Yesterday after giving his graded speech, one of my students begged to give a speech on the second topic for the day, even if I didn't grade him. I said that was OK, and he proceeded to spout a venomous "liberate Taiwan" speech. This has been coming up a lot lately in various classes, and I am getting sick of it. I'm assuming that the students are just repeating what they've been reading or hearing in the news, the part that doesn't get translated into English. One of these days I'm going to get myself in trouble by explaining to my students the difference between "liberation" and "subjugation."
I will say that if China does attack Taiwan, I do not care what the government here says to try to explain it. I will leave this country, and I am not alone in my sentiment.
After class ended, the student wanted to talk to me. We chatted about various things for twenty or thirty minutes, including the questions of why America is richer than China and why doesn't America trust China. I tried to explain to him, very simply and inoffensively, the basic economic differences between capitalism and communism, and I pointed out that China doesn't necessarily trust the US either. He was quite surprised about that. His dad is a government official over here (I don't know what level, but I'm definitely glad that I didn't give that class my rant!), but he said that he'd never heard an outside perspective of Chinese policy before.
Apart from the heavy political bent things have been taking here lately, I'm trying to get ready for my Beijing trip. I leave tonight! I still don't know what I'm doing, and I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to meet up with my friends who will be in town. But it should be an interesting adventure. I don't normally do adventures on my own.
The biggest problem I can foresee is recent pain in my lower right calf that has been building over the last few days. I'm going to have to do a lot of walking in Beijing, and after sanda last night, I was limping pretty badly. (Sanda wasn't the cause, but all the kicking definitely fired things up a bit.) Maybe I'll get to do the Great Wall on crutches. That or see an acupuncturist or foot massager for a quick fix.
Posted by at April 29, 2004 9:07 AM