Obama in a Communist Outfit

Overview of Mao

Before we look at the similarities between those two, I will give a quick overview of Chairman Mao. Alright, here I go. Mao Zedong is the founder of People's Republic of China. He held authoritarian rule during his rule and reformed China's economy into what it is today. Not bad right? Also, because of his Cultural Revolution, where he refoemd china by killing oppostion and causing a famine, he is said to be responsible for 40 to 70 million deaths. He is a pretty interesting person so I say read up on him more, simply because you can. China blocks all unfavorable opinions of him from the Chinese internet.

This man has a great monument built for him in the middle of Beijing where his body lies, his picture is also on the gate of the Forbidden City.

So How Does Obama get Mixed up Into This?

It first got my attention when I was in a shop and saw Obama in a communist soldier's outfit. I though it was kind of odd. The text on the bottom said, "Does Good for the People" in Chinese that my friend translated.

Next time this came up was when I was talking about this 10 year old Chinese girl that came to the school to learn English. When I told her I was from the US, she said, "Oh, that's where Obama's from". Kind of embarrassing considering I did not know the current chairman of China at the time.

She went on to say, "Obama is like Mao, he does good for the people except Mao is dead, I wish he was still alive". This must be what she is taught in school, but it is not only little kids that make this copmparison, as later I saw more T-shirt gear with Obama in a communist outfit.

What do College Students Think About Mao?

The girl I talked to said that in her opinion, Mao was a great man that made mistakes. We are all human, so we make mistakes. She also said that there are many varied opinions about him amongst the public. I just wish I will have a chance to find out what varied means and to what degree.

What do Businessmen Think about Mao?

I got a chance to talk to this man on the subway about the topic. He explained to me that Mao was a great man that made great mistakes. He also explained to me that people in his regime, his soldiers would do anything for him. By anything meaning giving their life away just because he said so. That is due to Mao defetaing the Japanses invasion. There was also great famine. He explaied, tragedy and great common conflict brings a country together, and that is what Mao accomplished, uniting the divided country.

While I do agree with his statement, Mao united the country and killed anyone that opposed this unification.

My Job

 You Have to be "American"

So I came to China through this organization that provided me with an internship to teach kids English. Upon applying for the job through email, I was required to send a picture and resume. I got it with no interview. I looked American enough and that is what they wanted. American is white. My other freind came here on an internship as well, after a couple of hours after his arrival, my boss comes into my room and asks, what nationality is Ricky? When I said American, she looked confused. What is ironic is that he is  technically more American than me. I was born and lived in Poland for 10 years, he lived in the US his whole life.

us Americans

Accommodation Takes on a Different Meaning

The private English school I work for provides me with housing. You know how some little kids imagine that teachers must live in the school, well in my case it is true. They converted one of the classrooms into my bedroom. I have a bed composed of two matresses on top of eachother and 6 TVs in my room where none of them really work. There is a bathroom and a showerhead, you shower next to the sink. The door to the bathroom does not really close.

Warning, he is not as cute as he looks. Very spoiled

My Kids

My work consists of teaching VIP students. What this means is that I do not get a class of kids but one or two kids anywhere from 7 to 18 and I teach them oral English. We mostly work on pronunciation. The parents pay about 25 dollars an hour per student for the kids to have a lesson with me. That is very expensive considering the prices for everything else. All the kids that I teach are filthy rich, have very big houses so they say and wear very expensive clothes.I will also have a summer class for then days with a class of students. Each day the class will last for 2 hours. To enroll a child in the class, the fee is 500 dollars, which is also my monthly salary. I work 6 days a week and get one free day, Monday. Weekends are usually our busiest times.

My Girls

There are three other teachers here with me. Two of them are married and two have a 1 year old baby. They are 24, 25 and the other 29. All of them are very nice. They have many more classes than me, I am pretty sure they get paid less than me, have less days free than me, have to adhere to a dress code I do not have to follow and have cleaning duty everyday for which I am not on the schedule.

Both of them invited me to their homes for lunch. Their husbands cooked :) The food was very good. Their home, very small and humble apartment. After visiting their homes and realizing the whole apartment is not much bigger than my classroom converted room, I stopped complaining about my living conditions.

Childhood in China

The kids that come to the private school have school on weekdays and english classes on the weekends as well as piano lessons, dance classes, singing classes or some other activites. They seem to either be in class, have to do hours of homework or rest, which is sleep, read a book or eat. During a holiday, which is rare, they can play computer games or watch movies. Of course this is not an adequate representation of all kids in China, just those that go to private schools. These kids I have described above are young. One of my students started learning English when he was 1 he claims and now is learning English, German and of course Chinese. Currently, he is seven years old.

