beggars

After living near the UVa ‘corner’ last year, I am familiar with passing by beggars on my way to class. It was usually the same one or two guys, whom I would always see later in the day drinking 40s.

I realize that Shanghai, Kunming, Xi’an—or every other city I’ve been to in China—is bigger than Charlottesville, but I was still not quite prepared for beggars in Chinese cities. The most troublesome kind is child beggars. I was first exposed to these beggars outside clubs or bars in Shanghai. Most of the time there would be a mother holding an infant, and then also a small child of about 4 or 5 years old. As soon as we would step toward the taxi-stop, the mother would come up and grab my shoulder; the child would grab my leg. Even after I had closed the door, the mother’s arm was still reaching into the taxi through the window.

I had been warned that these set-ups were all fake and that the children with the mother are usually not even of the same blood. Apparently there are “communities” of beggars in large cities that rotate children and location.

When I arrived in Kunming, I noticed two new “types” of beggars in large volume, though of course in addition to the other “types” I have grown accustomed to seeing (women dressed in “minority”-style clothing, very elderly men and women, and the child beggars). The first is severely crippled individuals—lots of people missing hands or feet, deformed limbs, etc. In fact, in some places around the city I saw healthy, “normal” looking women essentially show-casing what appeared to be their deformed children. One woman even had her “child,” who seemed to be suffering from some sort of enlarged skull, on a leash in front of her.

The second peculiar group of beggars I have encountered in Kunming is one, sometimes two, people sitting on the ground in front of their “story” written out either on a piece of cardboard or in chalk on the sidewalk. The individual(s) is usually staring at his/her feet, allowing people to stop and read the written words. Local Chinese crowd around these types of people, but only to read—I have yet to see money be given to this type of beggar.

I usually walk by as fast as I can, but at the beginning I was intrigued by the large crowds, so I, too, read the “story” of two or three different beggars. One claimed that he was a college graduate that was unable to find work in Kunming and now just wanted to return home. He asked for a specific price—30 kuai—to buy a train ticket to get back to see his parents. Most all of these written pleas ask for a specific amount of money, and I’ve even seen some close to the train station written in English (an area where many foreigners pass through).

At first I thought this was just so humiliating for the beggar—staring at his/her feet, I really felt sorry for the tragedy written out before me. But then I saw a child beggar sitting in front of a piece of cardboard with a “story” written on it. The young girl was probably 5 or 6 years old, and at the time I saw her, she was coloring in a coloring book. Then I realized, this small child probably can’t even write the story in front of her, let alone read it. The large, bold characters were very clearly written, and I definitely did not recognize all of them.

I talked to a taxi cab driver about this child beggar phenomenon once, and he told me that although it really is a pity, he believes they are all fake. Most Chinese youth I have spoken with say it is especially awkward when the beggar is a peer—like that college graduate—however, most still maintain that they should not give beggars money.

I am really not familiar enough with Chinese culture and society to be able to point to any of the social forces that cause such a diverse group of people to exist (and I would probably do a clumsy job guessing at the social forces that cause it in America). So what happens? We all just keep walking.

Friends and ZooMing (as in Zoo York)

So! Yesterday I checked into my spiffy new 8 person room, and was instantly attacked by Chinese-speaking youth (all Chinese except for one Korean exchange student). They were five, I was one, and they were happy I could speak Chinese. Apparently in our room there also used to be a German guy and a French girl, but they both are not nearly as good as me (this is a prime example of Chinese make-you-feel-good-about-yourself. This happens to me on a daily basis when I tell salespeople “我不要！" "I don't want it!" and then the salesperson replies, "你说汉语说得很好！" "You speak Chinese so well!!!" This quick judgement based on three words is obviously a gimmic because it is followed by the price of whatever it is being sold.)

But yes, they were all very nice and four were going in different directions the next day (today), so we all just HAD to say our goodbyes at a bar. We laughed about cultural differences--I voiced my complaints about Chinese peoples' inability to form lines at the train station, they told me that American interferes in other nations' business too much, and we all got tipsy. I now have everyone's QQ number, essentially the equivalent to AIM screenname. I tried to register on QQ today, but I had a hard time reading the instructions... I'm going to have to set aside some more time for that another day.

The afore-mentioned Korean exchange student just arrived yesterday from Beijing, where she is an exchange student in a Master's Program in Architectural History (I just can't seem to stay away from architects). Before starting that program at Tsinghua University (a University I hope to attend in Fall 2008!!), she had only studied one year of Chinese, also in Beijing. She is really amazing to be taking classes and writing a thesis in a foreign language after studying it for only one year. Today she found out that she, like me, will be trapped in Kunming for 10 days: all of the Beijing return train tickets have been sold out until the 20th. [I will refrain from complaining about the train system in China.] However she plans to go to Dali and Lijiang (where I was the past five days) tomorrow, so I guess I'll just hope for new cool roommates tomorrow.

Today she and I walked to the Kunming Zoo, a sad, sad place. I honestly do not remember the specific condition of American zoos, so please--unless you are very familiar with your local zoo, keep in mind that zoos are most likely the same everywhere, and that China is probably not especially unkind to its animals. But anyway, pretty much every animal we saw (monkeys, bears, giraffes, zebras, racoons (are those in American zoos?), flamingos, other assorted colorful birds, pandas, elephants, and lions) were very, very dirty. My friend asked me, "I thought Zebras were supposed to be black and white?" No chance--yellow is all you get. The thing that bothered me the most about this zoo was people feeding the animals. In fact, I might even assume that the zookeepers didn't give the animals food at all, given the way the creatures would scramble for every scrap thrown through the bars. In addition, I saw peakcocks eating out of people's hands: no fear at all.

