Dispatch from Beijing

Note: I wrote this on July 26 when I was still in Beijing. However, it appears that I didn't succeed in actually posting it, since I was working with a clumsy text-based interface to get around the fact that blogger is blocked from China. Hence, I'm posting it now, 26 Aug, from Maine.

I've now been in Beijing a little bit more than three weeks. Hard to believe that I still have another month in China. I had expected that the trip would be an interesting mental and psychological challenge, as this is the longest that I've been away from home in one stretch in a very long time, if ever.

I've read and heard that the three to four week point in a foreign culture is a time when "culture shock" often sets in. The newness and novelty of a place wears off, and customs and habits that once seemed wonderfully new and become old and start to grate. I think this is happening to me a little bit. I've spent a month in China each of the last two summers, so this year China isn't that new. Thus, it's not as if I'm coming down from a big burst of adrenaline. But it does feel that I've hit a bit of a wall.

Beijing is a wonderful city. It's huge and buzzing and crowded and smoggy and restless. Beijing is big in a way that makes me feel small. In contrast, New York City is big in a way that makes me feel big, too. The rate of transition in Beijing is difficult to describe. There is construction everywhere; it seems as if they're rebuilding the entire city. But as amazing as the physical changes are, my sense is that the social and economic changes are even greater. I can't even begin to understand all that's going on, but it seems that there is a growing consumerist middle class, and simultaneously a gap between rich and poor that is staggering. And I can't even imagine the changes and upheaval caused by demolishing so many buildings and neighborhoods.

So Beijing makes me feel small not only because it is so physically huge, but because there are such huge social and economic forces rapidly at work. I've only seen the Northern Lights a few times. But every time I see them I have a powerful sense of smallness -- an awareness that I'm just a tiny part of huge object hurtling through an even huger space. It's a good small feeling. The Beijing small feeling isn't so good.

I fear that the above sounds too negative toward Beijing. It's wonderful in the way cities can be. There is a bizarre Mexican restaurant a short walk from us. I saw around one hundred people doing some cross between aerobics and line dancing to a mostly modern beat at night outside on a plaza above a very modern underground mall. Beijing has the biggest and most crowded bookstore I've ever been in. And there are people and bicycles and cars and trucks and buses and more people everywhere.

In any event, Beijing has me feeling small. And I also just miss home. I've been tired and I've had a cold and I've found myself thinking of home a lot. Tonight around dinnertime I had an intense craving for spaghetti. Tomorrow I might go out in search of some for dinner.

When I agreed to co-direct the Complex Systems Summer School in Beijing, one of the aspects of the work that I was most excited about was the opportunity to work with staff and faculty who weren't involved with College of the Atlantic. So far this has indeed been one of the best parts. I've really enjoyed getting to know better and work with some of the staff who are helping organize the CSSS. There are some remarkably kind, smart, and thoughtful people here who are really fun to work with. COA -- probably like almost any good job -- can be remarkably consuming. Being here -- and not there -- has given me a good perspective on some things.

More Wiki info

A friend emailed me with a link to a Washington Post article about China and Wikipedia. It's pretty interesting.

Today one of the lecturers mentioned wikipedia, recommending it as an excellent resource to get some quick, clear technical information on a topic. A few students then mentioned that it was blocked. The tenor of the response was interesting. The students seemed amused that the lecturer didn't know that wiki was blocked, and also the students seemed somehow cheerfully resigned to the fact that they can't get wiki , at least for now.

Ultimately, it's hard to imagine that China will be able to keep wiki blocked. It will be interesting to see how long China tries to keep it up, and if the censorship gets worse before it gets better.

Wiki Blocked, too

So it seems as if wikipedia is also blocked from China. This is interesting, because this is a recent development. When I was here last summer I could get to wikipedia without any problem.

I suppose I should be somewhat outraged. Mostly, though, it's just kinda sad. Wikipedia is cool -- it's a great way to learn about stuff. It's a drag to think that 1.3 billion people are denied the pleasures of browsing and learning stuff via wiki.

I'm accessing blogger (which is also blocked form China) by telnetting to one of my accounts in the U.S. (Actually I ssh instead of telnet, for security reasons.) I then access blogger from my U.S. account using a text-based web browser.

Right now I'm using the browser lynx, which seem to work ok with blogger. However, somehow the text interface won't let me write paragraphs beyond a certain length. This is annoying, but it might help my prose be more readable by preventing super long paragraphs.

The first week of the CSSS is over now. I think things are going quite well thus far. The lecturers this week were very strong, and the students seem excellent. Now that my lectures are done -- I spoke Monday-Thursday -- I should have more time and will try to post here more frequently, provided that my trick of accessing blogger through lynx via a US shell account continues to work

Blogger blocked?

It appears as if blogspot.com URLs are blocked from China. This will make posting here difficult. But not impossible...

