I can't believe I'm about to leave China. I just went through the immigration gate, where the officer checked that I haven't stayed longer than my visa permitted. I came with a 90 day Tourist Visa, and today makes exactly 90 days. It's strange to think that 3 months ago, I arrived in China at the Beijing airport, filled with so much nervousness and excitement for my summer here. Now, as I wait to board my plane to LA at the exact same airport, I feel so thankful that I've had this opportunity to grow here over the summer. I've learned so much about my culture and improved my Chinese in the best way possible. I've cherished the time spent with my family in Wuhan. Coming here alone has not only given me independence, but helped me to become confident in it. I am going to miss the wonderful 3 months that I've spent here, all the people that I've gotten to know and the ones that I now know better. I know that the memories of them and all that I've experienced are going to have a lasting effect of what I will want to do with my future.
Tomorrow morning I take my final exam in my Chinese class, and then I have officially finished the USAC program here at Shanghai University. I've had a great summer here, and I cannot believe how quickly these past few weeks have gone. Our whole group is meeting for a final lunch tomorrow, and then I leave in the afternoon to catch my plane back to Wuhan. I will stay in Wuhan at my grandmother's house for about another week until I return to the States on the 16th. I am going to miss Shanghai and everyone I've met this summer. I have grown to deeply appreciate the juxtaposition of a city that I have explored firsthand. There could have been no better way to improve my Chinese language skills and learn more about Chinese culture. It feels so unreal that I am leaving tomorrow.
In class this morning, my Chinese teacher shared with us the top 12 "slang" adjectives in Mandarin that come from existing words. They are commonly used among teenagers and their parents. Listed below are the characters,or hanzi, then the pinyin, and followed by the original and new meanings.
1. 牛 niú. Original meaning: cow. New meaning: awesome. 2. 土 tǔ. Original meaning: dirt. New meaning: unsophisticated, especially of rednecks, hicks, etc. 3. 宅 zhái. Original meaning: residence. New meaning: to like staying at home. Derived from the Japanese culture of staying home to watch anime videos rather than going out. 4. 俗 sú. Original meaning: common, rustic. New meaning: unoriginal, tacky. 5. 贱 jiàn. Original meaning: inexpensive. New meaning: despicable, nasty. 6. 红 hóng. Original meaning: red. New meaning: popular or revolutionary. Red is the color of the Chinese flag. 7. 洋 yáng. Original meaning: ocean. Extended meaning: foreign or fashionable. 8.色 sè. Original meaning: colour. Extended meaning: lewd, dirty. 9. 臭 chòu. Original meaning: stinky. Extended meaning: terrible, to suck at something. 10.萌 méng. Original meaning: sprout. New meaning: cute, adorable, especially of young boys or girls. Derived from the Japanese. 11.潮 cháo. Original meaning: tide. Extended meaning: fashionable. 12.二 èr. Original meaning: two. New meaning: dumb. From the slang expression 二百五 èrbǎiwǔ (“two hundred and fifty” , which means "stupid person"). Comes from an old currency value. One of the most popular destinations in Shanghai among foreigners doesn't feature world famous gardens or cultural artifacts, but is instead a 4 story building of individual stalls stuffed with bolts of fabric and images pulled from fashion magazines. Known as the South Bund Fabric Market, this hectic center is mostly populated by foreigners who are hoping to get custom made clothing at lower prices than it would typically cost in their home country. The tailors and seamstresses inside speak English fluently and are very open to design suggestions. Most are able to duplicate an item from just looking at a picture. After seeing a blouse hung up in one of the stalls, I asked the seamstress if I could make some adjustments to the pattern to make a dress. She said that this was possible. I was very glad that she could understand English because I had a complicated idea. I also decided to be measured for a custom suit at a neighboring stall. After some price haggling, I settled on the dress for 300 yuan, or 50 dollars and the suit (including jacket, trousers, and cropped pants) at 600 yuan, or 100 dollars. If I were to have clothing custom made in the States from my own measurements, it would definitely be a lot more expensive. The tailors work very efficiently. Both my suit and dress were promised to be finished within a week. The seamstress said that the sewing was done through a combination of manual and machine sewing.
