Wednesday, September 16, 2009
August 28th - September 11th
August 28th, 2009
I arrived in Shanghai’s Domestic Terminal at 5:30 P.M, and Joyce and her father who greeted me at the entrance. I was met by the father’s shofer to assist me with my laThe father had a shofer driving a Toyota SUV, I forgot the model. After a hour drive into the center of the city, we arrived at their apartment complex. Because their apartment was too small for a forth person, her family reserved a hotel room for me across the street, expenses paid, for both Friday and Saturday night. That evening, I met the entire family (Cai Baba - Father, Cai Mama - Mother, Cai Meimei - Joyce) had a dinner in celebration of my arrival. I felt I very welcomed. The parents are both Chemists, and Joyce is studying English, which she plans to use after graduation as an English teacher in Shanghai.
On Saturday, I got to experience one unforgettable event. I went to visit the SWFC. It is currently the tallest building in the world at 492 meters, which was just completed in 2008. Joyce parents accompanied us to the entrance, and then we left on our own as they had other plans for the afternoon. It was a breathtaking experience to overlook all of Shanghai including the bund and the 3,000 + skyscrapers that make up the horizon. It was truly surreal. The elevator ride was also unbelievable fast. From the basement, we reached the 97th floor, which was the SWFC Observatory, in a matter of 1 to 2 minutes. I felt like I was seated in an aircraft just after takeoff, except this was vertical motion rather than a gradual slope. I wouldn’t go in the details of the building, but it something worth reading about. The exterior and interior design, architectural structure, and state-of-the-art technologies are as futuristic as gets in the year 2009. Anyone interested can easily search it on Google.
In addition, the father and mother prepared an extravagant dinner when we returned. The father fancied seafood and cooked scallops, shrimp, and a California species of trout raised in China. There was a whole duck covered in soy sauce, black mushrooms, pork, white cabbage, and homemade southern-styled Jiaozi by Joyce and me. Wait a second; we also had about half a dozen bottles of Japanese branded beer. It was a wonderful, scrumptious treat! ☺
I will make one environmental comment, and it does have to do with food. It was interesting to notice the different in the consumption of meat with Joyce’s family than when I was in Lijiang. For instances, as we had dinner the first night, they ordered approximately … 4 dishes of duck, beef, and pork. I can remember when I ate in Lijiang, I was picking through my rice bowl for any miniscule pieces. I think the amount of meat I ate in that one dinner was equivalent to about one week of meat for the entire 5 LGEC group. The point here is that I got to observe the difference between rural and urban eating habits and also see the connection between affluence and consumption of meat.
August 30th, 2009
Joyce and I hitched a ride with the father’s shofer to the Shanghai Airport to drop of her father who was leaving Da Lian and Chengdu for work-related meetings. Supposedly, Cai Baba frequently traveled domestically across China. I had realized how fortunate I was to have meet Joyce’s father that weekend and have her entire family give me a tour of Shanghai.
The shofer arrived at the entrance of the Shanghai Business University at 3:00 P.M., and memories began to flashback in my mind from one year ago. The first task was for me to get a room for the next two weeks. I won’t go into the knots and blots, but I will comment that Joyce helped assist me in getting the housing arrangements settled. The room The University accommodated me in the professor’s dormitory, which was comparable to hotel standards. I had the room to myself – two beds, a T.V, two desks, two chairs, a shower, toilet, a sink, patio, and air-conditioning. Obviously the room was designed for two people and probably could support 5 students with sleeping bags.
That night I had a small reunion with several of my SBS friends, which I met last year such as Wang Cheng, Alan, Joyce, and Xiao Fei. We had dinner together on the third floor of the cafeteria building, which has dozens of small restaurants to select from. It was absolutely wonderful to see some familiar faces in China who had become close friends just a year ago.
Latter than night, as Wang Cheng and Alan accompanied me back to my dorm, they told me that there was another foreign student from Seattle, Washington. I thought they were twisting my leg because I had been told earlier that the Bellevue Community College (BCC) study abroad group had decided not to come this year. It turned out inside the neighboring room was a 30-year old woman from West Seattle. Her name was Jennifer Yang. She name may came as a little of shock considering she has no ancestral connections to Asia. She had studied Mandarin for about 2 years with a major in Cultural Studies at BCC. She actually attended Professor Geiger’s Chinese class for three quarters, and it was networking through her that she decided to come to the Shanghai Business College (SBS). Coincidentally, she arrived last Friday, which was the same date I got into Shanghai. Her plans are to further her language studies as she has enrolled in SBS’s Mandarin course for 5 months. She tells me that she eventually wants to be a certified translator for a legal firm.
August 31st, 2009
Since I was familiar with the campus, I joined her on Monday morning, as she had not received an agenda for the week. We had breakfast at the cafeteria together, and then it was not clear where to go next. Jennifer only knew the teacher name, Zhong Laoshi. I thought it would be best for us to go to the administration building, which most of the teacher’s office were located. Once inside, I simply asked around for Zhong Laoshi’s office. We were finally told to go to the 4th floor. We met Zhong Laoshi in the foreign student’s office. It almost seemed as if she was expecting us to come. She had prepared to a two-week schedule and gave us a run down of what the upcoming events. The first week was getting acclimated to the school – learning where everything is on campus (food and library cards, cafeteria, library) and the surrounding area as well as all-day outings in the center of Shanghai. The second week was the official start of classes for the foreign students, waiguoren. Zhong Laoshi asked if I wanted to enroll in a class, but I politely said, “No Thanks,” due to my short stay. As she listened to my Chinese speaking ability, she said that I could stop by, sit in and participate in the class during my spare time for free. I think she realized I could help add to the class discussions.
Associate Professor Fang who works in the Dean of Foreign Affairs office also came to greet us. I had actually met Fang Laoshi last year as I did my study abroad with BCC (Bellevue Community Colllege). He was surprised to see me return just a year after, and even more impressed when I told him briefly about my adventures in Lijiang and Kunming.
Shortly afterwards, Zhong Laoshi took us to pay for the housing fee. I paid 800 RMB for two weeks, which comes to less than 60 RMB per night. It actually is a little cheaper than living at the Lijiang Green Education Center ironically. Or let me rethink that. I currently don’t have Internet access and meals are a separate cost.
Zhong Laoshi also gave us introduction to the campus such as getting a campus food and library card. As we toured the library, she told us that she was in a similar position to Jennifer in terms of getting accumulated to SBS. Zhong Laoshi was a new foreign language professor who had just graduated from a Shanghai University in English. Her goal as a new professor was improving the foreign language program.
The afternoon, I participated in a basketball tournament. I had been invited to join a few friends of Wang Cheng and Alan on the court. I was by no means well dressed. I had not brought any exercising attire from the states. My substitute was a cotton pair of shorts and a T-shirt with a pair of hiking shoes. I had the logo foreigner written all over me at that point. Besides the clothing mishap, it felt great to get some exercise, shoot some hoops, and release some stress. It was the first workout in China that I had a good sweat, which may sound disgusting; however, it felt like cleansing of my body.
