Jane Austen's nephew Henry wrote of his aunt,  that "her complexion [was] of the finest texture, it might with truth be said that her eloquent blood spoke through her modest cheek.”  He is referencing a poem by the Elizabethan poet John Donne: 

Other contemporaries of Austen have spoken of the high colour in her cheeks. In those days when no respectable woman wore makeup, she was lucky enough to have naturally rosy cheeks well into adulthood. And the reference to "eloquent blood" means that her colour rose when she was animated; in other words, she blushed easily.
On the topic of blushing I have finally found a theme in which I can combine my time in China with Jane Austen and the English literature of the past. One of the charming things about my female students in China (ages 18 to 20) is that they still blush, readily, if you raise the topic of boyfriends. It's like travelling to a bygone age.
Do any Western young ladies still blush? Oh yes, we all can blush, or flush, from embarrassment in social situations, but what about the blush of modesty?

Maidenly purity was a central pre-occupation in English literature prior to modern times. The blush on a maiden's cheek was seen as a mark of innocence and purity. Inevitably, the heroines of Georgian, Regency and Victorian novels are described as blushing frequently.
Henry Fielding describes a girl whose "face and neck overspread with one blush," Samuel Richardson's Pamela is "all covered in blushes," Fanny Burney's Evelina is praised for her "downcast eye, and blushing cheek, timid air, and beauteous face," Hannah More's heroine, Lucila, in Coelebs in Search of a Wife can't get through any conversation without blushing: "She stopped and blushed, as fearing she had said too much." In Anne Radcliffe The Mysteries of Udolpho , "A blush overspread" her heroine Emily's cheek. Mary Brunton's Laura in Self-Controul charms a rogue: "for every voluptuary can tell what allurements blushes add to beauty." Sir Walter Scott's Rowena, on removing her veil in front of Rebecca: "partly from the consciousness of beauty, partly from bashfulness.... blushed so intensely that cheek, brow, neck, and bosom were suffused with crimson."
It is clear that for any self-respecting heroine, frequent blushing is de rigeur. Juliet has to excuse herself to Romeo: "Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face,. Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek. For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight."
Young ladies were frequently described as blushing "celestial rosy red," a phrase taken from Milton's Paradise Lost, however Milton was not referring to a maiden's cheek but to the angel Raphael's reaction when he was asked by the newly-married Adam if there is sex in Paradise.
The fluctuation of color in the face when a lady blushed was certain proof that her color was natural and not applied with rouge. In Elizabeth Gaskell's Cousin Phillis' the heroine's "colour came and went" as the artist Holdsworth gazed upon her and drew her portrait. “Paint must never hope to reproduce the faint half-flush that dies along her throat," the artist says to the Duchess in Robert Browning's poem.

Fanny Price is the blushingest heroine, blushing from embarrassment, fright, indignation, guilt (over her secret love for Edmund) and of course, blushing out of modesty whenever anyone says something kind to her or about her. Henry Crawford speaks approvingly of how Fanny's colour is beautifully heightened as she bends over her writing desk.
Even men blush in these novels, from chagrin, self-awareness, or anger, but seldom from modesty. "I blush for you, Tom," Sir Thomas Bertram says to his son when confronting him about his debts.
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Because the purity of the maidenly heroine was so important, the dramatic tension of many of the popular novels of the past derives from the threat that the lady may lose her virtue. Think of Ivanhoe, The Last Days of Pompeii, and of course Clarissa, If the lady fell from grace, then death was sure to follow, as in Tess of the D'Urbervilles and East Lynne. 
The Victorian era was the hey-day of the blushing maiden. Victorian heroines were inevitably sweet and demure and portrayed as having heart-shaped faces with high foreheads, very large eyes, sweet little rosebud mouths, tiny feet and hands and of course, naturally rosy cheeks. These heroines are guileless and always astonished if somebody notices them.
In David Copperfield, little "Em'ly was confused by our all observing her, and hung down her head, and her face was covered with blushes."
Some writers, however, found this cliche of the blushing maiden cloying.  Gilbert & Sullivan satirized the blushing maiden in their 1884 operetta The Mikado, when the bridesmaids advise Yum-Yum how to behave on her wedding day:

Sit with downcast eye --/ Let it brim with dew --/ Try if you can cry --/ We will do so, too.
When you're summoned, start/ Like a frightened roe --/ Flutter, little heart,/ Colour, come and go!

And in Vanity Fair, W.M. Thackeray makes fun of the typical Victorian blushing maiden, whom he openly derides: "But as we are to see a great deal of Amelia, there is no harm in saying, at the outset of our acquaintance, that she was a dear little creature; ....her face blushed with rosy health, and her lips with the freshest of smiles, and she had a pair of eyes which sparkled with the brightest and honestest good-humour, except indeed when they filled with tears, and that was a great deal too often; for the silly thing would cry over a dead canary-bird;... or over the end of a novel, were it ever so stupid..."  And he contrasts her with the calculating Becky Sharp: "Amelia, hanging down her head, blushed as only young ladies of seventeen know how to blush, and as Miss Rebecca Sharp never blushed in her life—at least not since she was eight years old, and when she was caught stealing jam out of a cupboard by her godmother."

​In the West, at any rate, the blushing maiden in literature has gone the way of the DoDo, and yet I feel a certain nostalgia for the idea of having something to blush about.

 More on blushing:
Katie Halsey, Jane Austen and her Readers 1786-1945 discusses blushing in Jane Austen's novels.

