Cold, Ice Cold
3Before leaving the United States for China, I told most people who asked about my trip that I expected to miss the small things about life at home the most; and I was right. During breakfast, it isn’t the substitution of scrambled for hard-boiled eggs that bothers me. It isn’t the smaller portion sizes at lunch and dinner or even the cooked chicken feet that I have noticed the most. It’s the lack of ice cold drinks that I can’t seem to make myself accept.
I never realized how much I appreciated an ice cold drink in the morning or an ice cold glass of water with dinner until getting to China. I rarely drink it at home, but because it’s one of the few things commonly kept cold here, I have without a doubt drank more soda since arriving in China than I have in the past two years of my life. Even if most drinks were just served at room temperature, I think I could handle them. But some drinks that have been served are obviously cooling after just having been boiled. Two nights ago, at what we were told was one of the nicest restaurants in Shanghai, I ordered a glass of water expecting it to be cold, forgetting the way drinks had been served to me in the past. I was disappointed when the waiter brought out a glass of water too hot for me to even pick up without burning my fingers.
I can’t wait to get back to Indiana to be spoiled by a refrigerator filled with cold milk and green tea.
I can’t get on Facebook!
2In case you were not aware, there is a “Great Firewall of China” that blocks access to Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and all the other fun social media sites in the U.S. It’s not that we don’t love you all, but we just can’t answer your wall posts or accept friend requests at this time!
Without classic time-waters such as Mafia Wars or watching the latest episodes of 30 Rock on Hulu, the only digital diversions we have are CCTV (China Central Television) and a channel that only plays bad made-for-tv movies featuring Sean Astin. Thankfully, since we are constantly on the move, we have little time to be laying around doing nothing. Personally, I’ve found this “unplugged” experience refreshing!
However, the Chinese Internet service has impeded our workflow at times. With top download speeds slower than molasses, server outages, and finding work arounds for posting video; daily blogging has proved to be challenging. Additionally, the Chinese filtered version of Google makes background research difficult, since most of us can’t read Mandarin.
Despite these technical challenges, we are still able to bring you great stories. . . just not on Facebook! Rest assured, we’ll be updating our Facebook status and Twitter feeds when we return home. Until then, have fun playing Farmville and Mafia Wars without us.
Meet a future Ball Stater
4
Meet Thomas. He’s a Hong Kong Baptist student who will be traveling all the way to Muncie, Indiana for fall semester. I imagine that he will become a lifelong friend to all of us. We were all very excited to hear that he was coming to Ball State and already told him that we will take him under our wing while he’s in Muncie.
It has to be difficult to be away from home for so long and not have anything culturally familiar in your surrounding area. In Thomas’ case, he might find comfort in one of the many King China Buffets in Indiana, but that might be stretching it. Lucky for us, there are ample amounts of American presence in China, from KFC to Dairy Queen to Ball State’s own, Papa John’s. We find comfort in talking to other English natives or seeing the golden arches while walking down the street.
Being here has changed my perspective on many things. I have a few friends who were exchange students, but I had regrettably never made a real effort to get to know more of them. Seeing the language barrier and the difficulties that we have come across during our travels, I hope to play a bigger role in the lives of international students when I return to BSU in the fall.
Chinese Etiquette
9One of the most interesting things since arriving in China has been seeing the examples of simple etiquette differences talked about in our meetings before leaving materialize.
The first encounters began showing their faces just after arriving at our second hotel in Shanghai and meeting up with our Chinese partner Hong Kong Baptist University.
After unloading our bags from the taxis, our group of eight followed Professor Huang Yu of HKBU into the hotel’s restaurant where his students were having an early dinner.
It didn’t take long for the students from Hong Kong to realize that a group of westerners had entered the room.
A few of the students stood to greet us and, excited to meet the foreign students, I quickly walked to a couple of them giving them a good firm traditional United States handshake.
When I got to the fourth student and extended my hand it was obvious that she was a little surprised by the gesture but politely fumbled to move the napkin she was holding in her right hand to her left and shook my hand.
It didn’t occur to me until I had turned to walk back behind my group that I had been told in one our meetings before leaving that the Chinese rarely shake hands and when they do it’s a softer, less assertive handshake.
But, shrugging it off, I assumed that I would inevitably make mistakes like this from time to time.
I walked over and sat down with my fellow students and professors at one of the restaurant tables with Professor Huang who didn’t waste any time ordering beer, Coca-Cola, and orange juice for us to share.
After the drinks arrived at the table, I turned the lazy susan and filled my glass.
Looking across the table at Professor Huang, I watched him pick up a bottle of a Chinese beer, called Tsingtao, and, without asking if they’d like any, pour a glass for both of my professors and then himself.
Noticing that this seemed a little strange, I remembered in one of our small cultural info meetings that Dominic, our group’s communication studies major, had specifically told us that in China, it is a custom to serve those sitting next to you before serving yourself.
So after finishing my first glass and following Professor Huang’s lead, I reached for more, serving my fellow news major, Sarah, then myself, and set the bottle back on the lazy susan.
After finishing my second glass, Dominic, who is much more culturally wise than I, picks up a bottle of orange juice and fills the glass to his right.
When he turns to me and starts to pour me a glass, I quickly stop him, even after having served Sarah myself, impulsively saying “oh no, no thank you.”
Looking at Dom’s blank stare made me realize the mistake I had made even after seeing the Hong Kong professor set the example.
He was being polite by serving me, and in China it was impolite for me to refuse his gesture.
Professor Huang acted like he didn’t notice, and it’s likely that he really didn’t, but the next time around I made sure to wait until both of our glasses were empty to allow Dom to fill my glass, righting my wrong.
