Ursus Idiota

The majestic Giant Panda.  A creature almost symbolic of China itself (seriously, check your Chinese takeout menu, I bet it has a scene of the great wall and a panda on it).  I went to go see these august and noble beasts over two years ago.  Why, you ask, have I waited so long to talk about these awe inspiring beings?

Because: I. Hate. Them.

I had no strong feelings of like or dislike concerning Pandas  prior to my trip to Chengdu, the nearest city to the Giant Panda Preserve.  I thought, as many do, that the Panda was adorable.  I thought (especially after watching the Great Panda Adventure as a young child) that they were an endangered species, and like all endangered species, in need of human intervention in order to thrive.  I can remember reading articles about zoos having difficulty breeding pandas in captivity and the success stories always making the news.  But beyond that, I didn't really ponder the perplexity of pandas.

However, when Liv suggested Chengdu as the site of our first big adventure (it was our very first--but would be far from our last--solo trip in China) I expressed excitement at seeing these bears.  I mean, come on--seeing Pandas in China?  How can you not be excited about that?  Plus, I have always loved zoos and the like, so I was pretty stoked to see these guys.

Having been two years ago, I cannot quite remember where in our Chengdu timeline the Pandas fell, but it was one of the two really big things we went to that city to see (the other being the Leshan Buddha statue), and so I believe we went on our first or second full day in the city.  We went on the tour provided through our hostel (these are great--the price is reasonable, they provide transportation to and from the hostel, and they are safe and reliable).  We left very early in the morning and arrived at the Great Panda Preserve around 8:30am.  We were not the only group there that day, nor were we the only Americans--there seemed to be a group from a University from the states.

We began our tour of the pandas.  It would appear that this preserve has the pandas set up in several group habitats.   But after passing two or three such habitats, we began to notice some fairly startling similarities in panda behavior.  Almost all of them were lolling on the ground in a sort of a blob-like sitting position, pounding back bamboo like it was their job.  I mean, I am not expecting them to play tricks or anything for me, but you'd think one or two of them would be engaged in some other kind of behavior!  But alas, just a lot of continuous bamboo munching.

Eating bamboo...

We did eventually pass a habitat that had several pandas in it, some of them still sleeping (rolled up in tight little balls in the trees--I watched them come down but I still have no idea how a panda manages to go up and down trees), most were engaged in the never-ending consumption of bamboo, and one or two were actually walking about not eating (though I suspect they were just searching for more bamboo).  My favorite was the one who tried to cross a little bridge thing and fell on its head, almost in slow motion.  I may not have been forming any strong positive feelings towards these fat, lazy fluffballs at this point, but I didn't hate them....yet.

Annnnnnd eating more bamboo....

Moving to a location where more bamboo can be consumed.

About halfway through our tour we were guided to a little cafe.  The cafe did not seem to be running, but they had a projector and screen set up inside the cafe.  We filed in and sat down and the docent began playing a movie* about the plight of the panda.  It should be noted that an Enya song played on a loop during this whole video.

Sure, habitat destruction and poaching has negatively impacted the giant panda to a point where there is not too many (if any) in the wild.  But some zillion years ago (because according to this video the pandas are like 850 million years old) pandas stopped eating meat.  Making them dumber.  In captivity, pandas will not willingly procreate.  They have no sex drive--also a possible byproduct of their altered, now exclusively bamboo diet.  So since the panda will not willingly engage in sex, the lab techs (desperate to preserve this creature) artificially stimulate the male, collect his semen, and inseminate the female.

It is one of the great disappointments of my life that I did not video that film.  In lieu of that, here are some pictures of Panda Science!

Now this might seem fairly standard for animals in captivity. I don't think the giant panda is the only creature that fails to reproduce successfully in captivity--I don't know if they are the only ones that refuses to try.   However what does not seem fairly standard is the next phase it what is starting to look like panda suicide.  Once they get that lady panda all nice and fertilized and she carries that baby to term, the moment that baby panda is born, they have to tranq the mom and little lab techs need to run in and rescue that little baby panda.  Why?  Because if they don't, the mama panda tries to beat it to death. I am not kidding you.  They showed us video of a mama panda treating this little pink newborn like a hockey puck.

Now most people in the audience were sympathetic to the preservative efforts of the zoologists working at this institution.  But Liv and I?  No, we were horrified.  Why are these animals still alive?  Why are we bothering to keep these animals alive when they have clearly, as a species, decided its time to go? What animal refuses to procreate and then kills its young and still desires to live?  Also, I am not convinced the panda would have survived on its own, even if you factored out the human reasons for their endangered condition--they sit around all day eating bamboo.  They are not fast or particularly threatening. They are like big targets for any kind of predator.  If there was a fire, and a panda was sitting there eating bamboo, I am pretty sure it would not run away--it would go up in flames in a blissful bamboo-food coma.

So, our take away lesson from this experience is that pandas are kinda dumb and have no independent will to live.  And maybe we should just let them go--release them to the wild and let nature take its course.  I will say, however, the baby pandas?  They're adorable and super active--they haven't been addicted to bamboo yet.   Watching them run around, play on plastic rocking horses, and in general be cute was one of the most adorable things I have ever witnessed.

I realize that this video of a baby panda does nothing to convince you of my argument against the pandas, but he's just so damn cute, I can't not share it with you. 

