China initiative 2000
Lisa Teoh plans teaching programmes for rural China
My fellow students tried their best to
seem appreciative as we were treated to dinner by a number of overwhelmingly hospitable Chinese officials. Tom poked a chopstick at a bundle of goo. "It
tastes like dogs' scrotums," he mumbled
through the squelch.
I translated for our hosts, "He says he has
never tasted such delicious food," and continued my explanation of why we were in
Dapu. We had come to meet my distant relatives and live with them for a while in the
ancestral home, and get a taste of life in the
heart of rural China.
Pharmacist puts together blends of Chinese herbs at a traditional medicine clinic (AP PHOTO/VINCENT YU)
The mayor of Dapu began to laugh. "You
mean you actually want to live in the house?
No way!" he spluttered in Chinese. "You will
have no water, no conveniences, not possible
for foreigners." "What's he saying?" Tom
asked. "He says it IS dog's scrotums."
Dapu ("big pu") is a little town in southeast China. My family's ancestral home is on
the outskirts of Dapu, set in an idyllic landscape of hills, rivers, and paddy fields. Its
name is Bu de Tang, an old Hakka mansion
with 126 rooms that has managed to survive
the ravages of communism, flooding, and
time. A small section of the house provides a
home for my relatives, who struggle valiantly to find the money and time to preserve the
remaining rooms and the ancestral pride. To
us as English medical students the house is
an inlet into the alien, inaccessible culture of
rural China - and it shimmers with allure.
The purpose of our trip last summer was
to meet my relatives, talk to the officials in
Dapu, and assess whether Bu de Tang could
be restored and used to benefit the community. This would involve living in the house,
and our first task was to convince the mayor
that despite our obvious disadvantages as foreigners we were (a) harmless and (b) able and
determined to survive away from air-conditioned luxury. It was easier to convince him
of the former than the latter. It seems strange
that we had to get permission from the mayor
to be able to stay with my relatives, but everything in China has to be official. As the only
four foreigners in Dapu, we were like Martians on Earth, and it was impossible to walk
down the street without causing a public stir.
We chewed through unidentified offal and
downed rice wine with enthusiasm, and I concocted phrases such as, "We crazy English students like adventure." By the end of lunch we
managed to obtain "official permission" to
stay at least a short time in Bu de Tang.
A tour of the hospitals in Dapu was next
on our agenda. It was a fascinating insight,
but it dampened our idea of turning the
house into a hospital. The facilities in Dapu
are extraordinarily good considering the size
of the town, because of generous donations
from overseas Chinese. The main problem is
not lack of facilities, but a shortage of doctors. The communist system of "barefoot
doctors" in every village has been abandoned; they have all migrated to the large
towns and there is no incentive for medical
professionals to work in the poorer areas.
The other problem is lack of personal funds
to pay for healthcare; the big hospitals were
surprisingly empty. Workers in towns have
their care funded by their companies, but
there is an increasing shift towards privatisation. In the villages, if anyone requires serious medical treatment, the villagers all pitch
in without question to help pay.
The growth of wealth and capitalism in
China means that rural areas are being left
behind in developmentūperhaps for the
better. People cannot afford luxuries such as
piped water; but the community spirit lives
on, untouched by the frantic greed and
tourism of the Chinese cities. Staying in Bu
de Tang gave us a taste of real China, and we
wished that there was something more we
could offer to the community after all they
had given us.
The idea of teaching English caught their
enthusiasm and ours, and we are planning an
annual English summer camp to be held in
Bu de Tang. Medical students from Bristol
and Guangzhou Universities will live in the
house and teach English in the village school.
The rooms will gradually be repaired as publicity and increased funds allow, so that more
students can come each summer. Eventually
we may even be able to teach on the premises in the four large courtyards. Students in
the village will have the opportunity to learn
English, and the medical students will be
given an insight into an otherwise inacces
sible part of China that is in need of medical
professionals. Students from Beijing University are also keen to be involved and have
suggested teaching healthcare in Dapu as
part of the project.
The project has inspired Bristol Medical School to set up a special study module in Chinese, which 10 students have joined already.
This spring we are learning Chinese and
raising funds for the repair of Bu de Tang. We
are positive that there is a long term future for
this neglected mansion as a base for a new
project, someone's inspiration, which will turn
it to good use for the community. Meanwhile,
the simple generosity of the people in Bu de
Tang has begun a lasting friendship with students that we hope will continue.
If you would like to sponsor the rebuilding
of Bu de Tang, have ideas about how it could
benefit the local community, or would like to
teach English there next summer we would
be delighted to hear from you. Please email
Lisa Teoh and visit our website.
This project is run as part of MEDSIN
(Medical Students International Network)
Bristol, part of an international network of
students that aims to promote awareness and
improvement in public health both at home
and abroad.
Lisa Teoh, 2nd year medical student, Bristol Medical School
Email: lt8673@bristol.ac.uk
studentBMJ 2000;08:217-258 July ISSN 0966-6494
