The Chinese editor at the magazine keeps complaining about the Regular Zhou‘s I’ve been choosing to profile, which include a bike repairman, a sidewalk barber, a parking attendant, a fried noodle vendor and a student. They don’t like the photos of my apparently-not-dressed-well-enough neighbours either. These aren’t the kind of people the boss/censor/overly-sensitive locals (not sure who, exactly) wants shown between the advertisements in a free monthly expat magazine in Tianjin. I’m supposed to find yuppies (“小资“, formerly called “petty bourgeoisie“), or at least wealthy “success” stories. Instead for May’s issue I found this guy, who, it turns out, had a bunch of sensitive stuff to say that normally wouldn’t get published in this city.

I self-censored a lot out before submitting the final draft, but even still none of the people involved on my end had much hope that the magazine would actually print it. In the past the censors have been extremely strict about anything related to Christianity in China — as if they have orders to publicly pretend it isn’t here. Below is what they eventually printed, except for a couple of things:

1. Although they left most of the Christian content in, a couple lines were removed. I added them back in in red below. There were some other odd (to me) editing decisions that seemed to characterize parts of his story in unnecessary ways, but I’ve left most of those alone.
2. I’ve altered the spelling on potentially sensitive words just to avoid triggering any automatic word filters or whatever. I know that’s paranoid, but since censorship enforcement is inconsistent and this is just a personal blog, I’d rather not unduly tempt fate.
3. I replaced their title with my original title (they substituted “Ask and you shall receive”, which I though was lame).

At the end I’ve also included the text and (bad) translation of the Chinese summary that they added, which contains some interesting vocab. Without further ado, here’s May’s Regular Zhou.

A Blessed Life

…one young Tianjin professional discovers something more powerful than fate and more valuable than success

Maybe you’ve seen the aerial photos of Chinese job fairs, the only events whose sprawling, densely-packed crowds could possibly rival those of a Spring Festival train station. China’s alarmingly over-saturated job market is especially tough on males, who first need to establish financial self-sufficiency for themselves and their parents and buy an apartment in the inflated housing market before they’ll be considered marriageable.

Employers benefit from the claustrophobic rat-race; millions of college graduates struggle to find their feet in spite of it. This is one young Tianjiner’s success story, though it’s not merely about transitioning between college and career in modern day Tianjin. This particular Tianjiner, whose Chinese name could be translated as “cultivate hope”, is passionately convinced of something he’s discovered along the way – there’s much more to life than salaries, promotions and apartments.

Sink or Swim
Zhū Lǎoshī (朱老师 / ‘Teacher Zhu’), as he’s known to students and coworkers, was born twenty-five years ago near Long Rainbow Park in Nánkāi (南开). He grew up in the Dàgǎng oil fields (大港油田) before studying teaching Chinese as a foreign language at the Tianjin Foreign Languages University. After four relaxed college years, the pressure was on.

“After graduating I found a part-time job teaching Chinese to foreigners at a private language center,” he says. “I worked there for one and half years. It was hard at first. I was a new teacher with no experience and in class I didn’t teach that well. But the students were really patient and encouraging and my coworkers helped me prepare lessons. They gave me lots of help and basically taught me how to teach.

“At the time my parents still lived in Dàgǎng but my job was in Héxī (河西). My part-time income wasn’t enough to rent an apartment, but my bosses provided a free place to stay for two months. Eventually I rented a small two-bedroom with five roommates. Every weekend I’d go home to Dàgǎng and my mom would make enough food for the whole week plus some to share with my friends.

“Working at the language center really gave me a lot of help. I made a lot of friends, I learned how to teach and work, and gained experience. Yet, while I was happy to begin with, during the third semester things got really difficult. With my lack of experience I was still only part-time and wasn’t making much money. I hated the idea of leaving because my students and coworkers were really great. But I couldn’t see my future there; that last semester was pretty painful. It was sad, but I stopped working there in February 2009.”

An Open Door
“I considered starting my own small business, but within one month of leaving the language center, one of my friends who works at a private school in town mentioned they were looking for a Chinese teacher. At first I wasn’t that interested, but when I found out there were Christians working at this school I became really interested. I’d heard the Gospe! for the first time over a year before and I’d continued studying the B!ble. I wasn’t a Christian then, but I’d started to believe. I believed there was a God and I’d had some really moving experiences, so I really hoped I could have some Christian coworkers. I started preparing my application the very next day. I also started thinking a lot about how I’d come to believe in God.

“The interview went really well. On April 12 I moved out of my crowded apartment and moved my parents out of the oil fields into an apartment in Héxī where we live together. Two days later I received the call from the school and started working part-time on the 16th. I was extremely happy.”

