Shanghai Summer

Taylor Here -

Aside from the incident that Aman already mentioned, Xian was an amazing experience.

Xian is the oldest city in China, so there is a ton of history. The city itself is surrounded by a giant wall. The first day that we were there we actually rented bikes and rode around on the top of the wall. This was a peaceful, fun way to check out the city. After that we walked around the city and checked out the local sites and even went into the Muslim neighborhood and checked out the Great Mosque and the local markets. The first night there we stayed at a Xian University, but the following day checked into a hostel which was much better.  The hostel was located in the center of the city and had everything we needed - computers, TV, beds, food, etc. The atmosphere was really relaxed and the people were really interesting (including one guy who rode his bike from Amsterdam to China).

The second day we took a tour around the city and saw some historical sites. We went to museums, hot springs (for those history buffs, this was the site of the Xian incident), and to see the Terra Cotta warriors. The following day we cruised around the city and went to some parks and other sites that we thought would be interesting.  The following day we were planning on climbing Hua Shan which is one of China's five most sacred mountains - you can check out more information here. Anyway, after talking to a couple of people, we decided to climb the mountain during the night so we could see the sunrise from the top of the mountain.

I was lucky to have already climbed a mountain in the middle of the night, but this was a completely different experience. When we arrived to the mountain after a 2.5 hour bus ride, they took us to a little place where we could get a room to nap in before we climbed the mountain. After we got our room we walked around the small mountain town, got some dinner, bought some snacks, and headed to bed. I was not able to sleep before hour 11pm wake up call, but when we had to start leaving I was ready to go. When we first entered the gate we met some other people from the US and ended up climbing all the way to the top with them (Berkeley students that were doing research in China).

There were tons of people climbing the mountain…at times there were so many people that you actually had to stop and wait for them to clear out of the way. In addition to that, the Chinese have made a concrete path and stairs that go all the way to the top of the mountain. Parts of the mountain are so steep that you have to hold on to chains and the steps resemble a ladder. There are places along the way that you can stop and buy food and drinks, which is a nice way to rest after your legs start trembling from the climb.

When we got to the top we waited for the sunrise. It was really peaceful sitting at the top of the mountain watching the sky gradually get lighter and lighter. It was also very interesting because there were so many Chinese people there eagerly awaiting the same site. We all got split up for a while and when we finally reunited we did not have a lot of time before we had to get to the bottom and catch out bus. Luckily for us there was a gondola that we were able to ride to the bottom.

After a long, uncomfortable bus ride, we arrived at the station and headed back to the hostel. We went to the market to get some gifts, and headed for the train station.

When I got on the train I thought it was going to be a fairly painless ride because we were all so tired and we had sleeper trains. Adam and Andrew left today, so they were excited to have another full day to do some shopping and to have one more chance to go out with our teachers. This, however, was not the case. After a long night of a slow and shaky train ride, we were informed that we had taken the ‘slow train’ and were going to be on the train for an additional 12 hours before arriving in Shanghai. This completely ruined all of our plans. On the bright side…we did have a great time in Xian and Adam and Andrew were able to pack and see the teachers this morning.

It was a great trip, despite our little incident.

Last Saturday (or Friday for some) we went to a Chinese family's house for a 'homestay'. Some students stayed overnight, while others stayed just for the day. I decided to stay for the day. On Thursday night our teacher sent out a spread sheet with all the homestay information – names of the family, how to get there, etc. I noticed that in my column for directions, it was about 3-4x longer than any other student, and included a couple of bus changes. After two phone calls, I was pretty confident I knew how to get there, but at the last minute they decided to have a teacher go with me.

After a fairly late and fun Friday night, I woke up at 8:30 to go meet my teacher at the bus stop. The bus was crowded, hot, and the trip took about a half an hour. When I reached my stop, the family’s son was there to meet me. I was happy to hear that he spoke clear ‘Putonghua (common language)’, because I suspected that his parent would be hard to understand. I am not sure if we have complained about the Shanghai dialect, but it is impossible to understand. In fact, it does not even sound like Chinese. Luckily they speak both dialects in Shanghai (if you ask them), but that does not mean their Putonghua is that clear. Their son calls it “Shanghai-Putonghua”, which is Putonghua with a thick Shanghai accent.