September 1st, 2009
I should mention here that this is my second time visiting SBS. I had come to SBS last August with Geiger Laoshi and 20 other students for a three-week study. A cool fact is that the Bellevue Community College (BCC) is a sister-school of SBS, and this is year is the second anniversary. There were several reasons why I wanted to return to SBS. One of them was the possibility of meeting Geiger Laoshi and her class of students. Unfortunately, Feng Laoshi informed me that the BCC study abroad group had decided not to come this year. The exact reasons are too clear to me, but Jennifer said it was a cost issue and low enrollment. It came as a little of a shock, but there were many other things that I have had to look forward to such as reuniting with SBS students, going on all-day trips with the study abroad students, and fun events with Joyce and her family.
At 10:00 A.M, two SBS - English and Japanese major - students came knocking on our doors. There were a total of three study abroad students at SBS – Jennifer, a Japanese student, and me. The Japanese student had to have a direct translator because he had no prior language study. They accompanied us into the center of Shanghai since Jennifer and the Japanese student had yet to visit the heart of the city, ac city in which they would call home for the next 5 to 6 months.
Zhong Laoshi had let me know that I was more than welcomed to participate not just in the course that would start next week (September 7), but could also par-take this week in the orientation activities. This was a bonus because it was free of cost. I just tagged along.
I can remember on Sunday afternoon I was pondering what my schedule was going to be like for the next two weeks at SBS. I can honestly say I had no prior arrangements, and perhaps that was best thing I could have done. It has been amazing how everything has fallen into place and letting the currents sweep me off by my feet. It is just the ability to stay open-minded and spontaneous, which can be a powerful and useful skill in China. As a result, I actually had little downtime, go figure. ☺
As I have already mentioned, this is my second visit to city of Shanghai and the Shanghai Business School. Many of the all-day tours of the city this week were identical to that of last year. It felt like déjà vu all over again. It was a strange sensation to be walking on the exact brick road in Cheng Huang Miao or Renming Guangcheng as one year ago in Shanghai, China.
As we walked through Cheng Huang Miao, we stopped at a window store. There was a long line waiting to order Xiao Long Bao (small steamed meat-filled buns). This is a specialty of Shanghai, and it was obvious by the diversity and length of the crowd from foreigners to locals. That evening as we walked towards to The Bund on a narrow sidewalk, I can recall asking Xiao Fei, a sophomore majoring in English, what she thought of Shanghai? Her response came at a little bit of surprise. She first commented on how she would rarely see blue skies, but rather a film of grey smog. She also commented on the polluted water-quality of the Huangpujiang and Changjiang (Huang Pu River and the Yangzte River) and then talked about some of the great features of the city such as the Shanghai serving as the economic capital of China. What is interesting about her initial response was she was born and raised in Shanghai. Most people that I have met in China usually have nothing but positive remarks to say about their home city, but for her it was an issue that confronted her on a daily basis.
September 2nd, 2009
At 10:00 A.M, I met Joyce at the entrance gate of the Shanghai Business School. Joyce had invited me to join her, as she was back to visit her high school’s teachers. Her high school was called Fudan Shiyan Zhongxue. Ironically, the most prestigious university in Shanghai was called Fudan Daxue. I associated that connection with being an upscale school, which it turned out to be. In a cramped office on the 5th floor, I met a 12 other university students who had also come for a small reunion with their past teachers. They were also all high school friends of Joyce. I got to introduce myself to one of the teachers, and I specifically can recall her comment in Chinese. She said, “Only 2 years. How is it that you, Joyce, have been studying for 12 years and his Chinese is better than your English”? Now obvious she was being extraordinary polite, but I thought it was an endearing comment.
The afternoon, about 5 of Joyce’s high school buddies invited me to join them for game of basketball. We went to park after lunch that was within walking distance. The basketball court was especially well maintained. There was a small 5 RMB per person fee for entrance. My attire was certainly not appropriate with jeans, a Seattle University T-Shirt, and hiking shoes, but I couldn’t refuse. I also didn’t realize whom I was about to be going against. There was Monica, Steven, Fly, Joe, and Lihui. They all played aggressively. In prior basketball games, I had a height advantage, but that wasn’t the case here. Except for Steve, our height was about the same. Defense and my enduring energy level was my strength. As the person I guarded dribbled, sometimes I had fast enough reflexes to steal the ball. Even in the scorching heat, I still had an awesome time.
September 3rd, 2009
On Thursday afternoon, Jenny, the Japanese study abroad student, and three SBS student volunteers, and I went to Shanghai ShuCheng (Book Town Store). We met Zhong Laoshi there who would help them pick out their workbooks for the next several months. They looked through Xue Hanyu (Study Chinese section) workbooks, and based on the workbooks chosen, that is how the class would be structured. This was completely different from when I was at Yunnan University, where there were four classes to choose from. We were assigned textbooks for each class. Here at SBS, it seemed much more flexible partly because this was Zhong Laoshi’s first year as a teacher. In addition, neither of the study abroad students had taken the HSK proficiency test that helps determine one’s language level. As they search for suitable textbooks to study from, I browsed around and found three useful books. First was an English-to-Chinese interpretation vocabulary book that listed technical terms including those related to environmental concerns terms. It also had Chinese-English idioms. Another treasure was a bundle of 4th-grade short stories such as “The Wizard of Oz.” These books are unique in which one page is written in English and the other page is translated into Chinese. It’s win-win situation for both learners of Chinese and English. I have actually used the books several times with Joyce. She will read a few pages in English, and then I will read a page in Chinese. Lastly, I bought another dictionary that is designed specifically for HSK test takers. I should mention here that HSK is an international Chinese proficiency test put together by the Chinese Confucius Institute in Beijing. The dictionary is by far the most comprehensive Chinese-to-English wordbook I have found such as providing concrete examples of usage in Chinese and English and the measure word.
Before we decided to call it a day, we walked across the street to a foreign language bookstore. Zhong Laoshi wanted to buy an English book for a pleasure read and continue practicing her English. She asked Jennifer and me for any suggestions. As we browsed through the bookshelves, I surprisingly came across Lester Brown’s Plan 3.0. There was only one copy of it, and it looked a little worn down. I am commenting on this because last May in Washington D.C I met Lester Brown who is an advocate on the global environmental crisis and food security. Then I recalled Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman and asked a staff worker if they had it in stock. They said yes. I immediately rushed to grab as Zhong Laoshi and Jennifer were about to leave. I called out to her letting her known that I found a must-read book for her. I told her it would be a gift from me. I had only one request. As she reads through the book, she would be open to discussing some of the matters with her friends and colleagues.
