NOTES FROM EYEWITNESSES

I. V. SMERDOV

PhD

A. V. GONCHARUK

Student of Guangxi University (China)

China Keywords:, provincial universities, intellectual life, foreign teachers and students in China

Ordinary Chinese are engaged in a hard struggle for survival in the "New China", so it is quite difficult to detect intellectual life at the level of ordinary people. The authors rely on the experience of communication, mainly in the university environment, during 10 years of working and studying at provincial universities in the PRC in the 2000s. Most often, these were conversations with students and teachers at the dinner table with subsequent generalizations of what they heard. This approach - an ethnographic description with local household sketches-was used by the American author Peter Hessler in the book "River Town" (River Town), which tells about his stay in 1997-1999 in a small town on the Yangtze River1.

After several years of being outside of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and some provincial capitals, intellectual life was also discovered in the provinces, although with difficulty.

WHAT DO PUNDITS AND STUDENTS TALK ABOUT

Provincial universities in China are rarely the focus of academic publications, as the main events of Chinese university life, conferences, symposiums, lectures by famous people are held in the capitals and main provincial centers and leading universities. When it comes to the humanities, non-capital universities in China have conferences dedicated to local nationalities, personalities and events, such as the Hakka people in Meizhou at Jain Provincial University, ² and forums dedicated to local national minorities at Guangxi University.

During working hours, communication with local teachers on professional topics is almost impossible, because they are busy for 24-30 academic hours a week, and there is nothing to talk about with them, except that they are busy to the neck. Casual conversations with colleagues in the office and on the street, mostly come down to banal questions,

is it colder or warmer now in Russia compared to the south of the PRC, or do Russians eat with chopsticks? Students can also ask about Vitas, a popular singer in China, or how to say "hello" in Russian.

Sometimes you can hear something interesting in the format of a regular lecture or seminar. For example, during a Chinese language class, a teacher spoke about football with Cameroonian students, and they told them in broken Chinese that the best result of their national team was achieved under the guidance of Russian coach Valery Nepomnyashchy, who forced local players to come to training on time. For us , this is a long-known fact of the 1990 World Cup, but it is interesting that young Cameroonians still remember it.

The most advanced dialogue with Chinese provincial professors, which one of the authors managed to participate in during his 10 years in China, consisted of discussing at leisure which language families and groups English, German and Russian belong to. Knowledge within the first year of a university, or even an ordinary gymnasium in Russia, was quite enough for such an exchange of opinions at the "highest" academic level.

In the author's memory, the most massive public lecture at a provincial university was delivered by a Chinese girl who graduated from high school in the United States.

All interethnic communication takes place either during a joint trip to the dining room, or in the evening, not hot hours, over a bottle of beer or a glass of tea.

Discussing a topic during class is something out of the ordinary. Among Chinese students, it is not customary to ask any questions to the teacher, the Chinese have a term that means "mechanical memorization". This term probably best reflects the construction of the educational process. With the ability to absorb large amounts of information, Chinese students attend classes solely to listen, but not to participate in ^any way3. And to ask a question to a teacher is generally a violation of the centuries-old tradition in Chinese institutions: the teacher makes round eyes and at best offers to find out these questions on the Chinese equivalent of the Google search engine - the Baidu site (www.baidu.com).

The principle of memorizing information without any analysis permeates all everyday life and all discussions. When you talk to a Chinese person, you get the impression that you are reading a news bulletin: all the phrases are constructed exactly like quotes from newspapers.

FAITH IN A BRIGHT FUTURE

Among foreign teachers and students, the main topic of conversation is life in China. The "failure" of the Chinese way of life is usually discussed, and parallels are drawn with their own country. At the same time, students like to use the phrase "conditions that are impossible to get used to"when comparing their life in their homeland with the Chinese way of life. In the evening, conversations are held about the shortcomings of South Chinese cooking and sports, especially the US National Basketball Association, which is so incredibly popular in China.⁴ Upon arrival at the campus, it seems that the LA (Los Angeles) Lakers basketball jersey is a mandatory dress code of Guangxi University. When it comes to the oddities of Chinese life, the discussion becomes much more interesting with the participation of local Chinese.

