Fighting The Man!

Firstly, I have learned how to circumvent The Man!! Someone taught me how to get around some of the internet firewalls by typing the addresses into a internet engine at stupidcensorship.com, which I am truly excited about! I have really missed getting my entertainment news from Pink is the New Blog! Oh yeah, and the real news too! The Chinese English news station can be amusing though. The way the phrase things makes me laugh a little. For example, Steven Spielberg pulled out of the Olympics because of China's refusal to help in Darfur (or so it seems), so they say, "In a move contrary to the spirit of the Olympic games ..." Or Kosovo declared independence, which China obviously doesn't want to support because of the whole Taiwan and Tibet situations, so they say, "In a violation of international law, rogue citizens ..." I also enjoy the stories about people with horribly crappy jobs saying how much they love their jobs. I heard a lot of people died during the storms trying to restore power (although our news said 3), but the story has a worker talking about how he was so excited to perform his job for his country, despite the danger.

I say this stuff is amusing, and it is, but there is also something a little creepy about not the lack of freedom of information, and the freedom to say what you want, as well as not getting real news and having internet sites blocked, and things like that. Two people I met who teach for another university sent a religious e-mail to someone back home, and had their email blocked by the school. It's moments like that that make you really realize, wow - this country is still communist. In Beijing, it looks so modern and western that it's easy to forget. Then you are reminded, when you are planning a lesson, that there are definitely certain things you can't ask - for example, one lesson plan I found online has a role-play where you teach kids about government and ask them to create their own country, choosing between different types of government and whether there would be censorship, etc. I can't really ask students to question whether they would change their government like that.

And although that type of stuff does bother me a little, that's how it is here. And I'm not really here to change it, so I just have to accept it as what it is, and enjoy the experience. And I am. I went out on Friday night with some Americans I've met here - one in my program, 2 university teachers who also live in Nanjing, and a guy who teaches in a town near here. He had a friend from the US visiting him, so we went to the Chinese version of a fondue restaurant! There was a big pot with some kind of sauce in the middle of the table, and you drop random piece of food into the pot, like dumplings, bamboo, meat, tofu, etc. Then we went to this big tourist area, which is kind of like a market place, over by the Confucius temple. This area was much nicer than some other parts of Nanjing (like where I live), and had shops and American fast food. I bought a bunch of bootleg DVDs for about $6.00. All the English-speaking people here has tons of bootleg DVDs because the only English channel we can get on TV is the government news channel. I got The Assassination of Jessie James, Charlie Wilson's War, The Kingdom, the latest Harry Potter, and American Gangster.

We also tried to go shopping, but I am definitely not made for Chinese clothes. All the women here are so tiny, and my feet are too big for the shoes, my butt is too big for the pants, and my boobs are too big for the shirts. In the jeans shop, the Chinese lady actually lifted up my shirt, looked at my butt, and shook her head!!! I was a little offended. Not all of us can wear size 2, lady!

The one guy who teaches in another town near here and his friend were staying at a hostel, so after we walked around (and they ate meat on a stick, which I didn't touch!), we went to hang out in this little bar area in the hostel they were staying out. All the people here are so interesting. They have all lived in the awesome places, or traveled in these really cool locations. And they all know what's going on in the world. I ate lunch with some teachers who had both been to Cambodia during their break, and I had a nice conversation with another teach about whether it was ethical to travel to Burma - because in a way, you are giving the government money and legitimizing their control, but then again, outside information and tourism, etc., will eventually be one of the things that probably weakens the government's control because the country won't be so isolated, because the outside world will know what's going on.

Saturday, I went out to another big American expat hangout. Jaime and Jess, two girls in my program (one from England and one from Canada), went to Australia during their winter break and found new jobs there, so they decided to move to Australia. (This is what I mean by how the people here are so interesting - they will just randomly find a job and move somewhere). So Saturday was their last day, and a bunch of people all went out with them to a "Mexican-inspired" restaurant. You can tell when it's a big expat place when there are only 5 Chinese people in the restaurant, and they work there!