The red pandas are also super cute, although they are given relatively little attention at the preserve.  They were some of my favorites.

See? So Cute!  And much more deserving of preservation.

* There was a lot of information in this video about the pandas.  I share with you only what stuck out in my memory, so this is likely giving you a skewed version of the data found in the video they showed us.  My factual information may also be colored somewhat by my hatred of this mammal. But in a last ditch effort to instill doubt in you about the wisdom of panda preservation, I leave you with this image of the worst and most horrifying taxidermy job I have ever seen. 

Meet Demon Panda.  And let this image stay with you. 

Wumart Games

Yes that whole great monolith is Wumart!

I am choosing to talk about one of my favorite adventures while in China for two reasons.  One, because as of March 17th, we are coming up on the two year anniversary of this event.  I can't believe how fast time passes.  The second reason is that it correlates somewhat with my post about being foreign in China.

Before getting into exactly Wumart Challenge is, and how it came into being, I first want to talk about Wumart.  Wumart is a hypermarket, and no that is not just a pretentious new word for supermarket.  These places are monstrous--it is literally one-stop shopping.  The building that Wumart is in consists of eight separate floors, the actual Wumart taking up two full floors; we simply referred to the entire complex as Wumart.

One floor (the second in the building) is entirely groceries--packaged goods, frozen goods, a butcher, fresh produce, bottled drinks, snacks and snacks and more snacks, bulk foods, an imports section, alcohol, etc.  The other floor (the third floor) consists of everything else you would need in your home--electronics, books, clothes, bedding, toys, cookware, appliances, bicycles, musical instruments, cleaning supplies, bathroom products, athletic equipment; the list goes on.  Now, you might not find a wide variety of different kinds of these products (for example, if I didn't like the only two styles of backpacking backpacks, I would have better luck at a store that specializes in out-doorsy stuff) but they will have some kind of product that will fit your needs.

I swear I have never seen so many different kinds of Oreos, candy, or Lay's potato chips in my life. 

So. Much. Produce.

Yes, you could buy frogs.  To eat.  And a whole bunch of other fresh produce. 

As for the remainder of the building, the first floor contained small independent shops...almost like in a mall, along with a few restaurants.  The second and third floor, as I said, contained Wumart proper.  The fourth floor was a parking garage, the fifth floor contained a spa, a full gym, a night club, and a KTV club.  The sixth floor was a movie theater.  The 7th floor consisted of both a pool hall, an arcade, and internet gaming cafe.  The 8th and final floor consisted of what I can only compare to a flea market--they sold small office type supplies or specialty items (like if you wanted something printed or written on a scroll or you wanted to buy supplies for Chinese brush painting).   We worked out in the gym in this building, the KTV was our favorite KTV club, and if we didn't feel like going to one of the clubbing districts, we would go dance it out at this club, because it was so near our home.  As for the shopping--Wumart would pretty much have all the necessities.  We were in and out of this place, for some reason or another, all the time.

So now that you have some idea of what Wumart is (though no amount of description or pictures can really do the place justice), let me explain Wumart Challenge.  One day Olivia, while buying socks in the same building she had dinner and worked out in, had this thought, " wow--there's so much to do here--you could literally spend all day in this place."  Then she vocalized this thought to Dave and myself, saying, "Can you imagine spending, like, an entire 12 hours here? I think it'd be possible."   And thus a crazy vision was born.   Ideas for how to  spend 12 hours in Wumart began to fly:  Some sort of scavenger hunt? Different challenges?  What if we put participants into teams?  How can we use each floor? How much would something like this cost each team? Dates? Rules? Themes? COSTUMES?!?!

I am not sure what exactly caused this to turn from amusing walking-home-from-dinner conversation to an actual plan.  Maybe it was the novelty of the idea?  Maybe it was the organizational juices flowing in some very detail-oriented people?  Maybe it was March and we were bored?  Or maybe it was too good of an idea to pass up in a context that would allow us to do something like this-this goes back to being foreign in China.  I have no idea if, had this occurred to a group of Chinese students or teachers, it would have been tolerated.  But I think we were allowed to do this, and we were even able to conceive of doing this, was in part due to the particular freedoms we enjoyed as foreigners in China.  I am not sure we would have been able to pull something like this off in America without considerably more planning.  I mean, you get in trouble for taking pictures in Target in America, so I can't imagine what would have happened had we tried something similar here (you know, without being part of The Amazing Race or something equally as funded and publicized).

It was decided that Wumart Challenge would begin at 8:00am on Saturday, March 17th (it was coincidental that this fell on St. Patrick's day).  We would begin our day with a full breakfast (as Irish as we were able to make it, given our limited food diversity).  When registering, each team was told that it must have coordinating outfits (this could be as simple as same colored t-shirts to as complicated as costumes) and some kind of flag that represented their team.  Each person on each team would also need to bring with them about 250 yuan for various costs.

Maybe some of us took our coordinating outfits more seriously than others....

As we wanted as many people to participate as possible, Dave and I took over the planning of this event, so that no one team would have an advantage by knowing  the particulars about each challenge.   We also forfeited our right to compete in most of the challenges. We sent an email to all of the foreign teachers detailing the premise, cost, and requirements for competing in Wumart Challenge (again, without being too particular about what exactly they would be challenged to do).  We received a positive response from eight people, so we grouped them in four teams of two people per team.  We chose team mates randomly and sent an email back to everyone about two weeks before the event with the teams, giving people enough time to work on their coordinating outfits and flags.

