These cartoons were made by my students. Earlier this year they had an assignment. Write a letter as if your friend was coming to Shanghai from a western country, how would they experience culture shock? They had good answers so when it came to write the exams the other teacher and I decided to add a little twist and put ourselves in the picture. I especially liked these. One I like because my facial hair is out of control. Another I like because of the last frame with people walking around someone that is hurt (that happens). One I like other because of the phrase, “what in the name of Chiang Kai Shek!” and the last one because it was thoughtful. There you can see I am experiencing shock as someone eats spiders and I point, then I see people pushing to get on the subway and I point. Finally in the third frame you see a bus driver seeing me pointing and thinking, “I thought pointing was rude?” A great example of the different ways that people see behavior.
Culture shock has abounded for me here in Shanghai, mainly in a negative way. Most things I have gotten used to. Spitting, peeing in bushes in plain view, picking your nose in plain view, talking at volume 10, littering, standing in doorways/stopping at the mouths of escalators are all things I think are uncouth, but I quickly get over them. Probably the one thing that does continue to bother me is the way people push to get on the subway. Maybe this is because I am often directly involved. I would think pushing to get a seat would be rude, but perhaps rational. Pushing to get into a subway car when the people in your way are the ones coming out is just stupid.
In any case, I won’t have to deal with these things much longer. In two months I will be finishing here in Shanghai and then heading to the Canada and the US for some conferences and time with family. After that, we are heading to Penang. I’m sure a whole host of new annoyances await me, but at least for now I can imagine that nothing will bother me. Just to freshen up, I have order Culture Shock: Malaysia to get a handle on customs. I remember looking for customs for China and some of them are very true, like savings face, but most of the things I dealt with everyday I never learned in a guidebook. Thinking back, there are very few things I will miss about Shanghai, but I will miss my students. They have been some of the best students I have ever had. There is something about the Confucianism in East Asia which makes the students some of the best from a teacher’s point of view. Sometimes I think about teaching in the U.S. again and it makes me wonder if I ever can after being so spoiled in East Asia.
The whole Malaysia experience will be a fresh one. Neither Aya nor I have ever been to Malaysia and the job I am taking will be a new experience as it is in the IB system. We are probably heading in other new territory as we intend to stay for a while and to start a family, but I think that is all better saved for a future post.
For now I will enjoy the things I do about Shanghai, especially my students, and dream of the summer. It is almost here.
8 comments:
Petek told me that you are surprised that I enjoy(ed) living in China so much. Thinking back on my years in China, my first year in Beijing was my first time living in a big city, and also my first time living in a foreign country. That everything was new and exciting was certainly an important part of what I liked.
More generally, I think I liked the energy. People work crazy hard, for much less reward than in the United States at least. You have guys running restaurants that are open all day, and then they sleep in the restaurant and open again in the morning. That is crazy, but this level of work for a relatively small reward is pretty common.
The other thing that I always found neat was that (the first time I went) people remembered such gigantic events as the cultural revolution or the great leap forward. The accountant in my school was a red guard, for gosh sakes. When many Chinese people were born, the country was totally different, in ways that are hard to imagine (pretty much everyone wore the same "mao suit" type of clothing, and you needed permits to visit anywhere).
Petek said that you think there isn't a sense of history in China. I don't know how many times some Chinese person has lectured me about the 5000 years of Chinese history. The romance of the three kingdom stories are based on historical events from around the time of Jesus. There are many structures in Beijing which were built hundreds of years ago, including houses which people still live in. Children at standard elementary schools memorize poems written a thousand years ago in the Tang and Song dynasties. This kind of stuff floats my boat.
Finally, China of today is also a really interesting place. Production and the quality of life is growing at a rate faster than anything seen in history. As I mentioned, people our age have lives much much different than those of their parents. The economy of china has doubled since last time I was there in 2004. If only people could figure out why this happened, it could really improve the lives of people in other parts of the world.
There are probably other things that I am forgetting. I will be able to say more once I come back from a visit this summer--I have changed a lot since 2004 as well.
Yes, I can see that first time in a big city and country would be exciting. I agree and I have felt the same way in a few of the places I have lived. There is something unique and romantic about living abroad and especially a big city.
Yes, I can see some people working very hard. However, I also see a lot of foolish sloppy work. Along the lines of the restaurant example; I could easily see people working round the clock and sleeping in their restaurant and I admire that, but I could also see them buying recycled cooking oil to reduce costs and thereby risk making their customers sick. Hard working, but sloppy.
Yes, I can go look at the “old” buildings of the Bund or maybe even go somewhere like Yuyuan Garden, but any country outside of the new world will have places that are a few hundred years old. I also think it is neat that people remember those events of China’s most recent history, but it’s more of a sad remembrance in my opinion. While it could be interesting for me, overall it is not for them. Certainly China has a long history, but so do a lot of other places and to say that China’s is different because it is continuous flies right in the face of that memorable time, the Cultural Revolution.
