8/27/2007
A Year from China
My name is Kelly Eaton and I am a political science professor at NWU. As I am writing my first web diary entry, I imagine students packing up their things to head to campus for the new school year. As they do this, I am getting ready to go to China for a year to teach in a joint Chinese-American program in the city of Nanjing.
Nanjing was the capital in what is called the "Republican" era of Chinese history, before the communists took over in 1949. It is a "small" city by Chinese standards - only 7 million residents. I think it is a charming city. There are wide streets and sycamore trees and a nice big lake and a mountain called Purple Mountain where Sun Yatsen is buried. Dr. Sun YatSen is honored by both the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese alike as the founder of post-imperial China.
We lived in Nanjing all last year while I was on my sabbatical. I wanted to go to China to learn more about the transformation underway in this huge country. I want to be able to engage my students at NWU in the study of China and felt it would be beneficial for all concerned for me to brush up on what I know about the country. I lived in Beijing for a year in 1991, and have returned as a tourist several times since then. However, I felt it was a good idea to live there again to allow for a deeper and broader understanding. So my husband, who teaches Chinese politics at UNL and our 13 year old daughter moved to Nanjing in August 2006. My husband taught at the Johns Hopkins Center in Nanjing and our daughter went to the Nanjing International School.
This year I will continue to work on new classes to offer at NWU when I return next year and I will be teaching Chinese graduate students at the Hopkins Center. In addition, I will continue work I started last year when I volunteered as an English teacher in a poor school on the outskirts of Nanjing for the children of migrant workers. Lastly, I hope to continue to learn some Mandarin and to travel within China.
Until next time…
8/31/2007
The Case of the "Lost" Passport:
Traveling in the US and Abroad
My family returned to China this week, but I am not returning for another two weeks. We had a major fiasco at LAX where the ticketing agent for the airline "lost" my husband's passport upon check-in. Not only had I never had such an experience in all the travel I have done, but I have never heard of such a thing. It tainted the whole week and I still can't believe it really happened. Thank goodness we were in Los Angeles and with the police report could get a replacement passport the next day. It is pretty scary to think that, in this day and age there is an active, blatant passport theft ring in a (hopefully heavily monitored) place like LAX. It seems to be very risky behavior on the part of the participants.
We travel so much and often, but sometimes it is the experiences in the most familiar places that really make me think. Last year I spent something like 20 weeks in hotel rooms in Latin America, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Europe and the US. I traveled to Kashgar in the far western reaches of China, very close to the border of Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. My Mom was a little worried about our safety on some of these trips. I wasn't and kept telling her that the most dangerous part of the year was going to be the week we would spend in London in late June/early July. It turned out I was right because we were in London for this summer's car bombing attempts. We had been in that specific part of the city just hours before the first car was discovered.
As a political scientist, I find all this fascinating. Watching the actions of the airline manager as he tried to deal with the "missing" passport and its implications, observing Londoners on the Underground as they go about their daily lives in the face of serious terrorist threats and explaining to my Mom that just because a place is remote and undeveloped that it isn't necessarily more dangerous than a modern European city.
9/6/2007
My First Hurricane:
Riding Out the Hurricane in Cabo San Lucas
I just rode out my first hurricane. I grew up in Southern California so I am used to earthquakes. I have live in Nebraska for 12 years so I am used to violent thunder and lightening storms and the occasional tornado warning. But, this was my first hurricane. It was only a Category 1, but it was a direct hit on Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur where I was visiting some friends of mine who recently moved down there from Los Angeles. It was also the first day on record when a hurricane hit land in the Pacific (Henrietta) and the Atlantic (Felix) on the same day.
The winds were pretty ferocious and the rain was like a heavy thunderstorm that lasted for hours. The arroyo next to my friends' house turned into a river. Their house faired well and there was little damage, but I felt for the folks who live in the make-shift houses in the colonias on the outskirts of town. There was mud everywhere and I am sure it takes quite a lot of time and effort to get things back to normal.
I have one more week before I head back to China. I am trying to get my classes ready. It is different than preparing for my classes at NWU because there is also the cultural component to consider. The university system is different in China and the relationship between the students and professors is different and I always try to stay mindful of this when preparing my classes.
