Day at sea

Monday February 15th

I have been slacking off by putting photos on the blog, which is time consuming. It has been relaxing to have a couple of days on the ship, to relax, reminisce about Japan and look forward to China.

I emailed our friend (Randy Eastman) in Shanghai to get a weather up date. He doesn't mince words and says it's "bloody cold" there...highs of 6 degrees and lows of two!! I shall wear so many layers I will look for all the world like a very large pumpkin. Who cares, I shall hopefully achieve some degree of warmth.

W have just been to Global Studies in the Union and treated to yet another short film on Tienamen Square. I was relieved when the Chinese Professor took issue with this. There is a tendency to overplay the massacres and negative past, especially those of other countries, which gives a badly skewed picture of that country today. This is happening with our perceptions of China. Both the US and Canada have so many things not to be proud of in our respective histories, why I wonder do we feel compelled to emphasise the short comings of other nations/governments to such an extent. Does it make us feel superior? Better? More developed and wiser? It certainly serves to perpetuate the myth that the people of North America are rather more sophisticated and knowledgeable than the rest of the world population. There is such a depth of history and civilisation in Japan, China and India we should take care and mind our manners.

Later: 2.10 pm

Have had the greatest fun in Sino/American relations class. We formed 4 groups each led by a Chinese student and enacted a sketch of situations which might arise between American students and the Chinese in Shanghai and elsewhere. They were very funny indeed and the students are very aware how gauche and obnoxious westerners can be in such situations. Our group had a future stage star: a young black man who played a vulgar Texan who made totally inappropriate remarks in a business meeting. The other American in the sketch tried to stop him and educate him quietly to no avail. The Texan even patted the bottom of the Chinese secretary and remarked on what a cute chick she was whilst the Senior Chinese official attempted to engage the Americans in conversation about their families and offer them drinks. It was a great laugh but an entirely possible scenario. As was the one which we have actually witnessed but in a tour bus: a group of students not listening to a Chinese tour guide and playing around, giggling and being inappropriate at Tienemen Square. It is of course much more likely to happen in the back of a bus.

We decorated our masks in our performance class this morning. mine has turne out to have mournful eyes so i am going to give it high black Japanese style eyebrows on a white painted background with tears falling below the strange black rimmed eyes. Shirley why didn't I learn clowning from you when I had the chance? I love these masks.

Liz is intensely excited today because we arrive in Shanghai tomorrow morning at about 6 am. She has waited many, many years to return to the place where she spent the first nine or ten years of her life. She is only sad that her sister Marion is not with her. This afternoon she is going to be speaking about that experience to a class on The British Empire...I guess she and I are about as qualified to speak on that subject as anyone on the ship having grown up in the colonies!

We have been warned that Chinese New Year can make things difficult in China for tourists. Tomorrow we are taking a tour of The Bund: a street of Colonial buildings which have been left intact and which Liz remembers from her childhood. We walked along part of it last year but will enjoy learning more about the history of the buildings. Liz also wants to take a rickshaw to the "street where she lived". Apparently the area is quite a Mecca even for Chinese tourists. I will enjoy sharing her excitement remembering how I felt with Doris in Zanzibar on my first return to the island in 1994. Finding my home and walking through it was a matchless experience. Let's hope Liz has the same luck.