September 4th, 2009
After Joyce’s 10:00 o’clock class, we departed SBS and took the subway back to her home. Relatively, it was a pretty quiet afternoon. We went to the supermarket across the street, which was the equivalent size of a U.S Fred Meyer. Most of the vegetables on the self are actually locally grown in the outskirts of the city, but there is a downside. A majority of farmers use pesticides and chemical fertilizers and have limited access to clean water sources for irrigation. Anyway for dinner, Joyce picked out Salmon. Supposedly, the family had a fancy for not just seafood, but imported Pacific Northwest seafood specialties. I will not comment much, except for the fact that eating habits of Joyce and the other 1.3 billion Chinese are continually striving for the food varieties and abundance of the West. It is certainly not a projection, it is happening now.
The rest of the afternoon was reading the book The Wizard of Oz. It was a dual translation. Joyce read a few pages in English and then assisted me as a read the Chinese version. I think it was one of the valuable lessons that I learned here in China is mutual cooperation.
September 5th, 2009
The highlight of Saturday was a visit to Fudan University. It is considered the most prestigious university in Shanghai and was established in 1905. To give a sense of the reputation, first consider some American universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Notre Dame, and John Hopkins. In China, the top 3 universities nationally are listed: Qinghua University, Beijing University, and then Fudan University. For anyone interested, you can visit the link at http://www.fudan.edu.cn/englishnew/about/history.html.
September 6th, 2009
As I had returned to SBS and unloaded my luggage in my dorm, Wang Cheng sent me a text me to meet him at the basketball court. We have planned to go out that afternoon to buy a basketball uniform. Wang Cheng knew I had only 5 days left at SBS and wanted to buy me a special gift that I could use to remember him and the university. I have to say it was most appropriate considering I had no workout clothes. Inside the store, there was only one uniform sized large enough to fit me – XXXXL. ☺ I didn’t realize I was a giant! I wore the outfit out onto the street when I caught the attention of almost every pedestrian. By the time we returned to the courts, everyone had left. We made a few free throws, and we decided to get a group together for a game tomorrow afternoon.
September 7th, 2009
Today was officially the first day of class for the study abroad students. The classroom was in building #2 rm. 410, the exact room I studied in last year at SBS. I assisted Jennifer as she read a dialogue, pronunciation, and grammar points, while Zhong Laoshi helped ChiBao study the fundamental characters of the Chinese language. When Zhong Laoshi was teaching, I would individually practice writing proper character strokes. It felt like the fall quarter at Seattle University had already begun.
In the afternoon, the basketball competition was underway. Andy and I were on opposite teams. Andy was a large, big-boned sophomore who could storm the court like a buffalo. I kid you not, and he was mine. I had the advantage on defense. I was skillful in my quick reflexes to block, and was my only method for draining his energy level. As we played, I felt part of the team wearing an official basketball uniform. The only thing missing was the shoes.
This evening, I have some exciting and abrupt news to share. On Thursday evening at 7:00 P.M September 10th, 2009, I will be giving a lecture on some micro- and macro- environmental problems and current practices to reduce the impact. The interesting part is that I decided to do this tonight. This is how it happened. As Wang Cheng accompanied me back to my room, I was talking with him about the interconnections of environmental issues, solutions and how they connect on a whole range of issues such as socioeconomic. As we discoursed, he remarked that I should give a presentation on SBS before I leave. I hesitated for a second because it was so sudden, but I quickly came to realize how excellent of an opportunity it is to reach out and be an advocate. I thought back to my conversation with Carol and Frances at Yunnan University and their suggestion to give a lecture. Here was my chance. I had the passion, but I would only have less than 3 days to put everything together. Wang Cheng encouraged that I wouldn’t have to do it alone. He would help me translate and get the details organized. After five minutes of deliberating, I looked Wang Cheng in the eyes, and I said, “Let’s do it.” At this point, I am currently working on my bullet-pointed script. Once I have it finished, I will post it for you to all look at. At this point, the message that I want to get across to the students to still stimulate more dialogue and conversation and interest in knowing more about these issues.
September 11th, 2009
This is the basic outline:
Macro Environmental Issues
• Climate Change
• Science of greenhouse effect
• Impacts of Climate Change
• Causes
o Population
o Technical and Scientific Revolution
o Relationship to Nature
• Deforestation
• Biodiversity Loss
• Throwaway Economy
Macro Potential Solutions
• Renewable Energy
o Solar Power
o Wind Power
o Geothermal
o Tidal Power
o Biogas
• Cradel-to-Cradel Economy
• Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009
Micro Internship in Lijiang
• Biogas – Environmental Protection and improving the living standards of Rural Villagers
Questions for Thought
Resources
The last four days have been a crunch on time, but more importantly it has been an experience that has given me powerful insight in the world of advocacy overseas.
I will start my recap from Tuesday morning. Wang Cheng inquired his hall monitor about reserving a classroom from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M on Thursday (September 10th, 2009). Andy, the hall monitor, said he would get back to us with building # and class # the following day. As that was happening, I attended the Chinese language class with Jennifer and Chibao. We had a different teacher that day. It switched from Zhong Laoshi to Yan Laoshi. Yan Laoshi taught the spoken language sessions of the 5-month language emersion class. I recalled as she was setting up at the podium and I first spoke to her in Chinese. It got it a little bit of reaction from her. She thought it was a native speaker initially, and then when she saw it coming from a foreigner’s tongue such as myself, it gave her a little shock. ☺
That afternoon, I began to conduct my research online trying to determine what points were the most important to highlight to an audience that has probably has little or no prior education on the subject. The primary sources I used were Lester Brown’s Plan 3.0 and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth as well as FAO (Forest Agricultural Organization) and IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change).
Tuesday late afternoon, Wang Cheng and I met to go over my ideas for the presentation and the layout. He thought the basic concept was great, and he just reminded me to make sure keep anything political related out of the speech. I told him that I would not even mention the name of any countries. My goal was to stay as far away from politics as possible.
After dinner with his roommates, we bought a large, green poster to help advertise the upcoming event. We returned to Wang Cheng’s dormitory, and all 3 of his roommates came to together to help write and translate the title and agenda of the presentation. It was awesome to watch them come together because they believed that this lecture was important. It was the first time SBS had a foreigner speak out about any type of environmental issues. In addition, I got to write a small introduction about myself in Chinese. Other students from down the hall came in to hear what all the commotion was about, interested to find a foreigner writing Chinese characters. As I look back, it was teamwork at it’s finest.
I met Wang Cheng again on Wednesday afternoon. I gave him a copy of my rough draft of the PPT and asked him if he could help me translate it into Chinese for the students who would be attending. I should call out here that Wang Cheng had only three hours of sleep that night before and had also other assignments to complete for his own class; however, he finished it by Thursday morning amazingly! I can’t say enough good things about Wang Cheng. I have to mention that at this point I was expecting an attendance of around 30 people. I also began writing up my transcript for each slide. That evening, I revised the slides once more. I had a total of 41 slides for an hour a half presentation.
