Elise playing on the Under-12 BB team

Annika on a sampan in Sai Kung

Inherit the Wind Bag part 4 of 4

Rather than picking out a couple of five-minute clips to show the whole class, I would break students into small groups and have each group watch a different twenty-minute segment of the movie. Then I would have students go to the internet to compare those scenes with what really took place in the Scopes Trial.

It was going to be a lesson in discernment. Truth Investigators: Hong Kong edition.

It went well. Better than expected. My students proved themselves to be astute and insightful. As a class, we had a really great conversation about history, Hollywood, and who controls our collective stories.

We decided to leave the evolution/creationism debate for the science and Bible classes. Instead, as a history/literature class, we had a meta-conversation in which we talked about how we talk about all the talk that surrounds the ongoing faith-science talk.

My students concluded that while people are free to think what they want: new earth, old earth, evolutionary creationism, intelligent design, atheistic evolution; it’s important that both sides not be mis-characterized.

Despite its star-studded cast, critical acclaim, and continued use in American classrooms, Inherit the Wind is a sad example of what happens when those who control the storytelling are willing to sacrifice the truth for the sake of an ostensibly higher cause.

I hesitated to bring America’s heated culture wars into my Hong Kong classroom. I was kind of hoping to leave all that baggage at the gate. But this was too ripe of an opportunity to teach my students one of history’s most important lessons: Truth is the first casualty of any war.

Inherit the Wind Bag part 3 of 4

At every turn, the movie makers took every opportunity to make small-town people of faith look bigoted, narrow-minded, and ignorant. The portrayal would be almost comical if it weren’t so egregious. The stereotyping of Middle America is so bad as to be on par with depictions of napping Mexicans in sombreros and hayseed African-Americans eating watermelon.

By contrast, the movie systematically makes the supporters of evolution look even-keeled, intelligent, and dedicated to high-minded principles.

Pretty ironic that a movie that purportedly is about doggedly pursuing the truth played fast and loose with the facts. A movie about relentlessly pursuing the truth that does anything but.

At first I was bummed out that I had wasted money securing a copy of the DVD (man alive does Amazon stick it to you for overseas shipping) that was pretty much useless for teaching the historic 1925 Scopes Trial.

But then I realized that all was not lost. In fact, this was a golden opportunity.

As a history and English teacher, one of my objectives is to teach media literacy. For example, every quarter, all my history students have to watch a movie of their choosing about American history (Flyboys, October Skies, The Right Stuff…) and write up a book-report style synopsis.

Watching parts of “Inherit the Wind” could help students learn to not unthinkingly accept everything that Hollywood churns out.

I rewrote my lesson plans.

Inherit the Wind Bag part 2 of 4

The movie played fast and loose with the facts.

Shockingly so.

For example, early in the movie the dour town elders -including the reverend- slip into the back of the classroom to witness Bertram Cates (John Scopes) in the act of teaching evolution. When the mayor had heard enough, he gives the nod to the local constable who dramatically arrests the young Mr. Cates/Scopes in front of his students.

In reality, John Scopes –who was a football coach and sometimes substitute teacher- later confessed in his autobiography that –to the best of his knowledge- he never subbed for high school biology, and he almost certainly never taught evolution. He simply volunteered to serve as a test case when the town leaders asked him to do so. (They town leaders were hoping that all the national attention would be a boon for their small town. It was.)

Also, the movie has a tender scene where Scopes –oops, sorry, Cates- is languishing in the local jail. He’s visited by his fiancée who pleads with him to not adhere so vigorously to his lofty principals so that things might go easier for him. Very tender. Very dramatic.

But the truth is that Scopes never spent a single day in jail. (And what’s more, Scopes didn’t even have a girlfriend at the time –let alone a fiancée.)

And the list goes on and on.

It fact, the movie takes so many liberties with the truth that there are webpages dedicated to comparing what the movie depicts and what really happened in Dayton, Tennessee in the sweltering summer of 1925.

Inherit the Wind Bag part 1 of 4

As part of our eighth grade American history course I teach the 1920s. Our curriculum includes the 1925 Scope Trial that made the creation/evolution debate part of the national dialog.

