Dragon Boat Festival

So this last weekend in China was the Dragon Boat Festival. It is an event that remembers a poet and royal adviser Qu Yuan.

Qu Yuan was famous in my province of Zhejiang as he lived and died in a neighboring province of Hunan. I bought his book of poems before moving to the area. His most famous poem is Li Sao (translated to Great Sorrow) which talks about how the emperor of China exiled Qu Yuan, and the poet fell into a depression that lead him to commit suicide by jumping in a river. People tried to row their boats out to save him but were too late. To prevent the fish from eating Qu Yuan they threw rice dumplings (called zongzi) into the river.

Here is Qu Yuan surronded by zongzi mascots. 

Now the sad event is commemorated each year with people having boat races with dragons on the front. Dragons are actually considered water spirits in Asian countries compared to fire breathing creatures like they are in Western countries and are supposed to bring luck. (See my post on Japan) People also eat zongzi, wear mosquito "perfume" bags, and some areas place mugwort plants above their doors. The event is also held on the summer solstice, so the date of the event changes every year (Fercility).

A cardboard cut-out of a dragon boat in my grocery store. 

Jiaxing has a three day festival so we got Monday off of work. On Saturday, my friend Evelyn and her boyfriend, Sunny, and I went to see the dragon boat races in Nanhu (translated to South Lake). Evelyn told me that in Taiwan the festival is different as the boats try grabbing flags that are placed in the water, but in our area they see who crosses the finish line first.

Afterwards, we went to the Nanhu park and went through a museum, bought perfume bags, went inside a pagoda, and ate zongzi.

The pagoda that we climbed all seven flights of stairs for. 

Baking pans with imprints on them so cakes have designs on them. 

 

A very large flag. 

Horse lanterns

Then on Monday my co-worker, Tracy, invited me to her family's house to eat lunch and watch Parent Trap with her kids (one of whom is my student). They asked me what I liked to eat and I told them I like pork and fried dumplings. Those super kind people made me those dishes and guess what, they are VEGETARIAN! So they made me pork just for me which is like...the nicest thing ever??

We also played UNO (I'm glad it is international) and after we ate we went to Nanhu again for another round of boat races but it was a little different. This time the boats didn't have dragon heads on them which disappointed the kids and it was super hot. The Tracy family went home after the races and I went to Yue He (translated to Moon River).

In Yue He I went to a few shops and bought a bayberry flavored tea. The shops in the area are kind of tourist-y where they sell beads, wood swords, a TON of jade, and a lot of items with the Chinese zodiac animals. While I was in Yue He I saw a pig, just hanging out! A bunch of people were taking pictures in front of the pig, and I even snapped a picture.

Remember these guys from one of my first blog posts?

I love you Moon River Pig.

 Citations

Fercility. “Dragon Boat Festival 2018.” China Highlights, 8 June 2018, www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/dragon-boat-festival.htm.

Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum

When I was looking on TripAdvisor on things to do in Shanghai I found one of the most popular museums to visit was a Jewish Refugee Museum. Naturally, this intrigued my interest. Why is there a Jewish Refugee center...in China?  How many people came? Also, wasn't China going through a terrible war at the time?

The museum offers tours in English and Chinese every 30 minutes. 

These are the answers I found at the Jewish Refugee Museum. First, China was going through a Japanese invasion at the time and a civil war. Many Americans are unaware but Japan during WWII was murdering, raping, and invading other countries beside the Pacific Islands such as China and Korea. You can read about one of the bloodiest massacres to happen in China here.

However, before the invasion China had agreed to take in refugees from foreign nations if needed, so Shanghai became an international city. (During this time America was denying refugees.) When Japan invaded China and had taken over Shanghai, they had to honor the agreement to be an international city so China took in over 25,000 Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazi Germany. Our tour guide believes that this number could be much higher as some of the documents were destroyed. The documents were destroyed on purpose as Japan and Germany were allies at the time, and those who were protecting the Jewish refugees were afraid that the Japanese could see who was on the Nazi's wanted list and then the Japanese could deport those on the wanted list.

Wall of known names of those who immigrated to China.

Life in China was not easy due to the fact that the Japanese were in charge of everything. The Jewish people still had to live in ghettos and still had restrictions placed on them. There was even a Japanese officer who would hit any European who was taller than him in the stomach when they would walk by him. This officer was also in charge of giving out visas which he gave out sparingly. It is said that when the war was over and the people could go back to Europe, they would walk by this general and punch him. What goes around, comes around.