Thursday was by far the craziest day I have experienced at SBS. Andy, the hall monitor, got a larger classroom assigned to me and the poster authorized by the student government. At 11:30 A.M, I met Wang Cheng in the cafeteria for an early lunch, and shortly afterwards we got the poster from Andy. We then went to the 2nd Teaching Building and got permission to take a desk out of a classroom to set up in front of the cafeteria. The timing here was key because at 12:00 students all get out of class, and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to get the word out. In my opinion, it was the perfect time for advertising. There was only one small problem, the wind was a little gusty, and students couldn’t clearly see the poster handing from the table. We had to improvise. I stood up on a chair and used my height as a major advantage. I held the poster high above the crowd calling out to the students “come over here and take a look…I will be giving a presentation tonight from 6:30 – 8:00 called The Environment and Me.” An already tall Caucasian foreigner standing on a chair all of a sudden caught the attention of everyone, and 1/3 of 600 students came to look at my poster. Wang Cheng helped me explain the details of the presentation in Chinese to the enlarging mass of students. I stood on that chair for about a 1-hour and a half holding that poster. That interesting part was that I didn’t have to do much to attract the attention of the students. I simply mentioned the title, subject, time, and place of the presentation. It seemed to be highly effective.
Later, I went over my transcript with Wang Cheng. This was very important because I would be giving the lecture in English, not Chinese obviously. The subject context was far about my language level. Therefore, I went through my speech with Wang Cheng so if there were any unfamiliar words that we was unfamiliar with for translating, he could look them up now. I would present the lecture in English and speak slowly, which can be a little challenging for a Millennial. ☺ If the students still didn’t understood what I was saying, Wang Cheng could assist me interpret.
I reconnected with him at 5:45 in the classroom to all the technical details worked out before the lecture. To my surprise, when I arrived 30 students were already seated doing their assignments waiting for my lecture. I think they realized that a large mass of students would be coming and so they wanted to make sure they get a seat in advance. A few minutes before 6:20, the 150 seats in the classroom were filled completely. However, students still were coming in looking for a place to seat. Wang Cheng, Liu Hui, Alan, and a few other students went looking for more chairs from other classrooms. We weren’t able to seat everyone, but by the time I started, I was speaking in front of about 200 students. For the next hour and half, I was the presenter. I have to admit my heart was pounding relentlessly; however, it was counterbalanced by the excitement at the opportunity to speak out on this cause that I was passionate about As I looked out at the audience, I couldn’t help but feel I sense of delight with such a large turnout. My own hope was that all the students would leave with a new sense of awareness about the environmental issues and for others it would serve as a catalyst to start conversations with friends and family.
The first 30 minutes of the lecture was only I speaking English. Wang Cheng approached me and told me to pause between each sentence and to speak louder into the small mike provided by the classroom. Even with these small changes, the over half of the audience did not understand what I was saying. Alan got an interesting mike setup for Wang Cheng. It was a head mike with a speaker attached to strap belt. Every 1 or 2 sentences, I would allow Wang Cheng translate to the best of his ability. There was only one problem. The sound quality from Wang Cheng’s speaker was poor and distracting. In addition, the audience did not want to listen to Wang Cheng; they only wanted me to speak whether they could understand or not. For most of them, this was an opportunity to hear a foreign speak English to them.
One of my slides was on our “Throwaway Economy.” I gave a small demonstration with comparing a tissue to handkerchief. I took a small pack of tissues and said this is “New.” Then I rubbed it around my face, crushed it up, and threw it on the ground next to the podium. Then I said that is “Used. It’s garbage.” All of a sudden, this small display got a strong reaction from the audience. A few people began to clap, and several minutes later, the entire audience was applauding. I also gave them an example of my Gatorade plastic bottles and explaining the 1,000 – 10,000 year life cycle it has. I tried to spark awareness that the concept of away does not work anyone (i.e. The Pacific Gyor). (Note to self – prompts are an effective way to cross language barriers)
By the end of the lecture, 10% or 20% of the audience had already left. After a round of applause, we had Q&A. This is where I had a chance to meet students who had a concern or interest in the topic, which was the most exciting part of the experience. One question was about renewable energy. One student asked, “China is so large and has the largest population in the world, is it even possible to use wind and solar power on such a large scale?” That was an excellent question. I gave her a list of suggested books, documentary films, and reports that would give a more complete answer than I could say in a minute or two. My short response to her was that it is possible if there is a high enough incentive to produce energy from renewables. Another student was Tom. He was a freshman at SBS and was an active volunteer with Green Peace and the World Wildlife Foundation. He said as a volunteer, he writes letters to large corporations requesting them to stop their destructive impact on the environment. I told him that as consumers, every dollar that we spend we are supporting one cause or another. I told him that being a smart and conscious consumer is very important. His main question was “China is a developing country, developing very quickly. Should China choose the economy or the environment?” I told him that it is a false choice in my opinion. Most environmentalists wouldn’t say growth is good. I said the question is not about growth or no growth, but what do we want to grow? I gave him a copy of my resource page and said a good book to start with is Cradle to Cradle.
There were about 15 or 20 students that had questions for me after my lecture and it was wonderful to be able to reach out to them and help get a dialogue started.
From Thursday evening to Friday morning, I got some thoughtful feedback from my friends who attended. For instance, the 70% to 80% of the audience had only one intention and that was to come and just listen to a foreigner speak English, not for the debrief on environmental problem. The second point was a technical difficulty issue with the sound system. Alan said that everyone in the back of the classroom could not hear my voice. It was too soft. In the future, I will make sure to do sound quality tests, which unfortunately did not cross my mind before the lecture. Another valuable observation was the audience was primarily freshmen. At a university where the bulk of the students study English, the language ability of freshman compared to junior is dramatically different. This means that much as 50% of my lecture was probably not intelligible. I was also reminded that these students have not studied any English environmental terminology, which made the situation a little more difficult. The key here is to pay close attention to your audience. Alan also suggested had a good suggestion. He said that next time I should upload a Chinese version of the presentation on the university server for students to have a chance to overlook the content ahead of time. This way they can come prepared with a clearer overview of what addressed.
I should also remark that Alan has uploaded my English transcript and the Chinese and English version of the presentation on the university network, which can now be downloaded for free. This way, students have access to the context and resources I suggested such as books, reports, and documentary films. Alan, Wang, Cheng and a few other students said they would help spread the word to the students who attended, which I hope will serve as a catalyst to continue discussions on macro- and micro-environmental issues that face our planet.
My last remark is that this was a learning experience. It was by no means perfect, but I have given me some valuable lessons that I can continue to improve on. Alan even suggested that the next time I come to Shanghai, he would be willing to help me get connect at Fudan University for another lecture. The journey of advocacy has only begun, and I want give a special thanks to my large support group of Chinese friends who without them that lecture would not have taken place. It was certainly not a one-man show, but a collection of encouraging, enthusiastic, and strong willed students.
