An Alabama Girl Goes Back to China...Again!

Snapshots

2006-07-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

I took more pictures on this trip than I have on any other trip, ever. Still, there were many things that I wanted to capture with a camera but couldn’t. Sometimes my photography skills just weren’t up to the job. Sometimes a particular moment happened so quickly it was impossible to have the camera ready. Sometimes it just felt disrespectful to photograph people as though they themselves were tourist attractions (although many Chinese people didn’t feel that compunction towards us waiguoren). Sometimes what I wanted to capture was less a particular scene than a more general impression.

I’m afraid my skill with words is not much better than my skill with a camera; nonetheless, here you are—snapshots of China in words:

The bottle collectors

There’s a Chinese expression, “chi ku,” which means “eating bitterness.” It’s used to describe any kind of miserable situation, but in some contexts it can be used with a kind of admiration for those who can “eat bitterness” and persevere. One picture that I would have liked to have captured, to my mind, epitomizes this expression. The picture is a woman, or maybe an older man, with stringy hair and a sun-tanned face, wrapped in ragged clothes that, like the person that inhabits them, haven’t been washed in awhile. The person has a big, gray, woven plastic bag slung over her shoulder, and is digging through the trash can outside the department store with a stick. There are people in Shanghai who earn money by collecting plastic bottles, digging through trash cans or dumpsters to find them. Nasty work, as you can likely imagine. They earn 1 yuan (about $0.12) for every 10 plastic bottles they turn in. This picture would capture the drudgery, the resignation to such lowly work. The determination to find enough bottles so that his or her family can eat this week. “Chi ku.”

High heels

Women in high heeled shoes seem to be ubiquitous in China. One of my Chinese friends tells me it’s because so many Chinese women are short. I suppose, things being relative and all, that high heels aren’t so bad for a culture that used to espouse foot-binding, but still… Many Chinese women wear high heels all the time—not just when they’re dressed up, but even when they’re wearing jeans and t-shirts. Now, I can understand why a shorter woman might want to wear heels to look nice when she was dressed up (except that if everyone is short and no one wore heels, everyone would be a similar height and no one would be uncomfortable…), but these women carry the heel-wearing to extremes. For example, Daniel and I hiked two butt-blaster mountains while we were in China (and walked up a couple more that weren’t quite as steep), and in both places there were women climbing those stairs in heels. And not sturdy heels either, but the stiletto kind with beads and bows. Ouch.

Urumqi head scarves (while I’m on the subject of women’s fashion)

One of the distinctive features of Urumqi is its sampling of different ethnicities and religious practices. I really enjoyed seeing all of the different headscarves that many of the women here wore. Some wore the full-length, cover everything, only dark eyes showing out from underneath, type robes. Others just tied sheer scarves--often silk interwoven with gold or silver thread in intricate patterns--so that the scarf covered most of the top of their heads and was tied at the back of their neck.

An NBA fan

The area where Daniel and I stayed in Chengdu was really close to a Tibetan neighborhood. One night, we went wandering through this area and chose a little Tibetan restaurant for dinner. The food was just alright, but it was fascinating to watch the other diners. A table full of shirtless men were eating and chatting and generally making an evening of it. A waitress sat at another table, sipping a coke and watching music videos on the TV hung from the ceiling. A couple of Tibetan monks, dressed in the traditional maroon and gold robes, were sitting by the door where they could enjoy the occasional breeze. We finished eating and got up to leave. As we were almost to the door, one of the monks pointed to Daniel’s feet and said, in English, “Wow! So big!! You can play in the NBA! Play with Shaquille O’Neal!!!”

Bike carts and hand-pulled wagons

I actually tried to take a picture of a couple of bike carts in Shanghai, but the picture didn’t turn out so well. It’s a common sight in every Chinese city I’ve ever visited (except maybe Chongqing, where the porters carry packages hung from poles across their shoulders)—a bike cart or hand-pulled cart, loaded so high that the pedaler or puller disappears when you look from behind. Bottles, wood, vegetables or fruit, old computer parts, furniture, rubbish, people…it seems anything can be loaded on one of these carts. Old men, women, young teens, lots of people use these things to get stuff where it needs to go, lugging it along behind them, struggling either with pedals or rough wooden handles. And the carts seem to always be piled with stuff at least several feet above the cart, tied on with plastic or twine. Another example of “chi ku.” Add “trucks” and “moving vans” to very long list of things we take for granted in the US.

Smiles in Turpan

Turpan, a small-ish city in the northwest province of Xinjiang, is the second lowest spot on earth. The temperatures there, however, must be among the world’s highest. Maybe because it was so hot, life seemed to move at a slower pace in this city. It was fascinating to wander through the neighborhoods and under the grape-vine arbors and around the commercial areas of this city. The best part, however, was that whenever I smiled at someone here, they all smiled back. Real smiles, too—not just fakey polite smiles, or embarrassed who-are-you type smiles. More like a welcome-to-my-town-hope-you-like-it-here smile. It was truly refreshing—maybe even more so than the frozen bottled waters sold by the street vendors.

“Ni hen piaoliang,” or, “You are very pretty”

This can be a very nice phrase or a very irritating one. I guess there’s no really good way to capture this in a photo; arrange a split-screen in your mind, then just try to imagine on one side a shopkeeper trying to convince me to buy whatever she’s selling, at the price she’s asking for it, and on the other hand, an earnest college student shyly giving me a very nice compliment. In some ways, this little phrase encapsulates one aspect of the waiguoren experience—it’s oftentimes very frustrating to stick out so obviously, but it definitely has its good points. I suppose I shouldn’t mind so much being the target of persistent, forceful, or whiny sales efforts. The flip side of the coin is often rewarding interactions with people who are interested in talking with me for the sole reason that I’m a waiguoren. And of course, it’s always a boost to the ego when I get emails that contain lines such as: “sometimes I really miss the glamour of being with a foreign beauty.” Heh. These kids must not have cable.

Long pinkie fingernails

This was something I thought very strange on my first visit to China. Many men in China (in places that I visited, at least) will let the fingernail on their pinkie finger grow really long. I think it’s supposed to show their status—that they don’t have to do manual labor for a living. And it’s practical of course—useful for digging in various bodily orifices. It’s a small picture of the ironies that so much characterize present-day China—a symbol of development that itself might seem like a mark of backwardness in an already-developed nation. Part of the transition stage, maybe. It’s a fascinating time to be studying China.

Pictures

2006-07-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've gone back and added links to pictures in some of the posts. If the pictures are from my Webshots page, I took them; otherwise, they were found through Google.

If you want to look at all of my pictures, I've got them all up now: http://community.webshots.com/myphotos?action=viewAllPhotos&albumID=551178662&security=Ibilom

Our river cruise

2006-07-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Our tour of the Yangzi River began in Chongqing. I don’t know why I was surprised, but it startled me I guess that they segregated the waiguoren from the Chinese people. We had our own English-speaking tour guides, our own ship announcements, activities, everything. (Well, we were all together for the nightly entertainment—the crew prepared karaoke songs and minority-group dances for us, and had some games for us to play. Daniel got drafted to play musical chairs with the kids, and then again to dance the “funky chicken.” Tee hee hee.) Our table-mates for meals were all waiguoren of course—4 Canadians and 2 New Zealanders. They were all really nice, and we enjoyed their company. Daniel was thrilled to have someone other than me to talk to. Apparently at first they thought Daniel and I were dating; one of them asked Daniel how long he’d known me, and Daniel was a little confused before he figured it out and explained that we’re brother and sister.

Our first shore excursion was a temple in the “ghost city” of Fuling—didn’t see any ghosts, and the temple decorations were a little strange, but there was some pretty scenery. I got into a conversation with some monks in one of the temples; they’d stopped to look at Daniel’s feet and measure how tall they were next to Daniel. We chatted for a few minutes—it’s always really interesting to see what people want to talk about. The monks told me they didn’t like George W. Bush; I told him a lot of American felt the same way, but that he was our president nonetheless. They asked me if I thought the Iraq war was a mistake. I translated for Daniel and asked what he though; he just looked at me like, “I can’t believe you’re talking politics with MONKS!” and shrugged. I told them I thought maybe it was a mistake, but that I hoped things would be better there in the future. They seemed to accept that.

The next day we went through the first two gorges and enjoyed the stunning scenery. The water of the Yangzi is a brownish-yellow—not really something I’d want to swim in as it’s no doubt polluted, but I think the color mostly comes from silt. Where tributary rivers and streams flowed into the Yangzi, the water was more green/blue. It was all really pretty. All along the river there were signs posed on the banks, showing the level the water would rise to when the Three Gorges Dam project is completed. The water’s already risen a significant amount; several towns are already underwater. Over a million people have had to be resettled. That afternoon we got of the big boat and onto a ferry, which took us up one of the tributary rivers, where we got out of the ferry and into small “peapod” boats that “trackers” paddled and pulled up the stream. Those guys WORK for a living. The water here was clear, and the surrounding mountains incredibly beautiful.

That night we went through the ship locks at the Three Gorges Dam site. There are 5 locks, but the water hasn’t risen high enough yet to make the first lock necessary. It took about 3.5 hours to go through the locks; I went to sleep after the first lock because it was already 1 a.m., and the classical Chinese music “Butterfly Lovers” would be piped through the ship as our wake-up call at 6:30 the next morning.

We woke up to “Butterfly Lovers,” had breakfast, then took a tour of the dam project. The dam is massive, and I have to say the whole compound was impressive. There’s still some controversy about the dam of course, and it has already had some cracks in the concrete, although the Chinese government says they’re normal for big dams and have already been repaired. It would be disaster on a massive, massive scale if this thing burst.

We got of the ship that afternoon and saw a little of the city of Yichang before catching our flight back to Shanghai, ending our grand tour. It was a wonderful trip.

Chengdu and Chongqing

2006-07-02T03:02:00.000-07:00

(We're leaving on our cruise down the Yangzi in a little while, so I'm typing in a hurry.)

Chengdu deserves a couple of superlatives:

~Hardest-to-understand taxi drivers. I don't know if they were speaking in the local dialect (or a mixture of dialect and Mandarin) or if it was just the accent, but whatever the reason communication was especially difficult here.
~Friendliest hotel staff/guests. The youth hostel we stayed at in Chengdu wins this one hands down; not only was the room cheap and clean, but the staff spoke excellent English and were super helpful, and the other travelers were fun.
~Least observance of traffic laws. Don't know why, but driving habits here were bad enough to even scare me--a seasoned China traffic traveler--once in a while.
~Most crowded bus. It was a double-decker, and stuffed completely full and then some. I counted 6 people in contact with my person for most of the ride. And it was hot. At least people were friendly.
~Strangest consistent-translation: "overpasses" were called "flyovers." Could be in reference to the local the driving habits, I guess. (**edit: I was reading more of the travel guide book, and it used “flyover” too; I guess I’ve just never heard it called that.)
~Most laid-back atmosphere. Maybe because it's so hot here. Shirts (for men) seemed to be optional, and lots of people wore flip-flops. At any time of day or night, people were relaxing in the parks, hanging out with friends in the restaurants, and taking naps in their cars or under whatever shade they could find.

The panda center in Chengdu doesn't get any superlatives, although it was nice--much better than I had expected, actually. The pandas were fun to see, and the propaganda signs were almost as much fun. One example from in front of one of the enclosures: "I am the national treasure and I don't like noise."

We took a sleeper train to Chongqing, where we were met by our tour guide--the first and only guide on schedule for the grand tour. His were included with the river cruise package, and I had decided since we only had one day in Chongqing before getting on the boat that night, it might be nice to have a car and driver. Anyway, Mr. Zhang met us at the bus station at 7:30 with driver Mr. Wang, and off we went. First to the Liberation Memorial, which is now in the middle of a giant upscale shopping district. Nice. It was fun to watch the early-morning fan dancers and qi-gong-ers though, and it wasn't too crowded because none of the businesses were open yet. After the memorial we went to an old part of town that's been preserved for tourists. I don't think Mr. Zhang was thrilled when we led him away from the tourist part of the street back through the neighborhood, but he didn't complain. We wandered through the area for an hour and a half, then Mr. Wang met us with the car to take us to the Stillwell Museum. General Joseph Stillwell was an old China hand sent by Roosevelt to command the China-Burma-India theater during WWII. He spoke Chinese fluently and understood much about the culture; he also happened to be a tough old bird who called it like he saw it. He was not a big fan of Chiang Kai-shek, and as the feeling was mutual, he eventually was called back to the U.S. before the end of the war. I'm not really sure why Communist China wants to celebrate this American general who worked so closely with Chiang; the museum wasn't opened until the 1990s though, after the U.S. and China were friends again. Anyway, the museum is in the house where Stillwell lived when he was in Chongqing during the war, and it's very nicely done. Lots of pictures, all with English (occasionally Chinglish) captions, and minimum propaganda.

By mid-afternoon we'd seen everything on the itinerary, and I was getting tired of being baby-sat. We had lunch in a hotel, where Mr. Zhang ordered for us then left (to eat elsewhere, I guess). The food was fine, but it made me laugh because Mr. Zhang was like, "Local food here is often spicy, so I just ordered one spicy dish for you to try and some other milder dishes." The spicy dish was gong-bao-jiding (rendered kungpao chicken in the U.S.), which we've had quite often during our 2 months here. Because I know what it is and how to read the characters, it's been kind of a staple for times when I can't read much else on the menu. Anyway, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wang were nice, but I wasn't sad to leave them when we got to the boat. We stowed our luggage and set of wandering (Daniel's favorite! hehe) to find an internet bar.

Tomorrow and the next day we'll be on the Yangzi, stopping occasionally to visit some side-sights, then going through the three gorges and to the Three Gorges Dam site. Should be fun!

Street Food

2006-06-29T03:32:00.000-07:00

Street food is one of my favorite things about traveling in China. Daniel refuses to eat it--he's grossed out by the fact that it's often cooked over coals in a metal pan or on the top of a fifty-gallon drum. (**UPDATE: I win!!! Daniel has started selectively eating street food! Muahahaha!) But I really don't think it's unsanitary. Occasionally I've come across a street-food vendor that doesn't look exactly clean, but I think the food is generally ok. Anyway, baozi are of course a long-time favorite, but I've discovered several new treats this trip:

Giant greasy onion pancake: found in Yangzhou and sometimes in Shanghai. Batter is spread over the top of a greased 50-gallon drum; egg and onion is added. A greasy but tasty treat once in a while.

Tiger Paws (couldn't find a picture, sorry!): Found at the center of the human mob by the Shanghai hotel. Dough is kneaded, beaten rolled, pinched, then half-cut into quadrants to make the paw shape, then somehow stuck to the inside of some kind of modified 50-gallon drum with coals in the bottom and cooked. Butter and a little sugar are thrown into the drum, then the paws are pulled out with tongs to the delight of the mob which has by this time gathered. Kind of like a bagel/soft pretzel/bun, with a hint of sweetness.

Green-bean popsicles: Ok, not exactly street food, but they're sold in just about every shop along the road, so they kind of qualify. I've long loved red-bean popsicles, but discovered recently that the green variety are just as tasty.

Spicy "lamb-burger": Found in Luoyang and Xi'an, it's a bun with a crunchy crust, shaped kind of like an English muffin, cut in half and stuffed with spicy mutton or beef and green bell pepper.

Nan (also naan, and various spellings/pronunciations): I think it was originally an Indian or Middle Eastern dish, but it's an Urumqi specialty. Daniel calls it "Muslim bread" and likes it a lot. It comes in different shapes, mostly flat like pita bread or pizza crust. Quite tasty.

K ebobs: Found throughout China, but especially good in Xinjiang and Chengdu. The spices are better here, I think. You can find lots of different meats, seafood, veggies, songbirds, tofu...you name it, it's probably on a stick on some kebob vendor's stand.

Yummm...typing about them makes me hungry. Don't be surprised when I come home fat (er)!
I'll add to this post as I discover new delicacies on our grand tour.

Urumqi and Tian Chi

2006-06-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

Urumqi is a fascinating city. It's a nice city, in terms of weather and relative cleanliness; I keep wanting to take pictures of the sky--I guess because it's been awhile since I've seen actual blue sky, clouds, and sunsets. Incidentally, the sun doesn't set here until about 10 p.m. As Daniel put it, the sissy businesses close around 10-11 p.m., but the hard-core shop owners stay open til midnight or later. Close to our hotel there is a giant night market, with an entire street dedicated to street food. Kabobs of lamb, beef, sparrow, liver, seafood (in the world's most land-locked city, interestingly enough), bread and other ingredients wait to be grilled; noodles of all different shapes and varieties, rice pilaf, dumplings, soft serve ice cream, yoghurt, and all kinds of fruit are either sold from street-side stands or carried through the crowd on platters or in boxes.

Yesterday morning we slept in a little and we went to the Urumqi museum--one of the best I've been to in China. There was an entire exhibit about Xinjiang's minority cultures (13 of them, with Uighurs being the largest, and including such others as Kazakh, Hui, Manchu, Russian, Tajik, Mongolian, and Bulgarian), with mannequins in traditional dress, cases of jewelry, musical instruments, and handicrafts, and rooms set up in the styles of the different living arrangements. There were a couple rooms of yurts--giant circular tents. Another exhibit had displays of mummies from the days of the silk road--some 4,000 years old, but in remarkable condition, and displayed very well. We also enjoyed the air-conditioning during the heat of the day.

That evening I left Daniel in the hotel and went wandering. I walked up to People's Park (there's one in every Chinese city, I think) and then caught a bus and rode it almost all the way around. I got off in the Muslim quarter and wandered around there for awhile, picking up some street food to snack on for dinner. The bread I liked a lot, but the pomegranate juice was a little sour. I walked almost the whole way back to the hotel, but as I wasn't exactly sure where I was I decided to take a taxi to the night market and wander through there before walking back. There's just a huge mass of humanity in places like the Muslim bazaar and the night market--it fascinates me, but it wears me out! I was happy to get back to the hotel.

Today we took a day trip to Tian Chi--Heavenly Lake, north of Urumqi. We got up extra early to catch the bus--a minibus operated by a tour company. They packed us in and we were off on a 2.5 hour ride through the desert. They played ridiculously awful music for most of the ride, and described (in Chinese) the special features of Xinjiang, Urumqi, and the minority cultures. I liked this better than the music of course, but it didn't do much for Daniel. He was immensely grateful for his MP3 player.

We finally arrived, were given instructions to be back at the bus at 4:30 p.m., and set off on our trek uphil to the lake. We wound our way up the mountain along a river rushing through incredibly beautiful scenery. A pleasant temperature of 65-70 degrees made the day that much better. Finally we reached the lake. It was a beautiful blue-green, surrounded by mountains. We thoroughly enjoyed our half day there, although I was really disappointed that we didn't get to eat lunch in a yurt.

The ride back was much less enjoyable. The terrible music was back in full-force--a mixture of American dance music and Chinese pop--ugh. For some reason they didn't turn the air conditioner on, although the day had gotten significantly warmer and the sun was strong. We stopped to "xiuxi"--rest--supposedly. Then we had to stop to change a tire. Then to visit a suvenier shop. Please, just take us back!! Finally, we were back in Urumqi and caught a taxi back to the hotel. We hit the night market for a street-food dinner, and then back to "xiuxi" and pack for our plane ride tomorrow to Chengdu--stop number 4 on the grand tour!

Days 4 and 5 of the Grand Tour -- Xi'an and Urumqi

2006-06-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

After visiting the Terra-cotta Warriors in Xi'an, we had dinner at a local restaurant recommended by the guidebook. The "yang-rou-pao-mo" was excellent (but I think it was almost as good at the hole-in-the-wall place where we had lunch the next day). Basically it's bread pieces in a mutton soup with mutton, onion, maybe some cilantro, and some other spices. It's a Xi'an specialty, and it's quite tasty. After dinner, we wandered through a tent market with souvenirs and lots of dried fruit and then down the walking street by the Drum Tower and browsed for a while (Daniel's favorite!) The next day, we went back to the street for lunch, and then to the Xi'an city walls. We rented bikes, and rode on the wall, 14 km around the old city. A little hot, and noticeably polluted (as China's cities tend to be), but quite nice. After our exercise, we wandered the downtown part of the city by the Bell Tower, then back to the walking street for street food before we caught a taxi to the airport for our flight to the wild wild West!

