My Graduation Ceremony IsaTrip to Pakistan

Peng Zhongyao(Major in Political Science, Economics and Philosophy)

Introduction

In the 12 days in Pakistan,

the happiest time was when Naseem took me out of the campus. I had little knowledge of cars, but his Honda really attracted me.

The school was located in the suburbs, and there were no tall buildings in Lahore. So after we got out of the school, what we saw were endless sky, fields, scattered houses and cattle. Naseem drove the car at top speed with rock music.

The rock music was in Urdu or Pushtu. I could not help shaking with the music.

On the way to the India-Pakistan border, we passed a river.

People were swimming in it here and there.

Boys, half-naked, threw themselves from a short bridge into the river like stones and fought in the water.

Women in gowns soaked themselves in the water.

On the banks were wild ducks, weeping willows, and boxed food for a family picnic.

For dozens of miles along the river, we heard children's laughter all the way.

"Internship in National Organs and International Organizations" is the penultimate course in Xinya’s PPE program. Although I have to restudy New Structural Economics, it almost marks the end of the main part of my PPE study. During my stay in Pakistan, what frequently came into my mind was Teacher Wang Hui's Seminar (1), Teacher Wang Mingming's Seminar (3), Teacher Ou Shujun's Huntington, and sometimes Teacher Gan Yang's Seminar (2) and Teacher Liu Zhiwei’s Economic History. Most importantly, I reread the first four volumes of The Republic and returned to the initiation of my initiation.

Corban Festival taught me a very shallow bravery. The fourth volume of the Republic describes education of guardians. Bravery means the persistence of a guardian to the education offered by the ruler. But I do not mean that kind of bravery. What I learned is close to the ferocity to enemy meant by Socrates and G laukon when they selected guardians for the first time, and the contempt to death in the education of Adeimantus. This education was somehow accomplished through a ritual of worship — Corban.

On August 12, I sat behind a butcher, wearing a traditional Pakistani robe. Later, I followed him into one house after another for sacrifice. There was no ritual about the so-called sacrifice. It was just slaughter. But the locals insisted that I should use the word “sacrifice”. I did not know how many goats were jugulated. Blood dyed red the wreath around the neck of one goat after another. I was uncomfortable at the beginning and became numb later. Finally, I even joined them in the festival happiness and auspiciousness. Death on this occasion was linked with harvest and offering. It became a desirable celebration on that day. I dare not say that I have completely learned this bravery. But I will remember this scene forever.

The harsh environment in Pakistan taught me self-restraint. Similarly, it is not the self-restraint about city-state in the fourth volume of The Republic, but the self-restraint about Adeimantus's education in the second volume. In the fourth week of my stay in Pakistan, I moved to a local middle-class community guesthouse outside the school because the school hostel was used for another purpose. My new room was roughly equivalent to a rented house in China. The air conditioner blew right to my head in that 15-square-meter room. I left my luggage in the school because I did not want to bother. That weekend, I went out with my friends. I calledan Uber motorcycle. It took 15 minutes for the motorcycle to reach my place. After he arrived, it began to rain. The driver was wearing a raincoat, and I sat on the back seat to accompany his racing. The whole journey took 30 minutes. I was wet in the first half of the journey and dried in the second half. Finally, I got a fever. Even after taking medicine, I had a fever for two days. I dared not turn on the air conditioner or the fan. I was so hot that I kept sweating. Even the bed was wet. But I had no clothes to change. I felt better at the midnight of the second day, so I tried to take a bath. After turning on the shower nozzle, I remembered only room temperature water was supplied in summer. I did not want to get sicker so I went back to my bed. The local food tasted horrible, so I only grabbed a bite when I was too hungry even in health. While I was sick, I ate nothing and lived on potato chips and juice. On the third day, my fever was gone, but unluckily, I began to have loose bowels. That night, I jumped around to kill mosquitoes while pressing my stomach. Meanwhile, I had to pinch my nose to stop the odor from the toilet sewer and weird curry smell of local food. I finally dropped into a corner and sat in a daze, sweaty and dirty. After a breakdown, I tried to adapt myself to the strange smell in the room, the unbearable local food, the annoying flies and mosquitoes, and the cold bath. I told myself, “Since those Pakistani sleeping on the floor outside the door could survive, why can’t I?” After I got well, I found myself have no desire for shopping after I opened Taobao. I changed from a fever city-state citizen to a justice city-state citizen — my excess desire disappeared. It was the truth although I could not guarantee that I would be brave enough to not open Taobao after returning to Beijing.

Pakistan also taught me philia (friendly affection). In the office, Pakistanis were always talking. I could not understand what they spoke in Urdu, but when they tried to include me into their talk with English, I thought it was boring. I felt uninterested and preferred to read works of Rousseau and Amin. One day, a friend named Obaid asked me, "Why are you Chinese not social?" I said that maybe I was not good at social interaction. He said it was not the truth and that most Chinese people he met were silent. I thought for a moment and said: "It may be because most Chinese people are the only child in their family, so we rarely have a chance to gossip in a group, and Chinese people are under great pressure. To be honest, I think your discussion is very discursive. I would rather spend my time doing something more purposeful, like reading." He said: "For Pakistanis, as a group of people sit together, if you do not participate in the conversation, you look disrespectful. For us, if you lower your head to play with your phone, you’d better hide yourself in a corner and play alone." After this conversation, I began to join their "gossip". Although it was not so smooth, I seemed to know how to be one of them.

As for justice, I have not figured out what it is. There are many other things that I have not understood. Anyway, I feel grateful to the internship.