The Toulou guided tour lived up to and exceeded my expectations of what a Chinese coach tour should be. I think I’ll need an entry in itself to cover it, so I will save that for later. For now just two things to note.
The first is that I uploaded some pictures from my camera and they brought back to me a rather odd experience from last week. I can perhaps introduce it in this way: what does Air France/KLM and Xiamen University TKK College have in common? They both say they will give you money then change their mind and say they won’t. Yes, this was another ‘customer’ experience.
I was offered and agreed to a paid lecture, arranged translators who were also to be paid, then the day before the lecture get a call saying they can’t pay. Rather than cancel, which might have been wiser, I did it anyway as my translators and I had all reserved the time, the lecture had been arranged and I had penciled this in as one my educational activities. I don’t imagine I will ever know why it happened like this, all I can do is try to avoid being placed in a similar situation again. I also don’t know if it was a story of they can’t pay or they simply thought they could get away with not paying. If it is the latter, while it is true that I don’t really need the money the principle is exploitative and one I don’t wish to support. Particularly as the University is obviously wealthy.
After the lecture however, things took a turn for the better. My very competent translators took me on a bike ride around the new campus and rolling through this monumental park studded with oversized academic buildings I was able to forget the somewhat petty affairs of TKK College. The ‘5 star’ library was quite a sight. It seemed to take up so much space yet once inside there were not so many books or work spaces available. I had to compare it with the overcrowded library at Goldsmiths, Uni of London, and wonder if they had any more books in Xiamen Zhanzhou campus library. I seriously doubt they had any more here, even though it was 5 times the size.
The second thing I have been doing is looking at the video of the performance and making some adjustments in preparation for Thursday’s show in Shanghai. Two such practical adjustments are to the microphone and tape I use. I have also been looking into some re-writes but those I will save for after the Shanghai performance.