Food, food and more food!
70So far, a common theme of our visit to China is the food! In fact, one member of our BSU group said “it seems like all we’re doing is walking and eating!” And there’s a reason for it. Amazing food is everywhere! There are so many varieties to choose from that you want to try them all. Sometimes we don’t know what we’re eating, but we know it’s good.
After the first, week, some of us got a craving for American food. And we can find it almost anywhere in Shanghai. Yesterday, we dined on KFC, Burger King and Papa John’s. But even these American standards have a Chinese spin. I enjoyed a shrimp sandwich from KFC along with spicy fish. It was delicious. I only wish that Colonel Sanders would bring those exports home to the USA.
Food was a central part of our day on Monday. We spent all day Monday with our friends from Hong Kong Baptist University. It included tours of a silk factory, gardens, temples, a boat trip and a gourmet dinner. We definitely had quality time with the students and faculty members from HKBU.
Tuesday, we spent an amazing day at the World Expo and got a VIP look at the USA Pavilion. The day ended with an adventure on the subway. Someone else promised to write about that so I’ll leave it there.
Ode to the Western Toilet
3Don’t ask for a bathroom or a restroom in China because you may get some funny looks. But ask for a toilet and everyone knows what you are talking about; and so begins the great toilet bowl adventure. Once you’ve found the bathroom two words, or at least you hope two words greet you, squatting and pedestal. As a westerner you hope for a pedestal, which is a typical western toilet, the fear of God enters your body when you see only the word squatting when entering the toilet. Especially when you’ve forgotten the cleverly designed device, which looks like a funnel (thanks Jane Brannan), to aid your bathroom activities. A squatting bathroom is no more than a porcelain hole in the ground, and believe me, it’s difficult to maneuver. The balancing act that goes on while in the stall is amazing; making sure not to fall, making sure to hit the hole and making sure not to get something that is sure to smell later, all over yourself. Is that too graphic? If you are flexible enough to maneuver this, congratulations! But the adventure is not over. Make sure that you carry your own toilet paper with you because none will be provided. On top of all this, the males traveling with us say that the men’s room almost always has a western toilet at their disposal, which begs the question, who designed the public restrooms in this country?—probably a male! That is why I have begun to stop and use almost every restroom with the words pedestal, just in case I get stuck in a place with a squatting only toilet.
‘American Pie’ at the World Expo
8With me corn beef n’ cabbage blood, the Ireland pavilion was top on my list. This pavilion was one of my favorites until Dominic and I discovered disturbing information. We spoke to one of the workers there who was born in China, but lived in Ireland for a few years.
Dominic asked this gentleman what he generally thought about the US. He told us that he used the American Pie movies as a reference. If you are unfamiliar with this movie series, all you have to know is that sex, booze, and idiocy are the main themes.
We laughed after hearing this and tried to explain that it really isn’t all like that, but it really is no laughing matter. I would hope that this is not the universal feeling for the US, but I have an itch that it may be.
Don’t Worri. Just Smile :)
0After an entire day at the Expo, a few others from the team and I are standing on the Shanghai MTR awaiting our stop. I decided to join the locals in a session of the post-workday zone-out. Standing quietly in the middle of the train, looking at all the different people, I noticed a t-shirt that reminded me of something from home: “Don’t Worri. Just Smile.” Even though it’s not an exact quote from the famous Bobby McFerrin song (nor is it spelled correctly), it still reminded me of a saying and a song from back home… and I’ve learned that over here it has a whole new meaning.
I’m standing around at the Expo in the Africa Pavilion, looking at all the magnificent displays Africa has to offer. I make my way over to the exit area of the pavilion where there is this huge display that can only be described as the Mt. Rushmore of Africa. Giant faces of African tribesmen make movements thanks to the help of projectors painting the images onto the enormous canvas. Amongst the spectacle, tourists are gathered around to capture a moment with the towering structures. It seems to be like every photo taking opportunity I’ve seen since we’ve been here at the Expo, but one particular moment really caught my attention and stood out even more than the 7-story high faces.
A young couple was standing in front of the displays getting a photo taken. Both of them were smiling for the camera as their photo was about to be taken. The young man held his arm around his companion while she took her left hand and held up the peace sign. As soon as that hand went up, her companion pushed it down to her side in order to prevent it from being seen in the photo. This was no gentle and smooth transition from hand-up to hand-down either, this was a resisted connection that had as much tension as Chinese and Japanese relations (as I have learned is not very good). I saw these two hands fighting back and forth and thought to myself “Oh no, we are going to have a couples fight right here, right now,” but to my surprise nothing of the sort occurred. Once her hand went down, the picture was taken with great big smiles and they both rushed to the camera with delight, eager to see the joyous moment that had just taken place.
Say what you will about whether or not the peace sign should be in a photo or not, or what this moment might have to say about male-female relations, cause those issues might very well deserve their own articles. The core lesson here is about how people in China act in a public space. One of the core values in China, and Eastern culture, is the concept of “saving face.” This belief asserts that each person possesses a “face” (maybe similar to what we refer to as a “soul”) and it is wrong to bring negative feelings and painful intentions to that person, especially out in public. It is not to say that the Chinese do not express disagreement, they just do them in more subtle ways in order to prevent feelings from being destroyed. Despite the obvious disagreement between the couple, they both moved on and enjoyed their picture taking moment with smiles and laughter, instead of spending time arguing over whether the sign should be up or not.
It’s very possible they addressed the issue later that day in a private setting, or they solved the issue through ways that weren’t seen by my western eyes. Either way, it seems to be that, in China, one must always notice and give attention to faces, whether they are 7-stories high or not.