A difference with American zoos though, (I think anyway,) is that there was an amusement park in the middle of the zoo. Rollercoaster, merry-go-round, unhealthy and overpriced food, you name it. Also there was a lot of just open green space with trees, so people could lay down and play Mah Jong. By the looks of it, people paid the 10 kuai (about $1.15) fee each day to meet their friends in the shade. OH also I forgot to mention about the pandas in Chengdu: you could pay 450 kuai (about $60) to touch the panda (wearing gloves and booties of course). This zoo had a similar set up but we didn't bother reading the sign for the price. haha

I thought I could leave you with some funny pictures I've taken that I myself am still confused about. Hope you enjoy, and have a gooood day

in a public bathroom. yes.

ok i've been attacked by two small children,must run

PANDA PANDA PANDA

I like.

These pictures were taken in Chengdu on August 2nd. Chengdu is home of the Panda Breeding Research center, which is very important to China and its so called 'Panda-diplomacy.' Briefly explained to me as, "We give developed nations pandas. But only developed ones!" This is according to my friend Lin Jing.

Oh, and if you want to see pictures of the 'red pandas' (definitely not as cool or popular, the two most important things ), email me and I can send 'em to ya.

But I am now quite far from Chengdu--I am back in the city of Kunming with all ten toes! Unfortunately I have lost my three friends... we're all headed different ways. Originally I was planning to go to Hong Kong, Macau, and then finally Shanghai, but actually I'm so very tired, and getting into Hong Kong is still trickey (the lonely planet book said something about walking over the border because if you try to ride a bus it's complicated), so I've decided to just hangout here in Kunming for the next week. I'll return to Shanghai midday on the 19th, and then board my plane the next day to return to America!

I am looking forward to more free time to just relax--for the past two and half weeks we've been trying to go to as many places as possible--and hopefully make more posts about our adventures.

hope everyone is well, and an early happy anniversary to my parents !

A Series of - Events..

[originally this post was going to have a bunch of pictures, but the intnet will not let me. 对不起, sorry.]

Today we arrived in 昆明 Kunming, and several ridiculous things happened in a row. I think it's all pretty hilarious:


-Yesterday 9:41am: the gates are opened to unlease the animals (us) to get on the train. After surviving getting through the bottleneck to the train (approximately 1000 people ride this type of train), SURPRISE! we are see that our train survived the Cultural Revolution, but unfortunately air conditioning has still not been installed. :(

-last night around 10pm: I agreed to sleep on the top bunk, thinking it a bonus because the fan (and only source of heat relief) was closest to me. However, I didn't realize that the fan blades were metal. And only the front was covered. Listening to music and moving my feet to the hot beats, I suddenly hear a horrible sound and feel an intense pain on my right foot middle toe. Ouch-- the nail is broken, blood, dirty fan residue, oh dear. Luckily I bought that first aid kit with my mother from Target. No hope of going to the bathroom tonight--the last time I went around 3pm the floor was covered in many, many dirty liquids (it is a squatter of course, right onto the train tracks). Fearing that I might lose my toe but at the same time thinking it's kind of cool, I go to bed.

-8:30 am: we arrive! I can walk! horray. We meet up with our teacher, Tang Laoshi, who plans to travel with us through Yunan province. She just finished her first year of graduate school, so she's pretty young and cool. Luckily we don't have that language pledge now, because it's necessary to speak English around the tricksters who try to get us to purchase their travel plans. We all decide to go to 大理 Dali for the first two days, 丽江 Lijiang for the next two, and then Kunming for the last. This was a surprise to me, but we're with a native who will not buy everything for us, so it will all be OK.

-8:46am: Tang laoshi asks a train station officer where we can find a company to take us to Dali. He pulls out a cell phone and someone soon comes to speak with us. The guy who speaks with us is wearing jeans, T-shirt, and gloshes. Not professional-looking by Western standards at all. He tells us to follow him, assuring us that the bus ticket to Dali is the same price as the train ticket, and we'll even save 4 hours! I'm not sure why exactly we believed him, but we did. Soon we come to a pedestrian underpass that has become flooded with water due to the recent rains. We all have our luggage and I still have a big gash in my big toe, so we're extremely frightened about walking through the black-ish brown water. Luckily bicycle rickshaw owners have heard of this flooded pedestrian underpass and are ready to cart us across. We don't really see any other option, so we sit in the back of the rickshaw and allow the bicyclist to get us to the other side. We still don't really know where we are

-9:00am: now that we've reached the other side of the river of filth, we have to cross a four lane high way. And there is a barrier in between. The bus guy tells us to run quickly across and be careful with luggage-- he'll stand on top of the barrier to help us life it over. What the hell are we doing, seriously.

-9:15 we finally arrive to the bus station, he tells us that the bus will leave in 45 minutes. So we have to get to the nearest hospital ASAP to make sure I won't loose that toe after all. We're told that we can take a taxi--very close very close. after driving for a few minutes, the driver confesses he doesn't know where the place is. He stops to ask a street vendor where it is, when suddenly... THUD. I'm about a foot lower than I used to be--looks like the back right tire fell into a ditch. We step out of the vehicle and take a look... apparently Kunming city doesn't cover its sewage holes. The entire back tire is stuck in the hole. We throw 10 kuai (currency) at the driver and run inside the hospital which is luckily right next door.

-9:17 after paying 1.5 kuai (about 20 cents), the doctor agrees to see me. He sits me down and tell me to put my foot on a wooden stool. The stool has what appears to be dried blood.... He suggests I get a shot to ensure that it won't get infected. In the bottom. I am really afraid, but Tang laoshi says it will be OK. As I'm getting the shot, a little Chinese boy comes to look at me. He can't believe I speak Chinese, and even though the nurses tell him to go away, he keeps on looking. This is the proof that there is no privacy in China.

