Rain, Rain, Go Away

It's been raining just about every day since we got here.  Not just raining though, they've been thunderstorms.  The weather widget on my computer for the next 5 days straight has thunderstorms too.  It just doesn't stop.  It'll be really nice, and then all of a sudden it'll start raining like no other.  It's not too big a deal, but it just makes me more hesitant to go out and see different parts of the city.

Anyways, so the first week was kind of a whirlwind of classes, getting to know my roommate, getting used to how things operate on campus, etc.  Classes haven't been particularly tough, but can be a lot of work.  I'm taking Business Chinese, Classical Chinese, a pronunciation class, and a one-on-one research tutorial about sustainability and agriculture in China.  The business class is going well, the topics are interesting and the vocabulary is useful.  It is a bit slow though during class, which can be frustrating at times.  The pronunciation class is pretty much just dialogues and other exercises to work on our pronunciation and spoken fluency, which is always helpful.  That class is pretty fun because it's just me and another student, and our teacher is young so we can kind of joke around.  The workload isn't too bad, mostly just preparing/memorizing dialogues.

I really like the Classical Chinese class.  It's not so much about learning how to write classical Chinese, and the reading is really straightforward because pretty much every character of the lesson is explained, it's more about the implications of classical Chinese for modern Chinese.  It's not often that you get to study the historical roots of Chinese language, rather than Chinese culture.  But the two are so often intertwined.  Su Wei, my Chinese teacher at Yale, would often touch on this, but it's great to study it more in-depth.  The grammar, the vocabulary, and the discussions, are all exciting and new, but relate to what we've already studied.

My one-on-one tutorial is great too.  My professor is an editor for a newspaper printed here in Harbin, and used to be a reporter on agriculture and countryside topics, so she's very familiar with what practices are used—both good and bad.  It's also an exciting topic because it involves so many areas of study.  Last week we discussed the historical evolution of agriculture and man's relationship with nature, as well as the basic principles and concept of sustainability.  This week we'll be looking at the underpinnings of sustainability in ancient Chinese philosophy, and we'll move on to practices, examples, legislation, and other topics in the upcoming weeks.  It's great to be able to talk about this stuff with someone who is so knowledgeable and legitimately excited about it.

This last week for me has been entirely in Chinese, too, because last Sunday (June 21), we took a language pledge to speak only Chinese.  It has been frustrating at times, but on the whole it hasn't been too bad.  I haven't not been able to say something, although I certainly have had to say things in awfully circuitous ways at times.  The thing that has been frustrating is communicating with my classmates in the program.  Many of them are struggling, and that makes conversation halting and frustrating for me as well.

Conversations with my roommate, however, have been great.  He's a graduate student here at Harbin Institute of Technology, studying industrial parts manufacturing.  He's the first person from his country village in Hebei near Beijing to go to graduate school.  He graduated from Guizhou University in the South two years ago on a full scholarship, and was able to get a scholarship here as well.  He's hardworking and a sort of typical Chinese science student, but is surprisingly well-rounded and thoughtful.  He grew up in a poor family that did anything and everything to make their living, from farming to hairdressing, brick making to offering karaoke, billiard hall to hot pepper production.  So his parents have high hopes for him, but I think he has even higher hopes for himself. 

He knows that he would like to work in Beijing after graduation because he can't spend anymore time in school.  He needs to help support his parents because they're getting older.  Inasmuch, he has no desire to leave China to find work or study, so this is as close as he's going to get to studying abroad.  Which means he's excited.  Very excited.  His excitement is great for me, because our conversations follow his curiousity and move beyond simply daily topics.  We've discussed life at universities in the US and what LA is like, but also more complex stuff like the American political system and how democracy works, down to the mechanics of how to actually vote when you're in the booth and hanging chads.  There have been stumbling blocks throughout many of our conversations, but it's been great.  I already feel like my Chinese has improved, but I think a lot of it is just confidence returning.  He has a lot he wants to learn about me, but I know that I have just as much, if not more, to learn from him.

