An ad near our school . Propaganda is everywhere in our city. Even though we are basically illiterate here, we can still often detect it as we walk through the streets of Zhuzhou. It’s not just government propaganda either, as businesses are just as likely to use it (although we might refer to it as “false advertising” in the States instead). For example, the new retail and residence development down the street from our school is lined with signs showing all sorts of western "goodies" that appear to be for sale (Hagen Dazs ice cream, anyone?). However, when you walk into the development, you find that it is not as advertised. Most of the units in the shopping center are not occupied, waiting for a tenant to begin renting the space. And those that are occupied are definitely not selling Hagen Dazs ice cream. One day, in our search for the ice cream, we inadvertently stumbled upon a dog being prepared for the evening’s dinner. That was a scarring experience for both of us, and we’re both a little timid to go down that street again! There are other many examples of blatant “false advertising” here. Many are large billboards advertising for the new apartment complexes popping up near our school. The billboards, which sit directly in front of the actual apartments, obviously do not depict the apartments being advertised. The billboards usually show a gleaming high-rise development surrounded by a large city park. It looks like it’s depicting New York or Boston – not Zhuzhou. The billboard also depicts crowds of westerners – not Chinese people – strolling through the park below.
A new retail and residential development near or school . . . But it's not as it appears.
There is surely a bit of mild propaganda published by the city as well. As I’d mentioned in an earlier entry, our city is polluted. In 2007, it was one of the 20 most polluted cities in the world. However, the local government is making a push to get the city cleaned up. The city’s popular Mayor is championing the effort. At the Zhuzhou National Day banquet, which we attended about a month ago, the Mayor mentioned that our city is applying for the designation of “Model City for Environmental Quality.” (They’ve got a long way to go, and I have a hard time believing the situation will get much better without simply closing down all the factories. Regardless, they’re trying, and people say that things have gotten better in the past couple of years). Anyway, there are ads placed across town asking all citizens to do their part to keep the city clean and beautiful. We saw one of these ads one day on our way home from the market. The ad featured a picture of a city, and like all the others mentioned that we should all do our part to keep Zhuzhou beautiful. Interestingly, the city pictured in the ad did not appear to be Zhuzhou at all. No, there were too many skyscrapers. Something about several of the skyscrapers in the city’s skyline looked familiar to us. Was it . . . Dallas? After getting home, we searched the Internet for pictures of Dallas to compare to the city in the billboard. Sure enough, the skylines were the same. Our city had used Dallas’ image in place of its own in the ad. It was so odd to see a picture of our former home placed so prominently in the middle of China. I’m not completely sure if they were trying to make people think that the city in the ad was Zhuzhou or not, but nobody here seems to be buying it. Fellow teachers at our school have told us that we should be flattered that the government thought our city was beautiful enough to use in the ad.
We’ve also seen billboards “pumping up” the recent improvements to the city’s road system, featuring pictures of roads that definitely appear to be located somewhere in Western Europe. The picture posted at the top of this blog entry depicts ZhuZhou city policemen in front of a clean, "safe" freeway. However, when we took a closer look, we saw the freeway signs pictured were written in English, and one in particular said, "Buckle up, Virginia!"
We’ve also seen billboards “pumping up” the recent improvements to the city’s road system, featuring pictures of roads that definitely appear to be located somewhere in Western Europe. The picture posted at the top of this blog entry depicts ZhuZhou city policemen in front of a clean, "safe" freeway. However, when we took a closer look, we saw the freeway signs pictured were written in English, and one in particular said, "Buckle up, Virginia!"
Zhuzhou or Dallas? 
. . . Definitely Dallas
These are just examples of a recurring theme we’ve noticed during our time in China: So much emphasis is placed on appearance here. With regard to the business and government ads, it doesn’t matter if the pictures or implied message is 100% accurate, just so long as it looks good. This is even true in more personal situations when the locals deal with each other. If you are angry, sad, or upset, it is generally not appropriate to show these emotions in public. Doing so results in a “Loss of Face.”
Both Tiffany and I experienced the “Appearance is Everything” mentality first-hand when we had our classes cancelled one day this week so our students could practice their Morning Exercise routine, a sort of choreographed dance routine that doesn’t much resemble “exercise” to me. However, our school administrators thought that the routine wasn’t looking sharp enough and decided to hold a competition between the classes to see who could do the routine most uniformly. Of course, if a class did badly, it was a poor reflection on the class’ Head Teacher’s disciplinary skills. Thus, every day for about a week, we saw our kids and their head teachers outside each afternoon practicing the routine. This was fine until two of the Head Teachers decided that our Spoken English classes were expendable and held “exercise practice” during our regularly scheduled time slots. I was pretty upset about this. I know Spoken English is not the most important thing for our Chinese students, but surely it is more worthwhile than running through the random “exercises” that the kids do 2 times per day already (especially when we only see each class 1 time per week as it is). I was more upset about this than Tiffany, but at least the Head Teacher of her class informed her ahead of time (albeit only 30 minutes ahead of time) – I didn’t find out until I showed up to class to find all of my students walking out the door to practice. I’m not sure who won the contest. Maybe cancelling Spoken English this week helped push those classes over the hump and they ended up winning. Whoever won, I’m sure they and their Head Teacher will hold their head high as the most uniform dancers in school.
