Observations in China part 2

Being a white American girl in China for six weeks, I've noticed quite a bit of interesting phenomenons regarding race in China. First of all, as Americans, we attract crowds of people simply because we look different. However, I've noticed that the way the Chinese treat caucasian Americans, African Americans, and Chinese Americans varies extremely. Everywhere we go it seems that Chinese people are extremely intrigued by the African Americans in our group. They ask to take pictures with them, touch their skin (sorry Julius), and ask questions that we consider a product of ignorant stereotypes portrayed through the media. Most of the Chinese we met in Beijing, for example, had never seen a person with black skin before and thus either swarmed around our group very excitedly or stared shyly from afar. However, I know much more about Chinese perceptions of white people because of first-hand experience. I know that in China, it is a rare occurrance to see a white person, but it does happen from time to time due to tourism and whatnot. So, I am not so much a foreign spectacle as some people of other races may feel, but moreso someone that the Chinese attempt to imitate in some way. That sounds really strange, but for example, the Chinese are obsessed with keeping their skin as light as possible. Everywhere you go, you will see women with umbrellas to shield themselves even from the dimmest of sunlight. Soon after I first met Sally, we went out for a walk and she instantly pulled out her umbrella and asked me why I didn't have one. I explained that I didn't need one, and her response was that I would ruin my beautiful white skin if I exposed it to the sunlight. She kept saying that if I became tan (which I have over the course of the last four weeks), it would be a shame. I've noticed also that in China, there is a huge market for "whitening cosmetics" (something I've never seen in the states, but supposedly makes your skin lighter over time as self-tanner might make you darker over time). Sally uses these cosmetics and I've noticed that she is indeed very pale....not so much white, but just kind of sickly looking at times. I don't personally understand why the Chinese go to so much trouble to make their skin a color that it just naturally isn't.

Also, being an American teenaged girl, I feel that my host family has the tendency to compare me to their daughter (who is a year older than me and entering college next year). Their first impression of American teens (as portrayed by the media, once again...and I suppose does hold true on some level) is that Americans are on the whole stupid and lazy. When I entered Sally's home and I talked to her parents a bit about my school and my ambitions, that stereotype kind of got thrown out the window. All of a sudden, Sally's parents began to make comments to their daughter about how I am an American but I am more interested in Chinese culture than she may be, how I have only been taking Chinese for 3 years (versus her 9 years of English) and how my language skills are very good, how I test well and may attend a good university while her options may be somewhat limited, and even little other things concerning her image (her parents are very harsh when talking to her about her weight, and our body types are compared often). They even offered me her room if I would ever consider attending university here in Shanghai.

However, Sally and I are from vastly different worlds and though we are similar because we are close in age, there is little room for comparison. Living in Shanghai has definitely been a shocking experience. Before arriving here, I believed everything would be modern (even moreso than Chicago, which I have come to appreciate so much more, by the way) and that living conditions would be much better than in the states. I was SO wrong. It isn't that Shanghai isn't a nice city....its just that only one small part of the city fits my former expectations. On the whole, Shanghai is lacking in terms of providing what we may consider a basic standard of living for its people. There is tons of construction, so it seems like most of the city is in ruin. The construction I do see isn't like construction back home. It's mostly done by migrant workers, demolishing and re-building slowly by hand. The high rises in this part of town seem very old and run-down from the exterior. I have no idea what they are like inside, though I can testify to the fact that my homestay home is much nicer inside than it appears from outside (but from the outside it is SUBSTANTIALLY nicer than almost every other residential building I've seen in Shanghai). In terms of outward appearance, it doesn't help that people are forced to hang their clothes to dry outside of their windows due to the high cost of electricity and the inability to use automatic washers and dryers. Though my host family is affluent, they have even given up the luxury of using electric washers and dryers, though they have one of each in their home. All laundry is done by hand and dried throughout the home and on the balcony. Its sad to see that people here cannot afford basic necessities like electricity, and its also interesting to see how this lack of necessities really translates to the overall health of the city. The government here in Shanghai knows this is a problem, and they are seeking to improve the image of their city to a great extent. I see the slogan "Better City, Better Life" plastered all over Shanghai, along with advertisements for the 2010 Expo and even a countdown to its exhibition (some 630 some days away). At the Urban Planning Exhibit, I saw graphics of what they believe will be the new, post-Expo Shanghai. It seems extremely unrealistic. Every building looks like it comes straight from the future and I can't imagine how it is possible to transition from a city that looks so run-down to the most modern city in the world. Its a nice dream to have, I suppose, and I am very interested in seeing how Shanghai changes after 2010.

