Conversation with Students at Yunnan University

Hello friends,
Earlier this week Carol and I had the opportunity to meet students at Yunnan University in their English class. They had just watched the classic movie- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? For those of you unfamiliar with this film. It was a controversial film about interracial marriage starring Spencer Tracy,Sydney Poitier and Katherine Hepburn. At the time when it was released- 1967- interracial marriage was still illegal in many states.
We got to lead small group discussions in which students discussed their reactions to the film as well as had an opportunity to meet and hear more about us. Once they learned that I worked at a non-profit they had many questions for me. Several students wanted to know what we could do for survivors of the earthquake in the Sichuan Province of China. It was really wonderful to be able to report to them that the youth board of Penny Harvest had just made a grant of $1200 to an earthquake relief organization directing relief to Chinese earthquake victims. The students were pleased to hear that and amazed at the amount of funds that were raised by students throught the Penny Harvest this year (64,333.73).
We continued to talk about interracial marriage and how attitudes toward interracial marriage had radically shifted since the late 60s. I really found it fascinating to hear their opinions on attitudes that had shifted in China over the last couple of decades. Some of those changes included- arranged marriages. Apparently arranged marriages are not very common today. They happen still in rural areas of the country but at least according to these students they get to choose who they marry. Marriage between minority people (e.g. Naxi, Bi, etc) and majority people (Han people) is more acceptable especially in urban areas. Parents are less likely now to desire to have a boy more than a girl....and there were more attitudes that we discussed but that gives a summary for now. Hope you all are having a great June and getting excited for summer solstice!