"[man narrating] I hate to admit it, but when I graduated from college," "I thought I was ready for anything." "That is until I stepped off the train in Hangzhou." "Here I was in a country of a billion people, and I didn't know a single one." "This place was different than what I'd expected." "It wasn't at all like what I'd seen in the Kung Fu movies [grunting on TV]" "No one else I knew stayed up all night to watch that stuff, but I was hooked." "[screaming]" "The hero was always small like me, but he moved like the wind, triumphed over evil and brought the bad guys to their knees, and he always got the girl." "[screams] [man speaking Chinese on P.A.]" "Welcome to China." "Thank you." "Thank you." "We are members of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of Hangzhou College." "We're responsible for the safety and convenience of foreigners." "[man narrating] It was incredible to me how my whole life seemed to lead up to this very moment." "Kung Fu lessons as a kid." "Washing dishes after school in a Chinatown restaurant, where I learned to speak Chinese." "Then college, where I majored in Chinese literature." "I was 11 when Nixon shook hands with Mao." "By the time I was 22, China had opened its doors." "In 1982, I grabbed the first job that would take me there, as an English teacher." "[camera shutter clicking]" "[horn honking]" "[man] Mr. Mark." "Huh?" "Mr. Mark!" "This is Teacher Hei." "Her name means "black."" "She has agreed to be your Chinese teacher because you have learned classical Chinese before." "Hi." "Do you want to talk about your study schedule now?" "He's wet now." "I will come back tomorrow and bring the books you need." "[Mark] Great." "Thank you." "It's too cold for you to walk around like that." "You'll catch pneumonia." "[Mark] I was hoping to mix with the students that first day, but the Foreign Affairs Bureau, following regulations, provided a separate table for their foreign friend." "[murmuring and giggling]" "[Mark] The college assigned me to teach a group known as the middle aged English teachers." "Most of them were originally Russian teachers, but for political reasons, they had been told to forget Russian and learn English." "Hello." "[Mark] I was nervous." "I was very nervous." "Please sit down." "Good afternoon, Mr. Franklin." "Welcome you to China." "We are your English students." "We are sure you will be a wonderful teacher." "Thank you very much." "But, please..." "Call me Mark." "But you are a teacher." "In China, we respect the teacher" "So we must call you "Mr. Franklin."" "But I'm young." "Just call me "Mark."" "Then we will call you "Mr. Mark."" "Is that okay?" "Really, just Mark will be fine." "Then we call "Teacher Mark"-- halfway Chinese, halfway American." "Okay, Teacher Mark." "Wonderful." "Already we have solved the contradiction" "All right, now that we've decided what my name is, why don't you introduce yourselves to me?" "Teacher Du is very fat, so we call her Fatty Du in our college." "She has a powerful voice." "Teacher Xu afraid of me." "I am not." "Oh, but you are." "Teacher Cai was a wonderful dancer when he was a young man." "He's famous in our college because he has a very beautiful wife." "She's from the countryside and has never seen a foreigner before but she'll get used to you, Teacher Mark." "What's your name?" "She's called Xiao Chun." "Her name means springtime." "Like the American name April." "April." "Yes." "Teacher Mark, can you also give me an English name?" "Let's see." "Tell me something about yourself." "I want to be in the Navy." ""Sinbad"-- what does it mean?" "Well, it really doesn't mean anything, but it's the name of a very famous sailor." "Teacher Mark, tell us something about you." "My hobby is Chinese Kung Fu." "I think I've seen every Kung Fu movie ever made." "I never saw that before." "Teacher Mark." "Teacher Mark!" "Teacher Mark!" "[knocking on door] [woman] He's sleeping." "[Mark] I told my students to come see me any time, so I was afraid Sinbad had decided to practice more English at 5 in the morning, but he said this is good." "[Mark] Who knows what Sinbad had to do to get me through those gates." "But somehow there we were, in the Hangzhou Martial Arts School, and there he was," "Pan Qingfu, one of the most famous masters in all of China, a national champion." "He'd even played a villain in Shaolin Temple, my all-time favorite Kung Fu movie." "I'd read that he was as hard as his right hand, which