Life in China

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  • This topic has 11 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 9 years ago by Avatar photoMaz.
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  • #44629
    Avatar photoMaz
    Participant

    Recently I read a number of articles about life in China. The first article I read was ‘How to live in Chengdu’, which led me to another article written on the Chengdu Living website called ‘Enduring the China blues: Continued’, and it was an essay referenced in the latter article named ‘You’ll never be Chinese’ along with that report itself that inspired me to write this brief comment. I have also read another article by Sascha Matuszak prior to all the others already mentioned and it’s about ‘Returning to the US’.

    So, the theme becomes clear. However, since much has been discussed about how living in China is ideal; hard; impossible or to be tried once but never more than that, I want to approach this topic from a different angle. First, I would like to begin by saying that living and working abroad for any length of time needs reasons for doing it. You may start with one or two goals in mind, but these may change or be added to. Some of us do it for the thrill of being away in a foreign land that has a lot to explore. Others are pursuing a career that offers them an excellent financial incentive, which may lead them to achieve bigger things in their future. So, sometimes things simply don’t work out or don’t go as we wanted them, and so we become hesitant about our stay as time passes.

    Personally, I have been through several spells of despair in my adult life as a result of one thing or another. The key, as I found out, is to learn to pick up the negative signs early, analyse them and most importantly decide what you want to do as soon as you have made sense of the signs. Do you want to continue, or do you want to seek a different path? There’s no shame in constant change of mind, but you must be absolutely sure you no longer want to be where you were before and to improve yourself each time. As a newbie in China, I didn’t have any prior expectations before coming over to teach English. I was surprised by a few things that I quickly got used to and lived on with my life. It is not my mission to change China.

    As I read in the articles, this country’s economic rise and development has made most of its population too materialistic. That is true of the whole world. OK, let’s not generalise, but it is generally true! Yet still you will find that people are good hearted and are simply riding the rollercoaster of life in search of bettering themselves. Many of the countries I was in have forgotten their history and the youth are rebelling against some traditions in favour of the 21st Century hi-tech popular culture. So who is to blame here? One country I haven’t been to yet, but I know a lot about because of its dominant culture is the United States of America. Whenever someone asks me about countries I would like to visit, America is not on my list. I have nothing against the US or its citizens. I have met and worked with some wonderful Americans in England, Africa and now China. I’ve also met some who are arrogant and unworldly. The US is suffering from a similar case of amnesia as China and other countries. It too has forgotten what made her great (Individuality, ideas and inventions).

    Chinese people still have yet to develop what I call a “Global identity”, one that speaks a language other than Mandarin and one that interacts confidently with other peoples of the world. I believe that is happening slowly here through the influx of foreigners and through the learning of languages, especially English, as early as the first grade of public primary school. In my opinion, the powers that be in China don’t want this transition to happen too quickly and too soon however, but in time this will benefit China more as long as it holds on to its customs and traditions and finds its history again. Only then can the Chinese surpass Japan and Korea Republic and dream about being a Superpower.

    Finally, I want to conclude by touching on a point made in one of the articles about interactions in shops after buying something. Normally, in the West, the salesperson or shopkeeper would wish you a good day or crack a smile. This perhaps doesn’t happen here in Chengdu between a local and a foreigner; so what?! Make it happen! The verbal exchange doesn’t even have to be in Chinese, though a mix of “Xie xie” helps. It is a habit of mine to start my purchase of anything with eye contact to see what mood the other person is in. I smile briefly and wider if I get a response. Afterwards it’s “Thanks” or “Xie xie” followed by “Bye-bye”. Due to the economic crisis of late, such etiquette in the West is dead; at least it is in London, England, unless it’s a foreigner on the cashier or waiting on your table.

    Life in China is truly what you make it. I love how a student from a top high school could just come up to me in a restaurant and politely ask if I could fill in a short survey, even though I was eating and was with someone. The key is to keep cool and get on with it or excuse yourself nicely despite the nuisance caused. China is learning to interact with outsiders and each of one of us is an ambassador of our culture and country.

    “Can I take a photo with you?”
    “Yes; sure.”

