Foreigners in Zhejiang 
Millions of Chinese ,young and old, enroll in Enlish courses every year. And the demand for English teachers has also grown exponentially. The abundance of teaching jobs and ever-increasing standards of living have made it easy for native English-speakers to live in China.
I had a premonition of my destiny, when, at the age of seven, I had memorised the names of the capitals of a hundred countries. I was always interested in exotic foreign locales. That is a scrap taken from Patrick Millar s鈥 self-discription. Like some foreigners, Patrick was tinged with a wandering spirit.
They choose to be a globe-trotters, supporting themselves by teaching English. But Patrick is unique in that he is a professional educator. He was born in Caberra, Australia, and has taught English for more than 12 years.
He has been Director of Studies at English First Hangzhou since 2003. In this teaching center, he is in charge of more than more than 20 foreign teachers.
In order to create a positive teaching atmostphere, he makes a point of keeping the lines of communication open and bridging the cultural differences between the foreign teachers and the Chinese staff.
He maintains a good relationship with his boss, who, according to him, is an independent and interesting woman.
By incorporating all foreign teachers, EF utilizes a more western style of teaching. They go to great lengths to create an entirely English--speaking environment by holding concerts, speech contests, parties, excursions, summer camps and more. And learning over the Internet is also included in the courses.
Interestingly, from time to time ,Patrick will get his chance to be the student.
Patrick was awarded a medal by the government for staying in Hangzhou during the SARS crisis, during which time he persuaded his teachers to stay by keeping them updated and keeping a level head about the situation
They stayed and even made thousands of origami cranes to show their support to the medical staff in Hangzhou.
A Philippine-style restaraunt is a typical haunt of Patrick and his colleagues.The restaurant is always packed and the air is filled with the sounds of Philippine music and dance performances. Guests are always invited to join in on the fun.
For the players involved, the point is not so much to always understand the rules of the game, but to just have a good time. This is perhaps the case for foreigners living in Hangzhou and other places around China.
In recent years, Zhejiang has attracted much international attention. Zhejiang is visited by about 50 mass media groups from all over the world each month. This year, Spanish Televison Barcelona is visiting Zhejiang. This time, their focus is Hengdian which has aspirations to be the Chinese version of Hollywood.
China's movie industry is one of the many businesses booming as a result of economic growth. Recreations of sites around China like those found at Hengdian are springing up all around China, though Hengdian is possibly one of the most well-developed.
As Hollywood had it鈥檚 humble beginnings in the Los Angeles suburbs, Hengdian has taken root in an outlying district in Dongyang City.
Lately, one or two prize-awarding Chinese Kungfu movies have won fame for Chinese natural landscape and traditional architecture. That in part explains the many blocks of replications of traditional style buildings in Hengdian.
Film crews are scattered throughout the streets of Hengdian, which has also become a huge tourist attraction.Interestingly, people from the surrounding villages can make money and be a star for a day as extras in the films here.
The increasingly globalized and affluent culture in China has not gone overlooked in Hengdian. Here, in addition to all the tradition structures, there are also many more modern structures like Hongkong streets and high-tech shooting and producing centers and studios for movies and TV serials.
For the members of this Spanish TV crew, the things that stuck them the most about China was the cosmopolitan nature of Beijing as well as the uniqueness of small cities of Zhejiang such as Shaoxing, Yongkang and Qingtian. Qingtian has a lot to offer in terms of reporting material. In China, Qingtian is known for its stone carvings. But to the Spanish, it鈥檚 known as the largest source of Chinese immigrants living in Spain. When walking along the street, the crewmembers heard Chinese people greeting them, saying 鈥淗ola!鈥. They were also surprised to see people in Chinese faces introducing themselves as French and Italian. As it turned out, Zhejiang has a long history of large-scale emigration of Chinese to Spain.
The geographic term Jiangnan refers to all the provinces south of the Yangtze River. It also represents the strong feeling of romance associated with this area. At the heart of this region is Zhejiang Province, the quintessential embodiment of Jiangnan.
The differences between eastern painting and western painting stem from differences in view about nature and universe. Hangzhou provides the perfect environment of inspiration and instruction for outsiders wanting to learn traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy.
A collection of works is on exhibition at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. It is time for the artists who just received their PhD degrees in Chinese painting from the academy to display their works. Roswitha Nieser is smiling with quiet pride.
Roswitha鈥檚 face betrays her origins, but having lived in China for ten years, you can hardly distinguish her from any other Chinese lady. Her tutor gave her the Chinese name Meigui, which means rose.Roswitha is originally from Austria where she completed her master鈥檚. Her academic achievements in her own country have won her scholarships to travel around the world.
Meigui鈥檚 tutor teaches that practicing calligraphy is instrumental to her painting in both vision and technique. There are many differences between eastern painting and western painting. One essential concept in traditional Chinese painting is to render the spirit of objects, not to simply reproduce them on paper, a notion most apparent in landscape painting. This concept was the greatest artistic obstacle for Meigui. She has read volumes about Chinese culture, especially philosophy and religion.
The China Academy of Art was founded in 1928. It is situated near the West Lake, which serves as the perfect backdrop to inspire landscapes drawn by ink and pen.Like Ecole Normale Sup茅rieure in France, this academy is a wellspring of artists, producing such names as Lin Fengmian, Pan Tianshou and other famous artists, earning it a reputation worldwide as a first class art school.Now there are 130 foreign students studying here.
Chinese is acceptedly difficult for language learners. Nieser wrote her PhD dissertation in Chinese. For her, the amount of the research and the painstaking writing process are all a labor of love. She has much experience to draw on having passed hundreds of days and nights in this drawing room.
Roswitha: I have ever been to many countries. Now I feel the call from my heart to settle down in China finally.
Pop bands comprised of foreigners are springing up all over Zhejiang. And the languages they sing in are as diverse as the peoples in the audience. You are just as likely to hear a song in Chinese as a song in German, English or Japanese.
The cover band named Fifth Avenue is comprised of all Philippines including vocalists Grace and Rachel and music programmer and keyboardist, Chris. They perform in the bar of a high-class hotel in Zhejiang. Popular with foreigners here, the girls sing in different languages like Japanese, German, English and Chinese. Their wide repertoire even covers the latest hits from America and Europe.
As the resident band in this hotel, before each performance, they always do a run-through in their room, which doubles as a half -equipped studio.
But one thing the girls don鈥檛 take part in is the piano solos in the hall. It鈥檚 times like these that Chris can live long held dream to be a real musician. He says he and the girls, all enjoy this lifestyle-travelling from one hotel to the next, far away from home.
In both cultural and economic sense, Zhejiang occupies a special place in China鈥檚 heart. Foreigners come to Zhejiang, taking in the rich cultural ambience and in turn, hopefully leaving some piece of themselves, adding to the ever-changing, ever-diversifying face of Zhejiang. I am Mavi Graves. Thank you for watching Rediscovering China.
Editor:Hu Source:CCTV.com