he developed by punching an iron plate a thousand times a day." "They called him the Iron Fist." "[speaks Chinese]" "[Mark] I grew up calling Martial Arts Kung Fu, but the word really means more than that." "It's an attitude to be applied to everything one does." "[Mark] To have Kung Fu means to do something with skill that transcends surface beauty." "What would it be like to achieve that, to have a teacher who could lead you to that kind of mastery?" "[sound of metal clanging together]" "[Mark] His eyes seemed to see right through me, a soft American who'd always had it easy" "I wasn't sure what Teacher Pan meant by "eating bitter", but coming from a man called Iron Fist, it didn't sound promising." "I learned these characters" "Want to see them?" "In China, when someone visits you in your home, you always offer them tea and something to eat first." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Here we go." "Oh, no." "I've already eaten." "Thank you." "But you just said you wanted something." "I did not." "I said, "You should offer me something."" "That is the Chinese way." "No, no, no." "That's wrong." "You should give it to me anyway." "But you said you didn't want anything." "I said that because that is being polite." "You must still offer me the candy." "Okay." "Now let's see these characters." "I thought you said you've learned them." "I did." "You must know them by heart." "Next time, no using the book." "You must master each stroke before you can go on." "Otherwise, everything you do will be so-so." "Tell me about it." "Everything I touch turns to so-so." "You're too impatient." "I'll come back next week." "In the meantime, memorize these characters." "Okay." "Thanks, Teacher Hei." "I'll see you next week." "Haven't you heard the expression "suon ke" before?" "To send a guest?" "Yes." "You always walk your guest part of the way home." "[Mark] With Teacher Hei," "I was never sure when the lesson was over, only that she seemed so determined to straighten me out that it would be useless to resist." "Oh, no." "You're too polite." "You don't have to walk me so far" "No, it's no trouble." "It's my pleasure." "Good." "You're catching on." "[singing]" "No, I come here for English books." "Your English is good." "Did you learn it in China?" "Yes, of course." "Where else?" "My hobby is reading English novels." "Who's your favorite author?" "John Steinbeck." "Yeah, he's a great writer." "How did you end up learning English?" "During medical school," "I studied English in my spare time." "You're a doctor." "Kind of." "I work in a clinic." "In a culture revolution," "I was sent down to the countryside, and I raised pigs." "Two years wasted." "So after that," "I decided to make up for it." "What are you doing here?" "I teach English here." "I wanted to come to China since I was 12 years old." "More people speak Chinese than any language in the world, which I'm sure you know, but I just kept thinking how great it would be to be able to talk to a quarter of mankind, one or two at a time, of course." "I think a lot of Americans hope they'll find something in China they can't find at home." "And that was my idea anyway." "Do you live nearby?" "No, I live far away." "I have to catch the bus before it's too late." "I'll walk you to the bus stop." "It's on my way home." "No, you can't do that." "Good-bye." "See you later." "Hey." "What are you doing Sunday?" "I'm going to the free market." "What's a free market?" "Come and see." "I didn't know you did Tai Chi." "This is just my hobby." "We have a saying here -- that a scholar should be familiar with the literary and the martial." "It makes for a good balance." "Could you teach me that routine?" "I'm not good enough." "If you want to learn something, you should always find the best teacher." "There is a very famous Wushu teacher here, Teacher Pan." "Yeah, I've met him." "I even asked him to teach me." "You know what he said?" "That's what I get for having blue eyes and a big nose." "Do I look ugly to you?" "No, not ugly." "Your face is very... three-dimensional." "Be persistent." "I think you can convince him." "[bell rings]" "[grunting]" "[laughing]" "[Mark] I wondered what Teacher Pan would show me first." "I'd always loved the double saber in Five Fingers of Death and the nine section whip in Shaolin Temple." "And how about those moves Bruce Lee did in Fists of Fury?" "[Mark] But this was better than any movie." "This was for real." "[Mark] So that