Site-Exchange in Guiyang, Giuzhou University

你们好!
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This past January at PC China's IST conference, PCV "13" Dave (California) asked me if I might be interested in traveling down to his school - Guizhou University 贵州大学 - for a PC-sponsored site-exchange in order to help facilitate the introductory stages of a student production of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
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"Of course!"
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Timing could not have been better. I had just finished teaching Hamlet to my post-graduate English Literature majors last week, so the play was (and always is) fresh in my mind. Sitemate Kristen decided to travel down to Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province (about 5 hours by bus), with me to visit some "14's" and help Dave celebrate his 27th birthday (生日快乐, 哥哥!). We arrived on Friday evening, met up with PCVs Todd, Jess, and Lisa, and enjoyed cheap beer, many laughs, browsed Guiyang's pirated movie scene, and devoured the local Guiyang delicacy: Bean Hot Pot. All this before the next day's Hamlet-facilitation marathon.
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I received the (only slightly) abridged 55-page script from Dave about a week before I arrived at Guizhou University, and my first thought was, "Wow, Dave's students must be English-language machines." Dave originally told me that his students were to put on a Shakespeare play for a competition in Hong Kong, but when I asked them for the details, I was both amazed and impressed that almost none of them alluded to this competition, but simply said they wanted to "challenge" themselves. And after spending the next 6 hours with these students (YES! 6 hours, with one 5-minute break and a 2-language rendition of "Happy Birthday" to Dave), guiding them through the motions but more importantly, helping each actor find his or her own dramatic identity, we finished strong with Act V's "bloodbath!" I don't know if I will ever see the final line of Hamlet read, followed by an uproar of laughter, again! 哈哈!


I regret not recording more of our productive afternoon; all the actors were so good, especially Hamlet (English name, Nemo, red shirt), who has so many lines to memorize...in his second language! This feat, sophomore undergraduates performing original English-language Shakespeare in China, combined with my infinite struggle to read, write, and speak in Chinese, boggles the mind. All in all, I drank about 4 bottles of water, peed twice, and at one point - around hour #5: "the gravedigger scene" - thought I was going to pass out (and die? - how appropriate!).
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I wrote Dave an e-mail this afternoon, thanking him for inviting me to participate in this incredibly rewarding experience. I told him that as this crazy 2-year performance continues its final act, I try to make every day in China special, and this past Saturday, with his amazingly motivated students and Billy Shaky's Emo King, I felt like I really helped some students not only understand Shakespeare, but feel it too. The pleasure was all mine.
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I love and miss you all,
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Phil
蓝麦飞