Parting

Finals have passed and went well.  It wasn't a stressful process at all, I approached them as a reflection of the entire summer's effort rather than the reflection of one or two night's work.  Nonetheless, finishing the final test on Friday morning was a good feeling.  No assignments for another month haha.

After a long afternoon and night of packing, messing around, wrapping stuff up and hanging out, I got up this morning and went with a classmate to Laodingfeng, Harbin's most famous bakery, and got a cake for the program directors.  We couldn't figure out a suitable gift, so we figured sweets are always a good choice.  I gave my own teachers organic apricot jelly that I brought from home, a fitting gift given my one-on-one research topic.  It was a bittersweet parting because the teachers have all truly been great and we've gotten to know them pretty well over these 8 weeks.  We'll all miss them.

A classmate and I represented the students and gave a short speech together about our time here.  We cracked jokes about our classmates, some of the teachers, our dialogues, etc. in a simple dialogue and then thanked the teachers and our roommates for their patience and support.  Fun stuff.  Surprisingly, I also got the award for "most outstanding student," which was flattering and unexpected, but also serves as good motivation for the future.  It's more of a testament to the teachers and program than anything.  I had a great time overall and am really glad I got the chance to come to Harbin.  I've said that many times in the past few days, and it's always been sincere.

After the closing ceremony, our language pledge ended, and it's been weird.  My first reaction is still to speak in Chinese, and I have trouble understanding people when the speak in English for the first few words.  I'm honestly a bit anxious of how people will change now that they can speak English freely and openly.  It's inevitable, but I hope it doesn't change people too much.  I'd like to keep speaking Chinese with everyone, but I know that'll be a unreasonable expectation for many people, particularly after not being able to speak English for so long.  It's funny how English can sound strange, even my own voice is going to take some getting used to.

Anyways, short post today.  Feeling good again, relaxed, and ready to take advantage of this upcoming month.  My next post will probably be after Mount Tai and Qufu, and hopefully I'll have some nice pictures and a better chance to reflect on what I've gotten out of this program.  I'm going to try and take a pretty relaxed and unplanned approach to travel in the next month.  I'll see what comes my way and try and take advantage of it.  I've got a decent budget, a decent amount of time, train tickets are cheap and available, plane tickets if needed are cheapest the day or two before the flight, and I've got fallback options in Beijing if nothing works out that I would be more than happy with.  I'm looking forward to it. 

My theme for the next week or so, as it turns out (I randomly chose from a stack of cards I made) is "adventure."  I may choose another companion card when I leave tonight, together with my roommate and whoever wants to as well.  But for now, adventure awaits.

Pictures:
1.    Calligraphy class with our teacher, the stud on the right
2.    My 1-on-1 teacher and I
3.    1-on-2 teacher and I
4.    Business Chinese class
Good times

Aiya! Why don't I listen to myself!

I had one of the more frustrating conversations of my time here the other day with my roommate.  Not too long after writing my last post, actually, where I specifically said I'd decided to avoid sensitive topics.  In my defense, I didn't bring up the topic.  

It's strange how conversations develop.  We were talking about classes, and then before I knew it we had stumbled to the topic of war, the rights of a country's citizens, whether or not rebellion is justified, and America's invasion of Japan.  

"Wait, what?  Invasion? When did that happen?" I interrupted, startled.
"Oh I don't know, I haven't studied that stuff for a long time." My roommate seemed to loose his confidence.
"Do you know about when?  I've never heard of this."  I had turned serious, a slight tension forming in my brow.
"I really don't remember too well…"
"Are you talking about World War II?"
"No, it was in the 19th century, I think when the US invaded Japan and forced them to open up to trade."

Before I let my foreigner-abroad patriotism get the best of me, I checked Wikipedia.  Sure enough, as I had suspected, there was truth behind his assertion.  Commodore Matthew Perry did indeed fire a series of cannon blasts into the Tokyo Harbor when the Japanese refused to open up to trade on his first visit in 1852.  But there was no invasion, and when he returned the second time in 1854, the Japanese apparently nominally agreed to open up (although there were later complications).  The Meiji Restoration didn't formally start until 1867.

