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A Big Night Out at a fashion Parade

Jun 13th 2010

By: Kerry

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A Big Night Out at a Fashion Parade

The college provides education in an interesting and diverse collection of subjects. Subjects include, but are not limited to art, music, textiles and footwear, modelling, acting, business, languages and courses dealing with cars and machinery. If I hadn’t accidently met a couple of non English major students or asked questions I would be totally unaware of the existence of most of them.

One of the Design and Manufacture of Garments students who has been friendly and helpful to me invited me to his graduation fashion parade on Friday night. It was held in a fairly new building tucked away in a back corner of the campus.

We arrived early and snagged seats in the first row beside the catwalk. There were few students there then but it soon filled up to standing room only at the back. Chairs and desks were located at the end of the catwalk and that is where the teachers sat. One came and offered me a seat with them but I preferred to stay where I was.

The official photographer was also set up there. There’s always been an official photographer at the college functions students have invited me to such as various contests and competitions.

The parade lasted for an hour and included lights and sound. It was both impressive and disappointing. Some of the garments were “way out” in terms of who would wear them and where. Therefore, they were up there with those from European catwalks as seen on TV. Actually I thought most were of a fashion design style but when I reviewed my photos I saw that many could be adapted or worn by normal (skinny) people.

On the other hand, there were oversights including not ensuring that loose threads were removed from garments or that they had been ironed before the parade. Given that only the best garments had been selected for the parade and the vast number of students enrolled there was no real reason for such deficiencies and spoiled what could have been a truly professional event.

Anyway it was a unique experience and I was lucky to have it. Everyone left immediately it was over. I was given a tour of the building and received more surprises.   Among other things there were vast rooms inhabited by students in garment factory environments. Students were sewing or ironing. It was obvious that several different garments were in various stages of construction. No one appeared to working up a sweat over the work apart from one girl who was installing buttons on shirts with great rapidity while talking on her phone via a microphone. A softly softly approach to work is typical of what I have seen when I have been out and about.

Outside it was a barmy night and a small group of students were doing military drill in another backwater of the college. All first year college and uni students in China must do military training. Not sure how some of the wealthy pampered ones cope with it. Read a newspaper article last year where the author considered that students weren’t taking it seriously and were more concerned about the state of their nails than the benefits of training. Students I’ve discussed it with have enjoyed it. Apart from anything else it gives them the chance to bond.   The first year students had reached the end of their 2^nd week of full time training when some developed H1N1 flu in September last year and brought it to an abrupt halt.

More fashion Parade Photos

Slide Show + -
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I just found this link among some old unread  mail. It is a graduate fashion show from two of Korea’s universities and a prestigious one in Beijing. Rather more sophisticated garments including fur.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn//slides/2010-03/27/content_9650971.htm

China, Uncategorized, Work, Xingtai

China, college, Education, Fashion Parade, military training, Xingtai
The Weekend that Isn’t

Jun 10th 2010

By: Kerry

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The Weekend that Isn’t

Next Wednesday is a public holiday. Apparently it was introduced or reintroduced, can’t remember which, a couple of years ago to ensure people retained connection with their culture. The skeptical would say that it also facilitates that other cultural institution, commerce.

Not only is Wednesday a day off work, but also Monday and Tuesday. In order to be eligible for this bounty there is a requirement to work Saturday and Sunday, so no weekend this week. This sort of thing happens with public holidays several times each year, but most of them have occurred when I’ve been out of the country. Fortunately, I have just finished some of my classes so I only have one class on Saturday.

One of my students told me of the need to work the weekend a couple of days ago so I had no opportunity to preempt any travel arrangements. I knew to anticipate and plan classes around a day off on Wednesday, but I’d forgotten that I had to work the corresponding weekend last year.

The trains will be busy and I have no desire to endure the additional crowding which will be a feature of them so I will be staying put. I have a few ideas of how to spend the time and am awaiting further information.