Heading off

In a little over three hours I head to the airport. A quick flight to Newark, a four hour layover, and then 13.5 hours and I'm in Beijing.

Frantically Getting Ready for China

I leave for China in around 36 hours. I'll be there for seven weeks. So I'm frantically trying to get ready. Lots of loose ends to tie up, errands, packing, etc. I'm having to face the fact that I'm not going to finish everything that I had imagined I would finish. For the most part, this is fine. All the undone tasks will be waiting for me when I return. And many of the tasks I can do while I'm away. I will have better internet access during my month in Beijing than I do at my home on Mount Desert Island.

My itinerary is a good one. I fly from Bangor to Newark, and then direct to Beijing. The flight is almost fourteen hours and takes me almost directly over the North Pole.

I will try to post here regularly during my time in China.

Doreen on Internet Radio

A few days ago Doreen was interviewed on an internet radio show DPeeps' People's Network. Doreen and the host, KhaazRa MaaRanu, talked about a number of issues around genetic engineering in agriculture. An mp3 of the show is here. (The file is around 11MB.)

Where has June gone?

It's been far too long since I've posted an entry here. I've been busy with end of the term grading and evaluation writing, and lots of end of the year administrative stuff. Also, Doreen and I spent a few days in Quebec City, and last weekend we spent in Boston. So I've been moving around some, doing lots of work, and trying to recover from the term. I'm always surprised how exhausted I am at the end of a term. I have great intentions to maintain momentum, finish my grading in a few days, and put the term behind me. But almost every time I end up sleeping a lot and catching up on errands right after the term ends, and I almost never manage to complete my grades and evaluations much before the deadline.

Anyway, one of the things I've been doing has been getting ready for my trip to China. I'll be co-directing the Santa Fe Institute's Complex Systems Summer School (CSSS) in Beijing, China. I'll be in Beijing for a month, and then will spend three weeks traveling with Beijing. A lot of the organization of the CSSS occurs via a wiki that Santa Fe has set up. So I've spent a bunch of time posting or writing, wiki-ing? ... I'm not sure of the verb. Anyway, it's been a little tedious, but also kinda fun to put lots of information on the wiki. The wiki can be found here.

In the summer COA hosts a bunch of different summer programs, some of which are run by our staff and faculty, while others are run by other organizations. One group that falls in the latter category is "brass week." This is a week-long camp or something for players of brass instruments. The musicians are pretty good. Pretty much anywhere you walk on campus this week you'll stand a good chance of hearing somebody playing a trombone or a french horn or something. I think this is pretty cool, especially on a dark, foggy night like this. Someone is playing a trombone outside right now, and it sounds very nice.

Fear the Turtle?!

The University of Maryland, whose sports teams are know as the Terrapins, has a new motto: Fear the Turtle. When I heard this I first thought it was a joke. But I think it's for real.

With great pride in our past achievements and full of great expectations for the future of the state's flagship university, the University of Maryland family has come to embrace "Fear the Turtle" as a reflection of our great stature. First conceived as a slogan of athletic success, the phrase has evolved to embrace the spirit of achievement and excellence in every aspect of the university.

Yikes. I'm glad that I don't work somewhere where my spirit of excellence is embraced by frightening turtles. Beside, I don't think turtles are frightening. I like turtles.

Graduation

Graduation 2006 will start in a few hours. It's raining steadily, so a lot of people will be getting wet. There is a big tent set up on one of the lawns, but not quite everybody fits under the tent. The reception usually happens in the Newlin Gardens; this year I imagine that it will occur spread out in several buildings. Hopefully there'll be a break in the rain, but looking at the current satellite photos things don't look good.

Graduation is a great ceremony. At other schools I've been to they've sometimes been boring and even pompous. But at COA we do graduation well, and it's a highlight of the year. Part of this is because we're so small; around 70 students will graduate this afternoon. I probably know 50 of them, about half of the have taken at least one class from me, and several took multiple classes and/or were my advisees.

I was thinking last night how about differently students and faculty experience graduation. For students, it's a ceremony about change. It marks a transition from one stage of life to another. Faculty certainly feel some of this too, as we watch students undergo this transition, meet students' families, and celebrate together. But for faculty themselves -- at least for me -- the actual graduation and related events serve to underscore the cyclic nature of teaching. In some ways it's more of a holiday like a birthday or Christmas or Thanksgiving that reminds me of the passing of time. It's always somewhat hard to believe that it's time for Graduation (or an important birthday or anniversary) again.

Teaching isn't circular in a negative way at all. It's circular perhaps in the way the seasons are circular, or at least cyclic. Perhaps graduation is a particularly interesting time because there's a clear intersection between the circular life of teaching, and the less cyclic lives of students.

Enough geometric analysis, at least for now. I need to be on campus in a little more than two hours. Enough time to eat some pancakes, look for a nice pair pants, wash/dry/iron said pants, and hit the road. It's still raining, but the sky seems to be getting less dark.