A Year Working for the People's Republic of China | The People are the Heroes Now
The Chinese fundamentally do not understand how holidays work. “We may have special holiday; it is very exciting,” Red Tea tells us during terminal late-stage orientation. She snickers; conspiratorial. “We will let you know soon how this is. It is maybe, but we cannot say yet, so we will tell you then when you know … Continue reading The First Kegger in China
I am not sure what most of the other music teachers think of me. They seem to be a chirpy bunch – they’re a bucket of smiles and mid-day Mandarin jokes I’m not privy to. And they seem interested in me being interested in their office and in them. Asking a question, even through a … Continue reading Virgynihtee: The Musical
I’m teaching two sections of 9th-grade World Music. I’m astoundingly white, and studied the whitest sort of music that there is: academic composition is a tradition of men in powdered wigs writing music for like flutes and shit, and then other men in the 1960s haranguing each other about the nature of art in drafty … Continue reading The Internet Speaks Chinese
At the part-time job I worked in Colorado – the one where my boss kept trying to sing on the job – it was important to everyone in the program to be an Educator. I’d hear it at all the staff meetings: “Well, as an educator…” is how sentences would start on the reg. It … Continue reading An Education
It’s been a very stressful week here at IK-12. I started it determined to be a good cultural houseguest; a determination that lasted all the way through my first Chinese seminar. I then pointed and laughed at the other teachers’ stress – what fools, toiling away at lesson plans designed in committee! – which was … Continue reading Gan Bei
Finally, it’s time: On my second Thursday in China, Green Tea — one of the music teachers — sends me a text: I’m to meet with Ms. Music at the music department. The music department is just past the main gate of the school: a compound of three squat, drab rectangles. I don’t know what’s … Continue reading The Deep End
A little over halfway through orientation week, I am summoned from the nothingness of Groupless existence: all the foreign teachers are routed to the main hall for a series of informational sessions. The first piece of information nestled in the informational sessions is that we don’t actually have Chinese visas. We might think that we … Continue reading You’re Going to Lose Your Passport, Then Die in the Street
Early in Orientation Week, it occurs to me that I haven’t seen anything of Shanghai. Nothing of what you think of as Shanghai, at least: I’ve seen the school grounds and the discount, knockoff electronics den near Xujiahui. But I’ve seen none of the city’s famed skyscrapers up close, only from the sixth floor of … Continue reading This Must Be the Place
And on the fifth day, there was Orientation. None of that preliminary bullshit; the genuine article. Granted, the differences between Pre-Orientation and Orientation are apparent only to the discerning orientation connoisseur: we arrive our first Monday in Shanghai at the same auditorium at the same time in the morning. Red Tea takes the mic. Her … Continue reading Full Pads Practice
After Pre-Orientation, Merlot and Zombie take us on a field trip. We are finally going to get phones. My pre-game research into China was sporadic and mostly what scholars call “useless.” Mostly, but not completely: I did learn that the way to get a phone in China, with little fuss and a lot of flexibility, … Continue reading No Phone