Our first full day in Xinjiang province (Urumqi is the capital) we took a day trip to Turpan, about a 2.5 hour bus ride. Turpan is in a basin, and is actually the second lowest spot on earth, next to the Dead Sea. It is therefore quite hot. Forty degrees Celsius hot, in fact. That's 105 degrees Fahrenheit. So we took a walk (to Daniel's delight!). The goal was the Emin Minaret, some 3 km from the long distance bus station. I had copied the map from the travel book, and thought the walk would give us an opportunity to see the city, so I felt good about the walk. Except I had forgotten that although Xinjiang is officially on Beijing time, it's actually several hours behind, meteorologically speaking. So what I thought was South, judging by the sun, was actually North, because although it was 14:40 the sun was still in the East. Minor miscalculation. We figured it out about 20 minutes later, and set off in the right direction (Daniel complaining in the faux British accent the whole time). We finally made it to the minaret, after touring a good deal of the city on foot. The minaret is beautiful; the tall adobe tower seems to rise from the middle of grape fields, the patterns in the brick stand out against the blue sky.

We decided to take a taxi back to the bus station.

"Poshi-doodle-doo" (or, "What happens when you spend 7 weeks in one person's constant presence")

2006-06-25T00:04:00.000-07:00

It started with the faux British accent. Hearing a foreign language around you all the time does funny things to your psyche, I admit. After a long day of interviews I'd be thinking in Chinglish...but Daniel instead has adopted a faux British accent. After the accent came the nicknames. "Pointy-head" was the first one, but I really just didn't like that one. After a day or two of being called "pointy-head" I decided to cure him of the habit by pure Skinnerian conditioning--every time he said "pointy-head" (or "pointy-nose" or "pointy"-anything for that matter), I whapped him. So a new nickname had to be chosen. "Poshi"emerged as the winner. Consequently, it has undergone several mutations--"Poshi-doodle-doo," "Poshi-snosh," and just "Snosh" are just some of its several forms. All are spoken in the faux British accent.

I was on dorm staff my sophomore year at Sewanee (I know this doesn't sound related, but hang on--I'll make the connection), and we had to do a whole training course on roommate conflict. We had all been told of course that it's dangerous to room with your best friend--you might not be friends at the end of a year living together in a small space. And we had been trained in how to talk to roommates about roommate issues, how to advise the little freshmen, etc., so I came into this 7-week roommate arrangement with my brother well prepared. And too, my brother and I actually like each other and enjoy each other's company. We fought some as kids, but mostly grew out of that. Of course, fighting hit an all-time low when we were no longer living in the same house. That could have been a source of worry as we began our 7-week trip living not in the same house, but the same room. And not talking to anyone else very much. But I figured, you know, we're both semi-mature young adults (tee-hee-hee) or at least semi-mature college students, we should be able to handle this.

And handle it we have. The only real arguments have been about my navigational skills (Me: "You try reading the bus map!" DTB: "Duh, I can't, it's in Chinese!" Me: "Oh you're kidding! Give me a break, this is not exactly easy!!"); mostly the problem is that when I have time, I don't mind meandering for awhile, seeing the sights so to speak, before arriving at the destination. Daniel, however, is a git-er-done type person. He wants to have a destination, know exactly how to get there, and go, no detours, thank you. So this has caused a little friction. I should admit here, I once led him on a very long kind of hot meandering walk through the streets of Shanghai in search of--wait for it--a bookstore. I messed up the navigation pretty badly that time. But only that time. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job of getting us around, if I do say so myself. And if you've never looked at a Shanghai bus map, I can assure you, it's quite complicated and all in Chinese.

So basically what happens is Daniel complains, or makes snide comments, one after the other, endlessly, in the faux British accent. It grates on my nerves. And I tell him so. And he replies that meandering, or shopping, or waving to Chinese babies, or whatever it is that I'm doing that he's making snide comments about, gets on his nerves too, so we're even. He told me yesterday (walking, on a kind of hot day) "You know, when we get back to the US, I don't think we're going to need any more brother-sister bonding time for awhile." Yeah, ok. But he also tells me a lot, "You know, you're gonna miss me when this trip is over." He's probably right about that too.

Luoyang and Yan-yan

2006-06-24T02:41:00.000-07:00

I've finished my research (well, I've finished collecting data anyway--the real work begins when I get home), and we've begun our grand tour of the country! We left Shanghai Thursday afternoon on a sleeper train for Luoyang. We were waiting in the station in Shanghai when I noticed a woman and her son walking over. They weren't close enough for me to hear what they were saying, but from the mom's glances and gestures and the son's face, I imagined the conversation went something like this:

Chinese mom: "Look! Waiguoren! You should go over and talk to them!"
Son: "Mom, no!"
Chinese mom: "Come on! You know you're English is bad, and you really need to improve it--here's an opportunity!! Go talk to them!"
Son: "Mom, no! We shouldn't bother them! Besides, if my English is as bad as you say it will be too hard to communicate."
Chinese mom: "That doesn't matter. You should work hard to improve. Come on, there's an open couch next to where they're sitting."
Son: **sighing** "Mom, you're killing me."

At about this point, I caught Chinese mom's eye and smiled. Delighted, she dragged her son to the open couch, sat him down closest to me, poked him, and told him to ask where we were from. He asked me in Chinese. Chinese mom immediately scolded him, and told him to ask me in English--"you need to practice! Besides, she probably doesn't understand Chinese." I smiled, and waited for the question in English.

Son: "What country are you?"
Me: "United States."

He leaned back and looked at Chinese mom, like "Are you satisfied?"

Oh no, she was not.

Chinese mom: "Ask her if she is a student!"
Son: **rolls eyes at Chinese mom**, then to me, "Are you a student?"
Me: "Yes. What about you?"
Son: "Uh, I'm sorry, my English is very bad. Please say again?"
Me: "Are you a student?"
Son: "Oh, yes."

Chinese mom was smiling. I asked the son if they were traveling for fun in Shanghai, and after rephrasing the question once or twice, discerned that he had just graduated from high school in Luoyang, and he and his mother were in Shanghai looking at colleges. I asked him which one he wanted to go to, and he told me that a top university would be best of course, but that he was not very successful at his studies and would not get into to those universities, so he was looking at a vocational college. I asked him when he would find out the results of his college entrance examination. He didn't understand the question, even after a rephrasing or two, so finally I asked him in Chinese. I was gratified by a surprised laugh from both of them, then waited while he struggled to find the words to answer me in English.

Son: "I'm sorry, I don't know how to say it in English. What month is it now?"
Me: "June."
Son: "Yes, June. June......twenty...twenty five."
Me: "You should say, June twenty fifth."

And so began a day and a half of Chinglish mutual tutoring. Chinese mom discovered to her delight that we were on the same train car, and sent Son (whose name is Guo Peng Yan and who goes by Yan-yan) to our car to talk a couple of times during the ride. She was really very nice, thanking us profusely and apologizing for her son's bad English. I assured her I was in no position to say anyone else's language-learning efforts were not up to par. Yan-Yan, Daniel, nad I talked about movies, which was complicated because neither Yan-yan nor I knew how to say the titles of the movies in the other's language; music was a little easier, as he gave us a translation of the (awful) Chinese pop being piped throughout the train, and we gave him a translation a Guns and Roses song that he had on his phone.

He came to talk again the next morning, about an hour or so before we arrived in Luoyang. "My mom told me ask you to with you play in Luoyang--I can help you if you need help--my mom wants me to practice my English." Yes, I'd gathered as much. I told him we'd love to have him along.

We had a good day of touring Luoyang. Yan-yan took us to lunch at a delightful hole-in-the-wall noodle shop (my favorite!) where all three of us ate for about a dollar, and then we spent most of the day at the Longmen Buddha Caves, a major historical and cultural site (tourist attraction) about 10 miles from town. We pretty much only spoke English, or Chinglish I should say; a lot of the time I had to translate for Daniel when Yan-yan didn't get the phrasing or pronunciation quite right. But I have to say he was a quick learner. I usually only had to tell him a word once or twice before he had it and used it in further conversation. And he helped me as well--if he asked for a word that I didn't know in Chinese I'd ask him to give me the Chinese word and check my pronunciation. We must have looked pretty ridiculous--he with his electronic dictionary and me with my trusty yellow pocket dictionary, checking to make sure we were talking about the same concept.

After the caves, we went to a market in downtown Luoyang, and then Yan-yan took us to his "study room." He explained that it was not his home, but because his school was an hour from his home, he had "how-do-you-say..not-buy...pay-money...yes!yes!.RENT" this room to live in and study, because he should study very hard for the college exam. The little flat was dark and run-down, like millions of other similar flats in this country. It had a little kitchen, but the bathroom was shared with the flat next door. Really not a bad set up, but really a slum by American standards. It reminded me of many of the homes I went in last summer, except of course not nearly as lived in. Maybe a cross between a typical cheap Chinese flat and a college dorm room. Anyway, I was happy that Daniel got to see how many people live in this country.

We had dinner at a traditional Luoyang "water food" restaurant. Yan-yan ordered, and did an excellent job--we enjoyed all of the dishes. He insisted on ordering beer (Yan-yan said the drinking age here is 18, but the waitress laughed and told him she didn't care when he showed her his ID) because "you know, it's traditional to have how-do-you-say-"keren"..yes! GUESTS drink at dinners."

Well, after a little alcohol, 5'6'' 105-ish Yan-yan turned out to be an English speaking monster. He'd come a long way from the hesitant English-practicer we'd met in the train station--I have to say I was a little proud. And a little annoyed, I have to admit although it's ungrateful of me, that he insisted on accompanying us to the train station, and to the platform, and on the train--asking for directions, fretting that we were comfortable, getting our email addresses, etc., the whole time. We were a little worried that we might actually miss our train. But we made it on time, told Yan-yan thank you, and wished him well.

We arrived in Xi'an this morning, checked into our hotel, showered (after 2 days of trains and touring in the sun, we both needed it badly) and then headed off to Xi'an's major tourist attraction--the Terracotta Warriors. Daniel was a bit whiny--neither of us had had much sleep, and he was less than thrilled at the prospect of another tourist stop--and a museum at that, but even he was impressed with the place. The Chinese government has put a lot of money and effort into making it a big tourist attraction, and it shows. A couple of hours there, and we were ready to get back to the hotel for a nap. I think our grand tour is going to be a bit of a shock to our systems--we've been used to a leisurely pace and plenty of sleep, but Xi'an is city two of six in two weeks. It's going to be fun.

The Students

2006-06-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

I had a marathon interview day today—11 interviews. Far from complaining about the scheduling, I’m really grateful that these students agreed to talk to me, as they’re right in the middle of final exams. Having completed my own semester exams in the not-too-distant past, the pain of it all is still fresh in my memory. And Fudan University students don’t just take 4 or 5 classes like we do at Sewanee (and most other American colleges, I think); a normal load for these kids is 10-13 classes. (Whoah!) I really am in awe of these students, truth be known. Of course they’re the cream of crop—Fudan is one of the top universities in China, and only students with the very top scores on the nation-wide college entrance examination are admitted. To give you some idea, this year’s entrance exam occurred about two weeks ago; 9.5 million high school graduates took the exam—competing for 2.6 million college slots. (It’s a huge event here; parents take off work to stand in the parking lot of the building where their child is taking the exam, construction zones near the building are shut down so they don’t disturb the test takers, the evening news offers suggestions for what parents should feed their test-taker for breakfast, this kind of thing. Everything is riding on this one exam…I can’t hardly imagine the pressure.) Fudan University has a total student population of around 25,000, which means they accept around 6,250 students each year. Six thousand, out of a pool of 9.5 million.

(I don’t mean to exclude the Yangzhou University students from my praise here. Yangzhou University is not nearly as prestigious as Fudan, but those students are doing pretty well for themselves too. I found them, if not as impressive as the Fudan students, pretty darn impressive.)

The students are without doubt intelligent, but they’re also just fun to be around. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them, even just a little bit. Most of the interviews have been in “Chinglish,” although all of these students speak better English than I do Chinese. When I point this out, they all tell me of course their English should be better; they’ve studied it for 7+ years. It only slightly consoles me. Some of these students can discuss philosophy, cultural differences, even sociology and psychology, in English. (***nerd moment alert***Almost all of them mix up “he” and “she” at least once however—another thing that fascinates the psychology student in me. In Chinese, although the characters for “he” and “she” are different, they are pronounced the same way. When I say “he” or “she” in Chinese, I’m of course thinking in gender specifics, but apparently native Chinese speakers don’t make this cognitive distinction.) The interviews almost always begin the same way—with the student apologizing because s/he doesn’t speak very good English. By interview number 6 today, I had begun to say, “Yes, everyone tells me this, but then everyone I’ve spoken with today speaks very good English, so forgive me if I don’t believe you.” I usually at least got a smile, and only got a confused look once. Felt kind of bad about that one.

This kind of modesty I think is rooted in the traditional importance placed on modesty, and maybe a little bit in the interest of preserving face. Maybe the two are related anyway. It made me laugh though, when one of the Yangzhou students, when I complimented her on her English, immediately protested, embarrassed-- “No, no, no.” Then she laughed, “I mean, yes…I mean my English is just o.k.” Another laugh, “I think what I said first was the traditional Chinese response to a compliment. Does that help your research?” One of my interviewees today, when I asked her to give me an example of the Chinese concept of face (I’ll write a blog entry about this topic later) told me that she used to be very concerned with not losing face, but that she’s loosed up a bit as she’s gotten older, and maybe also as she’s proven to be such a good student. “You know,” she said, “a couple of years ago, I probably wouldn’t have come to talk to you, but now I don’t mind losing face because my English is so poor. I just enjoy this kind of conversation.” Losing face because your English is poor!! I shudder to think about my own face in that case…I wonder if you can have negative face…

Despite their tendency toward modesty, the students are refreshingly, matter-of-factly honest about their own abilities. They don’t hesitate to tell me about past failures; one Yangzhou student told me that she had been one of the top students at her middle school, but didn’t do as well in high school, and so she couldn’t go to a better university. Another told me that she’d wanted to major in economics, but she wasn’t very good at math and had failed that part of the placement examination, so she ended up an English major. She continued happily however, “But I think I’m a good student in the English department; I never have to study too hard and I usually still do well.”

One of my favorite questions of the 10 that I ask is “What would make you happy?” One of the most common answers, especially at Yangzhou but sometimes at Fudan, is that the student will be happy when his or her family members are healthy, and when he or she has close friends. The first couple of times I heard this kind of response it took me by surprise, even though collectivism and one’s identity as a member of a group are central to my research. After thinking about these replies, I decided they’re really quite wise. While I would never have thought to give that response to that question, the health of my family and having close friends of course central to my happiness. I guess these things are quite easily taken for granted when they are secure; I’m grateful to my interviewees for giving me a different way to look at things.

Occasionally, I have to work very hard to keep a straight face during the interviews. Today, for example, one young man looked at me straight-faced and told me that Harry Potter had really influenced the direction of his life. The student had found a role model of sorts in J.K. Rowling’s character, it seems. My next interviewee, another young man, (dressed in his PJ’s incidentally, as he was going to shower after the interview) told me in an almost feminine voice that he planned to use his advertising degree to hopefully get a job with Estee Lauder or Loreal Paris. No, he’d never considered working for the government (it’s one of the 10 questions; I had to ask even though I could pretty near guess the answer), that kind of work is boring! He wants to work in field that is passionate and creative!

Sometimes the students’ questions for me are also fun. Some I’ve learned to expect; several have asked me about New York—I think they’re disappointed when I admit I’ve never been. A couple have asked about TV shows or which American university is good place to study management or law or marketing or whatever their major is. They usually ask which university I’m from (no one’s ever heard of Sewanee) and what my research is about. One asked me how often there are earthquakes in San Francisco. (?) A couple have asked me how I would answer some of the questions, and I surprised myself by not really having a good answer. Maybe that can be another blog post; how would I answer my own interview questions… I always thank the students for helping me, especially the Fudan students who are spending valuable study time during finals to help me, but many of the students thank me! It makes me happy to think maybe they’ve enjoyed the interview. Several have asked for my email address, which makes me happy as well. Perhaps I’ll have a few new pen pals from this trip.

Thoughts on Learning Chinese

2006-06-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

"Wo jiu hui shuo yi dian dian." or "I can only speak a little, really."

People often ask me if I’m fluent in Chinese yet. It’s funny, but the question now seems kind of absurd to me; I once naively thought that after 2 years of college Chinese I’d be at least close to fluent, but the more Chinese I learn, the more laughable that seems. Oh how I wish I could say yes to the question! I’m not sure I’ll ever reach the point where I feel fluent—there is so much to learn. Not only vocabulary (of which there is a copious amount) but context, idioms, common ways of speaking, formal ways of writing…it gets confusing pretty quickly. Forget fluency--I would settle (quite happily) for proficiency. So in answer to the question, I usually say that I’m nowhere near fluent, but that I know enough to get around in China without too many problems.

This is the truth, although sometimes language issues cause hassle or embarrassment, or acceptance of a less than ideal situation. One of the books I’ve read on the trip is River Town by Peter Hessler. The book describes the author’s experiences during two years teaching English at a college in a small town on the Yangtze River. It’s an awesome book—I’ll say more about it in a later post. What I wanted to mention here is Hessler’s description of his Chinese self; “Ho Wei”—he talks about how Peter and “Ho Wei” are two separate people, with different languages, of course, but also different personalities. Ho Wei can only use simple words, laughs at himself a lot, often feels awkward, lets things happen to him instead of being proactive, accepts things Peter would not… I can sympathize with this a little bit. In some ways, “Jin Jing” is not so different from Jean Anne—mostly because Jean Anne has been Jin Jing at Sewanee, in a Chinese class where she was the most serious student and did well. She is Jin Jing with friends—and friends are patient and encouraging. But it’s true that my personality changes a bit when I’m in “Chinese mode.” I’m much more hesitant, more humble I guess, eager to show goodwill, quick to brush off an insult or a joke about the waiguoren, generally ignoring people who yell “heellllo” or “ladyladylookeelookee” but smiling at all the kids. I use the phrase “bu hao yisi”—I’m embarrassed—a lot, and also “dui buqi”—I’m sorry.

I especially identify with Hessler about accepting things. I do it a lot here. So we ended up with hard seats on the train to Suzhou…at least we have tickets. So the drinks aren’t cold…at least we have drinks. So I ended up with plum-flavored cola…I guess it’s drinkable. Thing is, my vocabulary could handle all of these situations—I know how to ask for a soft seat and for cold drinks of many different flavors, but often the hassle of communication or the risk of upsetting someone is just not worth it. Plus there’s just something Chinese about accepting whatever comes. Not karma exactly, but a similar idea maybe. Fate, I think; after all, with all the craziness of China’s past century, what else could the people do but hang on and hope for the best? A common Chinese phrase, “mei banfa,” means really there’s nothing that can be done—you accept it and move on. (Hey, it sounds better than that I just don’t want to deal with the hassle of a controversy in Chinese.)

My Chinese is improving, though. I’ve learned a lot of new words already this trip; things like “reservation” and “check-out” and “long distance bus station” that I’ve never needed to know before. And of course the more I speak Chinese and listen to Chinese and read Chinese the more fluent I become with the words that I already know. That’s maybe the biggest battle—recognizing words that I already know in context and also, learning to use them correctly.