Deep Impressions
“When I’d just started at my new job I saw the students’ art work and heard their songs – they were beautiful. They did science experiments and studied happily – they all had happy smiling faces. They were all really obedient, so different from the 90’s kids at my Chinese school. I could see it’s because this school provides a good environment. The school also held fun relationship-building activities for the teachers, students and parents. I really wanted to work there full-time.

“At the end of April I heard that two of my former students were having complications with their pregnancy. I was worried, but they’d returned to Canada to have the baby and I was in Tianjin. I wasn’t married, I couldn’t really understand, so I thought: All I can do is pray.

“I asked my coworkers to pray for them, too. At that time I’d just started working there; none of these coworkers knew who I was yet and they definitely didn’t know who my former students were. But when they heard about the situation, they wrote down their names and the details and promised to pray for them. Other coworkers prayed right away with me right there. I was deeply moved.

“I also discovered that many of my Western coworkers had adopted Chinese children. My coworkers aren’t really rich, so I don’t think it’s the same as rich people adopting kids. Adopting kids gives them lots of stress, but that doesn’t stop them. They do things the way God does; their love comes from God. Those kids were pitiful, no parents, but because they were adopted they have parents and brothers and sisters and an education. Their fate has been changed. I deeply respect these coworkers. They’re like this because they have God’s love.”

An Altered Destiny
“My students gave my supervisors positive feedback about my classes, and this really gave me hope that I’d be able to work full-time. The next semester I prayed about it a lot. Friends also prayed with me. Soon became a full-time teacher.

“I’ve worked there for almost a full year now. I really love this place and this job. It’s a good environment; they really care about people and give you lots of support. Sometimes coworkers ask me, “How are you?” I always tell them “Excellent!” because that’s really how I feel. Now that I have steady work that covers my rent, my family can live together and I don’t need to worry about them.”

It’s no surprise that some of Zhū Lǎoshī’s favourite B!ble verses are in Psalm 23, about how God is like a good shepherd who provides His sheep with everything they need.

“I was bapt!zed on Christmas Eve 2009. I’m so thankful I have new life. Now everyday in the evening I pray together with Chinese a friend. This makes me closer and closer to God, and He refreshes me and gives me peace. I share the Gospe! with my parents and I hope they will believe, and stay in good health. I think God led me to this school. I want to continue working here for a long, long time.”

寻找生命的航标
朱老师来自天津大港，毕业几年间一直作着兼职中文老师的工作。从最初的“蚁族”，到如今能够把父母接到市区一起居住，朱老师经过了不懈的学习和努力。现在他已经shòuxǐ成为一名基督徒，这让他的心变得更加柔软，用更多的爱和关怀对待周围的人。通过一年的努力，朱老师终于转正成为专职老师了。他对自己的新生活心存感激。每天他都会虔诚地qídǎo，感谢上帝把他带到这所学校，并且希望能一直这样工作下去。

Seeking a Life Buoy
Zhu Laoshi comes from Dagang, Tianjin, and in the few years since graduating has held consecutive Chinese teaching jobs. From being part of the “ant tribe” at first, to nowadays being able to bring his parents to live together in the city, Zhu Laoshi has untiringly studied and worked hard. Now he’s been bapt!zed and become a Christian, and this made his heart change to become softer, and uses even more love and care to treat the people around him. After a year of great effort, Zhu Laoshi finally became a full-time teacher. He has gratitude in his heart for his new life. Every day he will devoutly pray, thanking God for bringing him to this school, and also hopes that he can always continue in this kind of job.

[You can read about China's "ant tribe" (蚁族) here, here, here, here, or here.]

Related stuff:

• Meet Mr. Lù – a living Léi Fēng
• Meet Mr. Cháng – Navigating Fate
• Meet Guāng Yuǎn (光远)! (a.k.a ‘Shine Far’)
• Meet Liú Wěi – Coming of Age in a Changing China
• Meet Mrs. Shǐ – Striving Hard for a Stable Future
• One Tianjiner’s first impressions in America
• Two Worlds; One Apartment
• National ‘Face’ & Local Sensitivity (Part 1): Not fit to print in Tianjin
• National ‘Face’ & Local Sensitivity (Part 2): One hour of criticism on the “Regular Zhou” column & Tianjin Olympic interviews video

Pronounced: xiǎng xiàng lì
Literally: imagine-power; imagine-strength
Means: imagination

Our friend Cindy is one of those rare fully bilingual and fully bi-cultural people. She writes about her experience here: “While most people applaud my chameleon like ability to blend into the culture/language of the group I am with, what they don’t see is a pathetic, desperate longing to be “one of them”.

Along with the privilege of being bilingual comes choices in all areas of life… At the beginning of my marriage I would sleep-talk in Chinese because that part of who I was stowed away in my subconscious while I dated and married my American husband… The further along I go in my life journey as a third culture person, the more I am able to integrate these different parts of myself into a whole person…”

Here’s a handy review of Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom’s China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know.