This has been a terribly long post yet again.  I do have internet in my room now, however (after many complications), and should be able to post more often, in shorter installments.  Finally, a quick explanation of the pictures.

1.    HIT's gymnasium and main class building behind it, I will post more picture of the campus later.
2.    CET organized a scavenger hunt for us on Saturday to get to know Harbin a bit better, and that is us with 8. Someone from outside of Heilongjiang (the province Harbin is in), who also happens to be my roommate.
3.    One of the tasks was to feed an animal, which you got 10 points for, and you got an extra 10 if you fed a deer.
4.    In a tango pose while eating lamb kebab.  I knew I did ballroom for two years for a reason.
5.    In front of the St. Sofia Cathedral, for another 7 points.
6.    The final tally.  We're the second group.  We pretty much destroyed the competition with 167 points.  Group 5 put up a valiant effort with 158, so kudos.  Group 4 put up next to no effort with 68 points (I don't think they left campus).  We got a box of "Fine Belgian Flavor Chocolate Biscuits" for our troubles.
7.    My desk and bed.
8.    Me and my roommate, Liu Weiqiang.

Thanks for bearing with me, more soon.

Hello, Harbin!

I arrived in Harbin early Saturday morning after a short overnight train ride from Beijing.  The train ride was uneventful, but a nice opportunity to get to know the other three students in our 4-person soft sleeper (I know, right? CET must be rolling in dough to splurge on soft sleeper.  They were fully equipped with personal TV, luggage space, lots of headroom, doily-covered seatbacks, and even single-use slippers.  I don't know if I approve of this use of funds, granted, it was $60).  Needless to say, we rolled into Harbin in style.

At breakfast, the first thing I noticed about Harbin and the thing that has stuck with me most was the dirt.  We ate at a small café and there weren't enough seats, so I sat outside with some classmates.  The weather here is beautiful, hovering between 70 and 85 throughout the day.  Saturday, however, it was also really windy.  You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff that found its way onto our food.  Most of it was dirt and such, but there was also what seemed to be coal dust, and some other stuff.  At one point someone said "One second, I have to dust off my watermelon."  Which was hilarious, but also kind of scary.

Harbin is a pretty large city, with a population of 4.7 million, but isn't huge by Chinese standards.  It is bisected by the Songhua River, which is lined on both sides by turn-of-the-century Russian architecture.  In addition to its Manchurian past (China's last dynasty, the Qing, hailed from the area), Harbin was also controlled by the Russians for a period of time, as well as the Japanese during World War II.  Each has left its mark. 

The city is dotted with new interpretations of the European architecture left by the Russians, and is host to the "Oriental St. Petersburg," St. Sofia Church (I will visit it and post pictures later).  The Japanese and Russians were also central to the industrialization of not just Harbin, but the entire Northeast, and Harbin is still known for heavy industry today.  And it's also why everything in Harbin seems dirty.

Usually Chinese cities are sort of grimy, but for the sake of low unemployment rates, they are generally well-kept by the multitudes of available cheap labor.  Not so in Harbin.  Everything seems to have aged twice as fast because of the pollution, and no one seems particularly care.  Obviously, I've only been here a few days, so I will refrain from passing judgment, but I find it strange nonetheless.  It seems like it might be a reflection of the people from the northeast.  They look tough and aren't particularly concerned with aesthetics, but are known for their down-to-earth values, friendliness, and straightforwardness.  So far, this seems to be the case.  It should be a great place to study Chinese.

Classes started today, and I'm really excited.  They all seem like they will be great, and will become challenging as the weeks progress.  We move into our dorm tomorrow (we were held up in a hotel these last few days because of the swine flu scare), and I'm really excited to meet my Chinese roommate.  More updates soon!

Whoa, Jetlag

I'm not usually one to suffer jetlag, I may wake up a bit early, but as long as I go to sleep at a relatively normal hour, then I wake up at a pretty normal hour, because I have trouble sleeping on planes.  So imagine my surprise—utter incredulity—when I woke up to find my watch read 17:30, or 5:30pm.  Talk about an eye-opener.