Sometimes the missing pieces of a particular conversation will fall into place later, when I learn a new word. Last year in the course of our Shanghai research I talked to a 25 year old guy from Sichuan Province in China’s southwest. He was trying to explain to me (being extraordinarily patient with my bad Chinese) what he thought were the major differences between his hometown and Shanghai; one of the things he kept saying had something to do with marriage, but I never did quite understand...something about only a couple of months…I thought he meant people in Shanghai sometimes married after only knowing each other for a couple of months. A week or so later, I figured out what he’d been saying—when I learned the word for “divorce.” Another example: a girl I spoke with in Yangzhou was telling me about the difference between the way people of the young generation thought and the way some people of the older generation sometimes thought; I caught her basic meaning about the younger generation accepting new ideas more easily, but it wasn’t until later when I learned the Chinese word for “feudal” that I realized exactly what she’d been saying. The psychology student part of me is fascinated by these occurrences--these puzzles stay in my head, probably because of the frustration they cause, and my brain somehow plugs the missing piece in. Interesting.

It’s funny; people here compliment me all the time on my Chinese, but it’s almost always when Chinese isn’t necessary. If I’m just chatting with the shop clerk as I browse, inevitably they’ll tell me, ‘Oh, your Chinese is so good! How long have you lived in Shanghai?” But if I have to ask a question or someone’s trying to tell me something semi-important and my Chinese isn’t quite up to the task, it’s irritation at the dumb waiguoren who can’t speak properly or understand simple things. Their impatience is completely understandable, of course. And knowing this makes me even more frustrated. Ah well. More motivation to keep plugging away.

Tea

2006-06-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

Daniel and I have been enjoying Shanghai. I will go to the university here on Tuesday to meet with the students who are going to help me with my research. Until then, we are free to explore. Since I spent 5 weeks here last summer, I know the city fairly well and can get us around without too many problems. The other night, I took Daniel to a Thai restaurant that’s close to where we stayed last summer. He wasn’t a big fan of my green curry, but he enjoyed the satay he’d chosen. The street where the restaurant is located turns into a huge party on weekend nights, and I thought it might be fun for Daniel to see, but since it was still early after we’d finished dinner we headed farther down the street for a much more low-key bar. (There’s no drinking age in China.) We sat and enjoyed the quiet for a little while, watching as the bar girls primped and chatted, getting ready for the evening rush that would come later.

After an hour or so it was starting to get dark, and we decided to walk up the street a ways. Before we came to the club/bar section, we passed a tea house set back from the street through a nicely-lit bamboo grove. I looked at Daniel. “Please?” “You’re kidding.” “Oh come on, it will be an experience.” He sighed. “Whatever.” So in we went. The tea house was much bigger than it looked from the outside, stretching back for three or four rooms. The hostess settled us in one of the middle rooms. We were the only westerners there—unusual for this area of Shanghai, but maybe not so unusual for a tea house, I don’t know. The waiter brought us a menu, and waited while I flipped through it. I asked Daniel what he wanted. “I don’t like tea.” “Well, lets see, they have the fresh fruit shaved ice thingies that we’ve seen other places.” “Alright, get me a strawberry one.” I had decided on oolong tea. I told the waiter what we wanted, but he said they weren’t serving the fresh-fruit shaved ice thingies. I asked about another fresh fruit frozen thingy, in a different section of the menu. He called another server over. After about a five minute discussion between me and the two servers (the servers trying to explain that if we ordered from a certain part of the menu we could get fruit and other snacks from the buffet in the other room) I explained that we were not hungry and could we please just get tea and an ice thingy. “OK.” I wasn’t sure why that was so difficult, but I’m grateful that the servers were so patient with me.

Daniel’s mango ice thingy came, and then my tea, a tea pot and two tiny cups—one tall and slender and the other shorter and wider, sitting on a small wooden box with slits in the top. Another server came by to prepare the tea for me. First, she poured hot water over the teapot. She rinsed the tea leaves in the pot, pouring the tea over the cups again and then pouring it out, then refilling the teapot, and finally pouring tea into the slender cup, setting the wider cup on top, and flipping them with a flourish. She set it in front of me and left. The tea smelled delightful and tasted even better. The atmosphere was also nice with white lanterns hung from the ceiling and Chinese patrons relaxing at the other tables. Daniel was still a little irritated that I’d picked a tea house instead of a bar, but he graciously allowed me to enjoy my tea. He did remark that the dainty little cup was too hoity-toity for his taste.

We decided not to go back down the street and took the subway back to the hotel instead. The next day, we hopped back on the subway to go to the Shanghai Museum. We were wandering through the People’s Park to get from the subway to the museum, and looking for a place to grab some lunch, when we heard “Hello!” Daniel sighed. I turned around and said hello, and we stopped to chat with the two guys. They were college students from Xinjiang Province, way out in China’s northwest, and it was their first time in Shanghai. They asked us where we were going. We told them we were planning to visit the museum, but were looking for some lunch first. They told us they were going to a tea exhibition in a nearby mall; apparently a group from Fujian province comes to Shanghai every 3 years to hold this exhibition, and some of the guys’ friends had recommended it to them. I looked at Daniel. “Do you want another tea experience?” He sighed. “Sure, why not.” We followed the guys, chatting about football and Xinjiang and how life in Shanghai is so busy.

The tea ceremony was delightful. Even Daniel was impressed! We sampled six kinds of tea, a young woman preparing it for us and explaining special features of each tea and the proper etiquette for drinking it, and the guys translating whatever I couldn’t translate for Daniel. All of us really liked the oolong tea. The fruit-flower tea was another favorite, and the red tea with lychee flavor was also really good. The last tea was an “art tea,” not one of the traditional kinds, but really beautiful. It was a large ball, maybe an inch across, and the young woman explained that it was a flower on the inside, covered by jasmine leaves on the outside. She put it into a champagne glass, and poured hot water over it. We watched as the leaves opened, and a blossom emerged, forming a petal bridge in the water with a smaller colored petal in the center. It was beautiful.

A couple of us bought some tea, and then we exchanged email addresses with the guys. They headed off to wander the park some more, with plans to meet up with friends that night to watch the World Cup game between England and Paraguay. Daniel and I were going to go to the museum, but it was 4:30 and the guys thought it closed at 5. Since the museum is big and really deserves a couple of hours, Daniel and I headed off to get lunch dinner.

Pictures

2006-06-08T06:34:00.000-07:00

Some pictures.

Baby Bottom

2006-06-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

***Post by Daniel***

A really funny thing happened to me today. We were in the Yuyan market in the old part of the city, and I was walking across this bridge that crosses a big pond. A
lady holding a child and a camera approached me. (Before today no one had
asked to take my picture, but I have seen a couple sneak it. I tend to be a
real fun attraction here.) She says something to me in Chinese, and I think
that she wants me to take a picture of her and her kid so I nod my head up
and down to signify that I would do it. Now before I continue, let me tell
you about a Chinese "culture shock" if you will. In China until you are potty trained, you have a big slit in the crotch of your pants so when you need to go, you just squat and have at it. These kids pee everywhere. The first time I saw it this kid had dropped his pants in the middle of a busy street. I was astounded. So anyway, this lady, who I am expecting to hand me a camera, hands me her baby. I am like, "What the heck is going on". Then she motions me to the right and takes my picture with the kid, who I am holding in my arm like any other kid I would hold. As I give the baby back I remember this "culture shock" and sure enough, I had been resting
it's rear on my arm. Makes you feel real good for the rest of the day, let me tell you. Not to mention the fact that Jean Anne, who realized what was going on after a second or two, also got a picture with the baby and me, right before she started hysterically laughing at me. It was pretty funny, I will be the first one to admit that, but the constant laughter for the rest of the day was a constant reminder of the baby rear on my arm. I guess it all worked out for the better. I mean everyone got a picture with the giant "Waiguoren" (Foreigner) and the Chinese baby and I think everyone was entertained. While I was at the market, I did manage to get a good portion of my shopping gift shopping done, so I guess it wasn't all that bad. Do you
think any American would let some random Chinese dude hold their baby while
they took a picture???? Go figure.

Time, Trains, and Agriculture

2006-06-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

It’s 10:30 in the morning here, and Daniel’s still asleep. We have internet access in our hotel room at this hotel, so he’s been staying up late talking to his buddies back home. I guess I can’t blame him too much; he asked me the other day, “do you realize you’re the only person I’ve talked to in over 2 weeks?!” I should admit, too, that I only got up 45 minutes ago. It’s been absolutely wonderful the past three weeks not having a cell phone or an alarm clock, and having enough time to get everything done. After this last semester at school, getting this much sleep feels sinful.

One of the nicest parts about this kind of trip is that we have more than enough time to see all the sights and can take a leisurely pace with it all. I’ve read 4 books since we’ve been here—5 if you count the travel guide book, which I’ve read most of in planning our grand tour of the country. It’s been wonderful. I’ve also enjoyed just wandering around the neighborhoods we’ve stayed in in Yangzhou and Shanghai. The things I enjoy most about China are not the temples and museums and other tourist sites, although those are nice, and I’m happy that I have the opportunity to see them. My favorite things, though, are eating at the hole-in-the-wall noodle shop, or playing peek-a-boo with the 4 year old in the train station, or pausing to watch a vendor make dumplings on the side of the street, or chatting with someone who stops to ask me where I’m from. Even successfully arranging hotel reservations and train tickets or ordering food at the restaurant can give me a thrill, because I’ve handled all of that in a foreign language.

Train trips have been especially fun. I love watching the countryside pass by, although I wonder if “countryside” is the right term; there is no empty space anywhere that I can see. Grain field is next to rice field, maybe divided by a strip of land where fruit trees have been planted. The fields run right up to the train tracks. Small burial markers are sometimes on little plots of land in between the fields, usually white tile with red sloping roofs, about 3 feet tall, maybe. Occasionally I’d see an ox grazing on the side of a canal, or sitting in the corner of a field that had already been plowed. This scenery would be interrupted occasionally by a small town center with 2-3 story apartment buildings and some businesses, but some of these areas looked like they did not have paved roads. No wasted space though. Maybe we’ll see some of that when we go out west.

On our trip from Yangzhou to Suzhou I tried to figure out some of the planting cycle. It’s time to harvest one of the grains (wheat, maybe?); we passed farms in each stage of the process, I think. In some places, the people were cutting the crop with scythes and bundling it into piles, where it was left to dry I think, or maybe just left while the people took a break. In other areas, the piles had either been taken to a concrete floor or put on a tarp, and people were beating the piles with a long pole that had a paddle which flopped back and forth on the end. After it was beaten, the grain was sifted from the rest of the plant in big shallow baskets. The chaff was then burned in the field. (Daniel and I had wondered why it was so smoky at times in Yangzhou—this was the reason, I think.) I kind of wish I’d paid more attention to farming practices at home, so I’d have something to compare this with. Everything is labor-intensive here, I guess because there are so many people and people need jobs, and it’s cheaper than buying expensive machinery.

Rice is another big crop in this area. As near as I can tell, the rice is planted in a muddy field, and then after a certain period of time, moved to a field under a foot or so of water. During our train ride, many people were busy in the fields planting the shoots in the water fields. I wonder if it’s possible to just flood the original field…it looked like a lot of work had been invested in the irrigation ponds and creeks and such. Bet it’s not too much fun to spend a couple of days wading through a giant puddle, bending over to stick plants in the mud.

Suzhou and the Hard-Seat Train

2006-06-04T07:03:00.000-07:00

I have to say I felt a little sad to leave Yangzhou; I really enjoyed our two weeks there. I am happy to be halfway through with my research though. Daniel and I went to Suzhou on Saturday, hoping to meet up with one of my Sewanee classmates, but it turns out he was in Shanghai for the weekend, so we missed each other. Ridiculous coincidence and poor planning. Anyway, we arrived in Suzhou (which is about an hour from Shanghai by train) Saturday evening. We set out for a restaurant close to the hotel that the travel book recommended; it was pretty easy to find, as it had "Lonely Planet" (the name of the guide book) pasted all over the front. Nooo, not touristy at all... But turns out Chinese people eat there too, and the food was good, so I didn't mind about the Lonely Planet thing. After dinner, we headed to the night market (also a guidebook suggestion) and wandered around for awhile. Suzhou is bigger than Yangzhou and has more historical and cultural spots (a.k.a. tourist attractions), and consequently, more waiguoren. It’s smoggy, but other than that a nice little city.

Sunday morning we went to the Garden of the Master of the Nets. No idea why it’s named that. Our group last summer went to this garden, and I had spent probably 45 minutes looking at watercolor paintings in a side wing—they were awesome. By China standards, they were expensive, however, and I didn’t buy one. And for an entire year I’ve wished I did buy one. So I finally paid a return visit, and bought a watercolor painting. It’s delightful. And Daniel was quite (unexpectedly) patient with my indecisiveness as I tried to choose which one I like the most.

After we finished with the Garden of the Master of the Nets, we wandered the surrounding streets, browsing through antique shops, silk shops, cigar shops, etc. (bet you can guess which one of us went in which kind of stores…) then back to the hotel to collect the luggage and head for the train station. As we got closer to the station in the taxi, I was getting more and more nervous. See, on Saturday when we arrived in Suzhou, I had left the luggage with Daniel and gone to the ticket office at the train station to get tickets to Shanghai for the next day. After a huge—albeit surprisingly orderly—line, it was my turn at the window.

Me: Two tickets for tomorrow afternoon to Shanghai.
Ticket woman: (irritated glance at the waiguoren who didn’t just book the tickets with the much-less-busy people at the hotel and accept the service charge) What time?
Me: Uh, after 2 p.m.
Ticket woman: The 2 p.m. train. 20 $RMB.
Me: (thinking that didn’t sound like enough money) Uh, I’d like soft-seat please.
Ticket woman: (thinking, get the heck out of my line, stupid waiguoren) Don’t have those. Only hard seats.
Me: (thinking, I give up.) Ok.
**Meeting up with Daniel** Me: Uh, got some bad news.

Trains in China have 4 classes of tickets: soft sleeper—the most luxurious and most expensive, with 4 bunks per enclosed cabin; hard sleeper—pretty nice, 6 bunks per open cabin; soft seat—nice for short distances, comparable to business class on a plane; and hard seat—cheap transportation for the masses. They usually overbook seats, so not everyone gets to sit down. No air-con or other niceties. Before Sunday, I’d only ever traveled soft seat, and was a little anxious about our upcoming hard seat adventure. I wasn’t worried about standing up or no air-con, as the trip from Suzhou to Shanghai is 45 minutes to an hour; mostly I was concerned because both Daniel and I have pretty big, and pretty heavy, suitcases. I mean, we did a pretty good job of packing economically, but when you’re going to a foreign country for 2 months there are just some things you think you really should pack. Plus there’s no way we could buy clothes here to fit us, unless we had them made.

Adventure it was; we were the only two white people in the waiting hall of well over 500 people. But I have to say, it was not bad at all. Certainly not as bad I thought it might be, and probably could have been. Other people had way more baggage than we did, usually in big plastic bags or cardboard boxes tied with plastic, sometimes 2 hung on each end of a long wooden pole. The weather was cool and some of the windows opened, so it wasn’t even hot. I was a little annoyed that the service-people with instant noodles and maps came through with their carts—the car was way too crowded for a cart full of instant noodles, and every time they came by the older gentleman standing in the aisle ended up either in my lap or the lap of the guy across the aisle. But it was typical China people-contact; no one got upset, you just did what had to be done to let the instant noodle cart past.

While our hard-seat adventure ended up just being cheap transportation, the hotel in Shanghai has supplied any adventure we missed. Half of the lobby, and the entire street in front of the hotel, like the 2 streets on either end of that street, are under construction. No roads, just mud, concrete bits, and a couple of construction trucks. There is a sidewalk, though, allowing the bikes and motorcycles to zip along happily. Our room isn’t bad, but coupled with the fact that it’s going to be a really long walk through a construction zone to get to the subway station, I think we’re going to need to find a new hotel. Job number one for tomorrow.

Daniel’s Wisdoms
1) "Egg Roll" and "Meat ball" are apparently very close in Chinese. Just eat noodles.
2) Don’t ride your mo-ped on un-finished roads, you might crash. (as witnessed by me, but I helped the Chinese girl out)
3) Smog kills, and it makes your snot black. Now I know the reason for the white masks!!
4) Sometimes not speaking Chinese is a blessing, like when hotel hawkers attack you outside of the train station.
5) If you want to get to know the Chinese people well travel hard-seat on the train. Otherwise, soft-seat is the way to go. (Actually is wasn’t as bad as I had expected.)

Email from Robert

2006-06-02T06:42:00.000-07:00

(Just thought I'd share. Being a waiguoren here is frustrating at times, but it's kind of fun that people want to get to know you just because you are one.)

hello,this is Robert.The Noon's day is coming.Wish you happy.The Noon's Day spring an ancient patroic Qu yuan.He gave the Empior Chu good advices about devoloping the country,but none was accepted by some bad government officials.He didnit want to join in this interest unit and seek his honest and character.At last,he drowned himself in the Niluo River.In honour of him,people named that day Noon's day,and will package some Zongzi (a food ).how are you now ? I saw some bits by the mosquitoes in your legs.Be careful about the attack of the small flying insects! Warning!Wish you happy.

yours sincerely
ROBERT

(I had forgotten about this holiday; when I came to China the first time, I arrived a day or so after this holiday, and host family still had some zongzi that they shared with me. Kind of fun.)

A Walk in the Park

2006-06-01T22:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after dinner I had about an hour before I had to meet an interviewee on the main campus, so I went wandering in the park across the street. This is the kind of thing that I love doing in China; I feel like it's "real" in some way that the gardens, temples, and other tourist stops are not--these are average people, enjoying their evening in the neighborhood park. To get to the park, you cross the street by the west gate of the main campus, walk past a couple of internet bars and a restaurant, and hang a left. When you first walk in, there's an outdoor roller skating rink set down in a large pit, and pool tables and a kiddie playground on the other side. I wandered around the outside of this area, mostly watching the kids. I crossed the arching stone bridge--57 steps to get over a canal about 15 feet across--and walked into the main part of the park. To my right was a marble floor, where I imagine the old people come in the mornings to do their exercises. I took the path to the left, over a footbridge and between two pools of algae-green water. I wandered slowly, following the meandering paths through the trees, bushes, and other plants that made the park quite pleasant. Passed a pagoda where old men were gathered advising and cheering on the participants of an intense-looking game of Chinese chess. In a clearing a little ways down the path, other old people were practicing their "qigong," or breathing exercises. Throughout the parks, young couples sat cuddling on benches or walking the stone paths slowly with fingers entwined. There is not much privacy in this country, I think. On the lake, a man in a motorboat is rounding up the last of the rented boats to tie them up for the night. Some of the boats are shaped like battleships, with fake guns on the front; some are shaped like animals, some are plain orange and blue paddleboats. I continue down the lake-side path, pausing to watch two children play on another open marble-floored area. The little girl has a white gauze and wire flower, and is using it to direct her younger playmate in a jumping game. An older man, their grandpa maybe, sees me watching and gives me a grin. Down the path a ways, a little boy hangs onto his mom's hand, gleefully swinging a plastic bag with a goldfish. A man in a suit walks the path, cigarette in hand and cell phone pressed to his ear. He seems kind of out of place in the park tonight. I pass a man on a bench with his shoes off, rubbing his feet; he turns to watch me as I pass--no smile, but no hostility, just curiosity I think. What's the waiguoren doing here? A little ways further, a man sits selling goldfish from a rock-pond. I wonder if he takes them home at night in a big bucket, or whether they just stay in the pond. Around that corner by the back gate, and the man on the bench turns to look at me again. Crazy waiguoren, just wandering around by herself. Up ahead, women sit at a small table, folding wire and stretching gauze around it, tacking it in place with florist tape to make flowers. Two young boys, still in their school uniforms with the red handkerchiefs tied around their necks, chatter as they walk along with arms linked. Ahead, two older women are taking their evening walk, arms linked like the little boys'. A mom watches her small daughter, pretty in a white dress with blue flowers and bright green shoes. The girl climbs the uneven stone steps up to the pagoda; "be careful now, come on back down" says mom. I stop to take a picture of something or another, and they walk on. When I catch up to them again, the mom is saying, "because she is not from our China." She catches my smile, and explains that the girl wanted to know why I was a "waiguoren." I laugh, and ask how old she is. "She's four. Your Chinese is quite good!" I laugh again; oh how I wish my Chinese was "quite good." I take the path to the left, back around the first marble-floor area. A family is there now, the dad trying to hit a badminton birdie back and forth with his son, not entirely unsuccessfully, but bad enough as to amuse the mom and the other people sitting around the marble area. Occasionally as I wander, I hear "waiguoren" or "laowai" (both meaning foreigner), and if I turn and smile, "ting de dong!" (she understands!) and usually a smile or laughter. I walk back over the marble bridge, this time passing a man and a woman on a bench, the man with his arm in a huge plaster cast, supported by a cloth slung around his shoulder. Maybe to impress his wife or girlfriend, the man offers a "hallooo" as I pass. That cast cannot be comfortable. I smile and offer a "hello" in return. The wife/girlfriend seems suitably impressed I guess. Ten minutes to get to my interview. I walk back by the skating rink, past a group of guys who snicker at some joke, probably having to do with the waiguoren. Ah well. It's been a lovely evening.

