How Was China?: Views and Vignettes from a Chinese Women's College

by Dodie Johnston

Feeling bored and counting her losses, Dodie is eager for a new kind of adventure as she enters her 7th decade. When she answers an ad inviting people to teach English in China, she finds the adventure she sought and much, much more. Dodie discovers that her destination, Hwa Nan College for Women, has been resurrected from the ashes of two revolutions by a handful of elderly Chinese matriarchs in hopes of preparing capable young women for vocations in the new China. The “Old Ladies” are feisty, determined and running the school on a shoestring. Her young adult students are idealistic and naive…full of dreams for their families and optimistic about their futures. Who are these girls and what are their stories? And how does Dodie, a retired school psychologist with no ESL training, muddle through a decade of teaching them English only to discover that she has been a student herself? How Was China? answers these questions with intelligence, humor and honesty. The book weaves together tales of travel, social commentary, personal stories of Chinese women and the author’s observations as she explores her home in this very foreign land. Dodie returns again and again through the first decade of the 21st century watching her students blossom into graduates, workers, wives and mothers…journeys that illustrate the amazing turns and twists of Chinese life. When not in class, Dodie wanders. Stroll through the streets and alleys of the old neighborhood with her, delight in the vibrant street life, laugh at market and clinic shenanigans, and grapple with the cultural differences inherent in every encounter. She watches in dismay as old buildings are torn down and replaced by new, but often dehumanizing, condos and shopping malls. She takes you on forays back into the lively history of the people fatefully connected to this rare private college, illuminating the events that led to China’s rise to power and affluence and sweeping Hwa Nan and its women along with it onto a new campus 100 years from its inception. After reading How Was China? you will never look at life in this mysterious country the same way again.

Genres: Asia

328 pages, Paperback

First published March 23, 2016

Reviews

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

College recruiters, campus visitations, and glossy application brochures published to attract students to a particular school have no place in the life of a Chinese senior school student. Instead, students must choose from a small handful of college options based on their scores on the annual National Exam (called gaokao), taken the summer of their senior year. It’s a grueling ritual; futures rise and fall on that score. Most of the girls arriving in the fall of 2000 had received a lower score than one required for attendance at a four-year national university. Perhaps they were top students in their village school, but in a nation-wide competition they placed only high enough for this three-year vocational college. (33)

Thoughtful look at teaching in a changing China. Johnston's adventures in teaching English took her to and from China for a decade, allowing her to see cultural and individual shifts as China became more and more open to outsiders and as financial situations changed. The emphasis is on her students' stories, not her own, which is great—much more variety and context—and a significant chunk of the book is devoted to history of Hwa Nan College and of China more generally. The college sounds like a storied place: founded by missionaries and initially a fairly elite place for women; depleted by the Cultural Revolution; later turned into a three-year (lower-tier) institution. I sometimes found the history a little dry, but I'm glad it was in here, as it makes for a much more nuanced read than if Johnston had limited herself to what she saw within her classroom.

[LeeAnn Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

China was enlightening and charming

This was a book club selection so I approached it expecting to like it, instead I loved it. What a rare opportunity to gat a rare glimpse of and insight into another culture.

[Kevin English · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read one book about China.. Well, it doesn’t need to be this one :)

But if you read many books about China, here is a lighter, more personal one. What made this book work for me is that you can tell the author is a caring person who took seriously her job as an English teacher in China.

I lived in China off and on for about a year. Whenever I met other Americans or Europeans expats living in the country I noticed that they were quite often jaded and hostile to their host country. You will usually here a litany of complaints: “The Chinese are dishonest and lazy”, “They are do sloppy work”, “They are always trying to cheat.” While this book does digress into that once or twice, for the most part it is a positive journal and narrative. In the prologue, the author muses about how much the country has changed since 2000 but she admits to most of that change is just China leaping to modernity.

[Dodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superior view of a rapidly changing China -- from an intimate, street level view. The author achieved a degree of closeness to Chinese families difficult to achieve in normal conditions, even for one such as this reviewer who has lived and travelled in China and Taiwan and who speaks some Mandarin. As her experience over 12 years of teaching non-elite student shows, the changes in China are culturally life changing. She gives a good historical context without dwelling on recent history, and tells about her students, and their families, with grace and insight. I found it an extraordinary look at a China seen by very few Westerners, and should be required reading for those hoping to understand China as it morphs into a roughly capitalist society. Sounds serious, but written with wit and delight in her surroundings but grief for what is passing. Good read!!!