After reading COUNTRY DRIVING, Part 1, share FIVE specific insights Hessler makes about the Great Wall of China and Chinese culture that you find important, and ONE specific question you have after finishing the reading.
Please use 2-3 sentences for each observation, and cite page numbers, so we can all follow your thinking.
Post your reading response below, as part of this blog thread.
Xie Xie,
Dr. W
Before I post, I need to address what a strange driving test questions this is:
ReplyDelete“223. If another motorist stops you to ask for directions, you should…a) not tell him, b) reply patiently and accurately, c) tell him the wrong way” (Hessler 8).
Seriously?!
1. Page 6: The Volkswagen Santana is the most popular passenger car in China.
2. Page 7: A map of Taiwan must be included in every mainland atlas for political reasons, despite the fact one cannot drive to Taiwan. This also holds true for the Spratly Islands, which ironically do not even have civilian inhabitants, let alone roads.
3. Page 7: In 1978 “Reform and Opening” stimulated migration from rural farms to urban cities located along the coast. Roughly ninety million people have relocated to the southeastern area of China where factory towns are steadily growing.
4. Page 10: In rural China on the back roads, farmers will lay out crops on the asphalt in order for drivers to help thresh the crops by driving over the grains. It is tolerated in rural areas even though it breaks driving safety and food hygiene laws.
5. Page 13: Feng shui masters oversaw construction of the Great Wall in order to prevent violations against nature, which could bring bad fortune. The feng shui masters warned the Ming emperors against building the wall along a particular twenty-mile stretch because it was too close to the imperial tombs.
6. Page 18: People in China barter over fender-benders instead of contacting an insurance company. Cash exchanges are made in the street, usually starting at 100 yuan for a midsize dent.
7. Page 31: A single honk attracts attention, a double honk implies irritation, a long honk means a driver is stuck in traffic, and multiple honks denoted panic.
Question: Why was Hessler’s driving test so simple when it’s so difficult for foreigners (like us) to obtain a Visa?
pg29) I found it hilarious that if somebody was passed, they took it personal and immediately tried passing the person back. They'd probably drive well in Mass or Jersey.
ReplyDeletepg36) "Slaughter the Wu was dying, I didn't see a single young person out on it's dusty streets." That's absurd, a town with nobody our age because zero opportunities came about living there. Hopefully the town doesn't wither away.
pg37) Some Ming thought that using resources found near where the wall was being built was countering the walls purpose. By stripping the land, barbarians on horseback would easily be able to swoop in and scavenge without natural restraint.
pg42) Slogans, slogans and slogans. People are getting fed up with county corruption and embezzlement. These people dig holes for no real reason because the government says so. Sounds like we're in 1984.
pg 48) Mindless abuse of the car for people learning how to drive. Constantly down shifting with the engine off or the engine on and the E brake on cannot be healthy for a vehicle. I guess they just don't get it yet.
Will the Chinese finally figure out their flaws in regards to driving? Or are we wrong?
1. (pg 10) I found it very interesting that when they cut down the crop for the season it ended up in the road. Drivers were expected to run it over. I thought it was funny how he went from being very apprehensive (as would I) to run over the crop to accelerating over it feeling like he had helped out.
ReplyDelete2. (pg 31) I love the differences between honks. They way he tells us the difference is comical and if i was to honk i feel like i would use the same "language".
3. ( pg 35) Slaughter the Hu was a site during the Ming where people from beyond the Great Wall came to trade. At this market people from beyond the Great Wall could trade with the Chinese. The government made sure that the Mongols were not trading for metal which they could then use to make weapons.
4. (pg 39) A trick question on the driving exam was to drink no alcohol, little alcohol or drink only beer not any other kind of alcohol. When the author attended a banquet they urged him to drink even though he said he couldn't because he was driving. This is different than the US because here is you say you're driving the argument is closed. In china they find other ways to get you to drink.
5. (pg 41) The farmers are very frustrated with the local officials because they want the farmers to dig even though the crops will not grow. One farmer says " Local leaders are the biggest problem- the country officials are the ones who embezzle everything". They are sick of hearing slogans. They want the local officials to pay attention to them and understand that their land is too dry.
Question: Do they really drink and drive in China and are there any laws now that prevent this!?
1) Page 5 This is Hessler talking about new Chinese drivers "Most of them came from the growing middle class, for whom a car represented mobility, prosperity, modernity. For me, it meant adventure." Its awesome that the Chinese are feeling the exact same thing that Americans felt when the auto boom happened in the States. It will be interesting to see how long China can keep the car industry afloat.
ReplyDelete2) Page 8-9 "By 1931 more than two dozen places had adopted this strategy, including the southern city of Guangzhou, which tore down structures that were over eight hundred years old." THIS IS MIND BLOWING, Such structures almost anywhere else in the world would be protected under numerous regulations.
3) Multipul pages I like that their are questions from the driving test that seems like uuhhh duh. for us living in America.
4) Page 23 "in 1923 NatGeo claimed that the great wall is visible to the human from the moon.(In truth, nobody on the mmon could see it in 1923, and they still can't) Its funny because you always hear that factoid that the great wall is visible from space when in actually it isn't.