-10:00 we just make it to board the 4 hour bus to Dali. I was very happy with the sterile shot and bandage they gave me for my foot. It seems like it will all be OK! In fact, the hostel we find is extremely clean - we even have our own bathroom. Phew.


we're about to go out to eat dinner. I'm looking forward to some more ridiculous happeningssssss

Misunderstandings; Culture Shock

Lately I have been faced with some new situations that I can only describe as Culture Shock.

Aside from the bathroom “situation,” I have prided myself thus far on coping with the differences in Chinese and American cultures. I can confidently say that I have, up until Chengdu, not had any experiences were I felt completely confused or frozen to the point where I did not know how to react to my surroundings. But then I met 林静 / Lin Jing.

At UVa, I have a “language partner” named Zhang Ru. She is a college professor from Nanchang, China, who took a year off to conduct research at UVa. Because her English is not that great, we meet once a week to practice speaking English for 30 minutes and Chinese for 30 minutes. We get along really well and both benefit from our weekly meetings. The last time we met back in May, she told me that if I make a stop to Chengdu this summer, I should definitely contact her niece, Lin Jing, who is an undergraduate at a Chengdu college.

I thought this was a great idea because any help traveling would be appreciated. We wrote each other some emails while I was in Shanghai, and in Xi’an we began to talk via cell phone. She enthusiastically agreed to help us three travelers by buying our train ticket from Chengdu to Kunming. (For this we are all extremely grateful because tickets departing from a city can only be bought in that city, and are only sold ten days in advance, often being sold out on that first day. We are so fortunate to know someone in Chengdu who could buy the ticket on the first day it was available.)

Things started to get fishy when she gave Cuisang a phone call while we were aboard the train en route to Chengdu. She said that her uncle would drive his car to pick us up from the train station and take us to the hostel. To me this sounded so inconvenient and truly unnecessary because we had read that the number of taxis in Chengdu –almost- matches Shanghai.

We accepted her kind offer, though, and were gratefully escorted to our hostel, at which point Lin Jing insisted on treating us for dinner. The next morning she paid for our bus tickets to Sanxingdui, in addition to the entrance ticket. When we rode a taxi from place to place, before we even know we were getting out (Lin Jing was in control of these things… we had no idea) she had already paid. And in the afternoon, she had set up an appointment for us to meet with a travel agency for the Jiuzhaigou trip—she scored us a cheap local price (which actually had its negative side effects, which I plan to describe in a later post). Finally, another dinner treated by Lin Jing. And I still wasn’t even completely positive about how to pronounce her name.

So, yeah. Wow! How nice of her, I guess? This stranger who has almost no connection with us whatsoever so readily pays for EVERYTHING, treats us like we are completely helpless and her number one responsibility. We tried to pay for things, or at least reimburse her for the many costs that she bore for us, but she wouldn’t have it. And to make things even more confusing for me, she spoke extremely fast so I was not even sure where or what we were doing, I just new that this stranger was treating us like kings.

You might think this would be great—free stuff, etc. But in reality I felt extremely uncomfortable. This amount of money she has spent on me now (three more meals, four more bus tickets, admittance ticket to Emei Shan, and other small treats that certainly add up) is really unbelievable. And we still barely know each other! I am so confused as to why she feels the need to book everything for us, to escort us around, to pay for meals. I truly do not know what to do about it… I am truly shocked to the point where I can’t even respond.

The best example was during one of our dinners together. The bill came and I quickly whipped out my wallet and cash and told the waitress to run with it. After this happened Lin Jing yelled and seemed to become angry. She insisted I take her money. I wasn’t sure what to do! I remember once in Rhode Island, one of Aunts gave me twenty dollars—just as a gift with no occasion. Because there was no reason for the gift, I told her I couldn’t accept, earning myself a scolding from my father later that night. So what do I do in this situation with Lin Jing? Should I follow the same cultural behavior as in America, and accept the money being offered? Or should I know that in reality she is happy that I paid for this meal, and it is assumed that she will pay for the next?

Cuisang, Peichuan, and I have talked about it a lot, because it makes all three of us uncomfortable, and Cuisang called his mother (who is from Hong Kong) to get her opinion on how to deal with “Chinese Hospitality”. Apparently this is completely normal—if a Chinese person has any sort of connection, however distant, it is his/her responsibility to be the best host possible, by paying and escorting. And the payback? The only thing we can do, according to Cuisang’s mother, is promise Lin Jing that we will host her if she ever comes to America.

But Lin Jing has no plans to come to America. And even if she did have them, that seems so far away for me. But there is no way to get around it. Though we try to pay for as many things as we can (and we are successful, we just tell Lin Jing “you pay next time, you pay next time”), she is definitely paying for more than half of our activities—and there are three of us!

This form of hospitality is something that still has me confused and uncomfortable. Perhaps it exists in America (I often hear of “southern hospitality”), but this really seems to be at a ridiculous level—even more so because we do not know her. And sometimes it interferes with reason—for example, we reached the summit of Emei Shan, and Lin Jing said we shouldn’t eat at the restaurant there because it would be very expensive. Even though I insisted that I would pay, she would not have it. So we ate instant noodles. Her treat. And yes, I am glad that I did not spend the 8 kuai on my dinner, but it wasn’t filling—for any of us.

But this is the way hospitality works, according to my experience with Lin Jing. It is embarrassing for her, according to Cuisang, if we pay for too much. So I am trying my best to always be grateful and not frozen, and I constantly tell her that if she comes to America, I will take her all around Washington, DC.


