The Luxury of Hot Water
Sias University
Henan Province, China
Spring 2012
When I was teaching in China, my students often commented about how lucky they were to have access to the hot water they wanted from 7PM to 11PM. It was such a luxury to them that I didn’t dare tell them that we, the foreign faculty, had hot water on demand. I could take a shower any time of the day. Now, it wasn’t a great shower and some days, the water was chillier than others. But hot water was never an issue for me.Then, I went to visit another university and found these water thermoses all over the campus. These students do not have any running hot water. As a matter of fact, the only hot water available to them is what they fetch in these thermoses at 5PM each night. This little bit of hot water is their allotment for the day.
So, in the morning, on their way to classes, they leave their thermos in line and come back at % to stand in line and fill their containers. It was then that I understood why my students bragged about their access to hot water.