was it." "My first lesson." "No whips, no sabers, just staring." "[rock and roll music playing on radio]" "[music stops]" "How much?" "About $100, U.S." "Too much." "[speaking indistinctly]" "These are dumplings." "Thank you." "Yeah." "I'd give anything for a hot fudge sundae right now." "Sunday?" "This is Sunday." "[Mark] We talked about everything." "I don't remember what we said." "I just remember her eyes, her face, the sound of her voice." "Okay, last week I asked you to write a short essay" ""My happiest moment."" "Let's start." "How about Teacher Zhang?" "I'm a sad person." "I cannot remember happy moment." ""I was assigned to teach here in Hangzhou," ""far from home." ""I tried to convince the leaders" ""to let me stay with my family," ""but it was impossible." ""I must go where the Party sends me." ""Several years ago my college gave me permission" ""to visit my family." ""When the train arrived in my hometown." ""My whole family was at the station to meet me." ""I had so much to tell them," ""but when I saw them," ""no words came out of my mouth." ""I only stood there." ""Tears fell out of my eyes like rain."" "That was a beautiful essay." "Thank you." "Teacher Cai." ""My happiest moment " ""when I was a young man," ""I attended a dance at night." ""The music was being played," ""and the stars shone brightly." ""I saw a girl standing." ""I wanted to ask her to dance," ""but as I'm a shy man," ""I did not dare." ""Then, I did." ""And we danced," ""my cheek touching hers." ""The room disappeared." ""The other people disappeared," ""and I could only see the stars dancing." ""After that," ""I did not see her ever again." ""I wonder where she is."" "Teacher Cai, have you shown this essay to your wife?" "Yes, but it doesn't matter." "She cannot read English." "Teacher Xu." "My story's very common 'cause I'm a common man." "Last winter I traveled to Peking." "My relatives there invited me to a restaurant famous for its Peking Duck." "First, we ate cold dishes, such as marinated pig stomach and sea slugs." "Then at last, the duck arrived." "The skin was brown and crisp and shiny." "In my mouth, it was like clouds disappearing." "[Teacher Xu] I must confess something, Teacher Mark." "What's that?" "This story's true, but actually, I've never been to Peking." "My wife went to Peking and had this duck." "And she often tells me about it again, again." "I think even though I was not there, it is my happiest moment." "[Mark] I had wanted to start the class off with something simple, but I was learning that nothing in China was simple, especially something like happiness." "[horn honks]" "Hey, Ming." "What happened?" "Oh, I got a perm?" "How do you think?" "Well, it's really curly." "My parents hate it." "Yeah, well, that's parents for you." "What do they know?" "I don't know if I like it now." "[Ming] Do you know this poem?" "[Ming] Whose words these are," "I think I know." "His house is in the village, though." "He will not see me stopping here to watch his woods fill up with snow." "[Mark] Ming." "You wrote her name by combining the characters for the sun and the moon." "It meant brilliance and enlightenment." "She was passionate about literature." "She knew more English poetry than I did." "She always said what was on her mind." "It was as if she had no time to lose." "[playing a medium-tempo tune]" "Teacher Mark!" "Teacher Mark!" "Sinbad." "Sinbad, what are you doing?" "Come visit my family." "[baby cries]" "[birds squawking]" "[Sinbad] Hey, hey!" "[Mark] It was the first time anyone had invited me to their home, much less on a boat." "I was touched by their generosity, but it wasn't until what happened to me later that I realized the risk they took." "[playing medium-tempo tune] [speaking Chinese] [baby crying]" "Why did you stop?" "Do they want me to play?" "This is the way we enjoy music." "Sinbad, what are the two things you think about most?" "Eating and sleeping." "Come on." "That can't be true." "It's true." "Our dormitory has terrible food, and it is always noisy at night." "What about you?" "What are your two things?" "Well, I want to be good at something, like Teacher Pan." "The other thing is" "I want people to like me, especially girls." "You know what I mean?" "But these things are so easy." "All you have to do is work hard and be nice, but eating and sleeping, that's difficult because we cannot control these things." "You see?" "I met some fishermen." "They invited me to live with