Mary Ann O’Donnell unpacks a recent popular text message joke by connecting it to its urban Chinese social context.

The word “propaganda” (宣传 xuān​chuán​) doesn’t carry the same sinister connotations in Chinese. A range of promotional material and activity that we wouldn’t automatically consider insidious in North America would be called “propaganda” in Chinese. (So maybe it’d be most accurate to use the word “propaganda” more broadly like the Chinese do but retain the negative connotations?) Anyway, this April contained a lot of propaganda. Before the gov. started spinning its role in the earthquake relief efforts, an unrelated propaganda campaign was already underway in Tianjin.

I mentioned in before how our teacher warned me about this April’s campaign in Tianjin to enforce previously unenforced laws; she was afraid I’d get a ticket for the way I bike. Our neighbourhood got some colourful new posters detailing the rules in pictures, though the photo at right of our neighbourhood notice board shows how much people seemed to care. Our Chinese teacher’s explanation of how people feel about these little campaigns (“行动“) fits right in with what we’ve seen in our area. After all, they’ve been through this drill before.

According to her, there’s an understanding between the front line guys who have to make a show of implementing these kinds of campaigns and the people who are supposed to alter their behaviour/business activities: play the game, let us put on a show for our bosses so they can report to their bosses, and we’ll continue looking the other way just like we’ve always done once this little xíngdòng blows over.

I won’t bother translating all the text from the posters, but here’s the main parts (left to right, top to bottom). I followed the Chinese grammar as close as I could for fellow language students’ sake. Not the most exciting material, I know, but this is our neighbourhood; all the behaviours mentioned are ubiquitous around here, though some more than others. Besides, you know you’ve always wanted to know how to say “propaganda poster” in Chinese!

“Tianjin City City Administration Regulations” Propaganda Poster 1
《天津市城市管理规定》宣传挂图
tiānjīnshì chéngshì guǎnlǐ guīdìng xuānchuán guàtú

City residents ought to abide by City Administration laws and regulations and behaviour norms, cherish public facilities, protect the public environment, and maintain public order.
市民应当遵守城市管理法律规定和行为准则，爱护公共设施，保护公共环境，维护公共秩序。
shìmín yīngdāng zūnshǒu chéngshì guǎnlǐ fǎlǜ guīdìng hé xíngwéi zhǔzé, àihù gōnggòng shèshī, bǎohù gōnggòng huánjìng, wéihù gōnggòng zhìxù

In public places it is strictly forbidden everywhere to spit phlegm, spit chewing gum, strictly forbidden everywhere to pee or relieve yourself, strictly forbidden to carelessly throw cigarette butts, paper scraps, fruit peels and pits as well as all kinds of other waste material. [Sign: Prohibited everywhere to poo or pee] (Fine: 50元/$7.45)
在公共场所严禁随地吐痰、吐口香糖，严禁随处便溺或者乱倒粪便，严禁乱扔烟蒂、纸屑、瓜果皮核以及其他各类废弃物。[禁止随地大小便]
ài gōnggòng chǎngsuǒ yánjìn suídì tǔtán, tǔ kǒuxiāngtáng, yánjìn suíchù biànnì huòzhě luàn dàofèibiàn, yánjìn luànrēng yāndì, zhǐxiè, guāguǒ pí hé yǐjí qítā gèlèi fèiqìwù. [jìnzhǐ suídì dàxiǎobiàn]

It is strictly forbidden from buildings or vehicles to toss out any kind of material.
严禁由建筑物或者车辆向外掷各类物品。
yánjìn yóu jiànzhùwù huòzhě chēliàng xiàngwài zhì gèlèi wùpǐn

It is strictly forbidden on buildings, construction and other installations or trees, residential passageways and other places to exhibit, post, hang, carve, scribble, any kind of urban eyesore slogans, propaganda articles and other materials.
严禁在建筑物、构筑物和其他设施或者树木、居民楼道等处摆放、张贴、悬挂、刻划、涂写各种有碍市容市貌的标语、宣传品和其他物品。
yánjìn zài jiànzhùwù, gòuzhùwù hé qítā shèshī huòzhě shùmù, jūmín lóudào děngchù bǎifàng, zhāngtiē, kèhuá, túxiě gèzhǒng yǒuàishìróng shì mào de biāoyǔ, xuānchuánpǐn hé qítā wùpǐn

It is strictly forbidden whatsoever for work units and individuals to privately put up disorderly buildings.
严禁任何单位和个人私搭乱盖。
yánjìn rènhé dānwèi hé gèrén sī dā luàn gài

It is strictly forbidden on residential buildings outer eaves to add new doors and windows, open windows and alter doors or increase the original door and window dimensions. [Privately owned beauty parlour]
严禁在住宅楼房外檐上增设门窗、拆窗改门或者扩大原有门窗尺寸。[私家美发]
yánjìn zài zhùzhái lóufáng wài yánshàng zēngshè mén chuāng, chāi chuāng gǎi mén huòzhě kuòdà yuányǒu mén chuāng chǐcùn. [sījiā měifà]
(A whole strip of first floor street-facing businesses next to our complex have just filled in their illegal doors half-way and either posted signs saying “Normal business hours, go around” or provided steps for people to step over the recently laid bricks. After the first two three of the campaign, some of the businesses have already knocked most of their brickwork back down.)

