Hitting the home stretch

There are less than two weeks of HBA left and my summer stay in Asia is also drawing to an end -- in nine days I'll be landing in Taiwan and in 19 I'll be in Los Angeles. Time definitely flies when you don't notice it.

HBA

The program isn't over yet, but I feel like I should write this post now, before I finish the program and the veil of sentimentality gets pulled over my eyes and I start gushing about it.

I'm going to steal this expression from my friend and fellow Yalie Lena's blog because I think it sums up my HBA experience accurately: I have a love-hate relationship with HBA.

The constant workload and never-ending grind gets to you. It all becomes rather monotonous -- memorize characters, sentence structures, write essays, go to class, don't sleep much and just keep chugging along. The texts for the course as a whole were arranged in order of difficulty, so we're getting to some rather difficult and abstract texts, much of which are written entirely in classical Chinese 文言文, which, for those of you who don't speak Chinese, is something analogous to an French or Italian speaker being expected to read classical Latin, i.e. you can get the overall meaning but without specialized training you're not to get very far with it. (Though I am actually rather proud of having read Hu Shi's 胡适 "On Literary Reform" “文学改良刍议” in the original, since it's really cool to read this after having studied the May Fourth Movement 五四运动 in Spence's class.) Aside from that, HBA is just long -- it's eight weeks of nothing but Chinese, and no matter how enthusiastic you are about studying Chinese, after seven weeks of memorizing Chinese, I can say that it'll be nice when I can write in English and fully express my thoughts again.

But at the same time, HBA is an amazing opportunity and clearly (this goes without saying. 不言自明! Ha!) I would do this all again in a heartbeat if given the chance. The ample opportunities provided to practice your spoken Chinese 口语 are great. I've occasionally read copies of the Southern People Weekly 南方人物周刊, which is sort of this Time-like magazine that I've found here, and it's beyond gratifying to recognize sentence structures, four-character phrases 四字词 and chengyu 成语, and vocabulary words that I have learned. But perhaps what I love the most about HBA are the people, both the students and the teachers. The 5th years are great and I couldn't have asked for a better group of classmates -- even if most of them are Harvard students, ha. But what I'm really thankful for is the teachers. All of them are really young, and it's possible to relate to them on a personal basis, rather than simply as teachers, and I'm really going to miss being able to relate to people my age in Chinese.

Beijing

aka...the obligatory tourist portion. But if you scroll past the pictures I actually have some (hopefully) thoughtful reflections on Beijing.

Temple of Heaven 天坛

Last Saturday, after our self-organized trip to Tianjin got cancelled (ask me in person if you want to know the details), a bunch of us went to the Temple of Heaven, which has become one of the symbols of Beijing, particularly in all the Olympics propaganda, err, publicity. The most famous structure, the Altar-of-something-or-other, was built during the Ming Dynasty (but reconstructed in 1889 after being struck by lightning, if I'm correct) and the emperor used to come here to pray for good harvests or something like that.

Everyone exercise! This is in some playground randomly off the side of one of the paths after you get inside the park.

The altar.
Color scheme!

Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City and Jingshan Park 天安门广场、故宫与景山公园

This was my second trip to the heart of Beijing, albeit this time with people. Although I remain firmly in agreement with Lonely Planet's description of Tian'anmen Square as a concrete desert (compared to Shanghai's People's Square, it is fiendishly unfriendly) I have to admit that it has been considerably spruced up in the month or so since I visited, due to You-Know-What.

New.

New.

...also new.

Let's be Chinese!

Gorgeous russet- (is that the color?) colored roofs in the Forbidden City.

Then after speeding through the palace, we headed to Jingshan Park, which is directly north of the Forbidden City, and is largely known for a hill in the center of the park that affords a great view of the Forbidden City, if pollution cooperates. It also contains the tree where Emperor Chongzhen 崇祯皇帝, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, supposedly hanged himself when the Qing had entered the Forbidden City and Beijing (and hence China) had effectively been conquered.