The second area where I encountered Culture Shock was on the bus ride home from Jiuzhaigou. The ride was 9 hours long, and things got boring quickly, especially because reading is nearly impossible on the windy roads. The entire trip took four days, and for whatever reason up till this last day, we three had never spoken with the young girl sitting in the row in front of me. Now it’s time for a diagram:

The green seats are other passengers, and the black seats are Peichuan and Cuisang. During the last two hours of our return to Chengdu, the mother (red) began feeding questions to the daughter (yellow). This became very awkward, because the daughter would ask me a question, then turn to her mom and report back my answer. So I still am not quite clear what the mother even looks like, yet she knows a lot of information about my life.

Anyway, this is just an awkward detail about the situation. The questions started out harmless (all in Chinese): “How do you like China? How long have you been studying Chinese? What do you do when you don’t understand Chinese? Where do you live in America?” etc. I didn’t have any problem making conversation, though I did think it odd for the questions to be in such a relay.

But then the questions became very uncomfortable: “Do you want to marry a Chinese girl? So how much money did you spend a week in Shanghai? How much money do you spend now? How much money do you spend per week in America? Are you responsible for school tuition? Do you make money on your own? How much money do your parents make? How many rooms are in your house in America?”

Once again, I really did not know what to do in this situation. Things like income and the number of rooms in your house are just not topics that are discussed in America, especially with complete strangers. I am familiar with the stereotype of Americas—that they have lots of money and roll in wealth. And the questions were probably a product of curiosity about this stereotype. So should I answer honestly, and perhaps affirm her stereotype (though I wasn’t sure what would or wouldn’t be affirming that stereotype), or should I give extremely modest answers.

These questions made me so uncomfortable because I am fairly certain that this family would take my answers to be the standard for all American families, and that is really not fair. Also I just thought it was none of their business to know, but I wasn’t sure if I should tell them that flat out, or if that could cause some other bad consequence. Eventually I just started saying “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand your question”—a cheap way out, I know, but I really felt uncomfortable.

Apparently these types of questions are common (once again according to Cuisang). Something I was definitely unprepared for, though. I should probably just loosen up, and realize that people—Chinese, westerners, even myself—will make stereotypes and assumptions from limited information no matter what.

But I’m still not sure how to look at both of these situations… certainly different from any of my previous experiences, hah. This is the true challenge, I think, coping with these differences. We’ll see how I continue to do…

internet

I am writing you all from a hostel in Chengdu. My mattress is on the floor, and there is a cat right next to me. We can't get it to leave our room. Luckily it is the cleanest cat I have seen in China so far. We arrived to this captial city of Sichuan province late last night, and after having a bad experience at the so called "Backpackers heaven" Dragon Town Youth Hostel. To briefly illuminate one of the problems, below is a picture of a typical toilet in China, we call them "squatters" :

[ok, scatch that, the internet will not let me. essentially imagine a hole in the ground.]

Aiming is difficult, and the floor is always wet. Also, toilet paper can not be flushed, so instead all paper is placed in a small trash can. I'm sure you can understand how this might be problematic. But don't worry, each stall is equipped with an ashtray--something apparently more important than toilet paper, which you must bring on your own.

But enough whining! This is quite an experience, to say the least. Tomorrow we will ride a 9 hour bus to Jiuzhaigou, a nature preserve in China. They say this is one of the only places not contaminated by the Pollution Problem of China, but then again there is an airport there so I highly doubt it.

Today we went to a 三星堆 Sanxingdui, an excavation site of one of the world's earliest civilizations, the Shu Civilization. It is really striking how their art (they lived from 4800- 3000 BCE, if I remember correctly) so closely resembled that of Latin America. I wish I could attach pictures, but it looks like the internet won't let me :( Rats.


Well, as tired as I am, describing the Shu civilization without pictures appears to be a large endeavor, so I am going to cut this blog short. Hope everything is well wherever you are! I will write when I'm back in Chengdu.

课结束了！No more classes!

First, some nice signs from assorted locations across China: (This is an earlier post not finished..

I hope you can see the little spittle that is an important part of the No Spitting sign. And if anyone knows what this other sign is supposed to mean, please tell me--I can't recognize the traditional characters, either (we study simplified, which are used in mainland China).

so! on Wednesday I gave my final presentation for the Chinese Society Thru Film Class. Somehow I managed to babble for 20 minutes using a powerpoint in Chinese, discussing the concept of "loosing face" as presented through the modern movie, 《一声叹息》"Sigh." It's really amazing how much we have all progressed--for the last film we viewed on Monday, we didn't even have to use English subtitles (the Chinese subtitles, however, were a necessity). On Thursday was our big CHINA NIGHT Performance, which I hope to post pictures of soon!

Weare about to get on a bus to go to the train station, which will take us to Xi'an (that one place with all the Terracotta warriors!). Then me and two friends depart on the travel adventure! So bear with me--hopefully I will make a post in Xi'an, I truly apologize for posting so infrequently!

SIDI

understandings

So, I realize it has probably been 2 weeks+ that I have not posted--I apologize for that. In that interim the blogger website somehow changed to a Chinese interface, so succesfully making this post will be the true test of my Chinese ability. And if it's in Chinese for you all, hah, I'm so sorry.

Ah! so much has happened recently--we only have six more days of class--four more quizes, three more essays, two more tests! I must admit I am excited for classes to end... at some point staying up until 2am each night and waking up at 8am for 3.5 hours of class got old. But I certainly have improved--my conversational skills are quite far from where they were in May! I just hope I can remember all of the formal vocabulary we have been learning for essay writing, hah.

