I've posted so much on my travels that it's time to post on campus life. Last Saturday was the 50th anniversary of Tianjin University of Finance and Economics (TUFE). In the two weeks leading up the the anniversary celebration, we saw a sudden surge in construction and beautifying activities around the campus. One of the normally shut off/broken elevators was suddenly functioning again, workers went around testing every light bulb in building hallways, bathrooms were cleaner, colorful flags were hung along major walkways and (this is the biggest deal) this really old and dilapidated building in the center of campus was torn down and converted into a tree-lined park within a week! Every day, I would smile at the irony. The school's allowed light bulbs and elevators to stay broken for months and years, and suddenly in two weeks, to show a pretty face to alumni, it's getting its act together. Wonder how long this superficial act will last...
In celebration of the 50th Anniversary, TUFE also set up a stage and lined up a number of student performances for Saturday evening. Having heard some of my students say they might perform in one of the acts, I decided to go have a look. Not wanting to go by myself, I called up my MBA students to go with them. Man, it was torture sitting through all those Chinese folk dances and folk music performances. First of all, the level of performance was totally amateur and completely gawdy. It was exactly like those New Year's celebration dancing and high-pitched singing that you see on Chinese channels, only worse. I was taken back to Chinese school growing up and having to sit through two freaking hours of evening school celebrations every semester. You'd have to watch little kids dancing cheesy, sugary sweet dances and older kids dressed in shabby Chinese costumes that were clearly reused year after year. Back then, I didn't have a choice, but now, at 25, I DO have a choice, and yet I still had to sit through the lame Chinese dances. Why? Because of peer pressure. My two MBA students looooved it. I can't tell you how shocked I was to know such old-fashioned people. Even my undergraduate English majors told me this week that most of them either skipped the performances altogether or watched a couple and left because they were so bad. Yet these two older MBA students loooved it. Maybe it's their rural background and they'd never seen anything like this before. Maybe rural folks love this kind of folk music and dance. My goodness. There were too many people standing in the audience area to get a good view of the performers, so they led my along this whole roundabout way to sneak into the front. I frankly could have cared less and was not thrilled about scurrying about from backstage to front stage to find a good spot, but they were adamant. Finally, we score a spot on the floor in the front of the audience, and they keep asking me to take out my camera to take pictures, "it's so pretty," "take pictures of this, Nina." I just kept thinking: "No, I don't care about these performances. The photo's not going to turn out nice b/c it's too dark." Finally, I just handed them my camera and let them take pictures of what they wanted. If I'd been by myself, I would have left after about 5 minutes, but instead, I was roped in and forced to stay for the whole thing.
I've posted so much on my travels that it's time to post on campus life. Last Saturday was the 50th anniversary of Tianjin University of Finance and Economics (TUFE). In the two weeks leading up the the anniversary celebration, we saw a sudden surge in construction and beautifying activities around the campus. One of the normally shut off/broken elevators was suddenly functioning again, workers went around testing every light bulb in building hallways, bathrooms were cleaner, colorful flags were hung along major walkways and (this is the biggest deal) this really old and dilapidated building in the center of campus was torn down and converted into a tree-lined park within a week! Every day, I would smile at the irony. The school's allowed light bulbs and elevators to stay broken for months and years, and suddenly in two weeks, to show a pretty face to alumni, it's getting its act together. Wonder how long this superficial act will last...
In celebration of the 50th Anniversary, TUFE also set up a stage and lined up a number of student performances for Saturday evening. Having heard some of my students say they might perform in one of the acts, I decided to go have a look. Not wanting to go by myself, I called up my MBA students to go with them. Man, it was torture sitting through all those Chinese folk dances and folk music performances. First of all, the level of performance was totally amateur and completely gawdy. It was exactly like those New Year's celebration dancing and high-pitched singing that you see on Chinese channels, only worse. I was taken back to Chinese school growing up and having to sit through two freaking hours of evening school celebrations every semester. You'd have to watch little kids dancing cheesy, sugary sweet dances and older kids dressed in shabby Chinese costumes that were clearly reused year after year. Back then, I didn't have a choice, but now, at 25, I DO have a choice, and yet I still had to sit through the lame Chinese dances. Why? Because of peer pressure. My two MBA students looooved it. I can't tell you how shocked I was to know such old-fashioned people. Even my undergraduate English majors told me this week that most of them either skipped the performances altogether or watched a couple and left because they were so bad. Yet these two older MBA students loooved it. Maybe it's their rural background and they'd never seen anything like this before. Maybe rural folks love this kind of folk music and dance. My goodness. There were too many people standing in the audience area to get a good view of the performers, so they led my along this whole roundabout way to sneak into the front. I frankly could have cared less and was not thrilled about scurrying about from backstage to front stage to find a good spot, but they were adamant. Finally, we score a spot on the floor in the front of the audience, and they keep asking me to take out my camera to take pictures, "it's so pretty," "take pictures of this, Nina." I just kept thinking: "No, I don't care about these performances. The photo's not going to turn out nice b/c it's too dark." Finally, I just handed them my camera and let them take pictures of what they wanted. If I'd been by myself, I would have left after about 5 minutes, but instead, I was roped in and forced to stay for the whole thing.
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