I arrived in Shanghai’s Domestic Terminal at 5:30 P.M, and Joyce and her father who greeted me at the entrance. I was met by the father’s shofer to assist me with my laThe father had a shofer driving a Toyota SUV, I forgot the model. After a hour drive into the center of the city, we arrived at their apartment complex. Because their apartment was too small for a forth person, her family reserved a hotel room for me across the street, expenses paid, for both Friday and Saturday night. That evening, I met the entire family (Cai Baba - Father, Cai Mama - Mother, Cai Meimei - Joyce) had a dinner in celebration of my arrival. I felt I very welcomed. The parents are both Chemists, and Joyce is studying English, which she plans to use after graduation as an English teacher in Shanghai.
On Saturday, I got to experience one unforgettable event. I went to visit the SWFC. It is currently the tallest building in the world at 492 meters, which was just completed in 2008. Joyce parents accompanied us to the entrance, and then we left on our own as they had other plans for the afternoon. It was a breathtaking experience to overlook all of Shanghai including the bund and the 3,000 + skyscrapers that make up the horizon. It was truly surreal. The elevator ride was also unbelievable fast. From the basement, we reached the 97th floor, which was the SWFC Observatory, in a matter of 1 to 2 minutes. I felt like I was seated in an aircraft just after takeoff, except this was vertical motion rather than a gradual slope. I wouldn’t go in the details of the building, but it something worth reading about. The exterior and interior design, architectural structure, and state-of-the-art technologies are as futuristic as gets in the year 2009. Anyone interested can easily search it on Google.
In addition, the father and mother prepared an extravagant dinner when we returned. The father fancied seafood and cooked scallops, shrimp, and a California species of trout raised in China. There was a whole duck covered in soy sauce, black mushrooms, pork, white cabbage, and homemade southern-styled Jiaozi by Joyce and me. Wait a second; we also had about half a dozen bottles of Japanese branded beer. It was a wonderful, scrumptious treat! ☺
I will make one environmental comment, and it does have to do with food. It was interesting to notice the different in the consumption of meat with Joyce’s family than when I was in Lijiang. For instances, as we had dinner the first night, they ordered approximately … 4 dishes of duck, beef, and pork. I can remember when I ate in Lijiang, I was picking through my rice bowl for any miniscule pieces. I think the amount of meat I ate in that one dinner was equivalent to about one week of meat for the entire 5 LGEC group. The point here is that I got to observe the difference between rural and urban eating habits and also see the connection between affluence and consumption of meat.
August 30th, 2009
Joyce and I hitched a ride with the father’s shofer to the Shanghai Airport to drop of her father who was leaving Da Lian and Chengdu for work-related meetings. Supposedly, Cai Baba frequently traveled domestically across China. I had realized how fortunate I was to have meet Joyce’s father that weekend and have her entire family give me a tour of Shanghai.
The shofer arrived at the entrance of the Shanghai Business University at 3:00 P.M., and memories began to flashback in my mind from one year ago. The first task was for me to get a room for the next two weeks. I won’t go into the knots and blots, but I will comment that Joyce helped assist me in getting the housing arrangements settled. The room The University accommodated me in the professor’s dormitory, which was comparable to hotel standards. I had the room to myself – two beds, a T.V, two desks, two chairs, a shower, toilet, a sink, patio, and air-conditioning. Obviously the room was designed for two people and probably could support 5 students with sleeping bags.
That night I had a small reunion with several of my SBS friends, which I met last year such as Wang Cheng, Alan, Joyce, and Xiao Fei. We had dinner together on the third floor of the cafeteria building, which has dozens of small restaurants to select from. It was absolutely wonderful to see some familiar faces in China who had become close friends just a year ago.
Latter than night, as Wang Cheng and Alan accompanied me back to my dorm, they told me that there was another foreign student from Seattle, Washington. I thought they were twisting my leg because I had been told earlier that the Bellevue Community College (BCC) study abroad group had decided not to come this year. It turned out inside the neighboring room was a 30-year old woman from West Seattle. Her name was Jennifer Yang. She name may came as a little of shock considering she has no ancestral connections to Asia. She had studied Mandarin for about 2 years with a major in Cultural Studies at BCC. She actually attended Professor Geiger’s Chinese class for three quarters, and it was networking through her that she decided to come to the Shanghai Business College (SBS). Coincidentally, she arrived last Friday, which was the same date I got into Shanghai. Her plans are to further her language studies as she has enrolled in SBS’s Mandarin course for 5 months. She tells me that she eventually wants to be a certified translator for a legal firm.
August 31st, 2009
Since I was familiar with the campus, I joined her on Monday morning, as she had not received an agenda for the week. We had breakfast at the cafeteria together, and then it was not clear where to go next. Jennifer only knew the teacher name, Zhong Laoshi. I thought it would be best for us to go to the administration building, which most of the teacher’s office were located. Once inside, I simply asked around for Zhong Laoshi’s office. We were finally told to go to the 4th floor. We met Zhong Laoshi in the foreign student’s office. It almost seemed as if she was expecting us to come. She had prepared to a two-week schedule and gave us a run down of what the upcoming events. The first week was getting acclimated to the school – learning where everything is on campus (food and library cards, cafeteria, library) and the surrounding area as well as all-day outings in the center of Shanghai. The second week was the official start of classes for the foreign students, waiguoren. Zhong Laoshi asked if I wanted to enroll in a class, but I politely said, “No Thanks,” due to my short stay. As she listened to my Chinese speaking ability, she said that I could stop by, sit in and participate in the class during my spare time for free. I think she realized I could help add to the class discussions.
Associate Professor Fang who works in the Dean of Foreign Affairs office also came to greet us. I had actually met Fang Laoshi last year as I did my study abroad with BCC (Bellevue Community Colllege). He was surprised to see me return just a year after, and even more impressed when I told him briefly about my adventures in Lijiang and Kunming.
Shortly afterwards, Zhong Laoshi took us to pay for the housing fee. I paid 800 RMB for two weeks, which comes to less than 60 RMB per night. It actually is a little cheaper than living at the Lijiang Green Education Center ironically. Or let me rethink that. I currently don’t have Internet access and meals are a separate cost.
Zhong Laoshi also gave us introduction to the campus such as getting a campus food and library card. As we toured the library, she told us that she was in a similar position to Jennifer in terms of getting accumulated to SBS. Zhong Laoshi was a new foreign language professor who had just graduated from a Shanghai University in English. Her goal as a new professor was improving the foreign language program.
The afternoon, I participated in a basketball tournament. I had been invited to join a few friends of Wang Cheng and Alan on the court. I was by no means well dressed. I had not brought any exercising attire from the states. My substitute was a cotton pair of shorts and a T-shirt with a pair of hiking shoes. I had the logo foreigner written all over me at that point. Besides the clothing mishap, it felt great to get some exercise, shoot some hoops, and release some stress. It was the first workout in China that I had a good sweat, which may sound disgusting; however, it felt like cleansing of my body.
