China!

Pseudo Stardom (Day 1)

Today we visited Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. Rather than the sites being the objects of attention, our group somehow found ourselves in the spotlight instead. Unexpectedly, many of the Asian foreigners had a fondness for us Americans, especially those of us who were blonde females. I lost track of the number of times I was “asked” to be in a photo with someone. The process would start with them staring at our group and/or they would just snap a candid photo of us. More often than not the situation would go further when they’d approach one or two of us with a smile and point to a camera if they didn’t know any English (most were not bashful about this and often even ‘photo-bombed’ our photos by jumping in with us). It ended up becoming quite funny due to the magnitude of these occurrences, especially when our group would go to take a group photo. We’d all get together and Dr. Li would go to take our picture, but within seconds there’d literally be a mass of foreigners right next to Dr. Li also taking photos of our group. Once or twice today I snapped a photo of everyone taking a photo of us to document the unusual attention we were receiving. Overall it was an unexpected experience that was somewhat amusing to be a part of. While a little wearing after a while, everyone I encountered in this manner was quite friendly and you could tell it made them quite happy to have their pictures taken with total random strangers.

Seeing beautiful sites rich in history and making others' days; what more could you ask for on your 1st day in China?!

 

Look Both Ways Before Crossing the Street (Day 2)

Traffic in China is complete chaos…at least it seems that way to me as a foreigner. There is no such thing as pedestrian right-of-way here. Vehicles own the road and you must be aggressive to get anywhere. Cars and bicyclists seem to drive wherever and whenever they please including the shoulder of the road and running red lights. Car horns and bicycle bells are a common sound here as cars zigzag in and out of lanes and bicyclists maneuver through cars and weave around pedestrians. Don’t be fooled by the green man sign at crosswalks either; he appears to be more or less just for show. Despite this chaos I must note that I have only witnessed 1 fender bender on the streets. Astonishing I have not seen one traffic accident. 

That being said, Chinese traffic is a clash of old vs. new. You will see BMW, Porshe, and even Ferraris driving right next to people on old bicycles. With over 2 million cars on the road, Beijing even limits the number of vehicles that can be on the road at any given time. The system is based upon license plate numbers. For instance, on Thursdays plates ending in 3 or 5 are not allowed to be on the road. All I know is that after witnessing traffic, I would like to look more into Chinese traffic laws to see how things really do operate

 

Being Preyed Upon (Day 3)

China is obviously a hot spot for tourism; especially in Beijing with it’s many attractions and rich history. With tourism currently being in peak swing, the local scammers are also out in force waiting to pounce on unsuspecting and timid foreigners. I think it’s outlandish how many locals will stand outside all day long trying to sell fake junk to passerby’s…it’s even more silly when you pass by 10 of them all trying to get you to buy the same exact items (for example, pictures of yourself and which ever attraction they happen to be hanging out at). As a result of these ad nauseam occurrences, the Chinese phrase for “no, thank you” has become the most uttered phrase by members of our group. The vendors like to be quite persistent and will usually only desist after you utter the phrase in Chinese (no matter the number of “no’s” or head shakes and hand wave-away’s you may have already done). Non-locals or non-Chinese speakers also need to be wary of being ripped off in other forms as well. Fake currency exchanges are another common scam. Further, vendors like to sell things at extremely high prices to non-locals too. Knowing this, one should always bargain and haggle over a price rather than just paying the initially stated number. It is not considered rude to practice such acts here; something I’m still becoming accustomed to.

 

Symbolism (Day 4)

The Chinese seem to have a much richer and deeper culture than do us Americans. The reason could be because I’m an outsider to their customs, which makes it feel as such, but I honestly believe the Chinese have more meaning and traditions in their daily lives. It seems like there is meaning for just about everything around. Take numbers for instance. The number 4 means death. As such, one should never give items in groups of 4 as gifts. The number 8 is lucky for the Chinese. The Bird Nest Olympic stadium opened on August 8^th and the opening ceremonies began at 8:08 pm. The number 9 is religious and means God/Heaven. The Temple of Heaven (which we visited today) was built based upon the number 9 (for instance, all the stairs were in flights of 9). Colors also have a lot of significance here. The color red means luck and good fortune (Chinese women traditionally wear this color on their wedding days). The color blue is religious, just like the number 9 and symbolizes heaven. Yellow is the color of the emperor and green is the color of the common people. These few examples barely begin to scratch the surface of the rich symbolism in Chinese culture. A few more include pomegranate plants, the dragon, and the Chinese knot. The Chinese word for “pomegranate seed” also means “son.” Because of this, the Chinese will plant pomegranate trees in the hopes that it will bring them sons. The dragon is a symbol of power, which is also used to represent the emperor.  The Chinese knot is an intricately woven single piece of string. It is meant to bring good luck and togetherness (symbolized by the use of the single string, i.e. something that isn’t severed or broken). I think it is very interesting and neat that the Chinese culture as so much meaning it. I wish American culture were more like that. I will say though that it can be tricky being a foreigner and trying to navigate their customs. With seemingly everything having meaning, it can be quite easy to accidentally offend without ever knowing it (e.g. like giving a gift that comes in a set of 4 as mentioned above). Overall though, it definitely makes the culture a lot more fun to learn about.

 

 

One Child Policy (Day 5)

Before coming to China I was aware of their One Child Policy, but I was reminded of it today and learned a little bit more about it. Essentially the policy limits Chinese families by only allowing them to have one child in an attempt to control the massive population in the area (Beijing after all has over 20 million people in it). That being said, not all families have just one child. My international Chinese friend in the states has a younger brother. She says that some families have more than one child, especially in the rural regions. She also mentioned that families are generally “penalized” for the 2^nd child and do not receive support for them.

Because of the One Child Policy, China’s population has become more and more skewed (because the Chinese prefer to have boys since they carry on the family name). According to lecture today, the ratio is 121 with males of course being the predominate gender. Professor Li said this imbalance is really going to be a huge issue starting within the next 20 years when males start to become unable to find wives. The Chinese preference for male babies, and subsequent population skewedness has become so bad that hospitals will not tell expecting parents the sex of their child before birth during ultrasounds out of fear of potential abortions.

In a previous marketing class, I heard a short case study about Huggies diapers here in China. Apparently the company tried to market and sell blue and pink colored diapers. The blue diapers would sell out, but the shelves of pink diapers would remain untouched. This occurred because the Chinese were too ashamed to publicly admit that they had a girl, so they would buy the blue diapers regardless of their child’s gender. In talking with one of the Chinese students in class today, she said she feels like this slant is starting to get better. She said that it is now good to have a daughter and families are more okay with it.