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Show Behind the Bamboo Curtain spite of Communism, people are really superstitious. They will go to great lengths to keep evil spirits away from their homes. They put boards atmut a foot long with signs to keep away the spirits, or they have stone tablets in the middle of entrance steps to their home which protect them from the livspirits. Also they are concerned with do and to a life, things long they try ing to have longevity such as taking liaths in Alvo in room and a chalk board. City certain springs. In the large cities, there are few houses, Imt people live in apartment like buildings. schools were bigger, but basically the same. Those who dont get to go on to the whether university take a test to decide on the or work a in will factory they so it is that we too can make a visit to China through the eyes of our affable. enthusiastic traveler. g Before the students visited the mainland, they made a stop in I long Kong. Blake saw skyscrapers lining the st reels. The ground floors were all shops. "Shops and shops and shops I Bv - everything you could possibly think of Margaret Van Noy Profiles Writer tiuying from clothes to radios, he said. This was his first taste of the overwhelmThe Chinese crowded around the tall ing numliers of Chinese people, masses slim American youth. They stared at of them. him; he stared track at them. Here the students had some free time For troth Blake Crowther of Grants-vill- e to visit the shops and learn about the and the Chinese people it was a Chinese way of doing business. In Hong first: It was the first time a group of Kmig everyone speaks English. It is part American high school students had visi-e- d of the British Commonwealth and they mainland China, and it was the first are ready for the American tourists. time many of the Chinese had ever seen "When they see you coming, they jack an American. up the price 100 Chinese dollars. ShopThe intense interest was mutual. ping is an art. They name a price, and Blake, a sophomore at Crantsville you go half of it. It usually ends up at 60 High School, was part of a group of 36 or 70 percent. Most Americans are not Utah high school students and their used to it, Blake said and added If you chaperones who were aide to visit the do it right, you can get Britannia jeans Peoples Republic of China in April for a for four bucks. 21 day stay. The natives in Hong Kong were not Arranging the trip took more than friendly, so the group was not quite pretwo years of effort and was the result of pared for the welcome that awaited much correspondence Iretwecn the Utah them inside China. Wherever they went, State Office of Education and the Chi- people crowded around them. "At first it nese Emliassy in Washington, D.C. bothered me to have people staring at last fall tour leaders Walter D. Tal- me, but I soon got used to it, he said. lin!, State Superintendent of Public InThe people would crowd around us struction, and Dr. W. Dean Bclnap, aliout 15 deep, he added. globe-trottin- Farms in China are mostly - something like the United Order known to Mormons - according to Blake. They are like complete little villages. There is a village part where people live, and then there are the farm fields. "A commune is one way the Chinese can afford things like tractors. It is one way they can bring up their standard of livcom-nmn- farms. Then the government assigns them to either a factory or a farm and trains them for the work. A journey to China was like a journey into another time for Blake. It wasn't at all like I expected, he said. I thought maylie they would be ten or 15 shock to see years behind us. It was a e like 50 or how backward they 60 ycais behind us. They still plow with water buffalo. They are trying to become Westernized, but they have prob- - es ing, Blake said. The people elect a board of directors to run the work of the commune. They settle disputes between people. If there are any discipline problems, the board are-mor- jV Board of Education President, publicized the intended tour and invited Utah's high school students to apply for a spot on the tour. Blake applied giving information on past activities, GPA, and goals. Most of the students were from the large schools in the state's metropolitan area. The tour was set up to be a part of an exchange plan with Chinese students expected to visit the United States. So far this has not come to pass. The Chinese government has not said yes to that proposal, and the Chinese people are poor; they do not have the money it takes to make the trip. Utahs young people have offered to host the Chinese while they are here if they can get to the there states. Part of the preparation for the trip included reading up on the mainland Chinese people, their traditions, their habits, and their language. Blake learned that it is an insult to give gifts, that the people are still very superstitious in spite of living in a Communist dominated country. He also learned a few (very few) phrases in the Chinese language. An interminable ride on a school bus brought the group to L.A. It took longer to get to California than it did to fly to Tokyo, Blake said. From there the route was to Seattle, then to Tokyo, to Hong Kong and then into China itself. So it was that Blake Crowther found we asked them about education in three years. The government will help them out with tuition and expenses if they are poor, but they are expected to pay part of their own schooling. The Utah students found conditions himself half the circumference of the poor as far as buildings and equipment earth away from home, eagerly asking are concerned. Schools are not modern. Science classes have no equipment like and answering questions, learning literalours do. In the country, the schools were ly how at least part of the other half like Americas schoolhouses used to be live. 5r'Lto' - everything is hand made. This photo cul- words.) We never did see anything fancy as far as clothes are concerned, Blake said. d Everybody wears blue or khaki-colore- Blake, who plans to go into engineering, doesnt think the abacus will ever , replace his calculator. The Chinese look to the Americans to teach them modern technology. The tunic is typical Chinese dress. His cap sports the red star of the Peoples Republic of China. lems. They arent rich and there are so many people. There are a few who do have tractors. There is the old and the new. We saw water buffalo in one field, and a tractor in the next. Most labor is hand labor. According to Blake much of this is planned so that there will be no unemployment. Factory workers earn about $50 a month: farm laborers $20. It takes them about four months to earn enough to buy a bicycle which is the main means of transporta-- . . appoints two people to take care of it. Most of the time, there are no prob- lems, Blake said. They wont talk about what would happen if a serious discipline problem arose. They dont send people to prison much unless they do something really bad. Nobody knows where the prisons are except government officials. There are hotels In China, but they are not up to American standards Blake said, but tliey are clean. "They have never had any