September 1st, 2009
I should mention here that this is my second time visiting SBS. I had come to SBS last August with Geiger Laoshi and 20 other students for a three-week study. A cool fact is that the Bellevue Community College (BCC) is a sister-school of SBS, and this is year is the second anniversary. There were several reasons why I wanted to return to SBS. One of them was the possibility of meeting Geiger Laoshi and her class of students. Unfortunately, Feng Laoshi informed me that the BCC study abroad group had decided not to come this year. The exact reasons are too clear to me, but Jennifer said it was a cost issue and low enrollment. It came as a little of a shock, but there were many other things that I have had to look forward to such as reuniting with SBS students, going on all-day trips with the study abroad students, and fun events with Joyce and her family.
At 10:00 A.M, two SBS - English and Japanese major - students came knocking on our doors. There were a total of three study abroad students at SBS – Jennifer, a Japanese student, and me. The Japanese student had to have a direct translator because he had no prior language study. They accompanied us into the center of Shanghai since Jennifer and the Japanese student had yet to visit the heart of the city, ac city in which they would call home for the next 5 to 6 months.
Zhong Laoshi had let me know that I was more than welcomed to participate not just in the course that would start next week (September 7), but could also par-take this week in the orientation activities. This was a bonus because it was free of cost. I just tagged along.
I can remember on Sunday afternoon I was pondering what my schedule was going to be like for the next two weeks at SBS. I can honestly say I had no prior arrangements, and perhaps that was best thing I could have done. It has been amazing how everything has fallen into place and letting the currents sweep me off by my feet. It is just the ability to stay open-minded and spontaneous, which can be a powerful and useful skill in China. As a result, I actually had little downtime, go figure. ☺
As I have already mentioned, this is my second visit to city of Shanghai and the Shanghai Business School. Many of the all-day tours of the city this week were identical to that of last year. It felt like déjà vu all over again. It was a strange sensation to be walking on the exact brick road in Cheng Huang Miao or Renming Guangcheng as one year ago in Shanghai, China.
As we walked through Cheng Huang Miao, we stopped at a window store. There was a long line waiting to order Xiao Long Bao (small steamed meat-filled buns). This is a specialty of Shanghai, and it was obvious by the diversity and length of the crowd from foreigners to locals. That evening as we walked towards to The Bund on a narrow sidewalk, I can recall asking Xiao Fei, a sophomore majoring in English, what she thought of Shanghai? Her response came at a little bit of surprise. She first commented on how she would rarely see blue skies, but rather a film of grey smog. She also commented on the polluted water-quality of the Huangpujiang and Changjiang (Huang Pu River and the Yangzte River) and then talked about some of the great features of the city such as the Shanghai serving as the economic capital of China. What is interesting about her initial response was she was born and raised in Shanghai. Most people that I have met in China usually have nothing but positive remarks to say about their home city, but for her it was an issue that confronted her on a daily basis.
September 2nd, 2009
At 10:00 A.M, I met Joyce at the entrance gate of the Shanghai Business School. Joyce had invited me to join her, as she was back to visit her high school’s teachers. Her high school was called Fudan Shiyan Zhongxue. Ironically, the most prestigious university in Shanghai was called Fudan Daxue. I associated that connection with being an upscale school, which it turned out to be. In a cramped office on the 5th floor, I met a 12 other university students who had also come for a small reunion with their past teachers. They were also all high school friends of Joyce. I got to introduce myself to one of the teachers, and I specifically can recall her comment in Chinese. She said, “Only 2 years. How is it that you, Joyce, have been studying for 12 years and his Chinese is better than your English”? Now obvious she was being extraordinary polite, but I thought it was an endearing comment.
The afternoon, about 5 of Joyce’s high school buddies invited me to join them for game of basketball. We went to park after lunch that was within walking distance. The basketball court was especially well maintained. There was a small 5 RMB per person fee for entrance. My attire was certainly not appropriate with jeans, a Seattle University T-Shirt, and hiking shoes, but I couldn’t refuse. I also didn’t realize whom I was about to be going against. There was Monica, Steven, Fly, Joe, and Lihui. They all played aggressively. In prior basketball games, I had a height advantage, but that wasn’t the case here. Except for Steve, our height was about the same. Defense and my enduring energy level was my strength. As the person I guarded dribbled, sometimes I had fast enough reflexes to steal the ball. Even in the scorching heat, I still had an awesome time.
September 3rd, 2009
On Thursday afternoon, Jenny, the Japanese study abroad student, and three SBS student volunteers, and I went to Shanghai ShuCheng (Book Town Store). We met Zhong Laoshi there who would help them pick out their workbooks for the next several months. They looked through Xue Hanyu (Study Chinese section) workbooks, and based on the workbooks chosen, that is how the class would be structured. This was completely different from when I was at Yunnan University, where there were four classes to choose from. We were assigned textbooks for each class. Here at SBS, it seemed much more flexible partly because this was Zhong Laoshi’s first year as a teacher. In addition, neither of the study abroad students had taken the HSK proficiency test that helps determine one’s language level. As they search for suitable textbooks to study from, I browsed around and found three useful books. First was an English-to-Chinese interpretation vocabulary book that listed technical terms including those related to environmental concerns terms. It also had Chinese-English idioms. Another treasure was a bundle of 4th-grade short stories such as “The Wizard of Oz.” These books are unique in which one page is written in English and the other page is translated into Chinese. It’s win-win situation for both learners of Chinese and English. I have actually used the books several times with Joyce. She will read a few pages in English, and then I will read a page in Chinese. Lastly, I bought another dictionary that is designed specifically for HSK test takers. I should mention here that HSK is an international Chinese proficiency test put together by the Chinese Confucius Institute in Beijing. The dictionary is by far the most comprehensive Chinese-to-English wordbook I have found such as providing concrete examples of usage in Chinese and English and the measure word.
Before we decided to call it a day, we walked across the street to a foreign language bookstore. Zhong Laoshi wanted to buy an English book for a pleasure read and continue practicing her English. She asked Jennifer and me for any suggestions. As we browsed through the bookshelves, I surprisingly came across Lester Brown’s Plan 3.0. There was only one copy of it, and it looked a little worn down. I am commenting on this because last May in Washington D.C I met Lester Brown who is an advocate on the global environmental crisis and food security. Then I recalled Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman and asked a staff worker if they had it in stock. They said yes. I immediately rushed to grab as Zhong Laoshi and Jennifer were about to leave. I called out to her letting her known that I found a must-read book for her. I told her it would be a gift from me. I had only one request. As she reads through the book, she would be open to discussing some of the matters with her friends and colleagues.
