I arrived in Chongqing on Tuesday at about 1:30am, slept for a few hours, then met Dr. Zheng at 4pm to fly to Zhengzhou.
View from my apartment in Chongqing
My first stop on my journey was Zhengzhou, China. Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan Province with a population of about 7 million. We arrived very late and checked into the hotel. The hotel where we were staying often has important government officials stay there and when they do there is security checks to get through the gates. On this evening as we arrived the police stopped us for a blind security check. We all had to get out of the vehicle and show a passport or ID and hotel stay confirmation.
Being stopped by the police. This was actually on the 2nd day. We were stopped several times.
Finally, we checked into the hotel and got to our room. Such a soft bed….ahhhh. I slept like a baby.
The next day we went to Zhengzhou University to meet with Professor Meng who developed the first interpreter education program in China. China has less than seven interpreter education programs but only a couple teach “natural” sign language. The other programs teach signing exact Chinese (which would be similar to SEE in the US). Professor Meng wanted Dr. Zheng and I to meet a Hanzi, a deafblind girl, who is being supported with volunteers from the CSL program. Every week ten volunteers donate 1-2 hours to go to Hanzi’s house to teach her language. In China programs for deafblind do not exist. Hanzi was a delightful and cheerful young woman who said that her goal was to go to college. We visited for several hours then went to a local restaurant for lunch.
Dr Zheng speaks to one of the volunteers who work with a young woman who is deaf blind
Professor Meng and all the volunteers. The deaf blind girl in in the center in a plaid dress
After lunch we went to the Gallery of the Silent. A center where deaf artist display and sell their art. Professor Meng wanted to support entrepreneurship and self-employment of deaf artist. This center was one of her visions for improving the lives of people who are deaf. Artist start at the center and once their work becomes well known they can then open their own businesses. It was a wonderful tour that ended in a traditional Chinese tea.
CEO, Artist, and staff from the Gallery of the Silent.
Gallery of the Silent logo. Look at the ear…
Gallery of the Silent
Gallery oil painting by a deaf artist.
Beautiful oil painting by deaf artist.
CEO of the Gallery of the Silent. Wall of Chinese paper cutting.
The next day we drove to Kaifeng Special Education School. When we arrived we were greeted by the staff and student with a performance. We spent the morning touring the school and learning about their program. In the afternoon we were able to meet with staff to talk about their approach and philosophy for educating the deaf.
Kaifeng school staff and students. Students performed a chinese dance as we arrived.
Chinese to English interpreter named Amy, Me, Dr. Zheng, and Principal of Kaifeng SE School
Counseling room at Kaifeng Special Education School
Sand therapy counseling room Kaifeng at Special Education School
On Friday we went back to the University for an all-day seminar on interpreter education. Some colleagues from the UK had arrived and we meeting with interpreter education students. The seminar focused on language development of hearing students wanting to become interpreters.
CSL interpreter students from Zhengzhou University, and UK colleagues
The three colleagues from the UK are all professors of sign language studies and are all deaf. It was really a challenging day moving between 5 languages: Chinese, English, CSL, BSL and ASL. After working with the interpreter education students we attended a preview of a new open online CSL program. Zhengzhou University has been working for several years to produce an online product that would allow anyone to learn CSL. They showed a preview of some of the lessons and asked for feedback from us as well as some folks from the deaf community. It was really good to see the work that China is doing to try to not only standardize but publize and advocate for learning CSL. Professor Meng has worked very hard to improve services and access for people who are deaf in China. Her dream is to have a deaf university modeled after Gallaudet.
Meeting about a new open and free software to to teach ASL
We ended the day with a presentation on CSL poetry by Zhangpeng. His presentation was focused on how deaf culture and deaf art evolved in the United States. Although the presentation was completely in CSL I was able to understand his presentation because of being familiar with the context.
Zhangpeng lectures on CSL poetry
Zhangpeng shared how his own development of CSL poetry was inspired by deaf American artist like Ben Bahan. He also shared how Gallaudet University was the heart of deaf culture and deaf identity. For the 300 plus students that were there that night it was empowering. They asked a lot of questions about going to galluadet and studying there. Even though I didn’t understand everything being shared I understood enough to know it make a significant impact on the students who attend. It was a beautiful evening and I felt really proud to be part of the American deaf community.
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