Under my skin

Paint it Black and Sympathy for the Devil are all Rolling Stones songs.
This post will be pretty wordy and will lack the usual photographs and videos I included.

By way of preamble, I often used to argue with Caroline that the UK, in contrast to many European countries actually gets more passionate and opinionated the further North you go. Given our love of football, partying and our general disregard for the working week, geordies are more like people from the south of France or Italy than our glum southern chums. (apologies to any glum southern chums reading - really this is just an excuse for geordies to drink too much - apologies to any geordies reading, etc). I never felt particularly British in the stiff-upper lipped sense and I'm not particularly taciturn.

However, I have felt more British here in Beijing. I'm sure this is a frequently observed phenomenon with a name and everything, but it's still relatively new to me, despite my time in Brussels. I discovered that until recently, a number of my students considered me to be "a cold British man". This is fine actually as I want to maintain a healthy distance at which I can demand their respect. But it's not a label I'd ever expected to be applied. However, when I started thinking about it, I could quite easily see that in comparison to the Yanquis, I am pretty reserved. Mind you, in comparison to Americans, everyone suffers avuncularity deficit.

So I was reconsidering my approach thus far in the light of this revelation. My attitude to China and Chinese people is very much one of respect. I am a guest in their country and do not know enough about the many different situations (political and otherwise) that many people see fit to comment on.

I remember some time ago, back when I still worked for the Council, discussing with someone our policy regarding links with China, in the Millstone pub. The guy I was talking with was at least a generation older than me, and for him the events of '89 were still too significant to consider working with this Chinese Government. Now this is not the forum for me to explain my consensual / constructive view of geo-politics, if you're interested, buy me a few beers sometime. But suffice to say, then and now I feel the need to fully understand a situation before I can offer comment.
This was not always the case of course...

So with these things in mind, I have been reticent about asking any Chinese people difficult questions relating to China and its recent history. I have been happier to wait until someone felt comfortable enough to broach the subject themselves.

And today, interestingly, that happened in class.
I'm having my study skills students (all 120 of them) deliver presentations on the subject of their choice. Trying to develop their confidence and public speaking skills. Something I am qualified to speak about.
One group today decided to speak about the recent Wenchuan Earthquake.
They gave a very interesting presentation on the psychological impacts of this disaster.

But what was most interesting was the comments after the presentation and the answers:

Q - Why did you choose this topic, it was such a difficult time for China?
A - We should not ignore things, even if they are difficult. We must see how we can learn from these situations.

Q - You say that some people are suffering after the event, but on the news it said the Government had rebuilt all the houses. Was the Government lying?
A - No, but rebuilding is not only about the physical, we must also think about the psychological impacts.

Now normally, the students are very reserved, the good ones work hard and the lazy ones can't be bothered. But this subject had clearly exercised the group, in a really positive way. Questions and answers were coming thick and fast in a good natured debate with no need for me to probe and suggest.

Once it was finished however I decided this was a good time for a question of my own.

Q - I was in the UK when the Earthquake happened and afterwards. The impression we got in the UK, mainly from the BBC, was that China openly welcomed relief help and expertise from other countries. This contrasted massively with the situation in Burma after the flood. (Cue a long and confusing discussion where we tried to find the Chinese name for Burma / Myanmar. Quite difficult).

Now admittedly this was quite a wordy question, but these are clever kids and it's actually the first time I have been able to really ask something I wanted to know.

A - The consensus of opinion was that because China is now so much stronger than in the past, they feel confident and comfortable receiving help. 30 years ago they would not have been able to let the world help them because they would have been scared about looking like they were accepting charity and their economic model wasn't working.

Now, it depends on your interests, but that to me is a very interesting insight.