SAU

The old photo I have is the imposing circular Administration building reflected on the campus pool; it is a magnificent shot even if I took it, though it was probably taken by my photographer wife.

I spent almost four years teaching Chinese students at Shenyang Aerospace University (SAU), oral English, though Chen Yongqing, director of the International Education Center that employed my services got me there as a lecturer on Macro-Microeconomics after doing an hour demonstration lecture to both English-speaking Chinese students and international ones.

Foreign students who were later in the class were mostly from Nigeria (that delighted them when I revealed I got malaria in Ijede, Lagos Lagoon and knew where Abeokuta, Abuja and Kano were), a dab of Ghanaians, a Thai, and a French girl. But the University needed oral English teachers more, so I got segued solely into the role function; also judged students who memorized their lines to «speak» English in front of an audience.

There were six foreign nationals teaching English, a British and a Belgian from Europe, two Caucasians from Pennsylvania and Hawaii, and two Filipinos, one from Batangas and I. My wallet holds a Hawaii driver›s license. A seventh in the faculty was a Chinese lady schooled in Charlotte, North Carolina (I lived in Greensboro before she was there), who married a Canadian-Chinese, and teaches to battle boredom but ensures that her only son gets the best education the society can offer.

The Belgian, Pennsylvanian, and «Hawaiian» are married to Chinese ladies; the Brit took a Chinese bride after I left, the Filipina remained single and is moving back to Pea Eye early 2016, and I with a local wife who takes care of aging parents in Shenyang after she plucked me out of Saipan.

The Belgian left for Anshan a few miles southwest of Shenyang to join his wife and their newborn child. The Pennsylvanian of Amish descent is a jolly German «Santa» married to a vivacious Chinese lady whose shrill voice once echoed on Chinese opera stage. Our Hawaii gentleman solemnly his evangelical faith up his sleeves, attractive to many who were left «spiritless» by secular communalism and Mao›s communism, a ministry that is a not-too-public raison d’etre for his visa.

I turned 65 after I signed up. It delighted the two Americans for if I was employed at my age, they were safe in theirs. Foreign teachers ceased to be in the roster at 65 but Chen papers his sphere of influence with quotes of can-do bottle-half-full thinking and had the Foreign Affairs office grant my working visa (Party Secretary is one of the signs on his office door so he can very well be familiar with the hammer-and-sickle hierarchy) until President Xi Jinping decided to follow what was in the books in his anti-corruption drive, which clearly says that foreign teachers were not to be older than 65. I formally retired to avoid being formally dismissed.

That was almost two years ago. I am back to my old haunt in Saipan as the cold of Dong Bei gets under my skin  I left as an elder statesman in a Shenyang Language Studio ran by a fellow of 25 known for surviving solely on his wits. His task is to offer a language immersion tour to Saipan for Chinese students, in addition to running review sessions for those taking standardized tests (e.g., CET, IELTS).

He visited Saipan and stayed a month; he brings members of his family in Shanxi on his next visit hoping to use the occasion to inform them that he does not hold a white collar job as they think he does, but actively runs a bar and fluffs his pillow in the language studio.

I moseyed over to Shenbei in December to promote the studio and check on the ground level dwelling we procured after I left the University where my in-laws moved into as they grow senile aches, he, with diabetes, a replaced hipbone, and artery contradictions, and she, with a deep cough and backache. Their old dwelling was on the fourth floor without elevators.

We took them away from familiar environs but given their physical condition, mobility was no longer a premium; they hardly see any friends anymore anyway (grandpapa sits on a wheelchair when going for medical attention and inches on a walker between his room and the TV). My wife plans to pay a portion of our house loan from the sale of the old apartment but the bank›s bottom line remains bleak; it had not been easy to dispose of the unit in the current market.

SAU and Chen Yongqing remain beacons of hope.  The school train pilots for the airline industries, and the library that Chen leads provides the necessary academic support to get a diverse studentry fit into a hyperactive China labor market.

The virtues of China›s balancing act of the yin-yang may, however, be lost in the shuffle as monetary value dominates everyone’s preoccupation.  I thought I was treated over the holidays to a bag of grapes until it was announced that my spouse bought the fruit because it was on sale. Forget the delightful treat of a fruit basket!