Holland Fellows Visit
Last August, when I started this little adventure, I used the Holland Fellows visit as a time to signify the end of my stay in China. Now, the middle of June is here and my time with the Holland Fellows has come and gone, leaving only a month left in China. It's sad to see this time coming to a close, especially since I don't have a job to go back to in the United States.
I thought I would take this time to highlight my time with the Holland Fellows through a few pictures. I'll drop some quick comments in, but it would be hard to summarize how great it was to experience this program from the other side, as an Alumni and organizer.
Fudan University recognized their 10th year of partnership with Appalachian State in a ceremony on campus, unveiling a large marble book, engraved with the seals of the two universities and "Friends Forever," a slogan used for the Holland Fellows Exchange Program. Chancellor Peacock and Vice President Yan unveil the stone together on Fudan's campus.
Here's another picture with Chancellor Ken Peacock, founder of the Holland Fellows Program and Dr. Lyle Schoenfeldt, the program's trip leader, posing with the commemorative stone.
The fellows visited Bao Steel while they were in Shanghai. I accompanied them on the visit of one of the worlds largest steel factories, convering an area easily twice the size of Boone. Here's a picture of the professors on the trip.
Here's Lyle and Unal, both trip leaders, riding a bicycle on campus as the Chinese do.
And then there's Tommy Adams, a fellow Ambassador and good friend from Boonetown.
Beijing bid to stop Olympic rain
By Marianne Bray
on CNNinternational
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Beijing will be shooting for the stars in a bid to stave off downpours when it hosts the Olympics Games in 2008.
Using an arsenal of rockets, artillery and aircraft, China will try to blast the clouds out of the sky, a meteorologist from Beijing told a Hong Kong newspaper, through a technique which falls under the umbrella of "cloud seeding."
"We sometimes turn a cloudy day into a dry and sunny one by shooting the clouds less intensively than when we make rain," head meteorologist Mian Donglian for the Beijing municipal weather bureau told The South China Morning Post.
By shooting shells containing chemicals like silver iodide, or dry ice into the sky, scientists say they can create rain. China has gone so far as to set up a weather modification office that is in charge of such an endeavor.
When the guns go off, they scatter crystals that attract water droplets in the cloud, making them grow faster, said climate and weather expert Johnny Chan from the City University of Hong Kong. The crystals become heavy and fall as raindrops, he said.
Planes, too, can be used to drop chemicals onto clouds to manipulate the weather.
In the case of the Olympics, climate experts will pore over satellite images to find ways to dissolve the clouds rather than make it rain.
"Scientists fly an airplane, sampling the cloud ... to see if there is potential for it to work, and if it is likely to work, they will shoot the gun," Chan said.
Ill winds that blow
Giving Mother Nature a helping hand is not a new phenomenon for China.
For decadesChina has been a rainmaker for its northern regions, where winds from the Gobi desert leave farmers high and dry and coat the parched capital of 15 million people with frequent sand storms.
But the Weather Modification Office is charged with among other things, dousing the city with rain to get rid of pollution, sandstorms, hail and fires and getting water to arid areas.
Just last Thursday the office claimed to have opened the heavens by firing off 163 cigarette-sized sticks and seven rockets into the sky, bringing as much as 11.2 millimeters of water to a parched, dusty and polluted Beijing, in the heaviest rainfall so far this spring.
The United States started making rain in the 1950s, but later gave up because they could not work out whether the seeding produced more rain, Chan said. China now boasts it is the world's leading rainmaker.
It has created enough rain during the past five years to fill the Yellow River, the nation's second largest, four times over, State-run news agency Xinhua says.
Between 2001 and 2005, nearly 3,000 flights triggered 210 billion cubic meters of water over an area making up nearly a third of China's territory, an official from the National Meteorological Bureau told Xinhua.
An army of more than 3,000 rainmakers have at their disposal 7,000 cannons and 4,687 rocket launchers to coax more rain from clouds across China.
Amid these staggering figures, Chan warns the science for cloud seeding is difficult to prove scientifically, because experts don't know how much rain would have fallen without it.
"The problem is you don't have two identical clouds, where you seed one and not seed the other to compare the result," he says.
But he adds, if you do want rain, you might as well try to get it.
"You have nothing to lose. China wants rain, the cloud is in the sky and it could give them some water. It's not strictly scientific but it's a strategy to take."
China's meteorological office has announced in its latest five-year plan it wants to produce more rain in the future.
And if all goes to plan, none of it will be falling when the Olympics will be held two years from now.
Lots of Little Things
Hey Friends --
So, I'm getting back into the habit of writing. A lot of things have happened over the past few weeks that I haven't had the time to tell.
