Matt's Shanghai

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!

posted by Matt Dull @ 1:53 PM 0 comments

This guy just a little too excited about Badminton...

posted by Matt Dull @ 2:02 PM 0 comments

Watch Out World...

If the fate of the world only rested on a Badminton game...

BEIJING, Dec. 19 -- China stamped their dominance at the finals of the 2005 Invitational Badminton World Cup in the Central China city yesterday by sweeping all the five gold medals on offer.

The unstoppable pair of Xie Zhongbo and Zhang Yawen dominated the battle against world champions Indonesia's Widianto Nova and Nastsir Lilyana in a replay of the 2005 World Championships final. The Chinese duo edged out their opponents 21-19, 21-10 to avenge the earlier defeat and claim the mixed doubles title.

"We need a bit more time to get used to the new 21-point scoring rules, as matches become faster and aggressive," said Widianto after the match.

Current world No 1 Lin Dan frustrated Thailand's Olympic semi-finalist Ponsana Boonsak 21-13, 21-11 to seal the coveted gold for China.

"I was fully focused during the match, and it was a good game," said Lin. "The new scoring system made the game harder to predict, and you can't say it's favourable for me."

"He is faster than me," explained a timid Boonsak, talking about the key reason of the failure.

In the women's singles final clash, world No 2 Xie Xingfang pulled off a 21-19, 21-16 convincing victory over world and Olympic champion Zhang Ning.

"I think it was a top-class match, and both of us displayed our quality," Xie Xingfang told reporters.

"We both played well, but I didn't have good control," said Zhang.

Yang Wei/Zhang Jiewen upset another Chinese pair Wei Yili/Zhang Yawen 21-18, 21-15 in the women's doubles final while Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun downed Indonesian veterans Wijaya Candra/Budiarto Sigit in the men's doubles final.

posted by Matt Dull @ 2:00 PM 0 comments

Michael Bolton in Shanghai

A recent Instant Messenger conversation with my good friend Ralph, a student at Fudan:

(19:10:14) Ralph: do you know Michael Bolton will have a concert in Shanghai?
(19:10:23) ME: really?? when?
(19:10:35) Ralph: very soon.......
(19:10:51) ME: interesting
(19:10:52) Ralph: every American person does love Michael Botton???????
(19:11:11) ME: umm... not really.... maybe a while ago... he's kind of gone out of style
(19:12:58) Ralph: but classic........
(19:13:16) ME: most definitely

posted by Matt Dull @ 7:15 PM 3 comments

NY Times: Bird by Bird

December 2, 2005

Bird by Bird, China Tackles Vast Flu Task
HOWARD W. FRENCH

LIDAYING VILLAGE, China - Five men on battered motorcycles pulled up at this roadside village from a nearby town and summoned the local headman.

Wearing ordinary clothes and bearing boxes of vaccine from two separate manufacturers, they worked their way from house to house, roughly 300 dwellings in all, to vaccinate every chicken, duck and goose in the hamlet against avian flu.

For the rest of the afternoon, the members of the small team took turns, some briefly explaining the process to the villagers into whose courtyards and homes they entered, others rounding up the fowl and others working their syringes, sticking the birds one by one. For the most part, they failed to take even the most basic hygienic precautions, like wearing surgical gloves or masks.

"We set out each morning at daylight, and we stop when we can't see anymore," said Shen Dianchun, a livestock extension worker whose work over 10 days in November had taken him up and down this tree-lined, two-lane country road that cuts through prime farmland in rural Anhui Province. Mr. Shen estimated that his team, one of thousands like it deployed recently, handled about 600 birds on a typical day. This vaccination by retail is part of a crash effort to inoculate the 14.2 billion domesticated fowl that constitute what the government estimates is the total bird population over a year's time.

The mass vaccinations illustrate both the high priority China, the traditional incubator of flu pandemics, has placed on preventing the disease from leaping from birds to humans and the immense challenges involved, including the possibility that the rural health workers themselves might spread the virus, which can be acquired through contact with droppings or secretions from the birds.

China is also worried about its credibility, which was badly tarnished by the outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003, which the authorities initially tried to cover up. But international experts say that Beijing's official figure of only two human deaths from bird flu is suspiciously low, with some speculating that dozens or even hundreds may have died here already.