Inescapable.

The pollution was actually under control for most of the day, so I was actually kind of irritated that it had gotten significantly worse by the time we got to the summit.

The spot!

Rambling through Beijing

This is where my pseudo-thoughtful thoughts come in. After heading to the Forbidden City, my friend Diana headed back to BLCU. I decided to north to Houhai in search of a copy widely-reproduced map of Peking drawn in 1936 (which I ended up finding). I ended up taking a bus from the east part of Tian'anmen Square north to near the Drum Tower 鼓楼, making my way to Qianhai through a little street that I hadn't noticed before, walking around Houhai for a bit and then walking all the way north to the Drum & Bell Tower subway station, heading back to HBA after that.

I'm actually really, really glad that I walked through Beijing and didn't cab any of the distance, because I have to say this walk did more for my understanding of Beijing than pretty much any of other trips have, including all of the touristy expeditions that I have taken myself on. Essentially, that Sunday I walked northward from the Forbidden City all the way to the Second Ring Road 二环, which gave me an understanding of Beijing geography that I had previously lacked. This city, which I had thought to be just one big sprawling mess, actually has some order and some character (with the serious caveat that this is within the Second Ring Road. Out here, past the Fourth Ring Road, Beijing could be any large city.)

What was the most valuable was being able to see things that I wouldn't have been able to if I had just sped through the streets on the cab. Most prominent is just the architecture within the Second Ring Road, which essentially is built where the old city wall once was. Outside, it's just faceless metal concrete blocks. Inside, Beijing actually looks like it has some character 特色. There are little hutongs filled with people, strung up with banners and lanterns, and even the architecture on the big streets is unique (that low-hung, gray stone style). It makes you reflect on what it must have been like to live in this city in imperial times. Two observations:

As I approached the Drum Tower, I overheard the familiar sound of Spanish, which I haven't heard in more than two months. I walked over to discover a couple of TV reporters who were reporting something about the Olympics in front of the Drum Tower. I just found the whole scene really interesting -- these journalists reporting about something very modern in front of an ancient imperial structure that has nothing to do with the Olympics, but is perhaps more "Chinese" than all the Olympic stadiums built together. Also, to hear Spanish so far from home is oddly comforting -- living in California accustoms you to the sound of it and it's nice to hear it.


The other thing that really struck me was when I was walking on another street and almost bumped into a laborer who was carrying a pile of bricks out. I looked to see where he was coming from, and realized that he was coming from a hutong 胡同 or siheyuan 四合院 that must have recently been demolished. It's one thing to read about all of this demolishment but another to see it in person. And despite all the substandard living conditions that I have seen in traditional Chinese housing, in both Shanghai and in Beijing, I can't help thinking that there must a better way to synthesize the urge to modernize and to preserve the traditional than to knock everything down entirely.

Olympics

Thanks to Shan Wang :D, I am going to the Olympics!

I have tickets to men's gymnastics Saturday evening and a field hockey game (USA vs. Argentina!) on Sunday. If I had stayed until the 17th (I'm leaving the 16th) I also would've had the chance to snag tickets to the men's 100 meter final, but as I'm leaving that same day that's sadly not possible. However, those tickets would've been $177, as opposed to the 100 RMB ($14.60) that I paid for those two tickets together.

Having gotten these tickets, I thought about the last post that I made -- specifically the Olympic rant -- and came to the conclusion that I still agree with everything that I said, although I do think that perhaps I shouldn't have phrased everything in such an argumentative manner. I just don't think four or so hours watching the Games justifies a summer of 麻烦 and paranoia. Although I can't deny that I'm really excited for those four hours.

