Soon be home

I will soon be home, and not a moment too soon! How I long for my bass! At Yale I had a guitar at least.

Where's my rain?

On another note, I hasn't rained here, at least much, for two whole weeks.

Light Question

Hello all.

The weekly Light questions rarely grab me. This week, however, the "experienced" track question, which seems equally applicable to us Light newbies, struck me.

Q7.The Light Fellowship pre-departure used an often-cited “inter-cultural sensitivity” chart that showed the general trend from “ethnocentric” to “ethnorelative” modes of thinking that tend to occur as a result of study/living abroad. Do you think that you are now somehow more “relative” in your thinking over all? How so? What was it about studying/living abroad that produced this change? If you feel no change, do you still think this experience was useful to you? Why or why not?

First, when considering this question, I need to define that "ethno-" bit. What is an ethnicity? The San Francisco Center for Chinese Culture, in a definition closely matching the others I found, offers four parameters for a distinct ethnic group:

1. Distinct language

2. Indigenous homeland

3. Distinctive customs

4. A strong sense of identity

So, an ethnic group is cultural-linguistic group, and has nothing to do with race or anything else. Our question, then, is basically a cultural one. To put it in personal terms, I am asked whether living in China (for seven weeks at this point) has fostered cultural relativism.

The short answer, simply, is "no". In fact, quite contrary to my rather liberal preconceptions about other cultures, living in China, has, without making broader generalizations, convinced me that modern American culture is actually superior, in terms of "values", to modern Chinese culture.

To give a few examples:

1. Materialism

Americans like to self-deprecate and say "oh, we're so materialistic, Americans just care about money, we're so selfish, bah bah bah bah". Of course, modern American culture /is/ materialistic. I am too materialistic. Most people, to some extent or other, probably are. On the whole, though, I find base materialism significantly more rampant and acceptable here in China than in America. The Chinese really like to talk about /things/. Without leveling any individual criticisms, from my textbook to my teachers to my "Chinese family" to Chinese television news, the Chinese are obsessed with money and goods. Is it name brand? How much money do you make? And so on. This material obsession is reflected in the Chinese political outlook. China's international position and international goals are defined only in terms of economics. China's wealth is a major bragging point.

2. Politeness

Chinese manners, often lauded by the Chinese themselves, are, in general, nothing more than rules. They are meaningless rituals (see below) which, in general, reflect no genuine concern for the needs of others. In America, it's polite for younger men (or women) to offer older folks seats on public transports, and for men to offer women and children seats. This is, of course, because older and younger folks are weaker. In China, on the other hand, you must fight for a seat on a subway. Middle-aged men will be doing battle for seats while the weaker are forced to stand by and watch. Old ladies will fight to be first into elevators, giving you dirty looks for even presuming to ride the same elevator that she ordered by pressing the "up" button. Being sick or sad in public is an embarrassment, so people ignore those who look uncomfortable (so that the other doesn't "lose face") . In America, if someone has a terrible coughing fit, someone says "Bless you!" or "Are you alright?" or "Would like some water?". In China, people ignore that sick person.

Though Chinese selfishness, exemplified in points 1 and 2, is often denied in such ideological code-phrases as "benefiting society" (as a rich man who makes much money must be "benefiting society"--not something I'm necessarily denying, by the way), really these are, under the "Marxism with Chinese characteristics" practiced today, just excuses to continue to seek one's own self-interest.

3. Traditionalism

The Chinese, as a history teacher of mine once observed, are, in many ways, stuck in the past. After century after century of non-progress, despite massive material and human resources, China, today, seems to only be moving forward by the winds of Western and Japanese innovation. Modernity, in China, is simply copying America, Europe, or Japan. On the other hand, old Chinese traditions and ignorant notions persist, and on a massive scale. From fervent belief in Chinese traditional medicine (which no doubt has some valid points, even if it's largely nonsense which encourages the slaying of rare animals) to the fervent belief that Chinese is only one language, China is chock-full of silly old ideas which people cling to without even a pretense of critical examination (don't even get me started on the taboos and superstitions--the number four, green hats, an obsession with pairs). This traditionalism is propagated by a strong sense of national arrogance (I know some people accuse America of the same), an arrogance which totally lacks self-critical thinking (can't accuse America of this). I'm not talking about the criticizing the government or anything, which clearly isn't very possible. Rather, I'm saying that the Chinese are totally unwilling to criticize Chinese history and culture. On the other hand, they're only too happy (as are my fellow students) to constantly criticize and insult America.

Of course, many might argue that, for example, Christianity, still quite strong in America, is also an ignorant notion and old tradition. However, without going in further, I would merely say that, insofar as Chinese beliefs are connected with traditional religious practice, I would omit them from the above criticism. Not that they aren't worthy of criticism (Confucian sexism and elitism? Daoist sexism and elitism?), but that would lead me down another path entirely.

To consider the rest of the Light question, I also found this last bit interesting: "If you feel no change, do you still think this experience was useful to you? Why or why not?"

I think it's interesting that the questions assumes that part of the value of the Light experience is becoming more ethnorelative. I would argue that the value, for me, has been just the opposite. Being in China has actually taught me to value American culture, and, for that, I am grateful.

I would like to say, last of all, that some would no doubt take what I've expressed as an example of a major American cultural flaw ("We need to respect other cultures! Bah bah bah!"). However, I would like to observe that, as I've said, China is also full of pride, and has been more "ethnocentric" tendencies than America insofar as it's a much more distinct and uniform "ethnos". Moreover, as I said, one's America's cultural features is being self-critical, and it's a feature I particularly value. Chinese culture wholly lacks this introspection.

Shanghai, part 1

Yes, this post is very late, but, honestly, upon my return, I did not feel like writing a lick about Shanghai. It was a crazy, busy, and really fun week, and I needed another week to recover before I could even contemplate trying to recall the highlights and put them to page.

First off, I'd better state my business in Shanghai. After missing out on the Inner Mongolia trip, I still wanted to go some place where some tongue other than Mandarin was spoken, and Shanghai fit the bill. Moreover, with the Expo and all that excitement this year in particular, I was surprised spots for the Shanghai trip were still available, and took one while I still could.

Before setting out, I already knew I was going to study Shanghai hua, a dialect of the Wu Chinese language, and totally unintelligible to a Mandarin speaker. Moreover, I also had a mystery on my hands. I had read that, in Shanghai, the word for "I" is "ngo" (or "ngu") (cognate with Mandarin "wo3" and Tibetan "nga"). However, one teachers, a Zhejianger (Zhejiang is the province just south of Shanghai), told me that they say "ala'" (according to my written sources, "ala'" meant "we"). My other teachers, anecdotally, agreed with this opinion. Therefore, "ala'" vs. "ngo/ngu" became the main point of my linguistic investigation in Shanghai.

So, business stated. Now time for some general observations:

1. Shanghai's weather, at least this time of year, seems preferable to Beijing's (it has more cool days and, moreover, it rains all the time).

2. Shanghai, right on the mouth of the Long River, aka the Yangtze, and is a coastal town (hence, you know, its name: "on the sea"). This is also preferable to Beijing's (relatively) drab inland location (admittedly, Shanxi province is just a little ways west of Beijing, and thinking about the Buddha caves and all the jinyu being spoken gets me pretty pumped--however, no matter how near it is, Beijing isn't Shanxi).

3. Shanghai's culture (once again, compared to Beijing's) is a lot more like what one imagines modern Chinese culture to be--bustling, competitive, innovative, and very consumeristic. It's the economic capital of China, and it's what we imagine when we imagine Chinese prosperity. On our first day, we went to a huge shopping mall (5 stories plus a "basement"), and I thought that it was crazily big and busy. Then, on one of our last days, we went to a shopping mall that was 10 stories tall!

4. Shanghai hua is great! Its grammar is much more conservative than that of Mandarin Chinese (so is its phonology), and it struck me as being much more apparently similar to Tibetan than its northerly cousin. I have only have a word-list of probably 150 words, many of which are synonyms (because speech communities are so small (Shanghai hua isn't used for business or mass communications--it's only spoken at home, with friends, and with neighbors) there are lots of small variants--one speaker says the word for "daddy" is "ya", another says "yaya", a third says "aya", a fourth says "ba", and a fifth says "aba").

Some interesting comparisons (note, my notes, while doubtless flawed, are much more phonetically and phonologically precise than the Shanghai hua transcription used below):

English: fire, Mandarin: huo3, Shanghai hua: fu

English: mother, Mandarin: ma1ma, mu3qin1, Shanghai hua: (a)niang (=Mandarin niang2 'girl')

English: uncle (father's older brother), Mandarin: bo2bo (da4bo2 using Shanghai topolect), Shanghai hua: laobaba, dubaba (= Mandarin da4 'big' + ba4ba 'daddy')

And so on...

5. I realized, while using Mandarin to interview our driver, who had a thick "Southern accent" (in Chinese terms), about an entirely different language, that my Chinese skills have increased quite a bit since I was last at Yale. Which was a weird realization--after all, I'd only been here a nudge over 4 weeks at the time.

Well, that's enough for now. Until part 2, which may be around as early as a few hours from now.

Pinyin

Today I came to the same conclusion to which every objective observer eventually comes: China should ditch the characters and adopt pinyin as its official writing system, with supplementary (and standardized) Latin systems for the major fang1yan2 (ie, Yue, Wu, Min, Hakka, and maybe two or three more). The cause of this revelation? I realized the lone word 'ku4' "cool" is written the character for 'ku4', "cruelty, cruel, strong (of alcohol)". That's really ridiculous, given that, instead of borrowing a rather rare zi4, you could just write the pinyin. Afterwards, I spent a couple of hours reading about all the problems han4zi4 cause for Sinitic, Japanese, and Korean speakers and readers.

Not that I'm not still fond of the devilish things.

Mind the curve!

At both of our Light orientation meetings, it was guaranteed that, about midway through the program, we would reach rock bottom. We would become disillusioned, bored, and homesick. I thought it wouldn't happen to me. After all, I thought, homesickness was a major feature of the first few days. Having gotten past that, I thought I wouldn't need to "mind the curve", as our little Light-given notepads remind us. Oh, ho, how foolish I was! By this Monday, how sick I was of China! The problem began last week, came to a head last weekend with my boorish Chinese baba, and finally, Monday, tumbled downhill to reap the fields of despair!

Needless to say, I feel a lot better now (that's the whole "curve" idea--up, down, up). In fact, I found myself, a few minutes ago, casually scanning the Light website for year-long opportunities in Harbin...

But back to the present. A load of clothes is drying downstairs on the fourth floor. The new washing machines here at the conference center are really kicking. I've recently worked out a homework system which both maximizes efficacy (my score) and minimizes time. Instead of doing my homework in the evening, I use the breaks in between sections of class (about an hour, all tolled) to read tomorrow's chapter and do today's work. I finish most of the remaining problems during my lunch break (a generous hour and a half). This method has been facilitated by my ever-faster learning of each day's "recitation from memory" passage, which used to consume most of my break time. Now it typically takes an easy fifteen or twenty minutes after lunch.

I'm going to look at buying a book or two for the ten-hour trip to Shanghai. The campus bookstore is nice, and has some tasty titles in English dealing with Taoism and Chinese medicine, as well as excellent dictionaries, but I'm going to ask around and see if there's another bookstore, either large or near (better yet, both), that I might browse for a little Friday evening adventure.

Have I earlier mentioned that China is very verdant? There are plants /everywhere/. The gardens are well-kept, and the plentiful trees are tall and spindly. I re-notice this almost every day as I'm out and about campus.

A couple of other notes:

What will the living situation be like in Shanghai? Will there be internet access? No clue. Internet access is, in China, a pain.

One thing I can't get used to in China: awful service at restaurants. I sat at my table in Cafeteria No. 2's second-floor restaurant for five or more minutes waiting on a menu, as lazy and rude waitress after lazy and rude waitress passed, milling uselessly. I left and went to the Muslim restaurant, where I have some cred with the wait staff and manager-man. They get me my food in a flash, and extremely politely.

P.S. I know it's a cultural thing, the cruddy service in China. However, even if it's culturally conditioned bad service, it's still bad service.

P.P.S. My post-Shanghai goal: with my Chinese conversational skills competent and subway knowledge passable, I want to get out and do more exploring! If I can find someone interested to explore with me, that is... most would-be explorers are mainly interested in exploring China's alcohol culture on Friday nights, it seems.

P.P.P.S. Shanghai: my number one mission is the search for the elusive /ngu/ "I", apparently largely replaced by /ala/ ("I, we" (orig. "we")). Wish me well!

Happy 4th of July!

So, after getting caught up with my Chinese family and a sick Beiyu student, I missed the outing to the Peking opera. However, having spent Saturday morning exploring the hutongr ("alleyways"--not a good translation, but a standard one) of old Beijing across from Tian'anmen, and the afternoon at a very akward, even outrageous, meal with my Chinese family (the subject of an earlier, now deleted, post), I'd had about enough China for the day anyhow. I went to McDonald's for dinner, anticipating the 4th, and enjoyed my McChicken. I had planned to at least watch Germany vs. Argentina, but I fell asleep early in the game. I then slept long.

I must say, being in China makes the 4th of July all the more special. Today, for many reasons, I am really happy I am an American.

Academics: next Friday is cumulative midterm. So many characters to review! This week's oral went super (I outdid myself again), and the written test went okay.

All those rambling notes past, happy 4th of July to everyone! May God bless America!