Anyway, after reaching my final stop, I was immediately impressed by the neighborhood and its surrounds. I could tell immediately that the family was very well off. After entering the house, I met the family and took a seat of the couch for a nice little discussion. As I feared, the father was extremely difficult to understand. In addition to speaking numerous words I did not know, he pronounced the ones I did know with his crazy accent.  After about 30 minutes of conversation, he asked me to wash my face and take of my hat before lunch (which of course I did not understand the first time, and felt like an idiot). Lunch made me a little nervous. I was not quite sure how to eat and I was worried that the food would be terrible. Luckily the food was very good. The mother made a Russian soup and there were some other meats and vegetables that were also very good. They were constantly telling me to eat more and not worry about manners. In addition to eating, the father loved to get me to drink with him (I am lucky he did not open another beer, otherwise it would have been a little out of control).

After lunch we drank tea and talked. Our conversation was very interesting. First we talked about places to travel in China and specifically Xian and Shanghai. He drew me numerous maps, which of course I could not understand because I did not know a lot of the characters, and if I did he wrote them in cursive which we cannot read. After our travel talk we discussed law, history, politics, economics, and culture. We talked about law during the different dynasties, as well as the current law as compared to US law (in that, it is moving more towards the US system now that things are more private in China). We talked about Mao vs. Deng, which is one of my favorite topics to discuss with Chinese people. The people who benefited from the reforms tend to like Deng better, and those how were hurt from reforms, or feel the created an unfair society like Mao. It is also really interesting because they pretty much all give the same answers.

In the middle of the conversation we took a break to exchange gifts. I think my gifts were pretty stupid, but I brought a dollar bill and some coins which the kid really liked because he collects coins. He also gave me some books and pictures, but of course, I cannot read the books (yet, anyway).

After the gift exchange we dove back into the serious topics (keep in mind…I am not understanding everything word for word, but I am able to understand the general meaning). At about 4pm the family’s niece and nephew came to meet me and then go to dinner and a play. One of them just finished high school and the other is applying for grad school in Australia. After thanking the family we headed out (just the kids) to dinner and the play. We took the subway to the theater, bought the tickets, and then went to dinner. We stayed at dinner for a really long time because we had about 3 hours to kill before the play actually started. It was actually really fun, though we often had a hard time trying to communicate because they would ask me about things that I simply could not explain using Chinese.

The play we went to see is called Love Letter (Qing Shu). The play was very interesting. There were some parts of the play I could understand really well, and other parts I could not understand at all. Overall I felt like it was a good experience because it was entertaining and I picked up some new words.

After the play we jumped on the subway heading for home. They were going to take me most of the way, but the line to the school was already closed (subways close pretty early here), so the took me to the bus stop and gave me directions. If I were on my own, I would have just taken a cab, but they went through so much trouble to find the right line, and walked me all the way to the bus, so I felt like it was the best thing to do.

I was on the bus for about 10 minutes when all of the sudden the bus broke down. After waiting for a while for the bus driver to fix the bus, I decided it was time to take a cab. I got back to the campus at about 10:30 or so, hung out with some people, and then went to bed.
 

I am not sure how many more entries we are going to have. On Thursday we have a final, and on Saturday we leave for Xian. Still, keep checking for updates.