    #44630
    Avatar photoRay
    Participant

    Well written and thoughtful post. I think you’re referencing my comment re shopkeepers saying “thank you” and “have a nice day”. It wasn’t a criticism of China. Just saying that it’s a refreshing change when I return home, as is blue sky and clean air. I ain’t the most sociable guy myself! 🙂

    #44632
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Spend a lot of time here and I think you might see how dynamic and difficult to characterize China can be. It’s often frustrating and non-sensical but it’s also charming and inspiring in a lot of ways. It’s many things. Having a love/hate relationship with China is common among expats here. I like Ben Brown’s post, How to Live in Chengudu, it describes this as well.

    There’s also a wide range of experience in different regions of China. I just got back to Chengdu from Xinjiang last night and let me say, this place feels like a utopian future compared to places like Urumqi. Chengdu really is one of the best places you could be in China, the more I travel around the country (been to 100+ cities) the more I feel sure of that.

    #44635
    Avatar photoVincent
    Participant

    I just got back to Chengdu from Xinjiang last night and let me say, this place feels like a utopian future compared to places like Urumqi. Chengdu really is one of the best places you could be in China

    Care to expand on this? I’m not sure what you’re referring to exactly.

    #44636
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Care to expand on this? I’m not sure what you’re referring to exactly.

    Sure, I think I will publish a brief post on this today along with photos I took there. I will post a link to it here when it’s done. Basically, Urumqi feels like a war zone. The vibe is as far from the feeling in Chengdu as possible.

    #44637
    Avatar photoMiro630
    Participant

    I read your article and I find several points you mentioned interesting.

    1) I noticed that you mentioned that majority of people in China seems to be quite materialistic. I understood it in a way that you mean they are more materialistic than people in other countries.

    Can you pls tell me what do you mean by that?

    2) You indicated that you think Japanese and South Koreans have more of by you called ‘global identity’ than Chinese. What concerns of English language so I am not exactly sure the situation in Korea and particularly in Japan is better than in China. On the account of selfesteem so it may be partly connected with our misunderstanding or so called culture difference. I do not think that majority of the people here lacks self-confidence or has any inferiority feeling towards foreigners.

    All of us are coming to China and we are all saying that our cultures are different – not worse, not better – just different.

    Nevertheless it somehow, may be naturally, for a lot of people develops into the stage when they probably unintentionally believe that ‘their way’ is better. Sometimes it really is but sometimes is not as the society is very complex thing and changing one particular detail just a bit can heavily influence the other parts (and thus, sometimes, bring a lot of problems).

    When reading Ben Brown article so I assume that majority of his tips were aiming at this point – learn what is the situation and accept it – in the next step then try to find out why the situation is like it is and that will again contribute to your internal harmony.

    I am also from time to time annoyed by, from my perspective, smaller or bigger issues but usually there is a reason behind them.

    The misunderstandings are partly coming from different way of talking – Chinese generally do not like to contradict as it disturbs the good atmosphere. We sometimes misunderstand that for lack of knowledge or understanding – frequently it’s not – the person understand you completely! The person is just not able or willing to comply and from ‘proper’ Chinese perspective it looks to be a wrong way to enter into heated conversation about the topic (what we would work fine in my country and finally we would get the required outcome whatever it would be).

    Therefore so many westerners learned ‘This Is China’ sort of arguments as it gives the people chance to save face for all participants and we, foreigners, look to accept it as an argument. But of course it’s no argument and generally everything has its own, good or bad, reason – otherwise how could this country develop so rapidly and even fly to universe?

    Coming back to the language – I am not from English speaking country and as my country is quite small and therefore we are forced to learn foreign languages. After reaching certain level we usually realize one thing – there are a lot of discussions in which both parties absolutely understand each and every word but they still misunderstand each others meaning. What I mean that language is just a tool but as part of communication it’s closely connected with culture.

    As we came to China so it’s our task to decipher and understand the China culture and the reasons behind the people behavior – I am sure these reasons exists and usually they give a lot of sense to majority of the situations around us.

