Capoeira in Albacete, and Ego in Martial Arts

I've wanted to do it ever since I first learned about it. When Sarah introduced it to me personally during my sophomore year at Kalamazoo, I found it to be so very different, and so very interesting. A community of people that practices capoeira together has such a different feel than a community that practices karate together. Not only does the flipping and the acrobatic aspect appeal to me, but the ideas and the philosophy of it appeals to me as well (at least from what I understand of it). Whereas one thing that turned me off about judo and karate what how personal and competitive people got, getting egos involved in training, what appeals to me the most about capoeira is the element of play. When judo-ka say that they are going to play judo, what they really mean is that they are going to fight, compete, or train for fighting. When capoeiras say that they are going to play, I get the idea that it is more playful. It feels more like a game. Much like other games, there can certainly be winners and losers, but when people keep a smile on their face they (amazingly enough, stay happier). I don't play with a specific goal in mind to score points, to damage an opponent, or to win. I want to play with just one goal: to enjoy the game. If this involves successfully moving my body in a particular way, so be it. If this involves myself and whoever is playing with me exchanging movements back and forth in a friendly and a good-natured challenge, all the better. I don't have a problem with Kudo or Karate or similar martial arts. In fact, I have enjoyed them very much in the past. But so often I have seen people training without seeming to enjoy it very much. I guess if they view their personal worth as directly related to how well they do in a martial arts class or competition, it is not such a fun a laughter-inducing matter. In this situation, if one performs poorly he or she is less of a person. Nonsense, I say!

I can perform a complex series of motions with juggling balls in my hands, or I can horribly fail at an attempt to do a backflip; I can read a script that many peers consider to be impossible nonsense, or I can sing so poorly that people request I never attempt it again: none of these affect my view of my own worth as a person. Maybe is it because I have such a diversified skill set that I have such an easy time of considering myself to be able to let go of ego. After all, I could justify it to myself as “it doesn't matter if I am not skilled at X, because there are a dozen other things that I know I am great at.” That just seems like super-confidence, though. I wonder if my desire to more zen-like has just allowed me to convince myself that my super-confidence in a lack of ego? My transferable physical skills certainly wouldn't hinder that theory. After all, it is easy to not have my self-perception damages when I perform far better than any other beginner on my first class of capoeira, similar to my experiences with kung fu, judo, and jeet kune do.

Regardless of the philosophy behind capoeira (I assume that I am idealizing it quite a bit) and regardless of how nice it is to engage people with a physical sport without feelings of harsh competition, I enjoy the physical aspect of it too. Although I've starting to go running and to do a little bit of exercise in the mornings before going to work, it has been a long time since I have been a part of a group or a class like this. Sure, I did circus at Kalamazoo College, but that wasn't much of a physical challenge. I took popping, locking, and breakdance classes last time I was in Beijing, but a dance class has a very different feel than a martial arts class. I remember trying our a couple martial arts classes when I studies in Beijing back in '08, but they didn't last. I have to go all the way back to the summer of '08 and the preceding spring in order to find the last time I was part of a little martial arts community, when I was going to the local YMCA to do Jeet Kun Do that summer. It feels good to use my body in these ways again. Not only are there the physical and community aspects of it, it is also a great way to keep Brazil in my mind so I don't forget about my future goals!

South-South Relations

While read some blogs on Brazil recently, I stumbled across something mentioning Brazil’s growing projects in Africa. My interest was instantly piqued, and I suddenly realized that I wasn’t only interested in China-Africa relations, or China Latin-America relations, or China-Brazil relations. Something broader described my interest. It is only a description, of course, since to define is to limit, and my interests are wide and highly mutable. Regardless, describe (this facet of) my interests it does: South-South relations. What a beautiful phrase, allowing me to briefly describe a curiosity of and/or interest in all the BRICs (minus Russia), the N-11 countries, everything south of the Rio Grand, and the entire landmass between the Mediterranean Sea and South Africa. I wonder if South-South relations are something that I can actually claim as a field of study? Is it too broad? The breadth of SSR as a potential field certainly does match that of my interest and curiosity, but it also goes beyond. For instance, I am not particularly interested in Central Asia, Western Asia or Eastern Europe. South East Asia intrigues me, but not at nearly the same level as Africa or Latin America. This may require some pondering

2010 in review, and a preview of 2011

The new year has fully started, so I figure that I better crank this out before 2010 fades too far away. So here is my list of big things in my life during 2010.

SIP - I wrote what I considered to be an absolutely massive paper on the state education of ethnic minorities in China. This involved reading many (many) books and articles, and I distinctly recall feeling that I was probably one of the people in Michigan who knew the most about China's ethnic minorities. After all, such a narrow field doesn't have many scholars. Reading the field work and accounts of various scholars made me get interested in ethnology, and in anthropology more broadly. It made me think more critically about governments' decisions to make these labels, and how they were used as well. I have taken these ideas, and now apply them beyond China so that any time nationality or ethnicity comes up I look at it with a much different view than I did a few years ago. I also remember wishing that I had more time to do more extensive research, but the institution of the SIP didn't allow it. I recall this project taking up a great deal of my thoughts and time during the early months of 2010. 