I know I’m reacting a little harshly to this just because our classes were cancelled. I’m being a bit selfish – I came here to make a difference and cancelling my class undermines that! However, this just struck me as another example of “image” being everything here. People associated a more uniform exercise routine with greater discipline, and so that’s what they strove for. To me, I don’t see much of a direct correlation between winning the contest and discipline – I have plenty of kids who are disciplined in all aspects of their life but are going through the “awkward stage” of their life and can’t march their right and left legs in time if their life depended on it. Further, one class won (I think the winning class got a soccer ball for the 40+ of them to share), and 27 classes lost. I can’t help but be a bit skeptical as to whether all that practice time and cancelling certain “less-important” classes was really worth it to perfect an exercise routine. Last but not least, we find these exercises to be nothing short of silly. I can best describe them as synchronized swimming on land performed by awkward teenagers dressed up in knock-off Adidas jump suits. I don't know who decided this needed to be part of the daily schedule, but all throughout China students perform these exercises. Maybe they do them because the school leaders had to do them when they were students. Maybe a powerful leader in China's past strongly encouraged these exercises. Maybe it's just tradition. Whatever the reason, they all do them, and they'd better do them well!
Both Tiffany and I experienced the “Appearance is Everything” mentality first-hand when we had our classes cancelled one day this week so our students could practice their Morning Exercise routine, a sort of choreographed dance routine that doesn’t much resemble “exercise” to me. However, our school administrators thought that the routine wasn’t looking sharp enough and decided to hold a competition between the classes to see who could do the routine most uniformly. Of course, if a class did badly, it was a poor reflection on the class’ Head Teacher’s disciplinary skills. Thus, every day for about a week, we saw our kids and their head teachers outside each afternoon practicing the routine. This was fine until two of the Head Teachers decided that our Spoken English classes were expendable and held “exercise practice” during our regularly scheduled time slots. I was pretty upset about this. I know Spoken English is not the most important thing for our Chinese students, but surely it is more worthwhile than running through the random “exercises” that the kids do 2 times per day already (especially when we only see each class 1 time per week as it is). I was more upset about this than Tiffany, but at least the Head Teacher of her class informed her ahead of time (albeit only 30 minutes ahead of time) – I didn’t find out until I showed up to class to find all of my students walking out the door to practice. I’m not sure who won the contest. Maybe cancelling Spoken English this week helped push those classes over the hump and they ended up winning. Whoever won, I’m sure they and their Head Teacher will hold their head high as the most uniform dancers in school.
I know I’m reacting a little harshly to this just because our classes were cancelled. I’m being a bit selfish – I came here to make a difference and cancelling my class undermines that! However, this just struck me as another example of “image” being everything here. People associated a more uniform exercise routine with greater discipline, and so that’s what they strove for. To me, I don’t see much of a direct correlation between winning the contest and discipline – I have plenty of kids who are disciplined in all aspects of their life but are going through the “awkward stage” of their life and can’t march their right and left legs in time if their life depended on it. Further, one class won (I think the winning class got a soccer ball for the 40+ of them to share), and 27 classes lost. I can’t help but be a bit skeptical as to whether all that practice time and cancelling certain “less-important” classes was really worth it to perfect an exercise routine. Last but not least, we find these exercises to be nothing short of silly. I can best describe them as synchronized swimming on land performed by awkward teenagers dressed up in knock-off Adidas jump suits. I don't know who decided this needed to be part of the daily schedule, but all throughout China students perform these exercises. Maybe they do them because the school leaders had to do them when they were students. Maybe a powerful leader in China's past strongly encouraged these exercises. Maybe it's just tradition. Whatever the reason, they all do them, and they'd better do them well!
I guess in the end, what country isn't concerned about image? I suppose America is full of similar suggestive images. Maybe we do not notice them anymore either, much like the Chinese here do not think anything of the "propaganda." When we point such signs out they simply acknowledge them and shrug their shoulders. Tiffany pointed out that she sure doesn't make a comment every time she sees a beautiful, thin woman eating low fat ice cream on television. Ah, the power of a picture!
No comments:
Post a Comment