Censorship In China

Yes, the Chinese government monitors many things, probably more than I am aware of. One of those things is the internet. When I search in Google, many webistes I would be able to enter do not show up in my search menu. The websites so far that I found to be blocked are:

Youtube
Facebook
Blogs of all types (including this one)
Any articles unfavorable about China, like Tienanmen Protest of 1989
Chairman Mao information besides that he did great things

In stores and everywhere are people wearing red armbands. These are the remains of the Red Guard which are volunteers that enforce order. They were created in the reign of Mao where they would make sure to combat revolutionist activities. This way, may people were persecuted and killed. Now, they serve more of a purpose to enforce peace in public such so no one steals and so on.

There are also many soldiers everywhere. They are at the gates of many public buildings and parks.
The government also does not look favorably on on government organizarions. When I was going to a picnic in the Olympic Park from the group that brought me here AIESEC, I was told that if the police ask, we are not from an organization but friends. Gatherings of groups that are non government related is not supported.

Also I need to carry my passport anywhere I go. I have never been asked though by anyone to show it thus far.

Getting Free Ice Cream and my Wallet Stolen

People in China are very generous. I have been to so many dinners where my co-workers or my Chinese friends will absolutely not let me pay for dinner. It is not that they have money to spend either but they would say, you are a guest in our country so we pay. Also, the other day I made the mistake of telling this woman her bracelet was pretty, so she gave it to me! I did not want to take it but there was no going back.

The tea place we got scammed by sister Lily

With that said, it is also very easy to get scammed. Scott and I went to this famous site in China the Forbidden City when this woman, "call me sister Lily" comes and offers to show us around claiming she is a tourist as well. Soon she says she is tired and needs a drink. We walk into this tea place and she starts ordering stuff. Scott catches on and asks for the bill and that we are leaving, it is 135 yuan a person, which is very expensive for the 2 beers that we ordered, but there is a room renal charge and so on. We refused to pay and left, but it could have been worse. As we are walking back to the subway, same thing happens, girls approach us and want to show us around.

Not even rush hour subway

Now, my wallet was stolen out of my zipped bag that I was wearing on me. That is skill. I was traveling by subway during rush hour squezzed in between people. When I got to my destination, I wanted to buy some ice cream, when i looked in my bag, it was unzipped and wallet gone. I walked away and was waiting for my freind that I came to see. In the meantime, a man must have seen that I did not have money for the very cheap ice cream, so he gave me money and walked away.



The culture here is very different, it is collectivist and it shows through the simplest of things. for example when you order food, you order a couple of dishes where everyone shares, not like in US where each person orders their own food.

Something Different

Beauty

In China, white skin is beautiful. Women carry umbrellas to shield their skin from the sun. They use creams to make their skin whiter. Big eyes are also very much desirable and curly hair.
People on the street tell me I am beautiful every day. Men I do not know ask me to take pictures with them, businessmen impress me with their accomplishments and invite me to dinner. People I have never introduced myself to know my name in my town. Oh, also, wherever I go, everyone openly stares. It used to bother me a lot that I stick out so much and people staring all the time, but now I just take it as something to laugh about as I cannot do anything about it.
 Random person while waiting for the Subway


Pooping on the Street

The bathrooms here are unbearable. They are holes in the ground, no toilet paper so you have to carry your own and no flushing of course so it smells very bad. Little kids, i would say maybe up to age 5 poop on the street. They have slits in their pants for ease of pooping. It is something I have not gotten used to yet.

Public Transportation

The subway system in Beijing is amazing. Trains come every couple of minutes and it is a fast way to get anywhere in the city. It is also very cheap 2 yuen for a ticket. It gets very crowded though during the morning and afternoon. By crowded i mean being pressed against people so you can't move your hand crowded. Buses are also good ways to get around. there are a lot of cars in Beijing but cars are very expensive to have and most people do not have one. Because only rich people really have cars, they are nice cars, BMW's are very common. Driving on the street is crazy! It is hard to corss the street most of the time and cars zoom in and out of lanes. Since the public transportation stops working at 10pm, a lot of people take taxis. They are very cheap compared to the US for a close to 2 hour taxi ride, we paid 100 yuen which is about 15 dollars.

