Marathons and Speech Contests - Chinese Style

Xi’an International Marathon

 

 

  

 

We participated in the Xi’an International Marathon on Nov 3 here in Xi’an.  There is an ancient wall surrounding the old Tang Dynasty capital, which is the city center today.  The race is an international event that is run on the top of the 13.8 km wall.  The wall, in fact, is the oldest complete city wall in the world. (Started in 600s AD) Each participant received a race shirt and number to run in the 5K, half marathon or the full marathon.  The university encouraged all of the foreign teachers to participate. They paid the entry fee, got us official race uniforms, hauled us to the wall in the university bus, cheered us on and even took us to lunch in the Muslim Quarter for dumplings after the race. Since we are old, out of shape and one of us has artificial joints, we opted for the 5K, and reported promptly at 8 a.m.  There were 30,000 participants!  Even some runners from Kenya had flown in!  There were cash prizes for the top ten finishers in each category: boy/girl marathon, boy/girl half marathon and boy/girl 5K. There were even guards dressed as terra cotta warriors on duty to honor the past and the location of the race.  As we waited our turn for the 5K to begin, we tried to keep warm—the day started out about 36 degrees!  The men started first, and then the women a few minutes later.  I found my running mate walking slowly, waiting for me, and we “power-walked” the wall!  We completed the race, receiving green ribbons as our rewards. And the photographers went wild! Our goal was to not finish last! We accomplished our goal. There were several wheelchairs and one-legged runners behind us. But then we were busy taking pictures and admiring all those young sleek serious runners. Our Xi’an Marathon shirts (nice running shirts, not cheap Chinese t-shirts!) will be one of our most prized souvenirs.  

A Speech Contest –Chinese Style

Suzanne and I were invited (to refuse would be a faux pas) to judge our department’s speech contest. Since we speak English, we are automatically qualified to perform this task. A Chinese teacher picked us up at our apartment at 4:30 PM for the ride to the new campus 45 minutes away. (remember that we live at the old campus). The speech contest was to start at 7:00 so we had some time to kill after we arrived. Since Suzanne’s classes are over at noon each day, she never gets to hang around the campus like I do, so I treated her to dinner in the faculty dining room. I recognized the name “beef” on one of the choices that looked like beef stew. Chunks of meat and potatoes were recognizable. We got some, how bad could it be? The meat turned out to be ox tails. Complete with genuine ox tail bones. Suzanne broke a tooth on a bone, but that dental experience will be reported in a future blog.

After dinner we settled ourselves in the judge’s chairs to await the speeches. We had scoring sheets, bottles of water, fancy pens – everything we needed to pass judgment on the participants. We had a great time. Several of Suzanne’s students were the entertainment at intermission. Two of my students won 1^st and 2^nd place. Several more placed. It was our first time to interact with the students outside of class. It was a wonderful experience. It was so much fun that I volunteered to judge the University Speech Contest the following week. I am the public speaking teacher so I coached our departmental students on their grammar and delivery style. They were locked and loaded!

The day arrived, the judges were introduced, the speeches started. After the first three speeches, it was announced that the judges would be excused to confer. The head judge asked me the order of my choices. I said my ranking was #2, #3 and #1 in that order. The second American judge agreed with me. He then stated that his ranking was #2, #1, and #3. He then asked the other Chinese judges who (surprise, surprise) agreed with him. We went back to the hall and proceeded to listen to 25 speeches; some were very good and some were pretty lame. This whole process took the better part of three hours. At the end, after drum rolls, balloons and confetti, the winners were announced. My students won 3^rd and 4^th place. The winner was a speaker that I had put way down on my list. In class the next day, I tracked down my students and told them what a great job they had done and that I had scored them much higher than the girl who won the competition. They were both OK with the outcome and told me that the winner was the Dean’s graduate student and everyone knew that she would win! Of course, the main Chinese judge that the others always agreed with was—you guessed it—the Dean!  Speech Contest –Chinese Style!