Making it Happen: A Shansi Time Capsule
By Elaine Wu ‘21, Taigu Fellow 2021-2023
My first year of college, I started creating what came to be known as “time capsule” playlists. Back then it started off simply as a matter of convenience, for having a shared spotify account at the time meant that I didn’t have a place to keep track of all my liked songs. Thus, having one chaotic mass playlist where I could store them offered a quick fix.
These semester-long playlists have served me well over the years, appealing to the data-minded part of my brain that relishes being able to analyze the development of my music taste over time. Through these collections, I can see my listening habits, phases, and regressions. I joke about the state of my emotional condition during time periods being reflected in the length of these playlists, glimmering through the gaps in between songs, but it really is not that far off. For better or for worse, music for me has always evoked memory, emotion, and the passage of time. So when asked to reflect over my time as a Shansi Fellow so far, I immediately found myself opening Spotify and retracting my steps.
Fall 2021:
自娱自乐 (Amuse Oneself) - 金志文
Before the start of the semester, spurred on by the lingering motivation of just having completed my remote summer language learning, I made an effort to surround myself with as much Chinese as possible. And while I watched mainland Chinese historical romance TV series and listened to language learning podcasts, I have found that one of the most accessible and easiest ways to engage has been through a platform I was already quite familiar with prior–Douyin. Also known as the Chinese version of Tiktok, despite having an almost identical logo and being owned by the same company, Douyin is actually a separate app with its own unique features and slightly sketchier APK download process. "Amuse Oneself" is a song that went viral on the app, a deceptively upbeat pop song that talks about life repeatedly knocking you down but still laughing through it all.
While the algorithm is certainly not perfect, I do feel like Douyin helped me feel ever so slightly closer to my students. In addition to “passive language learning” I was also able to familiarize myself with some Chinese internet slang as well, and it even brought to my attention the difference in usage and meaning with various Wechat emojis. I later found myself utilizing this rudimentary knowledge of Chinese internet decorum as an instrument to draw students out of their shells and to encourage interaction. Additionally, the feeling of triumph that comes from understanding the casual side comments students write on their homework assignments such as “shanxi noodles yyds” alone has given me the energy to push through entire weeks of unfinished grading.
Spring 2022:
藍色房間 (Blue Room) - 許含光Lumi Hsu
When I first received news of the amount of students I would be teaching– almost 300, from the first semester–I was overcome by a sense of dread. I was a new teacher, how could I possibly juggle that many students? How could I connect with and support them from across the world?
The issue of teaching remotely, especially for this kind of experience-driven fellowship, is that you are always the one reaffirming yourself on the meaningfulness of your work. Without an active give-and-take, it's easy to, well, feel stuck. Compensating for the feeling of not doing enough, I spent long hours in my room fussing over details. During that time, I also was playing music almost consistently in the background and learned about a lot of new artists, like Lumi Hsu. "Blue Room" was one of the first songs of his that I listened to.
The spring semester, the amount of students cut in half. With seemingly so much less to handle, we pushed on seeking connection. Outside of class, my co-fellow Jess and I organized extra credit incentivised language events, waking up at ungodly hours to encourage better turnout, and were usually met with a sea of achingly silent black screens. As time went on, our persistence paid off in the form of gradually increasing responses to our questions, lively engagement in the chat, and the occasional open camera, even if it was just to wave goodbye. While we savored our small successes, that didn’t make it any less tiring. When I accepted this position, I understood that I had to adjust my expectations of the fellowship experience. It took me a bit longer to realize that I had to adjust my expectations for myself as well.
Summer 2022:
Love in The Afternoon - Lamp / 終結孤單 (Loneliness Terminator) - 五月天Mayday
My summer started off slow, before taking off all at once. Halfway through, I simultaneously received news of matters concerning my grandfather's health and of an incoming adjustment to Taiwan’s COVID-19 and border policies. That decided it for me; I was going to relocate. I knew that it was possible, having heard the stories of other fellows who had done something similar, and my confidence had grown in navigating my day-to-day teaching responsibilities over the past year that I was sure I'd be able to handle the adjustment. After a year of stillness, making the decision to go abroad felt easy but unceremonious. Even as I went through the hectic logistical process of securing a quarantine hotel and everything else, I never let myself fully believe that I was really leaving until I got on the plane itself.
