In the News

In the news... (zgbriefs.com)

Counselors Practice How to Rescue Marriages (September 15, 2007, Shanghai Daily)
The growing demand for marriage counselors in Shanghai has led to the creation of a special training school for people interested in saving marriages. Those interested in improving their marriage counseling skills, or saving their own unions, may apply for a spot in the program to gain experience. The program invites young newlyweds who need advice and the counselors practice their techniques on them. Some of the consultants have no prior experience but receive training. The first marriage consulting practice and training center opened in Shanghai in July. So far, 500 people have enrolled in the program to improve their consulting skills.

China Web-user Dies After Three-day Online Binge (September 16, 2007, AFP)
A man in southern China collapsed and died after a three-day marathon online session at a cybercafe, state media reported on Monday. The web-user, estimated to be 30 years old, suddenly collapsed in front of his computer terminal in Guangdong province, and emergency personnel were unable to revive him, the Beijing News reported. "According to preliminary findings, the length of time this man spent online might have triggered heart problems," the paper quoted a local hospital emergency medic in the city of Zhongshan as saying. The paper did not provide the man's name or the online activities he was engaged in.

China’s Tallest Building Nearly Done (September 14, 2007, AP)
After a more than a decade of delays, China's tallest building is slicing through Shanghai's hazy, skyscraper-studded skyline — a new trophy built by a Japanese property tycoon. The 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center, a 1,614 foot wedge-shaped tower with a rectangular hole at the very top, was topped out on Friday as its last beam was laid amid a drizzle that obscured the building's panoramic view of endless high rises. In a city whose skyline evinces the belief "the taller the better," the building is bound to be a major tourist destination and landmark. The $1 billion Shanghai project by the developer's flagship Mori Building Co., due for completion in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is a monument to the city's ambitions to reclaim its status as a key international center.

And the most interesting...

New Words for a Rave New World (September 17, 2007, Shanghai Daily)
Rapid social change, Western pop culture and the use of English have prompted education authorities to add 171 terms to the national language registry, including those that describe mortgage slaves and loose marital arrangements. Economic reforms and soaring rates of home ownership have produced a new name for those young people struggling to pay off home loans in traditionally debt-wary China: fangnu, or "house slaves." And young, married professionals who live in separate homes to keep the romance alive and maintain their own space are being called "Semi-honey couples" (bantang fuqi), according to education officials."(The new terms) reflect the rapid cultural and social changes in recent years as well as thriving new concepts in our daily lives," said Li Yuming, the senior official at the Ministry of Education in charge of standardizing the use of modern Chinese language. The new terms were registered after two years researching more than 900 million commonly used words and phrases in Chinese, the Xinhua news agency reported, adding that they showed how pervasive Western movies and the English language had become.

What Blog?

Because of the "Great China Firewall" I have difficulty accessing the blogs of friends in the States. In fact, some days make it downright impossible to read other peoples' stuff except through a proxy server. So, I lag behind. Then I forget I even have a blog until someone asks me why I haven't posted anything lately. Now I remember.

Let me just sum up recent life here in a few sentences: Students are finally coming around! Classes are actually fun this year (added powerpoint in my classes as well as trying a completely new curriculum with my sophomores). Team is good. Community is good. Our team is doing the Beth Moore study on Daniel, good stuff so far. It's hard to get started on language learning again- very hard. Still don't know my future, but who does, really? It's starting to get cold (and when it does, "warm" doesn't come again until May). I am preparing for my cultural lectures this semester on university life in America, the melting pot theory, new york city, and the effect of 9/11 on our society. I have started going to the local fellowship weekly, as well as loving on new babies and kids at the orphanage. Muslims are observing Ramadan this month and the Chinese will soon be observing Mid-Autumn Day (kind of an equivalent to America's Thanksgiving) and I'm trying to enmesh myself somehow in both (or at least learn more about it from the inside). I miss my family (especially with Dad's birthday next week). I'm looking forward to the October National Day (a week-long break). I have had several opportunities to share the story this week. Life is good.

Now, if any of my sophomore writing students had turned in a paragraph like the one above, I would have given them a very low grade (no transitions, no main topic, random and unorganized, incomplete sentences). :) :) :)

Here's a picture from our first trip back to the orphanage with students last Saturday (let's play "Where's Waldo?")...only some of the older kids are pictured here. :)

Thoughts on Team

Just to assure all you faithful blog readers that Michelle has not disappeared! I usually don't go this long between entries, but this past month has been one constant transition after another. I just wrote and sent another newsletter to the press, which means I am in writing mode, so I write. There's also the point that there is so much going on that I don't know where to start or what you would be interested in. To me it just seems like a regular day in China. However, I'm realizing that the fact that I'm in China doesn't make it regular at all :).

