We have just arrived back in Beijing and this is the first chance in several days that I have been able to get into the Internet  We are enjoying this opportunity to be in a relatively luxurious hotel and it is wonderful to have a hot bath, clean towels and comfortable bed.  I hope to take a couple of days to just try to rest and get rid of residual bacteria that we all picked up in certain degrees. Some members of our group were so ill that they could not get out of bed -- the touring of factories was exhausting.  One day we visited 14 factories-- on another day we visited twenty factories; I have a feeling the sickness was somewhat exaggerated as these were long, tedious and ritualistic -- The owners wanted to tell us about the factory, how great it was, their enthusiasm for foreign investment, etc. 

On the plane back to Beijing, I read that a big Chinese oil company was making a bid for Unocal, one of America's larger oil producer, seemingly outbidding Chevron who had made a previous offer at a lower price.  I guess they are getting tired of buying U.S. Treasuries with their excess trade dollars and are now looking to get into the stock markets.  The proposal is getting a lot of TV time and newsprint here in the Capitol. 

For now though, I will share some of my impressions and observations about the people, places and activities experienced so far.  It became apparent to me as we spent more time in the village and visiting formally and informally with the people of Longquan and surrounding villages, that most of of the people are attempting to develop autonomy from Beijing financially and to some degree more governance independence as well. . The Communist party's enthusiasm about what they consider to be capitalism is multi-dimensional and complex.   I'm going to get into this data later in a journal and perhaps those of you business and economic experts will be able to fuse some of your expertise about the problems with the kind of quasi capitalism that the Chinese envision.  In my personal ignorance of how American economy truly works, it was evident that only a very small percentage of the people here are in any kind of financial position to invest -- most of the people in Longquan village were either farmers or worked in factories -- they work seven days per week in deplorable conditions and made very little money -- perhaps the average household income is about $100.00 per month -- model emulation (Confucianism) is alive and well in the village where we were staying; however the idea of banking, investing, saving money is not necessary or encouraged here because the state provides housing, education up until middle school.

The emphasis here appears to be on developing tourism, but there is really nothing that your average foreign tourist would find interesting -- only educators or crazy people  like our group would want to come and hang out in Lonquan Village.  Foreigners want to be near creature comforts, I can't imagine a tour company taking 40 people to some of the places we visited -- the first one would be novel, but after that most people would not tolerate the conditions we lived in, nor would they tolerate the conditiond we lived in while studying this rural area of China.  We all had enormously heartfelt emotions interacting with the villagers because we were put on a pedestal and treated special.. Our host, Dr. Sun was an essential part of the treatment and notoriety we received. It's called Quanxi and the concept is essential to survive here.  I doubt such would be extended to the tour bus drive visitors.  The executives in the factories talk about   tourism as an opportunity to expose and provide information directly to potential investors about the excellent products that they produce.  They say that in this way  the east and west can work together to make a strong global economy.  The one thing missing here (in my humble opinion), is that so much of the population is excluded from this dream. They don't seem to mind, however, because the government provides their basic needs and the real emphasis is on family.

The people I interviewed expressed great respect for their leaders and are very satisfied with leading humble lives (at least with the recording devise on).  The local television station sanitizes commercialization so people are not exposed to luxury items like appliances and modern conveniences.  This medium is controlled by the local government and provides programming like variety shows, ancient operas that teach people about harmony, family and government loyalty, humility and humble living. "Politically Correct social behavior".   There are no banking facilities in the village or surrounding townships. If parents want to send their children to college, they save like crazy and education is still a top priority. Where they keep these savings however is a mystery, perhaps under the mattress.  Many rural couples have now two working parents in the home -- Despite their ostensible acceptance with their own lives, college is important to all parents and they especially want them to have "free choices" "free love" they call it.  They want a better life for their children and this is their top priority.  Grandmother takes care of the children and in the village most husbands and wives either worked in the factory or as farmers. The Chinese tradition historically remains a major impact in this particular village -- it is one of the few villages that actually has a huge statue of Mao in front of the party headquarters -- the larger factories in the townships have huge pictures of Deng -- it was very interesting. 

