I had to get an invitation from the Bureau of Education in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Province in order to accept an offer from the Hechi Teachers’ College, Yishan County, Guangxi Province. Why? Because Yishan County was closed to foreign visitors due to a lack of adequate tourist facilities. The name of the county was changed a couple of years ago to Yizhou and thrown open to outside, but things were different back in 1988.
我不得不接受广西壮族自治区首府南宁教育局的邀请，才能接受YishanCounty河池师范学院的录取广西壮族自治区。为什么？由于缺乏足够的旅游设施，YishanCounty不对外国游客开放。这个县的名字在几年前改成了宜州，并且对外开放，但是在1988年的时候情况就不同了。
PART I THE INVITATION
第一部分邀请
INTRODUCTION: February, 1988: I set out to start on a teaching assignment in a closed area of China where I was to be the sole foreigner in Yishan County, population of about half a million Chinese.
作品简介：1988年2月，我开始了一项封闭式的教学任务在中国的一个地区，我是唯一的外国人在YishanCounty，人口大约50万中国人。
From a background briefing which I had prior to departure I learnt that the Hechi Teachers’ College trains teachers in a variety of faculties and, after finishing the curriculums, sends them out to the middle schools of Guangxi Province, mainly in poor country areas, to teach a varied syllabus, including English as a foreign language.
从我出发前的背景介绍中，我了解到河池师范学院培养了各种各样的教师，在完成课程后，把他们送到广西壮族自治区的中学，主要是在贫穷的农村地区，教授各种各样的课程，包括英语作为外语。
My job was to introduce a method of teaching English known as “the communicative approach” and not only to train the English Department undergraduates in this approach, but also to improve their communicative competence in the English language.
我的工作是介绍一种被称为“交际法”的英语教学方法，不仅要培训英语系本科生使用这种教学方法，而且要提高他们的英语交际能力。
He ushered me past the customs into a mini-bus and on to the University. I was quite travel-tired by then and was grateful for the comfortable suite with a bathroom where I was able to get a good night’s sleep.
他领着我通过海关，上了一辆小巴，上了大学。那时候我已经很累了，非常感激那间带浴室的舒适套房，在那里我可以睡个好觉。
I had quite a journey before I reached the College. I flew to Guangzhou via Bangkok and Hong Kong where I was met by Mr. Ye, a foreign affairs official from the Guangzhou University of Foreign Languages. He gave me the VIP treatment. I was soon to experience as a “foreign expert” in the People’s Republic.
在我到达学院之前，我经历了相当长的一段旅程。我飞往广州途经曼谷和香港，在那里我遇到了叶先生，他是广州外国语大学的外事官员。他给了我贵宾卡处理方法。我很快在中华人民共和国担任“外国专家”。
After breakfast I had a marvelous experience: a visit to the Flower Market in Guangzhou, part of the Spring Festival when Chinese celebrate their New Year. The whole of the city’s central area was closed to traffic and transformed into a gigantic mall. This arrangement enabled innumerable citizens and visitors to wander through row after row of stalls filled with exotic flowers, small trees, fish and birds offered for sale by peasants from the rural regions of Guangdong Province.
早餐过后，我有了一次奇妙的经历：参观了广州的花市，这是中国人庆祝新年的春节的一部分。整个城市的中心区域被封锁，变成了一个巨大的购物中心。这种安排使无数市民和游客能够在广东省农村地区农民出售的一排排充满奇花异草、小树和鱼鸟的摊位上漫步。
Next morning after a tasty Chinese breakfast Mr. Ye told me that the University was founded in 1965 and was the first institute of higher education in central and south China. It is set in a beautiful and tranquil part of Guangzhou’s northern suburbs.
第二天早上，在一顿美味的中式早餐后，叶先生告诉我，这所大学成立于1965年，是中国中南部地区第一所高等教育机构。故事发生在广州北部郊区一个美丽宁静的地方。
After a few days of these simple, yet unique pleasures, and in spite of the wonderful hospitality, I yearned to reach the destination where I was to live and work in the large county of Yishan. The thought of being the only foreigner in this county of over half a million Chinese excited me and I wanted to get on with it.
