Wednesday August 8, 2007

Dear Parents,

We had a variety of activities today, from martial arts to theatrical performance, and then outdoor camping.

The day began with breakfast at 7:30am. At 8:30, all reported to the tennis court. First all the children lined up according to their four teams and ran around the court three times. Then two award-winning martial art students from the China Martial Arts School (a male and a female) performed for us. Afterwards, each of the two performers took two teams and taught them some basic moves in martial arts such as punching and kicking. There was group teaching, small group practice, pair competition, individual competition, and in the end, team competition. It was sunny, and hot. There were several water breaks in between and most children toughened it out! Bravo!

After martial arts, Saisai called for a general meeting and invited one representative from the American group and one from the Chinese group to share the results of last night’s discussion. The Chinese representative read a scripted statement, in which she raised the issue of Chinese children feeling rejected and conflicting norms and habits. The text was nicely crafted, with careful diction and in predicable genre. Shannon was the American representative. She gave an impromptu speech (we were all under the impression that the sharing of different perspectives will take place on Thursday night, not today), summarizing the gist of the American children’s reflection last night. First she thanked the Chinese children for their kindness, such as helping the American children with their luggage, saving the best bed in the room (the one facing the TV) for American children, inviting American children to visit their homes in China, etc. Then she brought up the problem with TV watching; the American side of the story is that Chinese children tend to watch much more TV and thus cause conflict. That the American child in the room enjoys the “best” bed turned out to be a double-edged sword. Because the best bed faces the TV, the Chinese children would sit on the bed of the American children, watching TV and without asking for permission. Most American children find that irritating. Shannon used simple language to try to make this point clear. (In a similar vein, last night, a few American children mentioned that they are not comfortable with Chinese children going to the bathroom without closing the door, Chinese children being in the room without being dressed, and Chinese children offering unnecessary and unwanted help which they deem to be imposing and annoying, etc., etc.) The differences in culturally specific conceptualizations of space and of self indeed run deep. It is good that Saisai and Bonnie have worked out a communicative channel for both American and Chinese children to openly discuss their differences.

In the afternoon, we watched a children’s play called “Mouse Getting Married” in the gym. It was a delightful one-hour production that afforded many opportunities for the audience to chime in. After the performance, each of our four teams learned one act (ranging from 10 to 30 seconds) characteristic of one role in the play from the actor/actress who played that role. In the end, everybody gathered in a circle and each team performed what they had learned.

We are leaving for the camping site in 20 minutes (4:30pm). I will send this off for today and will let you know how the camping went in tomorrow’s message.

Agnes (aka He laoshi)