More About Yangzhou

2006-05-31T01:05:00.000-07:00

Daniel announced yesterday, after I caught him watching Pride and Prejudice on the computer for the second night in a row, that it is time to leave this city and go back to Shanghai. Apparently he has exhausted the entertainment opportunities here (he says his Calculus independent study definitely does not count as entertainment). So I suppose it’s a good thing that we’re leaving Saturday. Bought the train tickets yesterday; I still feel a small thrill of accomplishment whenever I successfully accomplish something like buying train tickets. Silly, yes, but we celebrate what we can. Small victories, and all that.

There are some things about our time here that I will miss in Shanghai; the motel where we’ve been staying is beside the music building, so often we’re treated to flute or piano playing, or singing on occasion. There are some very talented musicians here at Yangzhou University. I’m also going to miss the little mini-cafeteria next door to the motel—we’ve discovered several dishes that we really like and that I can order successfully every time, the people there are friendly, and for less than a dollar per person it’s hard to beat. I’ve also really enjoyed the canals in this city. There is a network of them that criss-crosses the map, and that make for pleasant walks, for the most part. The canal on the other Yangzhou U campus across the street from where we’re staying kind of smells like sulphur, but you don’t really notice unless it’s raining, for some reason. Other than that, the canals are quite nice. Even though it has well over a million inhabitants, Yangzhou still has a small-city feel to it that I enjoy.

There are a lot of pedicabs in this city—bicycles with seat-carriages attached to the back. They’re not just touristy things either; these things are considered legitimate means of transportation. I really respect the pedicab pedalers who stop to ask Daniel and I if we want a ride. I mean, we weigh a combined total of well over 400 lbs. That’s a heavy load I think, even by China standards, where it’s not uncommon to see a rail-thin old man struggling down the street with a huge bike cart full of wood, debris, melons, or whatever else needs moving. So these guys who pester us to take their pedicab must be either really hard-up for work or must have heard that waiguoren can be charged double the usual prices. I’m not sure. But we’ll walk, or take a taxi if we must, thank you very much.

Pedicabs are not the only self-propelled vehicles on the streets; bicycles of the traditional variety are also quite common (as are mopeds, motorcycles, and battery-powered bikes). It cracks Daniel up that almost every bike you see around campus has a pedaler and someone sitting sideways on the rack above the back wheel; I think this has been outlawed in Beijing, but you can’t walk down the street or sidewalk here without bumping into someone on the back of a bike. Daniel asked me, “What would you do if your date came to pick you up on his bicycle?”
Me: “Hop on, of course.”
Daniel: “Haha, you’re lying.”
Me: “No, really, you gotta admire that kind of confidence.”
Daniel: “Haha. Well, I guess it would mean that every guy would be after the same type of girl—about 5’4’’ and skinny.”
Me: “Huh?”
Daniel: “Come on! Would you want to pedal some 200 lb gal around town?”

He’s got a point I suppose.

When we first arrived in Yangzhou, I thought this place might be too developed for my research to work out, and was considering trying to find a different city. The thing that finally convinced me it would be ok happens to be another feature of this place that cracks Daniel up—namely, the bare-butted babies. Clearly he didn’t read my blog when I was in Beijing; the bare-butted babies were the cause of the only real culture shock I experienced. I mean, I was expecting China to be quite different from the US. But instead of putting diapers on their kids, people here just buy baby- and toddler- clothing with the butt cut out. Simpler, I suppose, if maybe less sanitary. This practice is very common in Beijing, but I hardly saw it at all in cosmopolitan Shanghai. In Yangzhou, it’s clearly the norm. Daniel said the first time he saw it he just thought it was a fluke; you know, like maybe the kid’s pants had split. But after a day or so of seeing the same thing, he realized that’s how the clothes were made. We were walking out of the campus gate one morning when a toddler in front of us stopped in the street to relieve himself, holding his mother’s hand to keep his balance. Daniel’s like, “Geez. Where are we?” Welcome to China, pal.

Conversations

2006-05-30T02:05:00.000-07:00

Nothing really new to report. I should get the last batch of questionnaires tomorrow afternoon, and I need to finish up 4-5 interviews this week, and then we're off to Suzhou on Saturday. I went to Suzhou last summer with Dr. Wilson and the research group from Sewanee, but it will be fun to take Daniel there. Also, one of my Sewanee classmates lives in Suzhou, so hopefully we can meet up while we're there. Then Sunday it's back to Shanghai.

This morning I left Daniel in at the hotel, still in bed at 11 in the morning, and went to the Potted Plant Garden by myself. Daniel just didn't feel like he was missing out, I guess, but it turned out to be a nice little garden. It was practically deserted--extremely rare for China, and quite nice. It gets its name from hundreds of potted bonsai trees arranged throughout the park, but there are also several little creeks, pavillions, rock formations, the usual elements of a Chinese garden. I met a young man in the garden who came up to talk to me; something I discovered last summer was that Chinese people are much more likely to come up and talk to you if you are by yourself. So we had a nice little conversation, wandering through the garden. He was from the countryside, and was in Yangzhou to travel and look for work. He wanted to practice his English of course, but mostly we talked in Chinese, as my Chinese was better than his English (wonder of wonders!) so I got a chance to practice listening comprehension and stringing together coherent sentences in Chinese--always good.

On my way back to the campus, I passed a guy on a bike cart who said hello in English; not an uncommon occurrence, as many people know "hello" and aren't at all shy about shouting it at the "waiguoren" (foreigners). But I ran into this guy again on the campus, and he wanted to talk. (I always try to talk to anyone who wants to practice English here, as I'm quite sympathetic to the trials of learning a foreign language. Plus it's just fun to see what people say.) "Robert" (pronounced more like WRowwert) is a junior studying law at Yangzhou University. He laughed when he told me this, and said that he knew law is not very developed in China, but he thinks it's going to get better. I have to say I agree. Anyway, he just couldn't get over his good fortune at catching a waiguoren of his very own to talk to! He asked about my studies and my research at Yangzhou Daxue; I explained that I was a psychology major, and was giving students at the University questionnaires for my research. He laughed, "oh, so we're like your little labratory rats!" "No, of course not! You're participants in my research!" He said he thought psychology was very interesting, but it's not very popular in China. "Maybe there are some psychology doctors in the big cities," he said, "but not in a place like Yangzhou. I think with all the stress students are under though, that there will be a great need for this kind of thing in the future." I saw his point. He asked me what state I was from. "Oh, I know of Alabama. It is the center of the civil rights movement." A diplomatic way to put it, I guess; I imagine there are many worse things written about Alabama in whatever source he got his information from. "Yes, perhaps it is the birthplace of democracy there." Not sure what he meant by that, but I suppose it could be in some way true. All in all, Robert had a pretty good grasp of American history. "The North was the center for industry, and the South was the center of agriculture." Correct again. "I am just so excited to talk with you!" Yes, I can tell. Thank you! I quite enjoyed our conversation.

Proud to be a Meiguoren (American) sung to the Lee Greenwood tune

2006-05-28T01:09:00.000-07:00

Daniel's Wisdoms:
1) Things are always farther away than they seem on the guidebook map. Take a Taxi.
2) Bring a hair dryer for your clothes.
3) I finally figured out why bike bells are useful.
4) Don't pay attention to the crosswalk sign. Just follow the leader.
5) Bring Lysol and Febreeze
6) I am very spoiled. My standard of living, which until now I thought to be average, is actually pretty awesome. Makes you realize how much you really have. Guess Dad was right all these years.

Happy Memorial Day! I always feel kind of strange celebrating American holidays in China...I guess we don't really celebrate them, just remember them. Anyway, I guess it's appropriate for me to be in China today; it wasn't until I came to China the first time that I really gained an appreciation for how good we've got it in the U.S. I'd never really considered myself patriotic until then. So much we take for granted...Daniel said this morning, "You know, I never really thought that having access to a washing machine and a dryer meant we were spoiled..." I guess two weeks of hanging laundry up around the room to dry does kind of make you nostalgic for the convenience of American-style laundry rooms, or even laundromats. At least we're not having to hand wash our clothes, like most of the people in this country.

It kind of grosses Daniel out that they wash out the mops that they use to clean the motel floor with in the little pond outside...what a sissy. And he refuses to eat street-vendor food, although I'm still working on him there. We've graduated to eating fruit from the fruit-stalls, so he may yet eat some of the rest of this stuff. I was reading in the guide book that one of the cities we're going to at the end of the trip has a night market that has all kinds of street-food, including various species of insects--I don't think even I am up for that, but steamed buns and pan-fried biscuit thingies I can handle.

So I hope everyone enjoys being American today...smell your Tide-fresh clothes for us and don't get annoyed when you get caught by the traffic light...at least most people stop for traffic lights in the U.S. And definitely read the news and enjoy the lack of censorship.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep.
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven - rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto --"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interviews and Questionnaires

2006-05-24T23:19:00.000-07:00

Had my first 4 interviews yesterday, all girls from the English teacher's class. We mostly spoke English, which was nice for me, and I think they appreciated the opportunity to practice their English. One of them told me that she had been a little nervous when she first came in and sat down, because it was her first time to speak one-on-one with a native English speaker, but by the end of the interview she was relaxed. It's interesting to hear about their future plans and their relationships with their families; in some ways, I think I would get similar responses were I to ask these questions of Sewanee students. Some things are different, though. I'm definitely noticing some "collectivist" tendencies, and I don't think it's just because I'm expecting to find them. When I ask what qualities a good leader should have, all of the girls replied that first he or she should be able to get along well with others. Somehow I imagine I'd get a different response if I asked American students that question.

I also got my first batch of questionnaire responses back yesterday, and Daniel and I began the mind-numbing task of entering everything into the computer. I consoled both of us by reminding Daniel that that batch was about 1/5 of the entire study, and since we knocked it out in an afternoon, we should have plenty of time to play in Shanghai and on our grand tour at the end of the trip. Speaking of the grand tour; I'm really excited about planning all that out. I think I'll wait until we get back to Shanghai to buy the tickets and everything, but I've been reading up on the destinations I want to go to in the travel book. It's going to be fun. Even if I do decide to drag Daniel to a bunch of temples...

We'll get the second batch of questionnaires this afternoon, which works out well since it's raining and not a good day for wandering the city. We've been to most of the tourist attractions here (although I'm still trying to convince Daniel that the Potted Plant Garden sounds like fun) so mostly we've been hanging out around the campus. I'm enjoying catching up on my reading and sleeping. Daniel has requested jiaozi for dinner, so we're going to have to venture out for that.

Progress with the research, and some observations

2006-05-23T02:21:00.000-07:00

Met with the director of the Foreign Students Office yesterday, and after a semi-stern warning not to touch the “sensitive” subjects of politics or religion, got the phone number of an American English teacher. Called the teacher, who agreed to hand out my questionnaires to his classes and ask his students for volunteers to be interviewed. Hooray!! So Daniel and I have the next couple of days to kick around before we start getting piles of questionnaires that need to be entered into the computer. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to help me punch it all in.

We’re having fun exploring Yangzhou. We went to Ge Garden yesterday--a pretty little spot. Today we went to Slender West Lake, Yangzhou’s top tourist destination. Took a nice little walk along the lake, which is indeed slender. Went up to the top of the 9-story pagoda at the DaMing Temple, Daniel complaining the entire way; he’s told me I am limited to only 4 temples for the entire trip…we’ll see about that. I’m the one who’s planning this trip.

So the little on-campus motel we’re staying at isn’t all that nice, but one nice little perk (besides its proximity to where I’m doing my research) is the dining hall next door. The menu is handwritten on a chalkboard by the door, and it’s a little hard for me to read, but the lady that takes our order is really nice and helps us out. We’ve been eating nicely for less than a dollar a person for dinner. I haven’t found a baozi stand close to campus yet, which is kind of sad, but lemon ritz make a good breakfast I guess.

There’s a phenomenon I learned about in a psychology class called the spotlight effect; basically people (and especially adolescents) believe that others are watching them or paying closer attention to them than the others actually are. Except here in Yangzhou for Daniel and I the spotlight effect is not a psychological phenomenon at all, but something that occurs whenever we set foot out of our hotel room. I’m a little afraid we’re going to cause an accident from drivers craning their necks out of the car windows to stare at us. I’m not sure you ever really get used to it, except that when I came home from my first trip to China, I was in the LA airport waiting room and felt like something was a little strange…after thinking about it, I realized it was that none of the Asians in the room were staring at me at all. Heh.

Daniel’s Wisdoms:
1)You will become pro at frogger if you stay in this country for any length of time.
2) The mystery meat at the seafood restaurant is probably octopus, so don’t go there.
3) Censorship of the internet is no good. Be glad you are reading this from the States.
4) Mosquitoes are here in full force. Bring DEET!!
5) The TV is quite useless, as everything is in Chinese, so bring DVDs.
6) In the land of the stone bed, the air mattress is king. Oh, how I wish I had one.
7) Don’t trust the map; things are on that thing that are still being built (Wal-mart).
8) Watch your head in the sculptured rock gardens.
8) Yangzhou fried rice. Tasty.

Train Ride and Yangzhou

2006-05-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

We had a 5-hour train ride yesterday to get from Shanghai to Yangzhou. Daniel mostly slept, but I really enjoyed watching the scenery out the window. I feel a certain enchantment with places where there are more bicycles than cars on the road, places where paved roads are scarce, places that are definitely not in my travel guide; they're just so far away from my own experience. I'm looking forward to the longer train ride we're going to take later in the trip.

We arrived in Yangzhou last night and took a taxi to the University. No one was in the office, so we went to find a hotel for the night. The hotel by the campus was full, so we ended up at the Yangzhou Sports Hotel, apparently so named because it sits in front of a large stadium and beside a gymnasium. Daniel opted for the couch over the bed; he's decided that the beds in China are too hard for his liking. He slept well on the couch though. I, on the other hand, was awakened at about 6 a.m. (this is Saturday!) by the old people fan dancers/exercisers gathered en masse behind the hotel in the stadium parking lot. For an hour and a half they danced/marched around the parking lot to alternating patriotic music and what sounded like a workout tape with counts for the exercises. Must keep fit, you know.

Early-morning exercisers aside, Yangzhou is a really a delightful place. As we were driving in last night, Daniel was marveling at the LED lights that lit up trees, buildings, etc., in greens and blues and yellows. This morning we took a stroll along a canal where there were little shops selling ceramics, plants, and pets. Pets! I've never seen so many animals anywhere in China. Dogs, cats, fish, turtles, rabbits, and all kinds of birds, barked, sloshed, and chirped as we passed. And this city is clean! The guide book said it was nice, I suppose; it just came as kind of a surprise. My thoughts have gone something like this: "wow, this is nice!" then, "oh no, this is really nice...this was supposed to be the less-developed city for my research..." It seems I may need to make arrangements to visit a third university.

There doesn't seem to be many foreigners here though, and I have yet to see a McDonalds or a Starbucks, which leads me to hope just a little that this place might not be too Westernized. We haven't met anyone yet who really spoke English. Well, there was a Pakistani man at the hotel last night who spoke some English; as Daniel and I were leaving to find a late dinner the desk clerk stopped to ask if I could translate for her for a minute. She was having a little trouble communicating with the Pakistani man, who only spoke a few words of Chinese and who was trying to pay the remainder of his bill in U.S. dollars. That struck me as a little strange. Anyway, we got it figured out I think. Dinner was noodles at a restaurant by the hotel, and then we turned in for the night.

We made it to the University and got checked into the little motel there. It's definitely not the Marriott, but it will do for a couple of weeks. Daniel finally figured out how to make the air-conditioner worked. I have a lot of stuff left to figure out for my research. I need to have someone go over my questionnaire and make sure it makes sense, find a way of getting respondents for the questionnaire, find someone to help me translate interviews, find interviewees...should be fun. At least I've got two weeks to get it done. Something will work out.

So far my Chinese has been good enough to get us where we've needed to go and feed us decently well, so that's been nice. I sure do wish I were fluent, though; it would make everything, and especially my research, a whole lot easier. I finally got my Chinese test scores back from the Navy; out of a possible 3, I got a 1+ on listening fluency and a 2+ on reading fluency. Who would have guessed? Certainly not me; I can usually only read about half of the menu in any given restaurant, and newspapers are a real challenge, usually requiring extensive use of the dictionary. I suspect the difference on the test was that I could re-read what I needed to of the passages and spend a few seconds trying to figure it out, whereas the listening was a one-shot deal--listen once then answer the questions. I'm pleased (pleasantly surprised, really) with the reading score. But I can't help thinking about the things I should to do improve my listening fluency. I try to remind myself that being in China will probably help this without too much extra effort on my part--the necessities of communication and my own curiosity will by themselves lead to improvement. Still, I'm impatient with my limitations. Ah...the joys of foreign languages...

Days 1 and 2 in Shanghai

2006-05-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

After a l o n g plane ride over here, we arrived in Shanghai, checked into the hotel, and crashed. Yesterday was spent taking care of a few errands, including train tickets, checking in at the consulate, getting an adapter, and the like. Daniel enjoyed wandering through the tech sections of a couple of the malls we went to. It was fun watching everyone stare at him wherever we went. Coming back to the Pudong side of the city after our errands, we had dinner in a cute little restaurant and then set about getting back to the hotel. That proved to be a bit of a challenge. It had been raining all day, and when the weather is bad, it can be pretty hard to get a taxi as more people are also trying to get one and competition is fierce. So we came out of the restaurant by the subway stop and walked over to where taxis were lining up. We soon discovered that we were going to have to battle the throngs of people practically beating each other with their umbrellas to claim a taxi; as soon as one would pull up, the first person to sprint out into the street and put his/her hand on the car, and then run with it until it stopped to let its passengers out, would then be able to get in. After about 30 minutes of this fun, it was clear that Daniel and I were definitely not aggressive enough for this game.

So began an hour or so of walking through the rain towards the hotel, trying to catch a taxi. We finally got one about 2 miles from the hotel, after we were completely soaked and I had blisters all over my feet. But we were soon back at the hotel, and almost as quickly zonked out.

We go by train to Yangzhou today. I've never been, so it will be fun to see what it's like. The travel guide says it's a cute little city.

Wisdom from Daniel:
Don't Wear sandals when it is raining, as you might slip and fall. (Wisdom Proven by Jean Anne herself)
Take sharp objects when going to claim a taxi, as they help ward off the natives. (Wisdom not yet proven, but it is in the list for next time)
Lemon Ritz crakers are a good, clean bet when you are hungry.
And Finally, Big people scare little girls that are on their way to school. (Wisdom proven by me)

Craziness!

