BEIJING – My reading class took a break from our current lesson, "The
Great Hall of the People," to learn about Chinese cartographic
terminology.
Most of China is in a province, the bland country sub-unit found
around the world. China also granted four cities independence from
provincial bureaucracies – Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Tianjin.
Four provinces with high minority populars are known as Autonomous
Regions – Tibet for Tibetans, Xinjiang for the Uighurs, Ningxia for
the Hui and Guangxi for the Zhuang. There's very little actually
autonomous about these regions, but that's a discussion for another
day.
The final geographic word Brown on the board was Special Autonomous
Region. She said there were three: Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
The last word attracted the attention of the class. Brown looked out
to see 12 young adults, from Korea, Japan, the United States,
Kazakhstan and Columbia, giving her a series of mocking facial
expressions. The Koreans turned their lips up ever so slightly toward
a smile. The Americans, being a bit more gregarious by nature, started
giggling. Most expressive of all was the Columbian, who arched his
eyebrows in way that said he smelled bull shit.
Brown attempted an explanation. "Taiwan has a different government,"
she said, "but it's still a special autonomous region."
Oh Brown. Ever the optimist. No one seemed even remotely convinced at
her explanation.
I find it interesting she even bothered to raise the issue. Taiwan's
an extremely sensitive issue here, and Brown must know that we
foreigners would have different views than someone brought up under
the People's Republic of China's education system. Special Autonomous
Regions were not discussed in our textbooks, and we would have been
able to talk about The Great Hall of the People without knowing how to
say it. Even if she wanted to teach the word, there was no reason to
bring up Taiwan.
But she stubbornly placed the white elephant in the center of our
classroom. In America I imagine most teachers, especially those in the
language department, would avoid confrontation. Instead Brown subtly
brought out her perspective. She didn't hammer on the subject, but it
wasn't presented as an opinion either.
For Brown, Taiwan's a Special Autonomous Region and that's that. Any
question, please talk with her after class.
