Our Lecture Series of "A Walk into China" at New Haven Free Public Library

Acknowledgments


What a precious opportunity for us to have held the lecture series here at New Haven Free Public Library. Our first and foremost thanks goes to our dearest Carrie, for she is the one who stayed in touch and communicated with Xia Feng, the Public Services Administrator at New Haven Free Public Library, who made the lectures probable. 

And my thanks also goes to my dear colleagues; but for their knowledge and courage, this lecture series would not have been possible.

Special thanks goes to Patrick, who helped us with those important chores; to Siggy and Susan, for their patience and time to be the best audience each and every time, from the very beginning till the very ending of the series.

Thanks all that helps make the lectures a reality and a success.


Our Lecture Series of "A Walk into China" at New Haven Free Public Library

The past three Thursday had witnessed our effort in getting Chinese culture through to English-speaking Westerners. It's not as easy as ABC, but we managed to make it.

The lectures are divided into three parts with different themes. The first, on July 16, focused on Chinese political, economical and population policy; the second, on July 23, concentrated on Chinese tradition like festivals, Kungfu, food,etc.; the third on Chinese family including marriage, extended family, pets, ways of parenting and the core value we Chinese cherish - filial piety.


See our Poster below.

It was designed by Cherry Chen and several other colleagues and revised by Xia Feng. we posted it everywhere we could on the second and third lecture, yet we failed to recognize the necessity on the first occasion.

What relieved our tension is the fact that lectures here are not as big events as we considered back in China, where we would call a lecture a lecture only when the lecture hall was fully packed with people. With our observation of several lectures at Yale lecture hall, we happily came to the conclusion that lectures and presentations to Westerners are what water is to fish. They would probably do it casually, take it less seriously, feel satisfied with limited numbers of audience. Of course this is only my observation, which, to be frank, is not necessarily the truth.

I don't want to make this post a chronological one, to take down every detail in its time order. Allow me to recall it in my own fresh memory. The first thing that jumped into my mind is that rehearsals did contribute to the success of the final presentations. For each formal presentation, Carrie asked us to rehearse one day or two ahead of the schedule. Through rehearsals we collected a lot of useful feedback from Carrie and our colleagues, which contributed significantly to the final success. One may get shocked at the different performances at the rehearsal and the formal presentation. We all improved a lot, thanks to those valuable suggestions and advice.

What has to be mentioned is the unity of our fifteen colleagues. We did help each other throughout the course. When the group dedicated themselves to the preparation without having dinner, the rest of us would prepare food for them. When those presenters were on the stage, the rest of us would take photos or videos for them. Everything went on smoothly. We had 16 to 18 people to listen to our lectures. 

The audience were amazed by our introduction of Chinese culture. Carrie, I remember, was deeply impressed by the one-child policy; while Susan said humorously she would like to go to China after she retired, since the pension policy is so nice. What some of the audience admired is the fact that Chinese young people would live with their aging parents, which is so different from American culture, in which the elderly people go to nursing homes to be taken care of.

As for me, I planned to introduce the Yin and Yang Theory in traditional Chinese culture, and the Bagua (Eight Diagrams). Yet no plan goes without change. The first speaker of our group talked for twenty two minutes, long exceeding the time limit of 10 minutes for each speaker. I was left only four minutes to finish my talk, as I was the last one, so I decided on the spot to focus on methods to build up our health. With composure, Polly and I gave a live show of Taichi and Bagua walking meditation. Then I shortly introduced its basic principle of Yin and Yang Theory, and its health-building energy. The audience were caught by the presentation, and one of them even left his phone number in order to learn from us. 

Adjusting one's plan is not as easy as ABC, yet I did it, though not that fluently was it delivered. We performed Taichi and Bagua walking meditation for two and a half minutes or so; then I spent one more minute to express its basic principle of Yin and Yang. Seeing the audience absorbed in my lecture, I decided to open my PPT and talked more about it, though I knew it would be a little bit past seven thirty, the time to wrap up. The audience didn't show any reluctance. Nobody was impatient. Nobody looked at their watch or stood up to leave. I finished my talk within eight minutes.