I’ll write about the meaning of the holiday and provide a photo next week.

China, Work, Xingtai

China, culture, Education, teaching, Xingtai
Food

Jun 9th 2010

By: Kerry

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In the last couple of days I have been on a long surburban bus ride, wanderered unknown streets, visited a beauty parlour/weight loss centre, hospital/doctors surgery and eyed food on display in streets. Sometimes I have done more than eye it. And I have taught some classes too.

Today is a picture story about food because I don;t know enough to write about it.

On Sunday I went to the vegie market beside the canal which I missed the previous week. This woman is making buns. This sort of set up is very common.

These 3 photos show a man cooking the food you see in the photo above. He worked like greased lightening to squeeze the dough through his hand & into the oil via a spoon.

The next shows the reult of the first cooking. It contains a dollop of brown sugar which provides the hint of colour.

This woman is kneading dough and making buns in these photos. She has small packets of what I think is tofu which are usually placed in the buns. I didn’t stay for the final result.

Above are two of the stalls along the canal.

The canal road soon reached an intersection with a large tree-canopied street filled with food and other stalls.

The photos are not particularly clear. However, the stalls they show are very common. The street is remarkable for the enormous deciduous trees which meet overhead.

This baked potato stall was on the corner of another large street. These stalls were very common a couple of months ago but this is the first I’ve seen for a while. On the other corner was a woman selling kebabs from a stall exactly like the one I used to visit and which then disappeared. She had the kebabs I like and we bought a couple. We were told the meat came from an ox. Hers didn’t taste as good as the other womans.

In looking for the bus stop we found another market street. The first photo shows a very elaborate kebab cooking stall. It is easily visible from many bus routes and I was glad to encounter it when on foot although the light was going.

Before we passed these restaurants and stalls we also passed to a man lying in his wooden bed on the footpath.

I took this photo months ago. It is here because I found the kebab seller. When we were near the college I went through the entrance to the residential area where I’d met Baby the dog and had a meal the previous day. The kebab seller had relocated there and as it was evening she was at work. We bought some kebabs but ate them before I could photographed them. She said they were pork. Theu don’t look like pork either. I’ve now had three opinions on their origin, chicken, ox, pork and I don’t actually believe any of them.

This and the remaining photos are from today. There is a street close to the college where market stalls, especially food related ones, abound in good weather.   This is a common kebab stall. I’ve never patronised one as all of the meat appears to be manufactured and that doesn’t appeal.

This man has a very modern manner of cooking his pancakes. All of the others I’ve seen have been cooked over a drum. The one with green vegies inside it is usually pretty good although the last one I ate had little flavour.

More footpath food stalls.

Above is the stall on the back of a tricycle and the contents of the containers. The ones on the left in the vehicle are hot foods, the rest are cold.

Hotpot restaurants are popular. This one is setting up for the evening. It consits of a bowl of stock; sometimes two with one being very spicy and the other milder. They sit over a gas burner as here or are kept hot with parafin. Sometimes you get a pot to yourself and other places its a communal pot for the table. You choose various vegies and meats along with noodles to dunk and cook. Its a challenge to fish out the noodles with chopsticks.

This is the only stall with a queue. We discovered a couple of our students at the head of the queue so I got to sample the food. It is like a big pancake covered with sesame seeds, some green chives maybe and tastes a bit spicy. Like all of this sort of thing it is sold by weight. It is cut into small pices and sold in a paper bag with a very long toothpick implement as a utensil for eating.

You can see the bread on the scales and the toothpicky implement. It was quite tasty.

These were just some of the teas on sale.

Sunflower seeds, different varieties and sold for human consumption. They are extremely popular. They are larger than the ones I feed to my galah.

Pickled foods

Some sort of steamer, probably for some sort of buns.

Peking Duck stall. Now I know what it is I will return and try some.

waiting for business



Rice kebab in its cooking container.

