Father: Before I was born

Yellowed Picture

I knew my Dad, a young husband, from a yellowed photograph, which was taken when my parents wedded.

In the picture, Dad was against by Mom, a fair lady in a fashion dress and hair style in those days.

In his new millitary uniform, with a cluster of medal pinched on his left chest, Dad was smiling in his typical one, raising a corner of the mouth slightly. Clearly shining the eyes, and gleaming with confidence honed by countless battles during the wars in Anti-Japanese and Liberation.

It was Dad, in this yellowed-old picture.

No one would know how I am proud of this handsome and heroic man, even though in today, when I face his muddy eyes under the grey-white eyebrow.

My Complaining

Philip always complains that I always complain, and my complaining was boosted up after my daughter was involved in the Compulsory Education system in China. My daughter, Sunny, who is going to be 9-year-old at the end of this month, she spent her 1st grade in a public elementary school in China; the 2nd grade, in a private school, also in China; the 3rd grade, in a classical school in Chicago; and the 4th grade, we will go back to China. During my daughter stayed in China’s elementary school, both of us were suffering the sardine-like class room, slow reading course, and depressed relationship with teachers.

I complained about the crowded class room. These pictures below were taken in my daughter’s public school in her 1st grade.

What a beatiful school !

What a Broad Field!

What a crowded class room!

At that time, 50 students were packed like sardines in a room. But, when you look at the map below, you will know my daughter was still a little lucky. It was lucky that my daughter was in a big size class, not a king size one. In the king size classes, teachers could not recognize their students even if they stayed together for a whole year!

So, for the 2nd grade, I transferred my daughter to a private school, which there was 35 students per class, and cost me ten percent of my year income every year!

I complained about the snail-slow reading course. This is the first lesson for the 3rd grade reading class, when my daughter went to a classical school in Chicago. This story covers 15 pages, and the whole text book contains over 700 pages.

This is an image chosen from a 3rd grade reading book of China’s elementary school. If my daughter stayed in China, she would use this book. There are 500 words and 3 half-page in this lesson.

As far as I know, children in United States start reading and writing in their 5-year-old, in kindergarten. In China, there are some education experts oppose children reading early. Most kids in China learn their first word in 1st grade. But my daughter, before she went to school, she was an independent reader. After one week of her 1st year in school, I found that she could recite all the reading text from beginning to the end. This snail-slow reading classes spoils students reading interest, so that reading has become a severe problem in Chinese literature education.

I complained about depressed relationship with teacher. In China, a teacher are commanders and conquers in each class. Although there no any rule demanding students should obey teacher unconditionally, in fact, no one dare to disobey teachers.

Collectivism, discipline, and respecting teachers – no way to flee.

After my daughter came to Chicago, she felt very happy. One day she told me, “Mom, in Chicago, I can drink water in class. But in China, we were forbidden to drink in class no matter how thirsty we were, while the teacher was holding her tea mug when she was teaching in the class. ”

It seams like Chinese teachers do not like students to ask them questions, not matter in class or after class. In my daughter’s 2nd grade year, in the private school in China, she once asked her literature teacher a question about an assignment. She asked something like, “Mrs. Wang, what is this? I don’t understand it. ” The literature teacher, who was an old lady and I could peek her bald patch at the top of her head, responded, “you did not listen to my class.” That was all her answer to my daughter’s question! Finally, I helped my daughter to get an answer from a website forum.
Sardine-like class room, slow reading course, and depressive relationship with teacher, these were I and my daughter were suffering, while Philip was suffering my compaining for these years. I have to admit that I am not a good- tempered housewife. But in today's China every body seems lack of enough good temper, because everyone has to struggle for a little peace in their life, which is the price in a developing country has to pay.

Not Heaven Not Hell

Hi guys! I'm going to thank you for your listening and complements for my speech.

Do you know what’s inside of me when I stood here last week? When Ryan asked me whether I was nervous during I made the speech, it took me a couple of seconds to find an answer to him. My problem is not nervous, which is a butterfly in a stomach. I had no butterfly in my stomach, but I had thousands of bees in my brain. There were too many thoughts occurred in my mind.

You can't imagine how busy my brain was at that moment. Thousands of ideas were buzzing in every second of the three minutes when I stood here to make the ice-breaker speech.

I stepped on stage, the camera boy who wore a bake toast knitting hat, and counted from 3 to 1. I was wondereding whether the hat was useful to prevent him from the sun shine at noon.

I could see the Japanese girl who always sat herself at the back of the classroom, curved her mouth corner in a smile, with the eyes sparkling. I love the sheer golden brown color. Golden brown hair, eyebrow, and even the lip compounded her sort of pale face, creating a crystal-like pureness. Oh, I would go to look for this golden brown lip stick tomorrow.