tourists so they don't know what Americans expect." The group visited all the famous Chinese historical spots. Blake was impressed with the Great Wall and its immensity. He liked the history and romance of Shanghai. Once considered the crime center of the world, the communists have cleaned up this international port city.People are more Westernized from the influences from all parts of the world. They have lots of things that other cities didn't have, like ice cream. According to Blake, Communism has lieen good for the Chinese. They are no longer starving, and they have a higher standard of living. At this point, the Chinese are really friendly to the Americans and want to have a good relationship with us. Blake pointed out. We talked to university students who are 17 and 18 years old. They're smart and anxious to learn about America - anxious to learn our ways. When we left, the Chinese wanted us to say to America how much they like Americans. They figure it would work out pretty good: China has a long history; America has a short one. We can borrow from their experience and ancient culture and they can borrow from our technology. Another student group is leaving from Utah in the near future. Blake is hoping that Chinese students may soon come to America. We want to show them what freedom really is. We want to take them to our factories and other industries and show them how our technology works. Visiting China was a great adventure for Blake Crowther and the other Utah students. He would like to go back, perhaps as a Mormon missionary. The trip showed me what the rest of the world is like - how they live. It taught me how much freedom we really have here in America. Blake cant forget places like the Creat Wall, the pagodas in Xian, the Forbidden City in Peking, the big muddy, wide Yangste river, but most of all he remembers the people - the millions and millions of them. He echoed the sentiments of Dr. Talbot when he said, There are 800 million people in China, and I think we saw every one of " them. food. "Chinese food in China is much different from Chinese food in America, Blake said. They have never even heard of fortune cookies. At first the people of China all living, Blake said. This was one reason i Looking down from a pagoda in Xain gives us a view of the hustle and bustle of a Chinese street with apartment like living quarters in the background. t looked alike to Blake especially since they all wore the same type of clothes and seemed to ride bicycles, but be soon came to see the difference. Actually, the people in the South looked different from the people in the North. According to Blake, arrangements had to be made ahead of time for the group to visit a commune. Once inside you could look at whatever you wanted to. We could ask questions or ask to be taken to see something, and they would answer or take you to see it. The Chinese look to the Americans to teach them how to modernize their country and upgrade their standard of Most of the streets are narrow, and they are filled with people and bicycles. The few cars and busses drive wherever they can. You honk your horn and honk and honk and honk, he said. Sometimes it scares you. Houses too compare to ours of 50 or 60 years ago, Blake said. There are no frills, no televisions or cars. The houses are bare. They dont have fancy couches and there are no rugs on the floors. In the country floors are either cement or dirt. tunics with high collars and straight pants. Many of the hats sport the red star of liberation. The Chinese diet consists mostly of rice and vegetables. "They have rice for Blake said, every meal, even breakfast, and added that he still likes rice. They eat sea food, duck, steamed vegetables, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts (which Blake did not like). Blake did have one high point in his travels as far as food is concerned. It was not Cantonese Duck or Chow Mein - it was a hamburger from McDonalds in Hong Kong. It sure tasted good after all that Chinese ' There is no unemployment in China shows a jade factory in Shanghai. plenty of entertainment and in the form of acrobatics, ballet, 'opera, drama and music. (The tunes are nice, but I couldnt understand the I low come China. Blake said Chinese children spend aliout six years in a primary school followed by three years in a middle school. Nine years there are just about equivalent to 12 years here. They take many of the same subjects, but with few electives. They work really hard, Blake said, What we learn in 12 years, they learn in nine. Blake pointed out that the schools dont have to put up with any nonsense like they do here. They have few behavior problems. After middle school, students take a test to see if they can go on to a university. Not many get to go. There are fewer of these, and students finish in is ture he said. They like Americans, "They masked everything about our educational system. They think all Americans are rich, but believed us when we told them we are not. One question often asked Blake was youre so tall? According to Blake, under the Chinese form of Communism, people are more free than under the Russian form. People can talk to you - nobody objects. They asked us about education in the United States, and were pleased when quite primitive. Women work alongside the men, Blake said. They are equal there - no need for Womens Lib. The women swing a nick just like the men. "All women s hlilieni ought to go over there and take a look at what it is really like and see if they really want it or not. The group saw few children. The government limits families to two. Before communism took over, the Chinese had large families. As soon as they are old enough, the government sends children to school. Both parents work so the younger children are usually left with grandparents. The grandparents live with their children, usually a son. "It is very important in the Chinese culture to have a boy to carry on the family name. But the family is not as important as it used to be. The communist idea is to promote nationalism. The family comes second to the nation. "Our guide told us that he was able to lie with his wife only one month out of the year because of his occupation, Blake said. The Chinese just dont understand how much freedom we have, he said. They dont even know how to ask questions about it. We just had to tell them. The Chinese have little time for leisure. They work eight hours a day and sometimes seven days a week in the factories. They spend their time visiting the parks where there are trees and grass, and they can get away from the everpresent numbers of people. Or they visit one of the famous Chinese landmarks like the Creat Wall or the Forbidden City or the tomb of Chin. The communists allow the people to practice any religion, Blake said. He saw many pagodas or Buddist temples. They can even become Christians if they want. While there are no movies in China, ? . State we went so that the Chinese could tee what Americans are like. Hong Kong is modem, and there they have developed the modern technology. But China is " Chinese children are good students although their school buildings and equipment resemble America 60 years ago. |