5)Page 28 The maps of the Beijing highway exchanges look like they were not so much designed but scribbled by a 4th grader.
My question would be If given the chance would he do it all again?
Pg 6, I think its funny how easy it was for Hessler to get his Chinese license. All he had to do was drive his car about fifty meters in a abandoned part of town.
ReplyDeletePg10, Its interesting how the farmers in the Hebei province use the roads to help with their crop harvesting. “Approaching a pile, I’d hit the gas-crunch! crunch!- and in the rearview mirror I’d see people dart into the roads, caring rakes and brooms.”
Pg 18, I thought it was funny when Hessler returned to the car shop after hitting a dog, one of the workers asks is he ate it. His story of people hitting dogs and bringing then back home to eat the road kill was funny.
Pg 30& 31, I think it was interesting to see some of the questions that the gov. ask in their driving test. For instance,
When passing an elderly person or a child, you should:
a) slow down and make sure you pass safe.
b) continue at the same speed.
c) honk the horn and tell them to watch out.
Pg59 I thought it strange when Hessler was addressed by a man from the gov. and told him that he had broken a law. It was required a for a journalist to apply to a city before they can do any reporting. “ Can I have lunch”? “I’m sorry,” he said. “ But you must leave immediately”.
1. (pg.6) It's shocking how easy it was to pass the driving section of the test. All that he had to do was drive for fifty feet. Furthermore, it was just on an entirely empty street, which did nothing to prepare him for actual driving in Beijing.
ReplyDelete2. (pg.18) While we agonize over every dent in a car, in China it's another business opportunity. They're so common that people just pay for them on the street. If you hit a dog, it could easily be a free dinner.
3. (pg.26) Having driven from Vermont to Maryland before with only one stop, I can vouch for needing a brief rest from time to time. Long rides are stressful without a rest stop, and 20 minutes would be more than enough time.
4. (pg.41) It's interesting that the government wants to plant trees, but the local government is embezzling the money to prevent it. It seems as though the Chinese government is trying to do the right thing but suffers from local corruption.
5. (pg.59) I love that the rental place was so impressed by how far he went. They didn't seem to mind that he'd broken the law at all, and even went so far as to celebrate it.
Q: Now that he's published his book, will China still be completely against foreigners driving freely?
1. On page one I liked how he describes the new generation of car buyers saying that purchasing a car is a representation of prosperity. It seems that owning a car is more of a representation of class then necessity. On page 16 Hessler mentions China's booming auto industry after earlier sharing how he acquired a drivers licensee with relative ease. With new limits on car registrations it's a good thing he didn't try to start his journey now.
ReplyDelete2. On page 22 Hessler talks to a farmer who says his annual income was only $200. This just shows how vastly different my life style is from a Chinese farmer considering that my monthly rent is 3 times what he makes in a year. This prompts the question, what is China doing to help struggling farm communities?
3. The amount of youth that migrate to the cities from rural farming communities seems to indicate a quickly changing nation.Hessler describes the trend of moving to urban areas on page 33. It seems that urbanization and wealth are viewed to go hand in hand. If the farming communities disappear how will those in the cities get food? Assuming this trend continues it wouldn't surprise me if the farmers who stick it out end up making more money because of a need for and lack of farmers.
4. On page 50 I thought it was interesting how intense and thorough the driving lessons were. Maybe why there lessons are so thorough compared to ours is that the driving culture is new to them. Most Americans grew up around cars and have been passengers daily for most of their lives. The evidence of a naive driving culture becomes more clear when the students and teacher drink beers at lunch in the middle of the lesson. " They told me that a day earlier they had gotten so drunk that they canceled afternoon class." Even after Hessler ended a tour with government officials, they pressured him to drink when he said he had to drive.
5. On page 57 he describes how he was forced to leave the hotel immediately and go back to Beijing. This is an interesting example of how strict their government policies are.
Hen Hao analysis and posting here, colleagues.
ReplyDeleteMISSING:
Katrina
Rob
Git on the blog!
Xie Xie,
W
Page 7 In a chinese road map they include the Spratty Islands which don't even have roads and are currently disputed territories for five countries. The road maps don't have a measured scale, so you can't tell how far anything is.
ReplyDeletePage 10-11 the use of roads to dry vegetables doesn't sound like the healthiest idea to me. i had to look up threshing, GENIUS if you don't mind rubber chunks in your grain.
Page 13
after the communism rise in 1949 cultural traditions such as superstition, religion, fortune telling and Feng Shui were lost. Zhang Baolong a new feng shui masters services vary from picking burial sites to picking marriage partners and 25 other services.
page 15 in 1920 the existing road system was designed for horse drawn wagons and was rebuilt by hired local farmers. this allowed for food to be transported during a drought.
Page 15-16 in 1922 Beijing had approx. 1500 cars. in 1937 japan invaded halting the car market, then Mao rose to power and communism economics made it impossible to buy cars. in 2001 there were 10 million cars.
Question: For a country so rich in history and proud of it, why would they ever consider tearing down things such as the Great Wall for building materials?