After five weeks in south China and four weeks helping out in Beijing, me and my team of 13 boarded the train and ventured back to Siping to begin a new semester. The first week back was devoted to team building activities and now we are in our second week of classes. I have not updated pictures on my flickr site because my camera died this summer and I'm in the process of looking for a new one :). The team picture here is from my teammate Kat :).

When I joined this team in February, I was simply doing just that- joining something that had already been established. I was just going with what was already going on and that was fine for me. Last semester was a time of transition and learning the ropes of living life in this place. Now, however, I want to help shape this team and put in my two cents worth. I want to be part of developing strategies that align with where our Father wants us to go. I've been on several very different kinds of teams and each one has had its advantages and disadvantages. There are aspects of my old teams that I really miss, and yet at the same time there are other aspects I don't miss at all. However, even with several years of experience under my belt, I know I have to approach life with a great deal of humility. Humility has never been one of my stronger virtues. :) Adding new team members in the mix calls for even more adjusting. Bless their hearts because being completely new to China has them adjusting more to life in Siping than I ever had to. Being on a large team of 13 means that everyone wants to find their place, to bring value to the larger whole. It is sometimes (okay, a lot) frustrating when somebody else has the "greater" gifts and I'm simply trying to keep up. I find myself (and I say this as a personal problem and not necessarily reflective of my team members) becoming (dare I say?) competitive in some regards and sometimes forget who we really are and Who we are representing. Who can be the best language learner or best lesson planner or best study leader or who can come up with the best thought and praise time? Who is the busiest or having the most meaningful conversations with students? We want to be the best we can be for Him, but end up stepping on each other in the process rather than building each other up. Is that really what we want to be? We really don't know what the Father is doing with us here, but that's not really our job to figure out. We need to be constantly reminded that our role is, by loving each other, to demonstrate His love to the community at large. Out of relationship with the Body comes relationship with others.

I have a great team, I really do. I have been genuinely impressed by the leadership of Jon and Rachel, our team leaders. They bring people out in a way that is honoring to our Father. Having been in leadership positions before, I know that this is not always an easy place to be. They both honor Him with their lives and love for each other and for this family here in Siping. I am incredibly blessed to work alongside them (and not just Jon and Rachel- ALL of them).

It is neat to see how various gifts on the team are played out, even in the mundane. The mundane is a glorious place to be sometimes. :). And yet, at the end of the day, we are still human and our natures take captive on what should be right and pure. Perhaps that is what makes grace all the more amazing! :)

The other night my team was listening to a teaching about our friend Joseph at the beginning of our favorite book. The speaker was emphasizing how Joseph's Father was with him even when he didn't know the story (didn't even know there WAS a story, as there was no book at the time, and his great grandfather was just an ordinary man to him who had a promise of being the father of many, but only had one son, and his own brothers were messed up people in themselves- there's a story, what story? :)). In the dark places in the dungeon, befriending the prison warden, Joseph had no clue how his life would play in the bigger story. He just acted as one confident that his Father was with him. The question the speaker continually challenged us with was, "what would somebody who is just like me with my exact circumstances do who is absolutely confident that the Father is with him?" How do my decisions and actions hang on the balance of the Great Story of which we have no specific idea about the part we are playing? :)).

At the end of the day, what brings honor to Him? At the end of the day, we are reminded that this is His team, this is His campus, and this is His story. We are humbled that we have been asked to play such a role. One day it'll make sense, but our aim is not to search for that day, but to simply BE in the here and now and hope for better things. :)

By the way, Happy Teacher's Day to all of you in China! :)

Taking care of the kiddies

All present and accounted for in Beijing. I had a delightful month in my old city of Hengyang and when it was time to leave, I was ready. I was able to finally to say goodbye to that place. I cannot effectively move on to a new area until I've had closure. It really just takes time. It's time to go home to Siping, northeast China.

First stop, however, is Beijing. I have been here for almost two weeks and am loving it here. I'm helping out with new teacher orientation for my organization. While I spend a lot of time handling money and doing office work, I spend most of my days with the kids during childcare (childcare, not babysitting :) ). I am the assistant to the children's director, which means I handle most of the logistics and crisis control. It's like taking VBS and making the theme about adjusting to China. We intercede for our teammates, but often forget about what the kids are going through. They are making huge transitions, too. For the little babies we have hired aiyis (the word for aunt in Chinese-- older Chinese women who take care of children and can come to clean and cook for the family) and it is funny watching my little teammate Will (he's 1 1/2) being handed off to the care of an aiyi. The look on confusion on his face is priceless, but soon warms up to her and flashes his big smile. He doesn't seem too afraid by the masses of people who come up to him every day wanting to take his picture or touch his head. His older brother Jude (he's 5) is a little more sensitive to those kind of things. It's fun watching the little guys experience their new culture for the first time. The older kids are doing lessons and cultural activities and learning some Chinese (they are expected to perform some Chinese songs and poems at the SAFEA banquet this week- State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs- the umbrella government organization we are under, the bigwigs who have allowed us to be here). :) These kids want to make an impression :). The government officials absolutely LOVE when they do things like this. :)
The highlight of the kids' time is venturing out into the city for cultural outings (yesterday it was the Ethnic Minorities Park). I tell you, corralling a bunch of kids through the streets and taxis of Beijing, China is a quite unsettling at times (especially when these kids are somebody else's who've entrusted me with the most precious things in their lives--in a foreign country!). So far nobody has been lost or hurt, thank the Lord! At the end of the day if I get all the kids back with their parents I consider it a day well done :) ). Right now it's only 18 kids (new families), but imagine the task when all of our kids of all of our teachers come parading in next week (about 60!). Please think of these kids and that this will be a time of learning for them as they adjust to their new surroundings. Ask that they remain safe in this gigantic city.