September 4th, 2009
After Joyce’s 10:00 o’clock class, we departed SBS and took the subway back to her home. Relatively, it was a pretty quiet afternoon. We went to the supermarket across the street, which was the equivalent size of a U.S Fred Meyer. Most of the vegetables on the self are actually locally grown in the outskirts of the city, but there is a downside. A majority of farmers use pesticides and chemical fertilizers and have limited access to clean water sources for irrigation. Anyway for dinner, Joyce picked out Salmon. Supposedly, the family had a fancy for not just seafood, but imported Pacific Northwest seafood specialties. I will not comment much, except for the fact that eating habits of Joyce and the other 1.3 billion Chinese are continually striving for the food varieties and abundance of the West. It is certainly not a projection, it is happening now.
The rest of the afternoon was reading the book The Wizard of Oz. It was a dual translation. Joyce read a few pages in English and then assisted me as a read the Chinese version. I think it was one of the valuable lessons that I learned here in China is mutual cooperation.
September 5th, 2009
The highlight of Saturday was a visit to Fudan University. It is considered the most prestigious university in Shanghai and was established in 1905. To give a sense of the reputation, first consider some American universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Notre Dame, and John Hopkins. In China, the top 3 universities nationally are listed: Qinghua University, Beijing University, and then Fudan University. For anyone interested, you can visit the link at http://www.fudan.edu.cn/englishnew/about/history.html.
September 6th, 2009
As I had returned to SBS and unloaded my luggage in my dorm, Wang Cheng sent me a text me to meet him at the basketball court. We have planned to go out that afternoon to buy a basketball uniform. Wang Cheng knew I had only 5 days left at SBS and wanted to buy me a special gift that I could use to remember him and the university. I have to say it was most appropriate considering I had no workout clothes. Inside the store, there was only one uniform sized large enough to fit me – XXXXL. ☺ I didn’t realize I was a giant! I wore the outfit out onto the street when I caught the attention of almost every pedestrian. By the time we returned to the courts, everyone had left. We made a few free throws, and we decided to get a group together for a game tomorrow afternoon.
September 7th, 2009
Today was officially the first day of class for the study abroad students. The classroom was in building #2 rm. 410, the exact room I studied in last year at SBS. I assisted Jennifer as she read a dialogue, pronunciation, and grammar points, while Zhong Laoshi helped ChiBao study the fundamental characters of the Chinese language. When Zhong Laoshi was teaching, I would individually practice writing proper character strokes. It felt like the fall quarter at Seattle University had already begun.
In the afternoon, the basketball competition was underway. Andy and I were on opposite teams. Andy was a large, big-boned sophomore who could storm the court like a buffalo. I kid you not, and he was mine. I had the advantage on defense. I was skillful in my quick reflexes to block, and was my only method for draining his energy level. As we played, I felt part of the team wearing an official basketball uniform. The only thing missing was the shoes.
This evening, I have some exciting and abrupt news to share. On Thursday evening at 7:00 P.M September 10th, 2009, I will be giving a lecture on some micro- and macro- environmental problems and current practices to reduce the impact. The interesting part is that I decided to do this tonight. This is how it happened. As Wang Cheng accompanied me back to my room, I was talking with him about the interconnections of environmental issues, solutions and how they connect on a whole range of issues such as socioeconomic. As we discoursed, he remarked that I should give a presentation on SBS before I leave. I hesitated for a second because it was so sudden, but I quickly came to realize how excellent of an opportunity it is to reach out and be an advocate. I thought back to my conversation with Carol and Frances at Yunnan University and their suggestion to give a lecture. Here was my chance. I had the passion, but I would only have less than 3 days to put everything together. Wang Cheng encouraged that I wouldn’t have to do it alone. He would help me translate and get the details organized. After five minutes of deliberating, I looked Wang Cheng in the eyes, and I said, “Let’s do it.” At this point, I am currently working on my bullet-pointed script. Once I have it finished, I will post it for you to all look at. At this point, the message that I want to get across to the students to still stimulate more dialogue and conversation and interest in knowing more about these issues.
September 11th, 2009
This is the basic outline:
Macro Environmental Issues
• Climate Change
• Science of greenhouse effect
• Impacts of Climate Change
• Causes
o Population
o Technical and Scientific Revolution
o Relationship to Nature
• Deforestation
• Biodiversity Loss
• Throwaway Economy
Macro Potential Solutions
• Renewable Energy
o Solar Power
o Wind Power
o Geothermal
o Tidal Power
o Biogas
• Cradel-to-Cradel Economy
• Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009
Micro Internship in Lijiang
• Biogas – Environmental Protection and improving the living standards of Rural Villagers
Questions for Thought
Resources
The last four days have been a crunch on time, but more importantly it has been an experience that has given me powerful insight in the world of advocacy overseas.
I will start my recap from Tuesday morning. Wang Cheng inquired his hall monitor about reserving a classroom from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M on Thursday (September 10th, 2009). Andy, the hall monitor, said he would get back to us with building # and class # the following day. As that was happening, I attended the Chinese language class with Jennifer and Chibao. We had a different teacher that day. It switched from Zhong Laoshi to Yan Laoshi. Yan Laoshi taught the spoken language sessions of the 5-month language emersion class. I recalled as she was setting up at the podium and I first spoke to her in Chinese. It got it a little bit of reaction from her. She thought it was a native speaker initially, and then when she saw it coming from a foreigner’s tongue such as myself, it gave her a little shock. ☺
That afternoon, I began to conduct my research online trying to determine what points were the most important to highlight to an audience that has probably has little or no prior education on the subject. The primary sources I used were Lester Brown’s Plan 3.0 and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth as well as FAO (Forest Agricultural Organization) and IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change).
Tuesday late afternoon, Wang Cheng and I met to go over my ideas for the presentation and the layout. He thought the basic concept was great, and he just reminded me to make sure keep anything political related out of the speech. I told him that I would not even mention the name of any countries. My goal was to stay as far away from politics as possible.
After dinner with his roommates, we bought a large, green poster to help advertise the upcoming event. We returned to Wang Cheng’s dormitory, and all 3 of his roommates came to together to help write and translate the title and agenda of the presentation. It was awesome to watch them come together because they believed that this lecture was important. It was the first time SBS had a foreigner speak out about any type of environmental issues. In addition, I got to write a small introduction about myself in Chinese. Other students from down the hall came in to hear what all the commotion was about, interested to find a foreigner writing Chinese characters. As I look back, it was teamwork at it’s finest.
I met Wang Cheng again on Wednesday afternoon. I gave him a copy of my rough draft of the PPT and asked him if he could help me translate it into Chinese for the students who would be attending. I should call out here that Wang Cheng had only three hours of sleep that night before and had also other assignments to complete for his own class; however, he finished it by Thursday morning amazingly! I can’t say enough good things about Wang Cheng. I have to mention that at this point I was expecting an attendance of around 30 people. I also began writing up my transcript for each slide. That evening, I revised the slides once more. I had a total of 41 slides for an hour a half presentation.
