－A Young Man’s University Days in Beijing

Author: Da Chen

  Sounds of the River is an autobiography written by Da Chen who was studying in Columbia University Law School in New York with a full scholarship. Actually, when I first saw the name, Sounds of the River, I thought, it must a book which is full of happy mood. But, when I started reading this book, I changed my mind. The book is not that easy, Da Chen is not that easy. Now, let’s get into this book, Sounds of the River.

  There are twenty nine chapters in this book. But, I tried to divide these twenty nine chapters into four parts. The 1^st part is called “A Son of Farmers Going to Beijing” including chapter 1 – 3. The 2^nd part is called “My Freshman Year” including chapter 4 – 19. The 3^rd part is called “the Rest of My University Days” including chapter 20 – 24. The 4^th part is called “Going to America” including chapter 25 – 29. This is just my definition of this book. Actually, from my definition and division, the most important part that I will be focusing on in the rest of my essay is the 2^nd part “My Freshman Year”. Also, I will talk a little bit about others.

  As we can see, from the baby title of the book “A Young Man’s University Days in Beijing”, Da Chen is talking about his university life in Beijing. Da Chen went to Beijing Languages Institute in 1983 from a very far away village called Yellow Stone, in Fujian Province. Actually, to be the very first university student at that period of time, also, from a poor village and family, Da Chen went to Beijing which was like a “Dream City” to him. During that time, China was just recovering from the Cultural Revolution. A lot of new policies and actions were taken by central government to recover China’s economy. The most important one is the open-door policy which lets China be more attractive to foreigners. There is a coincidence; Da Chen’s university is Beijing Language Institute which is full of foreign students coming from different countries to learn Chinese and Chinese culture. To be a country boy, being with foreigners and city students must be a challenge to Da Chen. For sure, a lot of stories happened, my essay will be focusing on the impact to youngsters of open-door policy. To country boy, to foreigners and to city students.

  1983 was a very special year to author, also, a very important year to China. Open – door policy had been put into practice for a couple of years. A lot of things were changing slowly. Some were good, some were bad. One of them was China imported marketable economy from western countries. It changed the human nature. In the 1^st part, author was on the train to Beijing, he saw a girl selling flowers. [1] An old man reached out with a small bill. The flower girl smiled with her white teeth, took the money, and stuffed it into her pocket. Then she busied herself trying to choose a stem from her basket. In the meantime, she moved backward with small steps, farther and farther away from the unsuspecting old man. Then in blink she was gone, running off into the woods. Can you imagine that a little girl was being a thief or a co-called robber? I can’t see any girl’s characteristics, such as innocent, kind-hearted, etc from this girl. Another example, [2] the author’s friends were trying to pass a piece of luggage of Phoenixes cigarettes to him on the train to his hometown. But, other seatmates didn’t allow them to do that. They wanted to share those cigarettes with Da Chen. At last, author was forced to agree to give one for each of them. What’s this? “Looting a burning house”. I don’t think that is marketable economy which people wanted. Actually, there are still some more examples in the book. By seeing these two examples, they remind me of an article. [3] In this article, it is talking about four debates after the reform and open-door policy, one of them is Planned Economy or Marketable Economy. The article said that Marketable Economy is good, they chose Marketable Economy. It has some good examples, such as the stock market was bombing in Shanghai, China’s economic growth was up to 13% in 1992, more and more students studying abroad coming back to China to contribute themselves,etc. But, I couldn’t agree. Is Marketable Economy all right? Everything has two sides. Our human nature changed to be worse and worse. There are two reasons for that. 1^st, Marketable Economy was a totally new thing to all of Chinese People at that time. Before Marketable Economy, China was carrying out Planned Economy for a couple of years. So, China’s government was taking a risk for that. For people, their experience for Marketable Economy was ZERO. They weren’t ready for the huge changing. They didn’t have guidelines. So, just like we saw in the book, some people, the little girl and the passengers on the train, were taking Marketable Economy in a bad way. 2^nd, it is really about the human nature, I think, we all have the bad side in our human nature. In Planned Economy, everything was equal. So, we didn’t think about some “extra credits”. But, in Marketable Economy, if you are good or smart enough, you can get more by using the market. So, that means, sometimes, the bad side of people’s human nature would come out. Let’s see now. Marketable Economy has more positive sides than negative sides. China’s economic growth is increasing rapidly every year. Also, China’s political position is going up constantly. But, we still need to be careful with some social problems which will be caused by our human nature.

