This week I intended to show Lonely Planet Amsterdam. Tanya has the whole series, and in a foreign culture course the Lonely Planet series is invaluable. I was preparing them for a speech on a foreign country of their choice, but I picked Amsterdam over the others because I figured it could provoke a lot of weighty discussion about drugs, guy marriage and prostitution and possibly set up a good debate topic for their second assignment. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the disc to work and my first class was mostly spent teaching my students colourful names for a computer that doesn't work.
Fortunately I came prepared and showed the southwest US instead. It was a big hit, but unfortunately I picked it at random and didn't really have a chance to look at it before showing it to a class of ultra conservative PHD candidates in rocket engineering. Most of it is quite harmless, but at the end it shows Nevada's Burning Man Festival. I've never been, but I know some folks who have and it sounds like a real freak show. Anyways, as I was watching with my class I was mortified to see a buck naked guy walk across the screen...facing front. I am contractually obligated to abide by Chinese moral standards, and I have been here long enough to know that putting a penis on the projector doesn't comply with that requirement.
To my surprise, it was a huge hit. At one point the camera entered a "fetish tent" and I attempted to save whatever was left of my reputation by skipping past it. To my surprise many students cried, "Nooooo!" At the end of the day I couldn't shut the fuckers up...a foreign teachers dream class basically. I had intended to try Amsterdam on the computer in my other classrooms this week, but if I don't get fired and/or deported in the next twenty four hours I'll stick with what I've got and what is working. I'm getting them talking and I'm enjoying it...and that's what this job is all about.
My question...is this pushing the envelope too far? Where do I draw the line between provoking discussion and covering my ass?