Wednesdays with Bob

Wednesdays with Bob

Since about the 3rd week of the semester I have had open meetings with students for 2 hours on Wednesday afternoons for whoever wants to come to chat about anything. I was told by somebody in the English department that I didn't have to bother to do this, but I went ahead anyway. I actually had two motives. One was to head off having students come to the apartment because I just don't have the time given my work load. The second was that I really did want to have a chance to get students' views on things but on their own turf. If I just had an open house, only the most outgoing ones would come. I did it this way in Shengyang in the early 90s, and it worked out pretty well.

It has been interesting. The first week I had the most people, about 30, and the first comment/question was what book of the Bible I most recommended them to read. I actually gave a considered and somewhat detailed answer and then went on to tell them that while I thought that it was important to know about Christianity for purposes of understanding western culture, I myself was no longer a believer. I asked them if they were surprised, and indeed they were. Maybe the Christian crowd among the students thought that these sessions would or could be turned into a Bible study group. Well, I gave my reasons for not believing and then the discussion went on to why not believe if it can offer some comfort in this increasingly isolated and alienated post-modern world. My answer was simply that those energies would be better spent asking ourselves why modern society was like this and doing something about it—actively working on those problems instead of running to church (though I conceded that there were church goers doing both). I said I thought there were plenty of things we could start working on right now. However, there didn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for this approach. Anyway, that was the first and last of the visits of the Bible study group.

The other big contingent on that first day back in September was the get-rich-quick crowd. Did I want go get rich and isn't that the most important thing to do right now in China? Well, no, I didn't think that either and gave my reasons there too. In fact, quite a lot of young people enthusiastically buy into the idea of getting rich and becoming a philanthropist...a bit later in life, of course. However, it is also convenient to hold this view because it's the party line and government policy. Buying into the neoliberal export economy and letting some "get rich first" is presented as the quickest route to enriching the country. Lots of students embrace this and it's hard to criticize success. You can see the effects of 10 years of double-digit economic growth everywhere. Even in a hinterland place like Xinxiang there's new construction everywhere and lots of really nice stuff to buy. This was another case of not getting the expected answer from the American, so that was the last of that group as well.

Students are very interested in the US and curious about US attitudes about China. We have spent a good deal of time breaking down stereotypes about Americans: All Jews support Israel, all blacks are poor, all whites are well off, all Americans are Christians, etc. and other issues of race, class and gender. Students are anxious to travel and see the US and the world for themselves, but this group will have to do a good bit of waiting because they are not well off by any means or they would not be in this school. Snide comments about "high class Chinese" here or in the US are pretty well received. These students of largely rural origin know the meaning of social class and they don't have much use for such people.

I try to get them to be more realistic about the US as I have had to get more realistic about China. Each place has plenty of its own issues and some advantages, but the more I move back and forth the more I see similarities. I couldn't find answers for the problems of the US by coming here any more than they can solve the problems of China by assuming that they have already been solved in the US. The problems of both places are just variations on the same themes—income gaps, no health care, lack of democracy, assembly line education, social class, gender inequalities, indirect rule by a rich elite served by a political establishment, etc.

The students who continue to come on Wednesday afternoons are mostly those who are interested in these political, social and economic issues in the US and China and around the world. The discussions can get heavy and sometimes difficult or even discouraging. From student writing, I know lots are in la-la land or, more accurately, in a state of denial, but not those who are still coming to these discussions. Once a student even started crying from feeling so overwhelmed with the world's problems and the powerlessness she felt both as a Chinese citizen and as a single human being. The fact she could cry at least indicates a sensitivity which lots have discovered is most conveniently left behind. No wonder that only less than 10 still come.

There's a good bit of cynicism among some of them. We discussed rural education, which lags so far behind what's available in the city, and I said that the government could, for example, decide to pay rural teachers more, though I recognized that it wouldn't ever happen. But even the mention of the example of the government doing something like that just produced cynical sneers in some of these 19-year-olds. Many feel that while China had made stunning economic progress, it has regressed spiritually in many other ways. As an example, one mentioned that twenty years ago director Zhang Yimou was producing challenging reflective films but now is just turning out trash for cash.

I've mentioned several times in these group discussions my doubts about how long the US can stay on top of the world heap. This surprises them. The attitude here is that China can "cooperate" with the US to "develop" China for a long time to come. To the students the US seems pretty invincible though their hope is for a multi-polar world in the future rather than China somehow replacing the US as the new world power.

In some ways, I'm a little surprised they are not more on top if world news. But this is just another similarity between the countries. They are, of course, busy but also as cynical about news sources as their counterparts in the US as well both should be given the Judith Miller-NY Times cheerleading role before the Iraq war and the People's Daily going on about a new harmonious society that's just around the corner.

It's difficult. Maybe for these bright mostly female students it's the problem of being served up a China that's still a feudal cake with the recent addition of a frosting of capitalist consumerism decked out with a few churchy vigil light candles on top. Eat it or go hungry. The western menu is not so different.