All the Tea in China

My time is drawing to a close here in China and let me confess— I was rather blasé about coming here. The combination of worrying a bit about my dizziness condition and taking the long plane flight and feeling like I would enjoy some quiet time at home did not make for that excited pre-travel feeling of going to the place of your dreams. Again, a confession, that my host Tonny had been asking me for quite some time to either make a video series for Chinese Orff teachers or get here in person or both and I kept putting him off for one reason or another —mostly good reasons having to do with availability and such. But he persisted and I saw these free two weeks in August and I have never been to China in the summer, so finally I said yes. But with a touch of obligation rather than sheer delight. 

 

How wrong I was! About to finish my second course tomorrow, I would not have traded it for all the tea in China! Most of which I think I actually have as so many have gifted me with teas of many varieties! Such gift-giving is part of this culture of gracious hosting and that gracious hosting is part of what has made the trip so pleasurable. As a teacher, I am expected always to step first through a door or out of an elevator. Every night we go to a banquet (much to the chagrin of the bathroom scales awaiting me back home!) and they keep a watchful eye over which dish might have a little pork hidden somewhere for this mostly vegetarian guy. One asks me which fruit I like and I answer, “Nectarines and mangoes” and the next day, there is a little bag awaiting me of —nectarines and mangoes! Whatever I need in the workshop, they will bend over backwards to find it and often do. 

 

Sometimes it feels a bit overboard. If I bend down to move a xylophone, five young students rush over to grab it from my hand. If I ever have something to carry walking with my host Tonny, he insists on carrying it. Whoever I’m with opens the car door for me and offers me a hand on the way out. (Yes, it could be “This guy’s old—he needs help!” but I think it’s more this whole attitude about teachers.) If I give a tiny cough when teaching, three people appear with a bottle of water. 

 

This respect for and reverence for the teacher— similar to Thailand— is such a welcome contrast to the good ole U.S.A.. But it is not blind adherence to whatever I might say or distanced polite respect. They love to play and laugh and joke with me. And with each other. I already knew this from my ten former students from the SF Course, but now I have a 150 more fabulous folks I can hang out and have fun. 

 

And trust me. They are fabulous! Their movement improvisations are stunning, they sing so well and play so well and the old cliché of the Chinese students not being able to swing or feel the offbeat is just that—old news. They can hang with any group I’ve worked with. Likewise, the cliché that they’re shy about asking questions. Not so now. 

 

Their focus, attention, in-the-body-presence, ability to work so well together in small group creative projects, their enthusiasm, their excitement, their genuine “Yee-haw!” when the music really hits fever-pitch– it is just so damn impressive! It’s not good taste to compare and contrast them with other cultural groups I work with, but let me simply say these Chinese teachers are gold medal quality in just about every category. They are ready to do this kind of work and take it to its highest level. All they want is experience. 

 

Today was a day to remember forever. Powerful body percussion that they learned quickly and mastered and it sounded so great with the wood floor in the room. Then a pedagogical lesson about reading rhythms using cups and the quality of their fascination and interest in this impressive process was equally tangible. On it went to some bamboo pole dancing and then a hilarious experimental activity using the Heads Up game on my phone that ended up with six small-group dramatic performances put together in 20 minutes. 

 

Finally, my videos of the kids I have taught and the sincere appreciation the participants had for the kids’ glorious musicality and playful spirit. I ended the class and was packing up when someone pulled me by my sleeve and I turned around to see a giant birthday cake for me!!! Something about how this date was my Chinese birthday (a little over a month after my Western one) and they sang me a song and waved their phones around with their phone lights and took dozens of individual photos with me wearing the crown they got me and then showed me the strings of hung paper cards with their good wishes written on it. Followed by cranking up some music and inviting me to dance with them. 

 

Really, I should just end the course now. Where can I go from there? That’s my job to find out tonight as I plan the next day. 

 

Would I have traded this trip for something different? Not for all the tea in China.   (8/29)