Xi'an Adventures Continues

  Xi'an, China
Thursday, July 17, 2008

We had two field visits in Xi'an, like we had in Hong Kong. The first was to Shaanxi Province Hospital (the province where Xi'an is located). One of the doctors there was an intern from the Bay area in California who also spoke Chinese as a second language. He had translated the head doctor's lecture for us. His Chinese was good, even according to the Peking students, but we could tell he was getting tired by the end. It was interesting to have his perspective on the tour. He said that one of the biggest differences that he had to get used to was that in China there is really no cultural importance placed on confidentiality. As a result, patients would come in and have a seat in the office while another patient was having a session!

Our Hardworking Translator

Our second field visit was to Baoji Children's Home. Baoji is a town about three hours west of Xi'an (Xi'an, coincidentally, is known as the "gateway to the west" of China, just as St. Louis is known as the "gateway to the west" in the states), and there we saw firsthand some of the damage that had been done by the earthquake in Chengdu. We noticed that there was a lot of rubble around and found out that several buildings had been made structurally unsound and had to be destroyed. Anyways, Baoji's Children Home is the first shelter of its kind to be set up for street children in China When I say the first of its kind, I mean the first the places an emphasis on the children's environment and wellbeing. The government has a relief center set up in every city for the homeless, including street children, but they do no more than provide food and shelter. This provided counseling for the children as well as working with the parents (many had been abandoned when their parents moved to the city to work). They also mentioned that they worked to get a Hooco card for the children (that is probably not spelled correctly). A Hooco (and anyone from China, please correct me if needed) is basically a form of identification that ensures a person is legally recognized in China. Without it, it is almost as if a person does not exist, and if you have children, you're children would not exist either! Additionally, this card is needed to get an identification card at the age of 16. We discovered that this must be one of the hottest controversial topics in China right now when a very heated debate broke out among a couple of the students from China. Apparently, it is possible to pay more money to get an identification card without having the Hooco, but this has been illegal in the past and I imagine creates a strong sense of classism. At least that is what I could gather among World War III that broke out during the debate. All the American students just sat there clueless as to what was going on. So anyway, a Hooco is pretty important in China. Note to self.
After the visit we ate lunch with the staff and some of the children at the center. One of the boys at our table wanted to know if Americans were all rich. It is always interesting to see the outside perception of Americans. Our answer to this boy, of course, was "it depends on who you're talking to; some are, some aren't." It seems that even among the Chinese students, America is seen through overly optimistic rose colored glasses. They were surprised to hear that we are facing some of the same problems in social work as they are, albeit in different forms and to different extents.
After that we went to Foman Temple, one of the other major tourist attractions around Xi'an, especially because it houses two finger bones of Buddha (at least according to legend). I walked with our Chinese friends, who spent some time worshipping and chatting with one of the Buddhist monks. The monk was helping them to understand one of the inscriptions on the temple, but unfortunately, it was difficult to translate into English. Still, I enjoyed the chance to hang out with a Buddhist monk, even if I didn't know what he was saying.  Yi explained to me that we could not call the gift place a "store". The reason is because that "place" had statues of Buddha, but in Buddhism, no one can "buy a Buddha". It is like sacrilege. So to call that "place" a "store" or "gift shop" would be very disrespectful. No one buys a Buddha; but one may "invite Buddha into one's home". The words make all the difference in the world.