2006-05-16T00:27:00.000-07:00

Craziness abounds...first, going back to China...who would have thought? But this last semester was crazy from start to finish, so I guess that's the way it goes. And it's the reason why I've kind of been pushing to the very last minute to get everything done. Like getting everything together for my research--finding universities that will let me come hand out questionnaires, getting the questionnaires from the researchers that used them originally, translating the questionnaires, things like that. And packing. Packing is important for a 2-month trip to a foreign country. But we have the essentials taken care of--plane tickets, visas, and money in the bank (hooray for the Biehl International Relations Grant) so we can sort the rest out when we get there. Daniel and I, that is--Mom's sending him along as my "bodyguard." hehe. It's going to be a fun trip.

Report

2005-08-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally started finished my report for ASIANetwork, the organization that gave us the grant for our research. I was planning to kind of do a follow up post for the blog, but you see how well that worked out...I've been busy. And I guess there's a precedent--last time I didn't write a follow up post until sometimes second semester. Anyway, here's my report instead.

---

Our research in Shanghai focused on how modernization and the changes that come with it have impacted the lives of Shanghai residents. We selected four streets on which to focus our attention in order to get a fuller picture of Shanghai. In the course of our work we interviewed people we met on these streets or in shops along the streets, and on all but one of the streets we had the opportunity to interview people in their homes (and were constantly amazed at people’s hospitality). We had an interpreter for these interviews, which were arranged through the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. We were also able to travel to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Hong Kong. While we did not do formal interviews in these cities, the short trips allowed us to compare Shanghai to other places in China.

One of the most obvious educational gains for me was an improvement in my language skills. Being surrounded by both spoken and written Chinese really helped me progress. Also, the interviews for which we had an interpreter were valuable because I was able to listen to the Chinese translation of what was said in English and thereby pick up nuances of wording or sentence structure. As with language, when trying to understand a foreign culture there really is no substitute for in-country experience. I had studied Mandarin in Beijing for a month last summer, but even having had that experience, I was surprised by Shanghai. It seemed much more modern, and is definitely more affluent. Small things, things that would never make it into a textbook, I found fascinating; even something as silly as fashion can reveal a lot about the differences between places.

China has gone through many tumultuous changes during the lives of the people we interviewed. One of the most important realizations for me was the extent to which certain events affected the course of peoples’ day to day lives. Of course I had studied the Cultural Revolution and the reforms of Deng Xiaoping; I was familiar with the macro effects of these events, but I had no conceptualization of the impact they had on a micro scale. There was a disconnect in my mind between those historical events and the people whom we interviewed. It soon became clear during the course of our research that these events framed the lives of our interviewees in a way that maybe only September 11, 2001 did for Americans of my generation, except on a larger scale—the Cultural Revolution resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and disrupted the whole country for years. We talked to several people who had been “sent down” to work in factories or on farms during this time period, and almost everyone we spoke to referenced the event, either in telling us about their own life if they were old enough to have lived through that period, or by contrasting their current circumstances to those of their families during that time. The economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping had a similarly extensive effect on people’s lives. Jobs, education, travel, and even ways of thinking, were affected. For someone trying to understand modern China, talking to people who lived through these events was invaluable.

By conducting interviews, we were really able to get a more complete sense of the complexities implicit in modernization and in societies in general. The experiences of the twenty five year-old migrant worker from Anhui province was certainly very different than that of the retired teacher who had lived in Shanghai her whole life. At the same time, they and our other interviewees were all affected by the same forces reshaping China, albeit in different ways.

Our research in China was an amazing experience for me. It reinforced my desire to become proficient in Mandarin and intensified my determination to learn all I can about China. The experience has given me a much better understanding and a much deeper appreciation of the complexities of modern China, which will certainly benefit my studies as well as my future career. I am truly grateful to the Freeman Student-Faculty Fellows program and ASIANetwork for the wonderful opportunity to enhance my education in Asian Studies.

Home

2005-06-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

...after a l o n g plane ride. We missed our connecting flight in Chicago (I just don't seem to have much luck when coming home; last time I had to spend the night in Texas) but made it to Nashville later Saturday night. It's great to be home.

An explanation

2005-06-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

All this time I've been writing entries on this thingy, thinking that my family was reading (spellbound, of course) about my adventures. Well, last night when I was on the phone with my mom I mentioned that I had just gotten in from the internet bar, where I had added another post. She was like, “Oh good, the last one we read was the one about Suzhou.” “Hmmm . . .I've been posting fairly regularly.” So I thought. It seems that while I have been writing fairly regularly, I have not been posting what I have written. I didn’t bother to translate the Chinese characters on the blogspot page to make sure I was hitting the right button, so it was saving my entries but not posting them. Ah well. Sorry about that.

Nanjing

2005-06-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

We took another train trip this weekend to Nanjing, which has been the capital of China several times during the country's history. Quite interesting. Saturday we visited the Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum--the only place in China that displays the Taiwanese (Kuomintang) flag. It's actually a mural on the ceiling of two of the rooms in the mausoleum. Sun is a very important figure in Chinese history. A Google search will give you a lot more information, but basically Sun fought for the downfall of the Qing dynasty, was China's first president for a short time in 1911, founded the organization that would become the Kuomintang Party (KMT), and is generally revered by both the mainlanders and the Taiwanese, as odd as this seems. Probably his most important contribution to politics was his "Three People's Principles": nationalism, democracy, and people's livelihood. Apparently the Chinese see no irony in posting this all over Sun's memorial.

Sunday we went first to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. In late 1937, during the early stages of WWII in Asia--what is called the Japanese War of Aggression around here--the KMT government fled their capital in Nanjing for Chunking in the middle-western part of the country. The city fell to the Japanese in December, and Japanese army launched a massacre intended to shock all of China into submission. For the next six weeks, Japanese troops carried out systematic burning, rape, and killing of civilians as well as disarmed soldiers. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting a cheerful scene at the memorial; nonetheless, I left feeling uneasy. Not because several of the exhibits were so graphic, although they were--in one place they actually dug up a mass grave and left it exposed, with close-ups and descriptions of particularly gruesome pathology reports--it was more the general tone of the place. Dr. Wilson asked me as we were leaving what I thought, and I told him I was fighting my (instinctive?) reaction; the memorial just didn't seem very respectful. I couldn't really explain it very well, but I have since decided I was fighting cynicism. I liked the way Dr. Wilson put it (characteristically understated): "Well, it's less than subtle." Then, "and highly politicized.” Yes, I guess that’s it. It’s obvious that there is a battle going on over how history is interpreted in Asia. One of us asked Dr. Wilson what he thought about the History book controversy; he replied that one Japanese official told him that the Japanese were willing to apologize for their country’s militant past, but that Beijing was unwilling to accept the apology. Japan does not want to give China another opportunity to rub their faces in the dirt and demand more reparations. This sounds plausible to me. Despite the claims all over the memorial that its purpose was to “promote peace,” Beijing seems to be using, and possibly encouraging, anti-Japanese sentiment as a political tool. Just my $0.002 yuan.

After the memorial, we went to a Confucian temple. Or I should say, we thought we were going to a Confucian temple. Just like in Suzhou, we thought we were going to a Daoist temple. In both cases, the temples had been turned into shopping centers, resplendent with soo-vih-neers, neon, and concession stands. Lovely. Although to be absolutely truthful, I can’t say that I was disappointed, personally. I went to a Buddhist temple in Beijing, and I was not looking forward to repeating that very hot, incense-filled, and consequently lightheaded experience. I can, however, understand why these experiences were a little troubling to those in our group who were expecting a religious experience. The comparison is too easy, but I have to say it—money can indeed be a god.

After a very interesting day, we went back to the hotel to grab our backpacks and a quick drink before heading to the train station. It was pretty hot (Nanjing is considered one of China’s “Four Ovens” apparently), so we didn’t want to get to the train station too early and have to wait in the sun. Well, we cut it a little close. When we got in the taxi, Christina told our driver where we were going; he asked what time our train left, and when we told him he just started laughing. “5:31?! Impossible! Teehehehee! You won’t make it. You should have left yourself at least an hour—this is rush hour! Hahahaheehehe! Of course I’ll drive fast! I’ll do my best for you!!” Then periodically, “Teehehehee! 5:31!” or “you only have 13 minutes….tahaheehee!” and “I’m hurrying! We have to be safe, you know. 5:31!!” We made it to the train station with about 7 minutes to go, and rushed to the platform as per our helpful driver’s suggestions, hoping the whole time that the rest of our group had managed to get a taxi—preferably one whose driver was not afraid to step on it. We made it, and a couple of minutes later the rest of our group joined us. Apparently, their driver had been more concerned about the cat sleeping in his lap as he drove than getting them to the station in time, but they made it nonetheless. Thankfully.

A full day

2005-06-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

We had five arranged interviews today, one after the other with an hour break for lunch after the first two. Our first interview was unremarkable; the only thing that stands out in my mind is that the lady really wasn't too fond of her son-in-law. Our second interviewee was quite lively and didn't sit down for much of the interview. She repeatedly emphasized the need for "everyone to work together to build a harmonious society." Everything pretty much came back to that. After that, lunch on the "bar end" of the street--the street that we're working on right now was kind of Shanghai's red-light district for awhile; although it seems to have calmed down a little in recent years, it's still a pretty lively place at night. I thought it was pretty funny though, when we asked our interviewees what they thought about all the bars, if they could see signs of changing morality or what they thought about the place in general, they almost all replied that they were old and didn't frequent that end of the street. That's for the young folks. And the foreigners, of course.

The first interview of the afternoon three was interesting. We talked to a husband and wife who had both been in the PLA, she as a radio operator (our translator first translated this as "radioactive," but got it straightened out after he saw the expression on our faces), and the husband was a combat medic. He was part of the "volunteer" "north-east border security" force that fought in Korea, and she had raised their two children pretty much by herself. We asked him about his impressions of their neighborhood when he fist joined his wife there after he retired from the army, and he said that after living and fighting in small villages and inhospitable terrain, he thought the Shanghai neighborhood was excellent.

This stuff wasn't the focus of our interview of course, but I'm finding that many times the most interesting information from an interview comes out when we're trying to get context to understand how the changes in Shanghai have affected people's lives--the main goal of our research here. But context is certainly important, especially since we didn't start out with a good understanding of many of the issues and events that shape life here. For instance, reading about the Cultural Revolution for History class and talking to people who lived through it are totally different experiences. There's nothing in U.S. history that even comes close to the extensiveness of that chaos. I knew it had happened, but when we first started doing interviews I didn't really include it in my conceptualization of what these people's lives had been like. It was only after a couple of our interviewees mentioned it almost in passing that I realized how this kind of event, maybe like 9-11 for Americans but spread out over several years and bringing destruction to the entire nation, would be part of the frame of one's life story.

Our last interview of the day was awesome. Ms. Zhou ushered us in and offered us our third round of tea for the day, this time a very nice kind I had never had. She said it was so nice to have young people visit, and she thought France must be an interesting place. When we told her that we were actually from the U.S., she said "Oh good, I know a little English." Then, in English, "I don't get to speak it much; in fact, I haven't really used it since the 1950s. I'm afraid I don't speak it very well--I know my grammar is not very good." Just like that. I commented that she was being too modest--her English was excellent--to which she replied in Chinese, "No, it's only so-so. I think your Chinese is better than my English." Well, she was flat out wrong on that point. Most of the interview was in English, and I was amazed at how eloquently she expressed herself. It wasn't just that her vocabulary was extensive or that her grammar, contrary to her disclaimer, was really good, it was the way the communicated deep ideas simply but effectively. I guess another part of the delight was her manner, which was earnest and very kind. Her Chinese was also easy for me to understand.

She told us about how she loved her neighborhood and was very thankful for her neighbors, who looked took care of her. Her son too, she said, was a very good son, although she wished he would just stay and visit with her instead of insisting they go to a restaurant to eat. "But he's very busy, I suppose I shouldn't be so selfish." She told us about her grandsons, whom she delighted in, and about visiting them in Hong Kong when they lived there for a few years. We asked her what she did to keep busy, and she told us that she sometimes tutored students when her health permitted. She explained that now the education system is extremely competitive, and families who can afford it pay for after-school tutors for their children. Parents also help as they are able. Students whose families can't afford tutors and whose parents aren't educated are really at a disadvantage, so she likes to help these students whenever she can. A few questions later, she told us (reluctantly, because he was dead and she didn't want to speak ill of him) that her husband had "loved younger and more beautiful women" and had left her to raise their son by herself. "It was difficult." "But," she added, "my son helped me, and he didn't ask for expensive things like many children do." So now she helps women in similar situations whenever she finds the opportunity. She said, "I really want to be able to help people. Now my health is not very good, so it is often difficult. But I do not want to be useless." Judging only from our hour and a half interview, I can't imagine that to be the case.

Censorship, and reading Reading Lolita in Tehran in China

2005-06-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

The other day I tried to call the Navy office to check in; I called both the office number and a LT's cell phone number. On both tries I got a message--in English, but obviously of Chinese origin because of the accent--"Sorry, you do not have the right to dial this number." Lovely.

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I get a listserv from CNN about stories having to do with China. Today this popped up in my inbox:

"Report: China's new bid to gag Web
06/07/05 01:14 AM, EDT
China is to close unregistered China-based domestic Web sites and blogs, a media watchdog said, as the government tightens its grip on the Internet."

Unfortunately (ironically?), since I'm in China, I of course can't access the CNN website to read the story. Incidentally, I also can't see my own blog.

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I finished both of the books I brought with me (one on the plane and one mostly on the train to Hangzhou; no, I'm not spending all my time in China reading), so I borrowed a book from Dr. Wilson. He actually has 2 that I considered buying to bring with me. The one that I'm reading now, Reading Lolita in Tehran, is about a female Iranian professor of English literature, and her battles, personal and public, with the Ayatollah’s regime. She writes a lot about the censorship, and the arbitrary exercise of power in Iran. It's an interesting book to read in a Communist country. (Not as good as The Kite Runner, however. I think I made the right decision buying that one instead.)

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That's it for now. Later I might post some parts of interviews I've typed up. We're going to be pretty busy for the next few days, though. I continue to get lots of listening comprehension practice.

Suzhou and the English Corner

2005-06-05T01:35:00.000-07:00

We had a really nice day in Suzhou yesterday. Suzhou is 'in Shanghai's neighborhood' to quote one of the guys I talked to today (more about that in a sec.), and is a big and growing economic center. But we went to see the gardens, for which the city of about 7 million is famous. It was really hot, but we had fun nonetheless, visiting a couple of pagodas and the "Garden of the Master of the Nets." Why it's named that I couldn't tell you, but it was a nice place.

This morning we went to the "English Corner" that takes place every Sunday in the People's Square Park downtown. All kinds and ages of people gather there to practice English. A street-artist who draws tourists' portraits for money invited us, but businessmen, schoolkids (often dragged and prodded by their parents), and retired people all show up. We drew a crowd, of course, and split up to talk to people. Eveyone wanted to know of course where I was from, why I was in China, what I thought about Shanghai, ect. My answers to these questions led to some interesting conversations about Shanghai's development. One man who has lived in Los Angeles for 18 years told me that he learned English in the English Corner, so he always came back to visit when he came back to Shanghai. His story is amazing; he was "sent down" during the Cutural Revolution to work farming rice. He said he usually worked 14 hour days, getting only 3 bowls of rice to eat all day. When he was able to come back to Shanghai, he passed the examination to get into the university, but at that time there was an age limit for entrance, and he was disqualified because he was too old. He said he was angry and frustrated, but he did not give up. An uncle in the U.S. was able to get him a job in the U.S., and he married an American woman. When he went to apply for citizenship, the interviewer gave him a hard time about how he came to the U.S., but shook his hand and congratulated him on becoming an American citizen when the man recited JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you" speech in its entirety. He never went to college, but he has 4 licenses and owns a contracting business. He said when he went to take an exam to get the first license, he was in a room full of college graduates, but he passed and many of them didn't. This, he said, was one reason why America is so amazing; hard work (in this case hard studying) creates opportunities that are unheard of in China.

I talked with another person about movies. The subject came up when someone commented that Marcus (who was standing in his own little crowd a few meters away from us) looked like the movie star from Titanic. Marcus thought this was pretty funny when I told him later. Anyway, we talked about movies for a while, and how he thinks the English in movies is often very hard to understand. Then someone asked me if I had seen "Farenheit 911." I said no, and he asked me why not. I told him that the movie was very controversial in the U.S., that it's intention was to attack the President, and that many people thought its director had skewed facts to this end. Everyone in the little crowd around me thought this was very intereting. The man said, "Well, that's really good too then; I mean, people can make movies about their opinions and let the people decide. Here in China I think we only get one side of things." You know, I said, that's a really good way too look at this movie. A testament to America's freedoms. Later in the internet bar, I came across an entry from one of my favorite bloggers, (one of the few that are not blocked here in China); in it he quotes Thomas Jefferson: "... let them stand as monuments to the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." Indeed.

Snippets of Shanghai

2005-06-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to the circus a couple of days ago. It was held in a building that looked like the ball at Epcot center on the outside, and featured some pretty amazing acrobatics, magic tricks, and 6 motorcycles in a spherical cage. Dr. Wilson commented that if they had thrown in a couple of pedestrians it would have been a lot like Shanghai traffic (which, incidentally, is not quite as crazy as Beijing traffic). The show was very interesting. Some Buddhist monks a couple of rows behind us seemed to enjoy it as well.

~~~~~

We happened to be on the subway at rush hour one afternoon--quite an experience. It started out ok--we each had at least 2 sq. feet of floor space--but at each successive stop we added more people, and it didn't seem like anyone was getting off. After 3 or 4 stops, we were completely packed; I think the only way we could have fit more people was if people stood on top of people that were sitting. It was team bonding, in a literal sense. I found the situation hilarious, and drew some funny glances because I couldn't stop laughing. I'm sure the 3 people pressed against my back and side thought I was a little crazy; Adrianna and Adam, against whom I was being squeezed, found the situation funny as well. Oh, we love the subway. And we are very thankful that it's air-conditioned.

~~~

The music that's playing in the internet cafe right now is a saxophone version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Almost as good as when I was in a department store that was playing kids' songs in English. "I love my lovely dump truck..."

~~~

We've eaten at some very nice restaurants here in Shanghai. Dr. Wilson almost always orders for us, as he's usually the only one who can make sense of the menu (although Christina and I have gotten pretty good at identifying the fruit juices). We're all very grateful that he can do this for us, so we only laughed a little bit when he made a mistake and we ended up with chicken feet.

~~~

Speaking of food, as I mentioned when I was in Beijing, some Chinese dishes are a little hard to eat. One night it seemed like every dish we ordered had bones--some of them really small. Adrianna asked Dr. Wilson how he knew how to eat all of these dishes, and he replied that he'd attended a lot of banquets when he'd been here before, and usually copied what the Chinese people did. He said, "Once when I'd lived here for about a year, I was taking a boat to Hong Kong, and for some reason they insisted on seating me with the other foreigners at meals, even though I was perfectly comfortable with the Chinese people. Anyway, I guess I had gone a bit native, because one night they served fish for dinner, and I was spitting bones all over the table (the way the Chinese usually do), when I looked up to catch the shocked expressions on the other people's faces--like, what planet did you come from?!"

~~~

I have been amazed and extremely happy about the great weather we've been having. The last couple of days though have been pretty hot. I went to a noodle shop for lunch yesterday, and I really felt sorry for the people in the kitchen, which was steaming. I was pleased when I got what I had intended to order (these type of street kitchens aren't really frequented by foreigners, so no pictures and definitely no English), and I sat down by the door where there was a little breeze to eat my noodles. I watched the people in the kitchen cooking and cleaning dishes, thinking that they must just be hating life. One of the girls filled a bowl with water and bent to pour it over her plastic-sandal-clad feet, bringing a little relief I suppose. I can't imagine how miserable that job must be in late July and August.