 

Feeling well rested and having shocked myself awake, I looked out the window to see the sun hanging low in the sky, glowing orange through the hazy veneer that is Beijing's sky.  Traffic was surprisingly light, but I could only see back alleys outside of my window in my godfather's 17^th-story apartment.  I emerged from my hibernation den quietly and headed to the bathroom. 

 

As I was about to get into the shower, my godfather emerged from his room in his pajamas.  Strange, I thought, that he is home so early and already back in his pajamas, but I didn't think anything of it, maybe he'd just got home and always wore them around the house.  He wrangled his daughter's (read: he gets to do all the dirty work) new dog from its cage and brought it into the bathroom to do its business.  It's probably not the kind of business he thought he was getting himself into when he became a chairman for JP Morgan.

 

I took my shower and headed downstairs, said hi to Hattie, who was already awake from her after-school nap, and talked with my godfather for a bit.  I got my breakfast, and sat down with Hattie and Tillie, who had just woken up from her nap, and had my breakfast while they ate their snacks.  Which consisted of bread with jam and cheese.

 

By now it was about 7am.  It was only then that it began to dawn on me that I really had woken up at 5:30am.  I'm using my dad's watch, which was set on 24-hour time.  I didn't know that when I arrived in Beijing (airport pictured) the night before at 9pm, so I'd unwitting set the watch to 9am.  It all fell into place, and I felt better about my prospects for adjustment.  (To make matters worse, at 11am it started raining and became pitch-black outside, pictured) It's amazing how much I trust an unthinking piece of technology and not my own better judgment at times.  I could probably try and make some insightful comments about our reliance on technology and how we're losing touch with reality or something, but that would probably just ruin the story.

 

But the real adjustments are about to begin.  My program officially began Wednesday, but we haven't done much yet.  I just took the written segment of the placement test, and we head up to Harbin via train tonight.  It should be a fun trip, and I'm really excited to get up to Harbin.  This promises to be a great experience and a focused, productive couple of months.  Between classes, Chinese roommates, a new city to explore, and lists of things to do, I'll be keeping busy.

 

In the meantime in Beijing, I've gotten to see my godfather and his daughters, catch up with my host brother (who has noticeably matured after his freshman year), hang out with Stone and Wilson, a couple of friends from SYA in 11^th grade, and play some pool with them (neither of them pictured), meet my fellow CET Harbin students and go to the Temple of Heaven with them (pictures), and just generally chill.  The quiet before the storm I suppose.

 

I'm emailing this post in (and probably will be indefinitely), and I haven't figured out how to format well, so all the pictures will just have to be at the top of the post for now.  The firewall wins for now, but I will make like Genghis Kahn soon enough.

Personal Goals

Setting goals for myself is a habit that I’ve only recently discovered in the last year or so. Usually they are small daily goals to keep me on track that have to do with homework or other things I should get done, and I’m sure you all relish the small delight in crossing an item off on your to-do list just as much as I do. I also have a more nebulous inventory in my head of things I want to see change in myself. These don’t fit on post-it notes that litter my desk like my daily laundry lists. These ideas only tend to become concrete and realistic in hindsight. I’d like to change that, at least in part, for my upcoming year.

An artist's conceptual rendering of my goals.

