighttime skyline and hike the Baiyun Mountain as well as ride the chairlift across the mountains in the city. I wish you guys could see this awesome city too! Before coming here I wasn’t so certain if I liked it here. However, the walkability, easy subway system, nightlife, and variety of food here (yes, I had plenty of halal and Indian food and it was soooo goooood!) all make me feel like I can really grow to love living here.

The Chinese Middle Class and Sports Politics

While I don’t think that my first month has flown by, I still am amazed that that I have been away for over a month now. No major news but I have been thinking about the impact of my work here a lot lately.

As classes began back in Newark earlier this month, I thought of my students, especially those that I felt a real connection with and wondered if they wondered where I was. My plans for China came so last minute during the summer, that I did not get the chance to tell my students that I would not be coming back. Realistically, some wouldn’t care.  Regardless, and I’m not full of myself when I say this, but I do know that back in the Bricks, I did mean something. Some students may never talk to me again after they graduate or even after they took my class, but there are some students with which there was a genuine connection. I know this because I felt it. As teachers, we are not allowed favorites, but there are some special students that you find yourself just investing more in. They demand the extra attention and frankly, they deserve it. I don’t know how common this is in a suburban district, but I had students who were so bright and so curious that I wanted to guide them and give them an outlet for their experiences, interests, and ideas. I truly wonder if I will be able to establish that same connection with my students here and I think class plays a big factor in my uncertainty.

I came to realize class as a major factor as to why I was not building the same relationships with my students when my school planned a field trip. Due to the upcoming National Holiday for which we had a week off, the week prior was an 8-day-straight school week. (It felt so weird to have work on the weekends!) My headmaster recommended we take the students out one day and asked for suggestions. I suggested we go to Guangzhou, sight see, go to the park, or play games. I thought it would be a much-needed break for them to relax and be normal teenagers. (My students’ weekly routines are so scheduled; I suffocate just imagining if I was in their place!) Alas, the school headmaster decided instead on a golf outing. She figured me and my coworker are foreigners and could teach them a bit about foreign sports. Mind you, I have never been on a real golf course before. Didn’t they know that there are many sports played in the US of which golf isn’t one of the more popular ones? Of course not. In the States, You only play golf if you have access and that access is hardly granted to lower class individuals. Then it clicked. I am not just preparing my students here to attend American universities, but also preparing them for a certain lifestyle of cocktail parties, overseas vacations, and expensive foreign cars. I am pretty much prepping my students for a bougie lifestyle that I intentionally disassociate from and I really do not feel very comfortable with that.

I’m not saying that working at a public school in the inner city didn’t have it’s uncomfortable job requirements. Take for instance, the high stakes testing and the standardization of teaching methods, and simply, the militarist sense of school safety and discipline. I did not feel comfortable with being a part of a system that was undereducating students and failing to address their many needs, most of them stemming from the poverty and violence in their neighborhoods. At the same time, teachers are being disempowered and blamed for this underacheivemnt. Yes, Newark Public Schools has it flaws but at least I knew that within my own classroom I had a handful of minds that I was really reaching. I wonder if I will reach these students in the same way. Even more so, I wonder if I will be the one holding back or it will be my students.

In the end, the golf outing actually turned out to be fun. Some of my students went golfing before, so they taught
me some techniques and a few of my students and I bonded over agreeing that mini golf is so much more fun. We laughed at how terrible some students were and cheered those who were talented. My female students couldn’t stop laughing at how the instructor was hitting on me. The guy used them as a translator to say I was beatuful and asked if I like “chinese boys.” I laughed and said "I don’t know." My students simply translated it back as “no,” but I didn’t bother to correct him. The trip basically helped me remember how contrived the classroom environment can be. It serves a purpose but it is also quite unnatural. I hope I get more similar opportunities to get to know my students better in future. I'm still uncomfortable about my work here but at least I can try to build a strong bond with my students. They are just kids, after all.