After our Irish Breakfast (which was mostly eggs, bacon, french toast, and a lot of orange juice with booze in it) we made the teams march in a parade (complete with music and flag waving) the 1/2 mile from our apartment complex to Wumart--much to the amusement of the general population.  We stopped for a pre-challenge photo-op on the pedestrian crossing bridge in front of Wumart and then headed in and up to the fifth floor (which has a huge empty space in the center, and was relatively quiet during the day) for Survivor-esq torch ceremony and directives.  Each team was given an envelope.   In the envelope was a schedule for the days events/challenges.  We explained that each task must be photographed/videoed for proof of completion, and that teams must arrive at designated locations at the proper times.

Wumart Challenge Schedule

We then blew out our torches and the teams headed to the first task--The Scavenger Hunt.  This task took our players to the second and third floors of Wumart. They had to decipher the clues on the list and then locate (and photograph) these items.  Now, we had noticed that in China, things seem to move around and change a lot, so Dave and I did not actually make this scavenger hunt until the night before the event.  And we asked vendors if certain items would be present on the following day.

Torchlight ceremony (where are the torches you ask?  Well, they're tea lights sitting in tea cups in the daytime, so you can't see them at all) and Dave explaining some instructions and rules.

Scavenger Hunt Clues!

As you can see from the schedule above, we made them run all over the place  The idea was to try and get them to do some sort of activity on each floor.  Dave and I made a KTV room our home base--while teams were completing the scavenger hunt and birthday tasks, we hung out and sang.  The teams then met us here for lunch (which they were to bring back from Wumart's hot food vendors).  They were then asked to compete in solo and group songs, to be judged by myself and Dave.  We made them draw pictures of what Wumart meant to them (the results of this were hilarious).

Scavenger hunt photos from team Liv and Justin (top and bottom)

That is dedication. 

We made them clean squat toilets and get their nails done on the first floor, (Scavenger hunt on the second and third floors), a relay race in the parking garage on the 4th floor.  We made them sing with us in KTV and complete several work out/athletic challenges in the gym all on the fifth floor--we came back to this floor at the end of the night to dance in the night club.  We made them see a move (John Carter--I believe this was the only English movie playing at the time) in the movie theater on the 6th floor and compete in arcade games and a pool tournament on the 7th floor. We made them hunt up a birthday gift for a fellow teacher on the 8th floor, and bring it wrapped back to us--we would judge the best wrapped gift.  Basically we ran them all over the building.  And we stayed in Wumart from the time it opened its doors at 10am until they kicked us out at 3:00am, 17 hours later.

KTV Sing-Along

Billiards challenge (left), ping-pong challenge (center), and arcade games (right).

Time for refueling at Ajisan's (left), Parking Garage Relay Race (center), and heading into the gym to workout with Dave (right).  Below is a video of yet more embarrassing things we made them do--test out the speaker selection by dancing it out in the middle of he floor. 

What started off as an off-hand (and brilliant) remark on the comprehensiveness of Wumart turned into a 17 hour adventure in ridiculousness.  The best part is that when were finished, not only did we have this great (if totally random) day filled with competitive absurdities, we all also knew all the nooks and crannies of Wumart.  We actually decided that Wumart Challenge might be a good thing to have brand-new teachers participate in when they arrive in Hangzhou.  But why just stop with Wumart?  Why not have them explore different parts of the city?  We never made this Hangzhou Challenge into a reality, partly due to the fact that we only had two new teachers the second year.

Wumart Challengers at 10 am (left)......and then at 3am, 17 hours later (right).

I think Wumart Challenge is a good example of why being foreign in China is such a unique and overall positive experience.  We would not have been able to do this in America (partly because we don't have a Wumart, and partly because it likely would not have been tolerated).  But when our contestants did meet with resistance in Wumart, they quickly explained what they were doing, and they received assistance and encouragement from Wumart employees.  So happy anniversary to all the participants in Wumart Challenge, the strangest competition in which I have ever been involved.

Also a huge thank you to all the employees in Wumart whose day we probably made just a tad more challenging by having all these over-enthusiastic foreigners running about, but remained so patient and nice about it.  I leave you with the video below; our 3am post-event euphoria/exhaustion.

Critical Thinking and Speaking--Argumentative Speeches

For the second part of this course, we worked on argumentative/persuasive speeches.  Now, we started learning how to write said speeches while we were still working on debates.  After that day's group had their turn debating, we would spend at least 25-30 minutes learning or working on another step in the argumentative speech writing process.