Moving on to a topic he was more familiar with, Weiqiang then took the conversation in a direction that I should have completely avoided.  He brought up the issue of foreign concessions, the unequal treaties, the injustices following the Opium Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, and America's invasion of China as part of the 8-nation-alliance army.  

This happened, I learned about it in "History of Modern China" with Professor Spence.  What he hadn't studied, however, were the reasons why the army came, to protect the foreigners and Chinese Christians who were being killed and had sought refuge in the foreign concessions under the protection of the soldiers already stationed there.

A lesson in cultural relativity and "ethnorelativism" as Kelly put it.  The view the West has of the 8-nation-alliance army is completely different from the Chinese.  I can understand that, and I think that throughout my time at this program I have been pretty good about avoiding ethnocentric comparisons and viewpoints.  It's hard at times when Uncle Sam is yelling down your neck, but there's more to learn from listening and accepting than talking and tolerating.  As I've continually emphasized with just about every Chinese person I've met on this trip, it's not about better or worse, it's just different.

The thing that really got to me, however, wasn't his opinion.  He had analyzed (or just accepted without questioning or even thinking :\) and drawn conclusions with incomplete or faulty information.  These kinds of opinions are rampant (oh Michael Moore…), but can be valuable for challenging each other's beliefs.  The key is accepting new, credible information when you hear it and taking it into account, as well as respecting the opinions of others.  This is something that it seems a lot of Chinese struggle with.

(Side note: Our conversation got me thinking about all sorts of things about politics, rights, representation, morality, etc. that I didn't get into, not so much out of fear of not being able to express my opinion, but more out of fear of not knowing what I thought about it.  That's a scary thought.  And now it's homework for the month I have in-between programs.)

Everything was fine the next day (yay for being guys haha), and we had a civil conversation a couple days ago about brands, branding, and intellectual property rights and steered clear of anything too touchy.  Good stuff.  Avoiding sensitive topics score: 1:I've lost count.  If I can't find a job here in the future… well, it might be too late for that already ;)


Few more, unrelated updates:  

Felt pretty productive this week, which is good as always, but particularly good because finals are THIS WEEK.  Dang.  I plan on visiting Taishan and Qufu, a culturally historic mountain and Confucius' crib, with some CET classmates after the program ends.  It will be weird even having the possibility of speaking in English with them.  We'll see how much people change, including myself.  (I'll see how close Zhao Wenbo and Jeff are to coming face-to-face)

My roommate just got back from a date.  Wow.  And boy is he excited.

Played soccer yesterday for the first time in a while, first time in Harbin.  It was great fun, and we played in the stadium, which was really cool because we were the only people there.  Secretly being epic.

Went to the university hospital today because my ear was clogged with wax, and I wanted to make sure it didn't get worse by the time finals get here.  Problem resolved.  The doctor made it worse, so I don't have to worry about that.  Chinese hospitals are ridiculous.  They're poorly lit, not particularly clean, everything is sort of thrown together, and there's no real systems for getting served.  You pay an initial fee of 2.5 RMB and then you have to try and find a suitable doctor who's willing to help you.  Then you wait.  Yargh.  I am putting sesame oil in my ear canal, because the fatty oil helps dissolve the wax.  Hopefully the problem will get cleared up.  Pun intended.

Finally, had a wonderful Western/Chinese brunch at the Shangri-La Hotel in Harbin yesterday.  Only the second time I've had Western food since I've been here, both have been with CET.  It was glorious.  Haven't eaten that much since Thanksgiving haha.

Back to cafeteria food.

Photos:

1.    A random photo from our trip to Dandong.  Figured I should get a picture of me in the post, and I haven't taken too many pictures this week at all haha
2.    Salad! And pipettes for dispensing dressing, oo-la-la.  China's so high-tech.
3.    The bus we were told to get on after brunch.  We thought it was ridiculous that the eight of us had such a big bus to ourselves.  Turned out it actually wasn't our bus.  We had just walked onto a random bus haha
4.    Chinese people watching the local ballers (they're pretty average, actually) duke it out after dinner.  Pretty much a ritual, which I've recently been joining in.

