Thanksgiving 2015
Sias University
Henan Province, China
I am teaching in China at Sias University. I live in an apartment in the foreign faculty dormitory. There are 125 of us from the USA. So as Thanksgiving begins to roll around, the university administration recognizes they have to make some sort of accommodations for us. There will be a traditional dinner and we are allowed to cancel our afternoon classes. All other faculty are not afforded this luxury. It's business as usual for everyone else on campus.
We may bring guests but a dinner ticket for this meal is $30. A regular guest ticket, any other night, is just $5. Additionally, our guests may not be Chinese. They must be American or some other foreign nationality. No Chinese are allowed to celebrate this unknown holiday.
All of the cafeteria staff have to report early that day and stay until the last of us have had our fill of this strange food. Seven turkeys are cooked. A large vat of mashed potatoes are made. Faculty members are allowed to make large quantities of family recipes. So the kitchen is packed with chefs and cooks and the atmosphere is chaotic and nosiey. There have been no efforts to coordinate what people are making. So there are a few duplicates on the yam dishes and green bean casseroles. Because there is no bread in China, stuffing presents a challenge. But some faculty knew to stock up on stuffing mix when they were last in the USA. There are plenty of desserts that are too sweet for the Chinese taste buds. We are even served beer and wine. It is a huge effort to make this quantity of food and everyone expresses their gratitude to the staff.
We all gather in the lobby which has been transformed into a large dining room. At 6PM, grace is offered and we line up. The turkeys are brought out, plopped on the table and the rest of the food is served. There is no presentation of the meal. There is only quick delivery service. So one or two faculty members step off and offer to carve. By the time they finished carving, there was nothing left for them to eat. And that is just too bad, nothing else is offered to them. The empty carcasses are scooped up and floating in a broth soup the next day. Noting goes to waste in China. So many of them are so thankful any day they can get anything to eat.