During discussions on even the most sensitive topics, a provincial Chinese rarely tries to refute the other person's position: he is ready to agree with any statement in words, while remaining convinced that this idea is absurd. On such evenings, the Chinese usually have only to defend themselves. But, as practice shows, the worldview of one provincial Chinese differs little from another, and for every provocative question asked to a person, there is a semi-standard answer ready in advance.

At every table, absolutely every Chinese person says that the "New China" continuously continues to learn from other countries (despite the historical experience accumulated over several millennia), and that it is necessary to wait a little (be patient) now, and then bright times will come in the future.

The best illustration of the inexhaustible optimism was the construction of the Nanning Metro. Almost a third of the city has already been dug up, and many two-or three-lane roads have turned into narrow paths that are difficult to pass, even on a bicycle. The slogan "Let's create tomorrow!" has become the motto of metro builders, on every corner

there is a call to be patient now in order to enjoy the comfort later. Only this concept of "later" is very mobile. Initially, the announced three-year deadline for opening the first branch has already been shifted 6 times, and now, despite the past two years since the start of construction, the completion date implies another three years of waiting for "road comfort". At the same time, not a single Chinese mentions the builders with an unkind word. Everyone is unanimous in declaring their sincere understanding of the city's needs and their willingness to tolerate inconvenience for any necessary period of time.

Perhaps what makes students more optimistic is that they are required to take a 6-hour course on the Communist movement every day for four weeks (in addition to being raised on Communist ideas all their lives). With surprisingly good awareness of absolutely every aspect of Chinese life, there is an absolute lack of awareness about what is happening outside the country. It's not just about current events, but also about geography, culture, and social life. Provincial thinking is quite stereotypical, and stereotypes start with the idea that all white people speak excellent English, and end with the fact that they all live only in America*.

The Work and Travel USA program, which offers an internship at one of the American fast food restaurants as a waiter or hotel maid, is even more popular than joining the Communist Party, although the price of participation in the program reaches 20 thousand yuan (approximately $3,260), and monthly party fees are only five yuan. ⁵.

The situation in Beijing is very different from the province. In the capital, it often happens that during a conversation about the consequences of the global financial crisis or China's policy to hold the yuan, a passerby can join the conversation and express their point of view. If in a provincial city like Nanning, life inside and outside the university campus is not much different, then in Beijing you can meet ordinary Chinese people on the street, not only playing Xiangqi (Chinese chess) or cards, but also discussing the complexity of human existence.

CAUTION-POLITICS

Since the contract with foreign teachers does not recommend talking about politically sensitive topics to foreigners in Chinese universities, politics and controversial moments of Chinese history somehow instinctively go into the background in the dialogues of foreigners, especially if local residents and students are present.

And the knowledge of Chinese history is not enough for both foreigners and local students. Once, during a heated discussion about how many times and where the Soviet and American militaries clashed directly during the Cold War, the local students present, the best of the best, did not remember anything about this topic that was alien to them, but also about what could not be alien to them: the war between the Chinese and Americans in Korea and the conflict between Chinese and Soviet border guards on Damansky Island in 1969.

You need to keep your eyes open when talking about politics. Even the very fact of mentioning Taiwan in a harmless context, namely that Taipei is a boring place, has caused disturbing rumors in the faculty that the author discussed the Taiwanese problem with students, and this is one of the local taboos. Curiously, no rumors and misinterpretations in the college did not cause either a joint student-teacher drinking alcohol to the position of reese, or a demonstration of the students ' ass by one of the foreign English-speaking teachers. The Taiwan issue was more important, although violating moral standards is also prohibited by the contract.

Once a New Zealand teacher mistakenly uploaded a map of China made in Taiwan, where Tibet was designated as a separate state, and then blurted out that Tibet could be called part of China with a stretch. As a result, the class was disrupted, and everything ended with a trial in the dean's office.

In the companies of foreigners, of course, the discussion of political topics is freer, but even there it is necessary to make sure that students do not interfere in the conversation, and then do not misinterpret it exactly the opposite.

HOW TO BECOME AN ENGLISH TEACHER

Learning English in China is very popular everywhere.

Most of the foreign teachers at Chinese universities are Americans and citizens of English-speaking countries who teach English. On the campuses of large provincial universities, they can be from 20 to 100 people. Foreign teachers in other subjects, even in a big city like Nanning or Chongqing, can be counted on one's fingers.

