International Women's Day! And Church! And KTV!

Sunday, March 8. OK, so I've never heard of International Women's Day but March 8th is a really big deal in China. They call it "san ba" which literally means "three eight" (for March 8), and there are lots of sales in the stores and much celebrating going on. Tonight, I'm going to dinner with all of the women teachers from the senior school here, then afterwards, we are going to KTV, or karaoke as we call it in the U.S. I consider it the national pastime of China! Oh, yes, and I'm squeezing in a little work on my lesson plan for this week too. :)

Going to Church in China. This morning, David, Tiffany and I go to church here for the first time. Yes, there are in fact TWO churches in Zhuzhou - one is Catholic and one is Protestant; we decide to go to the Protestant Church of Christ. And, let me tell you, the place is packed. We estimate that about 1000 people are there. It's on the third and fourth floors of a big old building (conveniently, there is a hospital on the first two floors!). The third floor is the main sanctuary and there is a huge balcony running around three sides of the floor above where most of the young families with children sit.

Of course, everything is in Chinese, but they sing a hymn to the tune of "This is My Father's World" so at least I can hum along. There is an Old Testament reading and a New Testament reading, and nearly everyone has a Bible with them. The sermon is long - about 45 minutes. Remember Jim Kidd's three-point sermons? Well, this one has four points in the first half - and then another four in the second half! How do I know? Well, the points are summarized via a powerpoint presentation on a big screen that the minister operates from a laptop on the pulpit! During the sermon (which is about handling family crisis), he tells the story of the prodigal son (we went with a Chinese friend and she later described some of it to us). And the most amazing thing about the service is that there is NO offering! Can you imagine? There is an obscure and non-descript wooden collection box at the back if you chose to give something. Otherwise, NADA.

All first time visitors are invited to come up to the front. Our Chinese friend, Sandi, wants to go up so Tiffany and I do too. We aren't exactly sure what's happening (would we end up as members of a Church of Christ in China?!) but apparently it's just an opportuntiy to make new people feel welcome. The minister even greets us in English! He says "Welcome to Zhuzhou city church."

Dinner and KTV. In the evening, Tiffany and I go to dinner with most of the Senior School teachers and a few of the administrators, who have organized the outing. (I can't help noting, however, that all of the administrators are men. I wonder if the irony of that was picked up by the other women.) After dinner, we all proceed to the same KTV place that I went to with them in December. But it's still basically just women, with a handful of men, some of whom (such as our liaison, Zhang Yong) have apparently been invited for the sole purpose of dancing with the ladies! But hey, that's OK. As I've mentioned previously, Zhang Yong can dance. And we get to see a real demonstration of it tonight, including a beautiful waltz that he does with one of the teachers. I tried to film it on my camera but don't yet know whether it turned out. The lighting conditions were pretty abysmal. Tiffany and I both win "door prizes." Tiffany's is a clock (this mundane description does not begin to do it justice!) and mine is a cloth, stuffed boy dressed in a hat, shirt, vest and shorts, with huge feet and black eyes. A little fringe of blond hair peeping out from his hat. Tiffany and I decide to leave at about 9 p.m. (apparently, the party is scheduled to continue until midnight!), so we walk out to the main drag (Tiantai Lu, near A. Best) and hail a cab.

International Women's Day. I can't help but wonder why we don't even acknowledge Women's Day in the West. Probably because of its association with socialism. But in this respect, the socialists are onto a good thing. Here's a little info that I gleaned from www.internationalwomensday.com:

The first national women's day was observed in the U.S. on 28 Feb 1909 following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. In 1910, at the Second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, a German woman named Clara Zetkin proposed an International Women's Day, which met with unanimous approval. In 1913 (the year my mother was born), the date was changed to 8 March, and this has remained the global date ever since. It is now an official holiday in 15 countries (although interestingly no Western ones).

One sentence in the second paragraph of the section "2000 and beyond" really resonated with me, having heard so many young women lawyers assert that they have never been discriminated against. Our response: Just wait. Here's it is: The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women's and society's thoughts about women's equality and emancipation. Many from a younger generation feel that 'all the battles have been won for women' while many feminists from the 1970's know only too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. As one of the "feminists from the 1970s," I can only say: Amen to that, brother.