I hope everyone is doing ok coping with the approaching holidays and, for some of us, frigid weather. Fortunately, this week I am in China's southern province of Guangxi, on the border with Viet Nam. Much warmer than chilly Beijing!
I am writing to share my first experience last week of a Real Field Visit in China. It was chock full of field moments both familiar and new and so may bring a bit of levity to your seasonal madness. :)
Of course, none of my field visits can ever go off without a hitch. So, as late as Thursday of the week before we planned to go, the visit was canceled. Only to be rescheduled late on Friday to depart on the following Tues. Typical! I was going out with Guo, my national coworker. The more time I spend with Guo, the more respect for and understanding I have of him. However, in the meantime, he continues to do things I don't fully understand. So every moment is a bit of an adventure.
We left on Air China. Chinese airlines, like Indonesian ones, give you a full hot meal, even on a 2-hr flight. I am intrigued, though, by the fact that all meals come with a plastic fork, spoon, and knife. No chopsticks to be seen on the planes. (Is this some security thing? An attempt at Western acculturization? A space-saving efficiency?) We were accompanied by a very nice young woman from MoA. We arrived in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, after descending through a thick cloud of smog that seems to cover all of southern China. It would make Jakarta jealous! We were met by the head of the provincial veterinary bureau and some other folks. Nanchang is more gritty and slower-paced than Beijing. Chinese cities - like ones on Java - all start to look the same: neon; tall buildings; indecipherable signs; wide streets. To distinguish itself, Nanchang has a big river between the "old" and "new" parts, a small but picturesque lake, and a nice big square flanked by a WalMart. They checked us in to the 4-star Jiangxi Hotel. (Not to be confused with the Jiang Xi Hotel, which Guo translated as "chicken with no sex" hotel. Thank God we did not stay there.) Clean rooms (but nasty carpets), free LAN internet, slippers and a robe, no English-speaking TV, hard mattress - all the hallmarks of a 4-star hotel, I am learning.
Shortly after arrival we went out for my first of (too) many Chinese business meals. We get a private room - size and decor depend on the number of eaters and who is paying. There is a big round table with a turntable for the food and, in the nicer rooms, a TV, couch, and private bathroom. First, they served a cup of green tea. Then, we were seated at the table, putting me usually at the head. The cloth napkins are placed with one corner under your plate and hang down from the edge of the table. They don't really cover one's lap very well, so I'm not entirely sure of their purpose. Out came the much-anticipated baiju - a potent and loved-or-loathed traditional liquor for the many toasts to come. I had my first taste of baiju to the tune of "Ganbei!" Or, "Chug!" The first one went down ok and left a burning, if fruity, aftertaste. The rest were not so easy.
I honestly cannot recall all that we ate in that meal. And not because of the baiju. There is just SO MUCH FOOD at each meal it makes me hurt. Fortunately, there is usually at least one clear soup and lots of veggies. Pork, tofu, and fish are usually also served, along with other tidbits like shrimp, liver, clams, goose, duck, mutton, crab. Yes, and dog. But more about that later. I will generally try anything new once. I tend to avoid the fish because all the freshwater (read: farmed) fish here taste muddy to me. And heaven only knows what kind of growth promoters, antibiotics, and other things are in that fish flesh, too. The rice doesn't come out until the end and so does not play a prominent part of these meals. The shrimps and crabs are cooked whole, necessitating a tedious and messy process to get to the good parts. The crabs are small and prized more for the guts (including the females' eggs or roe) than for the actual meat. Since I don't like the guts, I don't eat them. I wonder what the server thinks when she takes away my plate with all the 'good' stuff still on it while I obviously labored over the skimpy bits of meat! Everyone serves themselves from the dishes on the turntable, either with a spoon or, more commonly, their own chopsticks. The feasting is frequently punctuated by toasts. I have no idea what was being said, but they would figure out to say "Marsha" to get my attention when I was to be included in the toast. It is a point of respect and pride to down your whole drink for the toast. This quickly presented a problem with the baiju. My stomach immediately got wise and threatened to revolt. So I couldn't drink the whole glass anymore - I could only sip. Not a good way to save face. Fortunately, they had also served us corn juice. Weird at first but soon recognized as a counter to the irritating baiju. At the end of the meal, a plate of fruit, almost always including watermelon, will be served.
After this first meal, we checked out Nanchang. The "new" side of the river has a lovely riverfront park with a fountain & laser display set to music. It was great! We took that in and walked all around. Ostensibly to let the baiju get through the system before heading to bed. Antacids help it to go away faster, too. :)
Breakfast at the hotel was nearly all Chinese, despite the hotel info stating they also served Western food. A whole huge row of pickled vegetables and another of plain or bean paste-filled buns. Bland pastry-like bread items. Noodles and porridge. Various dishes similar to what we had at dinner. NO COFFEE. Or even tea! All to the accompanying entertainment of a live auction of scroll artwork. Reminded me of the obnoxiously-loud demo displays in Carrefour. After the first breakfast, I made tea in my room (thank goodness I had thought to bring tea bags with me!) and plundered my carefully-hoarded-for-just-such-an-emergency Clif Bars.