English-speaking native speakers sometimes make up more than half of all UNI foreigners-

* In the recent past, the same pattern has been observed in Japan. All foreigners except Chinese and Koreans, whether a Soviet citizen, a Frenchman, a Mexican, an Indian, or a Papuan, were mistaken for Americans. However, even now in Japanese hieroglyphic writing, the population of the entire world abroad is divided into three categories - Chinese, Korean and Gaijin (foreigner). My feelings for the latter category of foreigners were expressed in a heartfelt way by a little boy who, looking at my car in Tokyo, which, alas, has long been unwashed, exclaimed: "Gaijin is a fool!" I was not offended, realizing that this philosophical wisdom applies to billions of my "compatriots" on the whole planet (editor's note by E. Rusakov).

This includes students, except for local phenomena such as a large number of Vietnamese students in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region bordering Vietnam, and a relatively large number of foreign students from border States in the provinces near Myanmar, Laos, South Korea, the CIS countries, and Mongolia.

Americans dominate even in relation to representatives of other English-speaking countries-Great Britain, Canada, and Australia.

Most foreigners are only nominally university teachers. Any truck driver from Missouri or yesterday's graduate of a third-rate American college enjoys a greater authority in teaching and knowing English than a Chinese linguist professor with thirty years of experience, and a foreigner receives many times more money. It is clear that in such a situation, the exchange of teaching professional experience does not make much sense. In conversations with such teachers, the most" abstruse " topics are, for example, the location of the best restaurants in Chicago or the names of movie actors who played the main role in James Bond films after Sean Connery. And in the best case-who will win the next presidential election in the United States.

In the formal setting of official meetings, rare seminars and lectures, no special intellectual movements were noticed, apart from the assurances from the stage that foreign teachers work hard and shockingly, and constant professional friction at meetings about how to teach certain subjects related to English. Although there may be pitfalls here, because you can not impose your point of view and say how to teach English to yesterday's American college graduate teaching at a Chinese university, even if his teaching method is reduced to showing Hollywood films instead of classes. And such cases are not isolated in every university in the PRC ⁶.

In a situation known as "post-method age⁷," everyone decides how to teach English as long as the student is interested, and movies or children's games are very helpful even in the best universities in China. Professional conversations about teaching English in an official format and even conferences have no basis, because now everyone teaches English as much as they can and want, as long as students like it. A colleague told us that I was teaching them how I lived in the United States and how they would live there. The fact that almost none of his hundreds of students would live in America, much less start a family or raise children there, did not occur to him. However, students are really interested in the real experience of a person who has lived in America for many years. The foreign student environment in Nanning is made up of the most "distinguished" youth representatives in their respective countries. Only the understanding of merit differs: for students from neighboring countries, it is the service of their parents in state bodies or a high position in the Communist Party of Vietnam, for Africans-belonging to the" royal " family or the top of society.

While Africans see scholarships to study in China as a chance to secure the future they work hard for, for many Lao, Thai, and Vietnamese people, the situation is different. These are yesterday's students, for whom the whole university life is akin to a trip to a summer camp. Receiving a decent scholarship of 1,700 yuan (about $280) per month, both by Chinese and Vietnamese standards, they can associate their student life, for example, with alcoholic libations. There are so many of them at Guangxi University that sometimes you hear Vietnamese and Thai more often than Chinese.

THE KITCHEN IS NO PLACE "CLASH CIVILIZATIONS"

Most of the noteworthy conversations between foreign teachers take place at the table in bars and restaurants, and all of them are, so to speak, of an idle nature. The level of conversations may be minimal, for example, where to go in you-

people who can drink beer, or are quite advanced, like discussing Chinese expansion in the world or switching to the gold standard instead of the US dollar.

The lion's share of communication falls on the discussion of cuisine, the fact that there are no Western products in provincial cities of the PRC and, accordingly, where to get these very products, and what can be prepared from what is available. And this is even in the provincial capital, not to mention medium-sized cities per million inhabitants like Meizhou (Guangdong Province), where you had to travel two hours by train to the next big city for cheese. Cooking for residents of English-speaking countries has become the number one hobby in recent decades, and the lack of necessary products in Chinese stores is a more important topic than the Iraq and Afghanistan wars or the "Arab Spring".