ClassThis semester, I'm taking classes at Fudan in addition to working at the UNC/Foreign Affairs office. I'm taking sixteen hours a week of intensive Chinese reading, writing and speaking. Needless to say, it's extremely difficult, but taking classes allows me to meet more people my age in Shanghai. The classes are small (about ten students) and the classrooms are even smaller (about the size of a college dorm room). I would term the organization style of the classes as "fluid". All sixteen hours are taught in the same room, with the same group of students. In our one group, we had students from Seria, Zimbabwe, Austria, Germany, Indonesia and England. After being a part of that first class for three weeks, Fudan changed the structure of the class I was in to just speaking, with no reading and writing component. So, three weeks into the course, I changed to another class that was still learning characters. Of course, no one in the administration is around to help us with the changes, we just had to pick a new class on our own. Classes are back to normal now. I'm enjoying learning a lot of Chinese really fast. Unfortunately, it's an incredibly difficult language and it will take a lot more practice and time to have a decent conversation or even read the newspaper. You have to be able to recognize 6,000 characters to read a newspaper, a task only 24% of native Chinese speakers can do anyway, so I don't feel too bad.
EngagedI wear my Appalachian class ring fairly often here. When Chinese people see the ring, they automatically assume that I'm married (or engaged). There have been at least 5 people ask if I was engaged, and even more ask if the ring was my wedding ring. I quickly explain that I'm neither engaged or married and that the ring is my college ring. I have learned there is no equivilent to a class ring in a lot of countries, China included.
UNC-Fudan WebsiteI'm working on a new website for the UNC-Fudan office. You can check it out at
unc.mattdull.com until it is finished and placed on it's own website.
Resident PermitI finially received my Chinese Resident Permit. I had to run around campus to three or four different offices to get the paper work together, get a physical from a Chinese doctor because our American doctors aren't good enough and take a taxi to Pudong (about 35 min.) once to drop all of the paperwork off and once to pick up my passport. The Resident Permit allows me to come into China and leave China as many times as I need to from now until I finish my work with Fudan. I'm going to Hong Kong in May, so this will save some money and time now that I won't have to buy another visa.
Talk to you all again soon!
-Matt
It's not an Acceptance Letter, but it's one step closer
Well, I'm pulling out of my comfort zone for a minute to be completely candid about my future plans. As I've told some of you that I've applied for the MBA program at the University of Virginia. I didn't want to tell everyone that I had applied for graduate school, because the chances of failing (not getting accepted) are so high. I interviewed for the program and participated in a class visit in January, applied in February and now I'm waiting for a response. Over 2,000 people will apply for the 300 spots in the Class of 2008. Will I be one of those 300 in the fall? If I'm not, what will I be doing? Where will I be?
I applied a few weeks ago for housing in the Range/Lawn area of campus. There are 104 rooms in the old part of campus, designed by Thomas Jefferson. Edgar Allen Poe and Presient Woodrow Wilson both resided in the rooms surrounding the Lawn. To apply, I submitted my resume and two essays. The spots are reserved for undergraduate, University leaders and a select group of graduate students.
Last Thursday, I was accepted for housing in the Range. The faculty committee selected me to live on campus, in the Thomas Jefferson designed academic village for 2006 - 2007. I have not received my admission notice yet, but I have a place to live on campus. It's not a big one, but it's a step closer.
This is the lawn...
Another picture...
The Range walkways look something like this...
And the rooms look similar to this...
Proofreading is Fun
Today, I'm proofreading a five page speech for one of Fudan's Vice Presidents. Here's just a one-sentence preview of what I'm reading through and correcting:
Avalanches of innovative fruitsmake the High-Tech Parks become the important base for innovative talents.
How can I possibly make this a well written sentece? I'm on page two now, a good hour into reading and correcting the speech.
Wish me luck!
Limiting Foreign Influence
Here's a random little fact I just heard about...
China limits to 40 the number of foreign-made films allowed to be exhibited each year, and caps at 20 the number of imports that are allowed to earn their producers a share of China's box office receipts.
State-run distributor China Film Group Corp. tends to spread out the release dates it grants to foreign films in an effort to avoid concentrated box office competition for struggling domestic productions.
Holidays
Yes, I know. It's been a long time since my last post, but it's busy in Shanghai!
A lot happened recently:
- Dr. Schoenfeldt from the college of business at Appalachian State came for a five day visit to Fudan and Shanghai. We met the 2006 Fudan Holland Fellows for dinner and toured Fudan's new Jiangwan campus, a Versailles looking castle that will be the new campus for Fudan's undergraduate population.
- Kyla and Shannon went back home to Canada for some well deserved R&R before the spring semester starts back up. Kyla plans on coming back to China in April to teach English.
- Had a nice visit with the Warden and CEO of Trinity College of the University of Melbourne. Dr. Markwell was here to research Fudan College, a one year libral arts program now required for all entering freshmen at Fudan University.
- Lindsay flys into Pudong Airport today for a two week visit to China.