The guy in red T-shirt was staring at me, it remind me of his giant shining HP laptop I saw in the first class. His eyes were flashing, does he like my speech?

Suddenly, Ryan’s bony forefinger rocketed into the ceiling, 1 minute, 2 minute, and I was surprised to find that I was changing every word which I had prepared for this presentation.

“Three minute”, Ryan’s cold-blooded voice drove me grounded from the cloud. My speech was end, and the thousands of buzzing bees vanished. Whew, public speech is not as difficult as I had expected. I was there, where wasn’t heaven, not hell. I am that I am.

Chicago Smile

I am a freshman of America and Chicago. I came to Chicago last August. I can remember that day when I stepped out of O’Hare airport, the blooming lavender jumped into my eyes. I was so happy to see so many lavenders were planted in the sidewalk, because there were no lavenders planted in my home town.

A couple days later, after I unpacked the baggage stuff, and settled in an apartment, I began to cruise around this city. I found there was another thing attracted me. It was smile, Chicago smile.



Everyday, when I walked through the corridor of my building, several unknown women or men will greet me, “Hi!”

When my eyes encounter strangers’ eyes on sidewalks, they would give me a sweet smile.


Every morning, after I fix breakfasts, struggle to wake up my daughter, and prepare my husband’s lunch box, I and my daughter rush out of the building. I am utterly discomfited, until I get on a round 8 bus, a CTA driver’s shining smile soothes me. At the moment, I feel I am in lavender’s aroma again, peace and calm.

In China, smile is sort of a cautious job. It is weird to smile at a stranger, even if he is you neighbor.
If someone I don’t know smiles at me on streets, I will think warily, “What is the guy gonna to do with me?”

There is a discipline to the staffs in Wal-Mart China, “Smile at the customer who you meet within 3 meters”. The staffs who break this rule will receive a punishment from the company. However, when the staffs smile at me in the market, I do not feel comfortable at all.

So I understand why the Chinese characters in Hollywood movie were designed so cold, mysterious, and expressionless. This is a reflection on Chinese people.

Why do Chinese people seldom smile? Don’t they know politeness?

A friend from New York told me, “You can not find as many smile in New York as in Chicago, because New York people are busy and tired.”

I got an answer from what my friend told me..

China is a crowded country; there are always too many people struggle for too little resource. China is undergoing a tremendous change in every aspects of the society and people’s life. Everybody in China is unavoidable suffering high pressure. They are tired, exhausted. They hardly afford the energy to give a stranger a shining, sweet smile.



"THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE". When we face different culture, it is easier to find the discrepancy. But to understand another culture background is another story. It depends on information accumulation. The more you know, the more you may understand. Before we could give judgment about something unknown, what we should do is open-mined, and tolerant.

Chinese Lion

Chinese people are fond of lions very much. To Chinese people, lions stand for power, fortune and wisdom.
As the king of mammals, lions became symbols of power and strength. In ancient China, only emperor, government, or rich people use lion’s sculptures guarding their house, because they believe lion's power would fortify their solemnness. Nowadays China, we can find these sculptures stand in front of the gate of every important building, government, bank, company, and college or university.

Lion’s figures are popular in folk society for they may bring joy and fortune. Lion Dances, which exist in China over thousand years, is another important and traditional way to celebrate happy events. Lion Dance is easier to carry out for it can be operated by a single dancer, while Long Dances need over tens people to perform.
Roughly, Lion Dance divided into north style and south style.
Look at the pictures below:

The first picture is the costume for south style lion dance, while second is north style.

There is a question about Chinese lion. Chinese people are very familiar with lions’ image, from kids to old ladies, wherever in far away villages or cities. But there are no wild lions ever lived in Chinese land, and no lion fossils have been found in China. How did ancient Chinese people know so many things about lion?

There are two guesses to this issue. One said that there were wild Asian lion lived in China, but they were hunted and eaten up by Chinese people, because Chinese people are good eaters. Another said that there had been wild Asian lions lived in ancient Persian and India, and they were imported through Silk Road.

Which guess is more reasonable?

Lions are one of Buddhism's most potent symbols. Lions can be found in Sutra and Buddhism artwork two thousand years ago. In Sutra, Buddha's teachings are referred to as the ‘Lion's Roar’, representing power, wisdom, and definiteness. Manjushri, a bodhisattvas symbolizing wisdom, rides on a lion.
Buddhism originated in India 2500 years ago, and arrived in China in the 2nd century BC, along with the opening of Silk Road. It is not surprised that the lion came into China with Buddhism.

Lions’ concepts and figures penetrate daily life of Chinese people, but everybody forget where they come from. This is a typical example relating “culture melting”.

Jun 11, 2007 in HWC library