The penultimate profile of those who greatly affected me during my little gig in Changzhou will feature the goofy, comedic, short and (self-admittedly) slant-eyed Qin Chen. Qin Chen was, with Cao Xingxing and Zhao Min, a senior studying business English during my first year in China. Before I say anything else about Qin Chen, I have to mention that Qin Chen is a person that carried the Chinese people’s reputation for hospitality to a whole new level. Chinese people are rough and disrespectful with others in public, and Chinese customer service generally amounts to little more than either “there’s nothing I can do” or “you should find the manual and read it.” But, when dealing with visitors to either their home or country, Chinese people treat them with the utmost consideration and kindness. I can’t count the number of Qin Chen took time out of her day to help me with some frivolous task or non-essential question over the past two years. Qin Chen and her family (I visited twice) also embodied something I have found true in many countries, that often those with the least to offer are the most generous. 
Qin Chen is front and center, w/ her family
For me, besides a great friend (with an annoying penchant for pinching), Qin Chen is very emblematic of the monumental change that has occurred in the past forty years, and more precisely in the past twenty. For a quick refresher, after thirty years of autarky (or attempted autarky) under Chairman Mao, in 1978-9 China dramatically changed from a state-planned and controlled economy to a capitalist economy open to the world market. Now pretty much everything that isn’t made in the US or Japan is made in China. The differences between Qin Chen’s life and those of her forebears are perfectly representative of this magnificent change. Furthermore, because I was teaching English during my two years in the People’s Republic, Qin Chen’s story is personal for me, as English played the pivotal role. 
Qin Chen is from a small town called Qutang, which is part of the Hai An district, which pertains to Nantong, a prefecture on the northern side of the Yangzi (Shanghai, the world’s fourth biggest city, is on the southern side). So, technically, Qin Chen comes from northern Jiangsu province, although cities just north of the Yangzi like Nantong and Yangzhou have a lot in common with richer, more developed southern Jiangsu. Qutang is very small by Chinese standards, consisting of no more than eight or ten main streets, with streets like the one Qin Chen lives on shooting off. Qutang is an agricultural town, with peanuts, soybeans, various greens, and chickens being raised by many of its residents. The other main industry is manufacturing (big surprise in China, eh). Her father works at a valve factory, in what Qin Chen describes as a tiresome, repetitive, and manually tough job. I do not know exactly what he does at the factory. Her mom used to work at a silkworm factory (silk is also a big industry in parts of Jiangsu) but it downsized and now she works at a grocery store, which Qin Chen says is a much less tiring for her mother, who also acts as a caretaker of Qin Chen’s grandmother and uncle who has Down syndrome. Qin Chen’s house is rural and basic, but filled with the awesome personalities of her gracious mother and fun loving father. The kitchen table is often the site of mah-jongg games. They cook with fires powered usually by rice or other plant stocks, and the toilet is a simple latrine. Her grandmother still tends to some rows of greens and other vegetables that are 10 meters behind the house. Qin Chen is the first person in her entire extended family to have attended and graduated from college, and is one of few who have a high school diploma. 
While her grandmother cooks over a fire, and pulls weeds in her rows of cabbage and bok choy, Qin Chen will sit in her room, texting her friends over the cell phone she bought with the money she earns working for an “international” firm, and downloading the most recent episode of Lost or Gossip Girl on her laptop. Qin Chen is single and has no children, and has people underneath her at her job. Needless to say that Qin Chen’s life at 22 is pretty different from that of her mom at 22, not even to mention her grandmother. Now, you might say that’s true for everyone around the world, and it probably is. But, in all of China except two or three cities, the mobile phone, television, Internet, washing machine, high school education, cars, intercity rail, foreigners, and women in the work force all arrived within the same twenty years. While David and I very well may have been the first foreigners her parents saw up close and personal, Qin Chen had a slew of foreign teachers in college, and now engages with Brits and Aussie’s on a fairly regular basis. She does this because she works for a company that makes golf trolleys. If you, like me, have no idea what this is, here’s your chance to learn something new today. A golf trolley is essentially a mechanized golf bag stand on three small wheels. It serves that niche market of people who cannot afford or choose not to use caddies, do not want to carry their own clubs, and are playing on a ‘no-carts’ course. Qin Chen is the translator of choice whenever the buyers come into check on the factory. I say that Qin Chen works for an “international” company because it is owned by a Hong Kong firm, which, although part of China, has its own economic and political system. (Insert your own “One country, two systems” joke here.) Qin Chen lives a life so different than all her ancestors because she can speak, read, and write English. She is also the first member of her family to not work in Qutang, her hometown, yet another difference. It makes me feel like my two years in China were just a tad bit productive to know that my classes helped develop a skill that is so useful in China (you can’t sell the things you make if you can’t communicate with the people that want to buy them). Moreover, it’s that this skill can help open up new avenues for the students I taught, providing them a glimpse into new cultures, industries, and income generating activities. If you know me, you know how highly I value learning, seeing, and hearing new things. Maybe all some of my students will use their English for is to better understand Gossip Girl, but, for high achievers like Qin Chen, English has opened her up to new cultures and industries (like the incredibly essential golf accessories industry).
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