them on their boat." "You crazy boy." "How can you teach if you live on a boat?" "Did you do these?" "No, my husband did." "He like to paint in ink, but during the cultural revolution, he was put in prison because these paintings are black." "I was sent to a different camp and couldn't see him, but he wrote me letters." "After awhile, he stopped writing" "They said he died of illness." "You're not wearing enough." "There's no heat in here." "Don't your parents teach you how to keep warm?" "I'm a big boy now." "How can you think you understand everything?" "You're so young, so far away from home." "I'm your teacher." "If I don't care for you, won't you be lonely?" "[medium-tempo Chinese tune playing]" "[cymbals crashing]" "[woman singing]" "Can you understand the words?" "No, but it's fantastic anyway." "The lady in white is really a snake spirit." "She falls in love with a human, but he abandons her." "[Ming] Her attendant in green wants to kill him." "[singing continues]" "But the white snake loves him so much she's protecting him." "Doesn't he love her, too?" "Yes, but she's a spirit." "So they can never be together." "[speaking indistinctly]" "But I like the last move that she does." "We have to be very careful." "What if someone sees us?" "So?" "That's our business." "In China, it's everybody's business." "I've already been criticized for liking Western things." "What's wrong with Western things?" "I thought that was all right in China now." "It's not as free as it seems." "I live in a very different world from yours." "But our worlds are getting closer." "Don't you think?" "No." "I can't." "I just can't do what I want, like you." "[all] Together we shall practice... [speaking indistinctly]" "Right." "April, why did the peasant go to the factory?" "He said together we shall practice." "[Mark] No, why did the " "This book is really boring." "[speaks Chinese]" "Let's do free talk." "Talk about anything you want." "Teacher Mark, I saw the movieTess last week." "Did you like it?" "No, I didn't enjoy it much because of the stars not beautiful." "You can't be serious." "Nastassja Kinski?" "She's gorgeous." "Her lips are too big." "They're not too big." "They're full." "Then they're too full." "A woman's lips should be like a bug, small and delicate." "Westerners think that full lips are very good." "Good for what?" "For kissing." "[all] Oh!" "[Fatty Du] Naughty boy!" "What's the matter?" "Don't people kiss here?" "Of course not." "Here in China, it's quite different from your country." "People don't kiss here." "[bell rings]" "Teacher Mark, you are honest my teacher, so I must be an honest, your student." "As to kissing, this is not always true." "I have two daughters." "One is 12." "One is 10." "I cannot kiss them because they would feel embarrassment and call me foolish." "But every night after they are asleep," "I kiss them good night, very quiet, very soft, and they don't know." "[Mark] The students rarely revealed themselves in front of others, but they sought me out alone to tell me what they really thought." "I was teaching them the rules of grammar, but they were teaching me about their lives." "[grunts]" "[Mark] I was practicing all sorts of fancy moves." "It felt great!" "I could almost hear the theme music from Rocky playing in the background, but as soon as I thought" "I was looking good," "Teacher Pan said that I was just waving my arms around and jumping up and down." ""You should look like a mad tiger" ""crashing down a mountain", he growled." ""Do every movement as if it were your last."" "[winces]" ""Don't worry," ""it's just a broken arm."" ""Don't worry," ""it's just a broken arm."" ""Don't worry," ""it'''s just a broken arm."" "Where were you, Ming?" "I waited all day." "It's been very busy at work." "Is something wrong?" "The night we stayed out, they needed me at the clinic." "My supervisor was very angry." "I'm sorry." "It's not your fault." "Who are you reading?" "Oh, Jack London." "You know, I got into a lot of trouble because of these books." "I went to a medical school to become a doctor, but the leaders of my college thought" "I spent too much time reading English novels." "They criticized me for worshipping Western things." "So they punished me by making me a counselor in a family planning clinic." "What is this?" "It's a collection of American short stories." "I just got it." "For me?" "For you." "Thank you." "Wait." "[clears throat]" "What are doing?" "Building up a