Winding Down

Two more days to go in this oppressive heat. We have had rain a couple of times and it has cooled down to 28 C. for a short time. Mostly it is well above 30 C. When I go out my hair becomes dripping wet and sticks to my head and the sweat drips off my nose.

Bob has his grades turned in and mine are ready to turn in tomorrow. We are spending our time trying to see what we can fit in our suitcases and what we have to jettison.

Today we made a last trip to Fuzi Miao (Confucius Temple) market place. We passed a Muslim Mosque and I remembered that we had tried to visit it, but because I had knee length shorts and bare feet (inside my sandals) I was not allowed in. Well next time we visit Nanjing maybe I will wear long pants (or a dress?) and socks and go to visit the mosque. There are other places in China that we have missed seeing, so if we ever come back we will go to Hongzhuo, Suzhuo, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Jinan, and maybe Chengdu. However, we have already seen more of China than a good many of the Chinese people.

We leave here Friday morning and land in Calgary on Friday afternoon – it will be a long day.

I will be happy to feel the dry Alberta air again. I look forward to drinking tap water and Dr. Pepper. I will be happy to do the laundry in a regular size washer and drier. A dishwasher sounds good as well as a kitchen sink that is higher than thigh height.

There are things I will miss about China: the students at the university, the Nanjing Branch of the church and its members, the good times that we had with the other China teachers, fresh fruit, the Nanjing subway which makes it easy to get around, the tailor who will make anything (although sometimes he puts the buttons on the wrong side of a blouse or the zipper in the wrong side of a skirt) and the markets and the low prices.

I might even miss the traffic and the vehicles driving on the line between lanes or on the wrong side of the road because there are too many cars on the right side, the constant horn honking, and walking down the middle of the street, but probably not.

Unless something momentous happens in the next few days this will be the last post. Thanks to all our readers. We hope to see you soon.

Farewell Banquets

On Tuesday, June 18th there was a banquet for the foreign teachers of Nanjing University. I was still in the hospital but Bob managed to get there. They presented all the foreign teachers with certificates and gifts.

On Thursday, Dr. Wong, the head of the Department for Applied Foreign Studies, held a dinner for Connie Slater and I who both teach in that department. Dr. Wong, our husbands and several of the Chinese teachers in that department were there. Again they presented us with gifts.

Friday evening two of the teachers from the law department took Bob and I out for dinner at a restaurant that serves authentic Nanjing food.

Gulou Hospital

Well, no adventure in China is complete without a four week stay in the hospital and unfortunately I managed this feat.

I had a private, air conditioned room that had wireless internet. The Doctors and nurses were very professional. The Doctor who was head of the department (gerontology) spoke excellent English and the Doctor that looked after me also spoke English although I had a hard time with some of her pronunciation. In China they believe in long hospital stays. They insist that antibiotics have to be given IV. I would still be there if I hadn’t insisted on getting out.

The nurses all wore the cute little caps like my mother wore when she nursed. They wore white or pale blue dresses, but instead of the long white stockings my mother wore they wore pants underneath the dresses. Many of the nurses were young and spent a lot of time giggling when they were in my room. They didn’t speak a lot of English, but had a paper with some English translations on it. They would go down the paper and find something such as, “Are you nervous?” and read it to me. I would say, “Yes” and they would look at their list again and read, “Don’t worry. You are in good hands.” and they would giggle.

The patients in the hospital wore pyjamas (color coded by the department) and not the gowns worn in Canadian hospitals.

Being in the hospital was a good way to get my daughter to come to China and spend 10 days with me. It was certainly good to have her there.

From my hospital window I could see the building that will be the 8^th tallest building in Asia when it is finished.

Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

The Chinese government has not seen fit to unblock blogspot, so I am sending this to my son in the hope that he will post it for me.

On the 19th May we visited the Taiping Museum. Here is a bit of history about the Taipings.

During the Qing Dynasty (1644AD to 1911AD) a Hakka called Hong Xiu Quan (1814AD to 1864AD) founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851AD to 1864AD). He titled himself Tian Wang (Heavenly King), the Second Son of God and the
Younger Brother of Jesus Christ.

Hong Xiu Quan (1814-1864) was the son of a farmer and an aspiring Chinese bureaucrat. He came under the influence of Christian missionaries, and reached the conclusion that he was the younger son of Jesus sent to found the Heavenly Kingdom on earth. Faced with the collapse of Qing dynasty rule (under Western onslaught), Hong tapped into the deep millenarianism (belief in a coming ideal society and especially one created by revolutionary action) of the Chinese peasantry (previously expressed in Buddhist terms) and began a rebellion - the Taiping Rebellion.

Lasting from 1851 to1864 the rebellion took control of large areas of south and central China, including the southern capital of Nanjing. There a theocratic ¬military government was established.

Although it was millenarian in form, the Taiping leaders adopted many policies which would later become the marks of modernizers in China: prohibition of opium ¬smoking, gambling, the use of tobacco and wine, polygamy, the sale of slaves, and prostitution. They promoted the equality of the sexes: they abolished foot-binding and appointed women as administrators and officers in the Taiping army. They also tried to abolish the private ownership of land and property, and they developed a program for the equal distribution of land.

As the movement developed Hong became more and more an Emperor and less and less a religious leader.

The impetus of the movement suffered greatly as Hong withdrew from active control of policies and administration in 1853. His sanity progressively eroding he devoted himself to meditation and more sensual pursuits, including his private harem. The failure of the movement to secure European support or that of the middle classes was another blow. The Heavenly Kingdom was eventually defeated by the imperial forces who were helped by Europeans. The imperial army consisted of 2 million to 5 million regulars along with hundreds of thousands of regional militias and foreign mercenaries operating in support. Among the imperial forces was the elite “Ever Victorious Army”, consisting of Chinese soldiers led by a European officer corps (Frederick Townsend Ward and Charles Gordon).

The museum did not have much to say about the religion behind the Heavenly Kingdom and emphasized the military conquests.