Graduation - It seems like such a small thing in retrospect, but I have to admit that graduating from college is a big step. It signifies leaving youth and entering adulthood (not that I feel clearly like one or the other), the looming debt payments, and a bunch of goodbyes to college friends that I will not see as commonly and acquaintances that I will most likely never see again. The ceremony of it seemed a little pointless and silly to me, but it is nice to be able to claim that qualification. My strongest memory concerning graduation is how unconnected I felt to the majority of the people around me then. Sure, there were a few dozen people who I knew, and a dozen or so people who I valued highly. The majority of the faces that I saw at the special 'Senior events' and at graduation were complete strangers to me, though. Not just people I didn't know very well, but people that I swear I had never seen before in my life. Probably because of my extended study abroad and my hermit-like habits. If you didn't study in China, do circus or take Poli-Sci classes, there are pretty good changes that I didn't meet you.



Relationship with Sara - Since this is fairly personal I am not going to go into too much detail. I will just say that I had a relationship with Sara while I was at Kalamazoo, and it was a very major part of my life for the first half of 2010. We didn't have any fights or arguments, so we had a very laid-back and fun relationship right up until my graduation, when we ended it.

Improv - Since arriving in Beijing, I have gone to the Wednesday evening improv workshop almost every week. It has been great fun to do theater activities again, and the people that I have met there have turned out to be some major figures in my social circle in Beijing. Improv has become, in addition to the juggling club, one of my main social activities in Beijing. I haven't done this kind of thing since high school, but apparently I still have theater in me, because I seem to do it well enough. Even good enough that I was asked to perform for a corporate event once! It is also a good reason for me to be more social, as I would otherwise just hang out at home reading articles, writing more blog posts and watching movies.


Conversational Spanish - Although I started studying Spanish in 2009, it was in 2010 that I gained a new level of use with the language: I could have conversations. Realizing that I could already use the language to communicate was a thrill, and I remember using it to communicate with my suitemates and friends at times when English would have done just as well. I have no doubt that a great reason for this was the Spanish music that I got into, the BBC Mundo news that I listened to daily, and the fact that I had a great desire to use the language. These things all supported what I learned in class quite well. I was thrilled about this new ability that I had discovered. Since I didn't use it at all, my Spanish regressed a LOT during June, July, August and September, but in October I started up my weekly Spanish conversation night, and since then I have kept at a steady level and improves slightly.



iPod - Strange that a piece of technology should be on here, but getting an iPod really allowed me to do a lot of new things, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it helped me learn language, study, know what was going on in the world, and generally get more information more conveniently. Indeed, having an iPod touch really increased the rate at which I could learn and consume information, and increased my general quality of life an amazing amount. This is mainly by turning dead time into useful time. Walking to class for 10 minutes, waiting for a friend to meet me for 5 minutes, riding the bus for 20 minutes, or taking the subway for 40 minutes... these were little bits of time that I could now use productively, and they added up over the course of a day. Podcasts are the way that I put it to the best use, although having music to listen to is nice as well. Flashcard applications helped me study language vocabulary on the go, turning a bus ride or any other waiting time into useful studying time. I can also use it to send text messages and make phone calls via Skype and similar apps. Buying an iPod touch was by far one of the best purchases that I have ever made.
  
RSS feeds and reading blogs -Another high tech thing, I started reading blogs in 2010. I immediately focused on China Watcher blogs, and this gave me a new level of awareness and a new breadth of knowledge concerning current China issues. My discovery of Google Reader made it even easier, and I soon made a daily habit of checking the feed. I quickly realized that I could go beyond China-focused blogs, though, and I began to follow other areas that I was interested in. Following a classmate's lead, I started to read some Foreign Policy Magazine blogs, and I have recently started to follow some Latin America and Brazil focused blogs as well. I especially enjoy that it allows me to easily enter a new field of knowledge. If I want to learn about X, I just need to start following and reading some blogs about X.


As an ending, I am gonna go ahead and make some general predictions for my life for the upcoming year. This should be constant regardless of if I stay in Beijing or if I move to Spain (or even if I move back to the U.S., which is not a likely prospect). So here is what will happen for me in 2011:

Continued interest in Latin America & Brazil - Since I am basically adding a new track to my knowledge here, and since it works well with my desire to learn languages, I am pretty sure that I will continue to be interested in Latin America in general and Brazil in specific. My knowledge of these areas will increase, and I may even get more solid plans to travel there by the end of 2011.
 
Increase in juggling and dancing skills -This is an easy one to predict, as it is just a continuation of a natural progression that has been happening over the past few years. As long as I practice juggling once a week, I have little doubt that my skill will continue to increase at a slow and steady pace. Dancing is something that is a newer focus, but wherever I am I plan to learn salsa, hip-hop and break dance, or modern/contemporary.

Spanish skills will increase - Again, this is easy. I love the Spanish language, and I want to live in countries where it is spoken. I have managed to find a way to practice it in Beijing so far, and I have full confidence that through music, movies, self-study, reading Spanish language newspapers online and conversation my language skill will continue to improve. Especially since I am gonna live in Spain and in various Latin American countries in the future, my Spanish will definitely reach a new high in 2011. Even if I stay in Beijing I plan to take another course at the Cervantes Institute.

I will continue to move closer to vegetarianism - In great part due to an excellent debate on intelligence squared concerning eating animals, I have made a conscious step toward consuming less meat. I am not a vegetarian, nor to I have immediate plans to become one. I can best describe my current dietary identity as a flexitarian, meaning that I try to avoid meat when possible. For me and for my life I think that this is a realistic compromise between the extremity of veganism and the convenience of eating whatever is most easily available. I predict that this trend will continue and perhaps even become stronger throughout 2011.