Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Various things I’ve noticed about Shanghai and even China in general:

• I do not think Shanghai has squirrels at all – only stray cats and dogs.
• Chinese police will routinely stop drivers at early hours in the morning to check for drunk drivers.
• Shanghai is extremely international – I’ve met people from allll over the world: Australia, Germany, Israel, Korea, France, Morocco, Burundi, Zambia, Singapore, England, Canada, I think you get the point.
• No matter when I get on the metro, I will always be stared at by someone. It has been interesting experiencing life as a minority for once.
• T^T is a smilie that Chinese will use to show that they are crying or upset.
• It is possible to eat dog here – especially in Guangdong providence.
• For the most part, food is ridiculously cheap & so is pretty much everything else besides rent or cars.
• Most restaurants have pictures of the food on their menus which makes it easier to order if you cannot read the characters.
• People openly talk about their bodily issues and don’t typically just say “I have to go to the restroom”.
• They also make more sound effects than I am used to, not only in basic conversations like “oh” and “mmm”, but will “hock/hawk a loogie” or even snot rocket in public quite often. They view it as things that should not be in your system so you might as well get it out when you have it right then.
• Starbucks, KFC, McDonalds, Subway, Carl’s Jr., Pizza Hut, Haggen-Das, Coldstone, and many other Western restaurants all exist here.
• You may see signs that say Merry Christmas up all year. Most Chinese know that it is a Western holiday but do not realize that you only display these things during that season.
• The sense of personal space is much smaller here & people often times push or run into you and do not even stop to say sorry
• The ultimate frisbee league that I started playing on here in Shanghai is so much fun and I am learning an incredible amount. They have many tournaments and I hope to participate in one!



The glass is half full!

It is official: I’ve reached the halfway point. I cannot believe that I’ve lived here in China for 2 months already. The way the program was set up, it places our vacations about 3 or 4 weeks apart. This makes the time go by faster, in my opinion. First was the Hangzhou weekend trip, then the Hong Kong weeklong trip, next our independent trip which I’m going to Malaysia, and finally, after the program is over, my sister will be here!

There are many things in the Chinese culture that I love: one of them being how active lively they are, especially the elderly. They all value their health and try to do activities that will be better for them. This can be in the form of eating or even exercise. Fruit stands are everywhere and are considered more of a dessert, and the elderly can be seen everyday working out either in the park or just wherever there is open space. If I had to choose a place to retire, it might just be China because of this aspect, but only if their health system greatly improves by that time.

This last Sunday, we went to a park just outside of Shanghai to get some fresh air and to exercise. We rented boats and went out on them, but the boat that three other guys and I got on, ended up breaking! We were stranded in the middle of this lake. Luckily, one of the teachers was nearby and could call the workers for us, and they sent us a new boat. But once we got it, we called it a day for boating. Instead, we went and played volleyball. There were two little boys that joined us, and they wanted us to help them get better and teach them how to serve. It was so much fun playing with them and trying to teach them with a mix of some Chinese but a lot of slowed down movements.

When it comes to the younger generations, most of them are using technology in some way, shape or form. They will shop online, play video game, or watch TV shows and movies online. Every time that I take the subway, people are always on their phones playing Bejeweled or some video game otherwise they are watching either a TV show or movie on their phone. I think it is crazy how dependent on technology we are. I mean the first week that we got here, everyone was so upset that we didn’t have Internet or wifi in our room because it was a holiday week for everyone (Chinese New Year). I understand telling your family, friends and loved ones that you are safe, but I feel that we place too much of an emphasis on technology and do not enjoy everything else that the world has to offer.

As for the classroom, Chinese class has been pretty much the same the whole time. I’ve learned around 500 new words thus far and can tell that not only my speaking has improved but so has my listening and comprehension. My teacher has been great with everything and my roommate is always there if I need help on homework or to simply just teach me a new word.
My roommate has also taught me about other things. One of them is simply how to order food online from Pizza Hut so that it is delivered to my room. Ha! Another one of them is dating in China. You have to be 21 in order to get married in China. Also, if you aren’t married by 30, your parents will start to become very worried. For example, every weekend you can see parents with flyers at various parks, especially People’s Square in an attempt to match up their daughter or son with someone!