It's been fun also learning how to slightly alter my meaning/words so that they can be better understood by my Chinese teachers. I'm sure they do it, too. But there is one example that sticks out: I heard that The Go! Team, a band I like from the UK, was coming to Shanghai to perform. I have seen them before in DC and it was a great show, so I decided this would be a great opportunity for some teacher-student bonding. Five of our teachers (grad students) came with me and six other students to see the band play at Absolute House, a space that has began to host indie/alternative music concerts. As we were all waiting for for the band to start and watching the instruments being set up, a teacher asked me (in Chinese of course... that silly language pledge still holds even when we go 15 minutes from campus), "What is that paper being taped on the floor near the microphone?" I told them that it was the set list, and that at the end of concerts fans usually try to grab it off the floor and take it home. They couldn't understand why. After clumsily fooling around with words and grammar trying to explain, I just said, "Because it's lucky!" Then they instantly understood.

Another fun part of that concert was the opening band--it was a local Shanghai band called "羽果", which translates (I think? even the teachers didn't know what was going on) as "Feather Fruit." Anyway, they were like any hard rock band from the 80s--really, really bad. The bass player was wearing black denim jeans that, if you looked hard enough, sparkled. And the main singer wore sun glasses the whole time. And all of the lyrics were in Chinese except for two or three songs' chorus, which were in English. This was my favorite: "You Lied, You Lied, You Lied, You Lied, You Lied," then back to Chinese again. it's really funny, though-- just about every popular song incorporates English lyrics in the chorus. One song's chorus goes as follows: "很 easy 很 easy", which means "very easy very easy". I wish I knew what the rest of the song was talking about... haha

Last Friday we all had our first experience with that very important instrument of friendship-building in China: "卡拉OK" -- Karaoke! It was a teacher's 23rd birthday, so we rented a large room for two hours of embarassment, beer, and Chinese.

The teacher furthest to the right is actually coming to UVA next year to be a "visiting scholar." Her chosen English name is Doris, her given name Diao--Doris Diao, so obviously she's pretty awesome. In fact she is living on my hall next year as she will be the "native speaker" for the Chinese dorm. It should be pretty great, especially because we've already gotten into two heated arguments about Tibet and Taiwan (both in a schoalrly 'explain your viewpoint' kind of way--though she always has the leg up as I have to speak in Chinese...).

Another interesting experience I had was last weekend at my homestay. I lived with a Chinese family from Saturday-Sunday. The father's job was with a small company that helped high school and college students study abroad, and the mother was an Antrhopology Professor who taught courses about Western Culture at a local University. Their daughter, "Peggy" is her English name, is in her last year of high school now, but this past year she was in Flushing (if I remember correctly), Indianna. Below on the left is a picture of her:

On the right is my friend Lidun, who actually met Peggy last year, said that Peggy has become almost completely Americanized now. This was obviously to me on the first day I met her, because she was wearing a lowcut tanktop and a jean miniskirt. I'm only half serious, but I did talk in length with her mom about the affect of her daughter going to America. The mom seemed to take the opinion that it was neither good nor bad, but at the same time she was disappointed when her 17 year old daughter spoke back to some guests at their home last week. Her mother said she thinks it might even be good that her daughter has learned how to question other people's viewpoints, but at the same time it was very embarassing for her as a host to have a daughter speak so unconventionally, according to Chinese standards.

But one thing that I found quite funny was when I said, "I have some pictures of my family, if you'd like to see." We had been told in America to bring just a few pictures, as Chinese families (to make a big generalization here) really value knowing what your parents look like and what your family enviornment is like. Well, it ended up being a three hour affair--after I had shown them the 20 photos I had with me, both the father and then Peggy went through all of their photos on the laptop, pointing out cousins, nephews, sister-in-laws, and everything. I was almost afraid there would be a test at the end. But I really enjoyed it, they were all so proud of each other and happy to be sharing with me.

Time to go now--this weekend I will go to Nanjing with three friends, but I hope to make another post soon. Hope everything is well!

北京这个地方... BEIJING

Two pictures of the 硬卧 "hard sleeper" we took from Shanghai to Beijing (北京) and back. The ride was about 12 hours long, departing around 8pm and arriving 9ish am. There was not even enough space to take a successful picture of the crowded environment, hah. But we had a great time in these tiny six-bed compartments--no door, no privacy, no shame. Goodluck to Mike, who will be spending three years in similar conditions on a submarine !

But yes, last Tuesday through Saturday evening my fellow students and I were in Beijing--seeing the sites with the help of a tour guide. Five days truly wasn't enough, though. And sadly several parts of the city are currently closed for renovations. I was especially disappointed that Chairman Mao's Mausoleum was closed. The story behind that building is pretty hilarious. The Chinese destroyed numerous ancient city walls to build this massive monument devoted to tourism--err, to remembering Mao and his accomplishments. He lays in a glass casket which is raised each day from the frosty depths of the preservation room. My friend saw his body in 2005 and told me that while tourists wait in the approximately one-hour long line to see the Great Helmsman, flowers (plastic) are for sale to be used as a sign of gratitude and remembrance. These flowers must be placed on a cart 30 feet from Mao's casket (the closest tourists can get). Apparently after a certain number of fake flowers have been sacrificed/handed over to that strangely fresh-looking body of Mao, Mausoleum workers will wheel the cart full of flowers back outside to the line, where eagerly waiting tourists will purchase them once again. Oh those Chinese, so practical.

But I suppose I should talk about the things I actually saw myself. Tian'anmen Square, The Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, The Summer Palace, The Ming Tombs, The Temple of Heaven, a Hutong (small alleyway with traditional style architecture of houses--courtyard, etc). And, of course, the Great Wall.