friendship between our two countries." "What would happen if anyone saw you?" "Well, you saw me." "What's the hell's wrong anyway?" "Why is it so bad that I want to get to know her?" "Don't be a fool." "It's not bad for you, but it's bad for her." "Ten years ago in this country, she could have been kill ed because of knowing you." "Don't you know that?" "But that was ten years ago." "What does that have to do with now?" "My brother was killed in Korea by Americans." "I know you had nothing to do with it, but not everybody here feels the same way." "What will happen to her when you leave China?" "You've given us a very good impression of your country." "Don't spoil it." "The political situation is changing." "You must be very careful." "[Mark's voice] The student obeys the teacher." "Student." "The teacher cultivates the student." "Teacher." "[Mark] We couldn't stop now, but I couldn't even get a message to him." "I was afraid he'd think I decided not to come anymore and that he was right about me, that I couldn't eat bitter." "[door opens]" "What are you doing here?" "I have to talk to you about something." "What happened to your hair?" "My father cut it." "Why?" "Because he knows you cut it." "He doesn't want me to get in trouble." "I cannot see you anymore." "Don't do this, Ming." "Don't you see?" "You're a foreigner." "When your job is over, you will leave China." "You yourself said you could never stay here, and I cannot leave." "My family needs me." "Teacher Mark!" "Teacher Mark!" "Mr. Sung wants to see you in the Foreign Affairs Office right now." "What is it now?" "What is this of your tearing down the school?" "It was an accident." "I bumped into the wall." "I warned you." "Now I must tell you -- according to the Chinese regulations, a foreigner who destroys property will be punished by the Chinese law." "Understand?" "You should be using the past tense by now." "Teacher Ju, can you explain this picture for me?" "Yes, that's a picture of an atom bomb, isn't it?" "[Mark] Yes." "Teacher Mark, how you feeling when you know that your country dropped an atom bomb on innocent people?" "We say, "How do you feel knowing?"" "Not "how are you feeling?"" "How do you feel?" "In America, not everyone thinks it was the right thing to do, but most people think it saved lives." "How did it save lives?" "Well, by ending the war more quickly." "But, Teacher Mark, it is a fact that the Japanese had already surrendered to the Communist Army in China." "America put a bomb in Japan in order to make the world think that America was the..." "The victor." "Oh, yes, the victor." "Teacher Ju, how do you know this is a fact?" "That's what our newspapers say." "But our newspapers tell a different story, you see?" "How do we know which newspaper has told the truth?" "This is easy." "Our newspapers are controlled by the people, but your newspapers are owned by capitalists to make money." "So of course, they make things up." "Don't you think so?" "It doesn't matter." "Any capitalist country would do that." "It is not just your country." "[Mark] Being in China was like playing a game where the rules kept changing." "China needed foreigners like me to come teach English, but the officials would have preferred to tie me to my desk between classes rather than risk letting me loose to spread bourgeois ideas." "First, Ming was off-limits to me, and now teacher Pan, whose martial arts skills were suddenly considered national defense secrets." "After almost a year in China," "Teacher Hei was the only one left who could still talk to me." "If you like, you can practice with me." "I'll try to help you if I can." "Come on." "You can learn some Tai Chi." "Tai Chi is based on yin and yang, the theory of opposites." "When you tap me here, on this side," "I push you on exactly the opposite side." "Here." "Give it a try." "What's the matter?" "I give up." "You've only started." "No, no, it's not this." "It's this whole foreigner thing." "I can't deal with this anymore." "I don't want to be a foreign devil, big nose..." "[speaks Chinese]" "I didn't come here for that." "I'm just a person, like them." "Mark, come with me." "You know, the Buddha was an Indian prince." "He was a foreigner, but we made Buddhism our own." "You are a foreigner." "It's true, but you can make Wushu your own." "Sue me." "Sue me." "[Mark] Suddenly, I had a real Chinese problem, and I was going to need a Chinese solution." "I found a warehouse on campus where the