Feelin' Good

It's been a good week.  I had a test on Monday that went well, and for the most part I didn't have any particularly pressing or difficult work, other than normal preparation for classes.  That's not to say I've been complacent, but it's been a relatively relaxing week.

Last weekend I went to the Confucian Temple with some classmates and my roommate.  I generally enjoy Confucian temples, because not many people go to them.  Many people say that this has to do with the fact that no one really believes in Confucianism perse anymore, even though it's become such an integral part of the culture.  I also think it has to do with the fact that they're generally smaller, not quite as impressive, sometimes not well-kept (remnants of the Cultural Revolution, perhaps?), and tend to not have anything that is "biggest" or "tallest" etc.  Anyways, it was nice and peaceful, although I had to leave early because I had a test the next day.

It's been a week of conversations.  I've had a bunch of conversations with various classmates, Chinese roommates, some random people at the university's exercise yard, and also (a wonderful surprise) my Chinese teacher from Yale, Su Laoshi.  It was great to see him and chat for a bit.  For the past few weeks I've also been reading the newspapaer in Chinese pretty consistently, watching Chinese internet videos on Youku (Chinese version of Youtube), and reading occasional articles in Chinese outside of class, all without too much difficulty.  I've felt good about my progress, but at the same time, when I stumble over some explanation, I know I have a ways to go.  But I definitely feel like I'm going in the right direction.

I was actually reminded of something yesterday when talking with Weiqiang.  We were on the bus on the way back from Old Harbin (the quarter of Harbin that the middle and lower classes used to live in back in the day, it was quite nice, although somewhat unfortunate.  Most of the buildings hadn't been kept up very well, which was kind of nice because they were "authentic" I suppose, but at the same time, the streets have been commercialized and the stores on the first floor have no regard for the preservation of the buildings, let along the general style and atmosphere of the neighborhood) and talking about the city, and got to the topic of eminent domain.  I mentioned something about the Hutongs being destroyed for the Olympics in Beijing and that the residents weren't sufficiently compensated.  The conversation continued, and at one point Weiqiang was about to say "quedian" (shortcoming) in relation to the government, but he literally couldn't bring himself to do it.

I found out that he was a CCP member in about the second week I was here.  He said he joined because he believes that in the end the CCP is doing a good job and helping china move in the general right direction, even if it is a bit off.  (I couldn't help but think: what about after a long time? the divergence only gets larger.)  For him, it's a source of pride to be in the party, and he hopes it will help become a better person because of the opportunities it will give him—vocational, educational, and personal.  He sees his main responsibility as simply being the best person he can be and constantly  improving himself to be a good representative of the party.  This is probably in part the source of his competitive nature and seemingly unquenchable desire to show that he is better, smarter, more knowledgeable than those around him—sometimes it comes off as selfish or boastful.  I can see where he's coming from, but it seems that he's doing it for the wrong reasons.

One of the things that struck me most was that he said party members weren't allowed to be religious, because you were only allowed one belief.  That really took me back.  He sticks pretty well to the party line for the most part, and I've honestly been a bit disappointed in his ability to think openly without preconceptions, but that's something that we all suffer from.  In some ways it makes him seem a bit unidimensional—there's not much separation between his different identities in different situations.

In the end though, he's a good guy and generally a fun guy to talk to, although a bit serious at times.  I've simply decided to try and avoid those sensitive topics for the most part, because it's not worth the headache, and I don't think I can really convince him of anything to be honest.  Either way, in the end this is a language program, so in some ways the content of the conversations is secondary to acquiring language skills.  Obviously I don't want to misrepresent anything or say things I truly disagree with, but the purpose is to get better at expressing myself and learn about each other, not to try and change each other's political views.

Pictures are from the Confucian Temple, Old Harbin, and my calligraphy from our extracurricular class (great class).