It is strictly forbidden to illegally occupy the road, in public locations to display and sell, food and drink, or engage in activities like motor vehicle washing and repairing, etc. [Intersection Jianbing][Sanitary and clean]
严禁违法占用道路、公共场所从事摆卖、餐饮、机动车清洗和修理等经营活动。[道口煎饼][卫生干净]
yánjìn wéifǎ zhànyòng dàolù, gōnggòng chǎngsuǒ cóngshì bǎimài, cānyǐn, jīdòngchē qīngxǐ hé xiūlǐ děng jīngyíng huódòng. [dàokǒu jiānbing][wèishēng gānjìng]
(Around here this means that all the street cart vendors have started crowding the entrances to neighbourhoods rather than being right out on the street corners.)

It is strictly forbidden on the road and in neighbourhood unappointed places to burn funeral wreaths, paper money and other funeral articles.
严禁在道路及社区非指定区域内焚烧花圈、纸钱及其他丧葬用品。
yánjìn zài dàolù jí shèqū fēizhǐdìng qūyù nèi fénshāo huāquān, zhǐqián jí qítā sāngzàng yòngpǐn.

It is strictly forbidden for individuals to raise aggressive dogs, big-size dogs. (Penalty: 1000元 fine and the dog gets confiscated.)
严禁个人饲养烈性犬、大型犬。
yánjìn gèrén sìyǎng lièxìng quǎn, dàxíng quǎn.

It is strictly forbidden to make use of high-volume broadcast loudspeakers or to produce other high-level noise to interfere with the surrounding residential life; if engaging in household indoor entertainment, renovations, etc., activities, you ought to restrict the time or take effective measures to alleviate noise pollution. (Amen!!!)
严禁使用高音广播喇叭或者发出其他高噪声干扰周围居民生活；从事家庭室内娱乐、装修等活动，应当限制时间或者采取有效措施减轻噪音污染。
yánjìn shǐyòng gāo shēng guǎngbō lǎba huòzhě fāchū qítā gao zàoshēng gānrǎo zhōuwéi jūmín shēnghuó; cóngshì jiātíng shìnèi yúlè, zhuāngxiū děng huódòng, yīngdāng xiànzhì shíjiān huòzhě cǎiqǔ yǒuxiàocuòshī jiǎnqīng zàoyīn wūrǎn.

It is strictly forbidden to illegally occupying city streets. It is strictly forbidden to change the purpose of approved road occupation or move location, expand area or extend occupation time length without approval.
严禁违法占用城市道路。严禁未经批准改变占路用途或者移动位置、扩大面积、延长时间。
yánjìn wéifǎ zhànyòng chéngshì dàolù. yánjìn wèijīng pīzhǔn gǎibiàn zhàn lù yòngtú huòzhe yídòng wèizhi, kuòdà miànjī, yáncháng shíjiān.

It is strictly forbidden in the first place to illegally damage park green spaces. It is strictly forbidden after occupying park green spaces to delay in rehabilitating.
严禁违法占压、破坏园林绿地。严禁占用园林绿地后迟延恢复。
yánjìn wéifǎ zhàn yà, pòhuài yuánlín lǜdì. yánjìn zhànyòng yuánlín lǜdì fòu chíyán huīfù.
———————————
And here’s some other recent sloganeering from near our old neighbourhood:

“Implement the Scientific Development Concept, strive to establish an economically strong district, cultured greater area and an ecologically suitable-for-dwelling city. (A Binshui Nanli Neighbourhood Committee announcement)”
落实科学发展观，努力建设经济强区，文化大区和生态宜居城区。（宾水南里居委会宣）
luòshí kēxué fāzhǎn guān, nǔlì jìnshè jīngjì qiáng qū, wénhuà dà qū hé shēngtài yí jū chéngqū. (bīnshuǐnánlǐ jūwěihuì xuān)

“Support the motherland, love Tianjin, behave like civilized Hexi district people!”
赞祖国、爱天津、做文明河西人！
zàn zǔguó, ài tiānjīn, zuò wénmíng héxīrén

For an interesting, unflinching window into contemporary China, I’d suggest checking out this large photo collection of translated slogans and photos — some are funny; some are very, very sad. Once you get out of the higher-profile cities on the coast, the slogans become much more… galling.