Hello all,
As per usual, I had many very exciting and eventful experiences this past week, some more exciting and meaningful than others. As per usual, these events will be described below.
The week started out with a trip to Xi'an's concert hall. After a quick tour of their beautiful facilities, we listened to a performance from four musicians, each of whom played a traditional Chinese instrument. Afterward we learned we would be returning each day that week, and got to select an instrument to study each day. I selected the guzhong, a type of pentatonic Chinese table harp, on which notes are made by plucking and bending the strings. I really enjoyed playing it, and managed to play a number of basic songs on it, even including the Star Wars theme. After the concert hall, I trekked down to Xian's Muslim Quarter, where I was determined to see if the local Hui population had any arrangements planned for Eid Al-Fitr, the Islamic festival commemorating the end of Ramadan. I usually find syncretism and blending of two cultures very interesting, so I thought I would check out Xi'an's Great Mosque a second time, to investigate whether or not there was anything going on. After getting out of school at 4:00, with a goal of getting back home by 6:00 for dinner, took a bus to Xi'an's southern gate, which was the farthest the bus could take me, still a considerable distance from the Muslim Quarter. From here, I could only rely on less stable, and less four-wheeled modes of transportation to get me there. After arriving, and talking with various Hui, and mosque workers there, I learned that Eid was not that day in Xi'an, but could possibly be the next day if they see the moonlight that night. If not, Eid would take place the day afterward. I did see them setting up large numbers of tables though for that night's breaking of the Ramadan fast. I then proceeded to purchase certain items and browse the Muslim stores nearby, which sell an interesting mix of Chinese and Islamic items. I also learned to never attempt to coordinate a NSLI-Y program schedule with that of an Islamic festival if one wants his/her plans to go smoothly, especially when Islamic festivals use a lunar calendar. I found it interesting how when talking to Hui people at the mosque, they would use Arabic vocabulary to refer to Islamic terms, such as Eid and Salat, whereas Chinese people will always use the Chinese terms, which are entirely different when discussing such Islamic customs.
On Tuesday, after that day's trip to the concert hall, I decided to go to Daqingxing park, which was the former site of one of the Tang Dynasty's three major palaces in the city of Xi'an. Although the palace doesn't exist today, the park, like all of Xi'an's parks, features rivers, boating, as well as many, many replicas of ancient buildings. These buildings all dotted the park, which was very crowded, like most of China, for a weekday afternoon, even featuring a movie theater and go-karts, with music playing in many locations. After a stroll around the lake, I boarded a bus to take me back home.
On Wednesday, I decided to take another short excursion to a site I had glimpsed from the bus on the way back from the park, a market filled with various traditional Chinese food items. This market, and nearby alleyway seemed especially large, but I noticed many other alleyway nearby. Alleyways such as this one, with not a foreigner in site, and many venders selling questionable food items, are a very common site, especially in Xi'an, and they will test all of your five senses in many diverse ways, both very good, and very bad. Afterward, I took another bus back home.
Thursday afternoon started with another visit to the concert hall, where we all had to give a very short performance on our respective instruments. I decided to play Tong Nian, a famous Chinese song on the guzhong, that I had figured out how to play. After going first, we got to listen to everybody else, and the progress they had made on their instruments. After this performance we boarded a bus to a Chinese orphanage. Going to such an orphanage I didn't really know what to expect, especially in a typical Chinese style, we were first told on Tuesday we would be going to a Kindergarten on Thursday, and prepared certain activities to play with the kids. Afterward, we found out the next day that this location was not a kindergarten at all, but an orphanage, truly another side of China that we had not yet glimpsed. Upon arriving, we learned that the location was an orphanage, built for developmentally disabled students whose parents can no longer take care of them. The orphanage is staffed by several ayis who give their lives for these children, most of whom are very small children, however there were several older children who looked to be around our age. After singing some songs for them, and them then dancing for us, we went to a room, where we quickly learned that the games we had planned would not work. Interacting with the kids was difficult, especially since the large majority of them are non-verbal, however we all found ways eventually, be it through carrying them on our backs, crumpling and throwing paper across the room, speaking in very basic sentences, or dancing, it ended up being a really meaningful visit. After returning to school, we made another trip to the supermarket (I usually allow myself one American bubble excursion per week), where I spent a long time talking to a friend's host brother, and examining very badly translated T-Shirts (Chinese people all wear English T-Shirts, however do not understand their ridiculous meanings). Western culture always infiltrates China, but China always manages to twist it in a very interesting way, making such western culture very quirky, and uniquely Chinese.