在这些简单而独特的快乐中度过了几天之后，尽管受到了盛情款待，我还是渴望到达目的地，在伊山这个大县里生活和工作。想到自己是这里唯一的外国人，这个拥有50多万中国人口的县让我感到兴奋，我想继续下去。
For another two days I wandered around the University campus and climbed Baiyun Mountain on the top of which is a fascinating lake. The scene was something from a delicately Chinese greetings card. At the other end of the lake was a restaurant of Chinese architectural design and along the shore to the right I saw small colored canoes fluctuated side by side waiting for someone to hire them. Time, unfortunately, prevented me from the pleasure of rowing out into the middle of the lake and enjoying the tranquil circumstance from that vantage point.
在接下来的两天里，我在大学校园里闲逛，爬上了BaiyunMountain，其顶部是一个迷人的湖泊。这个场景来自一张精致的中国贺卡。在湖的另一端是一家中国建筑设计的餐馆，沿着右岸我看到五颜六色的小独木舟并排起伏，等待着有人来雇用他们。不幸的是，时间阻碍了我划船到湖中央，从那个有利位置享受宁静环境的乐趣。
On the way into the city in a bus with Mr. Ye, his wife and a party of foreign experts from the U. S. A., we drove slowly through the crowds rushing through the streets on foot, on waves of bicycles, in buses and other vehicles. The sight was so unusual that my eyes could not take it all in!
在与叶先生、他的妻子和一群来自美国的外国专家一起乘坐公共汽车进城的路上，我们开着车缓慢地穿过拥挤的人群，步行穿过街道，乘坐一波波的自行车、公共汽车和其他交通工具。这景象是如此不同寻常，以至于我的眼睛无法完全接受！
Mr. Ye assisted me to catch a train to the city of Liuzhou in Guangxi Province, where we transferred to a car.
叶先生帮我赶上了去柳州的火车，在广西壮族自治区我们转移到一辆车上。
My first experience of a well-established Chinese custom came the evening after my arrival at Hechi Teachers’ College. I had been installed in my spacious, self-contained apartment — a privilege for a single person — and now it was time for my welcoming banquet. Because a “foreign expert” is regarded as a VIP (at least in that remote part of China), the banquet was hosted by the sincere College president, and attended by three vice-presidents, several senior teaching and administrative staff, some local officers (including the deputy mayor and the county’s Head of Security) and the driver of the car which had transported me from Liuzhou to Yishan.
到河池师范学院的那天晚上，我第一次体验到了中国传统习俗。我已经被安置在我宽敞、独立的公寓里——这是一个人的特权——现在是我的欢迎宴会的时间了。由于“外国专家”被视为贵宾（至少在中国的偏远地区是如此），宴会由真诚的学院院长主持，出席的有三位副院长、几位高级教学和行政人员、一些当地官员（包括副市长和县治安负责人）以及把我从柳州送到义山的汽车司机。
PART Ⅱ THE ARRIVAL
第二部分抵达
The Dean of the English Department at the Teachers’ College, Mr. Zhou Yi, together with some senior teachers and a representative of the College president greeted me at Liuzhou Railway Station. Three hours later we drove through the gates of the College.
师范学院英语系系主任周毅先生，以及一些资深教师和学院院长代表在LiuzhouRailwayStation迎接我。三个小时后，我们开车穿过学院的大门。
PART Ⅲ SETTLING IN
第三部分适应
Next morning I had a hearty breakfast of rice noodles, corn porridge, some small spongy cakes, and a couple of bowls of warm milk.
第二天早上，我吃了一顿丰盛的早餐：米粉，玉米粥，一些松软的小蛋糕，还有几碗热牛奶。
It was jolly affair with welcoming preliminary remarks and a convivial atmosphere. I wonder how you would have liked the food which included crab, chicken liver, and fried duck’s legs in sauce. All this was complimented by the brimmed rice wine and a plentiful supply of local beer.
欢迎的开场白和欢乐的气氛令人愉快。我想知道你会喜欢什么样的食物，包括螃蟹，鸡肝，和油炸鸭腿。与此同时，还有丰富的米酒和当地的啤酒。
Once I began teaching, I realized the size of the College. The English Department had nearly two hundred students and, in those days, was one of six departments offering courses to about a thousand students. There were two hundred teaching staff. The students came from all over Hechi, a remote mountainous area composed of several counties with a population of nearly five million people.
一旦我开始教书，我就意识到了学院的规模。当时，英语系有近200名学生，是为大约1000名学生提供课程的六个系之一。有200名教师。这些学生来自河池各地，这是一个由几个县组成的偏远山区，人口接近500万。
Most of the students enrolled belong to one or other of the fifty-five minority nationalities that make up the truly multi-cultural nation of China. The majority of Chinese people are the Han nationality. Having students from such a variety of backgrounds enriched my educational experience.
