Fenyang

We arrived in China over two weeks ago. We have been staying in Beijing, living in dorms on the campus of UIBE: the University of International Business and Economics. Really I should have written a post long ago about my initial impressions of Beijing, but now so much has happened since we first arrived, and there is so much else to write.

For example, for the past week we have not been in Beijing at all. On Monday morning we took a train to Shanxi province, arriving first in the provincial capital of Taiyuan and from there taking a bus to the small town of Fenyang.

I say Fenyang is a small town because by Chinese standards it is. Hardly anyone outside of Shanxi has heard of Fenyang. But in this case, small town means a population of 400,000. We stayed in Fenyang for the next three days and had some of the most unforgettable experiences. We were treated like rockstars. Everywhere we went--our hotel, the middle school, the hospital, the medical school, the local "FenJiu" distillery--above every entrance way hung massive red banners, each boldly proclaiming some version of the sentiment: "Warmly Welcome to Carleton College Visiting Group." But the banners were just the beginning.

You see, Carleton College has a very old relationship with this small town. Carleton's very first study abroad program was to China. This was back when Carleton was still a Christian school, and the trips took the form of humanitarian missions. The first trips were led by Dr. Percy Watson--a name all Carls recognize for its association with Carleton's tallest building: Watson Hall. Dr. Watson established a hospital in Fenyang, and a school, and though contact between Carleton and Fenyang was severed shortly afterward as China heated up in the "Anti-Japanese War" followed later by Mao's revolution, both these institutions persisted, and today in Fenyang there is a thriving hospital with an associated medical school, and a middle school (really what we would think of as a high school). In 2006 when the last Beijing Political Economy Seminar took place was the first time that connections between Carleton and Fenyang had been reestablished after nearly a century, but since that time the relationship between us has grown very strong.

And so when our little clan of American educators and students arrived in Fenyang, the city pulled out all the stops. Our first night there we were greeted with an extravagant formal banquet held in our honor by school officials and local government leaders. Everyone who was anyone was there--the mayor and deputy mayors, the headmaster of the medical school, the president and vice presidents of the hospital, and local Party leaders. The next day we arrived at the middle school, only to be greeted by a marching band and columns of young men in military uniforms, standing at a salute in front of the gates. Once we crossed the threshold of the school we beheld an open square now filled with dancing students, beautiful young women in costume, twirling colored sashes and moving in synchronization. Then they cleared out and a group of advanced kungfu students marched into the square to show off some of their moves and pay tribute to another aspect of their nation's rich history. Several more acts like this continued before we all moved in to a large lecture hall where we were formally greeted by the headmaster of the school. This part consisted of a number of grand speeches and hopeful promises about the "continuing relationship between our fine institutions" etc.

Over the course of our stay in Fenyang we would go through this routine several times: extravagant over-the-top receptions; lots of formal speeches by representatives of each institution--full of compliments and hopes for the future; and banquets...lots of banquets.

Chinese banquets have a whole system of etiquette associated with them, not surprisingly. When everyone has arrived, the host of the banquet will get up from the head table and go to the front of the room to give a speech. This may be followed by a few other speeches, and eventually a toast. Then food will be served, first to the head table and then to all the rest. At Chinese banquets new dishes keep on showing up on the table long after you would think the meal should be over. The idea is there should still be quite a lot of food left over once the banquet is over. There is also quite a lot of toasting involved...

"This is a game you cannot win," Professor Grow told us all before we went into our first banquet. It was the most interesting prep talk I've ever been a part of. For a good five minutes Prof. Grow and Zach his program assistant gave us all a lecture about the copious amounts of alcohol we should be prepared to consume should we choose to consume any at all. Fenyang is best known for a special alcoholic drink it makes called FenJiu (the Fenyang version of BaiJiu) which looks like water and contains about 60% alcohol. The basic banquet rule is this: if you decide to drink any at all then you should expect a bunch of heavy-weight Chinese officials to toast you until you're red in the face. Luckily for me there is no problem with declining to drink at all. The warning is mostly that there's no going half-way: you're either out or you're in for the long haul. Zach pulled me aside before our first banquet and asked if I would be willing to carry bodies back to their rooms if need be. I agreed, but luckily it never came to that.

Over the course of our three days in Fenyang there were many banquets and many many toasts. I felt especially bad for Prof. Grow and Zach, who because of their positions were the largest targets of the Chinese' aggressive toasting. Zach took the greatest hit of all, and by the last day he was pretty close to delirious.

But this is the Chinese way.


There are more stories to tell: International relations in basketball form. A restaurant, a friend in need, a 1st grade English workbook, and Mr. Kimball to the rescue. Sneaking past security guards and unlocking the riddle of Tiayuan. Walking through the walled city of Pingyao. Graspmulberry.

All these stories and more in my next installment.