News from China

My teammate Sonny started doing this on his blog, and I thought it was a good idea for those interested in news from China. ZGBriefs is a site that consolidates various news stories from different sources each week highlighting things happening in China and then sends out a weekly email. Here are a few from these past few weeks:

Quake Leaves 18,000 Homeless in Xinjiang (July 23, 2007, Xinhua)
About 18,000 people have been left homeless after the earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, which struck a remote county in northwest China last week. The quake, which struck Tekes County, Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture in northern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, at 6:06 PM on Friday, destroyed 4,600 houses and damaged 7,800 others, affecting 27,000 people, the prefectural government said. No casualties have been reported, but more than 470 livestock sheds collapsed in the quake, killing about 400 livestock, it said. The quake has caused direct losses of 63.75 million yuan (US$8.3 million). Disaster relief materials such as tents and flour have been transported to the area. The relocated residents are being accommodated with relatives or in tents provided by the government.

China Sees Activists as Olympic Threat (July 23, 2007, AP)
China's intelligence services are gearing up for next year's Beijing Olympics, gathering information on foreigners who might mount protests and spoil the nation's moment in the spotlight. Government spy agencies and think tanks are compiling lists of potentially troublesome foreign organizations, looking beyond the human rights groups long critical of Beijing, security experts and a consultant familiar with the effort said. They include evangelical Christians eager to end China's religious restrictions, activists wanting Beijing to use its oil-buying leverage with Sudan to end the strife in Darfur and environmental campaigners angry about global warming. The effort is among the broadest intelligence-collection drives Beijing has taken against foreign activist groups, often known as non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. It aims to head off protests and other political acts during an Olympics the communist leadership hopes will boost its popularity at home and China's image abroad. "Demonstrations of all kinds are a concern, including anti-American demonstrations," said the consultant, who works for Beijing's Olympic organizers and asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to the media. The government, he said, is "trying to find out what kinds of NGOs will come. ... What are their plans?" While foreign governments often monitor potentially disruptive groups ahead of big events, Beijing this time is ranging farther afield, targeting groups whose activities would be considered legal in most countries. Officials in China's overseas diplomatic missions are also being tasked to gather information on groups, the consultant said. When The Associated Press reported in May on plans by U.S. and other Christian groups to proselytize at the Olympics, the press officer at China's U.N. mission contacted the AP seeking more information.

In Changing Times, Many Chinese Find Wisdom in Confucius (July 10, 2007, The Christian Science Monitor, by Peter Ford)
Come back, Confucius, all is forgiven. For nearly a century the ancient sage was confined to the intellectual doghouse in the land of his birth. Today he is fast supplanting communism as Chinese rulers, businessmen, and ordinary citizens turn back 2-1/2 millenniums to his teachings to help them cope with the economic and social changes racking their country. "The economy is developing very fast, but people feel the need for wisdom and morality," says Gu Qing, who publishes books on traditional Chinese culture. "Now we've solved the problem of filling people's stomachs, they are looking for something to fill their minds."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070710/wl_csm/oconfucius_1
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and a story I was VERY happy to hear about...

Starbucks Shuts Controversial Forbidden City Shop (July 14, 2007, AP)
Starbucks has closed a coffeehouse in China's former imperial palace, the company said Saturday, ending a presence that sparked protests by Chinese critics who said it damaged a key historical site. The controversy over Starbucks at Beijing's 587-year-old Forbidden City has highlighted Chinese sensitivity about cultural symbols and unease over an influx of foreign pop culture. Starbucks closed the 200-square-foot outlet Friday after Forbidden City managers decided they wanted all shops on its grounds to operate under the palace's brand name, said Eden Woon, Starbucks' vice president for Greater China. "It was a very congenial decision. We respect what they are doing," Woon said. The Starbucks opened in 2000 at the invitation of palace managers, who needed to raise money to maintain the 178-acre complex of villas and gardens. But critics said it was inappropriate. An anchor for Chinese state television led an online protest, saying the coffeehouse diminished Chinese culture.