She has also informed me about the education system here. For example, all through your time in school, they will keep a file on you. Each year your teacher will write comments about you and track your academic progress. This file will be sent to future employers so you have to make sure to not do bad things that could be permanently written within this file; however, you are NEVER to know what the teachers have wrote. She made a really good connection about this to the movie Les Misérables. What she said was that in the movie, Jean Valjean got a second chance. He stole the loaf of bread and was punished, but then he stole the silver and should have gone back to prison again. Instead Myriel said that it was a gift and Jean is able to make a very good life for himself. She said that this would never happen in China. If you mess up once, you will lose face and not be respected in the same way ever again.

Sorry my posts are so long but I tend to do longer posts less often than short ones quite often.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, and Zhuhai

I just returned back from a week of traveling to Guangzhou (广州), Hong Kong (香港), Macau (澳门), and Zhuhai (珠海). Each city was quite the experience! All of them are in the South of China so they use Cantonese to speak, which was interesting to say the least. For those of you who don’t know, Mandarin in most commonly spoken in China, which is what I am learning, but there are still a lot of Cantonese speakers out there. I discovered them last week. (Cantonese is the same characters, just different pronunciations – just like how Shanghainese is.) Though most of them can understand Mandarin, they will reply to you in Cantonese. I had no idea what a lot of them were saying, so I was just glad that most of the week was planned out because I was pretty much helpless. In addition to the speaking, in Macau and Hong Kong, they use traditional characters, meaning the characters are more complex and I am studying simplified so that just made it even more difficult to communicate.

One of the trips was to the biggest sitting Buddha in China during our stay in Hong Kong. This is where I had an encounter with a local Chinese construction man. He was working on the scaffolding, which here in China is always made up of bamboo and some string to tie them together. I look up and was amazed by how they can build it so fast yet gracefully and then I noticed that he just stuck his tongue out at me. Out of shock, I decided to stick mine out back at him. After a series of funny faces, I just start laughing and walk away. Even though, words were never exchanged, I know that I made a connection with this guy by being silly just for a few seconds. These little moments are the ones that I will never forget in China.

Hong Kong and Macau were different than Guangzhou, Zhuhai, and the rest of China because they are special administrative regions of China. That means that China controls the defense and foreign affairs, but everything else is their own responsibility. Hong Kong used to be under British rule, whereas Macau was a former Portuguese colony. You could definitely see the influence of the former rule in each city. For example, Hong Kong still has the double-decker buses and trams, a lot of people there could speak English, and signs were translated into English. Meanwhile, Macau had many people who could speak Portuguese and signs translated into both Portuguese and English. For those of you who do not know much about Macau, Macau is the Las Vegas of China. Gambling is not allowed in Mainland China or Hong Kong, so everyone goes to Macau for it. With that being said, Macau has greatly benefited from this tourism industry. I remember our tour guide, David, telling us (in an attempt to get us to want to move to Macau) that the government makes too much money so they end up giving money back to the residents.

Now for a little bit about guanxi (关系). My resident director was able to get me this internship as well as all of our company visits this last week thanks to his guanxi. What that means is that his past connections with these people have allowed him to have a good reputation in order for them to want him to return (or for them to trust the people they recommend). To them, it is more about the value of the relationships more than the product’s price or quality. Another situation is when people get pulled over in China. If you have the right connections to people or guanxi, you can manage to get away without a ticket or anything by simply calling that person of higher rank, but if not, you have to listen to the policeman. Guanxi can also be applied to wedding culture here in China. Weddings are typically only attended by the bride and groom’s family and close friends. That does not mean that they leave out their neighbors and co-workers though. What they have to do with them is give them a small gift - typically sweets like chocolate - as well as treat them to lunch or dinner. (This actually happened two weeks ago to me since a co-worker got married.)

We had a few field-study visits this last week. One was at a pharmaceutical company, another was at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the last one was at an Italian chemical company. I found each visit to be beneficial, especially the last one. This Italian firm entered the Chinese market, but without copyright laws, the Chinese gave them a shock. Months after opening up their factory, another company selling the exact same product just happened to open up across the street from them. They told us that in China, people feel as though they have the right to copy. It is a different concept, but it is something you just have to get used to and find a way to overcome it.