  For the open-door policy, another changing is our attitude to foreign stuff. I will give you several examples. 1^st, [4] when Da Chen went to his dorm room, he got two roommates, both are city boys. One of them named Bo; he had so many western stuff. He has a stereo recorder and likes to listen to western music; he also tried to let Da Chen listen to western music. 2^nd, [5] Da Chen met a foreign student called Robin Ball, they made friends. After that, Da Chen was invited to join a party which only foreign students like to play. 3^rd, [6] Da Chen was lucky to be chosen to one the interpreters for NBA delegation. But, in China’s side, they treated those NBA superstars like VIPs, they gave them best hotels to live and best meals and wines to eat and drink. On the other side, China stopped them getting in touch with Chinese society and people. China didn’t plan press conference for them, stop them going sightseeing, etc. Those are just three of them. You can find more in the book. Actually, I can understand why China and Chinese would do like that. Trace back to Qing Dynasty, China was bullied by western countries for almost half a century. In Mao period, most of western countries were hostile to China. So, when the open – door policy was established, China must be careful with those “western devils”. On the other side, because, western countries owned the most advanced technology and facilities, China just started recovering from the Cultural Revolution. China needed to focus on economic growth, China needed those advanced skills. So, that’s why some Chinese youngsters like western stuff, admire west, like to learn English. But, for the government, they had to act well. Not only learning something from western countries, but also being careful with western countries. That’s why the NBA thing happened which the book mentioned. Let’s see now, the open –door policy has passed for 30 years. There are good things happened and bad things happened. China is getting started to lead the world in some hi-tech areas and economy, such as TV set producing technology, AC producing technology, etc. Some western countries want to imitate China. From this point, our open – door policy is a great success.

  One more thing, what I want to mention is about us, young ambitious students. From the book, Da Chen went to Columbia University Law School in New York with full scholarship. This is also a benefit from open – door policy. Can you imagine that you can go to New York to study in the Old China? Da Chen is lucky dog in carrying out open – door policy. What’s more, it reminds me of myself. I was studying in New York City for a couple of years, when I was in junior- high and high school. I learnt a lot of things that students studying in China could not learn. Not only about culture stuff, but also the way to face difficulties or loneliness and the way of learning. I am also one of the lucky dogs benefiting from open – door policy. In other word, if there is no open – door policy, I would not be staying in “the big apple” for several years. Also, if there is no open – door policy, maybe, mainland-China students could not have the opportunity to come to University of Macau to study.

Matter of fact, open – door policy truly influenced a lot to China from the past until now. It is totally different from the other “open – door policy” which was carried out by Qing Dynasty. At that time, Qing Dynasty was forced by western countries to open the door. There were a lot of unfair treaties signed between Qing Dynasty and western countries. The new open – door policy was established by China itself. China did this time positively. I think, because the last “open –door policy” happened in Qing Dynasty made China feel extremely painful. This time, China did it very carefully and little by little, just like icebreaking. I think, it’s one of the reasons that make China’s open – door policy so successful until now.

  For sure, if you want to do icebreaking, you will need to have enough courage and face a lot of difficulties that you can not imagine. Just like what I am wrote above, the impact to youngster of open – door policy has both positive side and negative side. For the negative side is unbearable, it is just like exploring. What we need to do is to fix it and make it in a right way. China will be having a brighter future!

Name: Carlos, Pang Bo

  Actually, this is a really big topic hitting up not only in Asia, but also all around the world. Prof. Anthony Reid, from National University of Singapore gave us a public lecture which helps us have a better understanding about it.

  Consider, his study is very complicated and takes a lot of effort. I can’t understand his whole study in just 1 hour. So, I just focus on one or two points about his lecture.

