It's movie time

Hello Friends!

Over the last two and a half weeks, three of my friends and I have been working on a video project for Chinese class. The video's requirements were that it be at least twenty minutes long, half of the movie must be shot off campus, and only Chinese may be spoken in the movie. When the project is due, all of the students then showcase their films at a movie festival held by our study abroad program.

Last night was the film festival and all of the nights of not sleeping, putting off Chinese homework, and hours upon hours of filming paid off. Last semester we also made a film and felt a little bit cheated as it didn't quite turn out the way we wanted to. The film turned out great and I really feel like we impressed our teachers and our peers. I'll post the film to my facebook when we get it converted and everything. I really recommend anyone who reads this to watch it.

In other news, two weekends ago I travelled to Shaolin Temple. The once humble temple has now been transformed into an international tourist attraction. So while, kicking it with all of the real karate kids I had the opportunity to see Chinese commercialization at it's finest. We toured the temple, learned some kungfu from our tour guide, and even watched a kungfu performance in between many planned photo ops for tourist seeking to spend money on obtaining a photograph with authentic Shaolin monks.

What I thought most interesting on this trip was the description of how kungfu can be used to view the world or understand life, culture, etc. I'll give you one example that our tour guide explained to us. He talked about how when you punch you don't want to over- extend cause then you're vulnerable, but you also don't want to throw a punch that extends all of a foot in front of your body because that's weak. He then explained that this can be used to understand why Chinese people often give very ambiguous answers to questions such as, " do you like my jacket, what do you think about this shoes, is the food good." More often than not a Chinese person will answer "hai keyi" to those kinds of questions. That translates into it/that's okay, or it/that's not bad. Our guide then explained that if you give an ambiguous answer you can't offend the person whose question you're answering and you also don't look silly in saying "I love your jacket" to be received by a "really? I hate this, my girlfriend makes me wear it."

Also, this past Saturday night I finally started back up the "text" study that we had last semester. It was really good to get the back going.

Possibly the most exciting news is that my parents are arriving in Beijing this Friday night and will be here for a little over a week. I can't wait to introduce them to my home- stay and all of my friends.

God Bless,

Colton

A quick update!!

Good Morning Friends!

I have been quite busy lately. I don't know what it is about this semester, but the pace of life seems like it picked up two fold.

I'm going to end this post with the three most interesting things that have happened within the last week and a half to give more incentive to those who are like me and have a tendency to start reading something and then stop because they realize what they are reading is a bit lengthy (hopefully my posts aren't that long).

So to start, if you haven't been paying attention to World News lately it seems like every country in the World that doesn't have democratic government is now demanding one, or perhaps just a new leader. Well, some have even thrown China into this conversation and some people have tried to organize a "Jasmine Revolution" in China. The only problem, no one wants to show up. Our two program directors actually hosted a talk on this phenomenon where we discussed why nothing is going to happen in China. I'll highlight a few major reasons we discussed. The Communist government has gotten really good at suppressing any problems and keeping protesters from networking with other classes, industries, or parts of the country that have problems. Another is the fact that most everyone's life in China has gotten better in the last 30 years. Raising millions upon millions out of poverty typically doesn't lead to revolution. Finally, there is a great deal of apathy towards problems among commoners, and there is a lot of trust that given time the problems will be solved. The apathy comes mostly from seeing what protests have done in previous times, been crushed and not completely resolved problems. Also, the apathy is encouraged by the band- aids or short- term fixes the communist government puts on issues that many Chinese have problems with. So I'd say if you've got stock on the Chinese government falling, I wouldn't plan on making that bet your retirement savings now.

A really interesting side note- I got to talk to my home- stay mother about the Tiananmen incident. She was here in Beijing. My homestay mother being older and having many stories has really shown me just how incredible and wise older people are. Still considering myself young at 19, I plan to take more advantage of opportunities to talk to older people about the America and the World that they have seen in their lifetime.

Having now said a little about my homestay mother I'd like to give everyone a bit more background on her. My homestay mother is over sixty years old and has lived in Beijing for almost all of her life. She is the oldest of 6 children who shared an apartment about the size of your average American living room (She told me they slept 4 to a bed). She got married at 29 to a man who had just been released from a work camp following The Cultural Revolution (The average American should know about this, so if you don't, look it up). Then, she had one child, as the Chinese policy allows. Within the last ten years she has had a bit of a rough time. Her husband passed away in 2004 and from what I can tell (no hair) in seeing one of her younger sister's lately and my mother telling me her younger sister might not see another new year, her sister has been diagnosed with cancer. This short bio can't do justice to the incredible woman she is, but I hope it can give all of you a better picture of the woman who has taken the responsibility for taking care of me here in China.

Okay, the final three things

1) I have a few Chinese friends who have been coming to Church with me.

2) I had a really good conversation with one of my friends who typically doesn't like to open up.

3) My home-stay mother convinced a security guard that I was Chinese today without the guy even questioning her. I've officially been Sinocized! hahaha My mom told me to joke with the next person who asks me which country I'm from and say "I'm American- Chinese." I'm looking forward to that conversation.

Well, I hope all is well back in the Red, White, and Blue.

God Bless