After all of the traveling and sightseeing throughout the week, we settled down near Zhuhai at the Zhongshan Hot Springs. This resort was more than I could have ever imagined. There were many natural hot springs as well as a variety of other ones like coffee, coconut milk, jasmine, lavender, rose, ginseng, mint and even fish! The fish one was the most bizarre because the little fish would bite the dead skin off of your feet. Eventually, I got used to it but it tickled so much at first!

We left Shanghai in a windy rainy mess, but when we returned the temperature greeted us warmly. Today, it is now 85 degrees Fahrenheit! I am so thankful for this well planned traveling experience, but at the same time, it feels good to return home in Shanghai. And yes, I said home, I truly love this city and have no regrets in choosing it for my study abroad experience. These next few weeks may be a little busy since I have my midterm for Chinese on Friday, and my midterm for Finance next Wednesday, but once it is May 6th, I get to go to Malaysia and Singapore! That is my motivation; I can do it - 加油!(jiayou!)

I've added a few pictures and ill just describe them in order: Baishuizhai (白水寨)waterfall, Hong Kong stock exchange, Hong Kong skyline, big Buddha, the construction worker on bamboo, Bruce Lee's star on the avenue of stars, the Venetian in Macau, and a picture of the streets of Macau.















Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Random topics In a weekly update

Today, I want to quickly touch upon a few topics. The first, being the concept of voting in China. It's a very foreign concept for most Chinese people. For example, my Chinese teacher did not know that you shouldn't ask people who they voted for. She found that out by asking us in class. Also, I noticed that our economics professor never wants to tell us his opinion in class. He feels that it isn't important which I think may be correlated to the fact that they don't get to express their opinion often so they are not used to that.

The next topic is self-confidence. I have not met one person who is extremely confident in themselves. Most people will tell me that they want to be skinner, have smaller faces, bigger noses, bigger eyes and whiter skin. Most Chinese girls comment on how pretty I am because my face is so skinny. I think this lack of self-confidence is a major problem, and I never would have imagined it to be this bad. Since fashion is so big in Shanghai, I expected that they would be happier with themselves. The Western influence has really changed the way they view beauty.

Another topic I want to talk about is marriage. Here in China you have to be 21 years old to officially be married. I have heard that some young people here want to be married sooner so they will unofficially get married, but I’m not quite sure how that works. This last weekend, my co-worker got married! The customs here say that a small, but loud ceremony will take place, and since they don’t invite many people besides family friends, they have to treat everyone else with small gifts, typically sweets. Also, they oftentimes treat people to lunch. So not only did I get chocolates from my co-worker on Tuesday, today we went out to lunch. It’s just so ironic that we learned about all of this the class before she told me that she got married (in Chinese by the way). I am so glad that the things we are learning in class can be carried over to my workplace and even just everyday life.

This Friday is 清明节 or Qingming Festival. What that means is that it is a day to respect their ancestors. Most people will go to the cemeteries or just go home in order to celebrate. This is as close to religion as most Chinese get. They value their ancestors so much; they do not want to do anything to disrespect them or make them lose face. Our Chinese professors want to celebrate this holiday so we have the day off as well!

Ultimate Frisbee exists in China. On Saturday, I found out about it through Smart Shanghai (website with restaurants/bars/activities throughout Shanghai), and it said that their season started Monday. So I showed up and sure enough, there were at least 40 people there warming up to play. I got a jersey, and we played one game. I was so happy to be playing, and they are actually really good! I have learned so much and plan on going back every Monday that I am free.

Finally, I have decided to do my capstone project for my Economics class on the reasons that Chinese students decide to study abroad, what they plan on doing after they graduate as well as why there has been an increase in studying abroad. By doing this research I can not only apply it to this class, but also to my internship. I hope that I will be able to learn a lot about this topic and help recruit more students to study abroad. In my opinion, there is nothing better than studying abroad. You learn so much about yourself as you travel the world and study at the same time.

Next week, I will be traveling to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, and Zhuhai. I am so excited for this trip. We have two company visits, a stop at Hong Kong Stock Exchange and plenty of time to tour around. Trust me; I will give a full report on everything when I return.

The pictures which are below are my frisbee jersey, a cute restaurant in tianzifang, and my Australian friend Mandy and I at The Beach Boys concert!