Since September, when the recent outbreak of avian flu was first acknowledged, Chinese authorities have ramped up production of bird flu vaccines at nine plants around the country, which are operating around the clock. Agriculture Ministry officials estimate that over 100 million doses are now being produced daily in the country, and teams like the one in this village are busy throughout the country, where life in close proximity to domesticated fowl is a common and ancient practice.

According to Chinese news reports, and interviews with people involved in the inoculation effort in several different parts of the country, the vaccination drive is proceeding relatively well in places that have large poultry industries. In the countryside, however, among China's peasantry, vaccine is reportedly in short supply, despite the huge production.

Typically, the extension workers who are carrying out the vaccination campaign have little epidemiological training and, like the ones in this village, take virtually no precautions, even to protect themselves against exposure to the disease.

One of the extension workers, who wore no gloves, face mask or any other protection, climbed inside a coop containing a dozen or so chickens and handed the birds out one by one to two of his co-workers. One of them held the birds while the other swabbed them and applied the needle.

Zhang Rongting, an elderly woman who owned the house, then placed the birds in straw crates, covering them with washbowls to calm them and isolate them until the job was complete. Asked what kind of shots her chickens were getting, she said, "You guys know, we don't."

Toward the end of the afternoon, when the presence of foreigners in the village drew the attention of local officials, the vaccination team donned white smocks for the first time, but continued to handle the birds bare-handed and without masks. After inoculating the geese in one dusty courtyard, the team discarded its used needle on the ground and walked away.

Problems have cropped up on the regional and national levels as well. In a country that is awash in black market and counterfeit goods, there have been confirmed reports of illicit vaccines circulating, leading some specialists to speculate that these ineffective vaccines have played a role in the transmission of the disease among birds. And local officials say they are having trouble getting enough vaccine. "The problem here is a tight supply of vaccines, so we've first done the big breeders, not the individual families," said Jiang Chenggang, an official in the veterinary bureau of Yingshang County, in northwestern Anhui Province.

"Yingshang has 4 million domesticated birds, maybe 700,000 of which have been vaccinated. If the supply were sufficient, we would probably be able to finish this in three to four days."

An official in Changfeng, another nearby county, said much the same, complaining that the provincial capital, Hefei, had been unable to furnish adequate supplies of the vaccine. "If we apply for 500,000 birds, they'll give us enough for 200,000," he said.

"Others need to wait for several days. It's not just Hefei that is short of vaccines, the whole of Anhui Province is."

Even assuming sufficient supplies and everything working perfectly, the scale of China's campaign is unprecedented, and perhaps unsustainable, too. Considering the need for biannual vaccinations, then adding to that the country's sheer immensity and the size of its population - typically put at 1.3 billion, but in fact unknown with any precision - the flavor of the challenge becomes clearer.

The country is estimated to have 640,000 to a million villages where fowl are raised in close proximity with humans, making any effort to sustain a biannual vaccination campaign something akin to fielding an army of extension workers, veterinarians, doctors and other public health experts.

Even an army may not be enough, people here say, if its manpower and equipment are not equal to the task. "Our biggest problem is poverty," said Yan Yi, an accountant with the nearby Xiaqiao township's government, who worked on the village vaccination team. "The extension workers are too tired, and the vaccines are insufficient. The whole town has received only 50 bottles for 60,000 to 70,000 birds." Mr. Yan said the vaccine received met less than half of their needs.

As the team entered the courtyard of another home in the village a man approached it holding two big chickens, saying he had owned five but killed three, so he could eat them while they were still safe. "The chickens are beautiful," the peasant said, admiring his birds as they received their shots.

With the sun beginning to set, the weary team still had one more house to cover. One man complained that he was too tired even to eat dinner that night, and could not flex his wrist after holding the birds all day.

"Birds can pass the disease to humans, but there has been no human-to-human case reported so far," he said, when asked whether their effort had done any good. "It can be prevented if the birds are vaccinated."

"We're in the front line, and we're not afraid because we do this every day."

posted by Matt Dull @ 2:19 PM 1 comments