 
I am tempted to write about culture rage some more, but I feel that it would just be excessive. Instead of going into details, I will just add a short list of culture rage examples:

1. Vinegar (well…food in general)
2. Pollution
3. Smells
4. Driving and honking the horn
5. Going to see ‘old’ temples in buildings and finding out that they are only about 5-10 years old
6. Tourist traps – this one deserved a little more explanation…

We all cannot stand it  when our professors hire tour guides. Here's why:

 When you get a tour guide, you get a bus that is affiliated with that company. The bus driver takes you to a parking lot that is filled with other buses from other tour groups, which means it is just crowed and annoying. Because there are so many tour groups in the area, all the merchants come out and try to sell post cards and watches. After we park, we walk to a tourist designated area (for example, at the great wall there were countless people…as I mentioned we saw another group of UVa Ed. school kids). Furthermore, because there are so many people, they are constantly renovating, which make the old buildings look brand new (as mentioned before). After the tour, they take us to a ‘tourist restaurant’, which serves every group the same dish. Every restaurant says that they have a special “taste” (“Sichuan Taste” or “Beijing Taste”), but in reality, the food tastes the same. Not only is the taste not unique, it is also mediocre at best. Not only do we have to eat this food, we have to do so at the worst times. One day in Beijing we ate lunch at 2 and dinner at 5, all because we had to fit the tour guide’s schedule. The worst part of it all is that they see us as “money bags with teeth” (as Joe would say). Every restaurant has a small store that opens up just as we are getting ready to leave. The stores are filled with small junk that is identical to every other place in China. So… if you go to China, travel on your own!

Anyway, that is enough for now…

For the past couple of weeks we have been trying to figure out how to get a Visa extension. We have gone to our professors and to the person that is in charge of exchange programs countless times, but were still unable to get clear instructions about what to do. Finally we figured out that we had to go to the Visa renewal building in Pudong.

After a 30 min or so subway ride, we arrived in Pudong. We were all amazing by the development in that area. The buildings were modern and everything was neat and clean (for my Colorado friends, picture the tech center, only much nicer and bigger). From the subway station we had to walk a few blocks to get to the Visa building. Inside this modern government building, we waited in a long line to get our visas renewed, only to get to the counter and realize we did not have the proper information. Some how we forgot to go to the hotel, get a form, take it to the police station, and then bring it to the visa renewal center. Anyway, it was a real big pain and it wasted most of the Friday, but at least we were able to see that part of the city. Long story short, we were finally able to get our visas renewed from ECNU after signing a release wavier.

On Saturday we went to Zhujiajiao, which is a small city just outside of Shanghai (about an hour bus ride). Since a lot of people have been complaining that we do not have enough free time, this trip was only a half day. In Zhujiajiao we had yet another tour guide, who took us around to look at Ming and Qing Dynasty buildings and houses. Some of it was interesting – for example, the houses have not been changed since the Qing – but some of it was not so interesting, such as the post office. After walking around for a bit, we took a little boat ride down the famous river in that town (forgot the name). After our short tour we went to lunch and then headed home. For the rest of the weekend we just hung out and got some work done. There is one other thing worth mentioning – on Saturday night we went to a hot pot restaurant which was actually pretty good (and by pretty good I mean one of the only Chinese restaurants we may actually go back to.

This week’s lessons are not as interesting as last week, but we have still had some pretty interesting conversations. Yesterday we talked about the difference between Taiwan and China in terms of the language. The focus of our lesson was on the different words for spouses. For example, in the Mainland they use the same word for both husband and wife “ai ren”, but in Taiwan they use Mr. and Mrs. The real discussion was not about the difference in language, but whether we thing the female ought to take on the name of the male, or if we think one word for both is more fair. Of course, some people think that it is not fair that the woman should take on the man’s last name, but I am not going to go into details on that issue.

During my discussion section we talked about Taiwan and China, North and South Korea, and the US during the Civil War. The topic of Taiwan and China is very interesting, and can also be a little awkward. The conversation about Korea was very interesting because I was able to talk about the topic, and then as the Koreans in the class what they thought about the situation. In addition to asking them whether they would like Korea to be one, we also asked them about economic development and why South Korea has done so well. As far as the US is concerned, we talked about the Civil War, and also what would happen if a state wanted to become independent. In this case the example of Hawaii was brought up. From there we talked about the economic and political implications of native Hawaiians, if in fact that were and independent country (highly unlikely, but good practice).

