Nanjing Massacre Museum

Statue outside the museum

Sophie and Jonah walking toward the museum

Only part of the binders full of victims' names 

Statue garden outside the museum

Even though Nanjing has a long and fascinating history, the city is now most well-known for the historic WWII event: The Rape of Nanjing. Over 300,000 Chinese people were killed within a span of six weeks by invading Japanese soldiers during this horrific time. And as the name implies, one of the most horrific parts was the brutal rape of Nanjing women of all ages and from all walks of life. The city was destroyed and people were mass executed for fun. Since I took many classes on the German-USSR part of WWII (and the Jewish Holocaust), I spent a lot of time relating the Chinese-Japanese experience to what I have already learned. It gave me a new perspective on my understanding of WWII. 

The Nanjing Massacre Museum was the best museum I have been to in Nanjing so far. It was informative, well laid out, and was host to many intact artifacts, unlike 95% of the museums I have seen here. I already knew a fair amount about Nanjing's history from classes and just from living here, but the firsthand stories presented were really moving. The museum was built on a burial ground for the victims of the massacre, and in the middle of the museum you can see the actual bones in a large dugout pit. I also learned a lot about the aftermath of the event, which I had always wondered about. What do you do in a city where thousands of people were mass murdered? How do you rebuild the city? What are the first steps, and who takes them? It was nice to think about rebuilding the city after seeing all those horrific pictures and reading those terrible stories. It also gave me shivers when I read the firsthand accounts and knew where in Nanjing the events took place; places I walk past all the time.

At the end of the section of the museum specifically about the Rape of Nanjing (there was another part of the museum contextualizing the event within WWII,) there was a small, dark room. 300,000 deaths in the span of 6 weeks equates to a death every 12 seconds. So over the loudspeaker, there was a clock ticking out 12 seconds, and every 12^th second, a drop of water fell from the ceiling into a shallow pool and a picture of a Chinese victim lit up on the wall. It was extremely moving and well done.

Having been to many museums about the Holocaust, I knew what to expect. For the most part, the museum was not more graphic than others to which I have been. However, some of the stories presented went a bit farther and were more gory than, say, the DC Holocaust museum. And like Yad Vashem, the exhibit was underground, and the layout was architecturally relevant to the museum experience.

The biggest difference between the Holocaust museums I have seen and the museum honoring the victims of the Rape of Nanjing is how the perpetrators are portrayed. Unlike people and leaders in Germany, who publicly apologize and repent for their role in the Holocaust (save for those few scary Holocaust deniers,) Japanese leaders/people do not accept the blame for the Nanjing Massacre. The Jewish Holocaust is taught in the schools of the countries that committed the crimes, while the Nanjing Massacre is not taught in Japanese schools. Many Japanese do not believe/know it happened, even though there are witnesses from China and abroad. Add in the fact that China and Japan have a very strained relationship even into today. For these reasons, the museum truly vilified the Japanese in a way that Jewish Holocaust museums do not vilify Nazis. It's hard to explain, since it's not like Nazis are off the hook at Holocaust museums. But I just got this feeling that the museum exemplified a manifestation of the current tension between Japan and China.

It was a rainy, foggy day, which fit my mood when I left. I am glad I went, but I'm not sure I can do it again...

What's in a Name? Part 2

On the Nanda Fu Zhong English exam, there were two separate yet equally important things the student had to write: their new American name, and the name of their English teacher, which was spelled on the chalkboard in front of them. These are their misspellings.

(cue theme song)

Student's names: these are the English names of students that were new and surprising

CM Punk (the wrestler?)

HAFE 

Genious (sic)

Mini

Saber

Yuri (not an English name)

Jone (John?)

Lucky
Shack (I assume he meant Shaq, these kids love basketball...)

Athran

Misspellings of my name:

Mrs. Brie (I'm married now?)

Ms. Brit (The UK version of my name)

Ms. Brae 

Ms. Broken (How I feel after reading all these misspellings)

Ms. Grie

Mas (No words, just, no words...)

Ms. Brin

Mrs. Green (Now I'm married to that dude who killed Mr. Body in the conservatory with the lead pipe?)

Readers, have you reached a verdict?

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Learning Chinese

I am one of those people who picks up languages really fast. I think I inherited it from my mom, who can learn and correctly pronounce phrases wherever she goes. So I was under the (wrong) assumption that when I arrived in China, I could just learn the language naturally. Of course, I planned on taking private lessons so that I could actually learn Chinese. However, I thought little phrases like "How expensive is this?" and "Excuse me" would just stick to my brain like fully cooked spaghetti on a kitchen wall.