~~~

The music now is some kind of Bollywood pop. It's almost time for me to meet up with the group, so I need to head back to the hotel. Maybe I'll stop and grab a baozi to eat on the way; Baozi are quite yummy, and at about 9 cents each, they make a very nice breakfast.

a short one

2005-05-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

We got in a little while ago from Hangzhou, a city about 2 hours away by train that was built around a huge lake. Saturday morning we took a train there, where we enjoyed the beautiful scenery (we rented bikes and explored today--quite fun) and a very nice hotel. It was pretty clear that Hangzhou does not get as many foreigners as Shanghai--we were stared at a lot, and Adrianna was a little bemused when several people wanted their picture taken with her.

On a different subject: It's kind of funny that I'm in China on Memorial Day, and last year I was here on the 4th of July. I've written about this before, but being here really deepens my appreciation of just how blessed I've been being born in the U.S. There are the obvious living standards differences, but also deeper differences about rule of law, coherent administration, and freedom, as corny or canned as it sounds. I get a small dose of those differences every time I'm in the internet bar--I almost always run up against the 'this site is not allowed' message; I've also gotten a sense of the much less trivial aspects of the differences in some of the things our interviewees have said, or sometimes, not said. "My father owned a factory--he was a capitalist roader," said one 80-year-old man. "I never joined the Party, but I dedicated my life to the service of my motherland," he continued. But when we asked him where he was during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the time of the Cultural Revolution, he almost yelled at us that he was always loyal to his country, and changed the subject. It gave me chills. We are blessed indeed.

Interviews and a little frustration

2005-05-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

Our interviews have been going well. Some better than others, but overall very good. I'm fascinated by the places we're going and what these people have to say. We interviewed a retired 30-year PLA soldier who talked about his country's leaders (past and present) a lot; he reminded me of a couple of people I've met in the U.S. He also had the nicest apartment that we've been to so far--about 600 sq. meters on 2 floors for himself and his wife. The same day we visited him we met an 81 year old man who likes to surf the internet and climbs a ridiculously steep staircase to get to his apartment. We've also met a couple of people that were 'sent down' during the Cultural Revolution to be 're-educated' by working in the countryside. This isn't the focus of our research, but I am really glad that a couple of the people we've talked to were willing to talk about it. A couple of us went to a neighborhood park one morning to watch people's morning exercises and see if anyone would talk to us; at first they just talked about us, but someone went and found an elderly man who had studied English before 1949 (what the Chinese call "jiefang"--liberation), and then a whole group of people came over to see what we were about. They all complimented Dr. Wilson on his Chinese. I think our whole group is loving these interviews.

I have been a little frustrated lately by difficulties with Chinese. I know that I've only been studying it for 2 years, but I feel like I should be a lot better at it than I am. I hate not being able to read (or if I can read, I'm not able to understand) even dumb things like the error messages on the computer. I hate having to order in a restaurant by pointing to the menu--each time this is necessary it's like surrendering in defeat. I hate knowing a word but not catching it in conversation, and I hate knowing all of the words for a sentence I want to say but not being able to string them together in the right order. I have competent 'survival' Chinese skills, but I would really like to move beyond that. Every once in a while I'll catch a whole answer in one of our interviews, or be able to read and understand an entire storefront advertisement, and these instances are very exciting. But they almost make me more frustrated the other times, when I can't understand someone with a slightly different accent. Ah well. That much more motivation to keep at it.

The first 3 interviews

2005-05-23T03:27:00.000-07:00

We went to Fuxing Road today for our first three interviews. After meeting up with the lady from the Academy who was going to translate for us, we headed to the first apartment. Mrs. Li lived in a two-room apartment, maybe 20-25 square meters, with her husband and 14 year-old son. Walking up to the second floor apartment was a little tricky due to rickety stairs and almost no light. Inside the apartment was nicer. The Li family is apparently fairly well off; they had a big tv and computer, and are planning a trip to Singapore this summer. Mrs. Li was laid off from her job at a wool factory 5 years ago. She got a job as a shop assistant, and then two years ago opened her own pizza restaurant in the neighborhood. It was fascinating to hear her talk about how the neighborhood has changed and her hopes for the future. Her main hope for her son is that he get into a famous university. She talked for a good bit about how competitive the education system was, and how important she thinks it is for her son to do well. At the end of our hour she invited us back for pizza; I think we're planning to eat lunch at her restaurant tomorrow.

The next lady we interviewed in an 81-year-old former teacher. Mrs. Xu, in a word, was enchanting. It was apparent, listening to her talk, that she truly has a teacher's heart. She told us about the community, about the activities that are organized for different age groups, and about how she often tutors kids in the neighborhood. One of the other ladies, a leader in the community organization, told us later that she tutored special needs students for free. Mrs. Xu had only good things to say about her community and the state of Shanghai (well, she was a little worried about the immorality of internet bars...). She thanked us for coming, and invited us back anytime.

Our last interview was with Mrs. Ge. She two really enjoys living in her community, saying that people really take care of each other there. When we asked her what she missed from the past she told us she misses Chairman Mao (giving us a slight shock). She said she thought today's leaders have too much power, and there is too much corruption, but she thinks Shanghai will continue to improve.

All three of the ladies we interviewed stressed the importance of education, thought the presence of foreigners in the city was good for Shanghai, and believed there was a lot of opportunity for the younger generation to do well for themselves. Even in what Americans would consider cramped, decrepit housing, everyone we met this afternoon was satisfied with their life and hopeful about the future.

Ultimate Frisbee and the Expat Bubble

2005-05-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

Marcus and Christina are both really into ultimate frisbee (a mixture of football and soccer that's played with a frisbee), so when Marcus discovered an ultimate club here in Shanghai they decided to go to a scheduled "pick up" game. I've played a couple of times and really enjoy it, so I decided to tag along since we didn't really have anything planned for the day. We took the subway out to Pudong, and then caught a taxi to the general area of the field. After a few minutes' wandering we found the Shanghai Rugby and Football Club, where the game was supposed to happen. We were still a little early, so we explored the area a little. Across the street from the Rugby club there were soccer fields with kids' matches in progress. The teams were almost entirely made up of non-Chinese; this was our first inkling that we were in some kind of foreign bubble in Shanghai. We stopped at Starbucks (I would say this was another indication of the foreign bubble phenomenon, but they really are everywhere) to use the bathroom then headed back to the Rugby club.

There were still rugby games going on both of the fields at the club, and we were told that the ultimate would start late, so we just tossed the frisbee around on the sidelines. A group of expats (ex-patriots, or foreigners) started to form on the other side of one of the fields, and we watched in amusement/bemusement as they began a structured warm up. OK, this wasn't Sewanee ultimate, it looked like these guys were going to play with rules.

The group was mostly made up of Americans--businessmen and a couple of teachers. The age range was pretty wide, but they all seemed to be involved in the party scene here in Shanghai. During the organized stretching session (led by Jodi, a PE teacher during the week) we listened as they recounted stories from the night before. Or morning, I should say; the most interesting activities took place well after 2 a.m. They expats took their frisbee-playing very seriously. After the organized stretching, we proceeded to run sprints, do lunges down the field, then push-ups, sit-ups, frisbee-handling drills, and more sprints and stretching, all interspersed with mini pep-talks. I enjoyed the workout, but found the whole thing a little bizarre. This was definitely not a pick-up game as I know the term.

To be blunt, we found the expats obnoxious. They talked like China and the Chinese existed for their amusement. I can understand why the expat bubbles exist, but the attitude of these particular expats was seriously irritating. I understand a little better the common stereotype of Westerners here.

(Incidentally, Shanghai today is very open to Western culture. Dr. Wilson was explaining that during the early 1990s there was a big debate about preserving China's culture, and the outcome, especially in Shanghai, was wang qian zou: literally "go forward"--go to the future, but also go to the money, instead of preserving the past.)

Saturday in Shanghai

2005-05-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

We don't have a schedule today, which is nice. And I think I'm finally over the jetlag, as I slept until about 8 this morning. We've had a great first week here. The weather has been awesome--in the mid-high 70s and low 80s mostly, which is definitely unseasonably cool for Shanghai this time of year. We've been able to walk through some of the neighborhoods similar to those we'll be conducting interviews in, and have also met some of the people from the Shanghai academy we'll be working with. Two nights ago we crossed the Huangpu River to Pudong, which was farmland until the 1990s, when it was developed and made into an important financial and industry base. We ate at an excellent Korean restaurant there, and then wandered through Century Park. The next morning, one of the Academy people took us to a residential area right outside the campus. Fascinating.

Day 3 (2.5?) in Shanghai

2005-05-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

I am starting to recover from jet lag, but if I misspell something I will still blame it on the fact that I'm tired. We've been busily exploring Shanghai since we got here Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday we went to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the research organization that is "hosting" our group. I was pleased that I was able to understand most of the conversation between Dr. Wilson and one of the researchers at the university; it seemed like maybe a year of Chinese classes has really helped. At lunch however, with 3 Chinese members of the Academy and with me feeling increasingly tired, I was only able to catch bits and pieces. Especially when the pace of the conversation sped up. Dr. Wilson told me later that for part of the conversation they were speaking Shanghainese, a different dialect of Chinese--I wasn't sure whether to feel vindicated that I hadn't understood or frustrated that I hadn't realized it was a different dialect. Ah well.

I've had a few food firsts here already; I've eaten octopus, jellyfish, and mango pudding for the first time, and had strawberry juice and watermelon juice. The seafood I didn't really care for, although I didn't just hate it, but the fruit products I really liked.

My impression after 2 days is that Shanghai is both more affluent and more Westernized than Beijing. The people here seem more accustomed to foreigners; for example, I'm not stared at as much, have yet to use a squat toilet, and have been given a fork at 2 restaurants. The fashion here seems a little closer to what I'm accustomed to as well. There are a lot more green spaces around the city, which really make walking around more pleasant, and the traffic doesn't seem quite as bad, partly because of an extensive system of highways/overpasses. I still would have no desire to drive here, though.

I'm really looking forward to starting our interviews. We've visited a couple of the streets that we're going to be looking at, and I'm really excited about our work. It promises to be interesting, for sure!

5-17-2005

2005-05-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Shanghai this afternoon after a long, but not too terrible plane flight, and checked into the hotel where we'll be staying. It's not bad at all--air conditioned and everything. We had Thai food for dinner--quite tasty, but I was a little disappointed that they gave us forks. My impression so far is that Shanghai is more Westernized than Beijing, but I've only been here a few hours, so we'll see. I'm excited to be back in China!

5 days to unpack, clean, and re-pack...

2005-05-11T23:41:00.000-07:00

Finished with school for the semester! I left this morning after a crash course in filming/editing for our trip. Of the five students going, only Marcus and I are not graduating, so we were nominated to learn how to use the camera and the video editing software so we can continue to work on it next semester. Lovely. I have a bad feeling I won’t be much help, especially at first, but I guess I’ll catch on eventually.

Maybe I should “introduce” you to the other members of our group: Marcus is a sophomore (or I guess junior now, since exams are over) from Tennessee. We’ve been in the same Chinese classes for 2 years. Christina is an about-to-be-graduated senior, also from Huntsville, and also a psychology major. Her parents are Chinese, so of the students going her language skills are definitely the best. Adam and Adrianna are also seniors. Adam is from Tennessee, and Adrianna is from Slovakia (I can’t pronounce the name of her hometown, so I won’t even try to spell it). Dr. Wilson applied for and received the grant that’s funding our adventure, and invited us to come and help. I was in his Comparative Politics class last semester, and will be taking his class called “China in the World” next semester. (Should be great!)

So there you have the cast of characters! We’ll be on our way to Shanghai in 5 days!!

Oh, and I had planned to post more about what I did this semester, maybe some snippets of essays and such, but I’ve decided that will bore you. If I feel the urge, I of course reserve the right.

A little about my semester

2005-05-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

Exam in Chinese History today. I realized last night that in the past two weeks, I’ve read 4 books about China and written 3 papers on various aspects of Chinese history or politics. My entire semester, actually, has been full of China—it’s been fun (minus exams and all-nighters). Besides Modern Chinese History, I’ve also been taking Chinese 301 (language) and Intelligence and Foreign Policy. For that class I was assigned the China “desk officer” and tasked to prepare a weekly briefing on what’s up in the Middle Kingdom. So anyway, I thought I’d share a little bit. As I have time, I’ll post snippets of things that I’ve read or written—random for the most part I suspect, but we’ll see. Oh, and please leave comments, if you care to!

~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

So, tonight my brain is fried and I’m not in the mood for serious analysis. Here’s a quotation from Almost A Revolution, written by Shen Tong, one of the organizers of the student movement that resulted in the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

“That summer, to make extra money, Qiu was also selling a three-volume collection of poetry, Xinshichao Shiji, or New Age Poetry Collection, which had just been released by one of the publishing houses on campus. I became one of thirty students who sold this collection at Beida. At first I was just helping Qiu, but when I started to read the poetry, I wanted everyone else to read it too.
The book collected the work of a generation of writers who had grown up during the Cultural Revolution. These poets, whose work had first become public during the 1976 movement in Tiananmen Square and had resurfaced on the Democracy Wall in 1978, were now in their late twenties and early thirties. When the government had crushed the Democracy Wall Movement, their poetry, which the Communist Party considered “spiritual pollution,” had gone underground again. Although some of it had been written during the Cultural Revolution, it had never been collected and published.
Chinese poetry written before the Cultural Revolution painted lovely pictures of landscapes and celebrated the beauty of nature. During the 1960s and 1970s, however, poetry became so filled with political slogans and revolutionary imagery that it lost its lyricism. But this group of writers, known as the Misty Poets because their images were impressionistic and full of sorrow, had a style completely unlike that of any Chinese poets I had ever read. The poems, which often expressed the poets’ suffering during the Cultural Revolution and which came to be known as “scar literature,” were beautifully written and also had deep meaning. The poets looked inside themselves for inspiration. They were individualists, a trait I cherished but had seen only in Western poetry.
For the first time I began to learn about contemporary China and about life outside my own sheltered environment. I could feel the pain, the loneliness, and the power in this poetry. […] Before I read the New Age Poetry Collection, I was hooked on Western poetry. But now I was reading pure Chinese poetry that had the same resonance as Byron, Shelley, and Tagore. Western poetry was beautiful, but it had nothing to do with my own world. […]
I proudly brought the books home to show my father. He had always been the one to give me books and introduce me to the writers, but now I had a collection of poems I knew were dear to him, since I had stood with him at the Democracy Wall seven years before as he intently read the works of the Misty Poets. He said very little to me about the collection, perhaps because he was concerned that the poems might still be considered illegal. But I noticed that he kept the books under his pillow for a very long time, which told me that he read them every night before he went to sleep.
That summer I discovered for myself why these poems meant so much to my father. I saw in them the power of ideas. No matter how hard the government had tried to crush them, they kept coming back. I discovered through these poems that art and literature could be active. Through their writing, the Misty Poets told people about themselves and about what was wrong in China. That summer showed me that I was ready to do more than just cultivate myself; I was ready to act, to put my ideas—whenever I figured out what they were—into practice.”

Almost a Revolution

Enough about Toilets

2005-04-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

Lest I only point you toward the not-so-nice aspects of China:

pictures of The Summer Palace--one of my favorite places in Beijing
http://www.pbase.com/riverko/cn_beijing_summerpalace

Baozi! (food)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-05/21/content_332721.htm

and a poem:

雨后 After Rain
by Yue Fu

雨后树林润 After rain, the forest's sleek
松间月惊心 Between the pines, the moon startles my heart.
笑而思故园 I smile and think of home,
异客在异乡 A foreign guest in a foreign land.

More on the toilets...hehe

2005-04-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/04/14/china.toilets.reut/index.html

"Beijing, eager to freshen up its primitive privies before it hosts the 2008 summer Olympics, recently added high-tech, self-cleaning toilets near tourist sites like the Forbidden City and Summer Palace and promised to keep them stocked with toilet paper.
Most of China's public lavatories are squat-style pits with no running water, toilet paper or hand-washing facilities."

good stuff.

Squat toilets

2005-03-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

http://gojackarmy.blogspot.com/2005/03/sere-survival-evasion-resistance-and.html

I had promised to post some pictures from last summer's trip, but I am a slacker/busy college student. Anyway, I ran across this today--the middle picture shows two squat toilets in all of their glory. The pictures are from the military's SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) school, but could have just as easily been in downtown Beijing.

我要回去中国！！！（I'm going back to China!!!)

2005-03-13T20:41:00.000-08:00

I'm extremely excited about this. Four other Sewanee students and I are headed to Shanghai with a Political Science professor to do some research on the sociology of urbanization/modernization. (Dad read the press release and thought it sounded kind of pedantic...which it is, I suppose. But I think it will definitely be interesting research.) We'll be there 5 weeks, paid for by AsiaNetwork, looking at how life has changed for the residents of 4 different streets in different parts of the city. We'll be doing a good bit of filming, and lots of interivews (with a translator, thankfully) with the residents. I am definitely excited about this. We'll also be going to Hong Kong for 2 days. It should be a really great trip!

At Last

2004-12-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

Hello again…I’m back with a post that’s waaayyy overdue. I actually started it awhile back but lost it when my hard drive blew up, so since I have finals this week and should be studying, I’ve decided to try again. (Amazing how productive I become when I’m procrastinating.) I also just received an email from host dad, which had me thinking about my trip. He writes: “Thank you for your present. We have got them many days. Chengcheng like them very much. That remind us thinking of your live in China. We hope that is good memory to you. How are you today? How do you think next trip to China? We will happy to receive you again.” Good people.

What a great experience!! I took more away from my trip than cheap tennis shoes and a love for red bean popsicles—much more. Besides the things you would expect from a study abroad experience, like improved language skills, appreciation for a foreign culture, etc.,I came back with a changed perspective on my own country. I returned from watching CCTV (Commie China TV...not what it really stands for of course, but it’s the state-owned media corporation that controls most of the TV) back to listening to commentators on TV and the radio fight about the upcoming presidential election. And of course reading all about it from many different perspectives on various politically-oriented blogs. I returned from helping ChengCheng study for the exams that will determine the course of her academic future, to the college I chose out of many possibilities. I returned from immersion in a culture whose national religion is the worship of money to my hometown, where there are at least 9 churches of different varieties on one road by my house.

I also came back with a new perspective on myself.

I was talking to host dad one night after dinner when he asked me about what kind of job I wanted after college. I said I wasn’t sure, that I was majoring in political science and psychology, and maybe wanted to do something with international relations. Host dad talked a little about all the business opportunities for Americans who could speak Chinese. Then he stopped for a second, and said, “JinJing, I do not really think you should have a job like this, buy this here and sell this here. You should have a job that is…significant.” Through the muddle of a Chinglish conversation, host dad had found the perfect word to describe my desire. I couldn’t have said it better.

So I’m back at school, studying Chinese (I’ve tacked an Asian Studies minor onto my double major)…enjoying my political blogs…going to Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings…applying for internships and other things, studying hard for finals (I really will, once I finish this)…

…enjoying the opportunities the United States provides and preparing to make the most of them.

one that got away...