In my afternoon section we continued the discussion of Taiwain, but since my one-on-one teacher was in the class, she had already heard a lot of what I had to say. So, we decided to talk about Tibet and other regions in China that want to be independent. We talked about why China wants Tibet, and why other people around the world want to “Free Tibet”. The best part of the conversation was when she said “ke shi, tamen shi women de”. Translation: but they are ours. She knew right away that this was a terrible way of saying it, but it was still really funny. The arguments they make are understandable “If Tibet was not part of China, they would not have any money”…you can do what you want with that. It can be frustrating discussing these issues because, in my case, I have a lot to say but it is so hard to do it using Chinese (obviously).

Today the topic was on divorce rates. Side note: the grammar is starting to get a little more difficult, but apparently it is more commonly used. Anyway, in the discussion section we talked about why the divorce rates are so high in both the US and in China. Some of the questions were: is it a moral problem? Is it an economic problem? Do TV shows in the US influence Chinese marriages? Why are their more extra-marital marriages? Why do young people get married? What impact does divorce have on young kids? What would cause a couple to get divorced? Etc…..

Random note: our Chinese hurting our English. We have all replace and “L” with and “R” for example, “Engrish”. Also, we are unable to describe things in great detail, because we seem to be confined to our Chinese vocabulary. For example: “this dorm is both comfortable and convenient”. Our friend Andrew said that in Beijing, and I can almost guarantee you could find that exact same line in the textbook.

- Taylor

Aman again-

Before coming to China, we had a few orientation sessions at UVa to try and acclimate us a little bit before actually coming here. One of the funnier bits of advice they gave us pertained to culture shock – they gave us this piece of paper which had a diagram which looked like a roller coaster, which supposedly described our emotional trajectory after coming to a foreign country, especially how we would experience and deal with culture shock. As far as I have seen, not many of us have had the predicted “Oh my God I can’t deal with this place it’s not America I just want to go home I miss my mom I miss my dad I miss my dog Chinese people scare me” moment. Culture shock, has, to date, not been a problem. What we have experienced, however, can more accurately be termed “culture rage.”

culture rage (kŭl·chər rāj) – n.  A feeling of epic anger directed towards a society and its habits, borne of frustration with inefficiency, stubbornness, or a willful neglect of logical thought on the part of your hosts.  Examples follow:

Chopsticks. Why? Jerry Seinfeld says it best: “They're hanging in there with the chopsticks. Because, if you think about it, you know, they've seen the fork... by now. I'm sure they've seen the spoon, they're going, ‘Yeah, yeah, they're OK... We're going to stay with the sticks.’ I mean, I don't know how they've missed it: thousands of years ago, Chinese farmer gets up, has his breakfast with the chopsticks, goes out and works all day in the field with a shovel... Hello?... Shovel! Not going out there ploughing 40 acres with a couple of pool cues.” Thank you, Jerry. I have frequently asked the Chinese about this habit, which is absurdly inefficient and messy, speaking from personal experience. You can’t cut things, you can’t stab things, so they fall out of your chopsticks. The response I get – “Well, we think using a fork and knife is hard.” Of COURSE you do. I did too, the first two or three times I tried it when I was like 5 years old and started serving myself food. It’s an acquired skill. I’ve gotten good with chopsticks after a month of using them, and there really is no comparison. You can’t compare a long, thin stick to a steel tool made specifically for dealing with food. But, hell, the Chinese are sticking by their chopsticks.

Table manners. These are partially really funny and partially really cruel. One of our lessons a few weeks ago was about Chinese table manners, so during our one-on-one class a teacher asked me, “Ok, if I came to America, what would I need to know about how table manners are different?” I thought for a second, then told her – “If you want something, you’re going to have to tell somebody you want it – if you say you don’t want something, people are going to think you don’t want it and therefore not give it to you.” Seems like a simple concept, but in China, you’re always supposed to say you don’t want anything, under the assumption that it will be offered to you multiple times and in the end given to you. I have this hilarious mental image of a Chinese guest walking into an American household really thirsty:

American host: “Would you like anything to drink?”
Chinese guest: “Absolutely not”
American host: “Are you sure?”
Chinese guest: “Absolutely.”
American host: “Ok, if you’re sure…”
Chinese guest: “Definitely don’t want anything to drink.”
American host: “Ok.”
Chinese guest:  “…but…but… we weren’t done here! I actually do want something! Sorry, I was lying!”