I was wrong. So very, very wrong. To be honest, I'm still not fully confident in my ability to ask how much something costs. My Chinese ability is improving at a snail's pace. I am very lucky that NDFZ provided me with a Chinese tutor, Zhang Laoshi, and she is awesome. She is my age, super sweet, and an amazing teacher (she is also the Chinese English teacher who sits in on my Junior II classes.) However, she is an English teacher. She has never taught Chinese before. The textbook she (very graciously) bought for me is full of complex sentences I don't understand. Plus, she is so cool to talk to: I'd rather just chat with her in English after a long morning of teaching than make the effort to learn Chinese. And I don't feel too bad about it, because she wants to improve her English. Our relationships is more "language exchange partners" than "teacher-student."

One month ago, I started taking private Chinese lessons with a Chinese language teacher, Qi Laoshi. Already, my Chinese is seriously improving. Part of it is the textbook, which teaches basic Chinese and provides the building blocks needed to create simple sentences. Part of it is the length of the class, 80 minutes instead of 40. Part of it is that I'm paying for it, so I feel more pressure on myself to do the homework. But part of it is also my teacher: she doesn't really speak English. Although we do occasionally chat in English, I feel more required to speak in broken Chinese. When I wanted to ask her how older her son is (I often see them walking around my area together), I got creative with my language skills. When I wanted to tell her that my mom may potentially come visit me in the spring, I used Chinese.

The best part of this is that I'm finally at the point where I'm eavesdropping on conversations and I can understand the gist of it. The combination of straight vocabulary I learned from Zhang Laoshi and the sentence building skills I learned from Qi Laoshi has made me feel more confident in my Chinese. My listening and speaking skills are improving daily. The hardest part about Chinese is reading and writing. I dread the part of my lessons where I have to read Chinese. When I see a character, I can recognize that I studied it, but I don't remember what it means. One step at a time! China Doll may be an English teacher, but also 我是学生!

China Doll Hosts!

This past weekend, some friends I met while being TEFL trained in Hefei came to visit Nanjing. Not only was it fun to see these friends (especially because Nanjing seems like a ghost town right now without all the young college students and the teachers who went home for the holidays) but it felt really good to show people around Nanjing.

Their visit made me realize how well I know the city. I was able to find them a decently nice hostel because I always see signs for it on the way to my dance class. I was able to show them shortcuts and cool alleyways while we walked around the city. I was able to show them where to hike up Purple Mountain, and what restaurants to go to. I even know what bars and clubs to take them to, an accomplishment considering how not cool and hip I am... (as evidenced by my use of the words "cool" and "hip.")

I really love this city, and it was so exciting to show it to other people. My mom showed me an article from the NY Times travel section about Nanjing: In Nanjing, China, Art and Youth Help a City Recover from Its Tragic Past. Nothing could be truer. Nanjing is amazing because of its vast history (former capital, location on the Yangtze, etc.) and because of the energy and excitement the young people (and expats, for that matter) bring to the city.

Yo Yangzhou!

Two weekends ago, Nanjing University organized a trip to Yangzhou, a city not too far from Nanjing. The group was an interesting mix of retired American professors teaching in China, families, and then, of course, a group of younger teachers (including myself) who I had met in the beginning of the year and have hung out with them a bunch of times throughout my months here. (They live out in the boonies of Nanjing, so I don't get to see them often.)

I must preface this post by admitting: my camera died at the first place we went. I thought I had brought my charger, but it was the wrong charger. So this is a very photo-less post. I also must admit that I really have no idea what were the names of the places we went. I just hopped on the bus when instructed and hopped off when everyone else did! Also, everywhere we went was basically just a pretty garden, with either a temple or a home in which a family resided.

So first, we went to a pretty garden and lake (no temple, no home.) For this, there are pictures! I realized that I am too obsessed with taking pictures, so I think the fact that my camera was dead may have actually been a blessing in disguise. I was able to appreciate everything just a little more. Our tour guide was very informative, so I learned a little bit about the history of the lake, the famous emperors and people who have visited, and why it was set up the way it was.

A famous bridge

A famous lake

Famous people (kidding, it's Violeta, Sophie and Clément)

David, in a traditional Chinese pose

Pretty roof 

Famous bridge 

Famous view of the lake

Famous rock

From there, we went to have dinner (including famous Yangzhou foods, like a mix of corn, shrimp and green beans.) That evening, a group of us tried to find a place to go out and have a drink, but that doesn't really exist in Yangzhou, so we ended up on a very famous market street at a restaurant. Not only were we the only foreigners, we were the only PEOPLE. The family who owned the restaurant chatted with those who spoke Chinese, but otherwise they watched us sip at our Tsingtaos.