2004-09-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

In re-reading what I had posted this summer, I didn’t see one post I thought I remembered writing…I was able to find it hidden away in some e-mail files, so here it is, a couple of months late.

~~~~~~~~~~
Yesterday afternoon I set out on another voyage of exploration, this time deciding to brave the subway. I was planning to visit Tiananmen Square, and was happy to discover that the subway stop closest to the square is conveniently named "Tian'anmen." This was especially exciting, as I actually know the Chinese characers for this name and thus could find it on the subway map. I had lunch near the campus with some classmates and then set off. It took me almost an hour to get to the square; I had to change subway lines twice, but this really wasn't as scary as I had imagined it to be. The subway is fairly new and really pretty nice; it beats London's as far as cleanliness and comfort. The closer I got to the center of Beijing, where Tiananmen Square is, the more crowded the trains got, but if no one was especially friendly at least no one was hostile. I'm finding that in Beijing people pretty much look out for themselves and don't worry very much about inconveniencing others, so I guess it's pretty amazing that things are as civil as they are. I think maybe this is because people expect other people to look out for themselves and so are not offended when they do. In a city of 1.2 million people expect to be bumped into, so unless you just bowl someone over, no apologies are necessary.
I arrived at Tiananmen station and began to look around. I found the Square by following the kites; many people fly them there. The Square is massive--bigger than I expected. I remembered news footage I had seen from the 1989 demonstrations...visualizing tanks rolling down the street was strange in broad daylight with old people practicing fan dances and kids flying kites all around me. People were everywhere. I was there less than five minutes before I was discovered by the 'soo-vee-nieh-er' vendors and had to fend them off and start walking around. I was approached twice by people who wanted to have their picture taken with the strange foreigner; I'm not sure that they understood why I found this so funny. Then I heard, "Excuse me, miss," in English, and turned around; the speaker, a young Chinese man, asked if he might walk with me for a minute and practice his English. I know from experience how much it helps to have someone speak (patiently) with you when you're trying to learn a foreign language, so I was happy to talk with him. He explained that he is an English major at Beijing University. He asked what I where I was going, and when I told him that I was just wandering around he suggested that I go look at the art gallery in the museum next to the Square. He said that the exhibition was the work of students and professors at Beijing University, and that he had discovered that a lot of foreigners came there and he could translate for them and practice his own English.
The exhibit was really interesting; the paintings were really good, and I enjoyed practicing my Chinese with Wang Ke, whose English name is Oscar (because he loves American movies). After the exhibit, we went to McDonalds (they’re everywhere!) for ice cream and a little more language practice. He was speaking English and I was speaking Chinese (we were being stared at by everyone who walked in), and he asked me if many people in the U.S. know about China. I explained that of course, almost everyone knows about China. I talked about the large Asian population in the U.S., the fact that almost everything we buy is made in China, and I mentioned that we study a little about their political system. This really seemed to confuse him, so I switched to English and continued to explain. After I talked for a bit, his face lit up and he exclaimed, “Oh! I get it! Communism vs. Capitalism, right?” Yeah, more or less. He continued, “Oh gosh, I can just imagine what your textbooks said about China. When I was in elementary and middle school, our textbooks stressed that Capitalism was the great evil of the world that we were fighting against. It’s interesting, though; we all grew up to realize how stupid that is.” Wow. I of course found this conversation fascinating. And what it says about the sustainability of the Communist Party’s grasp on power…I don’t know. The people of my generation in China grew up inundated with the propaganda, only to grow up to discover a world becoming very Capitalist very fast. I suppose time will tell.

Other things

2004-08-10T10:11:00.000-07:00

I came across this article today and thought it was interesting:

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/02/27/future.language.ap/index.html

I've been meaning to write a kind of follow-up post talking about lasting impressions and the like; I just haven't gotten around to it. Soon. I'll make time.

Thanks to everyone who's been reading!!

Goodbyes and Airport Fun

2004-07-24T05:40:00.000-07:00

Amazingly, I actually managed to fit everything into a suitcase, duffel bag, backpack and purse, barely meeting the airline requirements. This was definitely an exercise in creativity. Host dad (bless him) lugged my suitcase down the stairs, and we waited for the lady from my program to come pick me up. I thanked him sincerely for everything he and his family have done for me over the last month, to which he replied, “Jin Jing [my Chinese name], you are not trouble. We have the Aiya that comes to cook and clean; everything else we would do for ChengCheng anyway. Next time you can just call me and tell me when you want to come—I can call the University if you want to take classes again, and I can come to get you at the airport. You should just call me.”

Bless him.

Lisa, the lady from my program, arrived, and the driver helped me pile everything in the trunk and backseat. I waved goodbye to Host dad, and we were off. The drive took about half an hour, during which Lisa and I talked over the grating chirping of a toy cricket that was hanging from the rearview mirror. “Your Chinese has improved,” she said. “When we picked you up from the airport, you didn’t understand a whole lot; just now I’ve only had to translate a few phrases for you.” Of course, when she had picked me up from the airport it had been midnight and I hadn’t slept in about 2 days, but I will take her kind comment as a sign of at least some success. She asked me to write a recommendation for their program, which I gladly agreed to do, and told me that the next time I come to China, I’ll have to stay longer and travel more. She told me about host families they have in Shanghai, Guanzhou, Tibet, and other places…I told her that I really want to return, but wasn’t sure when I’d get the chance. We’ll see. Just as a side note, if you’re interested in coming to China to study (adults as well), I highly recommend the homestay program. E-mail me if you want more details about the program I was with.

We arrived at the Beijing Airport in plenty of time for me to say goodbye to Lisa, pay the airport construction tax (they’re going to build a new airport for the 2008 Olympics), and start waiting in lines. And then wait in other lines. And then sit down and wait some more. And then change gates and wait some more. Apparently China Eastern was having some mechanical difficulties, so we were switched to an Air China flight to Shanghai. We were a few hours late leaving Beijing. We got to Shanghai and were quickly herded to our connecting China Eastern flight—after we picked up our luggage and re-checked it at a different baggage station. Thankfully, I had met Kui, a 10-year Phoenix resident originally from Beijing, and he was kind enough to fill in the gaps for me when my Chinese couldn’t handle the instructions. Although Kui is an engineer, he originally studied social science and remains extremely interested in history, culture, and world events. He wanted to hear about my impressions of Beijing and the Chinese people and just talk about things in general—I of course was thrilled; I had finally met a Chinese person as interested in culture, history and international relations as myself, and he could speak fluent English! Even more amazing/exciting, I learned that Kui is a Christian!! On the flight to LA, when I wasn’t sleeping, Kui and I were talking, and the length of the flight didn’t seem too terrible.

We arrived in Los Angeles 20 minutes before my flight to Dallas was supposed to depart, and still had to clear customs, which meant of course that I had to claim my luggage. This process took over half an hour. Lovely. I said goodbye and thanked Kui, then rushed off to find the American Airlines counter, only to wait in yet another line. By the time I got to the counter my plane had been 45 minutes gone. As I was waiting on information about other connecting flights, I heard the lady at the counter next to mine say “Dui bu qi, wo ting bu dong!” (I’m sorry, I don’t understand!). Having had occasion to use “ting bu dong” many many times during my month in Beijing, I could understand and sympathize with this distressed Chinese lady. In Chinese, I offered to try and translate. Both the Chinese lady and the lady behind the counter were surprised, but relieved. I made sure that the lady and I were on the same flight and helped her call her son, who was picking her up in Dallas. I was excited to put my study to use. Thankfully, I was able to understand almost all of what the lady said, and could translate enough of the English instructions of the airline personnel to get their point across. I’m really glad I was able to help someone else after Mr. Li helped me on the way to Beijing and Mr. Kui helped me on the way home.

I got to Dallas at about 10:30 p.m. and checked in to a nice little Comfort Inn, frustrated not to be in Huntsville with my family, but excited about the prospect of a shower and an air conditioned room. Woke up to a 5:30 wake up call, which wasn’t that bad since my body is so confused that it didn’t know it was early. I ate cereal for breakfast for the first time in a month, then went back to the airport to wait some more. A short plane hop, which seemed longer because of my eagerness to get there, then finally HOME!

Home

2004-07-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Finally. More to follow.

Last things

2004-07-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

My stay in China is (sadly) coming to its end. I’ve arranged a ride to the airport for Thursday, and have started to think about packing…I may need to think about where the nearest FedEx office is, as I’m not sure my suitcase will handle all of my purchases…Anyway, I thought now might be a good time to answer one of the questions I’ve gotten: what do I miss from home?

Well, I of course miss my family and friends, and I miss being able to just pick up the phone and call then whenever, without having to subtract 13 hours in my head to decide if they’ll be awake or not. I’m looking forward to seeing you all soon!!

I miss going to Church. I thought about trying to go here, and if I had more time I’d definitely work on finding a church, but I don’t know how to go about finding one, and with my current vocabulary I don’t think I would be able to understand much of what was said anyway. I know God goes with me everywhere, and this is an awesome comfort, but I do miss the fellowship and music of the church. Thanks to everyone who’s been praying for me!!

I also really miss convenient internet access. The host fam has a computer with internet, but it’s old and slow. It’s only a little slower than the internet at the internet cafés, however; I’m not sure, but I think the problem is that there are only 3 or 4 internet providers in China for a pretty big number of users—the system just gets bogged down. And then there’s the censoring by the Commies…I actually can’t see my own blog—thanks to the fam back in Huntsville for posting what I send them. I also can’t get to the other blogs and news sites that I regularly read, which really frustrates me. I’ve had to resign myself to badly translated CCTV, occasionally CNN, and old Economist and Newsweek magazines. An interesting side note, though, I’ve actually been able to watch some of the Chinese TV; the sitcoms are terrible, but the vocabulary is easy enough that I can catch a lot of what is said, and the character subtitles help as well.

And, other silly things…I miss the washing machine and dryer at home. The host fam has a washing machine, but first you have to hand wash everything, then you put the clothes in the machine to rinse and spin, then you hang everything up to dry. It’s a fun time. This last load came out smelling pretty clean, though, so I guess I’ve gotten the hang of it. And as much as I love red bean ice cream, I miss real chocolate. The Chinese are pretty good at custard and have some very tasty desserts, but for some reason chocolate just isn’t the same. Add that to the list of reasons why fat Chinese people are hard to find…What else…oh, I miss my car, and the independence that comes with it. Although I will say that the subway’s easy, taxis are very convenient, and even if I had a car here the traffic is so crazy I’d be almost afraid to drive, even if there were the possibility of finding a parking space.

So really, I can’t complain. It makes me laugh that the State Department considers China a hardship post…Beijing on an American salary would allow pretty luxurious living. Beijing on a student’s budget is pretty nice. And the experience was, without a doubt, worth hand washing my clothes and missing the latest news from the blogosphere.

Beijing

2004-07-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

    Haven't posted in a while; I've been busy exploring Beijing. Last Sunday I went with host mom and host sis to the Forbidden City, which was the Emperor's palace throughout the Ming and Qing Dynasties and is now open to the public. The day started out rainy, and it drizzled on and off allday, but this didn't deter the huge crowds from showing up--all of the umbrellas just made navigating gates and walkways that much moreinteresting. The architecture of the Forbidden City is beautiful, and with a little effort ¡t's possible to get a sense of the immense history of the place in spite of the crowds. I don't think I'd go back, though. Dealing with that kind ofcrowd on the subway isn't too bad, but it gets old after a few hours at a place like the Forbidden City. And, like I said, the umbrellas complicatedthings even further. Oh well--at least it wasn't hot.

Monday I went to watch a Wushu (Chinese martial arts) class. I found the school through the internet, and had my host dad call about specifics; the owner ended up speaking excellent English, so I talked to him myself. On Monday afternoon he met me at a bookstore on one of the big market streets and took me to the school, which I never would have found on my own, even with directions. The school is in what's called a Hutong--a reallynarrow street between buildings that sometimes leads to a courtyard or larger space between buildings. The old building, built in a traditional Chinese style, is a really neat atmosphere for a class. The school teaches several styles of martial arts. The style of the class that I attended wasa combination of several Chinese techniques as well as techniques from other styles--designed to enable Wushu students to fight in international competitions. I ended up participating and was able to at least keep up, if I didn't get everything exactly right. The teachers, one older Chinese man and one in his early twenties, were thankfully both very patient, and there was an American lady taking the class that could translate when necessary.   (My vocabulary just can't handle 'sidestep at a 35 degree angle and and kick with the instep of the foot to the upper calf of a rushing attacker.) I got a good workout, as well as an interesting cultural experience.

Yesterday I had lunch with Patty, the girl that I sat next to on the plane ride from LA. Patty's parents are Chinese, but she didn't speak itat all when she came three weeks ago; she's learned a lot, but my Chinese is still a lot better than hers is. We laughed when the waitresses kept addressing her and I had to translate.     After lunch, we went to Hong Qiao, the pearl market. This was quite an experience. The indoor market is massive; three floors of booths that cover an area of at least a couple of blocks. The first floor has electronics,'soo-vih-neers,' toys, etc., it's a random hodgepodge of items. The second floor has suitcases, bags, clothes, jackets, silk...if you wear it or carry it it's probably sold here. The third floor is divided into an antique/crafts/paintings section and a huge pearl and bead section, from which the market gets its English name. Patty and I spent all afternoon in the market, only leaving when it closed, around 7:00. We both practiced our bargaining skills and our Chinese, although almost all of the vendors spoke at least some English. When we climbed into the taxi to go to the subway station, each with full backpacks and other bags besides, we pronounced our excursion a success.

English Lessons

2004-07-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

As a student in a foreign country, I often experience random moments of hilarity. There was listening to the latest Eminem song on the radio in the car with the host parents...Host mom said that she couldn't understand the words; I smiled at her and thought to myself, "That's almost certainly for the best." There was realizing that the Chinese word for yogurt is translated literally, "sour milk." There was hearing one of my classmates, intending to ask the professor if he might ask a question, confuse the pronunciation and ask instead if he might kiss him. These moments aren't uncommon, and their randomness makes them that much more fun.

The random moments are always fun, but I can always look forward to a good laugh when I help my host sis with her English. Every college graduate in China must pass a series of English exams, of which there are four levels. The book that my host sister is using is the study book for the second exam, the one that her class is using. It has dialogues, articles, and preposition and pronoun fill-in-the-blank sections, and it definitely wasn't written by a native English speaker. That's not to say that it doesn't have sophisticated vocabulary; in fact, much of it is quite difficult. And it's obvious that the authors had studied English idioms and common phrases. It's just little syntax convolutions or awkward phrasing that gives it's origin away. Aside from the funny phrasing, the subject matter of the articles is often quite humorous. ChengCheng and I have read about weather conditions in the United States, Baby Boomers, Stratford-upon-Avon, and the changing relationship between bosses and employees, to name a few. To give you a better idea of the comic side of these lessons, I've decided just to give you some quotations:

(Talking about the cost of a Chinese cartoon)
"Small peanuts to Disney, perhaps, but in a country in which actually all local production houses have turned away from this form because it isn't likely to make profits, the amount ain't exactly spare change either."

(A little more morbid, from an article titled: "The Boys With Arms")
"Imagine fifteen-year old Kipland Kinkel in Springfield, Ore., chatting with two friends on a three-way phone call May 20, probably while his father's dead body lay on the floor, a bullet drilled through his body."

(From one of several selections about Western music)
"Punk is best known as a musical style. Songs were short, loud, and angry. They grabbed people's attention. This was partly because people formed bands first and learned to play afterward if they bothered to learn at all."

This is just a small sample, the book really is a comic gem.

The other night, host mom asked if I might help her with her pronunciation on some stuff for her work. (I will insert the side-note here, that when ChengCheng told me her mom made rockets she wasn't lying, host mom is apparently the chief engineer in her plant, which works on the Chinese manned space flight craft.) She gave me a pamphlet and asked me to read each sentence first, and then she would repeat it. This was a different kind of funny from ChenChen's English work. I struggled to remember my scientific abbreviations as I clearly enunciated (host-mom was taping this) sentences such as, "Plasma immersion ion implantation is a non-line of sight novel technique." Lovely. So, Host mom got an English lesson, and I was reminded why I decided not to major in physics or chemistry.

FOOD

2004-07-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

I've (sadly) passed the halfway mark of my stay in China, and my supply of American cereal bars remains almost entirely untouched. I've really enjoyed delving into Chinese cuisine; whether folding jaozi (Chinese dumplings) or ordering lunch in the cafeteria, eating is always an adventure. I think Host Dad has finally stopped worrying that I don't like the food, although it took me awhile to get my point across. About one week into my stay, he asked me what I was accustomed to eating, what I liked best, etc. I tried to explain that he needn't worry about me liking the food; "I'm really not picky," I said, "I'll eat just about anything." We talked for a few more minutes, and he said, "O.k., so you can eat anything, except for 'pig-ky.'" I laughed and went to get my English-Chinese dictionary.

The biggest adjustments food-wise have had more to do with logistics rather than taste. For starters, the Chinese don't usually set the table with napkins. This makes chopstick proficiency very important. Also, some dishes are just plain hard to eat; I'm pretty good with the chopsticks, but I stop short of using them to peel boiled shrimp. The host fam just had to excuse me using my fingers on that one. I did manage ribs though, and I've gotten really good with fried eggs. I think perhaps the labor-intensive dishes, along with the practice of only taking small bits of food at a time from a shared plate, help to explain why fat people are rare in China.

I'm always excited to see what host dad will set out for breakfast. The one constant is the warm milk. Often fried eggs are included with the meal, but after that it gets much more random. Sometimes breakfast includes left-overs from dinner, sometimes packaged goodies; it varies. This morning Host Dad gave me warm milk, a fried egg, garlic toast, and a giant creme puff in the shape of an ice-cream cone. I laugh about this every time I think about it.

On weekdays I almost always eat lunch in the cafeteria. Besides the fun of seeing if what I receive matches what I think I've ordered, there are some foods that I really like. Baozi, for example, I will miss when I return to the U.S. A baozi is a big dumpling/bun made from really thick dough that usually has some kind of filling (sometimes meat and veggies, sometimes bean paste, sometimes sugar¡discovering what's inside is half of the fun.) I will also miss the red-bean Popsicles, of course, and the tea¡Host Dad's promised to take me tea-shopping before I leave. Other than this, I really like the "Fragrant Spice Beef Shreds" from the cafeteria, which are served on top of some kind of shoot, maybe asparagus, or some kind of bean? I've also had some excellent tofu and some wonderful eggplant. Oh, and I've finally figured out how to properly pronounce "lo mein," so I can order this whenever I like. I don't have enough nerve to try the "Suitable for Eating Tree-Fungus" however. There are limits to my adventurousness.

The Adventure Continues...

2004-07-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

This morning I thought I was going to be a part of a massive traffic disaster when our bus (that's right, bus) decided to pass another bus (right again, BUS) on the wrong side of the road. When the driver honked at the oncoming traffic, however, those vehicles slid over into the bicycle lane, and the bicycles either swerved or pulled over. The Chinese people on the bus didn't even seem to notice. It was at this point that I decided just to stop watching the road.

All week I've been taking the bus to class; well, I've been taking the shuttle bus from the apartment complex to the public bus station and then the public bus to the campus. The shuttle bus driver is pretty aggressive, but at least he only passes cars on the wrong side of the road and not
busses.