Lastly, I've noticed the presence of Communism becoming more and more conspicuous the longer I've been here. I think a lot of the observations I've made about the condition of the city itself have come as products of a communist way of life. When I first arrived here, it was almost as if I had forgotten I was in a communist state. It was never discussed and I never witnessed any "signs" of its existance. However, leaving campus and living in someone's home, I've noticed on streets and in public places, various pro-communist party advertisments. It would help if I was able to fully read them to know their content, however. Also, while at dinner the other night (at a Chinese American-style Italian restaurant) my host father asked me about American holidays, and which one was the most important. I said Thanksgiving, and he was somewhat familiar with the holiday. He asked me what American people are usually thankful for, and I replied "family, friends, teachers, etc." and he thought that was very strange. He then said "if I were to give my thanks to anyone, I would give it to the Communist party. Don't you think that is much more respectable?" I just nodded as I ate my Italian-flavored Chinese fish. I never know how to respond to these kind of comments...though I suppose there is no choice in how to respond. I should just be agreeable and be respectful of their way of life here, and understanding the communist mindset here is definitely a huge part of understanding China in general. Also, on a somewhat related note, I am very confused about the Chinese perception of Chairman Mao. He is idolized everywhere. Whenever my roomate and I walk past the Mao statue on campus, she always remarks "such a wonderful man" and keeps walking. However, on our cultural tour of Beijing, our tour guide spoke a little bit about Mao and his Cultural Revolution (the simplified version, and certain details were obviously selectively taken and omitted in order to give glory to Mao). Then, he spoke a bit about the speed at which China is advancing and explained that it only seems like China is rising so quickly in comparison to the conditions of the recent past. He was very critical of the Cultural Revolution...how it seemed to destroy China and impoverish so many of its people. This is a common trend I've noticed the Chinese believe that Mao is a hero of sorts, yet his Cultural Revolution was a great failure and a huge burden on the people of China? This makes no sense to me, and I hope to understand better in the future.

I'll keep posting some more entertaining stories later, but for now this is all the time I have. 13 more days and then I'm coming home...I don't know whether to be sad or happy about that.

So its been awhile since I last updated, and that's because things have been kind of crazy here in China for the last two weeks or so.

I'm not going to dwell on what happened, for those of you who know, but I've been so greatful for having Lizz, Julius, Joe Wat, and Andy Gao here for me. On a very positive note, Beijing was amazing. We took a soft-sleeper train from Shanghai to Beijing. We left around 7:30 pm and arrived around 7:00 am in Beijing. The first thing we did was meet our tour guide Steven and go to Tianmen Square. After that, we walked to the Forbidden City and looked around for hours. We were so tired. After that, we went to see the Hutongs which are old, traditional-style homes in the underdeveloped part of Beijing. They were amazing. There were two-person carriages that took us around, and Joe and I had an awesome driver. We had a pretty good Chinese conversation with him even while he was busy riding the bike. After that, Steven decided we still needed to see even more despite how tired we were, so he took us to the Summer Palace, which is famous for its amazing lake and Confucius' frequent visits. We had a nice dinner and returned to our hotel for the night which was the nicest hotel I've ever seen in my life. The next morning we woke up early and drove to see the Great Wall. We were advised to take the cable car half-way up the mountain so we wouldn't be exhausted for the climb to the top, but several of us decided to climb from ground level to the top of the mountain. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was absolutely amazing. We got really lucky because our first day in Beijing was completely clouded over and the weather was awful. We were told that the only way we would be able to see the scenery from the Great Wall was if we had a HUGE storm the night before to wash away all of the fog. Unbelievably, we had that storm and the view was spectacular. After the Great Wall, we went to see the Olympic Stadium and had a decent dinner. On our last day in Beijing, we visited the Temple of Heaven and went to eat famous Beijing kaoya (roast duck). The duck was one of the best things I've ever eaten. After that, we did a bit of shopping at some famous shopping malls in Beijing...yay bargaining. Then, we were taken back to the train for our overnight ride and arrived back in Shangai the next morning. It was depressing going back to campus and getting ready to be picked up for homestay. I was the most homesick that day than I've been any other day so far. It was the combination of missing my family, being in trouble for almost a week, and the prospect of entering someone else's home that triggered it.