Most of the locals in Shanghai have never been to this market or don't even know that it exists, which I found interesting, It definitely attracts foreigners. There are also some great street food carts around the perimeter of the building and some "real'' handmade jewelry made by Tibetans. We leave for our overnight trip to Nanjing tomorrow morning; it will take about 4 hours by bus. We will be visiting Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's mausoleum(中山陵) and climbing to the summit of Zijin Mountain (紫金山 ) tomorrow. Saturday, we will be visiting the Ancient City Wall in Nanjing (古城墙) and The Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre (南京大屠杀纪念馆). We will be back Saturday evening.
Most of the people in the USAC program here are Americans, but there are two students from Spain and one from Japan. At dinner last night, the Japanese student told the rest of our group that he would not be coming with us on this trip because he was uncomfortable visiting the city where the Japanese army massacred 300,000 civilians in 1937. He was also fearful of being targeted for being Japanese since we needed our passports to check in at the hotel. Although I hold no animosity towards him or any of my Japanese friends, I can sympathize with the many Chinese who still resent the Japanese, especially those who experienced first hand the Japanese occupation of China. When I was in Wuhan with my grandmother, we watched a Chinese drama set in World War Two. The Japanese generals were all depicted extremely poorly, and my grandma called them huai ren, or bad people. She remembers when the Japanese occupied her neighborhood in Wuhan during her childhood. Unlike Germany, which has officially apologized and shown deep regret for its role in the Holocaust, the Japanese government has not offered any sort of apologies for invading China and the Nanjing Massacre. There is even a sect in Japan who refuses to believe the massacre even occurred. However, I do not think that the actions of those in the past should reflect poorly on a whole country. This trip will definitely be the most somber of those that we have taken, but I am interested in learning more about China's history. We traveled to Suzhou today, a scenic city two hours away from our university by bus. 42% of the ground in Suzhou is covered with water, earning it the nickname "Oriental Venice". We first visited The Humble Administrator's Garden, one of the most famous gardens in China and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The garden is market by lush vegetation, calm ponds topped with water lilies and surrounded by willow trees, and walkways covered by bamboo canopies. Buildings and pagodas are nestled seamlessly within the garden and the houses themselves seem to have no clear distinction between inside and outside. The houses are marked by a porch wrapping around the outer walls of the structure that welcomes the environment. We learned about lucky numbers in my Chinese class. In Chinese culture, the pronunciation of numbers that sound like lucky words are considered lucky. The number 8 in Chinese is "ba", which sounds like "fa", which means prosperity, wealth, or success. There are also many references of 8 in Chinese culture, such as the Chinese deities, the 8 Immortals and the Noble Eightfold path to followers of Buddha that ends suffering. At the garden, I found many forms of 8 : 8 signs with Chinese characters, the 8 points of a pagoda, 8 different stone window designs. Well known modern architect Chinese - American I.M.Pei was also inspired by the gardens of Suzhou growing up in China. Suzhou Museum, just right next door to the Humble Administrator's garden was designed by Pei. Unfortunately, due to time, I was only able to get a glimpse of the building as we were leaving the area.