If you want the weekly emails, go to www.zgbriefs.com

Finished at last!

I am finished!!!! It's kind of a long story how it all started and how it all ended, but I now have my Master's degree in Intercultural Studies from Wheaton College Graduate School! Diploma is in the mail! My organization offers 4 graduate programs (from 3 different schools) tuition-free during our tenure teaching English in Asia. We take classes in one-month or two-week periods in the winter in Thailand, and then in the summer at the Wheaton College campus. During the semesters we do all of the reading and paper writing. I started in the winter of 2003, but soon saw that my heart was not in it and did not think I was doing it for the right reasons, so I dropped out. About two years later my new teammates (two guys) were in the program and I was already reading their books and saw that my own passions had changed. If I'm reading the books anyway, why don't I just take the classes again? So, that's what I did.

Finally came an opportunity for me to go to northwest China, and while I knew I was being called in that direction I also knew I needed to finish my degree first. It would have taken me another two years or so, so instead of doing it the normal way I fast-tracked it by spending a semester on Wheaton's campus as part of my "home leave"(which is an exception they made for me--it never hurts to ask :)). I didn't have a place to live, so this family I grew up with in Indonesia called people in their fellowship and this nice couple with two grown daughters off at college invited me to live with them- for free! My semester with the Brown family and with the Wheaton folks was amazing! I was even able to be part of a Chinese fellowship and volunteer once a week in Chicago's Chinatown tutoring English. I really began to sincerely appreciate this precious gift I had been given. While my place in the northwest was then put on hold indefinitely I know Dad used that as a way to lead me where He needed me for that semester. A lot of healing and rest and family time was able to happen! (and to think I originally went reluctantly! :) )

After that time I had one last paper to write as part of an independent study that would take the next six months. The paper only needed to be 25 pages, but it was about a subject I deeply cared about, so I put my whole heart into it and in the end (and 2400 pages of reading later) the paper was over 60 pages long! A mini book, my parents always tell me. :) And now I am finished. Woohoo!

The graduate programs my organization offers are an amazing opportunity because it is so applicable to where we are at. Thank you to the folks in the organization for giving me this opportunity and for allowing me to extend my knowledge base so that I can be better at what I am doing now! It is humbling. May it be that I use my education for the Father's glory! :)

Dancing and Swimming in the Park

Following a spontaneous dinner with a close Chinese friend (Barbara) the other night, we decided to go to the local park to join in the dancing. One of the most beautiful things about China is their sense of community, and every night in the park groups of people, mostly women, will join together and dance together. It's kind of like the Chinese version of line dancing, except it's traditional Chinese music and not country music, and the steps are completely different. Okay, it's not like line dancing at all :) :) You just pick a spot and desperately try to follow along. I'm not much of a dancer, but nobody cares. To me the steps seem complicated until you get used to the pattern and the traditional dancing continues. I worked up quite a sweat to what looks on the outside like such a simple thing. And that was only after one dance! These ladies will dress up in their very best dresses and go away at it. Young and old together. It is what gives them enjoyment from an otherwise tedious day. It was an absolute delight!

A few days later this same friend invited me to go swimming with her and some others at the local park. The average Chinese person doesn't know how to swim, so they find it surprising that I learned when I was a four-year old in Indonesia (I remember those days as clear as anything). However, more and more people are learning, so these students asked me to teach them on this particular afternoon. Teaching my Chinese friends how to swim was an awesome time! After giving them a pep talk about "how you cannot be afraid of the water, the water is our friend, and that if you go under you'll still be okay"...they began to enjoy the experience. I was trying to teach them to swim backwards (I'm not a swimmer, I don't know the technical words for these things) but it was a struggle for them because they were fighting the water, afraid of going under. But, once they relaxed, they did quite well. Swimming seems like such an easy thing, don't you think? Just a little kicking and moving your arms, right? Then I began to teach it and realized to an adult who has been told you can get STDs from a swimming pool (yeah, that's what I said) and have received hyped up stories of drowning all their lives and are afraid of the water, not such an easy task. What happened to the childlike faith of a four year old? (and how applicable is that in our own LIFE walk? Point to ponder). Needless to say, it was one of the most enjoyable times for me in my whole China experience! By the end of the time, I had been out of the water for awhile, but they didn't want to leave. I thought they were going to turn into fish. Then we played in the kiddie pool and pretended to be kids again :)

The sun was so hot that I got a slight sunburn (that for me always turns into a tan), which I was very proud of and showing off to everybody. But, for the Chinese, the idea is that the whiter you are the better, so when I told them that people in America spend a long time (and sometimes a lot of money) trying to be darker they thought this very strange indeed! :)