I wanted to share two stories of the holiday season with you as my last post before Christmas. First I'll share an e-mail from a friend, Joel Barricklow,
Holidays in paradise…
The holiday season has arrived here in Costa Rica full force. In fact, it began a long, long time ago. In the U.S. we have a wonderful unwritten law that we have to wait until after Thanksgiving to really start Christmas off. The closest I could find in Costa Rica is Independence Day… on the 15th of September. To be honest my internal holiday clock is completely confused. Not only was there not much of a Thanksgiving (although my program did make a valiant effort to cook us dinner… it can never compare to my family) but it just changed seasons to summer. It’s amazing that even though the temperature was usually around the mid to low 70’s, there was a very obvious and beautiful change in weather. The rain stopped coming every afternoon and then one day it was like the atmosphere took off it’s UV protection and let the sun in full blast. However, that means Christmas without snow… something I don’t think I have ever experienced. Forget the snow, does Santa even speak Spanish!
Not only do their Christmas decorations come out earlier, but they are super sized as well. One popular tradition includes building giant nativity scenes inside the house. The family of a friend of mine actually took out the dinner table to fit their scene… During the whole month of December, each little town has a big fiesta. Almost every night you can hear fireworks exploding in some part of the city. Walking down the streets you can often hear Christmas music playing and at times I feel like I am back in the states.
As fun as it sounds to be in Costa Rica for Christmas, I think most of you would agree that Christmas without family isn’t much of a Christmas. I thank God that I have a brother in Panama to spend it with, but this will be the first time without the whole family together. I think this is and will be the hardest part of living here for almost a year. But it is also a great opportunity to see another part of this culture. It has been interesting to talk with people about what Christmas means to them.
When I asked a good friend about what her family does for Christmas, she said that they spend Christmas Eve together, go to Mass (Catholic Church service), eat dinner together and spend time celebrating until around midnight. On Christmas day they wake up, go to church again and spend the day celebrating together. The two days are about celebrating Christ being born and having family together. After she got done explaining this, I asked about gifts – she simply stated that if there was money, the younger children would receive some at midnight. I thought it was interesting that not only was the gift giving not a large part of celebrating, but it wasn’t done on Christmas day. Christmas day was saved for celebrating Christ and family.
One student in our group put together a party for about 150 kindergarteners in the poorest neighborhood in Heredia. Through donations he was able to give each student two gifts as well as hold a party for a couple hours with music and face painting. I can’t really describe how moving it was to watch these kids, who won’t be getting anything at all, receive all of those gifts. However, the most touching moment for me was having a little girl ask for something to put her piece of cake in so she could take it to her mom. Seeing a 6 year old girl make the decision to save her only piece of cake (which in itself was quite a treat) was something that really hit me.
Regardless of your religion, I think we can all respect some of the profound differences we find there. I think the strongest impression listening to and seeing all of this has made on me is not that some traditions are better and some are worse, but that the important thing is having a tradition that celebrates something important. For me as a christian, I would like to say that the most important part of Christmas is celebrating Christ being born. To be honest I find myself thinking more about seeing my whole family… and of course presents. I think all three are important, although their priority levels often get mixed up. Exchanging gifts is a great tradition, but it is giving a gift that is the tradition, not receiving one.
The idea behind this e-mail is not to make anyone feel bad about their tradition or for looking forward to getting a gift. I just thought it would be interesting to share a little bit about what Christmas is here and hopefully get everyone to really think about what Christmas is for them. Maybe it isn't Christmas at all. This is one of the many ways in which living here has taught me a little more about myself and where I come from.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Whatever your tradition is, I hope it brings you joy and thanks for what you have and have been given.
Christmas in China... how do you start?
The opposite is true here in China. The decorations and an excuse to celebrate a western holiday are the only things that happens here. Less than 1% of the population is Christian, so Christmas is not big at all... it's completely commercial. To make it even more interesting, Christmas was not allowed to be celebrated until a little over 20 years ago. Before then, religion was against the law and considered treason against the ideals of the government.
I was welcomed into a department store this weekend with a "Marry Christmas" banner. There are quite a bit of decorations out in stores, but I think people are buying a lot of them for the Chinese new year that will begin in late January.
I wish I was in Joel's situation some days, surrounded by so many people who believe. I spend my days with many people who are agnostic or apathetic to religion. It's so incredibly hard to catch the Christmas spirit with just decorations; it's the love and giving of the season that really makes it feel special.
I'm actually going to Thailand for Christmas. It's supposed to be in the 90's there, so it will be a great break from the 30 degree weather we're having now in Shanghai. I guess it's a little odd to go to a primarily Buddhist country for Christmas, but they're a bit more accepting of religion than China.
There will be more soon about Christmas in Asia after the holidays. I will miss my first Moravian Lovefeast in 22 years, but even harder will be missing time spent with my entire family, whom I only see one time a year. I wish I could be home to celebrate Christmas with my family (and celebrate an NCAA Championship for my Alma Mater, Appalachian State, Go Apps!!), but this year I will experience the Christmas season in China and Thailand, something I may never have the chance to do again, so for that I'm thankful.
Merry Christmas everyone!