My subject was more visceral -- matchmaking, but two of my colleagues interviewed party members about their propaganda techniques.  "Propaganda" is not a pejorative word in China, as a matter of fact there is a "Propaganda Minister" on the staff -- I think our American equivalent  would be "Marketing."  The Village makes paper products and exports globally, we also visited several other villages that make copper wire -- we were able to watch the process from start to finish and then were accompanied to a room where all of the important officials and factory managers along with our professors engaged in rituals that are very important to the Chinese process -- the rooms were luxurious and huge.  There were a number of people  there  serving us tea, water and many different types of fruits -- we were presented with gifts at each place -- some are quite interesting and I understand they were made especially for our group.  We took many photos and we had our own personal paparazzi. 

We were quite the novelty in Dragon Village and neighboring villages -- our visiting the village was very exciting for the residents. My professor, Dr. Sun, is quite the celebrity in Longquan.  The people are so proud of him -- there does not seem to be very much of a difference in the way people view the composition of "family."  Dr. Sun is part of one big happy family who just happen to live in separate residences. I can tell you one thing -- the difference between this trip and the trip in 2001 represents the complete antithesis of each other. The difference is definitely in the type of leadership, particularly with my beloved professor Dr. Sun and the kind of person that he is.  After visiting the village and receiving the most incredible star-treatment in the world, I can see where he attained the goodness and kindness of his heart.  -- His scholarship abilities are enormous. He is tri-lingual, world renowned and travels in quite the academic circle; however, he remains humble, kind and very interested and concerned about his students.  The translation process must have been arduous, yet he went out of his way to make sure everyone's questions were answered and never showed any short-tempers. He was especially kind to me -- the younger students were getting all the attention -- they were also blond, so sometimes, the Chinese only wanted to take their pictures with them, but Dr. Sun always included me and asked us every day how we were feeling, how is the food, what special things do you want? I mentioned that I liked watermelon -- it was on the buffet table at every meal. The chef greeted us each morning and stood outside and wished us a happy day when we left.  He made these incredible  calligraphers for all of us. I interviewed his wife because she met her husband through a match maker- she worked in party head-quarters and was one of the more interesting interviewees

Recently I told Dr. Sun  that some of the ladies that I was interviewing were not very forthcoming with sexual attitudes and tended to be very vague -- my interpreter refused to ask several of the questions.  Within two days he arranged interviews with some of the women leaders in the party and on another day, with a gentlemen.  He showed up at my door at about 8:00 a.m. and I had no make-up on, no shower, and he said, "let's go, I just got you a great interview." This was fine and dandy, but when I got to the subject's home, Dr. Sun was there and he informed me that this was going to be the day that the television crew was going to come in and interview me and film my interview -- great!  I didn't even have lipstick on -- Dr. Sun got such a kick out of the fact  that I had learned some Chinese -- not much, but it was amazing how just learning a few phrases and words can help you.  I picked up a Pimsler tape and practiced basic sayings for about six months while driving to school this last Spring.  It is not much, but since arriving, my Chinese has improved.  I was able to use it a lot and my roommate and I spent hours learning correct greetings and polite exchanges. During the interview, Dr. Sun said, "Say something in Chinese, Susan, to the television camera."  This is what the people saw, this tall, American women speaking to them in their own language."  "Wa jow Susan Brewer." Shway Sheen Mequarn May guaran -- Wa quay bo Shwa Pu Tung edier.  Ka Chur, Wa Chung Quay shwa egwar.  Kashure, was shudda bo how."  Doi Bu Che, Wa Shung quay Shaw iuengeen Kasure Xie Xie Neen -- Wren Shen neen wa jen gow sheen - Wa Han Gow Sheen ni hu wa lieo tien, doi bu she -- Wa quay shwa Inguen. Nee ming bi.  Xie Xie Zinar, Quay Shwa Yingwan".  This is, with the wrong spelling, an attempt to give you an idea how it sounded - "My name is Susan Brewer -- I am an American Student. I speak very little Chinese, and not very well, please forgive me, but I hope in the future that I will learn more Chinese.  It is a great honor to meet you and thank you for the excellent hospitality that your village has extended to our group.  I hope that you can understand me. . Thank you - we will now speak English and Dr. Sun will translate" This was on the local T.V. station that night (one of the village's pride and joys) and the next day as I walked down the street,  people came out of their homes and shook my hand -- everywhere Yivonne and I went the ladies would come up and just give me a big hug, welcoming us to the village.  We think it was because of the interview.  Hopefully they will make tapes and give us copies.  Language is the great unifier!  My suggestion to all students - learn Chinese and Spanish and you can go anywhere.  One of the girls in our group spoke Spanish and Arabic fluently, What an interesting, fascinating three weeks we had.  I will remember it for the rest of my life.

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