Chinese Bars, Supermarkets, Malls, and Other Rants

Chinese Bars, Supermarkets, Malls, and other rants

February, 10^th, 2012

             The last few days have been pretty uneventful because we had our first week of classes and orientation sessions. Chinese class has been really helpful for me because I am the only student! I feel like one of those rich kids from way back in history who was rich enough to afford a private tutor for school subjects. Upon being in China I have realized really how much Chinese class in America has applied to being in the actual country of origin of the language I have been studying. Are you surprised to hear that I am pretty much an amateur in China?
             I have realized something pretty monumental, and it is not just about studying a language when you are not immersed in the culture and country of the language, but it is also about the school that I now study Chinese at – Pomona College. Pomona College strives to be a prestigious school with a rigorous academic schedule. How can you learn a language if you are speeding through it? In addition, Pomona puts its emphasis on writing and reading, there is very little emphasis on speaking. Isn’t speaking the most important part of learning a language? If you just know how to write a language or read a language, it is not really applicable to life. Whereas, if you know how to speak a language, that is where you really succeed in life. Well, what I have experienced at Pomona College is that we speed through the chapters so quickly and try to cram in so much, that I forget almost everything I learned after I finish the class. In fact, I forget almost everything I learned after I finish a Chapter in my Chinese class, because the class is based on cramming vocabulary and grammar structures so quickly into your head that it isn’t possible to succeed or remember things unless you are a superhuman memorization machine. I however, am no machine, and it is most definitely not possible for me to memorize a language so fast. Upon looking at the Syllabus of the class that I should be in this semester for Chinese, I saw that we use two textbooks at the same time! WHAT? Does that even make sense? While using one of the textbooks to actually study from and use in the class, the other textbook is assigned reading assignments every week. This textbook that is assigned reading assignments is NOT in ANY way a reading assignment type of textbook. It has vocabulary and grammar structures that you can’t just read in order to LEARN.
             In my conclusion and rant about Pomona College and how important it is to be prestigious, I have concluded that I am no longer going to take Chinese at Pomona. I should have learned and retained so much more than I did. I am learning so much more here in China, and no it is not because I am in China and using the language a whole lot, because I am actually not using it that much, but it is because my Chinese class here goes at a much slower pace and focuses on the speaking part of the language. Upon showing my Director here the syllabus, she told me that it looked way too hard and way too fast to even be possible. I completely agree with her. She also asked me, “Why do they give you so much and so little time to complete it.” It’s insane. I am just going to study Chinese independently because I ACTUALLY want to learn the language, I don’t want to just speed through it like some super human maniac who just wants the title of a minor in Chinese. It’s absolutely insane. And this is why a title does not define how smart and how educated someone is. People who actually go more in depth and learn a subject so that they come out with knowledge that they can retain, are the smarter people. Whether or not those people come from Pomona or Harvard, I am not sure, I bet it depends on the person and the teachers.

Chinese Bars:

We went to a Chinese Bar in Wudaokou, which is an area for international students in particular. Our Chinese teacher told us that China doesn’t really have bars; the bars are mostly American bars, and Chinese people don’t really go to them. There were a lot of Chinese people at the bar we went to but there were also a lot of international students. The more recent generation of Chinese are much more “American”, meaning that their values and ideas have changed from their more traditional Chinese parents and ancestors.

After going to the bar, I don’t know if I can get myself to ever go back. I haven’t ever experienced so much smoking in one area in my life. By the end of the night my eyes started to burn and when I returned home my hair had absorbed most of the smoke in the bar. The music was turned up so loud that I thought my eardrums were going to break. It was definitely not an ideal place to be. I do not recommend bars in China.

Malls:

The malls here are absurdly huge. Westernization and industrialization have just gone overboard here. The prices are also more expensive than in America at big malls. We went into the Apple store, let me just say, I have never seen a two story Apple store and SO MANY people in an Apple store before. I am sure part of this is because China has a huge population.

China is basically the same size as the US but it has over a billion people. A question on my mind that has been bugging me recently is how come China has such a huge population? Everyone knows there are way too many people here, but no one has told me why. And I’m sure the answer is extremely complicated and not because of one reason. One factor I’m sure is also that China has been around for much longer than America, and in the future, America could be having the same problem as China. Another factor is that when agriculture and farming was important before industrialization it was important for farmers to have a lot of children to help them with the work on farms. I bet a lot of people also didn’t know that the one child policy does not apply to everyone in China. The one child policy does not apply to minorities in China. The minorities are allowed two children. I know that one of the minorities is the Islamic Chinese.

Outside of the Apple store there were people that had bought Iphones from the same apple store and were trying to resell them right in front of the store. They had to be 300 meters away from the store, but they were still allowed to do this. This is what reminded us that we were in China and not America. It felt like we were in America because the malls look exactly the same in China. Another thing that amazes me is how much pirating goes on in China. I mean, there are huge stores that sell all pirated material such as DVD’s, CD’s, Softwares, etc. If someone were to setup a store like that in America, they would be in Jail for life.

Taxis:

Don’t take Taxis in China. You will get ripped off big time. If you are really desperate, then it’s not going to be too bad, but if you can avoid it, at all costs do it! Take the subway or the bus. Actually, the subway is so easy to use and to navigate.

Today we had a stressful experience in a taxicab. It took the most heavy traffic way to the place we were going, and then didn’t actually go to the destination we requested. Then when we had our Director talk to him on the phone and tell him in Chinese how to get to the destination, he went around in a circle and went back to basically the same place and requested that we get out of the taxi. It was really rude and he charged us way more than we should have been charged. We got charged 70 kuai. If we had taken the subway, we would have been charged 2 kuai each.  Basically in China people will go out of their way to rip off foreigners, which leads me to my next topic… racism in China.

Racism:

Our Director today told us, “I admit, China is probably one of the most racist countries”. This is something I actually dislike about China. They are especially racist against black people. If you go into supermarkets, you will see lightening cream, instead of tanning cream, which is what people use in the states to look more tan. Well people in China want to look whiter. And even though people like Americans here, they are still racist against them by trying to rip them off because they are foreigners. As I learn more about racism in China, I will have more to say, but as of right now this is most of what I know.

Being Queer in China:

The biggest issue about being queer in China is between children and their parents. Parents don’t want their children to be queer because they want them to marry a person of the opposite sex and have kids. Having ancestors is extremely important in China. I am not sure if people know about or use donors here but I wonder if they knew about it, if they would accept it.

Religion and queerness is not an issue here because not many people are religious. Therefore, not many people can say that they don’t accept queer people because of what the bible says or because it is against their religion.

I still don’t know very much about this, but once I do I will comment on it more.

Independent study project:

I am now officially doing my independent study project on Buddhism in China so be prepared for a second blog all about that. It’s going to be really exciting! I will start out with attending a Buddhist temple and events their and probably conducting some interviews.

The Apple Store in China

People standing outside the Apple store selling Iphones from the same Apple Store

What?! What happened to our Childhood? hahahaha.

Just a funny book we saw in a book store. People who are pretty good at English here like to say Wow a lot. And then I realized, I do say wow a lot! hahaha.

 

Michael Jackson impersonator in Sanlitun