It is very important that you teach formal essay writing of any kind quite explicitly to Chinese students (or really, to any student).  We take for granted that logic and formal writing styles are the same everywhere, but they are not.  Chinese logic tends to be circular, hovering around the central idea without ever really discussing it directly.  It's almost like they want the audience to draw their own conclusions based on the evidence they are giving them.  They put a lot more weight on assumptions, and rely heavily on the audience to make the correct assumptions; it's considerably more abstract. Western logic is much more linear and direct--this happened, for this reason, because evidence evidence evidence! Western logic typically lets the audience know exactly the opinion they are defending and then backs up that opinion with sequential evidence.  Sometimes Chinese students will feel that you are insulting the intelligence of the audience by being quite so explicit in your argument (instead of trusting the audience to make the correct assumptions); thus if you want your students to write in a western fashion, you have to explicitly teach this style of writing.  Because this style of argumentative writing is not universal and needs to be taught--some teachers get frustrated by their students writing because they are subconsciously expecting university students to have some academic writing prowess.  And they do!  They just don't have the same prowess in the same style of writing as many of their foreign teachers.  I have watched this lack of explicit teaching drive foreign teachers into fits of frustration, which they then take out on their students--with less engaging lessons and punishing grades.

So we broke this argumentative writing down part by part.  We started with the introduction, and broke that down even further into hook, expansion, and thesis.   I taught them what a hook was and why it is a compelling way to start an argument.  I had a lot of help with lessons for this as both Liv and Dave had taught several courses of academic writing by the time I taught this class.  We played around with crafting different hooks for our different controversial topics.  I would write a topic on the board, and we would generate possible hooks for an introductory paragraph of an argumentative speech on this topic.  We then talked about expanding on the idea you were going to be writing about.  We would briefly explain the issue (pros and cons) in two to three sentences and then state our thesis.

The thesis is the hardest concept I found for my students to understand.  It seems to be in contrast to the Chinese style of writing.  My students would ask me: "Why are we telling them what we are going to tell them about right now, in the beginning?  Why not wait and explain each point in each paragraph?"  I am not going to lie, I did not really have a compelling answer, other than keeping ourselves clear for an audience, and that clarity enhances the power of an argumentative speech.  I told them the thesis has to contain the major talking points of your argument.  So, for example, if you are going to write an essay on why the One Child Policy is bad, you could say something like this, "The One Child Policy negatively impacts development in China because it places too many burdens on children, increases the chances for female infanticide, and does not significantly decrease the growth of Chinese population."


After several classes on introduction and thesis, we moved on to the body paragraphs.  Here, I explained that each paragraph needs to begin with a topic sentence.  This topic sentence should address only one of your argumentative points.  I made comparisons to their debates; a body paragraph is like a written version of one of your claims in your debate.  You need to state the claim in the first (or topic) sentence.  For example, if we used the example from the thesis above, the topic sentence for the first body paragraph might be "The One Child Policy negatively impacts development in China because it places too many burdens on children."  You then need to follow it up with 'hard' evidence, anecdotal evidence, persuasive language.  You also need to acknowledge the other side of the argument, briefly, but remind the audience why (with facts) your claim is more valid. 

My biggest challenge with the body paragraph was getting students to use the 'hard' evidence; these are facts or statistics taken from other sources.  My students seemed more prone to using personal or anecdotal evidence.  I explained that this evidence was fine, but you need the hard evidence as well.  I think this also has to do with the Chinese style of writing; providing these anecdotal examples and allowing the audience to assume correctly the right side of an argument.  I made them compel the audience in no uncertain terms that the argument they were defending was the 'correct' one by making them use hard facts and evidence. I also had a problem with plagiarism.  We discussed citations in class and how to use them, but I still had several students hand me speeches without citations.   This is in part due to the fact that citations are a pain in the ass, no matter where you are teaching.  Additionally, however, plagiarism does not carry the same level of horror in China as it does in the States.  Thus, it took me a while to impress upon them the gravity of stealing someones intellectual property.  However, we eventually got the hang of citations (and I was less worried about them being in strict accordance with APA/MLA/Chicago, and more just pleased that they noted an author or the name of a  website/periodical--small steps!).

We then briefly discussed the conclusion. I  told them they did not need to restate any hard evidence here, merely restate the problem, their claims (in their thesis) and told them to end on a strong and persuasive note.  Here might be a good place for one last anecdote that will swing the audiences opinion in your favor. 

With the speaking practice coming in from the debates, and the writing taking up the majority of our remaining class time, by the end of the semester, I would say about 20 out of the 24 students in my class wrote and delivered excellent argumentative speeches.   They followed the linear format, used wonderful evidence/examples, and had developed their argumentative skills.  We also improved our critical thinking by examining critical issues (that they self-selected*) from multiple view-points.  I would say for those four who did not excel in this area were the result of not particularly enjoying public speaking, being new to the major (switched to English majors from other majors--they did well, but they started behind their classmates and struggled a bit with this task), or in one case just refused to listen to advice and constructive criticism from both teachers and classmates.

I sincerely wish I had video of their final exams, as they all did a wonderful job on their speeches.  However, the flash drive in which I had their speeches saved to is completely dead.  Even those student who struggled in this course showed improvement in their speeches (both in their Oral English and in their ability to write and deliver a persuasive speech).  One of our first assignments of this course was for them to write an short essay telling me why a certain location (typically their hometown) was a great (or bad) place to visit.  These initial argumentative essays pale in comparison to the paragons of persuasion they were able to write, develop, and deliver by the end of the course.

My Argumentative Orators on our final day of class.  Miss these ladies. 