Siggy was as worried as me when she noticed time would not be enough for five presentations. When it was finished, she delightedly said to me, "It's not too long nor too short, just appropriate." And I remember Carrie said to me, "Oh, Leo King, Siggy and I want to make appointment with you to learn it!" What a compliment to me! It's my pleasure to teach Carrie and Siggy walking meditation of Bagua!

All these has gone forever. But anything that is beneficial and anything that carries our good intention would not perish. It would long exist in our mind and contribute to our future career and life.

My Never Withering Carnation at Yale

They said it is summer now. They said it is being hot. But look at the miracle inside my room. The carnation I bought 10 days ago is still blossoming, fresh as a morning dew drop.

That day after dinner we walked back to our Calhoun room. On our way there was some black woman sitting by the roadside, selling carnations. "One dollar for each. For food," the woman said calmly. She didn't cast an eye on us passers-by, as if she knew that not many people would be interested in buying.

I had walked several paces forward before she finished the utterance. "Food" was the one word that hit me right on my heart.

I walked back to her and fumbled in my backpack. One dollar. I handed it her. "Thank you," she looked up to me as she was sitting on a stool or something. I didn't look at her closely; I was back only to fulfill my sense of responsibility.

I picked out my Carnation flower, walked back to my dormitory room, and put it in the mineral water bottle I got the other day. I don't remember the exact date upon which I bought the flower, but it must be Monday or Tuesday last week. For I still remember clearly how astonishing I was at the weekend when I noticed the water in the bottle was still clean and pure after three or four days!

It is rarely the case, you know, back in my country, to keep a flower in a bottle without changing the water for four or five days in summer. Usually we need to change the water everyday. Otherwise, the water gets foul and the stem of the flower rotten.

But ten days have passed and my Carnation remains fresh. No rotten stem. No foul water. I didn't change the water at all! How amazing it is!

The only explanation I came up with is that we enjoy high quality air and water here at Yale. The purer the water is, the more difficult for it to become foul.

It reminds me of another point. I don't have to wipe off the dust on my table, as there isn't any! I have been here for five weeks, yet I didn't find it necessary to dust my table! My shoes got dirty only because I did Energy Bagua walking meditation under the trees after a night rain.

Yale University is an amazing place to stay for its pure air and pure water. And I have been told that we don't have to worry about the safety of food as the American Food Authorities crack down upon those unqualified food suppliers. Even when I am on the Flushing street, where most residents are Chinese, I hear people talking proudly about the food quality. "You don't have to worry about it. Not the same as back in our country. This is one of the most important reasons why we come and stay here. Food safety is guaranteed."

What else could I say? I only know my Carnation is still astonishingly blossoming after ten days or so in sweltering summer, without a change of the water!

Well Taken Care of at Yale

It's Friday again. And it was the last Friday we can enjoy the meals at the yard of Calhoun Residential College. 

At Yale, it would hard for me not to have the feeling of being well taken care of. The administration were so considerate that on each and every Friday afternoon from 5 to 7:30 p.m. we don't have to go to the Morse College Dining Hall, which is ten minutes' walk from Calhoun. We can have the meals on the meadow outside our rooms! 

Just look at the yard decorated with several long tables with delicious cakes, muffins, slices of water melons, salads, and beef/pork hot dog hamburgers! And the smiles on the faces of the staff!

The Friday yard dinner is only a fraction of the beautiful picture that WE ARE IMPORTANT. Another one would be the early morning or late night minibus service, operating seven nights a week all summer from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. 

The story goes like this. Some of us were heading for New York City by train. As they planned to take the first train from New Haven to NYC, they need to hit the road at 3:30 am. Among the teachers living at Calhoun Residential College, I am the only one who has an American cellphone card, so I promised to make a call at 3:10 for the three colleagues on the tour.

It was small hours in the morning, and I got up in time to make the call. The female voice at the other side of the line was crisp like a biscuit. No impatience. No anger. Calm and cool like the morning breeze. The minibus is FREE. And the driver waited for us five minutes earlier than the schedule. When we opened the door of Calhoun and saw the bus waiting for us quietly across the street, we found it hard to describe the gratitude deep down.

And Yale also offer free late night escort. If you feel uneasy walking alone on the street late at night, you may make a call, and the security guard would faithfully appear, accompany you to your destination. No need to worry or feel scared. We are WELL TAKEN CARE OF!