After school on Friday, we boarded a bus for an hour to the famed 兵马俑, or Terracotta Warriors, the soldiers built to house the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang , China's first emperor. For the most famed tourist site in Xi'an, I found the site's history, and the historical effort put into it to be extremely interesting, but overall, especially based off of all of our expectations, I think we all found the museum to be a little underwhelming. The Chinese tour guide, as usual did teach me many new words though. The warriors are very interesting, but definitely do not live up to the reputation given in pictures, which only show the front, giving the appearance of many, many soldiers. In reality, most of the soldiers lie in broken fragments on the ground, with a very small portion of them actually intact. It takes five months at the least to assemble a single soldier, and even then many parts are often still missing, notably their heads. I still hope to return to the actualy mausoleum site of the emperor, still unexcavated, approximately 1km away from the warriors. That night, I accompanied my host brother to another walk around Qujiang's southern lake, where we spent some time watching a show that the Shaanxi tourism bureau was putting on.
On Saturday, I texted my friend I had met at Guangren Temple to see if she was free, and we ended up meeting up near her apartment west of Xi'an. A religious Buddhist, she took me to a temple on the far southern end of the city, after a very long bus ride that nearly took us to the country side. This temple is known as Xiangji Si, beautifully located in the middle of nowhere, aside from a village nearby. After eating lunch at a small noodle joint in the village, and chatting with the owner. We then walked to the temple, which was very peaceful, and had a beautiful Tang Dynasty pagoda located in the temple's center, complete with crumbling top. After stopping at all the various buildings, we boarded a bus back to Xi'an, where we got ice cream at KFC, and took another bus to Xiaozhai's Daxingshan Temple. Here we stopped in a bookstore in a market adjacent to the temple, where we we chatted with the the store's owners, who she was well aquainted with, and browsed certain books. Afterward we entered the temple, where she prayed in front of various Buddha statues, before leaving. We then parted, and I returned home for dinner. That night, I accompanied my host siblings to a mall, where we spent some time in an arcade, which featured some very Chinese extravagance, including gambling, as well as games featuring trampolines, before heading to the movie theater, and watching Brick Mansions, a fun but terrible movie about dystopian Detroit. Unfortunately for most Chinese this is their view of what American cities and African Americans are actually like, since for many, they are usually only glimpsed through the lens of action films.
After a lazy Sunday morning (quite rare for my time here in China), and watching some TV with my little host brother, I went out for lunch with my host family at a hot pot restaurant, which is always fun, especially when the food is heated in a hot pot directly in the center of your table. After this I took a bus to the Muslim Quarter, where I bought a number of gifts for many family members, and walked to a park north of the district, also featuring a lake. Most enjoyable about this afternoon was the conversation I had with a Hui store owner and his father, who paints beautiful pictures, featuring both Chinese and Arabic calligraphy. I talked to him a lot about Hui culture, and its differences between Muslim culture worldwide, as well as his experiences with various foreign countries, since he and his father, who is fairly well known in the calligraphy world apparently had traveled a lot. Another unique conversation was with another shop owner, where after purchasing certain items learned of his experience running a shop, and the various phrases he had memorized in certain foreign languages to attract customers.