*Self selection is important, always, but in particular with something like this.  If you are going to ask students to research a topic, choose a side, and ask them to defend that side, you need to make sure these are issues they care about.  So even if you know of several fascinating world issues, if they are not relevant to your students, they are not going to care too much about forming an opinion about them.  Thus, my students selected the topics they wanted to research, and had them approved by me--I only said no to issues that did not really have a compelling counterargument...I think I maybe refused two requests?  Thus, in addition to issues such as global warming and the One Child Policy, students also selected issues such as students dating in college, using reality television to find a spouse, colleges requiring morning exercise. 

The Cramped Canals of Xitang

Xitang is sort of the epitome of a tourist town in China.  It is the place that all the people in the larger cities in Zhejiang Province (and surrounding provinces on the east coast) go to visit.  It's sort of like the Renaissance Fair of China, and like Renaissance Fairs, it is a mix of the authentic, the unauthentic,and the trying to recapture the authentic.   But I'll spare you my rant on Renaissance Fairs and skip right to Xitang.

Like Fenghuang, Xitang is a canal town with old-style architecture.  Unlike Fenghuang, Xitang is much smaller, lacks those cool stilts, and has sort of a different attitude.  While the native population of Fenghuang seemed to enjoy working and living in this tourist area, the people of Xitang were quite obviously over it.  Xitang is also quite small; it's streets compacted into a very tiny area, meaning you can see pretty much all there is to see of Xitang in a day.  These narrow streets are actually what Xitang is most famous for; some of them are barely wide enough to fit down; your shoulders occasionally brushing the edges of the most narrow pathways.   However cool these tiny pathways are, when you try to cram the multitude that swarms to Xitang during peak tourist season into these tiny pathways....well, you get over Xitang really quickly.  It's a lot of being crammed uncomfortably close to hordes of strangers trying to push their way through in both directions along a path that is just a little wider than your average side walk.  Add in summer heat, and its a tad uncomfortable.

Check out those narrow streets!

That being said, if you are in Zhejiang province, I would still go and see it.  They have some really beautiful stone bridges along the canal--those beautiful curved ones, and when the water is still (which it typically is, being a canal) you can see the bridge reflected in the water.  They also have these guys rowing down the canal.  I have no idea if they are actually working on cleaning up the canal, as you can occasionally see them fishing stuff out of it, or if they are there solely to enhance that old-time feel of the place.  There are also larger boats if you are feeling like cruising down the canal, you can take a boat ride.  At night the tourists buy and then light hand made paper-boats and float them down the canal and lanterns are strung up across buildings. The pictures of the canal and the architecture, and the bridges are totally worth a trip to Xitang...I just wouldn't stay for more than a day or two....and I wouldn't go back.

Boat and such. 

Night shots!

Another neat thing to do in Xitang is the shopping.  Almost all of the buildings along the streets are stores or restaurants of some kind, and Xitang does provide some neat shopping opportunities that you don't typically find in the big cities.  So if you are looking for some quirky folksy stuff  (though many places here do not barter), shopping here can be fun.

Restaurants here are also an adventure.  Since you are in a smaller city (but still large by American standards) many of the menus have a limited (if any) picture menu.  So if you are not feeling any of the dishes on the picture menu, and you only have a few dishes memorized, you might need to take some risks.  That is what I did; I assumed the cheapest items on the menu were the vegetables, because in my experience that is typically true.  So I pointed at dish entirely in Chinese characters, but only six yuan...it turned out to be snails.  Which we ate and were quite good, but if snails are not your thing, I would stick to the picture menus...or go into a crowded restaurant and just point to dishes other patrons are eating and say "I want that.". Like I said, Xitang is a pretty small historic district located in a fairly large city...so if you can't find something to eat here (and they have hostels and American-style bars that sell familiar food in the historic district as well) you can venture outside of the historic section and go find a KFC.  But be careful, they sometimes will make you pay (50 yuan) to get back into the historic section if you leave, particularly during peak tourist times, and if you cannot find your ticket stub.   You can actually avoid the ticket price all together if you stay at one of the hotels or hostels in the district; many of them have a front door that it outside of the historic zone and a back door that opens into it; if you stay there, you do not need a ticket as long as you exit and enter through you hotel/hostel.

This is Justin on the phone with his girlfriend, who is Chinese....and then our waitress on the phone with Justin's girlfriend.  We are trying to figure out our menu. 

To the left and center are a clothing store and a tea shop, to the right is some street food. 

Xitang has the honor of being the first place that I traveled to after arriving in China.  During National Holiday Week Justin, Liv, Zach, and I made the quick three hour bus ride from Hangzhou to Xitang.  From the bus you take a rickshaw a short distance to the historic center.  We stayed in a room above the bar--and were really glad that it was still warm and dry weather, because that place was not what I would consider insulated.  We spent about 36 hours in the town exploring, shopping, eating, and taking ridiculous pictures.  It was a really nice, short trip--a good first foray into travel. Of course, being my first adventure, everything was new and shiny and awesome.  I took a friend who visited me to Xitang a little over a half year later, and while she enjoyed the novelty of the place (though not the crowds and the heat) I found myself less impressed with Xitang than I was the first time.  So while I recommend visiting the place, I don't recommend going back for a second visit.

Rickshaw Rides!

I come down kinda hard on Xitang here, but it really is a great place to visit...just not necessarily to revisit.

Many of these very pretty pictures are courtesy of Dr B, who I dragged through these crowded streets in the height of sweltering summer weather.