Here is a picture taken in the Forbidden City. As you can see, this building is being renovated, so instead of letting us look at those hideous scaffolds, a screen is placed in front depicting what it will look like eventually. I was actually quite surprised that many of the locations will not be renovated by next summer. [Ok for some reason this type just turned blue and underlined. I wish I knew how blogs worked. Though maybe it doesn't actually look this way for you. eh]


All of the locations were really beautiful. It's just so amazing that these monuments were built three hundred-ish years before Europeans came to America (which our tour guide reminded us of several times). The history of China is so vast and complex... although visits to touristy locations such as all of the above do not promise any sort of deeper understanding, they still are worth seeing for the seer magnitude and ingenuity of Chinese architects. Our tourguide also referred to the below temple, the Hall for the Prayer of Good Harvests, as the symbol of Beijing tourism. She really tried to get us to understand that. This monument constructed during the Ming Dynasty is probably misrepresented and very distorted from the original design, but it is still very important to the Chinese as it creates a source of income for and fascination with Chinese society.








My favorite tourist location we visited was the Great Wall (长城 : literally "long wall"). There are three sections of the Great Wall that are open to tourists in Beijing's vicinity. We all opted to go to the one farthest from the city as we were hoping to escape some of the smog and maybe, just maybe, see the blue sky. Well, we still weren't that successful but the good news was that there were very few other tourists there, so I got a lot of great pictures. Here are some of them:

look at that second picture--you might be able to make out a beach umbrella on the wall. This is where Chinese salesmen/women relentlessly shoved water, beer, postcards, and vacuum packed hot-dogs in my face.


This section was quite high, and really cut through some steep mountains. The hike up there was not easy, and the heat certainly did not help. To make it easier on tourists like me, this section offered a gondola, a chair lift (just like at a ski resort--look at the picture to the left), and even a toboggan ride down from one section. I am uncertain how I feel about these recently constructed add-ons, as they are only there to make this spectacular accomplishment of 3rd century BCE (completed in 221 BCE) more accessible for tourists who think that the other side is Mongolia (a woman asked me that...). I am not doubting that a toboggan ride in, say, California is much different than the toboggan experience in Beijing, China, but I do think it is somewhat peculiar that some historical sites only appear to capture the interest of travelers to a point--and that point is usually very familiar to the tourist.


But then I stop taking myself so seriously, and realize the most important thing is to actually see the Great Wall--by whatever means possible. It really is breathtaking, the hills, the trees, and Grand stone wall that stragely does not feel out of place.

And don't worry, Sunmi, I came back to Shanghai with a slightly heavier bag.

I'll hopefully write again soon. Our second semester (Chinese 302) began on Monday, and it is actually integrated with a different class, Chinese Society Through Film. So tomorrow we will discuss 《洗澡》 "A Bath", a movie I am about to watch in a few minutes. It's really amazing how much I have improved... just earlier I called a travel agency using all Chinese. Here's to hoping I didn't agree to something I'm not aware of...

a few 'tings (oh wait, that was Jamaica)

ah! things have been awesome here, but very busy. Napatra and I went to Suzhou this weekend, I had my final oral exam about 18 hours ago, my final written test in 5 hours, and I'm leaving for Beijing in approximately 15 hours! It's going to be rad--especially about seeing the ridiculous architecture for the Beijing Olympics and going to the Night Market to eat a Scorpion on a Stick !

I wanted to post something here that my roommate, Cuisang (PONG), wrote for our weekly newsletter last week. It describes a trip we all made two weekends ago and is really quite good--I hope you enjoy. It is pasted below with permission, and the picture shows Napatra and I (kind of dark) with the traditional architecture and river in the background:

"XiTang (西塘) is an ancient canal town in Zhejiang province replete with preserved Ming and Qing dynasty-style architecture and gardens. A two-hour bus ride from Hangzhou (杭州), it has been called the "Venice of the East," although this has been said of the other similar canal towns in China in Suzhou（苏州）and elsewhere. Bus trips to more remote ancient towns like Xitang seem to be almost completely monopolized by domestic tour companies, as the drive there is too inconvenient for most individual tourists to make alone. Large signs advertising Xitang started in Hangzhou and continued to appear along the highway to Xitang. The trip along the highway was a glimpse of modern China outside of the big city—large-scale industrial development sites were located alongside hand-tilled farmland.

"Traditional towns and neighborhoods like Xitang that are tagged by the government preservation are heavily advertised for their cultural and historical value. Tour groups come and go and eventually help finance, in the wake of camera clicking, a new lifestyle for those who live in the towns. As a result, what used to be a sleepy, poor fishing and farming town on the outskirts of a large city soon becomes a tourist trap, a place where visitors can take pictures, buy overpriced goods, complain about how touristy the place is, and learn a little about how the town used to be during ancient times. By one measure of the word, this is success—culture has been preserved, the economic well-being of the townspeople has been enriched. On the other hand, this is a big failure—nothing but the façade of buildings and a few cultural relics in display cases has been preserved. Xitang's long-standing lifestyle of poor self-sufficiency has been replaced by opportunistic and also opportunity-giving tourist-dependency. In fact, it is neither a complete success nor a complete failure; it exists as another example of old vs new, government vs people, preservation vs progress; or any other dichotomous view of China. Xitang is full of culture yet lacking in culture, a relic and a model, a success and failure, an allegory yet also reality. "

And now something to perhaps lighten the mood: translation difficulties! Cuisang and I recently came across some tasty 休闲饼干，which roughly translates as "Leisure Biscuit." But the true rough translation exposes itself on the wrapper. The one and only English sentence--that is not even accompanied by a Chinese sentence (apparently having English words is just "cool")--reads as follows:

"Increase into the real object material of original flavor, through dispensing of science, in really ideal good product that enjoy of delicacy."



Happy Father's Day!

Remnants

A massive double decker bus in the "French Concession"--the former area of Shanghai that was under control of France. It is now a major shopping center full of many expensive stores, some of which are Western companies (Caroline - they have a five-story H&M, so quit your job at Dulles and move to Shanghai to work here).

But why pay American/European prices when you can score a knock-off for ~$10 in the street shops? There is apparently a famous street in Shanghai called 七普路 / Qipu Lu (pronounced "chee-pu lu", lu means road). this is a transliteration of "Cheap" and apparently this little street is full of extremely cheap--we're talking $8.50 for Gucci-- goods. Making a stop there is definitely on the to-do list-- anyone need anything??

While I'm on the topic of shopping/shopping centers, take a look at this picture I took inside a modern Shanghai shopping mall:

Remind anyone of an American shopping mall? Very peculiar... the more I go to the wealthier, nicer parts of Shanghai, the more they look American.





Right next door to this very nice shopping center (which was pretty much empty), is the 静安寺 / Jing'an Temple. Below is a picture:







As you can see, the temple is right in the middle Shanghai and can not escape those L'Oreal Eyes. I will refrain from making comparisons with the Great Gatsby. But this temple was extremely interesting to visit because it was actually shut down during the Cultural Revolution, which took place from 1966-1978. (1978 is the year Mao died, though most of the radical culture 'smashing' occurred during the first three years, after which Mao said that the CR was going a bit too far. Nonetheless historians usually give the above date for the Cultural Revolution.)

During this time, the Jing'an Temple was converted into a plastics factory, and it still has not been fully renovated. Take a look at these pictures, one is the back of Jing'an Si, which was free for tourists like myself to walk around/look at, and the other is on the roof of the main hall, a space which can be used for outdoor services:














So as you can see, it looks just like a factory still. At the time of my visit, in the main gathering hall an hour-long chant was in process. It was really beautiful to hear, especially because the only chants I have ever heard are not melodious--this one had a repeating melody.

A second Buddhist location we visited that still holds scars of the CR is a large monastery in Hangzhou. Our class traveled to the tourist city of Hangzhou this past weekend. It was about three hours by bus, south of Shanghai. I forget the Chinese name of the mountain next to the monastery that we visited, but the story is pretty interesting. The Buddhists believe that the mountain flew from the Western Paradise and landed in its current location. Many Buddhist monks and pilgrims travel to this mountain because there are thousands of Buddhas, Arhats, Bodhisattvas, and Heavenly Kings carved into the mountain (if you are interested in the differences between those four categories, send me an email and I'll do my best to use my college education in Virginia to fill you in, hah).

During the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards and other radicals came to this mountain and defaced more than half of the images:
(I decided to show you pictures of myself and my friend Napatra because I don't think I've posted any of myself or friends yet. I hope this doesn't deface the image more than the destruction of the CR, ha !)

But yes as you can see (hopefully), all of the images' faces have been smashed. it is really a pity because it was such a beautiful mountain with very detailed representations of important Buddhist deities.

I am really looking forward to conducting research on this topic in the spring. Why exactly did the Communist Party find ancient relics such as these a threat to the development of the nation? Where were practitioners displaced? And post-Cultural Revolution, how where these sites able to rebound? In the Hangzhou monastery, we viewed a ritual of blessing for a man and woman by Buddhist monks. When was this sort of thing mandated "allowed"?

Time for dinner. until next time.

Modern Chinldren

A picture of three classmates (from left: Frazer Henderson/Hanfei, Rebekah Brooks/Baijia, and Leise Hook/Lidun) and I standing in front of a massive Mao statue in the middle of our campus.

So - the Chinese government has sought out this "Super Shanghai Summer" as a threat and therefore blocked it from viewing in China. Yeah I'm being melodramatic. But for some reason all of my friends here that have a blogspot website (moosedung.blogspot.com for Frazer Henderson's if you're interested... and I forget what Napatra's link is, sry) are UNABLE to view it anymore.

Luckily for you all, though, I can still make posts that you can see in America (or wherever you may be). The blockage also continues on to the comments section. So if you really hate my blog you can totally post nasty comments and I won't know about it. Just delete them all before I return to America on the 21st. Thanks.

This also means, though, that if you want to add something to what I've written, just say hello, tell me you miss me so much, etc, then write me an email! leonelli.stephen@gmail.com. It'd be great to hear from you and I will get back to you as soon as I can!

But yeah! It has been a while because I couldn't figure out how to get this work, but I have been having an extremely interesting time here. Last Thursday we interviewed parents regarding the 高考 gaokao (similar to the America SAT except 42942050 times more intense), I visited the 上海博物馆 Shanghai Museum and 静安寺 Jing'an Temple on Friday, and we went to 杭州 Hangzhou this weekend (a smaller tourist city three-ish hours south from Shanghai).

I hope to write about all of those at some point, but right now I want to talk about something very important to China: 孩子们 Children! I started to notice a bunch of munch-kins wearing a red scarf around their neck. Below is a picture:

These poor, unsuspecting kids still don't know I took their picture. Maybe it's good my website is blocked in China.

So anyway- as you can see the young fellow on the right is not only eating a Popsicle, but also wearing a small red scarf. Eventually I just really needed to know what holiday I hadn't heard about, so I stopped a young girl and asked her in Chinese, "Why are you wearing this read piece of clothing?" She responded. I didn't understand a word she said. So I replied, "Is it a festival?" And she responded, "No it's not." And then I didn't understand another word she said.

So, I've been trying to tell myself that this little 8 year old was speaking the local Shanghainese dialect--which is completely different from the standard (meaning the sounds you hear on the television, what is spoken in Beijing (approximately), etc.) "Putonghua" we study--and that's why I didn't understand her. But I obviously couldn't be satisfied with only knowing that it wasn't a festival, so I asked one of my teachers.

the 红领巾 honglingjin, or "Young Pioneer Scarfs" are worn by children that--as far as my understanding goes from my teacher's explanation in Chinese (sadly she was speaking putonghua, and I'm still not clear on some things)--earn not only outstanding grades in school but also exemplify moral excellence. I am not sure where the standards of morality come from, but my guess is from communist tools like the Little Red Book, which glorifies communist soldier Lei Feng from the revolutionary China period (late 1940s). The schools award these scarfs to children who are "outstanding," and as you can see not everyone wears them.