Until next time……………
10/9/2007
Hong Kong for the Holiday
Last week was “Golden Week” in China. It is also called “Autumn Holiday” and the whole country has the week off. People are supposed to go home to visit their family during this time, kind of like Thanksgiving in the U.S. So we all had the week off and decided to do some traveling. It’s interesting, in China everyone is basically on vacation at the same time. The week in October, a week for the Chinese New Year which usually falls in February or January, and the first week of May are the national holidays. It makes travel on the mainland during these times pretty harrowing when you consider there are 1.3 billion people and many are on buses, trains and planes trying to get home.
So, we went to Hong Kong for the holiday. We actually started by flying to Guangzhou (used to be called Canton) where we took the train across the border. Although Hong Kong is now part of China, it is just like crossing between countries when you go from China to Hong Kong. You must have your passport and visa (to get back into China, not into Hong Kong). There is also different currency in Hong Kong - the Hong Kong dollar. Unlike on the mainland, in Hong Kong they drive on the left. Hong Kong was a British colony for a long time and there are still interesting remnants of that time. Anyway, the Chinese call this situation "two systems and one country." Sometimes it just feels like two countries.
I love Hong Kong. When we go to Hong Kong, we actually stay at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and it happens to be a school that NWU has a relationship with through the ISEP program. This means NWU students can study in this university for a year by paying NWU tuition. The gorgeous campus is set on lush hills in the New Territories ( the part of Hong Kong that is closer to the border with the mainland) and classes are taught in Mandarin, Cantonese or English.
10/25/2007
A New Beijing for the Olympics
I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming Beijing Olympics. By now, everyone knows that Beijing has used the opportunity of the Olympics to completely remake itself. It is almost impossible to find any of the “old” Beijing anymore. I lived in Beijing for a year 16 years ago. When I go back to visit I am always shocked that virtually nothing that I remember is left. The dusty two lane street I lived on is now a double decker road. The “hutongs” or alleyways connecting the old courtyard houses are gone along with the courtyard houses. I always thought the old courtyard houses were so charming. Before the communist revolution, each house was a home for one well-to-do family. After the revolution, many families lived in one house. The charm was still there and I loved the sense of adventure I felt riding my bike down the twists and turns of the narrow alleyway.
The reality is, of course, that while I have romantic memories of those neighborhoods, the houses did not have air conditioning and they were poorly heated AND they didn’t have bathrooms and toilets. People who lived in these old houses had to use the public bathrooms on the streets. As usual, there are always several sides to modernization.
But as we near the time for the much anticipated Olympics, my mind goes to the tremendous pollution here. I cant imagine how athletes will perform in this air pollution. If I go on a long walk, my throat feels awful. What if I was running the marathon? The government’s plan is that construction will be finished 6 months before the Olympics and that will give the air time to clear and the workers time to clean the dirt from construction that is everywhere here. We’ll see.
12/8/2007
Bird Flu
I had a strange day this week. I was sitting on my couch in Nanjing watching CNN. I was trying to get information about the shooting in Omaha. I wanted to try to understand what happened because I knew that some of my Chinese students might have questions. Imagine my surprise when I hear a short story about bird flu in China.
First of all the CNN reporter said there was a case of bird flu in a city in southern China. I didn't think much of it because we live in eastern China, but I wanted to know what was going on. At the end of the story they said the case was in Jiangsu - which is the province that I live in. They said a 24 year old who had no known contact with poultry had died. I was surprised since I hadn't heard anything about this from local sources. Later in the day, after talking to some staff members at my university, I found out that the case was not only in Jiangsu province, but in Nanjing AND not only in Nanjing, but a few blocks from where we live and work! Surprisingly there was no visible panic. Even a week later, when the man's father was diagnosed with it also, there was no panic. On the internet they are now calling it the "Nanjing cluster," but I think it is very hard for international health authorities to know what is really going on. Of course all are watching because they are worried about the day that there is human to human transmission. As of yet, they do not know how this man and his father got it. Makes you think....
12/15/2007
The Nanjing Massacre
This week marks the 70th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanjing. After taking Shanghai in early December 1937, the Japanese military marched to Nanjing because it was the capital of China at the time. They killed as many people, including civilans, as they could along the way. Once in Nanjing, they perpetrated unthinkable, horrendous acts. They killed innocent men, women and children by every means imaginable - beheading, torching, disemboweling, even cutting in half. In the end they killed at least 300,000 in Nanjing over the course of a couple of weeks. Tens of thousands of women were raped.