Critical Thinking and Speaking--Debates

So, as I have mentioned in some of my other posts about teaching in China, my second year I was given a couple of new courses.  Cross Cultural Reading, which I discussed earlier in the this blog, and the other course was called Critical Thinking and Speaking.

This was not really explained to me in great depth, but I was told that it was supposed to focus on improving critical thinking and both offer more opportunity for oral speaking and also improve their oral speaking skills.  So it was kind of like Oral Speaking through Critical Thinking.  Or vice-versa.

As I have also mentioned, the teachers were not given a great deal of direction (or limitations) in how to go about teaching these courses, and since this was my second year, I was sort of excited (rather than terrified) to be designing these courses with only minimal direction.

I decided to focus the course around argumentative speaking and writing.  I cut the course in half, with the first half of the year focusing on debates (which is what I am going to expand upon in this post) and the second half of the year focusing on argumentative speeches (both writing them and delivering them).   Having never really taught or participated in a formal debate, I spent my summer doing some research into how best to approach teaching debate.

During my first class, after we went over the syllabus and my expectations, we brainstormed some controversial topics, both in China and in the rest of the world.  We came up with a list that included the one child policy, drunk driving, mandatory morning exercise for college students, cell phone usage in schools, mandatory dorm inspections, having English majors take every class in English, dating in college, school uniforms, working while in school, online shopping, and the use of social networking to name only a few.

I received a less than enthusiastic response to the idea of debates, but in class I didn't really think anything of it--my students do not particularly like projects that single them out in front of other students and ask them to speak (I think very few people actually enjoy this).  However, later that night I received a phone call from my professor (who got me this teaching job) telling me that she had received several emails from the students, each of them very nervous about doing debates.  We talked for a while to see if we could figure out the root of this problem.  It turns out they had another class in the previous year that featured debates and they were very frustrated by this class.  They did not succeed in this class, and they were afraid of failing at debates again, especially if debates made up half their grade for the course.  However,  I assured her (and my students during our next class) that I would be very explicit in explaining how our debates would be carried out, what my students would need to do to succeed, and how I would be grading them.   This seemed to calm my students down, however I could tell they were still a little apprehensive.

I used this website in my research on how to construct a debate.  I separated the class into groups of three.  Each week, two groups would debate against each other over one of our pre-approved topics (and a couple I threw in there to mix things up bit).  The groups debating and the topic given to them would be assigned by me the week earlier--both groups would have a full week to research, prepare, and practice for their debate.  The class would determine the winner by determining which group provided the best and most compelling argument--well presented, logical, back by fact/examples, and persuasive.

Of course, I didn't just throw them into this.  We spent a whole class doing "practice:"debates.  We began by looking at the different kinds of information in each argument--the claims, the examples, and the persuasive language.  Claims being your argument.  For example:  "The one child policy is bad because it leaves all the financial burdens for caring for ones parents on the shoulders of one individual."   This is a good claim because it clearly tells the positive or negative (in this case, negative) and lists a concrete reason why one-child is bad.  The examples to support this claim would be specific data from credible sources that support the financial burden of the one child policy on only children.  A possible example of a specific, fact-based example could be

" In China, the percentage of the population over the age of 65 years was 5 percent in 1982 and now stands at 7.5 percent but is expected to rise to more than 15 percent by 2025.28 Although these figures are lower than those in most industrialized countries (especially Japan, where the proportion of people over the age of 65 years is 20 percent), a lack of adequate pension coverage in China means that financial dependence on offspring is still necessary for approximately 70 percent of elderly people" (Zhu, Wei Xing,, M.P.H, Lu Li, M.D., and Therese Hesketh, Ph.D. "The New England Journal of Medicine." The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years — NEJM. New England Journal of Medicine, 15 Sept. 2005. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.)

The student would then back it up with a few more similar examples relating to financial burden on children and the One Child Policy.  It is also important to remind them to only make one claim at a time.  So if they are talking about the financial burden, do not also talk about female infanticide, and do not provide any examples that do not specifically relate to the financial burden of the one-child policy.  One claim (or argumentative point) per person, backed up with examples.   The final part of the debate is using persuasive language.  This is a mix of how you present the data in the claim and examples as well as providing personal or anecdotal examples.  For example, after the hard (factual) evidence, you can encourage your students to say something like this: "Imagine being barely 30 years old, starting your family, still working your way up in your career, paying of debt from school, and trying to make ends meet while also finding yourself caring for your retired parents.  How will you manage?!"

Our practice debates were on fairly common topics, and I provided short readings so they could give concrete examples during their practicing without having to waste too  much of our limited class time on research.  We  made claims together, searched out facts, and practiced using persuasive language in whole group and small group.

When the debates began, the first person of the group launches their opening argument.   I usually began with the affirmative side, the side that was in favor, or defending, whatever our particular argument for that day was. So, for example, if the topic for that day was the One Child Policy, the people in favor of the policy would list their first claim backed up by fact-based examples and anecdotal evidence.  Next, the group who disagrees with the argument , or the negative team, lists their first claim and supportive evidence. So the person speaking would only mention one claim (or point in their argument) per turn, with evidence.  When one team is speaking, the other team is taking notes.  When two people from each team have spoken (both groups have introduced their two most compelling claims with evidence), I give them 5-7 minutes to compare notes and formulate their rebuttal.  Each group is then allowed a rebuttal, where they defend their position by providing counterarguments to the claims the opposite team had introduced.  When both groups have moved through all three parts of this debate, the teams leave the classroom, and the rest of the class then determines the winner, with the teacher as tie breaker.

