My crime? I foolishly completed some of the clearance paperwork for exchange students, including a certification that I have neither loans nor fines outstanding from the Lingnan library. According to the wisdom of Lingnan bureaucracy, this means that I’m done with the library and should be denied physical access to it for the remaining, oh, two days of the term. Amazing, especially since I’d just donated a couple items (unaware that I was already dead to the library). “You cannot use our library anymore.”

I took the hint (after mild fussing and getting the standard “just following unwritten rules without a smidgen of critical thought” excuse).

HST 193, China through the eyes of the west: this is a topic that really interests me, as it gets at some of the cross-cultural issues regularly blowing up in my face here at Lingnan.

HST 399E, The world turned upside down [Early Modern England]: this is about an interesting period, and there should be some overlap (particularly as the professor has indicated he’ll focus on political history) with my POLS 271 Political Thought 2 class from WVU.

HST 399A, Contemporary Chinese History: this should be fascinating. The professor was born at Lingnan University, to an American professor and Chinese staff, in Guangzhou in 1938. Chased to Hong Kong, then Chongqing, and eventually to America by Japanese and then Communists, he went to Yale and Harvard before teaching at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s retired, and has now ended up at Lingnan (and supremely overqualified) pursuing some of the Lingnan history in Guangdong.

The material’s interesting too… the course defines contemporary as starting with the establishment of the PRC in 1949, and it should run up to the present.

POL 319, International politics of Northeast Asia: I had this professor last semester for half of a course. He didn’t seem to be terribly exceptional when I had him: not fantastically inspiring, but definitely competent and someone I sought to take another class from. The course is new, and part of it will hinge on whether “Northeast Asia” exists as a coherent region at all.

I didn’t make any changes during last week’s final add/drop period, so I’m stuck with this schedule now. It should be OK, and it’s empty on Friday.

I booked a ticket to Manila (again, as you’ll know if you’re a long-time reader) for Chinese New Year with a trio of the tutors. I’ll be going the evening of 15th Feb. and coming back the evening of 26th Feb. Let’s see if I don’t bring a typhoon down on us by posting this.

The past couple days have been fairly productive: I’ve once again lost my hair, made a dental appointment to take advantage of my student privileges again, taken a few books out from the library and generally failed to start reading them, made it to classes, been to Gold Coast, filled out myriad financial aid forms…

Digression: Graduate financial aid is easy! See, the Federal government automatically declares you independent, for aid purposes, if you are pursuing post-undergraduate education. So the schools make you file a (often non-free) supplemental form with all the missing parental data, and ridiculous estimates of inestimable future income.

Whew. I guess you’ll have to wait to find out what isn’t wrong with Lingnan. It really isn’t their fault, though: the pleasantly surprising professor was seemingly brought here by destiny. I’ll explain why on the other side of this dramatic cliffhanger of a post.

After much schedule-juggling, I’ll be going in to this week with the following classes. I won’t try to reproduce my schedule as Lingnan’s timetables don’t make the slightest bit of sense.

HST 193 China Through Eyes of the West [what do I think? this class should tell me!]
HST 399A History of Contemporary China
HST 399E The World Turned Upside Down [the American Revolution? History of British colonial defeats? Who knows.]
POL 319 International Politics of Northeast Asia

I’d like to go in with five or six classes, but the schedule isn’t cooperating. I hope I’ll be able to stay in all four of those and avoid needing to scramble for an add/drop during this upcoming week.

I’ve been telling people—and I guess I should put it out on this blog for any googlers to see—that I cannot recommend Lingnan as a study abroad experience. To qualify that: being in Hong Kong is great, even if I’m a solid hour by train from the city center. The Office of International Programs here is great.

The “study” is… unimpressive. The administration and its policies are obtuse. There will be a “What’s Wrong with Lingnan” series coming up to elaborate and suggest changes, but since I’m not at the appropriate hierarchical level my complaints won’t do any good here. The hostel atmosphere is stifling: the university treats its students as 15-year-olds and gets the appropriate behavior in response.

The only real positive about Lingnan is that its small size may be easier to handle as an exchange student. Otherwise, you can have a good exchange experience—on balance, I think my experience has been good so far—at Lingnan, but it’ll be in spite of rather than because of Lingnan.

Harsh words, perhaps. I know that the legitimate criticisms of WVU by international students in basic areas such as “getting students from airport to dorm room without major adventures” might be worse than any difficulties Lingnan’s thrown at me, but I think someone considering exchanging at Lingnan would be well-served by knowing about these problems before arriving. I also think Lingnan would be well-served by listening to some of the exchange students’ criticisms instead of summarily dismissing them. We aren’t right about everything, but we can’t be wrong about everything either.

Made it back without too much excitement, and I’m faced by the twin demons of piles of laundry and an Octopus gone negative. Ah, down and out in Hong Kong.

