Re: [gardeners]Chinese students
penny x stamm (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 3 Jul 1998 00:21:05 -0400
Allen said:
> Are Chinese students as needful of a mother/baby sitter/
secretary/organizer etc. as American medical students
>are? My wife does all of the above for her Residents.
No, it was quite different. I was area chairperson of the
US-China Peoples Friendship Assn, and when the Chinese
were at last permitted to study abroad, they brought with
them the philosophy which had been drilled into them since
the late forties. The adults were all 52-years-old, the minimum
age at which they could be risked in the outside world. They
were mostly scientists plus at least one lady gynecologist and
one American History teacher, that I knew of. And they had all
been denied graduate school by the Mao regime. It did not
exist! Therefore they were especially eager to come over here,
and to France, England, Sweden, Canada, etc., to get their
advanced training. Incidentally, either the husband or the wife
could come, never both of them at the same time. This was
expected to insure the return of the overseas mate. In reality,
almost all of these scholars did return to China -- I only know of
one who wangled her way into staying here, and eventually got
her son over here as well, permanently.
The young students were all college graduates seeking advanced
degrees. Many of them were Double-E's (Electrical Engineering)
because it was the quickest major for them to accomplish, even
tho so many of them were in reality physicists..! And I would take
a guess that the major part of those younger people never did
return to China. They have settled in here, married, are raising
families and becoming citizens. Remember, too, that their arrival
coincided with the computer revolution, so their talents were put
to immediate use.
My job was to provide [inexpensive] shopping suggestions,
hospitality, classical music, transportation, step-by-step
video movie translations (for instance, Das Boot, and
Hunt for Red October), and a lot of close friendship. I also
had to run the huge buffet-banquets open to the public as
fund raisers, and guess who did all the cooking...? Boy, I
guess I really was energetic when I was younger.
But to answer your primary question above, no, all these
students took care of their own curricula, housing, mail,
appointments, whatever. I stepped in to brighten their
days.
There was one installation which was quite different, and
came complete with a non-scientific manager and a cook,
which I can tell you about when we have some time at
leisure..
Penny, NY
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