So this is a visual I provided for my students on how the debates were going to look each time.  I have found with any student, but especially EFL students, it is good to provide visuals when possible.  This also helped me keep myself organized. 

I also created a rubric for assessing each group as they debated.  This would help our class determine the winner of the debate, especially if the debate was close.  These were collected and used as a participation grade.  Students were graded on individual contributions /performances in their in-class debates, as well as how they worked as a group--did each member's argument flow from on member to another?   Did it feel as if they worked together or just did their parts individually and wing it? Did each team's rebuttal address the points made by the opposing team and provide compelling (and fact-based) counterarguments?  On an individual basis: were their debates logical and fluid (claim, examples, persuasive language) and focused?  Each team debated once during the first half of the semester and their midterms were debates.  Throughout the semester, we worked on body language during a performance, persuasive language, and how to make our argument stronger.  In retrospect, I could probably have spent an entire semester on this, perfecting their debate skills.

While some of my students retained a steadfast dislike of debates, most of them grew to understand and tolerate them, with a handful of them actually enjoying it.  All of them improved the ability to craft an argument in a formal debate, and improved their critical thinking skills.   Debates take a long time to set up if you want to maximize student learning and really learn debates.  We didn't start actually doing the official debates until the fourth class--the first three classes were all "how to" classes, and throughout the remainder of the semester we learned ways to improve our debates for our midterms.  I think modeling exactly what I expected of them, and being very clear about my expectations eased some of their anxieties about debate.  I actually had a lot of fun teaching debates, and what we learned in terms of formulating an argument for a debate segued nicely into the second half of the semester: argumentative speeches.  We also began turning debates into argumentative speeches in the first half of the semester, after each debate.  We would learn about the purpose, how to craft introductions, theses, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Not only do debates improve critical thinking, but it also improves authentic oral language--students cannot fully memorize responses to a debate; the other team might throw out an unexpected response, and they will have to craft a spontaneous response, using their knowledge of English rather than relying on memorization. During the rebuttal, they have to synthesize what they have learned from the opposite team in order to create a logical rebuttal that addresses the opposite teams initial claims (arguments).  They should, having researched the topic, have some knowledge of the counterargument, they cannot fully prepare for what the other team is going to discuss,and they must craft this language in the 5 minutes they are given to prepare the rebuttal.  I have found that many times Chinese students seem to rely heavily on memorization, and this forced them to rely on it somewhat less.  I found it a good way to begin a class on argumentative speeches, but admit that the whole course probably could have centered around debate.  In a later post I will talk about the speeches we wrote and delivered.

Fenghuang: Phoenix Town

So I realize that I have actually posted about our Summer 2012 Epic in reverse chronological order. We went from Hangzhou to Fenghuang to Zhangjiajie to Xi'an and then back to Hangzhou; my blog posts, however, actually take you in reverse order.  So I figured I would make this reverse journey complete and finally post about our first destination, a lovely little canal town called Fenghuang, which translates to Phoenix (which is apparently what they call peacocks--which in my opinion makes peacocks sound even more awesome then they already are).

So, before I get to Fenghuang, let me talk a little about the planning of Budget Tour.  Liv and I decided that we wanted to see more of China, and that we wanted to do it without spending a lot of money (Chinese income + American debt = not so much disposable income).  Thankfully, China can provide just that kind of travel experience for those who are willing to be a bit more adventurous and spend a few hours in less than ideal travel conditions.  However, neither of us had any concrete idea of what we wanted to see in China...Liv was more interested in seeing some natural wonders, and I was interested in seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors--and other historic kinds of architecture.   So we decided to do a trip that was half man-made, half natural wonders.  The planning of this trip was largely placed on Liv's very capable shoulders.

After a couple of weeks of flipping through the Lonely Planet: China Guide, plotting out different potential sites along a very general path (starts in Hangzhou, ends in Xi'an), we came up with a game plan.  (And by 'we', I pretty much mean Liv--she contacted most of the hostels, figured out all the trains and buses, and wrote down all our information in English and Chinese).  Our plan was to go from Hangzhou to Fenghuang, from there onto Zhangjiajie, and then finally end up in Xi'an before heading back home to Hangzhou.  We would do this by taking the cheapest, or next to cheapest, trains available, and we would be staying in hostels.

Before I get into the lovely Fenghuang, let me tell you a little bit about China's train system.  China has fantastic public transportation.  We opted for one of cheaper trains which took us from Hangzhou to Fenghuang in about 21 hours.  This was not a sleeper car, although we tried our hardest to get sleeper cars on as much of this trip as possible--they get booked up pretty fast, so we actually only managed a sleeper for one leg of our journey.  Our trip included a lot of sitting upright and being smooshed together for long periods of time--our trains rides were all between 21 and 27 hours long. It was often uncomfortable.  But this trip was 1,000% worth it.  Liv spent a lot of time sleeping, I read Game of Thrones, and we both honed our card game skills.

Pretty stoked for the first leg of our journey!  And yes, those trains are just as crowded as they look.

Our glamorous travel.  The pic on the far left is a man selling legs of chicken out at the train window while we were stopped at  station. We were very confused. 