Cook with the unpackaged kebab. It is dunked in the sugar visible on the tray. It tasted pretty good.

This photo is here in response to a comment. It came from the hole in the wall restaurant I frequented in Tianjin a month or so ago. I had eaten there a couple of nights and on the occasion of the photo I had entered and put my head in the doorway of a room off the hallway while looking for staff.   A man was there eating something that looked pretty good so I told the newly emerged waitress that I’d have the same.

The photo shows what I received. It was cooked/kept hot with a small paraffin burner underneath. When I put my glasses on I discovered that the meat was crinkly and not the expected chicken.

I ate some of it and there was nothing the matter with it apart from not knowing its source.     However, it wasn’t tasty enough for me to abandon my scruples so I picked around it eating the vegetables minus the equivalent of about 5 years worth of chili intake. My thought was that it had once been someone’s intestine. Not a good thought for an Aussie raised on muscle meat.

China

culture, Food, markets, Xingtai
A Big Day in China

Jun 8th 2010

By: Kerry

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A Big Day in China and …

Yesterday was a big day in China for millions of Chinese students, their parents and teachers. Nine and a half million students started the first of two days of examinations for college entrance.   The exams are known as “gaokao” and the seen by many as the most important days in a student’s life. The exam result determines which university or college a student is eligible to enter.

Vehicle horn blowing was forbidden and construction sites were shut down in Beijing in order to create a quiet and undisturbed environment for students. (Horn blowing in Beijing is minimal compared with other cities.) Throughout the country police, volunteers and others are out in force to ensure the process ran smoothly and /or to cope with any sort of disturbance or disaster, natural or otherwise. Special arrangements were made for students requiring examination in established disaster zones e.g. Yushu earthquake area or impending disaster zones, areas of southern China at risk of flooding and landslides.

Corruption has been a feature of the exams in past years.   Cheating occurs at a very sophisticated level, hence electronic surveillance. Various forms of surveillance are undertaken. Examinations were held in Imperial days to determine entitlement to positions within court and the equivalent of the civil service. Cheating was common then too. The problem is that then and now, life outside of the education system was/is not financially and culturally attractive. So education has, and is seen to be, the holy grail. China is changing so that the clever and determined ones can make a suitable life without a college or university education. However, it is still far from easy. Millions of university and college students are without jobs, or the entry level jobs they aspire to, and are known in the media as “ants.” Apparently they live in crowded conditions in particular areas of Beijing constantly seeking employment and remaining optimistic.

According to yesterday’s English TV report about half of the students will get a placement somewhere. Last semester one of my bright first year students told me that she cried for days because she missed out on her choice of college by one mark. Based on where she wanted to go and her current situation that one mark has changed her life.

The whole system of college and university placement seems rather confusing. From what I have read the reality is that there is room for individuality at the provincial level. However, and at whatever level it is managed, it means that some students are placed in courses and classes they don’t want and/or are ill equipped to manage. I have, and have had English students who should not be in my classes. The college is not equipped to deal with students requiring remedial assistance in English. When I raised the issue I was told it was under consideration.

On Sunday when I was wandering the streets with a student we passed a rather well kept, expensive looking school. I was told it was the best school in Xingtai, the Number One School. I believe all schools have numbers. Also think it is the one where a couple of Canadians I met last year teach. I was invited to sit in on a lesson but was busy at the time and never followed it up. They are there because their section of the school follows a Canadian syllabus. All subjects are taught in English so the school needs teachers capable of teaching science subjects and Canadian history and so on. As it is connected with Canada, successful students are eligible to attend Canadian universities.   This is one way of having two chances at university entry. When we walked past we saw students sitting in groups on lawns and walking around trying to memorise information.

Many students go directly from Chinese high schools to foreign universities. Others attend high school in a foreign country to ensure a better chance of achieving university entry. I can remember when I was in my final year of high school that we had three Asian students attend my school for exactly that reason. The difference is that none came from China. In those days the Chinese ones were busy being culturally educated in the countryside.