I leave tomorrow (Sunday) to fly to Beijing a couple of days before my language program in Harbin starts. My goals for these two months are pretty straight forward: learn Chinese and be able to be conversant at a pretty high level. More than vocabulary (which will undoubtedly grow), I want to gain confidence in my Chinese, both written and spoken. I want to be able to talk about a variety of topics, not just the everyday or my well-rehearsed spiel about how I learned Chinese. Agriculture, sustainability, philosophy, and history are top on my list.
I know I will be able to accomplish much of this in my classes, with my teachers and during my one-on-one tutorial. A lot of it, though will come in random conversations with my Chinese roommate, who I hope will become a close friend, and other young people in Harbin.
Last summer I had a chance to learn about Chinese youth culture working at a market research company called Jigsaw International. It was a great experience and a really interesting way to learn about how China is changing at so many levels. We explored these questions through research. We got to read newspaper articles, blogs, forums, and other new media. We got to look at research the company had done before, and even do some research of our own. I got to talk to a lot of young people in malls, on the street, in parks, in their homes, and all over Shanghai.
It was fascinating stuff, but it ended at that conversation. It will be wonderful to get to form lasting bonds with those very same people, but in a different city, and not as a researcher, but as a peer. Karaoke won’t just be a trend, it will be my Saturday night. Sina won’t just be a cultural roadmap of the minds of China’s youth, it will be my information portal. I really look forward to becoming a student in China not only of Chinese language, but of Chinese pop culture by living the life of a student in China. That being said, I also can’t wait to continue to learn about traditional Chinese culture and history. I will try and be as vigilant an observer as I can.

My goals for my time in-between the programs are simple: I want to reconnect with friends, old and new, and visit Kashgar in Xinjiang. A surprising number of my fellow SYAers will be in Beijing this summer, and it’s always a joy to see anyone from that year. Also, my host family is always on my mind, especially my brother.
My brother is finishing his freshman year of college right now, and will be home when I am in Beijing in August. While I was living in Beijing in 11th grade, his world was his studies. He was a great brother, and an amazing friend, but the reality was that he had to study. Almost all the time. We didn’t have many opportunities to just hang out, or have random adventures, because there was always a test on the horizon: the gaokao (more on this later…maybe). I’d like to spend more time with him as well during his time off, going out together and just having some fun, because those times, although few and far between, were some of the greatest of my year in Beijing.

My brother, during our hunting and gathering days in Hebei.

As for Kashgar, my interest was spurred by this article in the New York Times. I’m looking for someone to travel with, so let me know if you’re interested :)

My plans for Taiwan are even more hazy still. What it boils down to, however, is that I want to become a resident of Taipei. I’m not quite sure what that means, but I’m anxious to find out. Hopefully by this time I will be relatively confident in my Chinese, and the language program I will be attending there will continue to help me improve, but will not be my main focus while there. I want to be truly living in Taipei—not in the strange limbo of college life—cooking for myself, meeting the neighbors, going to neighborhood events, making local friends, talking about local politics, hosting shindigs, you know the deal. But I also realize that I will need to try and maintain a degree of separation at times in order to think about what’s going on around me.

Iron chef will be knocking on my door by the end of the year.
Probably asking me to stop defiling the art of cooking. Let's hope not.

This post is already becoming hopelessly long, but I’d like to touch on one more thing: the title for my blog. Many of my friends on the Light fellowship are heritage speakers, meaning that they come from families that speak Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, whatever language they are studying. Almost all of them see this as an opportunity to reconnect with that side of themselves—realization of their heritage-ness—and rightfully so.
But this heritage is not a part of my life. I’ve had to create my own heritage from scratch, and with it, I’ve developed a second personality. I’m no schizophrenic, but I’m a very different person when I speak in Chinese. I’m more reserved, deferent, and boring. I know I’m not exactly the most outgoing, outspoken, and exciting person in English, but it’s even worse in Chinese. My Chinese teacher at Yale, Su Laoshi, has said that it’s a good thing and being introverted is a positive quality in Chinese culture. That may be, but one thing I’d like to see over the course of my year is a conglomeration of these two peronalities—not one taking over the other, but a melding and continued growth. I want Jeff to meet 赵文博. Just like Atman met Allah for Pi (see previous post), but not quite so divine haha.
I remember seeing my godfather one night in Beijing in 11th grade. He studied Chinese and worked in China, but the night I saw him was the first time he’d been back in China in many years. His Chinese was still amazing, but what I was more impressed by was how his wonderfully vibrant personality shone through unhindered. To me that is fluency. That is what I am striving for. I can’t say how much I admire my godfather in so many ways, and I can only hope I can achieve that level by the end of this year. More than being able to talk about philosophical texts, the pharmaceutical industry, or cats, fluency to me is about conveying something less tangible. Granted, I would like to be able to sit down and, with the occasional help of a legal dictionary, read through Chinese law. But more importantly, I don’t want to be a different person when I’m speaking Chinese. Two different languages, two different contexts, two different sets of rules, but one person.