It should also be noted that this trip was our first big solo adventure.  What I mean by that is that we did not have anyone with us who had been in China for many years and who spoke Chinese fluently.  We also did not just fly into the city with the only travel concern being our taxi from the airport to the hostel and back.  This was pretty hardcore, and we were pretty much all on our own--for two full weeks.  And we planned this trip without too much advice from our China-expert friends.  So there were a few moments during this trip (mostly during transitions between locations) that were a little bit scary.

But hey, what's an adventure without a little nerves, am I right?

Maybe you can see why we were a tad nervous at times...

We arrived in Fenghuang in the middle of the afternoon. The touristy part of this town--the sections along the river, with the notable stilt homes, is not very large, and it did not take us more than about 10 minutes of wandering through this touristy section to locate our hostel. (Although it did take a few minutes to locate the touristy part of Fenghuang--this was one of those slightly scary moments).  It probably took us longer than it should of to find our hostel, because we were (despite a considerable lack of sleep) distracted by what we were seeing...but I'll get to that in a minute.

We found our hostel (cute and kind of off-beat--following the pattern of hostels in China) and checked in.  Our hostel was fine, although since the whole town is wedged along this river, our hostel was a tad on the damp side.  And our whole bathroom was the shower, with the toilet (a squat toilet--which is unusual for hostels) that served as both a toilet and a drain for our shower. The bathroom was unpleasant.  But the rest was clean and comfortable, and so we were pretty happy.  We dropped off all our stuff, and headed out the door to explore a bit and find food.   We walked a few doors down from our hostel and ordered a really early dinner (it was probably about 3:00 pm).  We then walked around a bit, but we both sort of decided to wait to really sink our teeth into sightseeing until the next day, as we'd pretty much been awake for a full day.  Thus, we walked back to our hostel and passed out around 6:00pm.  We slept for a good 14 hours. Sadly, I have no pictures of this hostel.

The food of Fenghuang. Sooooooooooo Good. The pics at the end are these wonderful egg pockets they make. Like the world's greatest egg McMuffin.

Having turned in so early the day before, we were wide awake by about 8:00 in the morning.  We ate breakfast at our hostel (an indulgence that I engaged in at almost every hostel I've ever stayed at--they offer good old fashioned American breakfasts), bought a tourist map of Fenghuang, and then hit the town.

Our first morning in Fenghuang.

This town is cute, and different from other canal towns I have been in.  First, it's larger than some of the other canal towns, which means you are not just walking around the same four streets. It also means that you are not fighting against streams of thousands of people through this itty bitt touristy town.  Additionally, the stilt architecture was new (not something I had seen in similar towns) and made for some really cool views of the river, with this hodgepodge of buildings jutting out over the water.  Many of these homes, hotels, and restaurants had balcony seating looking out over these rivers. Finally, since Fenghuang is somewhat further off the beaten track, being all the way in Hunan Province, it doesn't have that sad, overused, over-hyped quality to it.  And the people who lived there didn't look miserable because they were not constantly being packed with tourists.  I mean, there were a lot of people there, but it wasn't so packed you were fighting to get through some of the narrower streets.  And is just had an altogether different vibe.

Some  scenic shots of Fenghuang.

Some More!

As a tourist to the town, you could walk along the river, take pictures, wade into the stream, or take a boat ride up and down the river.  On the streets that did not run directly next to the river, you could find little shops selling every possible kind of souvenir and trinket.  There were also several other restaurants, hotels/hostels, and even a few nightclubs.  We stumbled upon a really great little cafe whose name had something to do with birds--Sparrow Cafe? Swallow Cafe? We indulged in properly made coffee and pizza (both were sort of hit or miss the further away from big cities you got).  We visited this place a couple of times...until the police came in right when we were about to leave and shut it down because the boss didn't pay their rent that month.  Whoops.  Liv also got locked in the bathroom for like a solid 15 minutes; the lock was screwy and would not unlock, despite banging, wiggling, and yelling.  But they had this really cute friendly cat! And pizza!!

Swallow Cafe...or something. It was wonderful.

So what is it exactly that is so appealing about Fenghuang?  It's one of those towns that has preserved an older form of architecture (preserved, and rehabbed), and it is located in the middle of an otherwise modern city.  The stilt architecture means that the structures along the river jut out in a hodgepodge, yet still appealing way, creating a really interesting harmony between man and nature.  There are no cars or mopeds through this older section of the city, which is a nice change from the rest of China. You can get some common, and not so common, trinkets from the many vendors around the town, and as someone who had never been to Hunan province before, you can try some new kinds of food.  I highly recommend being adventurous with the food in this province--it was really good.  Even the street food--we had these fried egg pockets for breakfast one morning that were amazing. 

Fenghuang at night.

We stayed in Fenghuang for about a solid two days before catching a bus and heading to Zhangjiajie.  During that time, we spent a lot of time walking, snapping pictures of those cool stilts (and being asked to be in other people's pics, of course), eating local food, and in general just relaxing.   Both of us had just had friends and family visit us from home, and while that time is precious, it can also be exhausting.   So just chilling next to a river, reading a bit, and drinking coffee was an excellent and relaxing way to begin Budget Tour--one of the most epic trips of my life.

For other stops on this epic trip, check out here, here, and here