TBC Second Decade Symposium

As I mentioned an entry or two ago, as part of its Second Decade celebration, TBC helped host a symposium on Westerners at the Qing Court. Although it went from last Friday to Sunday, I only went to it on Saturday and Sunday (I have a class in the middle of the afternoon on Fridays.)

But when I did attend it, it was... er .... well, here's the thing - when I heard that it'd basically be several panels where groups of Sinologists would give various lectures, I was under the assumption that all those lectures would be in English.

Apparently, I was a bit naive on that aspect of the symposium. At least half of the lectures were given in Chinese, and the big booklet with all the lectures in print didn't help either...not with at least half of them written in Chinese as well.

At least I ended up with a lot of time to think and to engage in deep, intense contemplation, where I could wonder things such as "I wish I had a clue what he/she is talking about," or "Oh dear God Almighty in Heaven, I hope the next speaker will use a language that I can understand," and "I really want to take a quick doze, but Professor Weist needs us to write a paper on this....let's hope the speaker after this will speak in....wait, let's check out the lecture booklet and see if.... aw nuts, that's definitely not in English.... okay, what time is lunch supposed to be again?"

 I swear, at times it was like listening to white noise.

Fortunately, at least lunch was free every day (it was all mainly Chinese food....no more western-style cuisine, unfortunately). And it also provided a tad more sight-seeing. While on Friday and Saturday the conference was held in a hall at Renimin University (People's University), on Sunday it was held at the Old Summer Place, which provided for some gorgeous sights.

I know, I know, I've already been there before, but you'd be amazed what difference a healthy amount of sunlight will make for the views there (whereas the sun had almost completely set over the horizon by the time I arrived when I last visited).

While clearly alive, this cat didn't even do so much as lift its head. Whether its just supposed to be a permanent installation part of the park for some reason, I have yet to figure out. 

Hey, it could happen. It's China - weird stuff goes on here.