Most people here ride bikes. Restaurants such as Pizza Hut deliver on bike. There are also plenty of people that will bike you places in their bike taxi.










Beans, Beans and more Beans

Before coming to China, I did not know how many purposes black beans can have. Here, you can eat cooked black beans, there are bean ice cream flavors, bean is in most cookie fillings. Also, most cookies here are not sweet at all, but contain peanuts, bean as I mentioned before or are just plain salty. There is a lot of jelly in all different flavors and sizes, people here prefer soft candy and jelly to hard candy I have noticed. For a drink, tea, milk tea or juice is very common. Coffee not so much.

Week 1

The Next  Day
In the morning, i looked around the room more closely. It was full of things people brought from their country and left there in thanks for the internship for the school that helped them get there, UIBE. Sitting there, i quickly got bored and wanted to explore the outside. I went to the door and tried to open it. The lock were a few bolts on a heavy ancient metal door, and when i say ancient, i am not exaggerating. These buildings were there for a long time as i found out, but people still lived there without much renovation.

My first meal in China with Charles

I tried for maybe ten minutes to open the door with no luck. I got bored and wanted to go on the internet, i found a plug, it did look different than that of in the US but i tried to plug in my computer charger anyways. It gave out some sparks, but it worked! On Gmail i noticed that Charles invited me to go to lunch and offered to meet me at the apartment. Soon I heard knocking on the door, I again tried to unlock he door with no luck. He tried too with his key, but could not do it. I was locked in, with absolutely no other way out. Charles was getting nervous, but i thought it was funny, first day and I am locked in an apartment in Beijing. After half an hour of struggling and me smacking the lock with a broom, the door opened. I found Charles and we went to lunch. We met up with this girl Lily, she ordered. The food was very delicious and I got to practice my chopstick skills.

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Weekend in Beijing 

That first weekend, I got to spend in the university's apartment. Ricky from U of I soon joined me and we went to explore Beijing. The first place we went to was this street full of little shops, food and bars. The buildings were old and beautiful. We spent most of our afternoon there. It got too late to take the subway back as it closes around 10pm so we had to find a taxi. It took us a while as all of them were taken but we got back.

Beijing is connected by a very good subway system. You can go anywhere by subway and it is very cheap. There are always so many people using the system, when it is rush hour, you have to fight to get on and you stand very close to one another. Same with the buses, they get very crowded. There are truly a lot of people here. 

The next day, me and Ricky decided to go on our first adventure alone, without one of the students from the Beijing University. We went to the Olympic Park. It was huge and gorgeous. We took many pictures of the bird's nest and the olympic pool. You can actually swim in the pool which I really want to do. There were also many people who wanted to sell something both food and souvenirs. People were flying kites, dancing and a couple were singing. One guy was actually pretty good. 

Olympic Stadium

Olympic Pool

Beijing, China

Arriving In Beijing

I got to the airport at 2 am in the morning with a few phone numbers written down on a scrap piece of paper. I did not have a phone that would work in China nor do I speak Mandarin. I was already thankful when I got my luggage and none of it was missing. To my suprise, when I came out of the gates, there was a boy and a girl waiting for me holding up a sign with my name on it. Charles and Cynthia are super nice and were my first contact with China. After introductions, we went outside to get a taxi. This is not as easy as it sounds, along with us was a swarm of people trying to do the same thing. After half an hour of fighting, we finally got in. They gave me a phone card, which I was thrilled to receive, this 'calling card' was not what i thought minutes on a card i can use while calling from any phone but a SIM card for my phone. The only problem is that most American phones do not use SIM cards. After they got over this dibeleif of how strange US phones are, i received my welcome to China gift, a cup of coffee. Turns out, they thought that all Americans like coffee :)

I finally got to the place where I was to stay for the night. The stairwell was complelety dark with no light, the place itself was a humble apartment with a kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms. The beds and matresses were really hard. I soon found out, most matresses in China are this way. The toilet did not flush and there was no shower in the bathroom. Everything looked dirty. My concept of what is dirty and what is clean has chnaged dramatically while in China. It is very hard to compare the standards of living in the United States to the ones here, at least the ones I experienced and beleive that middle class people encounter. The toilets in most places are holes in the ground where the sqatting technique must be used. There is also no toilet paper.

As I slept that night, i thought of how they told me a girl just moved out of the room and left for Russia that day, the pillow still smelled like her, i just wondered lying there how many people slept on the same sheets as i did.