So, I had to fill in for another one of Wang’s groupies on Thursday morning because he had a family emergency. Thankfully, I teach this class every now and then anyway so I know the students well. One of my students, during the course of the morning class, asked me if I could tell them what really happened in 1989. (Look it up if you can’t remember or weren’t born yet. Not sure it would be wise for me to talk about it on here.) I told this student that I wouldn’t talk about it in class but that if he wanted to have coffee with me sometime I would be willing to chat with him about it one-on-one. He said fine and that he was looking forward to our chat. So, “coffee sometime” turned into supper the next night. So, tonight for supper he treated me, another teacher, and another one of the students (and this other student’s wife) to Korean barbecue. (I love Korean barbecue. A lot.)
During the course of the conversation (almost like yelling at each other because the restaurant was so noisy) he asked me about the “incident” in 1989. I didn’t want to dive into it too much when we couldn’t hear each other so I asked him what he already knew. The information he told me was so far from the truth and incredibly watered down. The other teacher and I made eye-contact and then sort of a shocked look at each other. The whole “ask-the-teacher-what-she-knows” situation may have been fueled by the “Equal Rights” discussion that we had in class the previous morning. My students spoke very candidly about their desire to make changes to the way things are politically, but I think their fear of what might happen to them if they try to do anything far outweighs their drive to “rebel”. Honestly, I’m looking forward to my one-on-one chat with this student. Pr*y for him and for the other people in his generation who also strive to “make a change of it.” Keep the whole country in your pr*yers too! They need them desperately.
Another brief comment from the same conversation that night was a bit more light-hearted. The “other” student (who brought his wife with him) was chatting with me. I asked him, “how long have you two been married?” He proceeds to get out his hands to count…1, 2, 3,… Then he said, “seven” (In my head I’m thinking months–way too young to be years…sounds about right.) Then he said, “days.” WHAT?!? This news came to me after I found out (the day before) that another one of my students also got married over the weekend. You leave Beijing for five days and your students all get married. Wow. So, we had a round of congratulations at the table. His name is Marty. Every time I see him I can’t help but think of Back to the Future for some reason.
The other student of mine who got married over the weekend is named Clark. (obviously these are their English names) He wanted his name to be Superman but I nixed that one and told him it wasn’t a name. (apparently Mars, Tsinghua, and ‘Log on’ didn’t get the “not English names” memo–at least they are more creative than Tim 1, Tim 2, and Tim 3) To make him feel better about losing Superman as his name, I suggested that we call him Clark. He didn’t get the reference but agreed for that to be his name. Every now and then I call him Superman anyway to be funny. I didn’t actually find out from him that he had gotten married. One of the other students told me. I congratulated him in class and asked him if he was planning to tell me that he had gotten married. No. Hmmm…. Then I told him I couldn’t wait to meet Superwoman (round of laughter from the class) followed by me asking them if anyone else had gotten married over the weekend. (another round of laughter) It doesn’t really take much to be a comedian in this country. I might actually consider that for my job next year! 🙂 Later in the class, Superman’s phone rang. I said, “you might want to answer that, it could be your wife.” Which was followed by more laughter.
Ah, China.