  Firstly, I really like one of his metaphors. He said, “China is just like a ‘big brother’ to several Asian countries.” Actually, we do have this kind of calling in China. If you want to count on somebody, you may call that person “big brother”. You are the “younger brother”. So, because of that calling to China “big brother”. Obviously, we can see China’s position to those Asian Countries in East and Southeast Asia. Also, he mentioned two countries Vietnam and North Korea. He said that those two countries are just like China’s “younger brothers”. Actually, that’s true. When America tried to invade Vietnam in 1980s, China sent troops to help Vietnam to defeat America. Also, something happened in North Korea much earlier. In 1950, America and some other western countries invaded Korea. China sent “Volunteering Troops” to North Korea to help them to defeat America. It is called the Resist America and Aid Korea. I think that depends on these two actions China did before, China acted the “Big Brother” in that way. Also, considering socialism, China is the “Big Brother” to North Korea. Nowadays, China is getting stronger and stronger day after day. Politically, nobody can’t ignore China. Economically, China is one of the fastest places in the world. Also, no investor can’t ignore China. In the lecture, somebody asked about the comparison between China and America. I don’t think China can be and want to be “the role” in the world just like America is playing now. Because, to chase America, China still has a long way to go. For example, America has a lot of military bases all around the world. One of them is located in Okinawa, Japan. From this point, China is the “Big Brother” in East Asia. But, China is smart. It has got a lot of support from the “third world”. Those countries are not satisfied with America. So, from that point, China is the “Big Brother” in the “third world”. Let’s take a perfect example, Sichuan earthquake just happened three weeks ago. Actually, China needs a lot of goods and materials. Pakistan which is not a very rich country gave China 22260 tents to help Chinese victims. 22260 tents are all of Pakistan’s goods and materials for military storage. There is country which can donate all of its goods and materials for military storage to help its “big brother”. That’s a really deep friendship.

  To sum up, it is hard to say what way or what role China is going to be in the future. Maybe China could be the next America someday. But, from Prof. Anthony Reid’s lecture, we can have a general idea about this really hot topic and start thinking about it.

“I’m just a dude who grew up loving hip hop music, and used it to express my anger, passions, tragedies, humor, and everything else in my world.”

“I was born in Dorchester and lived there when I was a kid, but moved around alot. I’ve lived in Southie and Roslindale mostly since I was 13 though, besides the 5 years I spent in NYC.”

Strongly recomend you guys to listen to his music!

Ok, “FREE HUG” is a fabulous campaign which you can experience a lot though. We don’t wanna live in the so-called ”concrete forest”,without any warmth. We need ot break that kind of thing. ” BETTER UNDERSTANDING,BETTER COMMUNICATION” .

That is my understanding of “FREE HUG”. I think different people, different feeling. Now I am gonna show you a video which is one of the “FREE HUG CAMPAIGN”  shot in where I am living now, Macau. Enjoy!

“The China Dreamblogue is a project undertaken by two American teachers to provide educational opportunities for people in China. We are doing this because we want to help people to achieve the dreams that they haven’t been able to. Hence our name is The China Dreamblogue.

中国载梦博客一个由两位美国教师为了给中国穷人提供教育机会的计划。我们这样做是为了帮助人们实现他们如今还没有实现的愿望。因此我们的名字叫中国载梦博客

Our project has 4 major parts:
我们的计划由个主要部分组成：

1. Traveling: First, Yanzhi Liu and I will be traveling to the 22 provinces of mainland China over the course of the next 12-16 months. We will visit and interview at least one person from every ethnic group and from every province to find out about their lifestyle, their beliefs, and their hopes and ambitions for themselves and others. We will post these interviews on the Dreamblogue for you to read.
2. Free Scholarships: Yanzhi and I are giving away scholarships that will allow students to study abroad in the UK and the US.
3. China information: Yanzhi and I will be posting regular information about China on this blog. Yanzhi and I have found that Westerners’ understanding of China is often darkened by news reports that focus on the negative parts of China. We will be putting up information here on the blog that seeks to find the interesting, curious, good parts of Chinese culture and highlight them here.
4. Money for Charity: Yanzhi and I are raising money for two charities, Thomas Stader’s Library Project and Terry Dougherty’s Reading Tub. We will be raising money by selling advertising on the Blog of Dreams and giving away the advertising money to Thomas and Terry directly through a Feedburner account. Yanzhi and I will never touch the money.

1. 行程：在接下来的12-16个月中， 刘彦志和我将会游历中国大陆22个省份。在去到每一个民族的地区的时候我们将会最少采访一个该民族的人，了解他们的生活方式、信仰、愿望、理想等等。我们将会将这些采访刊登在“载梦博客”上供大家阅读参考。
2. 免费奖学金：彦志和我将会发放奖学金供同学们去英国和美国留学。
3. 中国信息：彦志和我将会定期发布关于中国的信息在这个网站上。我们发现西方人对中国的理解经常遭到新闻报纸的误导，因为它们专注于报导中国消极的方面的信息。我们将会把中国有趣的、奇特的事物或事件或中国文化积极的方面和它们最精彩的方面的信息放上这个博客。
4. 慈善基金：我们将为两个慈善机构筹集基金：Thomas Stader的图书馆计划和Terry Dougherty的读书俱乐部。我们将把载梦博客的广告收入通过账户直接捐给Thomas和Terry. “

 Here is a nice party! Enjoy! That is the Open Day in UM.  A lot of tasty food!