在校学生大多数属于构成中国真正多元文化国家的五十五个少数民族中的一个或另一个。大多数汉族是中华民族的一部分。来自不同背景的学生丰富了我的教育经历。
Another bonus for me was that my students lived, worked and played on the College campus. I was, therefore, able to assist their learning during most of my waking hours because I lived, worked and played with them. This was quite a contrast to my situation at Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia where my main contact with students was during official lesson periods.
对我来说，另一个好处是，我的学生们在大学校园里生活、工作、玩耍。因此，在我醒着的大部分时间里，我能够帮助他们学习，因为我和他们一起生活、工作、玩耍。这与我在西澳大利亚州理工大学的情况形成了鲜明的对比，在那里我与学生的主要接触是在正式授课期间。
Being the only foreigner on campus, I had quite a lot of attention from what I called “staring squads” both at the College and in the little town of Yishan, which was located in the bosom of the mountains. After a month or so, however, everyone had become accustomed to my face as I walked through the town or the College grounds; and so my walks were then usually punctuated with friendly “hellos” from all, including the delightful children from the kindergarten opposite my apartment block.
作为校园里唯一的外国人，我在学院和位于山脉腹地的小镇宜山受到了我所谓的“凝视小队”的很多关注。然而，大约一个月后，当我穿过城镇或学院时，每个人都已经习惯了我的脸；因此，我的散步时常被所有人友好的“问候”打断，包括我公寓对面幼儿园的可爱的孩子们。
On one of these walks I met with a Chinese custom, which slightly puzzled me at first. On my daily walks to the town area for shopping I would pass many residences. In summer, many of the occupants would leave their front doors open because of the heat and sit in the front room eating their meals. As I passed by they would call out friendly greetings to me and, lifting their bowls towards me, indicate that they were inviting me to join them.
在其中的一次散步中，我遇到了一个中国习俗，起初这个习俗让我有点困惑。在我每天步行到市区购物的时候，我会经过许多住宅区。在夏天，许多居住者会因为天气炎热而敞开前门，坐在前屋吃饭。当我经过时，他们会向我友好地打招呼，并向我举起他们的碗，表示他们邀请我加入他们。
Many of the students, the town people and, certainly, the rural peasants had never before set eyes on a foreigner. After a time, though, they all got used to me. the “staring squads” diminished in number and finally dwindled to the occasional small circle. As a result I constantly got invitations to banquets within the College and in the homes of town residents and teachers from other educational faculties.
许多学生，城里人，当然还有农村的农民以前从来没有见过外国人。不过过了一段时间，他们都习惯了我。“凝视的小队”逐渐减少，最终缩小到偶尔的小圈子里。因此，我经常收到国内宴会的邀请学院和城镇居民的家庭以及其他教育学院的教师。
At first I had no notion of what this meant, and didn’t know how to respond. However, I learnt from my students that the gestures were merely symbolic and traditional and that I was not expected to accept. After a while the custom ceased to embarrass me and I was able to handle it by smiling and saying, “Xie Xie” and move on without offending anyone.
起初我不知道这意味着什么，也不知道如何回应。然而，我从我的学生那里学到，这些手势仅仅是象征性的和传统的，我是不会接受的。过了一会儿，这个习俗不再让我难堪了，我笑着说“谢谢”就可以应付过去了，没有得罪任何人。
One school called the Hongxing Elementary School invited me to a music and dance performance staged especially for me. At that event I was presented with gifts and was made an honorary instructor and member of the Young Pioneers. This entailed being the center of a ceremony during which I was presented with a neckerchief to wear as a token of the honor conferred on me.
一个叫红星小学的学校邀请我去参加一个专门为我准备的音乐和舞蹈表演。在那次活动中，我收到了一些礼物，并被授予少先队荣誉指导员和成员称号。这需要成为一个仪式的中心，在这个仪式中，我被授予一个围巾，作为授予我的荣誉的象征。
All of these experiences were new to me as I had never lived and worked in an Asian country before. The Yishan experience was unique because of the status thrust upon me in my role as the only foreigner in the entire County.
所有这些经历对我来说都是新鲜的，因为我以前从未在亚洲国家生活和工作过。夷山的经历是独一无二的，因为作为全县唯一的外国人，我被赋予了这样的地位。
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