I remember being in eleventh grade and reading the play Inherit the Wind in Mrs. Shellnut’s literature class and then watching the 1960 black and white movie starring Spenser Tracy and Gene Kelly.

The play has been translated into thirty languages and is required reading for tens of thousands of American high school students every year. The play has been adapted into a movie not once but three times. The 1960 Spenser Tracy version of the movie was nominated for four academy awards. It enjoys a 90% approval rating on the meta-critic site rottentomatos.com.

I sent away for a copy of the DVD hoping to use a scene or two to teach the Scopes Trial. After re-watching the movie, I was a little taken aback.

The first thing I noticed was that the movie didn’t use any of the participants’ actual names. Instead they substituted all cleverly similar names: William Jennings Bryant became Matthew Harrison Brady. Clarence Darrow became Henry Drummond. John Scopes became Bertram Cates.

I soon found out why.

Excuse me, You’re Stepping on My Qi

This from last week's South China Morning Post newspaper:

The Hong Kong government has admitted spending millions of dollars in order to rebalance the feng shui of neighboring businesses and apartment buildings that have been near government construction projects.

City officials have promised to draw up strict guidelines on the practice after a campaign by the South China Morning Post forced them to admit that at least 9 million Hong Kong dollars had been spent in recent years compensating people living around construction projects for disturbing their feng shui.

Feng shui, a system of Chinese fortune-telling, has been used for centuries to orientate buildings in an auspicious manner, in order to help the flow of qi, or vital energy.

The practice of feng shui was banned in China during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s but has made a dramatic revival in recent years, especially in the superstitious south.

In Hong Kong, anyone whose property is affected by a public construction project is entitled to claim compensation from the government for damage to their qi. Typically, claimants ask the government to pay for a "tun fu" cleansing ritual, which involves a feng shui master performing rites.

In recent years, roads, bridges, tunnels and phone lines have been judged to have offended feng shui. The most notable recent offense was caused by a new express rail link between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, for which at least 17 compensation payments have been lodged.

Since feng shui is a subjective art, critics have said the cleansing rituals amount to a shakedown, with feng shui masters and landlords colluding to launch outrageous claims before splitting the proceeds.

After being pressed in the Hong Kong parliament, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the secretary for development, said there would be improvements in "operational transparency" on the feng shui payments. However, she declined to open an investigation into how much had been spent.

The Piano Teacher

When Aunt Julie was here in November, she gave me a book as a way to say thank you for hosting her. I was very excited, looked it over several times, set it on the pile of books next to my bed, and then promptly forgot about it.

Early this week, I was discussing books with a one of my fellow teachers while eating lunch. She mentioned that she and her book club were reading The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee a story set in Hong Kong during and after the Second World War. It sounded really intriguing. I made a mental note to track down a copy.

That night –having recently finished Tai Pan by James Clavell- I was looking to start another book. I cleared away an old church bulletin and an old Reader’s Digest that my mother had sent in her Christmas care package and I grabbed the next book from the top of my bedside stack.

Lo and behold, there was The Piano Teacher. What a pleasant surprise.

I couldn’t put it down for three days. I just spent the better part of a lazy Saturday morning finishing it. It was excellent.

It chronicles the life of an Englishman recently arrived in Hong Kong and a local Chinese socialite. The novel begins shortly before the Japanese occupy Hong Kong during World War II. The story reveals how each of the characters adapts in order to survive when the social order they know is turned on its head.

The book was thoroughly researched and does a phenomenal job of capturing the vibe of life in Hong Kong during the height of its colonial hey days in the months leading up to Japanese occupation.

The young socialite, Trudy –who is actually Eurasian- is one of the more memorable characters I have read.

Plus, it was just a lot of fun to read about all the Hong Kong sites and locations that we as a family have gotten to know: picnics at Big Wave Bay, wet markets in Wan Chai, dai pai dong eateries scattered everywhere.

Whether you've lived in Hong Kong all your life or have never been before, if you are interested in a piece of fiction that perfectly captures the essence of Hong Kong –albeit 60 years ago- you can’t do much better than picking up a copy of The Piano Teacher.

-Jack

Note: While the author handles it all deftly and subtly, this is not an all-ages book. It contains the compromises and choices adults make during tumultuous times.