Week 2 of Chinese College Life

Immigrants often have a stable set of values from their home culture from which to draw sustenance, whether religious or cultural. But for the children of the Cultural Revolution in China, there’s been no such continuity. They were raised to believe in the revolutionary Maoism of the 1960s and ‘70s, and then told as young adults in the late 1970s that everything drilled into them in their adolescence had been a terrible mistake. Then they were fed a trickle of socialism, rapidly belied by the rush to get rich, and finally offered the hint of a liberal counter-culture in the 1980s before Tiananmen snatched it away. In the meantime, traditional values condemned as ‘counter-revolutionary’ in their youth are being given a quick polish and propped up as the new backbone of society by the authorities.  --James Palmer The balinghou

Yesterday, our EAP program supervisor sent us this article from Aeon Magazine about the generation gap in China.  I highly recommend reading the whole thing, as long as it is, whether or not you've any interest in China.  (Also recommend China Digital Times for many more good reads.)  I think I was listening to some sad music while reading it because by the end of the article I was about to start crying.  The author elaborates on historical and sociological constructs influencing Chinese family life today which really reminded me of why I had chosen to study abroad in China in the first place.  Despite today's sandstorm weather, it also gave me a sort of renewed excitement for being here.  Every day has been such a great learning experience and my time here has really only just begun.

Never seen that symbol for sandstorms before.

Meanwhile, I'm taunted with pictures of the Berkeley campus in sunny California.

As much as I dislike spending time in class sometimes, I've sincerely enjoyed every one of my 口语 spoken Chinese sessions.  The whole class revolves around conversation to give us opportunities to practice speaking.  It's especially interesting because of the diversity of countries people come from.  This week, we had a debate about economic perspectives in our respective countries, one girl lead a discussion about criminal justice and the death sentence, and Japanese students shared experiences about what its been like to study in China.  And though we're still nowhere near fluent, all this conversation happens in Chinese which can make for a frustrating, and yet really enlightening, two hour session.

Of course at some point we had to discuss China's knockoffs and learn copyright terminology.

There's less conversation which happens in 汉语 written Chinese class, but here I get to learn Chinese sayings which I often find to be pretty meaningful.  My teacher wrote these words on the board after explaining the meaning of 损人利己.

We also always have someone from the class do a performance or presentation in each day. My turn on Monday and no idea what I'm gonna do.

Lunch after class with some Japanese classmates.

 Despite the new environment I'm now in, I've also learned there are many things about college life which I guess don't change much across cultures.

Not sure why I even tried but I managed to find a seat for my first study session at the Peking University library.  It was not easy.  Felt like Main Stacks during dead week.

I still forget about dinner sometimes and find myself going out to grab late night snacks. The difference is these 红豆包red bean buns only cost 5RMB (<1USD) and taste like they're worth a lot more.

Before you judge me for being unhealthy, I have also found my favorite fruit stand on campus and have been restocking regularly.

I still have late night dates with the textbook and internet distraction.

These week, student clubs started tabling.  Here's the Sproul plaza of PKU. Sports clubs, volunteer organizations, business people, cat-feeders, etc.  You name it and it was there.  Except, perhaps, religious organizations for obvious reasons.

The view from the other side.  I ended up putting my name down for a few of them. We'll see what comes of it!

I still go to student welcome events where I have to introduce myself a million times like a freshman. Here I'm at an event organized by the language partner program where we wrapped dumplings and ate them for dinner.