Becky is psychotically happy about starting her study abroad experience. Hope that works out well. I’ll go to the new exchange students’ lunch tomorrow (when have I ever turned down a free yum cha session?) and try not to be too realistic around the newbies.

I just received word that one of the classes I added last week is due to get the insufficient enrollment axe. I guess I’ll have to try again during add/drop, which starts Wednesday.

If the weather clears up I might hit Zhuhai for a day this week. Who knows.

My toe is not feeling good at all after its first day back in closed-toe shoes, but it isn’t turning purple or anything. I guess I’ll grudgingly make an appointment to get it checked out in the next couple days.

This trip was very good in a sort of OCD way—thanks to the power of suggestion (where I placed my arrival cards), I managed to get immigration officials to fill in the gaps of my passport instead of forging ahead into the new pages. It was good in a lot of other ways, too… Malaysia was great, and though I hate to admit it I even had fun in Singapore.

I’ll get pictures up some day. Sleep is, as always, the priority.

As I suspected, I ended up gawking around Shenzhen on Wednesday instead of taking a bus to Yangshuo.

The border fortifications between the HKSAR and the Mainland are just as imposing as they’ve been hyped up to be.

I took the metro (with nifty electronic tokens like Bangkok) out near the end of the line and surfaced in an alternate reality: the “Overseas Chinese Town” development. It was pretty nice, leafy, uncrowded, etc. All cars, very few bikes. Private bus network. Not gated though, as far as I could tell.

Going to Wal-Mart in China is one of the more unexpected surreal experiences I’ve had. I’ll post more about that when I deal with the pictures.

I’m keeping it simple now: no travel until Tuesday when I fly to Bangkok and do my first solo backpacking since 2004.

I had red curry this evening to make it all better. Also watched Munich. Not sure what I think about it.

Rumor has it that there might be a recount in the no-doubt-extremely-important student government type election thing of the past few weeks, but rumor takes about a week to make it into English and then into my ears.

I’ve finally identified the ankle-biters… the ridiculous welts which, well, well up on my feet every so often definitely are coming from some sort of ground-based creature living in the area outside the canteen (where I like to eat lunch alfresco, despite the shiver-sparking 70 degree weather). I guess I shouldn’t be wearing flip-flops, as much as that conclusion hurts me deep inside.

I’ve learned my final exam schedule. I have one final during the exam period—in the morning of the first day. Not bad. Crazy trip ideas to follow.

While the architecture of the campus at Fu Tei is modelled on the original in Guangzhou, it has also incorporated novelties with black, white and grey schemes forming its unique colour spectrum. The grandeur and solemnity of the campus building never fail to impress people with the qualities of perseverance and determination.

[gohk.gov.hk]

I also find that it takes perseverance and determination to appreciate the architecture on campus, but I don’t come out and say it.

1963

Meal review: Eh. Congee and fried dough good, sandwiches bad. We were told that the sandwiches are intentionally replacing bacon and eggs to keep us healthy. It would have been better to keep that from us and pretend that the tuna and egg canape is a traditional Hong Kong breakfast delicacy, as the mention of bacon and eggs came off to my stomach as an insensitive gesture.

Conversation review: Meh. We were invited to tell the President about our problems with the exchange process, and after most every one he explained to us how they weren’t really problems.

An amusing example is the class selection process. Exchange students are given a class list but no class timetable. When we send in our requests, we’re told that not all of them can be honored due to time conflicts, which never would have happened if we’d had access to a timetable. [WARNING: minor dramatic license follows]

Explanation: The timetable is set after class requests. A computer then schedules classes to meet 95% of requests. This is to prevent students from having the slightest bit of control over their daily lives. I mean, it’s to prevent students from “distorting their interests” by choosing classes that would allow them to schedule around jobs and such.

Problems: We aren’t allowed to take jobs. Either our requests aren’t entered into the computer system or the exchange students comprise the other 5% of students who experience conflicts. Teachers wheedle students to drop or change scheduled tutorial times because they want to schedule their classes around their lives. Computerized scheduling (my high school had a fiendishly complicated version of this) might work when everyone is supposed to be on campus every day of the week from time A to time B, but I think it’s a miserable idea in the university environment.

Counterpoint: Well, our system is what’s best. We know it is. And we’re hoping to make it even harder (read: impossible) to add/drop to make our system even more foolproof!

Problem: How about the dozen or so courses taught in “stealth Cantonese?” (where an “English” course consists of 2.5 hour discussions in Cantonese, or requires critical readings in Cantonese)

Counterpoint: That’s a problem with imperfect information [ha, what an economist!]. But our system is still the best. And please eat more sandwiches even though it isn’t yet nine in the morning, these piles look awkward just sitting on the lazy-susan.

As it became clearer that this was the standard answer, the conversation grew even more forced and awkward than the situation (honoring lowly students with an audience) dictated. All things considered, in my delectably humble opinion, university presidents would be better off taking the dining hall approach.