Worst Study Abroad Trip Ever
When the Filipino delegation passed through this city in 1971, it was described as a sleepy fishing village. It later became one of China’s first Special Economic Zones and a symbol of reform-era development.
What is Shenzhen?
The Filipino visitors arrived while China was still experiencing this Mao-era campaign, during which schools were disrupted, intellectuals were persecuted, and young people were sent to work in farms and factories.
What is the Cultural Revolution?
Because these limited ordinary people’s access to food and consumer goods, some Chinese students asked their foreign friends to purchase unavailable items for them.
What are rations?
Meaning “not clear” rather than “I don’t know,” this Mandarin expression captured Sta. Romana’s warning that analysts may see signs of political struggle without knowing exactly what is happening.
What is bu qingchu (不清楚）?
Announced by Zhou Enlai in 1975, this program sought to modernize agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology.
What are the Four Modernizations?
This quasi-government organization invited the 15-member Philippine youth delegation to China for what was supposed to be an innocent three-week tour.
What is the Chinese People’s Friendship Association?
The Filipinos requested to work at a state farm in this province, where they experienced rural China from the bottom up.
What is Hunan?
Ordinary citizens had limited access to these special shops, where foreigners could purchase imported and scarce products.
What were friendship stores?
Once Mao’s designated successor, this defense minister reportedly died in a mysterious plane crash while allegedly fleeing China—an incident surrounded by rumors and incomplete information.
Who is Lin Biao?
Restored in 1977 after being rejected as bourgeois and elitist during the Cultural Revolution, this examination reopened university opportunities based on academic ability.
What is the gaokao?
After the Plaza Miranda bombing, President Ferdinand Marcos suspended this legal protection, allowing authorities to arrest and detain people without immediately bringing them before a court.
What is the writ of habeas corpus?
FlorCruz used this Chinese expression, meaning “eating bitterness,” to describe the people’s capacity to endure hardship.
What is chiku?
Because imported versions of this everyday accessory were prohibited, Sta. Romana’s Chinese companions became fascinated by the automatic one he had inherited from his father.
What is an automatic watch?
Led by Mao’s wife Jiang Qing, this political group was blamed for many excesses of the Cultural Revolution after Mao’s death, allowing the new leadership to criticize the era without completely repudiating Mao.
Who were the Gang of Four?
Unlike Mao’s emphasis on ideological enthusiasm, Deng relied more heavily on these to motivate workers and increase productivity.
What are material or economic incentives?
Located in Shaanxi, this former Communist revolutionary base symbolized sacrifice, self-reliance, and the revolutionary spirit promoted to the Filipino delegation.
What is Yan’an?
Despite poverty and scarcity, the Filipinos observed that rural Chinese society had less visible class disparity because of this principle.
What is egalitarianism?
First-class travel, better food, and special stores showed that foreign visitors received this despite China’s egalitarian ideals.
What is preferential treatment or foreign privilege?
This 1989 crisis did not simply halt reform: according to Baculinao, it contributed to the Party debate that eventually pushed Deng Xiaoping to open China’s economy even further.
What is the Tiananmen Incident?
This seemingly contradictory system combined market competition and private incentives with continued Communist Party leadership.
What is the socialist market economy?
After their passports expired and the Philippine government refused to renew them, the stranded Filipinos entered this legal condition.
What is statelessness?
Sta. Romana concluded that ideological enthusiasm could mobilize people temporarily but could not be sustained without this foundation.
What is a material or economic foundation?
Chinese students’ requests that foreign friends buy restricted products illustrate this practice of exchanging favors through personal relationships.
What is reciprocity?
Sta. Romana compared interpreting hidden political struggles in China to performing this uncertain predictive practice.
What is reading tea leaves?
According to Sta. Romana, rapid economic growth replaced revolutionary ideology as this political resource that helped justify continued Communist Party rule.
What is performance legitimacy?