Chilling in a City of Spice

This past weekend we went and saw the site of the massive 2008 earthquake in Beichuan, China which killed tens of thousands of people, an unimaginable death toll. Going to the site of the earthquake made it far more than a statistic. I saw collapsed buildings and motorbikes under buildings, perfectly preserved as if it had happened yesterday. I think that it's very interesting that China chose to commemorate the site in that way. Beichuan is primarily made up of the Chang minority group, and residents were all relocated permanently after the earthquake. I'm interested in learning more about China's minority groups, but my general impression is that the minority groups remain fairly segregated in society. For example, I passed by a university especially for minority students today in Chengdu.

The commemorative museum, which we saw after the earthquake site, was that it was full of propaganda. The plaque at the front of the museum made sure to credit the government for saving the people of Beichuan rather than the heroic acts of the peoples themselves.

One thing that I've been thinking about is the stereotype that Chinese people are extremely hard working. I've always believed that hard work is an inherent part of Chinese culture and that college students must be really stressed out here, probably because of my hard-working and brilliant Chinese-American friends.   But when I asked a professor here about the main differences that she observed between Sichuan University and the U.S. university where she did her master's, she said: “I think that what I noticed is that American students work really hard in college. Probably harder than they do here at Sichuan University.”  I found that really surprising. That isn't to say that I haven't found ridiculously hard working people here. I met a student here who, in order to do a double major, took courses in law (his second major) on the weekends.   In China high school seems to be more stressful than college as well, since preparation for the Gaokao (college entrance exam) is so intense.   And of course in any country, there will be people who work hard and people who aren't.   So I think that's my conclusion, is that I should quit making generalizations.

I'm also in a famously “chill” city. It's like, the California of China or something. Around mid-day, everyone breaks and takes a nap, either going home or sleeping at the nearest convenient location. Even bankers take such “siestas”... a friend told me that everyone goes to their office after lunch and naps on the couch! (American financial sector: please take note.) I've seen people napping in Renmin gongyuan ("People's park"), on parked motorbikes (!), in their cars, and in restaurants. We also have a siesta built into our class schedule, since we have a loong 2.5 hour break between morning and afternoon classes.

Local Chengduren (Chengdu residents) like to say that people prioritize happiness over ambition here. There are parks with teahouses in them, where one can sit for hours playing mahjong. Mahjong, teahouses, and food. The emphasis on food (see blog post 2) is great. Not only is the food delicious, but people take time to eat it too, rather than grabbing food on the go. My latest obsession is something called “mao cai,” which is a dish where you can choose your own assortment of tofu, vegetables, and meat, and then they cook it up for you in a really spicy soup.

This weekend I'm off to an archeological museum, an opening ceremony for the international students, and the panda reserve! I can't believe that somehow between chatting with my awesome Chinese friends and eating food, I'm already more than halfway done with my program...    

Mini-Adventures

I done anything crazy lately, but I'll write about some of my recent mini-adventures.

My roommate and I have been going running in the morning, and we pass many senior citizens doing tai chi. It's not that far off from the “exercise gymnastics” on the plane ride that I described because everyone is exercising exactly in unison. In fact when we pass them in the morning, around the same time each day, they're always on the same knee exercise. I've yet to join them, but I need to. Apparently we're learning some tai chi in kung fu class next week also. (Kung fu is coming along well, you better watch out for my power moves...)

This weekend, some friends and I went to the global center, a hugeeeee mall in Chengdu. It's the second largest building in the world by floor space, second to a terminal in Dubai's airport. (Airports shouldn't count, seriously.) So we get to this massive building, and it feels very American, except when it doesn't. There's an ice skating rink, an indoor water park, a hotel, a movie theater, restaurants, and of course, tons and tons of stores. And lots of foreign stores, too. The first store that I saw was H&M, which had comparable American prices. The mall was very pricey overall for China, and the people walking around were definitely well off. High fashion in Asia is really different and amusing to me. As opposed to the simple, black and white chic that American young women tend to wear, I see fashionistas here wearing animal print pants, floral and chiffon dresses, patterned hair bows, and most noticeably, super high heels. I don't understand how people can walk, let alone ride a motorbike in heels that high.

We also had a field trip to an organic farm nearby.  Many of our afternoon "culture" lectures have focused on the environment: agriculture, organic farming, and waste management. More than I've ever learned about the environment in America, actually. I can tell the environment is such a pressing concern for China from a political and economic perspective. Not only are cities polluted (the sky is not blue, and it's much better than Shanghai or Beijing), but China also is facing a natural gas crisis. I hope that it doesn't take severe air pollution (due to pollution a huge number of Chinese babies are born with disabilities) and natural gas depletion to get Americans to start talking about the environmental crisis.

Another observation is about disabilities of any kind. It seems like living in China with any sort of illness or disability is really really difficult. There's a gate here called xiao bei men (“little north gate”), which literally has a two foot wide opening. (In order to deter motorbikes from entering, I guess.) But it also would definitely deter obese people (who apparently don't exist in China...). Not only that, but as far as I can tell most places don't have wheelchair accessible entrances. And finally, I know someone with Celiac's disease, and she's had the hardest time communicating that she can't eat gluten, even after looking up the Chinese word.

While my political beliefs haven't become radically left since being here, I did just attend a fascinating lecture on family planning in China which may have changed the way that I view the one child policy. Our professor was very open and talked about many of the pitfalls of the policy since its implementing, including coerced abortion, infanticide, child brides, abandoned children, and undocumented children who can never work, get married, or do anything without an ID. (I also learned that in several more rural provinces in China *today*, there are 133 males born for every 100 females...) So while I still think that the one child policy was hugely problematic (and its revised version still is), I don't oppose it for the same reasons I did before. I used to think to myself: what an infringement of people's personal rights to tell someone how many children to have. Now I think that given the system of work communes at the time, the policy wasn't any more intrusive than anything else. Given that people had production quotas, meal quotas, and everything-you-can-think-of quotas... I don't know.

Education

This past Saturday was the day of the Gaokao exam, the Chinese college entrance exam which, from what I understand, basically determines your educational future. So I thought I'd share my own thoughts on what I've learned from being on a college campus here.

I've been eating more at the student dining hall and trying to strike up conversations with Chinese students. One thing that's struck me since getting here is how pre-professional the majors here feel. Last weekend on our trip to mount Qingcheng, I asked the tour guide what her major was in college and her answer was simple: tourism. Tourism and history, to be fair, but still. Several of the students who I've met here are English majors, a major which tends to focus on interpreting. Moreover, students only take classes pertaining to their major, and also live and hang out with the other students in their major for the most part. (In fact, the freshmen and sophomore math majors, along with some other majors, live on a different campus 40 minutes away.) And while I haven't actually interacted with enough students to know, I don't feel that there's the same cross-pollination of ideas and random lunchtime conversations about philosophy or religion or the Black Mass that there is at Harvard.

To strike up conversation, I often ask what someone's major is. And then the natural follow-up question for me is: do you like it? And that's where it gets interesting. The main responses I've gotten are:

1. It's okay, but I chose it in high school and am no longer crazy about it
2. It's okay, but I didn't choose my major my older sister chose it for me
3. It's okay, but I didn't choose it the “system” chose it for me

At response #3, I think that the Gaokao admits people to certain majors at different schools, and so this girl chose her major because Sichuan University admitted her for that. So students aren't in love with what they're studying. Of course, not everyone at Harvard loves what they're studying either, and definitely take classes and do extracurriculars with their future careers in mind. And maybe at Harvard since we choose our own majors, we don't admit it if we're not in love with what we're studying. But I still think that the typical liberal arts pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge is less prevalent here.

Not only that, but college is supposed to be the least stressful time in a student's life in China. High school is extremely focused on the Gaokao, and then college is a bit less stressful. Kind of like American high schools I guess, but with the added pressure of everything being based on one test. (And I think my high school was a bit exceptional; I know plenty of kids who breezed through high school.) One professor here concluded that Chinese students don't have enough time during their schooling to reflect on their lives. She feels that students are very motivated to do well in school, to get good jobs, to move to a big city, and then haven't thought about it beyond that. (Again, also true in America.) But I think that this problem is even more extreme here due to the way that the system is laid out.

There is one thing in particular that I love about the Chinese education system: the focus on foreign languages from an early age. Chinese students learn English starting in kindergarden nowadays, and so every student here speaks English. (At varying levels.) One of our guest lecturers remarked that he thinks that cross-cultural exchange among young people is crucial, and that language is the key to culture. If every American spoke Chinese and understood Chinese culture as well as the Chinese here understand American culture and speak English, I think that we would have a much more inclusive and understanding society.   

Cultural tidbits

The second week of being here totally flew by! One thing that's struck me in Chengdu is how friendly everyone is towards foreigners. Everyone wants to talk with us and is willing to help us out as well. A few of us went to the People's Park (Renmin Gongyuan) on Friday, an awesome park in the center of Chengdu. (Next to the enormous statue of Mao in the city center.) At the park, a man was doing calligraphy with a brush dipped in water on the sidewalk. It was kind of like chalk art and very cool. But anyway, the man immediately saw us and wrote “Welcome to America” in Chinese characters. He then proceeded to teach my friend about calligraphy for almost a half hour. I wish we were more welcoming towards Chinese tourists at Harvard. My tendency to vaguely point lost tourists in New York and Cambridge in the right direction is shameful in comparison to the hospitality that we've received. The Chinese students whom I've gotten a chance to interact with have gone out of their way to take us around, show us the best food, and introduce us to KTV (!).

KTV would be reason enough to bring me to China. On Friday I finally got to try it out and see what all the hype is about. Basically, for three dollars (18 kwai) a person, we got a private room with karaoke including English and Chinese songs from 8 pm until as late as we wanted to stay. (One of our Chinese friends booked it on a site that essentially brings people together to buy something like KTV in bulk, which is one of the reasons we got it so cheaply.) The atmosphere of the room was awesome, complete with a strobe light, two karaoke screens, and several microphones. It was awesome. I was also exposed to Chinese music for almost the first time, including a rap artist named MC Hotdog (not kidding). And even the Chinese students knew “My heart will go on” from the Titanic, which had everyone in the room singing/shouting. It was so much fun and if it existed in America, I probably wouldn't do anything else with my life. It's pretty popular here, though apparently more so among high school students than college :P

We also visited Mount Qingcheng yesterday, which is one of the most important centers of Daoism in the world, and also visited the site of an ancient irrigation system. We had another guided tour, except our tour guide didn't tell us much about irrigation or Daoism unfortunately. In fact, the the trip seemed kind of similar to our trip last week to the the Leshan Buddha and Emeishan due to the fact that everything is so touristy. There are the same ski lifts up the mountain, ice cream and cucumbers being sold as you hike up the remaining steps, photos at the temple at the top, and souvenir stands. The main difference was that in this Daoist temple, there was a giant statue of Laozi, the famous Daoist philosopher.

I did learn about the Daoist principle of non-action (“wu wei”) articulated by Laozi. Our tour guide from last week told us this, and then remarked that Americans always seem to have something to do. (Or at least, we think we have something to do.)  I feel like Chengdu is a very laid back city.  People have time to lounge in restaurants and sit at tea houses in the park.  People in Chengdu understand non-action, perhaps.

My Chinese is also slowly but surely improving, but learning a new language definitely has a steep learning curve. Pronunciation and tones are difficult, and so when I try to say something people often don't understand me.   (Also since there's a different dialect spoken here in Sichuan.)   I'm also not a fan of memorizing characters, but it's necessary I suppose, and rewarding when I can recognize a character on a street sign. I want to continue studying it when I get back to school, because I would love to be able to come back to China in the future and actually speak it.  Plus of all the languages in the world, Chinese will probably be more useful to me in the future than, say, Latin.

Buddhist Temples and Other Adventures

I just took my picture with a Tibetan lama!  A few of us went to explore the Tibetan district of Chengdu.  After wandering around for almost an hour trying to find a restaurant recommended to us, we finally found it on a random side street. The food was delicious and a nice contrast to the tofu and green veggies which are starting to get a bit repetitive. We had Tibetan food consisting of momos, potatoes, breaded vegetables, and lots and lots of warm milk tea. We accidentally ordered two jugs of milk tea, and were laughing about what everyone must think about us glutenous Americans. (I may or may not be on a sugar high right now.)

So back to the lama. We were sitting down at this restaurant and we realized that the man at the table over from us was accompanied by two other spiritual leaders, was sitting at the head of table, and was being treated very formally by all in his company. My friend recognized him as a lama and he kept smiling at us: he is one of those people who just makes you happy by looking at them and sensing their happiness. (He was a really adorable lama.) At the end of our meal, someone came up and said that he wanted a picture with us.   

We're basically the most popular people around to take pictures with.  I've decided to start a new Tumblr: pictures of people discreetly or not-so-discreetly taking pictures of me.

This past weekend, we visited the world's largest Buddha at Leshan.  The ear of the Buddha is seven meters tall!   Here's the view from the top of the mountain.

 After getting a look at the Buddha from the top, there was a two hour long line to walk down to the base of the Buddha.  I experienced first-hand that many Chinese people do not respect lines. The entire way people were trying to cut in front of me, and didn't show any shame about it. One woman waited until I moved a tiny bit aside (after elbowing me for a very long time) and then quickly cut through all of us.  I found it pretty ironic that people were being so pushy, given that we were in line to see a Buddhist monument.  (Be nice to all sentient beings?)  We also saw this lovely sign about what not to do in line.   I hope that I didn't "parabolic," because I have no idea what that means.

We also “climbed” Emei mountain, except that by climb I actually mean take busses and ski lifts most of the way up. At the top was a beautiful statue/temple pictured below.  It wasn't at all like trekking an American mountain. For one thing, there were so many other people, restaurants, high quality hotels, and food/jewelry stands along the way that it wasn't exactly natural or peaceful.  (Though I'm not complaining about the good food and hotel.)   It was certainly a fascinating look into Chinese tourism; it's so, well, touristy!    

More later!  I have to go learn the characters for twenty new Chinese words.