Luckily, homestay has been great for the past two days. The first night, they took me out to a fancy restaurant for dinner. They even purchased a private room, it was great. Then, they took me to a German store called Metro (which is just like Costco in America) to pick out food I might like. They took me to all of the imported food aisles and tried to look for American products. Unfortunately, Hu Chengdi's parents had a little fight in the imported cereal aisle over the best kind of cereal to feed me, haha. Then we went back home, I did a bit of homework, and went to sleep.

Their house is really nice. They are definitely a rich family by Shanghai standards. They have their own car, and a maid and a cook. Both parents are very busy and work demanding jobs, so I only see them around dinner time. They're trying to teach me Shanghaihua (local Shanghai Chinese dialect), so I'm trying to communicate as best as possible. Hu Chengdi's father speaks a little English, so we have some interesting conversations about Chinese-American relations, politics, etc. The mother, however, doesn't speak English at all, so this situation is a great test of my Chinese language skills.

That's about all I have to say for now, hopefully I'll be able to keep up with the blogging over the next two weeks. After that, I'm back to the dorm for one week and then I come HOME! I can't wait, even though I'm having a pretty good time here.

-Olivia

Observations in China part 1

Ok, so I've been basically been giving you a run-down of my days, things I've been up to, etc. but I've never actually spent time talking about my observations and things I've found interesting so far.

Side-saddle biking is a huge phenomenon. Everyone here rides bikes, but on the back of every bike is a square metal slab where another person can sit and drape their legs over the side. We always see women sitting side-saddle on bikes, texting or holding umbrellas, perfectly balanced and not holding on. However, Calvin and Kevin Lee have tried on Chicken's bike to attempt to peddle with someone on side-saddle...they swerved like crazy and almost crashed. Eventually I will ride on the side of a bike in China...I can't have the full China experience otherwise, hahaha.

At home, I often see people with tattoos or clothing that have Chinese characters on them, and many times I wonder if people have any clue what the characters say. The same goes here with English. Very fashionable clothes here often have English words printed on them...sometimes with random words, and other times with hilariously awkward phrases. The funniest one's I've seen so far are "Little Miss Jail Bait" and "Get Booty", though there have been several less memorable ones.

The 28 Chinese roomates who moved into our dorms this past Sunday are quite a bunch of characters. Many of them like to be called by their English names, and several girls have names that we might consider stripper names in the states. "Venus" and "Cherry" are just a few. Some guys have funny names too...take for example "Chicken", one of the funniest kids of all. Aside from having funny names, they're also pretty hilarious (albeit sometimes perverted) kids. They've picked up some English terms like "Oh Shit" and "Off the Chain" and use them often. In return, we've picked up some funny Chinese phrases...like the term for masturbation which is "da feiji". You might only find that funny if you knew Chinese, but literally it means to shoot down airplanes.

When I had my first Chinese class here, I thought it was strange that one of our words to study was "Playboy" (hua hua gong zi), but now its a phrase I hear used commonly in a variety of situations.

We have noticed quite a bit of a cultural difference though in terms of how guys and girls act (both with eachother and seperately). The Chinese boys often talk about porn and other things regarding sex extremely openly...even moreso than guys in America talk. Sometimes I find the way they talk mildly annoying, if not even a little bit offensive. However, talking to my roomate Sally, she couldn't understand what was wrong with how the boys were acting. She said to me, "Boys always talk about girls. They appreciate our beauty." Instead of feeling like they were being degrading towards women, the girls here seem to feel comfortable and embrace it as a kind of compliment.

Also on the same line as male-female relationships, I've also noticed that while conversationally the Chinese seem very open, their actions say different things. For example, a hug between a male and a female is almost a sure sign of a relationship. I've been bombarded with questions about whether or not I'm dating this person or that based on the kind of friendship I have with that person. I've explained how things are typically in America, that male and female friends can be close without anything underlying. They seem to still be a bit skeptical, however.

I'll try to keep posting interesting observations as they come along, until then, bye...I can't wait to see you all when I get home!

So, we've been very busy lately. On Saturday, we went to Nanjing Road (Nanjing Lu in chinese) to go shopping. But, first we went to the Shanghai Museum (Shanghai Bo Wu Guan)and saw many exhibits of Chinese culture and art. Then we walked around a bit in the People's Square (Renmin Guangchang) and went to the Park Hotel for lunch. Supposedly, it used to be the best hotel in all of Shanghai...I wonder what's changed. Lunch was very nice, and then we went to the Bund (Waitan) where the river is and all of the modern architecture that is characteristic of Shanghai is. After the Bund, we walked with Luo Laoshi to Nanjing Lu to do some shopping. At first we stayed on the main road and went into some of the shops we were familiar with like French Connection, Levi's, and Puma, but things were really expensive. Then, while we were walking, we spotted a back alley (with Lizz's help) and Julius, Calvin, Lizz, and I stood awkwardly in front of it in the middle of the busy street looking down the alley. Luo Laoshi asked us what we were doing, and if we could decide where we wanted to go. Pretending we didn't know what was in the back, we asked if we might just walk and look. Reluctantly he agreed and we walked down the back alley where there were many random people sitting around looking at us, making food in these very strange conditions. Then, we stumbled upon some stores that sold the standard pirated movies, knockoff bags, watches, and shoes. We walked up the stairs and Lizz began to bargain for some DVDs. At first I was surprised at how assertive she was, but eventually I learned to bargain well.

Throughout the day, we went into various back alley stores, wandering down wet and dank passages, around corners, and into "secret rooms" where the best of knockoffs were kept. We bargained for hours, and eventually I bought a few things at my price (though I guess I was sort of ripped off on my new bag...it was 260 kuai but I really liked it). Bargaining is my new favorite activity.

On Sunday, I got my roomate. She showed up around 2 in the afternoon and it was really awkward at first. Lizz was called into the lobby to meet her roomate first, so Calvin and I came with her and waited in the lobby. Once it got crowded, the two of us sat outside and waited. Our roomates seemed to come very late, and "Sally" (Hu Cheng Di) came with her mother in a cab and pulled up right in front of me on the stairs. They seemed to look at me very funny, and Sally seemed a bit nervous. She walked into the building and Wu Laoshi said "Olivia, she is your roomate." So, we had our awkward introduction and went to an informational meeting with her mother. Then, her friend "Tracy" (Bonita's roomate) came with us and we walked around campus. The two girls are basically inseperable and even now they are sitting in my room talking...after curfew and room checks, nonetheless.

There has been a bit of drama with my roomate and her friend even so far, but actually tonight, things have been better since Sally sent me a very cute e-mail saying she was very happy to be my "room partner" and wants to become best friends. I guess that helps for now, I think even though things have been kind of rocky, this may be manageable. However, I think talking to her in very standard and clear English makes me talk (and even write) in very awkward language.

However, tonight I had some difficulty. I was talking to Julius as we walked to play volleyball about how much I want to come home. It seems like I always think about home, when I will come home, etc. I keep a calendar in my notebook and cross off days and count how many I have left. I keep looking forward to the next day, the next activity, etc. Right now I'm simply looking forward to the weekend, then after that we go to Beijing for the weekend without our roomates...but then when we go back, we have homestay in our roomate's house for two weeks. That will be especially difficult, and I'm not looking forward to that. But then, the last week, I will have freedom alone in my dorm, preparing to come home. I can't wait. Maybe 5 more weeks isn't that long, but it feels like an eternity.

That was a long post for tonight!