Some of my third year ex-students have a thirst for knowledge and a desire for the extra money that a university degree can command. After months of written work and study some of them recently sat an entrance examination designed for college graduates.   From what one told me, many are unsuccessful, and success only entitles entry to certain universities within the province. So it is possible for the truly determined and able to give correct written responses to get a second bite at the cherry, which sounds like it isn’t the sweetest one on the tree.

If you want to learn more about “gaukao’ you can google or read here http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/culture/2010-06/07/c_13337798.htm

The photos are of the school we saw.

China

Education, gaokao
A Dog called Baby and Response to a Request

Jun 6th 2010

By: Kerry

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A Dog called Baby and Response to a Request

Yesterday one of my ex-students called offering to take me out. I had a day of work lined up, but there’s always tomorrow so off I went.

We headed across the road and through an entrance which previously I had considered private.   When will I ever learn that nothing or little in China is considered private?   More on that another time.

Just before and through the entrance were rows of street vendors, but not my “is it really chicken?” kebab vendor.   But then it was the wrong time of day for her to be out. After the stalls were small shops and restaurants and we headed into one of them after stopping for some shots of two small kittens playing under the tree to which they were tied.

They were not keen on the attention. Real scaredy cats, but they did settle before I left.

The restaurant served food from my student’s home province which was many thousands of miles away. We had chicken complete with bones, braised beans with pork accompanied by rice. It was OK and I would return. After we finished eating the student asked the owners if they would show me their dog.

It was quickly produced from an opening in a wall. It was clean from its weekly bath the previous day, but not pretty due to its protruding under jaw. It’s the most docile dog I’ve ever met. It’s 9 months old and was happy just to nestle in people’s arms. It’s fed on restaurant left-overs, a good form of recycling I guess. It beats the need to forage which is the life of many dogs. I have no idea what some of the pampered pooches I meet eat.

Every good meal should finish with desert so we headed to the large shopping centre nearby for dishes of ice cream. I didn’t actually think about ice cream quality when I was eating it because there was much to see and talk about. However, on reflection it was pretty good. Last year I’d been unable to find any decent ice creams so my son kept me well supplied when I visited him in September/October. My ice cream foraging abilities have improved no doubt, but I also think China is changing so fast that I’m seeing and tasting the changes.

The ice creams came complete with small fans made from something edible. The tables were designed as fish tanks with rocks, shells and a few small goldfish. The shop also had a hole in the wall for dispensing soft serve ice cream in cones. I’d seen it before and been tempted a few times but never indulged after considering bacterial count. I forgot that thought after a long, hot walk in Tianjin and when faced with an ice cream dispenser in a shopping centre I indulged. The result was not disastrous but it did cause a bit of rumbling in the innards.

A young couple at another table had something known as fruit salad ice. I asked to photograph it and we were informed that they came from the nearby medical college. My student immediately asked if I wanted to visit so we had the “isn’t it private” conversation again.

We headed off via a couple of detours each offering more insights and meetings.

The other college came complete with a lake having several sculptures and the capacity for students to sit around and socialize or study.      Some had taken the opportunity to do that. It was there that we collected a guide and entourage. The college also had gardens and a pleasant loggia arrangement covered with vines suitable for sitting underneath. While there is a lake here it is fenced off and has no seating arrangements. A loggia and outdoor seats scattered around the campus wouldn’t go astray either.

After a bit more wandering around we fare-welled our guide, had a quick sit down and interlude at the gates with the guards.

So Sandra, I forgot to photograph lunch but you do get the ice cream and fruit salad ice. I’ve a couple more lined up from today’s outings. Not sure when those stories will reach you. Tomorrow has come and almost gone and I still haven’t finished that which earns my daily bread.

China, Uncategorized, Xingtai

animals, college, dogs, Food, lake
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