In addition, local residents also always have something to say about Chinese cuisine: they also have it as the main topic for everyday communication. Chinese students can spend half an hour discussing the merits of the local pepper type in a Sichuan dish and compare it with peppers from their home provinces. And already something similar can be heard at the table among foreigners, when dishes in New Zealand restaurants are compared with English ones, or chili peppers in Canada are less spicy than in neighboring American states.

As a result, it is difficult to say whether the Chinese food culture here affects foreigners working in China, or whether the foreigners here are such that they are primarily interested in cuisine. Most likely, this is a kind of compromise field in which Chinese and Western cultures come together most easily and quickly. Chinese people are interested in hearing about Western dishes (since few people have ever tried it), and it's easy for foreigners to find a topic where they are experts, but locals can also say something.

LEISURE CONVERSATIONS ON THE TOPIC OF LEISURE

The second most important topic of conversation among foreigners, and sometimes in the presence of local residents, is leisure in China - Chinese restaurants, bars, shopping centers and entertainment. Sometimes there are mixed discussions of Chinese women or traveling around and outside the PRC. Here, local residents can also prove themselves.

Leisure activities are becoming the main topic of conversation among the middle class in China, and the well-known availability in China of pirated video discs for 5-6 yuan (about $1) and free sites with any movies make conversations about entertainment relevant. In China, it is easy for foreigners to discuss new Hollywood films before they are released on the wide screen, since pirated video discs are always at hand, and you can collect a collection of tens of thousands of films that would cost a fortune in America or Europe. No one in China is embarrassed by the collection of two or three thousand pirated discs from a foreign teacher, whose government is zealously fighting video piracy around the world.

Vacation and weekend travel is also easily a topic of discussion. Just in the last decade, a foreigner for a decent vacation no longer needs to go to Thailand or Malaysia. Domestic tourism in China has grown significantly [⁸] when hotels, restaurants, spas, saunas, local attractions such as caves and ethnographic villages with traditional lifestyles, and entertainment centers for every taste have grown like mushrooms around large and even medium-sized cities after a rainstorm.

* * *

In Russia, although sometimes with a stretch, we can still call the university a "temple of knowledge", which is not only acquired there, but also discussed. In the Chinese province, knowledge is mostly just memorized. Foreigners can still discuss the information received among themselves and very rarely with local students, but a large part of this flow of knowledge is of a domestic nature. As a result, this greatly restricts intellectual life, because the Chinese do not discuss the acquired knowledge.

On campuses, intellectual life does not boil over, but only smoulders in casual conversations between teachers and students. It is extremely rare for foreign teachers to mix with local teachers, so there is no intellectual exchange of opinions.

Thus, both the teaching and student environment of a provincial Chinese university usually does not shine with light thoughts and depth of discussion.

^{Hessler Peter.} 1 River Town. Two Years on the Yangtze. Harper Collins Publishers, N.Y., 2001, p. 402.

² On Cultivation & Development of Featured Specialty: Business Administration Jiaying College's Thoughts - http://www.seio-fbluemountain.com/search/index.php?act=all &name=Sun+Bo

^{Fang-yu Chang.} 3 The Causes of Learners' Reticence and Passivity in English Classrooms in Taiwan // The Journal of Asia TEFL. Vol. 8, No. 1, Spring 2011, p. 1 - 22.

^{Huang Fuhua.} 4 Suzhou Daxue. 2008.

⁵ Work and travel Xiangmu. April 2011 -http://wenku.baidu.com/view/4de2be02a6c3 0c2258019e05.html

^{Li Ming-sheng.} 6 Perceptions of the Place of Expatriate English Language Teachers in China. PhD Thesis, La Trobe University. 1999, p. 185-186. An analysis of the low qualification of foreign teachers can be found in the article: Niu Q., Wolff M. China EFL: Unqualified(sic), Teaching the Unmotivated, in A hostile environment - http://www.usin-genglish.com/esl-in-china/

^{Canh Le Van.} 7 From Ideology to Inquiry: Mediating Asian and Western Values in ELT Practice // The Journal of Asia TEFL. Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 2004, p. 167 - 183.

⁸ Report on China Tourism Industry, 2010 - 2015 - http://www.ocn.com.cn/reports/ China-Tourism-Industry 116.htm

Permanent link to this publication: