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.