Just a week left,
Ben Weinstein
As per usual, I had many very exciting and eventful experiences this past week, some more exciting and meaningful than others. As per usual, these events will be described below.
The week started out with a trip to Xi'an's concert hall. After a quick tour of their beautiful facilities, we listened to a performance from four musicians, each of whom played a traditional Chinese instrument. Afterward we learned we would be returning each day that week, and got to select an instrument to study each day. I selected the guzhong, a type of pentatonic Chinese table harp, on which notes are made by plucking and bending the strings. I really enjoyed playing it, and managed to play a number of basic songs on it, even including the Star Wars theme. After the concert hall, I trekked down to Xian's Muslim Quarter, where I was determined to see if the local Hui population had any arrangements planned for Eid Al-Fitr, the Islamic festival commemorating the end of Ramadan. I usually find syncretism and blending of two cultures very interesting, so I thought I would check out Xi'an's Great Mosque a second time, to investigate whether or not there was anything going on. After getting out of school at 4:00, with a goal of getting back home by 6:00 for dinner, took a bus to Xi'an's southern gate, which was the farthest the bus could take me, still a considerable distance from the Muslim Quarter. From here, I could only rely on less stable, and less four-wheeled modes of transportation to get me there. After arriving, and talking with various Hui, and mosque workers there, I learned that Eid was not that day in Xi'an, but could possibly be the next day if they see the moonlight that night. If not, Eid would take place the day afterward. I did see them setting up large numbers of tables though for that night's breaking of the Ramadan fast. I then proceeded to purchase certain items and browse the Muslim stores nearby, which sell an interesting mix of Chinese and Islamic items. I also learned to never attempt to coordinate a NSLI-Y program schedule with that of an Islamic festival if one wants his/her plans to go smoothly, especially when Islamic festivals use a lunar calendar. I found it interesting how when talking to Hui people at the mosque, they would use Arabic vocabulary to refer to Islamic terms, such as Eid and Salat, whereas Chinese people will always use the Chinese terms, which are entirely different when discussing such Islamic customs.
On Tuesday, after that day's trip to the concert hall, I decided to go to Daqingxing park, which was the former site of one of the Tang Dynasty's three major palaces in the city of Xi'an. Although the palace doesn't exist today, the park, like all of Xi'an's parks, features rivers, boating, as well as many, many replicas of ancient buildings. These buildings all dotted the park, which was very crowded, like most of China, for a weekday afternoon, even featuring a movie theater and go-karts, with music playing in many locations. After a stroll around the lake, I boarded a bus to take me back home.
On Wednesday, I decided to take another short excursion to a site I had glimpsed from the bus on the way back from the park, a market filled with various traditional Chinese food items. This market, and nearby alleyway seemed especially large, but I noticed many other alleyway nearby. Alleyways such as this one, with not a foreigner in site, and many venders selling questionable food items, are a very common site, especially in Xi'an, and they will test all of your five senses in many diverse ways, both very good, and very bad. Afterward, I took another bus back home.
Thursday afternoon started with another visit to the concert hall, where we all had to give a very short performance on our respective instruments. I decided to play Tong Nian, a famous Chinese song on the guzhong, that I had figured out how to play. After going first, we got to listen to everybody else, and the progress they had made on their instruments. After this performance we boarded a bus to a Chinese orphanage. Going to such an orphanage I didn't really know what to expect, especially in a typical Chinese style, we were first told on Tuesday we would be going to a Kindergarten on Thursday, and prepared certain activities to play with the kids. Afterward, we found out the next day that this location was not a kindergarten at all, but an orphanage, truly another side of China that we had not yet glimpsed. Upon arriving, we learned that the location was an orphanage, built for developmentally disabled students whose parents can no longer take care of them. The orphanage is staffed by several ayis who give their lives for these children, most of whom are very small children, however there were several older children who looked to be around our age. After singing some songs for them, and them then dancing for us, we went to a room, where we quickly learned that the games we had planned would not work. Interacting with the kids was difficult, especially since the large majority of them are non-verbal, however we all found ways eventually, be it through carrying them on our backs, crumpling and throwing paper across the room, speaking in very basic sentences, or dancing, it ended up being a really meaningful visit. After returning to school, we made another trip to the supermarket (I usually allow myself one American bubble excursion per week), where I spent a long time talking to a friend's host brother, and examining very badly translated T-Shirts (Chinese people all wear English T-Shirts, however do not understand their ridiculous meanings). Western culture always infiltrates China, but China always manages to twist it in a very interesting way, making such western culture very quirky, and uniquely Chinese.