China’s economy is booming, but I don’t feel like it is entirely unique. The thing that sets it apart is that it is a gigantic country, but given the per capita GDP and the income disparity I am intrigued, but not won over. If the average per capita is around 8,000 and the gini is over .45 officialy I am not so impressed. What that means in real terms is a lot of wealth concentration on the eastern seaboard with low to moderate gains in the interior, wealthy individuals, moderately better off society. Good, but not completely surprising from a country that basically opens itself to capitalism from the ruins communist policy. China’s GDP has doubled since 2004, but so has India’s, apparently they figured out how that happens too. I don’t think it is any great mystery. Pretty much all of BRIC have had similar stories. Don’t get me wrong, I think its great and interesting, but it wouldn’t make me want to live here.
That is my main point, there are things that I could find interesting about China, things I like, but why would I want to live here? There are hard working people, who sleep in their shops, in lots of countries. There are countries with deep histories who didn’t destroy their artifacts and pretend to move forward, so I am able to enjoy them still. Yes, China’s economy is booming and from the standpoint of an economist, or an economics teacher, that is terribly interesting, but I would rather not sit in the smoke of industrialization to observe it. China may be a great place to live, in 20-30 years. I guess I will see you in a couple months and see how you feel.
Dave, sorry but I have to agree with Kevin! (not that I am biased or anything) I am trying to remember... did you spend any time in Japan? I think you would find the contrast between Japanese vs Chinese to be very marked. You would find some things in common, such as the hard work ethic and the historical buildings, etc. But as you observe the Japanese, you will witness the differences within those similarities... historical buildings & temples that are maintained and clean, not like the run-down ones I saw in Beijing; the hard work ethic WITH accompanying quality and precision that produces the now-familiar techy big names, NOKIA, SAMSUNG, TOYOTA etc and even within the machine shop where I work, the MORI-SEIKI and Hitachi CNC machines. We still buy them direct from Japan. A few years ago we lost some business to a low-bidding machine shop in China, but within a year, we had the business back because of poor quality. As Kevin said, hard-working but sloppy. I have to agree with him also about the lack of care with food preparation because my stomach had to experience the effects of it during our trip to the Great Wall. I won't give you the gory details but it is another example of the carelessness of Chinese... our driver told me to just throw it out the window, with all the other litter along the road, which you would never find in Japan, or USA either!
I know that you will say that I am biased in favor of Japan... well, you are correct, but I hope that at least some of my bias is based on truth. And perhaps if Kevin had not lived in Japan first, he would not have been bothered by these differences.
Well, de gustibus non est disputandum.
Kev: Let me just take issue with one thing.
GDP per capita levels in China and India.
GDP per capita growth in BRIC.
The sustained growth rate of the Chinese economy is like nothing else in history.
Mary: In the 1950's and 1960's, it was Japan that was the cheap crap manufacturer to the world. What sort of machinery will be produced in China in 50 years?
Pure speculation! During those decades, Japan was recovering from WWII, so most likely grasped at anything to re-start the economy. However, bigger issue is the method of growth in China that is suspect. Kevin told me that groups of people were TOLD they are to move to cities or TOLD they are to stay rural; the government has a 5-year and 10-year plan, etc. This massive change can be imposed externally, but it seems has not been internalized by the Chinese people. Again, only my observations... but perhaps in a generation or two, there will be genuine change.
I do hope you enjoy your time in Beijing, but beware of the bullet train-haha! (another example of disregard for safety & human welfare!)
And do not go door-to-door with Kevin in your Jehovah outfits! haaa!
I'm sure if we looked at historical examples we could find sustained growth of that level, 20 years in historical terms is nothing. What about S. Korea for a modern example? They had an average gdp growth of more than 8% a year from 1962-1989. They took much the same route as Japan, working their way up the chain to manufacturing high quality goods. Each of these East Asian countries has taken its turn at developing and having a high growth rates, now its China's turn. I don't find that terribly unique.
Its hard to imagine that one day this place, where people spit, cut in line, shove, pick their nose, etc. will ever resemble present day Korea or Japan. It’s not just products produced, it’s the society that produces them. Regardless of what China may be producing in 50 years or what the size of the per capita gdp is today, I wouldn't want to live here when there are so many other options available to me. I'm not the one seeing my per capita gdp growing, nor am I going to be enjoying China's products 50 years from now (or will I?).
Using worldbank data, South Korea's per capita GDP grew at a annual mean of 6.3% from 1962 to 1989 (28 yrs), with a standard dev of 3.3%. From 1981 to 2010 (28 yrs) China's per capita GDP grew at an annual mean of 9.0%, with a 2.9% standard deviation. 3% difference in growth rate of 30 yrs is a huge difference, and you are choosing the best sustained growth rate in history outside of China.
I didn't use world bank data, I used wikipedia , hahaha, but point taken. In any case my last statement stands. It is wonderful for China, but makes almost no difference to me. I can understand being very interested in seeing the growth occurring here, I am sure it will blow your mind when you return. I just wouldn't want to live here to experience it.
I am planning on starting a family and also have my wife's and my own health and comfort to consider. I feel compelled to find a place that is good for them and this isn't it.
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