My mother's date with the sea

In May 2012, we held a Women's Symposium on campus.  We asked the students from the World Academy to invite their mothers to attend.  My students were hesitant because their parents typically do not ever come to the campus, not even for graduation.  Many of my students quickly told me that their mothers would never attend for a variety of reasons: 

1. it's too expensive to come here just for a weekend;
2. they have to tend to the farm;
3. they dont know how to get here;
4. they have to take care of the grandchildren;
5. where would they stay;
6. it's too far away from their homes;
7. they don't like to leave the village:
8. they don't have an interest in women's issues;
9. they are uncomfortable around strangers;
10. its not the Chinese way;
11. she wouldn't leave my father;
12. they would feel embarrassed because they never went to school;
13. she will feel intimidated.

So after we all aired the excuses and came up with some solutions, we decided to order blank invitations and send them to the parents.  I thought we were going to mail these invitations to parents in April.  But as I spoke to my students, I learned that most of them had no intention of mailing the invitations to their parents because there is no postal service in their village and many of the parents can't read.

They were going to ask their parents to attend and those parents who attended were going to be given the invitations when they arrived at the symposium (sort of like a little thank you token).

Then, as we will filling out the invitations, the students concluded that I needed to hand write individual inviations to their mothers.  In China, a hand written note in English carries a lot of weight.  So I sat for hours and filled out those inviations. And in the end, 19 mothers and one father attended.  It was a great first showing.

One student, Gloria, was particularly certain that her mother would not show up.  It was too far.  She had to babysit.  She couldn't aford it.

But not only did her mother show up, but the two of them sang a duet at the Mothers' Reception. Regretfully, I was back in the USA at that time, so I missed all of the fun.

I just received this wonderful from Gloria this week:






RE: My Mother's date with the sea Hi, dear, you might like to share my happiness. Recently I went to

Shanghai with my mom and my big brother paid for us. Here we went to

the sea and Huangpu river, enjoying a relaxing and wonderful trip.

I appreciate our women's symposium which has broadened her horizon.

This time, I'm so glad that my mom can go out of home to really enjoy

a travel in such a beautiful city, Shanghai.

Life of women has been becoming better and brighter with all your

efforts. And I'm honored to be one of the team to make the world of

difference.

Here is the picture of my mom and sea!

Love you!

Ai Wei Wei- a movie recommendation

I just saw this movie at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and it was fantastic.  It is a documentary film about  Ai Wei Wei, a Chinese artist, who is critical of the Chinese government. The film follows him for two or three years as his political life in China becomes more and more difficult for him.

I found it particularly interesting since I had several discussions with my Chinese students about the role of government in modern China.  From their point of view, the Communist Party is dead and no real part of their lives.  They do not see their government as oppressive.  They recognize that they do not have complete access to information on the Internet or other media.  But that does not seem to bother them.  They said they had to trust that the government officials know what is best for the collective good and the citizens should just  accept this censorship.  And as long as they lived within these perimeters, everything is fine.

I mentioned the movie to Selia but she did not express any interest in seeing it.

Ai Wei Wei

Kelly Long Nv

When I first came to China, I asked my students to give me a Chinese name and they said they would think abut it.  But after two weeks, no one had any suggestions.  So I approached the topic again. I told them that I wanted a name that had the world "Dragon" in it since it is the Year of the Dragon.  They didn't like the idea but the idea really grew on me.  I suggested that they call me "Dragon Lady" and that suggestion met with great horror.  In their opinion, it was too harsh, too unfeminine, too impolite.  "Dragon Girl" was offered as a compromise, it was not as straigth-forward or bold.  But I insisted that they translate Dragon Lady for me.  They protested and reluctantly translated my new name (Long Nv).  At first, none of them would address me as Long Nv but eventually, several of them told me, "That name fits you."