My Pride in China

For my students and Chinese friends, the Sichuan Earthquake is the first disaster they have lived through.  This, as an American who grew up through Columbine shootings, Hurricane Katrina, The Twin Towers disaster, floods and a plethora of other events to change our country and  unite us, is difficult for  me to comprehend.  That being said, the pain felt by this nation, especially by those born after the late 1970s, is that much more intense.  Much like many Americans felt at our times of need, my students feel helpless and want to do everything in their power to help the people of Sichuan.  All weekend long they mourned, they prayed (!!!), they cried.

This week, in Oral English class, I had planned to start working on how to give a professional English speech.  However, I felt that talking about the earthquake was perhaps more beneficial and needed at this time.  I had my first two classes of the week today, and in both classes our focus was discussing the earthquake. In groups, I gave them guided questions, mostly about discussing how they are effected, how they are coping, how this makes them question their life purpose (I'm always trying to get them to focus on "life purpose," something that isn't emphasized here), and what they can do to help.  Many students cried during the discussion and told personal stories.  I also learned that many of my students families called Sichuan and tried to figure out how they could adopt the orphaned children (for this country, that is HUGE and I'm SO excited! Just the fact that they are considering adopting, which is normally looked down upon, is a tremendous step in the right direction!!).  Because they've never dealt with anything like this before, my students had no idea what they could do besides donate money.  Even donating blood didn't cross their minds.  Because I'm not allowed (by Peace Corps standards) to donate here, I told them that anyone who donated and came back ready to talk about the experience ("Oral English") in next week's class would get extra credit (many promised to do so).  We then spent the rest of the hour writing letters to (they had a choice) doctors and nurses at Sichuan Chengdu Hospital (to thank them), children/students in the hospital, or adults and other patients in the hospital.  For me, as one who has been through these kinds of events before, this seemed like an obvious way for my students to make a small difference, but to them the idea of writing letters was revolutionary.  SO MANY students staid well after class was finished, into both their lunch and dinner breaks, so that they could perfect their letters.  I also had many students stay after class to ask me how they can volunteer in Sichuan to help bring out bodies and clean up the rubble (obviously, I didn't know, but I told them that THAT would be best left to trained professionals, but if they wanted to help they should, after donating blood, ask the Red Cross how they can further help).  It's wonderful to see how helpful and inspired they all are! They even are openly talking about prayer now.  I'm not sure who they are praying to, or if they really mean "prayer" when they say that, but today the government even issued a mandatory 3 minutes of silence (the whole country blared a siren over the intercoms and every car and boat honked their horn) so that all people stood silently, reflecting, remembering, fingers crossed and eyes closed praying for all 3 full minutes.  It was remarkable for a country that discourages spirituality ("superstition") of all forms.

The racism I was beginning to feel during the Tibetan riots and Olympic protests is dying down. Now, it seems everyone is too distracted in mourning to care or notice our differences.  People who know that I am "from" Chengdu and have many students, teachers, friends and my host family there pay their respects to me, as if I am one of them.  This, too, is huge for for the people of Guizhou, as many people struggle to see me as anything beyond an outsider.  The fact that they realize I am mourning with them is so progressive and I am so proud of them!  In addition, the anger that was felt during the protests seems to have died down and, instead, my Chinese friends are grateful to the West!  America only gave $500,000 to Sichuan (during Hurricane Katrina, China gave us $5 million), and many of my American friends in China are outraged and disheartened in our government not equaling China's donation to us.  My Chinese friends, however, aware that USA, while wealthier than them beyond imagination and only giving a fraction of the money back that China gave to the states, do not complain, but instead say how grateful they are that American donated money to help at all.  In a moment of pride, I told my students that THIS, the gratitude, the people banding together, looking beyond race, occupation, wealth, or any other difference, is China's "Olympic Pride" and is what they should be proud of, the fact that, in spite of what a difficult year they have had, they are coming together and pulling as one, helping each other through thick and thin.  This is the most proud I have been of China since coming here.  These days, I truly heart China.