However, there were positives to living in China. Shanghai's conditions were still much better than if they were in Europe. The citizens in the Jewish ghettos could leave their houses when they wanted, go grocery shopping without showing their papers, and could make friends with the Chinese citizens who lived there. Not to mention, in 1907 (thirty years before the refugees came) a synagogue was already built by Jewish business owners who came to China for trade, so the people in this area could still go to Jewish religious services. The people also owned businesses such as convenient stores and restaurants and did fairly well for themselves. They named their ghetto "Little Vienna."

The museum is in the picture is three floors. The first is the synagogue, the second is a collection of items from the refugees, and the third is a history of how the Nazis came to power. You can see there is an umbrella and sitting area there, this was in front of a popular restaurant in Little Vienna that still stands but sells postcards now.

The restaurant that now sells postcards. 

The reason that the restaurant sells postcards is sobering. When WWII was over, the refugees sent letters and postcards back to their relatives in Europe to see if they survived and if they could live with them. None of them got replies. Every single one of the refugees postcards and letters went to people who had died during WWII. You could send a postcard to the museum itself to say how you felt about the experience, to yourself, or to whoever you wanted.

Behind the restaurant are two buildings. The first has a small movie theater and a collection of items such as visas, wedding photos, and pictures of buildings that the refugees owned. The second building has a mailbox, a map of the ghetto, and written accounts and paintings of the refugees experiences.

Jewish and Chinese families joining together for Chinese New Year.

The area outlined in blue was the Jewish ghetto

Where you can send postcards to the past.

One of the most important people to the Jewish refugees was a man named Doctor Ho Feng Shan. When Japanese officers refused to give out visas, Doctor Ho, who was a Chinese diplomat, decided to give out "visas for life." This was against orders but he knew that if he did not do this, these people could be sent back and killed by the Nazis.
In case you don't know, most visas only last for a limited amount of time. For my own visa, it expires once a year and I have to get it renewed. Doctor Ho knew that the Japanese could deny renewals of visas and have these people murdered, and no one knew when the war would end, so he decided to put himself at risk by giving out a guaranteed life saving visas to these refugees. Doctor Ho died in 1997 and saved 3000 Jewish lives. In the year 2000 he was posthumously given the "Righteous Among Nations Award" by the Israeli foundation for his work in saving refugees.

One of the people that was grateful for gaining refuge in China was Jacob Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld was an Austrian Jew that joined the Chinese army in fighting the Japanese army.

A powerful thought I took away from this experience was a poem written on a hallway ceiling from one of the buildings to another by Yehuda Amichai.

"God takes pity on the kindergartners

Less so on the school children

And will no longer pity their elders

leaving them to their own

And sometimes they will have to crawl on all fours

Through the burning sand

To reach the casualty station

Bleeding."

*As a side note, all plaques were written in Chinese, English, and Hebrew.

According to our tour guide, the poem was written about a boat full of children who were shipped out of Europe hoping that one country would accept them. No country at the time would and almost all the children died. Thinking of this makes me quite emotional, maybe because I am a teacher or maybe it's because I have actually visited Auschwitz. It makes me sick that no country in the world would accept little children who did nothing wrong but everyone was so afraid of the "drain" of refugees or were anti-Semitic or whatever that they let them die. We can see this happening in the world right now. 

You can read about American cases here

and a recent case (at the time of this publishing) where a boat was turned away here. 

It amazes me that a country that was going through it's own oppression and being murdered by the thousands was one of the few countries that would let refugees come in. It makes me think of a study that found that those who were poor, were more willing to donate and help than those who were more well off. This is because those who are not fairing well, understand how hard it is and are more empathetic towards others. 

I think of a high school class when I was student-teaching (shout out to Mrs. Wiarda) where she wanted to emphasize that the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. The Chinese population empathized with the Jewish people and were able to save over 25,000 lives. Doctor Ho Feng Shan grew up poor and without a father and then went on to save 3,000 Jewish lives. 

After the war, all the Jewish refugees left for their home countries, Australia, South America, and the newly created Israel. They were unable to stay as China was going through a civil war which lasted until 1950. 

A fascinating turn of events was the tour group I was with had Jewish family with us whose grandparents immigrated to South America to escape the Nazis. They told us a little about their own family history and another family in our tour group found that they were from the same South American city as them! I have no idea what that means or if they became good buddies after that but it was a weird coincidence. 

Who knows, maybe I have an old distant relative who was saved by the Chinese. (Turek is spelled Tuerk on this wall.) 

I think the largest take away for me is that I viewed the Holocaust as a European event but the fact that South America and China both helped Jewish refugees. The Holocaust was a world-wide event. I hope we others can see and empathize while genocides currently go on in our world today. 