Class wasn't nearly as exciting as the ride to class, but that was quite alright with me. Our first professor is always really entertaining. He obviously enjoys his job, and he's good at it as well. He's often a little blunt in his correction, but it's always offered and taken in good fun. As he likes to say, we're students; there's no loss of face in making mistakes or asking questions. The second two hours are more of a struggle. Our second professor's English isn't as good, and class isn't nearly as engaging. This combination means that I have to force myself to pay attention and make the effort to understand what the professor's saying (It's good practice, though). After class I went to the cafeteria for lunch. The food is pretty good, and it's really inexpensive. The menus are all in characters, however; some of which I can read and some of which I have to guess at. Today I tried to order a chicken and noodle dish. I told the man at the window what I wanted, but when he repeated it back to me it wasn't the same thing. I told him again, he again repeated something different, I smiled and nodded. Fortunately, the result of this interchange was a tasty little noodle bowl. I'm really not too concerned about ordering something gross; the meals cost about $0.75 on average, so if I don't like what I get I'll just buy something different, although I haven't had to do this yet. It's just fun to feel adventurous.

After class I went to the grocery store to buy ingredients for tomorrow's breakfast, which I've offered to cook for the host family. I've already described the grocery store, so you know that just going is an adventure. Trying to find specific items was even more exciting. The bacon was pretty straight-forward since it comes in a clear package. The eggs and milk for French toast weren't too hard either, but cinnamon was a little more of a challenge. I actually knew the characters for what I was looking for, so I found the spice isle and proceeded to search, displacing random shop assistants as I looked. The best I could do was cinnamon sticks. That will do. The store had about 10 kinds of honey but no syrup. Oh well. Next on the list: powdered sugar. I found the sugar and started poking at packages trying to decide which one was what I needed. There were a couple of packages that seemed right, but they said things like "Infant-suitable kind" and "For Adults," so figuring that powdered sugar shouldn't be age-specific, I passed over these packages. I found one that looked o.k. and headed to the check out counter. After leaving the store with my purchases, I decided to stop for a bottled water at one of the corner concession stands that are all over Beijing. Here I made the most exciting discovery of the day---red bean popsicles!!! I love red bean ice cream, but that's Japanese, so I didn't think I'd find it in China. The popsicle was made out of the same stuff! I happily paid the vendor one "kuai," about 13 cents, and went on my way. A short taxi ride later I was back at the apartment. I put away the refrigerated items for tomorrow's breakfast, and checked out the spices.

The cinnamon worked out well; host dad had the great idea to crush it with a rolling pin, which took some elbow grease but produced suitable powder. I wasn't so lucky with the powdered sugar, however. It turned out to be either baking powder or baking soda. Sigh. Oh well. I guess the host family won't know the difference. After I put everything away, I went to play ping pong with host dad in the 'game room' of the apartment complex. This is a big room under one of the buildings;I think it might have been built as a parking garage. It has a pool table, some tables, bookshelves with books, a plastic ball pit like they have at McDonalds playplaces in the states, and two ping pong areas that were fenced in so that run-away balls won't escape. I haven't played ping pong in years, but this went much better than tennis had a couple of days before. Host dad coached me on proper ping pong technique, and I was able to give him a decent game. We played for awhile and went back to the apartment for dinner. The adventure continues, even when the itinerary
doesn't include exploration, per se.

*I've been asked to explain squat toilets. Basically they're holes in the floor that flush. Some are nicer than others. I've taken pictures, which I'll try to post once I get back home.

**Breakfast turned out o.k., thank goodness.

The Summer Palace

2004-07-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

Early Sunday morning I set out with my host parents to the "Yi He Yuan," Summer Palace. Once the summer residence of the Qing Dynasty Emperors, this large park is now open to the public. It is a major tourist attraction, as well as being popular with the local population. Host mom and dad have year-long passes and go there often to exercise. Sunday morning I joined host dad in his run, and then we explored for a while. The day was absolutely beautiful, as were the surroundings. The Summer Palace is an oasis of green in a concrete city, and it proudly displays the rich cultural history that is fast being replaced by high rises elsewhere in Beijing. A huge man-made lake is surrounded by century-old willow trees and walking paths, and a Buddhist temple sits on the hill made by the excavation of the lake. Ornate marble bridges span smaller corners of the lake. Part of the park is a canal-street modeled after a city in Southern China--a Chinese version of Venice in miniature. All of the buildings are traditional Chinese architecture, and I was delighted to discover the Chinese version of gargoyles guarding the eaves of many of these buildings. The host parents and I wandered through an outside corridor containing hundreds of paintings that depict scenes from Chinese legends. Once again, I was stopped by a Chinese tourist who wanted a picture with me. Hehehe. The host parents got a laugh out of this as well. In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed the morning.

Two Shopping Adventures

2004-06-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

My first Chinese grocery store experience was quite an adventure. I found the store one day just wandering around; I have class every day from 8 a.m. to 12, so in the afternoons I've been exploring the area surrounding the campus. I had passed the 6th cell phone shop of the day when I saw the grocery store and decided it looked promising. I think maybe 'grocery store'is not the best term for this building; the Chinese word translates most
closely to supermarket, but there is another word that translates to supermarket as well, I'll get to that type of store in a minute. This store was probably about the size of a Brunos or Winn Dixie. I walked in, and was told (in gestures) to give my backpack to the service desk. O.K. Wallet and ticket from the service desk in hand, I began my exploration.
Unlike a Brunos, this grocery store had several aisles of clothing, shoes, and backpacks/suitcases. In the next section over were small appliances, then a fairly extensive candy section. Then came the grocery store proper. Other than an entire aisle dedicated to raman noodles, the grocery section didn't differ all that much from its American counterpart. Well, at least that was my impression from looking at the packages; I couldn't read that
many of the characters to know exactly what was inside each. I found it interesting just to wander the aisles, trying not to bump into other shoppers or one of the many shop assistants. (Because labor is so cheap in China, most stores have many shop assistants to help customers with purchases. In a clothing store, for instance, when you decide on an item you give it to
the shop assistant to hold while you continue shopping. A small store, maybe 15 feet square, might have as many as 8 shop assistants.) It seemed like the grocery store had at least two shop assistants for each aisle, further crowding the busy store. I took my selections--a DVD ($4 U.S.) a small custard dumpling-thingy (~$0.16) and two pens (~$0.60)to the counter
and paid, pleased with my adventure.

The next day I had a very different grocery shopping experience. When I arrived at the apartment from school, Host Dad was walking out the door to run some errands. He asked if I wanted to go with him, and I agreed, always eager to explore life here in China. We went first to the bank, then briefly to an office building where I waited for him in the car, and then we arrived at a parking lot. A little confused, I confirmed that we were
indeed going to a grocery store, then followed Host Dad to an entryway and an escalator that went down underground. Under the parking lot and surrounding construction zone was a huge shopping center/mall. I followed Host Dad through the crowded (imagine that) corridors lined with restaurants, clothing stores, jewelry stores, glasses stores; not unlike a
mall in America, just laid out differently. We grabbed a cart as we made our way through to the 'grocery store.' When we got there, I began to grasp the difference between the two Chinese words for 'shopping center.' This store was massive. Imagine a Super-Wal-Mart/Sears/Bed-Bath-and-Beyond.

Apparently it is an international chain---French, maybe--but I wasn't familiar with the name. The whole time we'd been making our way over and around and up to the food section, Host Dad had been asking me what I wanted to buy. I finally just told him to just do his shopping and I'd follow him around; this seemed to suit both of us. Host Dad continues to worry that I
don't like Chinese food and don't eat enough, and he asked a few times what I liked, but I think I'm finally starting to convey the meaning of "Bu tiao-ti," or "Not picky."
I followed as Host Dad selected a few items from the bakery and some milk (here I have to explain that the milk that the Host parents serve each morning at breakfast comes in non-refrigerated pouches; they pour it in bowls and heat it in the microwave before serving it. It actually tastes pretty good, and we made our way to the meat department. This was quite a
display. Whole ducks, sausages, cow parts that I couldn't name and won't try to describe, lamb pieces, and then the seafood. The seafood section of the meat department contained large tanks full of fish, smaller tanks of eels, crabs, and turtles, bins full of dried eel-wormy things, more bins of small dried fish, still more bins of seaweed and other things I can't name, and all kinds of fish, sting-rays, and large fish parts (I thought they
might be shark fins, but Host Dad said not) on ice. Host Dad picked out a couple of fish and some lamb, and we went on. Some fruit and a few more miscellaneous items and we were ready to go. Total purchase, U.S. dollars: $24.30.

After the check-out line, but still inside of the grocery store, we came to a tea shop. A shop assistant outside gave us small cups of green tea and bid us enter to try some more. Host Dad asked if I wanted to look, and of course I'm always up for more exploration, so in we went. We sampled some jasmine and red tea, then one of the shop assistants seated us in chairs in front of a small table and began to make us some more green tea. host Dad
prefers green tea, and that is what we drink all the time at the apartment.The dried tea leaves are packaged in a can; to serve, you spoon or shake some leaves into a cup and pour hot water on top. The tea leaves settle to the bottom, and you're ready to enjoy this Chinese tradition. The shop assistant poured the leaves into a very small glass pitcher, then strained the tea into another small pitcher, from which she poured into little
porcelain cups for us to enjoy. Another shop assistant (they really are everywhere) brought us samples of tea candy and tea cracker-cake thingies, all made with some kind of tea. After about half an hour in the shop, Host Dad selected some green tea, and also an assortment of candy/cracker thingies for me to take to class each day, because he says I should be
hungry before lunch since we eat breakfast before 7. We made our way back through the mall with the cart, which was thankfully more agile than shopping carts in the US. This adventure had been a fun (and tasty)exploration.

More about the Great Wall

2004-06-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

Exhaustion and frustration with the computer cut my last post short, so I'll finish up with the Great Wall here. When we arrived at our destination (after the 2 hr. bus ride) our "guide" told us to be back at the bus by 1:15 and set us loose. We passed several food stands whose vendors enthusiastically encouraged us to buy bottled water, tea and juice; getting to the actual wall from the parking lot requires a pretty good trek up the side of a mountain. We set out up the concrete steps, enjoying the beautiful scenery as we made our way up. We were happy to finally reach the wall itself, but soon discovered that the wall had slopes and steps as well, following the terrain. I walked around with a Japanese guy and German girl, taking in the view. We were tired and sweaty after just walking about a mile on the wall; it's hard to imagine the manpower that went into building something so huge. The day was pretty hazy, but hopefully some of my pictures will turn out ok.
We took the cable car back down the mountain, not wanting to spend our remaining time (and energy) climbing back down. From the end of the steps back to the parking lot turned out to be an adventure in itself. For about a quarter of a mile at the base of the mountain, there are stalls set up on either side of the road where more vendors try to get the tourists to buy 'soo-vih-nier--s.' They are extremely persistent--I guess you'd have to be to make a living that way--some even stood in our way or thrust t-shirts or chopsticks or statues at us as we passed. Shouts of, "Lady, Lady, you look-look here!!" followed me everywhere. I had a good time trying to bargain with a couple of the vendors; I'm sure they walked away pleased that the foreigner was so bad at bargaining, but I walked away satisfied with my purchases. A few of the stalls sold dried apricots and nuts...after the bus ride there I was hesitant to sample any of that. I finally climbed back onto the bus, tired and sweaty and ready for the ride back so that I could sleep. Even if my pictures don't turn out, it was definitely a memorable experience.

25th and 26th

2004-06-27T19:23:00.002-07:00

6-26-04

Our visit to the Great Wall was quite an experience. It took almost two hours by charter bus to get there from the University, during which time I became acquainted with Xu Ming, from the Phillipines, and Kil from Korea. I'm really enjoying getting to know students from so many different countries; it's also good Chinese practice, I guess. We all have similar vocabularies, consisting of, "What is your name?" "What country are you from?" "How long have you studied Chinese?" and similar questions, which is fortunate because our pronunciation is so poor that we'd probably never understand each other if we weren't asking the same questions.

But I digress; The Great Wall. On the way there I noticed that people had laid out patches of nuts and fruits, some kind of apricot I think, for miles on the road. On the road. Not the side of the road. This made traffic even more fun. At one point, we were in the wrong lane avoiding a particularly large patch of apricots when a car was coming towards us in said lane; the bus driver honked and the car drove onto the shoulder. I guess the bus had the right of way because it was bigger.

6-25-04
First day of class. There are about 25 students in the 'advanced-beginner' class; a lot of them are American, but the UK, Germany, Canada, Korea, and Greece are all represented as well. I think most of the students in the class have had about 2 years of Chinese, and their skill level ranges from those who can't pronounce the pinyin (romanization of the characters) correctly to those who speak very well but don't know any characters. We have two teachers, a man who teaches for the first two hours and a young lady who teaches for the second two hours. The man is loud and funny, and obviously enjoys his job. The young lady is a little more shy.

Today's taxi ride was a little more successful...we didn't have to stop for directions at all, and I was actually able to converse a tiny bit with the driver. The taxi system really is convenient. I'm working up my courage to try out the subway...my main problem with getting around at the moment is that the map that the Lotus lady gave me is entirely in characters.

Traffic in Beijing is crazy. Crazy. On the interstate-type roads, people will drive close to 70 mph, and then slow almost to a stand still to read a sign. Intersections are like nothing I've ever seen; stop lights are generally obeyed, but not always, and no one's ever heard of staying in one lane. Even just driving down the road, there will be 3 cars driving side-by-side in 2 lanes. Bicycles are everywhere. There are lanes designated as bike lanes, but sometimes cars will pass in these lanes, or bikes will pass cars outside of these lanes...there is just a general melee with the most aggressive drivers getting the right of way. Needless to say horns are used liberally. It's pure craziness.

6-24-04

2004-06-23T23:14:00.000-07:00

Breakfast this morning was omlet-style egg bits, warm milk, and a hamburger. I think host dad is concerned that I don't like Chinese food...he's made sure that there is 'Western-style' food available...like the hamburger...hehehe. Really, I have yet to come across anything I just really can't stand. Meals seem a little random in composition, but the food tastes good. I will say, though, that using chopsticks when you've just woken up is a bit of a challenge.
I think i'm still a little jet-lagged. It's not as bad as I expected, though, except my feet are still swolen from the plane flight. Or 4 plane flights. Oh well.
My host family, as I've said, is adorable. Mom & Dad, you'll be excited to know that they are really concerned with my safety. I was going to take the bus home from the University after my placement test today, but Host dad really wanted me to take a taxi. The bus station is only about 500 meters from the housing complex, but Host dad says that although the city is very safe, there are workers from other provinces in China living nearby that aren't accustomed to foreigners and might stare. I had to laugh a little at this--I'm pretty conspicuous wherever I go--but I agreed to take the taxi. I also got better directions to prevent another taxi tour like the one I had yesterday.
Cheng Cheng (my host sister) begins her upper-high examinations today. This test is very important for her future, as the results will determine wether she is allowed to go to the academic upper high school in preparation for college, or to the vocational high school. Cheng Cheng does well in school, but I think host mom and dad are still a little nervous. It's a lot of pressure...I think we American students take our opportunities for granted way too often.

Today I had my fist experience with a squat-toilet.
The adventure continues. =)

Found it.

2004-06-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

6-21-04 (copied from notebook)

"The saying 'Getting there is half the fun' became obsolete with the advent of commercial arilines." --Henry Tillman

My adventure began this morning at about 4:15 a.m., after roughly an hour and a half of sleep. The first 2 legs of my trip were pretty much uneventful; on the Huntsville-Dallas leg I was able to sleep a little, and an aisle seat and in-flight movie helped on the longer flight to Los Angeles. Now for the 19-hour flight...
I met a girl in LA who's going to study at the same university in Beijing that I'll be at. Patty's parents are Chinese, but she doesn't speak Chinese, so she's going to try and learn this summer. We have seats next to each other on the plane, which is nice. On my other side is Mr. Li, a Beijing man coming home from a 20-day business trip in America. He's been very patient with my Chinese, and we've been talking in Chinglish. He is an admirer of the American social structure, and he also liked the weather.
The safety video was an anime cartoon. Most excellent. =) So far we've had one meal-noodles and some kind of fish (not bad for airplane food) and I think we'll get another meal later. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep a little between now and then.

6-22-04 (still in the plane. we've crossed the int'l date line)
One more hour until Shanghai. I've discovered that we will have a two-hour layover there...but at this point that doesn't sound too bad--we'll have room to stretch out and walk around. Patty woke up to pronounce, 'Wow, we're on the other side of the world.' Yep. weird thought. To quote Laurence and Matt (from the 'end of the world' cartoon), 'I am le tired.'

31 hours, 5 airports later...

2004-06-23T22:27:00.000-07:00

6-23-04 (copied from notebook)
First let me say that this computer is frustratingly slow. I had another message to post about the plane flight, but i can't get to it. Maybe later.
We arrived in Beijing around 1 a.m. local time. They took our temperature as we went through the terminal (a precaution against SARS I think), but I guess the customs officials had gone to bed; no one checked our luggage. I was relieved to find both my suitcase and the Lotus representative at the airport. I rode with Ms. Sheng, the Lotus lady, to my host family's house. My host dad, Mr. Lee, met us downstairs, and (bless him) lugged my suitcase up to their second story apartment. His wife and daughter were asleep. He showed me around and gave me all of his phone numbers--along with a short 'please be careful' speech that reminded me a lot of my own dad, minus the Chinese accent.
The next morning I met Cheng Cheng, my host sister. She's 15 years old and very polite, but was a little shy at first. She's very pretty, (Miles, I'll have to send you a picture) and about as tall as I am. We had lunch, and then her mom came home from work. Host mom is just as kind as host dad. The whole family speaks english, and is just generally adorable.
We toured the BCLU campus this afternoon; it's not that big, but it's a pretty mixture of garden/park areas and buildings. Host mom had suggested that I take a taxi home (she had to go back to work), so after wandering around for a while I got into a taxi...and ran into a true communication barrier. I couldn't understand a word the taxi driver said, and she didn't know how to get to the address that I gave her. I got her in the general direction of the housing complex by pointing and nodding, but then we had to pull over so that I could call host mom for directions. It was indeed a grand adventure.

"The saying, 'Getting there is half the fun' became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines." -Henry Tillman

2004-06-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

6-21-04 (copied from notebook)
My adventure began this morning at about 4:15 a.m., after roughly an hour and a half of sleep. The first 2 legs of my trip were pretty much uneventful; on the Huntsville-Dallas leg I was able to sleep a little, and an aisle seat and in-flight movie helped on the longer flight to Los Angeles. Now for the 19-hour flight...
I met a girl in LA who's going to study at the same university in Beijing that I'll be at. Patty's parents are Chinese, but she doesn't speak Chinese, so she's going to try and learn this summer. We

Let's see how this thing works...

2004-06-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hello hello!! I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to post much (or at all) from China, but I figured I'd set this up just in case. It's starting to set in that tomorrow I'm going to be in a foreign country...this feeling is probably due to the big suitcase sitting in the middle of the mess that is my room...Anyway, I'm really, really excited!

An Alabama Girl Goes Back to China...Again!

Snapshots

Pictures

Our river cruise

Chengdu and Chongqing

Street Food

Urumqi and Tian Chi

Days 4 and 5 of the Grand Tour -- Xi'an and Urumqi

"Poshi-doodle-doo" (or, "What happens when you spend 7 weeks in one person's constant presence")

Luoyang and Yan-yan

The Students

Thoughts on Learning Chinese

Tea

Pictures

Baby Bottom

Time, Trains, and Agriculture

Suzhou and the Hard-Seat Train

Email from Robert

A Walk in the Park

More About Yangzhou

Conversations

Proud to be a Meiguoren (American) **sung to the Lee Greenwood tune**

Interviews and Questionnaires

Progress with the research, and some observations

Train Ride and Yangzhou

Days 1 and 2 in Shanghai

Craziness!

Report

Home

An explanation

Nanjing

A full day

Censorship, and reading Reading Lolita in Tehran in China

Suzhou and the English Corner

Snippets of Shanghai

a short one

Interviews and a little frustration

The first 3 interviews

Ultimate Frisbee and the Expat Bubble

Saturday in Shanghai

Day 3 (2.5?) in Shanghai

5-17-2005

5 days to unpack, clean, and re-pack...

A little about my semester

Enough about Toilets

More on the toilets...hehe

Squat toilets

我要回去中国！！！（I'm going back to China!!!)

At Last

one that got away...

Other things

Goodbyes and Airport Fun

Home

Last things

Beijing

English Lessons

FOOD

The Adventure Continues...

The Summer Palace

Two Shopping Adventures

More about the Great Wall

25th and 26th

6-24-04

Found it.

31 hours, 5 airports later...

"The saying, 'Getting there is half the fun' became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines." -Henry Tillman

Recommended Reading

Let's see how this thing works...

Proud to be a Meiguoren (American) sung to the Lee Greenwood tune