Hospital service also impressed us. We were fortunate enough not to have any disease here, of course, but we felt shocked when we heard the teachers saying that you don't have to prepay for the in-patient fee. If you are rushed into the hospital for some emergency case, you would be taken care of by the hospital staff. The bill is another thing to consider. That's why many foreign women gave birth to their babies at hospital and got away and disappear, leaving the bill to the tax-payers, who were annoyed and irritated. If you are rich enough, you would receive a bill, which is very, very expensive. If you are poor, and you are not able to pay the bills, then you can leave and the hospital has to deal with it itself. Then who has gonna to pay? The tax-payers. Back in our country, things are totally different. No prepayment, no treatment - that's the policy. We did have some rare cases that the medical staff took care of some sick people for charity, but that's not common. I don't mean to accuse anything back in my motherland, for things are totally different in our country, thus it needs totally different policy to suit it, but I do like the feeling that "It is LIFE itself that is valued and respected".

Why couldn't I see the taxi cabs on the street?

I have experienced several cultural shocks since I stepped onto the land of the U.S.A.

The very first is that I can't see any vacant taxi cabs on the street of New Haven, which is shocking to me, as we have lots of taxis going around the city, among them always some empty ones, except during rush hours or under extremely bad weather.

As we arrived a day earlier than we were supposed to, we had to accommodate ourselves in a hotel. After we were dropped from the shuttle bus, which picked us up from the JFC International airport and carried us all the way to the Yale University for 395 dollars, we decided to take a taxi to the hotel. We waited at the bus stop for quite a while, but no taxi cabs passed. 

It was a fine day that day, and many people were outside enjoying the sunshine near or on the green meadow, which we knew later was the famous New Haven Green. Among all the thronging people there, a young man and a young lady caught our attention. They were chatting happily near us at the bus stop. They seemed to be friendly. So we approached them and asked: "Why can't we see any taxi cabs here?"

"Oh, we don't wait for taxi cabs; we call them." the happy young man replied. He looked so handsome in his friendly smile.

"Then can you kindly tell me the phone number?"

"Of course." the young man answered. The girl smiled to us, "The only thing you have to do is to give them a call and tell them where you are."

They were so amiable that we asked for more: "Then would you just call a taxi for us?" I handed my cellphone over, "I just have no idea where we are now."

 "Sure," was his answer.

He looked delighted as he talked to the taxi company over the phone. A little while later, he handed over the cell phone to me. "It's done. They will text you and tell you the number of the taxi cab. You can wait for the taxi across the street."

Oh, what a sincere and helpful young man he was! And what a lesson! In New Haven, We should call 777-7777 for taxi cabs, instead of waiting for taxi cabs by the street!

For the rest of the shocks we had experienced, there is a list:

• Americans don't hang their wet clothes outdoors.
• Americans don't have a sign board like "Off the Grass" like we learn in China.
• Americans have confidence in the quality of their food.
• We feel well taken care of at Yale University, as is not often the case back in my hometown.
• ...

A Feast of Happiness

It was a great day for all of us fifteen teachers, for we had had our dear teachers with us to have dumplings and Hunan-flavored dishes today!

See? Two pretty ladies! Both Siggy and Carrie were wearing in blue - what a happy coincidence! And the red color added to their beauty. Of course, I'm talking about the red umbrella in Carrie's left hand, and the red toe bag in Siggy's ... LEFT hand too! Their smiling faces are blossoming in the bright afternoon light.

Carrie and Siggy readily accepted our invitation to the rental house where some of my colleagues lived in. And they enjoyed themselves in learning to wrap dumplings by themselves O(∩_∩)O~ (More pictures to come ~~~）

While some of us were wrapping dumplings at the dinning room, others were busy cooking delicious dishes for all!

They were happily busy in the kitchen.

After two hours of preparing work, we finally had the feast. Now you can see how very glad we were! Oh the laughter would have lifted the roof!

We hope time would linger on that happy hour. But no way. The teachers were waving goodbye to us. How reluctant we were!

You might ask: where were you, Leoking?

Oh poor Leoking was busy taking photos!