Epilogue

I've been back about 5 days now. We returned late Sunday night, 12/9. I had planned on doing a daily diary from Beijing on QL Chat but we could not connect from China although we could access library email. We both worked at NLC (National Library of China) which is kind of their version of LC. NLC oversees many library services offered in China esp. cataloging. We actually worked for 10 days in the Cataloging and Acquistions Dept. and were trained in cataloging. I was in Western Languages and Ron in Chinese Cataloging and later he worked also in WL. This is a huge place with 1500 employees and we were introduced to most of the division chiefs and assistants and had a chance to talk to them at length. We also went to other libraries in the Beijing area (15,000,000 population) including the Capital Library, the main branch of public libraries in the city. There are also about 22 regional libraries and---300 local branches. All of these little libraries have 10,000 and under volumes, not sure if they circulate books, many of them I think are just reading rooms. Both of us did two major presentations, my last one was a powerpoint presentation that lasted about 2 hours. We had computers in our hotel rooms and needed time after work in order to prepare. I have never seen more large buildings than I did in Beijing. Most of the population lives in high rises and there are millions of them. Beijing is close to Inner Mongolia and only about 500 plus miles from Pyongyang, North Korea. The temperature is harsh, very cold in winter and hot in summer. It starts getting cold around 2 pm. Buses are only 1 Y per trip (12 cents) and subways are 2 Y, but all public transportation is crowded. At this time Beijing is trying to at least triple their subway system adding new lines esp. for the upcoming Summer Olympics. As a matter of fact there is so much construction going on that the air quality is usually very poor. I rarely saw a blue sky in Beijing and the first two weeks we were there you could smell the pollution in the air. It was that thick. Staff at NLC were very open and friendly. Points of interest about staff: they have quotas (in cataloging 18 books per day--if not completed have to stay without OT until finished). If you're single you get more vacation time. Because when you visit your family (most in Beijing not from the city and most do not know how to get anywhere in the city just where they work, etc.) you need more time to travel. After you get married you have new family and do not have to use as much time to travel. If you go to Beijing visit the Lao She Teahouse for a good variety show plus tea and snacks all for about $8.50. Prices of many items very cheap compared to New York but salaries are much lower than in US. Both Ron and I will do a presentation for QL staff sometime in the future. I hope you can make it, esp. Barb and Logan. A great experience that I will never forget. Thanks to Carol Sheffer and Stuart Rosenthal for giving me this opportunity. Thanks to my colleague Ron Wan for being a nice guy and good librarian.

Red Scarf Girl

During the cultural revolution, my father-in-law, Gui Pang was an idealistic young teacher and grade school principal. His wife, Shun Jun Pang was also a teacher. My wife resented the fact that her mom would often work after hours and visit students to assist them with their school work instead of spending all of her time with her. The government asked all officials and leaders to give their input in improving all areas of life in China. My father-in-law naively believed them and gave them constructive ideas on improving schools and education. Gui is a soft spoken mild mannered gentleman who was respected and liked by students and their parents. He was soon after arrested and sent to a re-education farm leaving his family without their main breadwinner and without their father. He was lucky he survived. His second oldest daughter, my wife (Chee-Chee) was soon ridiculed in school and harrassed by some fellow students and her life was made miserable. A good student who had been a class leader she was not allowed to go to college and eventually sent to a factory. Because she was asked to publically denounce her father and she refused to. I'm proud of her for this and it shows you the kind of person she is. She has always been more interested in pride and self respect than her own personal goals. Her story is similar to that of Jiang in the book Red Scarf Girl.

Boxer Rebelliion

After the defeat of the Qing govt. by the British after Chinese opposition to the sale of opium by British profiteers in China and the eventual ceding of Hong Kong to the English as partial retribution there was much opposition to westerners for years in China. The Boxer movement was started and when they grew in power and threatened European interests in China around 1900 forces were called in the stop the uprising and threat to colonialists in China. The Boxers specialized in martial arts and some of them even believed that they were so powerful that they could overpower enemies with guns and outmaneuver bullets. Of course they were wrong and many committed suicide after their defeat.

Ignorance is bliss

The more I learn the more I see how little I know. It's easy to understand why people resist knowledge. It mirrors your inadequacies. I'd rather think I'm smart than know that I'm not.

3rd installment

FYI, Chinese characters are words not letters. So the best way for a new learner to read Chinese is to memorize the characters. Not easy to me since they are hard to distinguish. Only about 5 % of the characters are pictographs. The kids in China growing up learn this although in the past with a high rate of illiteracy there was some consideration to eliminating characters and adopting a pinyin system using the latin alphabet. Actually in the early years of the 20th century characters were simplified. There is much logic in combining characters since many new words are a combination of several characters. For example the word CD might include the character for music and the character for electronics. This is not an exact example but close. I am up to three characters.

Part 2

Some interesting facts I just learned. Basic literacy in Chinese is understanding a minimum of 1500 characters. I presently know two and I'm leaving in three weeks. Also did you know that libraries in China operate on a profit margin and are expected to be in the black. Customers are charged for all services and there are different levels of membership. It is also rumored that the more money a library makes (higher profit) the more money librarians are paid. Maybe not such a bad idea!

Introduction

Hi, I'm Barry Ernst, CLM at Briarwood. I will be travelling to Beijing, China in November and visiting the National Library of China (NLC) as QL Exchange Librarian. I will be accompanied by my old friend, Ron Wan, Adult Supervisor at Flushing. I've known Ron for years and we were both Managers at Brooklyn Public Library. Also our kids both went to Stuyvesant HS at the same time. Right now I'm trying to learn more about the history and culture of China. I'm reading two books. Did you know that the Great Wall of China might not have actually been built until the 1300's. No one is quite sure when it was actually erected. I am also trying to learn some Mandarin. I'm getting some homeschooling from my 11 year old daughter Sara who speaks some Mandarin and Cantonese. She has been very patient with me, since I am a very poor student. Our responsibilites other than representing QL will be to make a presentation about our library, visit various libraries in the Beijing area and maybe some collection development. We hope to evaluate materials that our Chinese speaking customers would be interested in and might not presently have access to. If you know of any area we should look into, please reply. Areas of course that should be big will be business and I was thinking also subjects like geneaology. I plan on talking to some of the Div. heads plus staff at IRC before we go to find out about reference questions they have gotten that we have had no material here in QL on. I also would like to look into the NLC databases to see what they have and if their information resources would be available to Queen's residents. Well that's it for now. I have to go back on the desk. I will try to update you from China whenever I can and would appreciate your comments.