Foreign Affairs people would never think to look for us." "One of the art students loaned me the key in exchange for my shortwave radio, so he and his friends could listen to the Voice of America." "[Mark] At first, it was so hard to get him to teach me, and I couldn't understand why." "Now he was defying the authorities to teach me a weapon he'd never taught anyone else, and I still couldn't understand." "Why did this mean so much to him?" "I like martial arts very much." "Don't worry." "It's just a shoulder dislocation." "May I introduce myself?" "My name's Pan Qingfu." "Pan is the surname." "Qingfu is the first name." "Do you understand?" "Yeah." "[Mark] Since teacher Pan had no phone," "I just had to wait for him to show up." "Sometimes he'd disappear for weeks at a time, and I'd go crazy, thinking maybe he'd decided I wasn't worth teaching." "Then all of a sudden, he'd find a way to appear again, teach me something new and insist that it'd be perfect the next time." "[Mark] When Teacher Pan said that about losing face," "I realized the extent of my responsibility to him, and it was scary, but also wonderful, because I began to feel it wasn't just me pushing myself anymore, but also him pulling me along from inside." "I don't understand." "In China, some teacher s are old-fashioned." "If you study with other teachers without asking their permission, they think you don't respect them." "Would it help if you talked to him for me?" "Whoever ties a knot has to untie it." "You should talk to him yourself." "[Mark] After months of working out and trying so hard," "I'd managed to offend the one man" "I wanted to please the most." "How could I get a man who said he never made mistakes to change his mind about me?" "How could I change his iron mind?" "[Mark] I couldn't believe that it was all going to end like this, but I did do one thing right." "The students' English improved." "I even taught them a few songs." "There were always getting them mixed up, though." "On my birthday, they sang Silent Night." "Teacher Mark!" "Teacher Mark!" "Someone important wants to see you." "I'm busy packing." "Why don't you give me a hand?" "I can help you later." "Come." "[Teacher Xu playing Jingle Bells on accordion] [all] # Dashing through the snow" "# On a one-horse open sleigh" "# Over the fields we go" "# Laughing all the way" "# Bells on bobtails ring" "# Making spirits bright" "# What fun it is to ride and sing" "# A sleighing song tonight [continue singing in Chinese ]" "[Mark] What's this?" "We fixed you your favorite ice cream sundae." "Doctor Wang brought the ice cream." "Teacher Shi made the sesame sauce." "And I chopped the peanuts." "Oh, that's so nice." "I'd better try it." "Delicious." "The best I ever had." "[maracas playing] [slow-tempo tune playing on violin]" "I can't believe you're here." "I had to see you one more time." "I have to go now." "Bye." "Get on." "Come on, Ming, live a little." "Get on." "[horns honking]" "What will you do, Ming?" "I will read in my room and dream." "In my imagination, I'm free, and I can do wonderful things." "I'm gonna miss you, you know?" "Really?" "Yeah." "You're different." "Your lectures make everyone laugh." "You should always stay that way." "You're the one that's special." "You must know I love you." "I have to get back now." "At the bottom, I will get off." "So I will say good-bye now." "I'll take you all the way home." "No, at the end of the bridge, I will get off." "I won't see you again, so be good." "Now go as fast as you can." "Take that sword back to America and teach good students." "[Woman speaking Chinese over loudspeaker]" "You didn't have to come all the way to the station." "You're leaving China." "I had to walk you part of the way home." "You still don't wear enough." "I knitted this for you." "Show him." "[ripping sound] [laughing]" "Ow!" "[Mark] I tried to memorize exactly how Teacher Hei looked at that moment." "[Mark] I thought of Sinbad, Teacher Pan and Ming." "I couldn't concentrate on the book I was reading." "It was America that suddenly felt like some exotic dream, and China that was real to me." "There was a saying that it's the height of stupidity to look for the donkey that you're already riding on." "I had come halfway around the world looking for places that existed mostly in my mind." "And while I didn't find what I'd expected," "I did find that I was riding on that donkey all along, and that eating bitter lets you taste sweet."