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| Living in Suzhou, China | ||
| I have lived in Suzhou, China for 4 months. My life has completely changed. I was wide-eyed when I first arrived, and I still am. However, it will be difficult. The language is new, the culture is different, the society is alien, the laws are non-existent, and the chinese are an interesting race. However, that's what I came here for, and I'm glad I did. Let me start. The language: Of course, it will be difficult to learn the language, since you are an english teacher who teaches english, plans lessons, and wants to be a tourist at the same time. It's taken me a lot of motivation to learn some key phrases. When you speak to people in the chinese you've learned, good luck, because if you don't have the right pronunciation, they'll say "shenma", which is "what?". Also, they'll say shenma when they understand, just to fool around with you and make you lose face and call you laowai (foreigner). At first it'll be slightly maddening or demeaning, but after a while, you won't bother with such annoyances. But I suggest making an effort and getting a speaking partner (which is really, really easy here since everyone wants to learn english). The culture: Well, I'll sum chinese culture in one sentence: If you are not a china-born chinese citizen, you won't understand it, regardless of how much time you've been here. This country was closed to foreign lands until 1993. Even though the country has opened itself up (from a capitalistic point of view), the minds haven't. Culture here is derivative and propagandistic. You have white faces on billboards and white stars on cds (I hate Britney Spears), and you have the worst english grammar on every article of clothing (I love seeing SADIDA instead of ADIDAS). Chinese people love to shop, eat fast food at KFC or Mickey D's and go to KTV at night. You might think I'm generalizing and offering stereotypes, but, there is truth in stereotypes, and more so when the majority is so high in the percentile points. - Everything is negotiable, save products in department stores, or grocery stores. Markets are great for haggling. So are shops, boutiques, and dvd shops (my heaven, only a buck for a dvd). -People love to push ahead of you and will pass you if you are standing in line. If you say something, they will look at you in bewilderment. -The people that work in the service industry are very rude. If they want your money, they won't be. If they get paid by the hour, they will be. They'll even try to rip you off. You can't blame them: China doesn't tolerate unions, so, the workers work for pennies (and loads of university students do this). -Chinese people love their country. Indoctrination starts at a very young age, and as a result, disillusionment occurs in universities. Since I love children, I figured I'd do my part and brainwash a few. -Chinese people are not xenophobic; they are only surprised to see foreigners. There aren't enough, that's why, and the country is slowly opening the eyes of people in the West. Teaching: Hmmm, teaching. Every child is an only child, which means they are little emperors or empresses. Out of sheer posterity, the parents force their child through 16 hour days of tutelage and/or required education. They want their child to be the next Mao Tse-Tung. Sure, they are noisy brats, however, they are the most entertaining bunch of brats I've ever seen. If you can teach young children here, do it. You'll have a headache at the end of the day, but at least you laughed and smiled while having it. As for the system, I'll put it this way: there is no public school system in China. Even those schools that purport to be aren't. Why? Because, the government doesn't support them. So what happens? The school must charge. What happens next? Greed emerges as the primordial factor and most teachers are unhappy, while the principal daydreams in his new Lexus or Buick (they're considered high-class here!). Now, if you were the principal of a school, would you adopt a socialistic paying style or a capitalistic paying style, if you had the choice to choose one? Schools are businesses, teachers are white commodities, and children are spit out like bread out of a factory. If you can accept that fact, then you're way ahead of many teachers here. Who's to blame? Hmmm, maybe Deng Xiaoping for making the country damn capitalistic. Wasn't that what the world wanted anyway? Behaviour: I've also learned that ingratiation works well here. If you do someone a favor, they surely won't forget. You must learn how to play the game here, and quick, because you'll get stepped on if you don't. When you demand something, be nice about it, but do it often, so the school doesn't forget. Always smile at the principal, because he surely won't forget (and yes, I have omitted genderless pronouns her for a reason). Buy expensive cigarettes and give them to the ones that matter. Chungwha cigarettes will go a long way. The majority of chinese people are shallow and vain, thus, they will judge by what you've bought and what you can show. Everytime I smoke, chinese friends, teachers and strangers always ask me what kind of cigarettes I smoke. When I tell them what I smoke, they laugh at me because I smoke the cheapest brand. This is akin to western people buying Christian Dior and flaunting it, or people buying SUVs as symbolism of themselves. It's just an illusion really, and it's easy to get past that when people remind you of their cellphone brand. People: The people will stare at you often. Try smilling at them, and not directly staring them down, and 9/10 times, they will smile back. I stick out my tongue or pucker my lips sometimes, and this usually has people smiling. People spit everywhere. Hmmm, with so much pollution, do you blame them? I've had a perpetual cold since I've been here, with so much phlegm and black goo to build a tar-filled snowman. The Japanese take their shoes off in a hospital; we usually keep our shoes on in the west. It's only a matter of how people have been influenced and/or indoctrinated. When I walk in a house here with my shoes on, oyyyy, do I hear about it. Mao Tse-Tung, during the Cultural Revolution, told people to drive onwards on red lights and to stop at green lights. Of course it didn't work, but my point is, you can never blame a person for the things he does which you deem are wrong while he deems them right are proper. Otherwise, you'll be guilty of an ethnic/western superiority complex, which gets tiresome after a while. Dating: Good luck. Like I said, the country has opened but the minds haven't. You will not meet many chinese girls/boys or women/men who want to have something to do with you. By golly, in Suzhou, there are goddesses everywhere but, there are usually obstacles lying in wait. Firstly, there is family, and that might be the harshest obstacle. Secondly, most chinese don't have time to date in University, as they are so busy. Once in a while, though, you will find some that are attracted to handsome laowais (like me, haha!) Be tolerant, be patient, do not lose face, do not show weakness, and treat the other like you don't want them. That's been my experience with chinese girls. If you want to play the dating game here, play it like a chinese man, which is to do the above. Well, that's all for me. Email me if you have questions. Patrick Bois December 16th, 2004 grooveholmes19@hotmail.com Suzhou, China |