Busy Day!

Tuesdays are my busy days. I have 6 hours of classes (three two hour classes). This morning I had my Hong Kong's Heritage class. I think the class will be very interesting and I heard we will take field trips (!!). Today we looked at different maps of what how Hong Kong was developed before and after the British came during the 1800s. My professor is very knowledgeable and was able to tell us some pretty cool facts.
Apparently in the late 1800s, Hong Kong was predominantly male (over 80%). The majority of females were prostitutes. Hence, venearal diseases were rampant. At one point, the French vice president was coming to Hong Kong so the Hong Kong government (British at the time) asked for a special guard to greet him. The army was unable to provide enough men because over 87% of their men were too sick with venearal disease to stand out for one to two hours! So after that, the government decided to do something about the problem and created a registration system for prostitutes and brothels. When women came to register they had to prove they were there by their own free will and that they were going to go work in registered brothels. They were then given a license and had to be checked once a month by doctors. If they were infected then they had to go to a "lock hospital," which they couldn't leave until they were declared clean by the doctors. There were 5 classes of prostitutes, each of which worked different locations.
1) Prostitutes for wealthy Chinese men - didn't get checked monthly because the men objected to their women being inspected by European male doctors
2) Prostitutes for rich Europeans (merchants and army officers)
3) Prostitutes for "koolies" (low class Chinese)
4) Prostitutes for European "riffraff" (soldiers)
5) Prostitutes for non-Chinese and non-Europeans (ex. Malays)
Apparently it was a criminal offense if you were found after dark in an area where the brothels were not of your class.
Within 18 months of the implementation of this system, the number of men with venereal diseases dropped to 3%! However, when London found out about the system, they objected to it on the grounds of "it was too demeaning to women to be inspected by male doctors." So they ordered the Hong Kong government to cancel the system, which they would do, but then immediately reinstate it with almost identical terms. It took over fifty years for London to completely get rid of the prostitute registration system.
I don't know if anyone else finds this interesting, but I think it is fascinating!

Anyway, I had my first Hong Kong Popular Culture class today. The class is mostly local students with only other two international students. My professor is a very goofy Chinese man. He told us he would try to end class on time, but people who become teachers love to talk and he really loves to talk - haha. I think the class will be interesting and maybe it will inspire some idea for what to do my thesis on (I have been playing with the general idea of comparing east and west conceptions of beauty).

Right after that class, I had my first Understand Drawing class. I am really excited  for the class because it will be totally different from any class I have been taking in college (except for maybe some dance classes). My professor is a British woman (or at least that's what her accent sounds like) who seems very cool. We even got to draw in our first class. The class will be a mix of drawing and theory. Today we had to choose one of three drawings to draw. I chose one drawing of two eggs on a piece of paper. Then we had to get in groups based on the drawing we chose and brainstorm different features of the drawing and say why we chose it. Each group had to have a spokesperson and when no one else in my group seemed willing to volunteer, I decided to go ahead and do it. It was kind of hard to understand what my group mates were trying to say because they haven't learned any terminology yet (luckily I remembered some from Arts and Ideas in high school). We did our best and for once I wasn't that nervous to talk in front of people (maybe it was because I know I have an advantage because English is my native language).

So far I really like all my classes and I am pretty excited to learn more. I will be learning things and taking classes that I would never be able to take at Washington College. I am so glad I decided to study abroad in Asia and experience a very very different culture.


Here is a photo of when I was briefly in Hong Kong last year. The night view is so gorgeous!