Also, I told her that often in America it’s polite to at least offer to help clean up or do the dishes when you go over somewhere, and she was shocked. In China, the whole inviting someone over to dinner just has this intricate script which must be followed whereby the host kowtows to every whim of a guest while telling the guest how bad a job they are doing of being a host, while the host continuously “begrudgingly” accepts. It’s very complex – I am quite worried that I’m going to mess it up when we go for our home stay at the end of the program. The last bit that she told me was that at the dinner table, children are expected to just sit there quietly at all times. On the face of it this may not sound that weird, but if you think back to your childhood, even at really formal dinners there was often like a kids’ table or something, and you didn’t have to sit at the dinner table the whole time, and you would get engaged by adults in conversation because they feel guilty. Not so in China. In China, you come, sit, stay, and shut up, until you’re grown up. How humane!

Bureaucracy. Oh, my, GOD. If there’s one thing that the Chinese can’t seem to get their head around, it’s the concept that less is more when it comes to paperwork. Anytime you ask a Chinese worker or cashier to do something, make sure you have the time to actually follow it through. Especially if you’re a foreigner – anytime you ask a stranger something, it is insufficient for them to just answer you, they freak out and get four of their friends to come help them answer a simple question, because the thought of interacting with strange foreign people alone is terrifying. The worst part is, the bureaucracy isn’t some construct of the CCP. There is literally a strong bureaucratic mentality totally ingrained into the heads of the Chinese, that they just can’t seem to break. If you make a plan, you stick to it without changing anything, because you made a plan, and plans are meant to be followed, regardless of the situation. A great example – in Beijing, we were on our tour bus just getting back from a long day of touristy toolishness, and we get stopped at the gate to the campus of the university we’re staying it. All of a sudden, the same guards who let the tour bus in the day before now don’t want to let the bus on campus because it’s too big. So our tour guide and teachers get off the bus and literally argue with the guards for like 10 minutes. The guards do their thing, consult with each other, make phone calls to their superiors to see if they can let the bus through. No go. The thing is, the dorm that we were staying in was literally about 300 feet from where that bus was standing. Walk inside the gate, turn right, walk for about a minute, and wham! You’ve arrived at our dorm. However, the plan was, the bus would drive us up to the door, so we’re sticking to it.

Another example – at one of the cafeterias on campus you basically walk down this big counter of food and point to what you want, and a server serves you. But, of course, different dishes cost different amounts, so you can’t just pay a sum then go get a bunch of food, you have to pay for each dish individually. Ok, fine. But wait, you can’t just pay for each dish individually, you have to pay for each dish using a little ticket that you bought at front counter. But wait, not only that, but your tickets have a value – you can buy, for example, a 4 RMB ticket, or a 6 RMB ticket, or 1 RMB tickets. As a result, when you go to pay for a dish, you get change… IN MORE LITTLE TICKETS. Look, YOU ALREADY HAVE LITTLE PIECES OF PAPER THAT HAVE INTRINSIC MONETARY VALUE. WE CALL IT CASH. WHY AM I GIVING YOU MY PIECES OF PAPER WITH MONETARY VALUE IN EXCHANGE FOR SMALLER PIECES OF PAPER WITH MONETARY VALUE IN ORDER TO BUY FOOD? WHY CAN’T I JUST GIVE YOU CASH?!?! Nope, gotta jump through some hoops first. There are countless other examples of this ridiculousness, which would make this post into a book, while it is already getting too long. So now we have this great phrase that we’ve started using when things are taking too long. For example, at a restaurant we were waiting for our food to come, and someone commented that it was taking a long time. The response: “Look, they’ve got to do the paperwork.” Anytime something is taking a long time, “they’ve got to do the paperwork.”