During the course of the era of World War II, the Japanese killed around 18 million Chinese (estimates vary). As the civil defense sirens were sounding on the morning of Dec 13th to commenorate the tragedy, two things were on my mind. First, I can't believe this happened in this city - the city I have been calling home for almost two years now, this city whose streets I have walked, parks I have ridden my bike through, and people I have enjoyed. I've seen the pictures and video footage of the mutilated bodies piled up everywhere, but it still seems unreal. Second, I thought of how we do such a terrible job in the U.S. of teaching about WWII. Most Americans just think about the suffering in Europe. Educated Americans are surprised when they learn about the war in the east and about the devastation in China. I think understanding what happened to and in China in the 1930s and 1940s is key to understanding the pride they feel as their nation rises today. If you want to know more, I recommend the new film "Nanking," or reading Iris Chang's book, The Rape of Nanjing.
3/6/2008
There and Back Again
After some time back in the states visiting friends and family, I am back in Nanjing. It is good to be back, but it is also good to know that in 4 months I'll be moving home. Nanjing experienced the worst winter storm in 50 years while I was gone. The city was paralyzed. They have only one snow plow in a city of 6 million people. Like with most other things, they used sheer manpower to tackle the problem. Anyone who had a shovel used it to clear streets, highways and sidewalks. When we arrived back the last bit of the snow was being scooped up and put into wheelbarrows and dumped down manholes.
While back in the states I visited NWU and was reminded, once again, what a special place it is and how much I miss my students and colleagues. Our peaceful little campus in the middle of the sparsely populated Midwest is certainly the opposite of China in almost everyway - but I am happy that I feel at home in both places.
10/25/07
A New Beijing for the Olympics
I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming Beijing Olympics. By now, everyone knows that Beijing has used the opportunity of the Olympics to completely remake itself. It is almost impossible to find any of the “old” Beijing anymore. I lived in Beijing for a year 16 years ago. When I go back to visit I am always shocked that virtually nothing that I remember is left. The dusty two lane street I lived on is now a double decker road. The “hutongs” or alleyways connecting the old courtyard houses are gone along with the courtyard houses. I always thought the old courtyard houses were so charming. Before the communist revolution, each house was a home for one well-to-do family. After the revolution, many families lived in one house. The charm was still there and I loved the sense of adventure I felt riding my bike down the twists and turns of the narrow alleyway.
The reality is, of course, that while I have romantic memories of those neighborhoods, the houses did not have air conditioning and they were poorly heated AND they didn’t have bathrooms and toilets. People who lived in these old houses had to use the public bathrooms on the streets. As usual, there are always several sides to modernization.
But as we near the time for the much anticipated Olympics, my mind goes to the tremendous pollution here. I cant imagine how athletes will perform in this air pollution. If I go on a long walk, my throat feels awful. What if I was running the marathon? The government’s plan is that construction will be finished 6 months before the Olympics and that will give the air time to clear and the workers time to clean the dirt from construction that is everywhere here. We’ll see.
8/27/07
A Year from China
My name is Kelly Eaton and I am a political science professor at NWU. As I am writing my first web diary entry, I imagine students packing up their things to head to campus for the new school year. As they do this, I am getting ready to go to China for a year to teach in a joint Chinese-American program in the city of Nanjing.
Nanjing was the capital in what is called the "Republican" era of Chinese history, before the communists took over in 1949. It is a "small" city by Chinese standards - only 7 million residents. I think it is a charming city. There are wide streets and sycamore trees and a nice big lake and a mountain called Purple Mountain where Sun Yatsen is buried. Dr. Sun YatSen is honored by both the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese alike as the founder of post-imperial China.
We lived in Nanjing all last year while I was on my sabbatical. I wanted to go to China to learn more about the transformation underway in this huge country. I want to be able to engage my students at NWU in the study of China and felt it would be beneficial for all concerned for me to brush up on what I know about the country. I lived in Beijing for a year in 1991, and have returned as a tourist several times since then. However, I felt it was a good idea to live there again to allow for a deeper and broader understanding. So my husband, who teaches Chinese politics at UNL and our 13 year old daughter moved to Nanjing in August 2006. My husband taught at the Johns Hopkins Center in Nanjing and our daughter went to the Nanjing International School.
This year I will continue to work on new classes to offer at NWU when I return next year and I will be teaching Chinese graduate students at the Hopkins Center. In addition, I will continue work I started last year when I volunteered as an English teacher in a poor school on the outskirts of Nanjing for the children of migrant workers. Lastly, I hope to continue to learn some Mandarin and to travel within China.
