Flying Solo 单飞 - A Chinese Tennis Lesson

Yesterday my tutor and I headed to the park with our ice cream (me with my coffee) and started talking about whatever came to mind in Chinese. Parks, water fountains, names of popular American Restaurants which lead to the different between a king (wang 王) and an emperor (Huang Di 皇帝). Then this brought us to other titles such as president and chairman and the differences. We touched a little bit of the history of the Kuomintang (Guo min dang 国民党) The Nationalist Party and The Gong Dong （中共）Communist Party the current leaders of the People's Republic of China. We talked a little bit about how some of the leaders' names are pronounced different in China than in the US. But neither one of us wanted to delve too far in to this history today. I remembered I left my tennis bag in the back of my truck with some valuables inside, so I excused myself to retrieve it. Before I knew it after a suggestion by my friend we were off to the tennis courts to resume our lessons on the court.

Although I wasn't anticipating a rousing match. I was excited to learn a few Chinese vocabulary words. As my Quizlet Account will verify, I learned several words like , forehand (正手 zhènɡ shǒu) , backhand (反手击球 fǎnshǒujīqiú), serve (发球 fā qiú), and a few others. The learning style was fun. Every time I hit a forehand I would yell, "Zheng Shou!" Of course my tones were terrible but as a kinetic learner I felt I was improving. Everytime the ball bounced out I would yell, "Jie Wai!" in, "Jie Nei" net, "Qu Wang!" ect. The lesson went well I thought and we got a little blood pumping in the mean time. We then finished up our lesson, me by heading to the rock wall on campus and my buddy heading home. 

Tennis is a funny sport in a collectivist society. While China thrives in similar individual sports such as ping-pong and badminton, until recently China had not had much luck producing a high quality tennis player to compete at the highest level. There were a couple double teams to make an impact in the early 2000s but recently the Chinese tennis and sports world has been rocked by Li Na. Li Na is the first Chinese national to win a Grand Slam. (Well Michael Chang did but he is Chinese American. He won the French Open in 1989 at 17 years old) 

Li Na has started a new program which has been named "Flying Solo" 单飞. What this means is that Li Na along with other Chinese tennis players were able to break away from the normal standard from what is the norm for professional Chinese professional athletes. This means first off, instead of giving 65% of her winnings to China she gives less than 10%. This also means she no longer goes through the normal path of a Chinese Athlete which is through the Chinese system which is similar to the Soviet Union. When they spot a talented athlete as a child they start them in a regimented program in special schools designated for athletes.  Li Na also started this way. But she was part of the first group to "fly solo." And has been criticized and praised for this fact.

When she won the French Open she was praised, when she lost in the olympics she was called selfish for only succeeding in an event that promotes herself rather than her country. She has a tattoo in an ever changing but still relatively conservative in their view towards tattoos. She talks about "playing for herself." rather than for her country. She is independent but from a collectivist country, she is considered cool yet selfish. She flying solo... with 1.4 billion fans cheering her on because she's Chinese. Li Na has changed the idea of what it means to be a Chinese professional athlete.

Check out her interviews. She's funny. She's outgoing. She just wants to be herself. Yet being yourself is so much more complicated when you represent so many.


Good news, her autobiography has been released in English. 

Chinese Corner? (Or stories from English Corner pt. 1)

In China I often attended what was called "English Corner." English Corner is a concept that originated and can only be found in China (and online). The story that I found is that a man was reading an English book in Shenyang in Liaoning province when another man noticed and struck up a conversation in English. Since then they decided to meet up each week at the corner and speak in English. Since then "English Corner" has been a regular phenomenon at almost every university in China. There is even a wikipedia article about it.

 At my first university I taught at there was an English corner on the second floor of the main building. As you walked in it the building you did you best to not slip on the marble floor. You were greeted by a large red sign with stylized Chinese characters. Above you was a large chandelier and surrounding the chandelier was the clamoring of the above "English Corner" from the second floor balcony which peered directly over the first floor entrance. And when I say English Corner what I really mean is you read your English speech as loud as you can to yourself while everyone does likewise creating a deifying effect when you enter the area. For learning something that is supposed to be an aid to communication there was very little communication going on. When I or my fellow foreign teachers would visit these English gatherings the atmosphere would change considerably. Instead of seeing who could read louder to themselves the new game was to see who could get the most questions answered by the Wai Jiao (Foreign teacher). These questions rarely varied. I got the usual, "Do you like China?" "Do you like Chinese food?" "Can you use chopsticks" sometimes a bold young man or women would ask if I like Chinese girls or if I thought Chinese girls were beautiful. 