I slept like a rock (not unlike famous rock pictured above), finally being in a WARM room under a million blankets. The next day, we went to some very famous (I find that everything in China is the "most beautiful" or one of the "most famous") gardens. Since it used to be the home for... someone... we also got to see how the kitchen worked and learned about the living space, which was pretty cool. Afterward, we went to a vinegar factory. It was odd... In China, a lot of the dishes have vinegar. Vinegar goes in soups, it is used (not soy sauce) for dipping dumplings, etc. There was a place where you could see the Chinese vinegar that is exported all over the world (I could read the Hebrew, Spanish, French and Italian, go me!) We even got to see where the grains were being fermented (smelled TERRIBLE) and we got to try some straight up vinegar (which was way too strong.) At the end, we tried vinegar candies (not bad) and Sophie and I bought Apple Vinegar juice, which was really delicious. It was like apple cider, but lighter in color and more acidic. Lastly, the tour hit up another beautiful garden temple area, which also had a "very famous" engraving by a famous calligrapher whose handwriting is still copied and emulated today. In China, everything I see is rebuilt or recreated, due to natural forces or the cultural revolution, so it was cool to see something that was actually old.

The trip was fun, but FREEZING! Everywhere we went, our tour guide told us the best time to come is the spring, which is kind of disappointing. When I got home, I got into bed with my electric blanket and stayed there for a good 24 hours, I was exhausted. But it was worth it: I love seeing new places, and it was nice that this trip was totally organized. China Doll: frozen but happy!

Happy New Year!

Now that I have informed you what Christmas in China looks like, I bet you're wondering what New Year's Eve (a Western holiday, since the Chinese New Year is February 10th this year) looks like...

However, I wouldn't know. Historically, China Doll HATES New Year's Eve. Sorry to all those with with whom I've spent a lovely December 31st into January 1st, but I do get a little down around the new year. I think part of it is how dangerously sentimental I can be. For example, moving out of my childhood home and into a new one was quite difficult, which is fairly understandable. What is less understandable is how, in my time off this week I have been doing a second round clean up of my room still finding remnants of Grinnell Corps fellows past, and I had trouble throwing away the to-do list of the former fellow. I thought, "Wow! Her to do list! I wonder what she was thinking? I wonder when she wrote this? I wonder if she got stuff done, since only the first thing on the list is crossed off? I wonder, I wonder, I wonder?" And then I wondered if I should keep it, for posterity's sake. And then I thought, "China Doll, throw that goddamn paper in the garbage." Perhaps it's the history major in me, but I have serious problems getting rid of anything.

For this reason, the passing of an entire YEAR is quite difficult for me. I get mopey and distant. So this year, I had planned to go to Shanghai to celebrate, since it seemed like all of Nanjing up and left for those two days. But then I realized that was a dumb idea, because it would be quite an expensive trip (and I could be saving up for my trip to.... wait for it... THAILAND!) and I don't really like NYE anyway, so why spend the money?

On December 28th, NDFZ had a New Year dinner for the staff. It was actually at the same place where I had my first banquet, so it felt very apropos. There were performances (in Chinese) by the staff, which were apparently very funny judging by how hard the teachers laughed, but I wouldn't know. I spent the evening conversing with Sophie's parents, as they couldn't follow the dialogues either. Although at one point the faculty engaged in a "Guess that Tune" activity, and I won a stuffed animal snail for knowing "Unchained Melody!" 

This may sound strange, but this was the first banquet at which I felt like my language barrier didn't present a problem. Sophie and I weren't at the center of attention, so I didn't have to listen to endless toasts in Chinese and I didn't feel the pressure to keep track of who toasted me so that I could toast them back (Chinese etiquette is a bit different.) And I wasn't relocated to a separate room for English teachers and speakers. Obviously it's an honor when the teachers and principals toast Sophie and me, and it was incredibly kind when they sat me with other English speakers so that I wouldn't be bored, but it makes me feel like a nuisance and inconvenience. I was more inconspicuous at this event, and I felt like a regular member of NDFZ, which was just a nice feeling.

But onto my mellow New Year's Eve: Anna, Lela, Anna's roomate Jessica, and I had a fancy dinner at a surprisingly good burger place called Blue Frog. We had a great time, and it felt really good to eat Western food, since I never do. Plus, my super nice waitress in training forgot to put my order in (which was okay since I had already shared a plate of chili fries with Lela and was not super hungry) and her boss told me my meal was on the house. I got to save even more money!

Classy Lela

Classy Me

Jessica's sliders

Glowing Mai Tai

After a stop at BHG, the huge Western import store on the way to Anna's apartment, we stopped and bought a few things. At Anna's apartment, we played with her adorable cat Marbles and watched a movie. It was a very uneventful New Year's, which is exactly the way I like it.

Evil kitty, as Anna calls him

I don't usually like cats. Or animals, for that matter.
But Marbles is just SO CUTE

Of course, the new year EST standard time was at 1 PM on January 1st, for me, and I got to talk to my family on Skype and Facebook, another added bonus. So, from the Nanjing China Doll to all my readers (and by readers, I mean reader singular and by reader singular, I actually mean my grandma) HAPPY NEW YEAR!