A Teacher Goes Deep Into China

INTRODUCTION...February 1988: I set out to start on a teaching
assignment in a closed area of China where I was to be the only
foreigner in Yishan County, population of about half a million Chinese.
Most of them had never met a foreigner before my arrival.

PART 1...THE INVITATION:

I had to get an invitation from the Ministry of Education in Nanning,
capital of Guangxi Province in order to accept an offer from the Hechi
Teachers' College, Yishan County, Guangxi Province, People's Republic
of China. Why? Because Yishan County was closed to foreign visitors due
to a lack of adequate tourist facilities. The name of the county was
changed a couple of years ago to Yizhou and thrown open to foreign
tourists, but things were different back in 1988.

From a background briefing which I had prior to departure I learnt that
the Hechi Teachers' College trains teachers in a variety of faculties
and, after graduation, sends them out to the middle schools of Guangxi
Province, mainly in poor country areas, to teach a varied syllabus,
including English as a foreign language.

My job was to introduce a method of teaching English known as "the
communicative approach" and not only to train the English Department
undergraduates in this approach, but also to improve their
communicative competence in the English language.

I had quite a journey before I reached the College. I flew to Guangzhou
(Canton) via Bangkok and Hong Kong where I was met by Mr Ye, a foreign
affairs official from the Guangzhou University of Foreign Affairs. He
gave me the VIP treatment I was soon to experience as a "foreign
expert" in the People's Republic.

He ushered me past the somber-looking customs people into a mini-bus
and on to the University. I was quite travel-tired by then and was
grateful for the comfortable double room with an ensuite bathroom
(Western style) where I was able to get a good night's sleep.

Next morning after a tasty Chinese breakfast Mr.Ye told me that the
University was founded in 1965 and was the first institute of higher
education in central and south China. It is set in a beautiful and
tranquil part of Guangzhou's northern suburbs at the foot of a mountain
called Baiyun (White Cloud).

After breakfast I had a marvelous experience: a visit to the Flower
Market in Guangzhou, part of the Spring Festival when Chinese celebrate
their New Year. The whole of the city's central area was closed to
traffic and transformed into a gigantic pedestrian mall. This
arrangement enabled citizens and visitors to wander through row after
row of stalls filled with exotic flowers, small trees, fish and birds
offered for sale by peasants from the rural regions of Guangdong
Province.

On the way into the city in a bus with Mr.Ye, his wife and a party of
foreign experts from the U.S.A., we drove slowly through milling crowds
rushing through the streets on foot, on waves of bicycles, in buses and
other vehicles. The sight was so unusual to my eyes that it left me
breathless!

For another two days I wandered around the University campus and
climbed Baiyun Mountain on the top of which is a fascinating lake. The
scene was something from a delicately woven Chinese greetings card. At
the other end of the lake was a restaurant of Chinese architectural
design and along the shore to the right I saw small coloured boats
swaying side by side waiting for someone to hire them. Time,
unfortunately, prevented me from the pleasure of rowing out into the
middle of the lake and enjoying the tranquil ambience from that vantage
point.

After a few days of these simple, yet unique pleasures, and in spite of
the wonderful hospitality, I was anxious to reach the destination where
I was to live and work in the large county of Yishan. The thought of
being the only foreigner in this county of over half a million Chinese
excited me and I wanted to get on with it. The ever-attentive and
obliging Mr. Ye assisted me to catch a train to the city of Luizhou in
Guangxi Province where I arrived at 7am after a journey of 24
hours.

Part 2...THE ARRIVAL:

The Dean of the English Department at the Teachers' College, Mr Zhou
Yi, together with some senior teachers and a representative of the
College President greeted me at Luizhou Railway Station. Three hours
later we drove through the gates of the College.

My first experience of a well-established Chinese custom came the
evening after my arrival at Hechi Teachers' College. I had been
installed in my spacious, self-contained apartment -a privilege for a
single person- and now it was time for my welcoming banquet. Because a
"foreign expert" is regarded as a VIP (at least in that remote part of
China) the banquet was hosted by the College president, Mr. Liao, and
attended by three vice- presidents, several senior teaching and
administrative staff, some local dignitaries (including the county's
Head of Security and a representative of the Governor) and the driver
of the car which had transported me from Liuzhou to Yishan.

It was jolly affair with lots of welcoming speeches and a convivial
atmosphere which increased in volume as the Chinese wine enlivened the
spirits of those present. I wonder how you would have liked the food
which included frog, saut?ed chicken gizzard and liver, and fried
duck's legs in sauce. All this was complimented by the rice wine and a
plentiful supply of local beer.

Next morning I had a hearty breakfast of rice noodles, corn porridge,
some small spongy cakes, a doughy-looking off-white morsel with a sweet
centre and a couple of bowls of warm milk.

Part 3...SETTLING IN:

Once I began teaching I realised the size of the College. The English
Department had nearly two hundred students and, in those days, was one
of six departments offering courses to about a thousand students. There
were four hundred teaching staff. The students came from all over the
prefecture of Hechi, a remote mountainous area composed of several
counties with a population of nearly five million people.

Most of the students belong to one or other of the fifty-five minority
nationalities that make up the truly multi-cultural nation of China.
The majority of Chinese people are the Han nationality, but the
minority people have a total population of over four million. Having
students from such a variety of backgrounds provided me with a rare
educational experience.

Another bonus for me was that my students lived, worked and played on
the College campus. I was, therefore, able to assist their learning
during most of my waking hours because I lived, worked and played with
them. This was quite a contrast to my situation at Curtin University in
Western Australia where my main contact with students was during
official lesson periods.

Being the only foreigner on campus I had quite a lot of attention from
what I called "staring squads" both at the College and in the little
town of Yishan which was situated opposite the campus on the other side
of the beautiful Long Jiang (the Dragon River). After a month or so,
however, everyone had become accustomed to my face as I walked through
the town or the College grounds; and so my walks were then usually
punctuated with friendly "hellos" from all, including the delightful
children from the kindergarten opposite my apartment block.

On one of these walks I met with a Chinese custom which slightly
nonplussed me at first. On my daily walks to the town area for shopping
I would pass many residences. In summer many of the occupants would
leave their front doors open because of the heat and sit in the front
room eating their meals. As I passed by they would call out friendly
greetings to me and, lifting their bowls towards me, indicate that they
were inviting me to join them.

At first I was at a loss to know how to respond. However, I learnt from
the students (who always insisted on accompanying me on these forays)
that the gestures were merely symbolic and traditional and that I was
not expected to accept. After a while the custom ceased to embarrass me
and I was able to handle it by smiling and saying, "Xie xie" (Thank you
very much) and move on without offending anyone.

Many of the students, the town people and, certainly, the rural
peasants (as the farmers were known) had never before set eyes on a
foreigner. After a time, though, they all got used to me: the "staring
squads" diminished in number and finally dwindled to the occasional
small circle. As a result I constantly got invitations to banquets
within the College and in the homes of town residents and teachers from
other educational faculties.

One school called the Construction Primary School invited me to a music
and dance performance staged especially for me. At that event I was
presented with gifts and was made an honorary instructor and member of
the equivalent of our cub and scouts movement: the Young Pioneers. This
entailed being the centre of a ceremony during which I was presented
with a neckerchief to wear as a symbol of the honour bestowed upon
me.

All of these experiences were new to me as I had never lived and worked
in an Asian country before. The Yishan experience was unique because of
the status thrust upon me in my role as the only foreigner in the whole
county.

? Patrick Talty 2003, All Rights Reserved.