(Side story... Being in my early 20s and single when I first came to China I was often asked about whether I was going to marry a Chinese girl or a western girl to which I would always defer saying something to the effect, "Where they are from isn't as important and what they believe, what their character is like and whether or not we are attracted to each other." I would then go on about the the possible cultural difficulties an American and Chinese couple could pose then take the next opportunity to change the subject. But in this environment I would often be told by my students that I was handsome, usually by the male more than the female because of the cultural desire for girls modesty. But my favorite conversation was from a girl I had later in class I will forever remember. I am still a little confused by it. 

She started out, 

"Mr. Halligan I do not know if you are handsome or not."

I instantly started laughing, and wanted her to elaborate. "Ok..." I said because nothing else seemed appropriate. 

"Well, I hear my classmates say you are very handsome but I really am not sure. You see you are the first foreigner I have met and I really don't have anyone to compare you to."

I am still laughing and overjoyed by her honesty. 

"I mean you are very nice, but I just don't know."She tried to backtrack. 

"Hey, at least you are honest." I assured her.)

As English corners usually ended I found myself thinking, Was that really useful?  What did people get out of that? Well at least they communicated with a foreigner and had the opportunity. Well fast forward 7 or so years I find myself in the US and desiring more Chinese practice. Then I wondered, "Does the US have Chinese Corner?" I could really use a situation if I could ask a Chinese teacher if they liked America, or if they like American food and girls... Then I realized my ridiculous thoughts and figured I'd just call up my buddy Lance from Xi'an and start speaking Chinese with him once a week. More stories to come from those conversations later. 

Lost in America

I have now been an American living in America for almost 3 years now. Now longer a foreigner living in a foreign land. My international experiences are now removed yet still present in the way I think  and process.

today i starting back into my exploration of Chinese culture and language. My buddy Lance (not his real Chinese name) and I started coffee and Chinese on sunday afternoon. and now I am realizing I have fallen behind in what's going on in the middle kingdom. So... time for me to jump back in.

Starting watching documentaries and reading the latest books on modern China.

A book that has been especially engaging thus far has been the book entitled China in 10 Words by Yu Hua and translated by Allan H Barr. I realized I have read many books from the western perspective about China but not many from a local view. This book has been refreshing in its tone, truthfulness and ownership of the culture and country which it is describing.

Yu Hua lived through the toughest time in China in the last century. He takes 10 words to describe his experiences which in turn gives the reader (or listener, in my case) a picture of China. So far I have gotten through "The People"人民 "Leader" 领袖 "Reading" 阅读 and now "Writing" 写作.

And the writing struck me. To be a good writer one must write. profound, obvious... so why am I not doing it? So why not get my blog going again? okay. done.

starting it up again, again. lets get better at this writing thing! One blog post at a time.

A time before blogger. (or...When Xanga ruled)

Although it may not seem like it, this is my #1 blog at the moment. I am also an occasional tweeter and facebook...er? And every few weeks I'll check my Chinese counterparts renren and weibo.

I was an active blogger before blogspot. Not daily or anything but I definitely spent a fair bit of time updating.

So to see the beginning of my online story you can visit my Xanga site. This documents I first 3-4 years in China. I had a little fun this morning looking back on memories from around 2004-2008. A lot has happened in the last 7 years and I feel blessed to see a little more of the Father's incredible creation.

Here is the link to my life circa 2004-2008:

http://vanhalligan.xanga.com/

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year.

This year was the first home in a long time. It was great spending time with friends and family. Seeing all my nieces and cousins kids was a blast. Favorite moments would have to be the Christmas Eve service when my nieces and their cousins were running around and the white elephant gift exchange at my parents house. It was a lot of fun just being around for the holidays. Being able to see these guys during holidays was a true gift.

Everything you need to know about China in 10 minutes

Here is good video giving a general introduction of what is China. It is hard to understand everything the narrator is saying so here is a link with subtitles.

It covers a large spectrum of Chinese culture, history and everyday life.

Sonny posted it on his renren acount (The Chinese version of facebook)

Hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMuKxxY774g

The Ugly Christmas Sweaters of Coffee

It is that time of year again. Not just for wearing the ugliest possible Christmas sweater you can find, but time to bust out your Christmas mugs! That's right, the ones you've been storing in the back of the pantry all year taking up valuable can vegetable space. It's finally time, bring them to the kitchen and force them into the cupboard with the rest of daily coffee and tea receptacles.

Now I am excited to finally use these wonders of art (usually imported... from China, where else?). Any excuse to use and be seen with the ugliest of ugly is okay by me. And what better way to celebrate this season then to be seen with your own Christmas mug. Merry Christmas everyone and Happy beverage  drinking in the christmas sweaters of coffee.