On day 2 we went out in the field to visit duck farms. Our entourage, loaded on a mini bus, included folks from different departments in the province, the China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, the National Reference Lab, and the counties which we were visiting. We drove out of Nanchang onto roads atop the river levees. The first farm raises wild species of ducks - mallards, spot-billed ducks, and a type of goose. Very interesting. Would have been more interesting if Guo actually translated for me more than he feels inclined to do. Lunch was served at a township government office, after a meeting in their communist-themed meeting room. Sickle and hammer on the wall and all! My new strategy at meals was to switch to beer instead of baiju. Much nicer on the tummy and more ganbei-able. We also visited a 100,000 head layer duck farm that hopes to expand to 1 million ducks. The rest of the afternoon was spent checking out a famous temple along the river. Our guide spoke some English and shared a bit of info with me. However, I was really ready for my hotel room.
Dinner was another huge affair, made more do-able by the beer instead of baiju. I suppose I was feeling emboldened, although I don't know why. So, I knowingly ate the duck tongue. Not bad, except I didn't like the crunch of the tracheal cartilage. :( I also tried some sliced cold meat with a spicy dipping sauce before thinking too far into what it might be. Then Guo quietly said, "You remember when you told me to tell you if you had eaten something only after you had already eaten it? Well, you just ate it." Yes, dog. I ate dog. Truthfully, I think one of the dishes the night before had been dog. I asked Guo about it, but he had denied it. The cross-section piece of tail amongst the other pieces seemed suspicious to me, but we never did figure out what it was. The cold meat the second night, though, had clearly been identified to Guo as dog. And, as I was eating it, he made a face. I challenged him to eat some, too, which he did. In retrospect, it was very unfair of me to make him save face that way. I am sorry I made the challenge. Anyway, both dog dishes were - sadly - really good. But after the realization of what I had done set in, I felt guilty to all of dog-dom for having eaten a canine friend. Point made - I certainly won't knowingly eat dog again.
Day 3 was meant to be another day of ducks. On our way out to the reserve at Poyang Lake, we stopped briefly at a small (4,000 head) layer duck contract farm on the berm of a levee. The ducks had access to a sort-of pond and adjacent rice paddies. Then we took off again. Poyang is China's largest freshwater lake and home to hundreds of thousands of migrating waterfowl at various times of the year. We climbed an observation tower to see some wild swans, geese, and ducks at the lake margin, although the air was hazy with fog or smog, I couldn't tell which. It was lovely out at the reserve and so nice to be surrounded by wind, water, green trees, and vegetation. The reserve museum was full of stuffed dead birds, which at least helped me identify some of these species that are farmed nearby. Lunch at the local government office. And then the fun began.
We drove in the other direction from Poyang, past Jiangxi farmland, to another lake. This lake is a drinking water reservoir and has a hydropower plant. It was beautiful - the site for a quiet summer home. Not a site for ducks. Or much local habitation. We pulled up to a self-proclaimed business hotel, walked down to the water, and hopped aboard a boat. The boat took us across the still water, with small islands and large mountains in view, to a pagoda-like docking area. According to Guo, each of these islands (in what turned out to be a tourist park) has a unique theme. I guess tourists go from island to island, checking out what there is to be seen. Our island theme was "eunichs." This revelation prompted Guo to tell me, uncomfortably, that he had seen one such show while in Bangkok but that he had never gone to see another one. We walked along a paved path, past banana palms and ferns, to a building with rows of chairs in front of a stage. As the only tourists in sight, we took the padded armchairs in the front. The show was about to start! Yes, FAO, I went to a drag show on Eunich Island as part of my official duties. Does this fulfill my term of reference for performing "Other duties as required?" There were a couple of group performances, punctuated by two solos by gown-clad individuals. I swear the first solo was lip-synched. The second soloist was more glamorous, and I could not tell if she was singing or lip-synching. Yes, I got photos. Some performers were clearly not genetically female, but a few really had me wondering. We've all seen some darn-good lady boys, so maybe there were a few on the island. At the end of the performance, I couldn't wait to SMS Stacie about my situation. In doing so, I was distracted and not really of a mindset to have my photo taken with the two soloists. So, I declined. If I had anticipated the look of disappointment on their faces, though, I would definitely have taken a whole memory card full of photos. My bad. :( I'm sorry! Maybe we can visit the Isle of Eunichs again when we go back to Jiangxi in January...
Our final day in Nanchang was meant to be hashing out the details of the LoAs for our proposed project. Although they plied us with mounds of yummy little satsuma oranges, some terms were, not unexpectedly, a bit unreasonable. But, overall, it seemed very possible to come to a satisfactory agreement. Yea! Field success! Unfortunately, Guo didn't seem to have my daughter-of-a-labor-lawyer instincts for negotiation. Of course, he was barely translating anything at all for me. And I was furiously texting Vincent when I actually did find out some of what was going on. See, FAO, Vincent and I really do need Blackberries! We left the meeting with a few tensions but also anticipation of the project going forward on schedule.
And that - duck tongue, ganbei baiju, dog meat, eunichs, meat and sausages drying with underwear on laundry lines, no Fashion TV, etc. - is so far what field work in China is all about...
Ganbei to all!
E
