Working in China

Very sorry for not posting more often.  I'm working at Sichuan University in the Physiology Department.  It was a very slow process to get hired but more than 6 months after I interviewed, I actually started working.  I found the contract negotiations in China very peculiar. You sign the contract and then they make a little change, and then another little change and then another little change until you are just so fed up you put your foot down!  So I didn't take the research and teaching position that the Department really wanted me to take, instead I'm just teaching and that is enough.  Another curious fact about Chinese Universities, the contracts withhold 10-25% of your salary for a year end bonus. Apparently this is okay with everyone and your bonus will depend on how your department is doing. I tried to fight that one, but in the end gave up. I did receive a bonus at the end of the year so I guess that is good.  Its a good mechanism for making you live on less than you make.

Limin Yue, Hannah Zhou, and Yvonne Tang,  Dr. Yue is the Department Director,  Hannah and Yvonne are my colleagues.  Both have been so helpful in navigating the University Administration and talking to the employees who only speak Chinese

Our Department had an outing in December.  In classic Chinese Tradition we went to a big lunch and then walked around a Wildlife Area for several hours.  It was cold but that never stops anyone here.  I think I have on 4 layers of clothes.

The Fall Semester was overwhelming.  I had to prepare 6 hours of lecture a week for the Medical Physiology Class that I gave to the Foreign Medical Students.  I had 105 students from India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and a few other Asia countries.  It was an interesting mix of students.  The students from India are in China because they didn't get into a school in their own country. Some students will point blank tell you that this is what their parents want for them. Apparently if a girl gets a medical degree it lowers the dowry her parents have to pay. (It brings prestige to the boy's family.)  On the other hand, the students from Malaysia are very bright and probably don't have many medical schools in their own country.

I take very seriously my role as an educator of future doctors. I realize these are undergraduates and will not be practicing in the US, but seriously some just don't have the smarts to be doctors.  After studying the digestive system, I had students trace the digest of a cookie from the time it entered your mouth until it was absorbed into the blood stream.  One boy wrote that it would go down the esophagus and into the gizzard where it would be ground up.  SINCE WHEN ARE WE ALL CHICKENS.  Giant Eye Roll.

I'm sorry to say that I failed 24 students. My department supported me and told me that sometimes they have failed 30% of the class.  In China, if you fail a final, you can take a retest at the first of the next semester so there is still a possibility that some will pass.  I should hear about this next week.  Other than this one piece of grace, in China there is no retaking a class, there is no going part time, and there is no taking longer than 4 years to graduate.  The first weekend classes for masters degrees have just been introduced.

The Spring Semester starts at the end of February, after the Chinese New Year Holiday.  This semester I am teaching graduate students in all the biomedical sciences.  I made up the class to imitate a class that American graduate students take.   Its called Graduate Student Workshop and I am teaching them to write abstracts in English,  create posters for presentations and meetings, and to give a presentation in English.

I was anticipating about 20 students.  It isn't required and I figured it would be mostly my own department. I was told that 30-50 graduate students had been told about the class.  Well, on Friday morning at 8:30 am I had over 80 people in my class.  I didn't have enough homework handouts, go figure.  I think a lot of it was just "let's go see the foreign teacher."  I think I am the only foreign teacher on the Medical School Campus although there are a few on the main campus.

My campus is very old and beautiful.  It is used by many retired people who came walk around the campus in the afternoon. This man painted the yellow autumn leaves.  I wanted to buy the picture but didn't have enough Chinese to ask.

The Campus that I teach on is old.  It was called Western China School of Medicine and started in 1910. It was founded by 5 missionary groups from the UK, US, and Canada.  In 2000, Sichuan University "absorbed the medical school." So now we are the Huaxi Campus,  The Campus is in central Chengdu across the street from Huaxi Hospital where are students do their clinical work.

This picture of Yvonne and I, is in front of building where I teach.  It is such a beautiful building on the outside. Unfortunately the inside is pretty old too. No heat, no air conditioning - except for a few fans.  Some of the wooden windows don't close.  The classrooms have been updated with computers and projectors.  Some days in December it was really chilly!