A few passing clouds. Low 56F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..
A few passing clouds. Low 56F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.
Updated: November 9, 2022 @ 7:05 pm
Mary Lucille Hays teaches writing at UIUC and Zhejiang University in Haining, China.
It’s a different kind of autumn on my campus in China.
At first, I thought we’d get no color change at all. It seemed like leaves just turn brown one at a time and fall. Even the stately gingkoes in the courtyard of my apartment complex drop their golden leaves one at a time while the rest of the tree stays green. But then I started seeing scarlet leaves peak out, from the top of a well-trimmed hedge, on the trees I pass on my bike ride to my office. I don’t know what kind they are, with simple, oval leaves. They are still mostly green, but one by one, single leaves are suddenly a deep red.
I’m waiting to see if the whole tree will blaze with color before the leaves fall. The cherry trees that line the quad outside my office window are starting to gently turn from green to a subtle auburn, and a few leaves lay scattered beneath them.
At home Michael shows me the color changes in our yard, the golden corn stubble the combine leaves behind, the yellow maple leaves on the ground in our yard. My husband is trying to find time to till up the floor of the chicken coop and pile the leaves inside for a deep, wintertime litter for the chickens to scratch up. Michael gave me news of a new paper, delivered weekly to our mailbox for free: The Chambana Sun! It sounds so local and sunny! I was excited until he read me some of the inflammatory headlines, and then I got confused. “Is it satire?” I asked.
He said it could rival The Onion for comedy. I asked him to save me some issues. I want to use them in my lessons on critical thinking about sources. I tell students that we have a responsibility to read beyond the headlines and to verify sources. In my research, I discovered a free Coursera online class about media literacy. You can find it here: www.coursera.org/learn/news-literacy, or just go on Coursera and search for “news literacy.”
Last week I was lucky enough to go on another field trip with our student Eco Club. We were to meet at the South Gate and ride to Dongshan Park. I assumed it was the lovely park with a sea of flowers just across the road from our campus. I got my bike, but didn’t bring my water bottle, since I figured I could ride back to my office if I got thirsty, or whenever I needed to get back to my desk to grade essays. But if I had studied my Chinese more closely, I would have realized that our destination was not the lovely gardens across the busy road, because Dongshan means East Mountain, and there is no mountain there.
Instead, we rode about two and a half miles across town. After we got on the road, I realized that Dongshan Park is the mountain with the pagoda on top I see whenever I ride the bus. It is a piece of wilderness in the city. There is city park, but you can also climb the forested path up the mountain to the pagoda at the top. We decided to climb the mountain, but we could hear festive music below.
The day was warm, and I vowed never to leave home without my water bottle again. My young friend, Maria, worried about the steepness, and took my hand on the rustic steps. I find the natural respect for elders here delightful. I was now missing my water bottle, but luckily, up top, near the pagoda a vendor sold drinks and snacks beneath a colorful umbrella. I broke my rule about buying bottled water and quenched my thirst for four yuan.
The vendor was spinning cotton candy in a metal tub, and Maria bought a cone of it. Hugo bought a tanghulu, and I was tempted. They are tiny apples (what I know as crabapples, but one website recipe says they are Hawthorne.) dipped in liquid sugar candy and lined up on a skewer like a candy apple shish kabob. I was worried that any candy, cotton or otherwise, would make me even more thirsty, but I think I’ll buy one next time I find a vendor with such offerings.
On the way back down the mountain we sat for a while on some benches around the cold ashes of a bonfire listening to the birdsong and the drums and music below. The field trip took me away from grading for longer than I’d planned, but I sat there listening, feeling grateful for these students who allow an old lady to tag along on their Saturday afternoon.
Climb in Beauty; Gather in Peace; Blessed Be
Mary Lucille Hays teaches writing at UIUC and Zhejiang University in Haining, China. You can see pictures about this week’s post on Instagram @BirdlandLetters. Mary can be reached at [email protected] or via snail mail care of the Journal Republican, 118 E. Washington St., Monticello, IL 61856.