The sleeper train. Ok, in all honesty, I had a great time on our sleeper train to and from Beijing, except for one little thing. The way the train is set up, you have these little cubicles which hold 6 people each, in two bunks of three beds each. On the way to Beijing, I was on the top bunk, right under the ceiling. At 10:30 at night, they hit the lights and turn off the music so people can go to sleep. On the way to Beijing we didn’t have personal lights, so once the lights were out it was pretty much bed time. Ok it’s kind of annoying that they are trying to control when I go to sleep, but fine, I’ll deal. I go to sleep. The next morning, I get a rude awakening. RIGHT above my head, Chinese music just starts BLARING. On the Chinese train, they don’t do “background music.” They turn that sucker up so that it’s like you’re actively listening to the radio – it’s LOUD. That’s problem #1. Problem #2: I roll over and ask Joe what time it is – the answer, “Eh, it’s seven.” WHAT? YOU BLARE MUSIC IN MY FACE AT SEVEN IN THE MORNING? WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE? JUST LET ME SLEEP FOR GODS SAKE, YOU DON’T HAVE TO CONTROL MY EVERY BREATH! I was extremely grumpy as a result of this experience, and my culture rage nearly exploded 7 blood vessels.

Chinese medicine. Along with the bureaucracy, probably the most frustrating culture rage experience I have had, mostly because of how stubborn the Chinese are about this topic. The Chinese are very adamant about the virtues of their ways of treating patients with a variety of conditions. The most reliable mainstay of Chinese medicine is re shui (hot water). Chinese tap water isn’t good to drink, so it has to be boiled before consumption. Additionally, mineral water is relatively expensive, and often considered an unnecessary luxury in many developing countries, so Chinese people don’t drink it. That’s all fine. However, the Chinese also seem to think that drinking really hot water has remarkable medical properties as well. If you’re getting sick, drink re shui. If you’re eating a meal, drink re shui. When I had a fever a few weeks ago, I kid you not, one of our Chinese teachers told me to drink hot water. Let’s think about this for a second. I’m running a fever, i.e. my body is above its normal temperature. Now, the advice you’re giving me, is to drink water that is even hotter than my body’s already abnormally high temperature. Doesn’t this seem just a little counterintuitive? Wouldn’t I not want to consume a substance that will further increase the temperature of my body? Ok… fine. I’ll bite. Tell my why I should drink hot water when I have a fever. Why, because if you drink hot water, your body will get hotter, then sweat, and then when you sweat, your body will cool down. 

…Of COURSE! Why didn’t I see that earlier? Why go directly from having a fever to undertaking activities that will lower my body temperature when I can apply the Chinese bureaucratic mentality and take the scenic route, which involves me heating up my body in order to get it to cool down at a later time? I’m not making this up. Apart from the obvious aforementioned benefits of drinking hot water when I have a fever, it also helps to keep the yin and the yang in balance, as well as balance out the elements of the body, you know, water, fire, wood, metal and earth. Right, I forgot about the abstract spiritual workings of my flu. What was Western medicine thinking when it stopped using the Humors for diagnosis 200 years ago? After all this I made jokes about Chinese doctors bleeding me… until I realized that they actually would bleed me, if I had a stroke. No joke. They still bleed people.

Somehow, these things sound not so ridiculous to Chinese people. One of our teachers got defensive and retorted, “Chinese medicine has been around for 5,000 years, why are you questioning it?” You know what else people were doing 5,000 years ago? Wandering the earth in a cold climate hunting migratory animals with spears (or “large, sharpened chopsticks”) and communicating with grunts. Somehow it’s ok to progress from that point based on technological advancement and scientific progress when it comes to building massive skyscrapers downtown, but the hot water flu medication and the leeches, they stay.

And don't even get me started on the language.

--Aman