Myths and Facts: Living Overseas

When Americans learn about China, we hear these crazy stories that we think are true. I believed them just as much as the next guy but found out they were myths! I thought it would be educational, so I am putting it in my post.

MYTH: Religion is illegal there! You will go to jail!
FACT: Religion is highly regulated here. There are churches in every city and some offer the service in English. The top religions in China are Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Basically the goverment figures out the population of the city and states how many churches can be be built in that area. What is illegal are underground churches without licenses and evangelizing. You can't tell random people about how dope your god is, you will get in trouble. If you wanted to walk into any church and convert to that religion, that is fine.

MYTH: People eat dog there!
FACT: There is a region that eats dog but it is frowned upon by many Chinese people. Dogs are the number one pet here! The people of the dog eating area says it is part of their culture while others think it is cruel. In my PERSONAL OPINION I think eating dog started to take care of the stray dog problem here. I can't go five minutes anywhere in China without seeing a stray.

MYTH: Everyone speaks English!
FACT: Teachers and business people speak English. That is it. Generation X most definitely do not speak English as during their childhoods the poverty was so bad that some didn't even finish middle school. Shanghai and Beijing will have the most English speakers but other than that, you are out of luck.

MYTH: There are a ton of Americans over there you can befriend!
FACT: I have seen a record of 20 different foreigners in my city thus far. In a city of 4 million I might be one of 100 foreigners.

MYTH: Bring chopsticks to restaurants, they won't provide them.
FACT: People got to eat, they have chopsticks, dude.

MYTH: White is the color of death, don't wear it!
FACT: Just like black is the "color of death" in America, we still wear black all the time. White lace is fashionable right now in China.

MYTH: You can only have one child in China.
FACT: It varies by region. My city can have two or three but rural areas can have up to six. The Y Generation is made of one child kids but Genertion Z do have siblings.

Do you have any questions about China or heard crazy stories about it? Feel free to ask below!

What I Miss About Home

My sister and I were talking on the phone and we discussed what we were going to do when we go back to the USA. Of course she is in Prague and I am in China so we want different things but there were others that we agreed on.

First, America really is diverse even in Nebraska which the most interesting thing about us is that it is filled with corn, our state mascot is a Corn Husker that is how much corn we have. However, in my city of 10,000 people we have a Chinese restaurant, Mexican restaurant, and Italian restaurant. In bigger cities like Lincoln or Omaha you get Ethopian, Portugese, Brazilian, Japanese, Chinese Hot Pot, and Polish food. There is so much variety to pick from!!
The number one food I miss the most is Mexican. There are a few Spanish restaurants in Shanghai and that is as close as I can get. I desperatly want a cheese enchililada with shredded chicken. Oh my gosh that sounds amazing.

There are also stores that China lacks. The one store I miss is Lush. I know that is very basic but LISTEN their Skin Drink moisturizer is the only thing that really works on my skin in the harsh cold Chinese winters. Plus the bathbombs smell like heaven. I just miss their products so much and plan on going at it when I go to America.
As a side note, when I went to Japan they did have a Lush store and I kind of went beserk in the store. I bought two containers of Skin Drink,  a giant bar of honey soap, and a lip scrub that was so amazing. I have already gone through the soup and one container of the moisturizer.

Another thing is that spices are really hard to find here. The only spices I found in my supermarket are the hot spicy kind. I can't find oregano, basil, curry, or even ginger! They only sell ginger root in most stores here which is ironic because in American-Chinese cooking there is a lot of ginger spice involved but in actual China it is hardly used. There is a foreign grocery store in my city called Metro that sells EVERYTHING. Ice cream, cheese, pasta, toys, and yes spices. After living here for almost 8 months I finally found ground cinnamon and ginger.

Other items that are hard to find include ovens, microwaves, clothes dryers, and butter knives. It took my co-worker several months of looking online to find a butter knife and she got me one as well. Have you ever buttered your bread with a sharp knife? It kind of sucks.
Most cooking in China is done over a wok or with a rice cooker. Refrigerators are even hard to find here since most people buy things that don't need to be kept cold. I am lactose intolerant so it wasn't a big deal for me but cheese, milk, and ice cream are rare and when they are available there might be two different brands to choose from.
Also, America is one of the few countries that doesn't hang dry their clothes. Everyone I know in America owns a clothes dryer and I have found zero people who own one in China or Europe. How do ya'll keep your clothes from going musty?

I go back to the states in about a month. After two months in America I will go back to China and get right back to teaching those cute kids. Before I go back to China, I think I will bring a few spices with me.