After school on Friday, we boarded a bus for an hour to the famed 兵马俑, or Terracotta Warriors, the soldiers built to house the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang , China's first emperor. For the most famed tourist site in Xi'an, I found the site's history, and the historical effort put into it to be extremely interesting, but overall, especially based off of all of our expectations, I think we all found the museum to be a little underwhelming. The Chinese tour guide, as usual did teach me many new words though. The warriors are very interesting, but definitely do not live up to the reputation given in pictures, which only show the front, giving the appearance of many, many soldiers. In reality, most of the soldiers lie in broken fragments on the ground, with a very small portion of them actually intact. It takes five months at the least to assemble a single soldier, and even then many parts are often still missing, notably their heads. I still hope to return to the actualy mausoleum site of the emperor, still unexcavated, approximately 1km away from the warriors. That night, I accompanied my host brother to another walk around Qujiang's southern lake, where we spent some time watching a show that the Shaanxi tourism bureau was putting on.
On Saturday, I texted my friend I had met at Guangren Temple to see if she was free, and we ended up meeting up near her apartment west of Xi'an. A religious Buddhist, she took me to a temple on the far southern end of the city, after a very long bus ride that nearly took us to the country side. This temple is known as Xiangji Si, beautifully located in the middle of nowhere, aside from a village nearby. After eating lunch at a small noodle joint in the village, and chatting with the owner. We then walked to the temple, which was very peaceful, and had a beautiful Tang Dynasty pagoda located in the temple's center, complete with crumbling top. After stopping at all the various buildings, we boarded a bus back to Xi'an, where we got ice cream at KFC, and took another bus to Xiaozhai's Daxingshan Temple. Here we stopped in a bookstore in a market adjacent to the temple, where we we chatted with the the store's owners, who she was well aquainted with, and browsed certain books. Afterward we entered the temple, where she prayed in front of various Buddha statues, before leaving. We then parted, and I returned home for dinner. That night, I accompanied my host siblings to a mall, where we spent some time in an arcade, which featured some very Chinese extravagance, including gambling, as well as games featuring trampolines, before heading to the movie theater, and watching Brick Mansions, a fun but terrible movie about dystopian Detroit. Unfortunately for most Chinese this is their view of what American cities and African Americans are actually like, since for many, they are usually only glimpsed through the lens of action films.
After a lazy Sunday morning (quite rare for my time here in China), and watching some TV with my little host brother, I went out for lunch with my host family at a hot pot restaurant, which is always fun, especially when the food is heated in a hot pot directly in the center of your table. After this I took a bus to the Muslim Quarter, where I bought a number of gifts for many family members, and walked to a park north of the district, also featuring a lake. Most enjoyable about this afternoon was the conversation I had with a Hui store owner and his father, who paints beautiful pictures, featuring both Chinese and Arabic calligraphy. I talked to him a lot about Hui culture, and its differences between Muslim culture worldwide, as well as his experiences with various foreign countries, since he and his father, who is fairly well known in the calligraphy world apparently had traveled a lot. Another unique conversation was with another shop owner, where after purchasing certain items learned of his experience running a shop, and the various phrases he had memorized in certain foreign languages to attract customers.
Just a week left,
Ben Weinstein