Back from break with a new school year, although this fall I will likely be pretty busy as well. This semester I’m teaching a class on Late Imperial China (1644-1912), a module class on Contemporary China, and I’ll be traveling to Yunnan at the end of the month as one of two faculty leading a mobile classroom looking at the impact of regional economic development on biodiversity and water quality in Southwest China.
Last week I led yet another tour of the Forbidden City. It’s gotten to the point where some of the ‘regulars’ have started recognizing me, and this led to an ill-advised and childish outburst from one of the touts who lurk outside the ticket office trying to snare unsuspecting visitors into using their tour guide “service.” Generally speaking, most tour guides in China…how to I put this nicely…suck. They can spout off the heights and widths of buildings and are (pretty) good with dates,* but you’re more likely to find a concussed spider monkey doing theoretical physics than a tour guide in this town who can answer a question requiring a deeper understanding of history or a nuanced approach to narrative. How tall is 太和殿…they’ve got that.** How was it possible for a proportionally tiny population of Manchus to rule China proper as part of a larger empire for nearly three centuries? Not so much.***
In any case, the sight of a Lao Wai leading multiple tours of the Forbidden City was enough to cause the little man to foam spittle and mucous…even more so when I said I was doing it for free.****
Glad to be back.
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*Though I did once hear somebody leading a group of foreign tourists at Yuanmingyuan tell her charges that the palace was burned by the Eight Country Allied Army in 1900.
**About 27 meters.
***I once asked a tour guide this many years ago. His answer, “The Manchus soon learned we Chinese were smarter, and so we actually ran the country. Eventually the Manchus wanted to be just like us.” The sound you’re hearing is either Kangxi weeping in his grave or Mark Elliot whipping his chair against the closest wall.
****Technically I do get paid to be a teacher, but this was a weekend student trip for which I volunteered. Besides, I knew which answer would REALLY piss the guy off and went with that one. Yes, sometimes I can be a dick.