Hello Out There

Here it goes, the first entry of my blog documenting my time on the Richard U. Light Fellowship, which I will be spending in Harbin, China and Taipei, Taiwan. Please excuse this first post, I’ve never blogged before and it’s going to take some time to get the hang of this. I cannot thank everyone who works with the fellowship enough for this opportunity. Believe it or not, this fellowship was the reason I applied to Yale. So this certainly marks a milestone in my college career.
But my fortune in receiving the Light Fellowship is by no means my doing. It is a testament to everyone who has supported me—family and friends—but, most importantly, my teachers and my parents. Zhou Laoshi in high school; Shen Laoshi, Liu Laoshi, Li Laoshi, Mr. Bissell, and everyone else at SYA China; and Su Laoshi at Yale; I thank you for your instruction and guidance. I’d also like to thank both sets of parents—my host parents (and brother) in China, as well as my real parents in Los Angeles, who have both been immeasurably helpful and supportive.

What a family. This is a few years old now.
(Kobe doesn't rock #8 anymore...)
My brother is 19 days older than me, and is
finishing his freshman year in college.

I’d like to start this blog in earnest by commenting on the purpose of the Light Fellowship. Loosely quoted from the website (whatever that means): the Light Fellowship was established to allow students to gain foreign language ability and immerse themselves abroad in order to bring fresh perspectives and keener insights to their studies and eventual leadership roles. This fits perfectly with President Levin’s view for students who are internationally experienced and able to interrelate between cultures. Coincidentally, they're also both known for their dashingly good looks.

The man, the legend, himself, Dr. Light

Another President is also keenly aware of this. On my way home from visiting my grandparents in Pittsburgh, I got stuck in JFK because of flight delays, but was lucky enough to catch Obama’s commencement speech at Notre Dame. Like Light, Obama realizes that the modern world presents interconnected problems more complex than ever before. “No one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone. Our very survival has never required greater cooperation and greater understanding among all people from all places than at this moment in history.”

Link to the speech on Youtube:

It’s not just about understanding and tolerance, or globalization, however, it’s about acceptance. I finally got to finish Life of Pi, and a few other books I’ve started a number of times and never finished, during my mom’s movie shoot. It wasn’t very glamorous, but it was great to finally see my mom make a film, because it’s become a pretty big part of her life. This is her third one that she’s written and produced. Management consultant by day and screen-writer by night. Pretty amazing stuff. I was helping out with odd jobs and transportation and had a lot of time to kill waiting to pick stuff up, so finally got to finish the book.


Pi, the main character, is a young Indian boy curious beyond his years and his small provincial town of Pondicherry. Over the course of his childhood, his wide-eyed wanderings lead him to become not only Hindu, but Muslim and Christian as well. He sees no conflict between the three religions, but accepts them as one idea.

“Whereas before the road, the sea, the trees, the air, the sun all spoke differently to me, now they spoke one language of unity. Three took account of road, which was aware of air, which was mindful of sea, which shared things with sun. Every element lived in harmonious relation with its neighbour, and all was kith and kin. I knelt a mortal; I rose an immortal. I felt like the centre of a small circle coinciding with the centre of a much larger one. Atman met Allah.”

I was struck by his realization of spiritual interrelatedness—not quite unity—yet distinctiveness in the scene, just as he does in himself. Especially in that last sentence. Atman and Allah meet, but don’t become one. There is power in the ability to navigate that tenuous balance, and I feel like that’s what the Light Fellowship is allowing us to try and do. Hopefully that’s what I’ll be able to do as well.