Fall 2022:
浮躁 (Impetus) - Faye Wong
I had to quarantine for a week, during which I listened primarily to two albums: The Cloud Knows? (如果雪知道) by Valen Hsu and Impetus (浮躁) by Faye Wong. Impetus is one of my favorite songs on the album, but it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time before I thought to google the lyrics. To which I found that A) a majority of the song is not singing words at all, and B) the song starts off singing about how boring September is, ironically.
My quarantine aligned with the start of the semester, and I was able to take that time to prepare for the upcoming weeks. Despite not being able to leave my room, and eating variations of the same lunchbox everyday, I felt reinvigorated. I eagerly busied myself with preparing for the semester ahead – now much easier, in the same time zone.
Winter Break 2022-2023:
Uluwatu temple!
Asmalibrasi - Soegi Bornean
This popular song was shazamed at a coffee shop in Yogyakarta, when I visited Sam, one of the Jogja Fellows, in December.
Thanks to the generous holiday break, I was able to spend almost three weeks in Indonesia from December to January. We spent the first week visiting Sam before flying to Bali together with our other friends. I can't express how fortunate I felt having the opportunity to see a glimpse of her life there. Whether it be seeing her local haunts, meeting her friends, or unintelligibly listening to her chat with Grab drivers in Bahasa Indonesia, I kept thinking about how this is what the Shansi Fellowship is all about, even if it came about in a roundabout way.
Afterwards, joined by a mix of lovely friends new and old, we flew together to Bali and spent the rest of our trip there. When I first accepted the fellowship in early 2021, I remember slogging through finals, struggling to find the willpower to finish writing my many essays. I remember, then, excitedly picturing my future Shansi travels. The distant concept of potentially going to somewhere as mystical sounding as Bali then had acted as a source of motivation (and procrastination, because I also spent a lot of time making an ordered playlist about it) to complete my last semester. During my first remote year, I cannot deny that I bitterly listened to that playlist once or twice thinking about how I pictured myself in-country when I made it. But I played it as background music in Uluwatu, while we watched the sunset by the pool at our homestay on one of our final nights there, and I just remember thinking–we still made it happen.
Spring 2023 (and beyond):
稻香 (Rice Field) - 周杰倫Jay Chou
One of my favorite topics to teach every semester is music. Seeing how the students are so eager to share their tastes always makes it one of the more memorable weeks, and one that I always look forward to. For their “check-in” question, which students have to individually answer by recording a voice memo in the class Wechat group, I asked them to send me a recording introducing their favorite song and why. It is always of little surprise to me that Jay Chou’s name often appears. Often hailed as the King of Mandopop, Jay Chou is everywhere. His albums have and continue to influence entire generations, domestic and abroad. I, too, grew up listening to his albums.
This time teaching this lesson, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find that out of the many who chose his songs, by far the most commonly beloved was “稻香”, which directly translates to “Fragrance of the Rice Fields.” It’s quite wholesome when you remember that these are agricultural studies students, many who also came from more rural areas. (Along the same lines, another song that came up quite a few times was John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads”.)
From where I am in Taiwan, whether it be my grandparents house or the university campus I later started a part time internship at, rice paddies are never very far away. My arrival had just so aligned with a new growing season, one out of three a year, and over the past couple months, I have watched the planted sprouts. These funny looking spiky little tufts grow into an undulating carpet of slender stalks and leaves before harvest–when their original bunches, now of dry yellowed stems, were revealed once again. I look around and think to myself how remarkable it is that despite not being able to go to Taigu I still ended up abroad in a small rural area. Although I have yet to physically step foot in mainland China, because of the opportunities I have been given I still have managed to start fulfilling my original goal of connecting with family there, simply by doing what I can from here. In the song, Jay Chou sings about cherishing what you have and what you don't. Move forward in life, but don't forget the sense of wonder from your childhood. Be grateful for the little things around and within you, like nostalgic memories of chasing dragonflies in the field, or the fragrance of the rice fields. This song has been with me since childhood, but being here, the scent is new. I’ve gathered a new appreciation for what I have, and what is yet to come. And thanks to my students, my memories with this song continue to grow.