Thursday was by far the craziest day I have experienced at SBS. Andy, the hall monitor, got a larger classroom assigned to me and the poster authorized by the student government. At 11:30 A.M, I met Wang Cheng in the cafeteria for an early lunch, and shortly afterwards we got the poster from Andy. We then went to the 2nd Teaching Building and got permission to take a desk out of a classroom to set up in front of the cafeteria. The timing here was key because at 12:00 students all get out of class, and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to get the word out. In my opinion, it was the perfect time for advertising. There was only one small problem, the wind was a little gusty, and students couldn’t clearly see the poster handing from the table. We had to improvise. I stood up on a chair and used my height as a major advantage. I held the poster high above the crowd calling out to the students “come over here and take a look…I will be giving a presentation tonight from 6:30 – 8:00 called The Environment and Me.” An already tall Caucasian foreigner standing on a chair all of a sudden caught the attention of everyone, and 1/3 of 600 students came to look at my poster. Wang Cheng helped me explain the details of the presentation in Chinese to the enlarging mass of students. I stood on that chair for about a 1-hour and a half holding that poster. That interesting part was that I didn’t have to do much to attract the attention of the students. I simply mentioned the title, subject, time, and place of the presentation. It seemed to be highly effective.
Later, I went over my transcript with Wang Cheng. This was very important because I would be giving the lecture in English, not Chinese obviously. The subject context was far about my language level. Therefore, I went through my speech with Wang Cheng so if there were any unfamiliar words that we was unfamiliar with for translating, he could look them up now. I would present the lecture in English and speak slowly, which can be a little challenging for a Millennial. ☺ If the students still didn’t understood what I was saying, Wang Cheng could assist me interpret.
I reconnected with him at 5:45 in the classroom to all the technical details worked out before the lecture. To my surprise, when I arrived 30 students were already seated doing their assignments waiting for my lecture. I think they realized that a large mass of students would be coming and so they wanted to make sure they get a seat in advance. A few minutes before 6:20, the 150 seats in the classroom were filled completely. However, students still were coming in looking for a place to seat. Wang Cheng, Liu Hui, Alan, and a few other students went looking for more chairs from other classrooms. We weren’t able to seat everyone, but by the time I started, I was speaking in front of about 200 students. For the next hour and half, I was the presenter. I have to admit my heart was pounding relentlessly; however, it was counterbalanced by the excitement at the opportunity to speak out on this cause that I was passionate about As I looked out at the audience, I couldn’t help but feel I sense of delight with such a large turnout. My own hope was that all the students would leave with a new sense of awareness about the environmental issues and for others it would serve as a catalyst to start conversations with friends and family.
The first 30 minutes of the lecture was only I speaking English. Wang Cheng approached me and told me to pause between each sentence and to speak louder into the small mike provided by the classroom. Even with these small changes, the over half of the audience did not understand what I was saying. Alan got an interesting mike setup for Wang Cheng. It was a head mike with a speaker attached to strap belt. Every 1 or 2 sentences, I would allow Wang Cheng translate to the best of his ability. There was only one problem. The sound quality from Wang Cheng’s speaker was poor and distracting. In addition, the audience did not want to listen to Wang Cheng; they only wanted me to speak whether they could understand or not. For most of them, this was an opportunity to hear a foreign speak English to them.
One of my slides was on our “Throwaway Economy.” I gave a small demonstration with comparing a tissue to handkerchief. I took a small pack of tissues and said this is “New.” Then I rubbed it around my face, crushed it up, and threw it on the ground next to the podium. Then I said that is “Used. It’s garbage.” All of a sudden, this small display got a strong reaction from the audience. A few people began to clap, and several minutes later, the entire audience was applauding. I also gave them an example of my Gatorade plastic bottles and explaining the 1,000 – 10,000 year life cycle it has. I tried to spark awareness that the concept of away does not work anyone (i.e. The Pacific Gyor). (Note to self – prompts are an effective way to cross language barriers)
By the end of the lecture, 10% or 20% of the audience had already left. After a round of applause, we had Q&A. This is where I had a chance to meet students who had a concern or interest in the topic, which was the most exciting part of the experience. One question was about renewable energy. One student asked, “China is so large and has the largest population in the world, is it even possible to use wind and solar power on such a large scale?” That was an excellent question. I gave her a list of suggested books, documentary films, and reports that would give a more complete answer than I could say in a minute or two. My short response to her was that it is possible if there is a high enough incentive to produce energy from renewables. Another student was Tom. He was a freshman at SBS and was an active volunteer with Green Peace and the World Wildlife Foundation. He said as a volunteer, he writes letters to large corporations requesting them to stop their destructive impact on the environment. I told him that as consumers, every dollar that we spend we are supporting one cause or another. I told him that being a smart and conscious consumer is very important. His main question was “China is a developing country, developing very quickly. Should China choose the economy or the environment?” I told him that it is a false choice in my opinion. Most environmentalists wouldn’t say growth is good. I said the question is not about growth or no growth, but what do we want to grow? I gave him a copy of my resource page and said a good book to start with is Cradle to Cradle.
There were about 15 or 20 students that had questions for me after my lecture and it was wonderful to be able to reach out to them and help get a dialogue started.
From Thursday evening to Friday morning, I got some thoughtful feedback from my friends who attended. For instance, the 70% to 80% of the audience had only one intention and that was to come and just listen to a foreigner speak English, not for the debrief on environmental problem. The second point was a technical difficulty issue with the sound system. Alan said that everyone in the back of the classroom could not hear my voice. It was too soft. In the future, I will make sure to do sound quality tests, which unfortunately did not cross my mind before the lecture. Another valuable observation was the audience was primarily freshmen. At a university where the bulk of the students study English, the language ability of freshman compared to junior is dramatically different. This means that much as 50% of my lecture was probably not intelligible. I was also reminded that these students have not studied any English environmental terminology, which made the situation a little more difficult. The key here is to pay close attention to your audience. Alan also suggested had a good suggestion. He said that next time I should upload a Chinese version of the presentation on the university server for students to have a chance to overlook the content ahead of time. This way they can come prepared with a clearer overview of what addressed.
I should also remark that Alan has uploaded my English transcript and the Chinese and English version of the presentation on the university network, which can now be downloaded for free. This way, students have access to the context and resources I suggested such as books, reports, and documentary films. Alan, Wang, Cheng and a few other students said they would help spread the word to the students who attended, which I hope will serve as a catalyst to continue discussions on macro- and micro-environmental issues that face our planet.
My last remark is that this was a learning experience. It was by no means perfect, but I have given me some valuable lessons that I can continue to improve on. Alan even suggested that the next time I come to Shanghai, he would be willing to help me get connect at Fudan University for another lecture. The journey of advocacy has only begun, and I want give a special thanks to my large support group of Chinese friends who without them that lecture would not have taken place. It was certainly not a one-man show, but a collection of encouraging, enthusiastic, and strong willed students.
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