Looking ahead

All that being said, I am still looking forward to leaving, but I think now it's more of a excited-to-get-to-new-places feeling rather than a get-me-out-of-here-now feeling. I remember Adam and Kelly mentioning during the Light Fellowship briefing meeting that we'd experience this dip in our motivation and feelings towards the host country that would coincide with the ending weeks of our programs. I don't feel as if I have experienced this, but perhaps at the same time it's not fair for me to say this since it's not as if Chinese culture is exactly new to me. I think perhaps instead I've grown to understand this country more, and my overriding feeling is that at some point -- post-graduation, perhaps? -- I want to find my way back here somehow.

And to finish off -- I will be departing Beijing at 12:25 pm next Saturday, landing in Taipei in exactly seven hours and am really excited for what is essentially the coda for my summer. :)

New Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九. Yes, I took this picture in Beijing.

Mega-post part II: Tourism and the Olympics

Contents of this post: visitors, touristy things and my ever-escalating dislike of the Olympics.

Friends!

So my friend Gang, who's interning with at the American Consulate in Shanghai, came to visit. During that weekend (when I was supposed to be writing my social study report) we went around Beijing to try to see some of the Olympic stadiums and things. Conclusion: it's really hard. All of the stadiums are now fenced off and there isn't any public access. Clearly this is for security reasons, but at the same time, it's a little disappointing. More on the Olympics later. (I was also going to mention something about entering BLCU but I'll wait until my Olympic rant.)

The Olympic stadiums are mostly covered by these fences.

The tickets for diving events at this arena sold out within a couple of hours last Friday, I think.

We had to climb over a fence that send, Don't Climb, to get here.

...the Olympic Village. Kind of sterile, if you ask me.

At a Yale BBQ in Sanlitun.

Touristy things

These are all kind of the same after a while, so I'll run through them briefly here.

Yuanmingyuan 圆明园

This is the Old Summer Palace which was destroyed by the allied British-French forces in 1860. Until it was destroyed it was used by the imperial family. It's a symbol of national humiliation because it was burned down in retaliation for Chinese execution of British diplomats. It's a great park, but after seeing a scale model of what it looked like in its heyday, it must've been gorgeous, and it does make you think about what it must've looked like at the time.

This is an educated guess on what it must have looked like before 1860, based on old paintings and diagrams.

This is part of the most famous ruins at Yuanmingyuan. They're artfully maintained remnants of the European-style palaces that comprised a small part of the palace.

More ruins.

There was some sort of lotus exhibition going on when we visited, so there were a TON of lotuses all around the park.

My language partner.

I don't know. What do you think?

Summer Palace 颐和园

This was built by Empress Cixi 慈禧太后 as sort of a playground, and I think of all the palace-like things that I have visited in China, this is probably my favorite, as it combines water (growing up close to the ocean instills a lifelong love of water, I think) and beautiful architecture. It's also famous for Cixi's infamous stone boat, for which she diverted funds originally for China's navy.

One of the bridges that the Summer Palace is famous for. Also, note the terrible pollution.

Cixi's stone boat!

台灣同學 in the Long Corridor!

Back: the Temple of Longevity. Front: yet another popsicle 冰棍儿.

Beihai Park 北海公园

One of Beijing's many "海" "seas" (the other ones are 前、后、中 and 南, "front," "back," "central" and "south," respectively), Beihai Park, which does indeed have a large lake in the middle, is famous for its white pagoda, as well as for containing one of the few remnants of the Yuan Dynasty-era palace.

China's new National Theater, which I saw on the bus from Tian'anmen Xi to Beihai.

It's beautiful.

The White Dagoba 白塔 up close.

Pollution sucks.

Olympic madness

I don't even know where to get started with this. I'm trying to look at the silver lining of this and say that if I hadn't come to Beijing this year I wouldn't know about the craziness that surrounds an Olympic city, but I'll just draw a couple of examples.