    Sorry for writing such a long article – in the future I will try to be less ‘talkative ‘ …

    #44645
    Avatar photoMaz
    Participant

    @ Ray –
    Thank you. I’m glad you found it interesting. So, perhaps it’s just your fault being anti-social :p

    @ Charlie –
    Would it be fair to describe China as a constantly unpredictable place, where anything, good or bad, can happen anywhere and at anytime? I certainly found that to be the case so far 😀

    @ miro360 –
    Thanks to you too. I’m glad you like what I had to say. To answer your first question, I actually said that Chinese people are as materialistic as the rest of the World, not more and not less than. We are all hypnotized by the latest gadget piece of technology and the latest fashions and so on. That’s what I meant. My point about the Japanese and Koreans (historical disagreements aside), generally they are more well-travelled than the Chinese. That’s to say, some have studied abroad, worked and lived there and this has been going on for a long time etc. So, they have a head start, but China is climbing fast. Of course the wars fought that brought about the cultural and economic “influence” of the United States has a lot to do with it as well as the length of time that has been going on.

    #44646
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    @ Charlie – Would it be fair to describe China as a constantly unpredictable place, where anything, good or bad, can happen anywhere and at anytime? I certainly found that to be the case so far

    To an extent, yes. In a lot of ways it really is what you make of it. China will test you in many ways, so it demands a certain amount of patience and tolerance.

    #44702
    Avatar photoDan
    Moderator

    Hey Maz, I’ve seen a couple of your posts here and I’d just like to say I think you have a great attitude. “Smile and the world smiles back”

    #44708
    Avatar photoMiro630
    Participant

    Dear Maz,

    As majority of us are coming from so called ‘Trans-Atlantic civilization’ so I think we naturally assume that knowing and understanding our ways is for the rest of the world important.

    May be yes, may be no – I guess it depends on the persons aims and targets in the life.

    What I want to say that we are just a very small part of this big world and the big development of countries like India and China probably made many people to call this millennium to be millennium of Asia.

    I assume that in not so distant future it can be totally opposite and  for instance Chinese will blame EU people for lacking the ‘global identity ‘ (I am not making fun of this term!) due to the lack of knowledge about Chinese or Indian ways …

    As a matter of fact I can see quite an ignorance about the real China situation in so called Western world (some of my colleagues asked me before their trip to Shanghai if I could send them Chinese money as they are afraid there is no way how they could change their Euros and Dollars into Renminbi and these people traveled into a lot of countries already … But I admit this is kind of extreme).

    What concerns of the foreign languages proficiency I strongly suggest a trip to Italy or France and trying to get around just with speaking English …

    I assume that knowing of the languages is more connected with the fact if the person does or does not need that for successful life. If the domestic market is big enough so the necessity for learning foreign languages is quite low. Almost all Europeans with university degree can communicate in English – but just a small part of English speaking countries university graduates knows the second or third language. It’s not because they are less capable – it’s just not necessary for them in order to succeed.

    Just my two cents 🙂

    #44716
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    What’s unique about China is that it’s segregated from the rest of the world, and moving further apart. I think that’s at the core of the misunderstanding between China and the West – China doesn’t want to integrate with the rest of the world, it wants everyone else to adapt to China. But most of the world isn’t willing to do that, especially under the current economic climate (of slowing growth) in China. Xi Jinping is taking China in a new direction – that of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and it is not really in accordance with the direction that anyone else on planet earth is going. With all that said, even though Chinese society exists within the Confucian order that is fundamentally different from the West, these are still people who covet iPhones and Mercedes and want mostly the same things as everyone else.

    #44719
    Avatar photoMaz
    Participant

    @ Dan –
    Sometimes the world doesn’t smile back, it frowns or spits back at you :p I’m a “Treat others like you want to be treated.” Sometimes my kindess is mistaken for naivety, but take advantage of it and you won’t get far 😀

    @ Miro630 –
    Sorry I got the numbers in your name wrong last time Miro :p
    You hit the nail on the head with everything that you have said.
    English is the official language of business, communication, IT, sport, science and medicine and that’s why people are lining up to learn it, so they could expand their success.

    @ Charlie –
    Well put, sir.

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