This is also a tool, according to my teacher, to expose children to the "benefits" of joining the communist party. I was surprised to learn that there are actually several governmental Parties in China, though my teacher said that in reality it is always 共产党 gongchandang--the Chinese Communist Party--versus everyone else, lumped into one group. Reminds me of how our biparty system in America similarly gives nearly no chance to "third-party" groups.


Well there's much more I'd like to say but I had better go to bed. I'll leave you with a picture I took while walking around with some friends the other day. It's something that I've seen three or four times now: uniformed workers getting prepped for the day (this was around 11:30am). This group actually had a little song/chant that they all said together after the boss was done speaking. If you love Star Trek for the uniforms, come to Shanghai for a great time.

Culture!!!

This week began our extracurricular classes. The classes are meant to teach us things about Chinese culture--I signed up for Chinese Cooking, Chinese Painting, and [Chinese] Taichi. The classes are taught by either graduate students here or by locals. Our painting teacher did not speak English, so learning how to paint in complete Chinese was spectacular, let me tell you. And THIS was the product:



I also want you to know that, fortunately, the Teletubbies can be found in different shapes and sizes all over the world, even China:

This is an enormous advertisement my friends and I passed while in search of an antique store yesterday. When we reached the antique store location according to the Lonely Planet book, we found that it had been raised in place of a giant hotel. Who's communist now?



OK I will make another post soon, I have to get back to studying. oh and by the way, please feel free to visit photobucket.com to see pictures posted from the students in the program. the login ID is "UVAshanghai2007" and the password is "lianglaoshi".

晚安 / wan'an (goodnight)

blocks

Man. I'm finding life slightly more challenging here for two main reasons: I don't have a cell phone with a calculator (funny how much I miss that...), and wikipedia is not allowed. I feel less intelligent without these two handy little things, but then again, I shouldn't be calling myself intelligent if I rely on things like wikipedia.

Some other websites that are blocked: myspace (sorry, sis), the BBC news (is this the only news agency that reports news truthfully or something?), and google of course has a massive filter.

There is one aspect of daily life that is NOT as blocked as I would have thought it would be: ADVERTISING. Wow! China is SEXY! There are underwear models everywhere, scantily dressed women, and innuendo galore. Whether it be on the television or on the subway, the advertising industry is basically on the same level as, gasp, America!

It is also interesting to see how often WHITE models are used--it's quite startling to me, actually. Do we in America have many advertisements that have nonwhite models, etc? Perhaps... but it feels funny here. Especially because on the television, they have programs that teach the listener how to speak English. The last one was a post office scenario ("Repeat after me: I want to send an international letter.")


I also wanted to make a comment about the peddlers here in Shanghai. Wow- aggressive. today I went to the bank and got approached by two people outside the bank who said, "Don't go in there, I can give you money." This is in English, actually. But the most funny encounter with a salesperson was at the Bund in downtown Shanghai. This is a very famous place in Shanghai architecturally so there are lots of tourists. So, of course, lots of salespeople. And I guess the things they sell change by month, and this past Saturday they were CRAZY about getting us to buy shoe-slip-ons that had wheels. Of course I had no need for this, but one salesman grabbed my upper arm and shook it. Hard. But in a friendly way somehow. He was wailing, "先生！！” "Sir!!" It was really hilarious. Both he and I were laughing. I unfortunately still let him down and have no roller-slip on shoes to speak of.


This is a picture of me at the Bund. You can see the famous Pearl of the East TV Tower (东方明珠电视塔, Dongfang Mingzhu Dianshi Ta) in the background there. We went to the top of it to gaze over Shanghai. It was like the Washington Monument expect much, much grander.

Blog this

So, I somehow managed to escape the Chinese government and set up this blog. Actually, I don't know why Steven Pong (淬桑 / cuisang), my classmate, future travel buddy, and roommate for the summer, was unable to create one earlier--I had no problem at all. He was probably rapping in Chinese at the time which, believe me, can be quite distracting (the latest little tune was "Do you know the Muffin Man" in Chinese).

But yes! We're totally in 上海 Shanghai, at 华东师范大学 Huadong Shifan Daxue (East China Normal University). And it is great! Even if so humid all my papers are nothing but wrinkles, and we never really know when it's raining or if we just walked through a bad spot. Luckily we're staying in the Foreign Student dorm, which is more like a hotel--we even have maids come each day to make our beds--what a life. I certainly am struck by just how many jobs there are in China... so many employed, uniformed people I feel like a bit overwhelmed. At every entrance to every store, there is someone to greet you with a smile and a nihao (hello). It's wonderful really it's

We started class last week, on Monday the 28th. Shanghai is 12 hours ahead of US East Coast time. (cool difference with America: there are no time zones in China, so the entire nation runs on the same clock--makes figuring out train tickets much easier!) We have class each day from 8:00am - about 11:30am, in addition to a one-on-one session with a teacher for one hour. The teachers are all graduate students at the University, most of which are studying "Teaching Chinese to Foreigners." I am glad they are our age--it's been nice getting to know them, even if it's forced. We study one chapter of a textbook a day, so it's about 55-70 new vocab words to memorize for the daily quiz we have Monday- Thursday, accompanied by an oral exam on Thursdays and written exam on Fridays. Yeah. For eight weeks.

Anyway I hope you enjoy reading this, or any other trite thing that people write at the end of their first post to a travel blog. Write me via email: leonelli.stephen@gmail.com for the fastest response.

Have a spectac day!