- At the BLCU gate, they check student IDs (which, unlike in America, isn't a card but is rather this little booklet that I only manage to squeeze into my wallet), which proved really annoying when Gang came to visit and stayed over because I had to go through some logical/linguistic trickery in order to get him past the guards.
- ALL the various little 摊子 and 小卖部, basically the streetside stalls, have been swept away because the government is apparently worried that (a) foreigners will get diarrhea, dysentery and god knows other digestive ailments from eating here and (b) I suspect that they think these booths are an eyesore. While I don't mean to belittle digestive problems (trust me), I think this is a little overkill. It's also sad because this is much of what makes China China (at least from a food perspective.)
- A ton of bars and clubs are closed, and while I am not the biggest party animal, by far, I don't really see the link between the closing of bars and the Olympics.
- The annual speech contest for all the Chinese summer programs has been canceled, because we aren't permitted to have a gathering with that many foreigners in one place.
- Random little things that don't seem to have any particular connection with the Olympics. Example: there is a building between the Conference Center and our classroom building that used to be a convenient shortcut, but now one of the doors (it's open on two sides) has been closed.
- I don't think you can walk in this city without seeing some sort of Beijing 2008 view in eyesight. Even on the subway (which is absurdly crowded nowadays) as I stand, there are flashing Olympic ads that you can see in the tunnel. Wangfujing 王府井 is absolutely FILLED with Olympic ads. Okay, perhaps this is a little unfair, since the flagship souvenir shop of the Olympics is located in Wangfujing, but in the most random places there is SO much propaganda, errr, publicity, I mean. Of course in Chinese both are translated by 宣传, which I find to be an apt commentary on this situation.
- Not to mention that I don't even have it that bad, since my friend My Khanh at PiB who is living on a campus (Beijing Normal University 北师大) which is apparently going to host some events/home to American athletes or something has a ton more random restrictions, including the closure of bus stops right outside her gate and stuff.

Clearly, this is my soapbox, and I understand that the Olympics are a great opportunity for this city and for China as a whole. But I'd be willing to bet that in other Olympic cities the government doesn't show this sense of paranoia. Yes, security is something to be concerned about, particularly in China. But turning the festive atmosphere that normally precedes the Games into an atmosphere that reeks of paranoia and suspicion doesn't bode well for the Games. I'm actually particularly glad that I've been reading the New York Times, even though it's not especially good for improving my Chinese, because you need a break from the relentlessly upbeat coverage of the Olympics within China.

(Also, I just remembered -- don't even get me started on the Fuwa 福娃, which I'm convinced were conceived in order to sell five times the normal amount of products that a tourist would normally buy.)

It's commonly expressed that the Olympics are a "coming out party" for Beijing. It's easy to take this as empty rhetoric, as a marketing slogan, but it isn't until you actually come to Beijing and see for yourself that you realize how true this is. China really does see this as an opportunity to put its best foot forward, show the world that it can host as splendid and enjoyable an Olympics as any. Except at the same time it's using its other foot to kick away much that it views as undesirable, much of which I'd argue is what makes Beijing Beijing and China China (of course, I don't really know, considering that ever since I've been in Beijing Olympics fever has only ratcheted up, and it'll be at fever pitch by the 8th.) It's really a shame.

Dragonfruit

To end on a lighter note, I've started buying fruit such as dragonfruit 火龙果 from the market, even though it's absurdly expensive, because even though I have a really high tolerance for fried/oily/unhealthy food, at some point even I can't take it anymore. I love fruit.

Yay!

总而言之

So this has, again, been another rather negative post. I probably sound like a broken record when I claim that really my life is not all that bad, but I really felt the need to counteract the neverending Olympics propaganda here. Besides, while I never really blog about what I'm learning at HBA, this only means that I've settled into a routine, know how it goes, and there isn't much to write about there.

To conclude, I've got two and a half weeks left in Beijing, a week and a half in Taiwan (I'm SO excited), a couple of days in LA and then Yale, which I will be in exactly one month -- my flight to New York lands on the morning of the 30th. It'll be an exciting month.