It’s nearly Chinese New Year. Here in Beijing there is remarkably little traffic, since many people have gone home for the holiday. The city seems to be taking a deep breath before two straight weeks of fireworks all day and all night.

Image Source: China Daily

I just received an email from someone considering the program that initially brought me to China, and she inspired me to look through my old mass emails. This story particularly cracked me up, so I’m sharing it again here. It’s part of an email I sent April 28, 2007.

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Students say the darndest things! For one of my lessons, I brought in a collection of random household products and toys for my students to advertise, including rubber duckies, a pink toilet plunger, a wooden back massage hammer, and a clay whistle in the shape of the chicken. I instructed each group to name the product, think of four or more unconventional uses for it, imagine its target customers, and put together a creative presentation. Many groups impressed me with their creativity. The duckies became trusted confidants, the pink plunger became a hat for toddlers to wear so their mothers wouldn’t lose sight of them in public places, the back massager became a self-defense weapon for elderly women, etc. I couldn’t help but laugh when one group advertised the chicken-shaped clay whistle. A shy boy explained, “This is small c*ck” (a word undoubtedly chosen with the help of an electronic dictionary). “Little boys think it is very interesting to play with. They play with it all day. Little girls think it is a bit boring….” Ah, I could not stop laughing….

But I also try to tackle some more substantial topics. I discussed the shooting at Virginia Tech with some classes. The Chinese are not allowed to own guns, and a large percentage of my students blamed this tragedy on insufficiently strict laws. They were horribly embarrassed by early news reports saying the shooter was Chinese. National pride runs deep here, as does the need to present a positive public image. However, a similar tragedy occurred at a Chinese university a few years ago, when a student stabbed his sleeping roommates. I guess that empathy and evil exist everywhere. All I can say is “rest in peace” and “seize the day.”