Until next time…
8/27/2007
A Year from China
My name is Kelly Eaton and I am a political science professor at NWU. As I am writing my first web diary entry, I imagine students packing up their things to head to campus for the new school year. As they do this, I am getting ready to go to China for a year to teach in a joint Chinese-American program in the city of Nanjing.
Nanjing was the capital in what is called the "Republican" era of Chinese history, before the communists took over in 1949. It is a "small" city by Chinese standards - only 7 million residents. I think it is a charming city. There are wide streets and sycamore trees and a nice big lake and a mountain called Purple Mountain where Sun Yatsen is buried. Dr. Sun YatSen is honored by both the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese alike as the founder of post-imperial China.
We lived in Nanjing all last year while I was on my sabbatical. I wanted to go to China to learn more about the transformation underway in this huge country. I want to be able to engage my students at NWU in the study of China and felt it would be beneficial for all concerned for me to brush up on what I know about the country. I lived in Beijing for a year in 1991, and have returned as a tourist several times since then. However, I felt it was a good idea to live there again to allow for a deeper and broader understanding. So my husband, who teaches Chinese politics at UNL and our 13 year old daughter moved to Nanjing in August 2006. My husband taught at the Johns Hopkins Center in Nanjing and our daughter went to the Nanjing International School.
This year I will continue to work on new classes to offer at NWU when I return next year and I will be teaching Chinese graduate students at the Hopkins Center. In addition, I will continue work I started last year when I volunteered as an English teacher in a poor school on the outskirts of Nanjing for the children of migrant workers. Lastly, I hope to continue to learn some Mandarin and to travel within China.
Until next time…
12/8/07
Bird Flu
I had a strange day this week. I was sitting on my couch in Nanjing watching CNN. I was trying to get information about the shooting in Omaha. I wanted to try to understand what happened because I knew that some of my Chinese students might have questions. Imagine my surprise when I hear a short story about bird flu in China.
First of all the CNN reporter said there was a case of bird flu in a city in southern China. I didn't think much of it because we live in eastern China, but I wanted to know what was going on. At the end of the story they said the case was in Jiangsu - which is the province that I live in. They said a 24 year old who had no known contact with poultry had died. I was surprised since I hadn't heard anything about this from local sources. Later in the day, after talking to some staff members at my university, I found out that the case was not only in Jiangsu province, but in Nanjing AND not only in Nanjing, but a few blocks from where we live and work! Surprisingly there was no visible panic. Even a week later, when the man's father was diagnosed with it also, there was no panic. On the internet they are now calling it the "Nanjing cluster," but I think it is very hard for international health authorities to know what is really going on. Of course all are watching because they are worried about the day that there is human to human transmission. As of yet, they do not know how this man and his father got it. Makes you think....
8/27/2007
A Year from China
My name is Kelly Eaton and I am a political science professor at NWU. As I am writing my first web diary entry, I imagine students packing up their things to head to campus for the new school year. As they do this, I am getting ready to go to China for a year to teach in a joint Chinese-American program in the city of Nanjing.
Nanjing was the capital in what is called the "Republican" era of Chinese history, before the communists took over in 1949. It is a "small" city by Chinese standards - only 7 million residents. I think it is a charming city. There are wide streets and sycamore trees and a nice big lake and a mountain called Purple Mountain where Sun Yatsen is buried. Dr. Sun YatSen is honored by both the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese alike as the founder of post-imperial China.
We lived in Nanjing all last year while I was on my sabbatical. I wanted to go to China to learn more about the transformation underway in this huge country. I want to be able to engage my students at NWU in the study of China and felt it would be beneficial for all concerned for me to brush up on what I know about the country. I lived in Beijing for a year in 1991, and have returned as a tourist several times since then. However, I felt it was a good idea to live there again to allow for a deeper and broader understanding. So my husband, who teaches Chinese politics at UNL and our 13 year old daughter moved to Nanjing in August 2006. My husband taught at the Johns Hopkins Center in Nanjing and our daughter went to the Nanjing International School.
This year I will continue to work on new classes to offer at NWU when I return next year and I will be teaching Chinese graduate students at the Hopkins Center. In addition, I will continue work I started last year when I volunteered as an English teacher in a poor school on the outskirts of Nanjing for the children of migrant workers. Lastly, I hope to continue to learn some Mandarin and to travel within China.
Until next time…