Why Do People Blush? Mental floss

The Powers That Be in China have decided to enforce the regulation that they will not grant a work visa to persons over 60 years of age. So it appears -- unless there is some province where the authorities are still bending the rules a bit -- that my China adventure will come to an end in about six weeks. My current work visa will expire and I won't be able to get a new one because I turned 60 last November. I hope that there are still some exceptions to this rule --  I hope to find some university in the hinterlands that is willing and able to take a chance on hiring a decrepit old foreigner. 

Around the campus here, I see dozens of janitorial and landscaping staff, hard at work all day, who appear to be older than 60. And I see hundreds of seniors working on other public landscaping projects around town. Mandatory retirement appears to apply only to government and white collar workers, who also enjoy better pension benefits. For Chinese nationals, the current retirement age is 60 years for men, and 55 for women. 
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There is a strong social expectation that the retired women will look after their grandchild, while their daughters and daughters-in-law go to work. The grandfathers pitch in with the babies, as well. That said, the Chinese government is planning to raise the retirement age, for obvious economic (as in economic realities) and demographic reasons. 

At any rate, I predict that this no-foreigners-over-60 rule will be revised or withdrawn before long, the demand for native English teachers being what it is, but probably not in time to change things for me, or many others in the same boat.

The reality of this hasn't really hit -- will I have to say goodbye to my students, colleagues and friends, and return to Canada and a very different lifestyle? Ross and I were planning to explore more of Asia -- we love the six weeks' winter vacation that comes working as a teacher at an institute of higher learning in China, and the low cost of roaming and flying wherever we pleased. 
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I'm not feeling particularly worried about not knowing where I will be come this September. September will come anyway. And meanwhile I want to cherish these last few weeks in Zibo, because the world that surrounds me here, which was once so alien and remarkable, is now familiar and routine and frankly, has become a second home.

There are also jobs for certified teachers -- people with a teaching degree, not an ESL certificate -- who can find work at a middle school or high school that is accredited by their home country. In other words, you could be from British Columbia and work at a BC-accredited high school in China. I think teachers should jump at this opportunity, because you will be able to live very modestly and bank most of your Canadian-sized paycheque. A husband-and-wife teaching duo could really sock the money away. You could come home with your student loans paid off or have enough saved for a down payment on a house, plus you'll have an amazing cultural experience which would really help you if you live and work in an area with many immigrant children. Frankly, I think it's a great opportunity.  

ESL teachers tend to fall on two ends of a spectrum. There's people like me, older people, who are at the end of their career arc, or are retired and enjoying a second career. We don't have to think about which career move will help us climb the ladder back home, We might have to think about whether we have adequate medical coverage, or the fact that we are not going to be able to save a lot of money from our salaries in our final working year because while our Chinese salary gives us plenty of purchasing power here in China, it doesn't translate well to Western dollars.

​Then there are the young people, looking for an adventure, casting about for a career, or unable to find a decent job back home. For under-30's at the beginning of the career arc, and young and bright enough to learn some workable Mandarin, I think one year in China is plenty, two years at most. Here's why:

Most of you are not planning to work as ESL teachers all your lives, The Chinese teaching job, for you, is just a job, like being a camp counselor, which makes it possible for you to go live abroad for a year.  Since most job postings today call for several years' experience doing whatever it is the job entails, you are not advancing yourself in your future career. You are not going to save money, as I've mentioned. In the best case scenario, you'll return home personally enriched, wiser, more mature, and with more knowledge of yourself and more confidence  and with many transferable skills, but not necessarily better off, career-wise or financially, then you'd be if you'd stayed home. And although the onset of adulthood keeps getting pushed back* there might be some negative consequences if you spend most of your twenties living abroad doing a low-paying job. 

And if you're here even longer, if your one year becomes, three or four and more, you'll face some serious economic consequences when you finally return home. Unless you have a separate source of wealth, you will have built up no assets and no retirement fund. When I was in my twenties, retirement was a distant abstraction, and saving up for old age was even more of a distant abstraction. Well.... where did the time go? The time will come for you, as well.

So.... if you are mulling over whether to come to China for a year or two, take those financial and career considerations into account. No-one can guarantee you'll have a great experience teaching abroad, but I hope you do.  A lot depends on what attitude you bring to it, of course. 

One of my ground rules for this blog is that I don't snark and snipe behind people's backs. What I meant was, I am not going to use this blog to joke about, insult or criticize anyone that I worked for or with. Just because I have a blog, that doesn't give me a license to take to the internet to blast people whose foibles would otherwise go unexposed, but for their misfortune in rubbing shoulders with me. That said: if you are thinking about coming to China, and researching what it's like, you will more than likely visit the China forum at Dave's ESL Cafe. There you will encounter a lot of cynicism and negativity from a lot of people who claim to be Old China Hands. My feeling is, take any advice given on that forum with a grain of salt. Also, if you're a Millennial I'm sure you know how to Google information yourself, so please don't be one of those panicky, helpless types posting the same topic on the forum for the millionth time ("Moving to China -- help!!!!!!!") without reading previous posts or just searching out the answer for yourself. Seriously, don't do the thing with the exclamation marks. It's really irritating.

Dave's ESL Cafe isn't the only source of info, either.  Try Internations. Try YouTube. Austin Guidry, the vlogger I've linked to above, is a good place to start, and so is the Local Laowai series.  And of course, my blog.

*When my parents were in their early twenties, they were teaching in war-torn Korea, raising three children and fostering war orphans. As a comedian (sorry I don't know who) said, at a comparable age, his biggest achievement was collecting all the "Planet of the Apes" movies.