After lunch, we visited a silk factory where we saw silk worms being harvested, nests of silk cocoons, machines that pulled the silk of the cocoon, and the drying of the silk for final products such as comforters and sheets. The first step of silk reeling production is the grading of the cocoons, where a worker sorts the cocoons into different quality levels. Silkworms produce different cocoons because of variations in their growth and in their environment. The best cocoons are white, clean, and of good shape, size, and uniform thickness. After they are sorted, a worker pulls the thread off the individual cocoon onto a spinning rod, which takes all of the silk off and leaves the worm's shell behind. Unlike caterpillars, silk worms dies inside their cocoons. After the silk is taken off, it is dried and used in different ways. We saw silk being pulled into a machine to make a tapestry. We also got to pull a ball of airy, light silk into four corners to add to a comforter that was being made. The factory was also connected to a store with all kinds of silk items including a silk fan. silk trousers, and even a silk fanny pack! Unfortunately, prices were extremely high. We next went to Tiger Hill. Historically, Wu King Helu was buried on the hill. Legend states that three days after he was buried, a white tiger was seen on the tomb, hence the name Tiger Hill. The Yunyuan Tiger Pagoda stands at the top of this hill. It is visibly leaning over, and apparently has been so since its completion in 961 A.D. This tower was constructed before, and taller, than Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa. Tiger Hill also has beautiful springs and Sword Pond. Supposedly, King He Lu was a famous warrior and sword collector and kept 1000 of his most treasured swords in the pond. We looked in, but didn't see any. There some structures on this hill that were part of courtyards, typical of Chinese architecture. We headed back to Shanghai after! I am currently taking a Chinese Business Ethics and Practices class here. Today, we discussed counterfeiting in China. This was especially interesting to me as I have been to several of the fake markets and taken advantage of the low prices and decent quality of counterfeit items. At these markets, it seems that everything can be counterfeited and the counterfeits stay up to trend. We discussed why counterfeiting is so prevalent in developing countries. In China for example, counterfeit production is widespread because of the lack of stricter punishment and laws to prevent it. The principles of economics state that as long as the benefits outweigh the costs, production will continue. We looked at the example of The Gillette Razor Blade Company infringement. In 1995, the Huaxing Razor Blade Factory(in China) was producing Gillette look-alike blades and supplying them in Gillette packaging. When Chinese authorities discovered the factory, they fined the company $3,500 and told the company that their illegal actions needed to stop. The company ignored the warning, and were fined again in 5 months for $3,300 when they continued to produce the blades. The lack of stricter action in China has led to widespread piracy and counterfeiting. As long as it is profitable, it will continue. In contrast, counterfeiting is less prevalent in developed countries such as the United States because the costs of illegal behavior are much higher.
After class, I went with my USAC friend Claire to 570 West Nanjing Road, a fake market 4 levels tall. According to my Chinese teacher, only foreigners go to these malls. Either the Chinese have never heard of them, or don't really care to go. It seems that all of the booth vendors can speak English, or at least "Pretty lady, handbags, watches, Louis Vitton?". I remember when I went to a tourist market in Kenya, and one of the salesman could speak Chinese. When I asked him how he had learned, he said he had picked up Chinese from all of the Chinese tourists moving through the area. I wonder if it is the same case at the fake market. It is only at the fake markets, which attract foreigners, that most vendors can speak English, and seems likely that this ability was acquired through experience and the need to be able to communicate with their main consumer audience. My business professor said that large fake markets like this are still in operation mainly because the vendors work with corrupt officials. They will bribe the officials who are in charge or monitoring counterfeit activity to notify them of when the next site check will be so that they can close shop in advance. Our USAC group toured the city today for the new students in Session 2. We started the morning along the Bund, walking along the river. Every time I visit this area, I am in awe of the different architectural styles here. Buildings often showcase multiple influences, from the classical orders of columns to the sweeping roofs found in traditional Chinese architecture capped by European domed square bell towers. The buildings are now home to various high end stores like Chanel, banks, such as the Bangkok Bank of Thailand, and various other businesses and luxury hotels. We then took a ferry across the river to the Pudong district to see the Shanghai World Financial Center Observatory. In 2009, this building was certified by the Guinness World Records as the world's Highest Observatory. The Financial tower is the tallest in China and the third tallest in the world, with the 100th floor being the 55m observatory deck at 474m above the ground. The observatory deck has a transparent glass-floor walkway. It was amazing to see the city laid out under my feet. In the afternoon, we visited the Shanghai Museum. This museum houses various mediums of ancient Chinese art, including pottery, calligraphy, and currency, and stone carvings dating to as far back as 500 B.C. These pieces were extremely well-preserved. The building itself is organized a central atrium lit by a glass covered low geodesic dome up above and surrounded by symmetrical double stairs on all sides. Next, we headed to the Former French Concession to visit the area of Tian Zi Fang. A "Concession" is a territory within a country that is not controlled by the state that owns it. The French Concession was established in Shanghai in 1849 and is home today to many cafes, bars, and restaurants as well as Tianzifang, a small neighborhood of old residential buildings called the "shikumen", which literally translates to stone doors. These stone framed houses with wooden doors are a symbol of the East Meeting West in Shanghai as they reflect a combination of Chinese and foreign styles of architecture. 7/7- My friends and I headed downtown today to check out Chanel's Little Black Jacket exhibit near the Bund. The exhibit is an installation of photos from the book The Little Black Jacket: Chanel’s Classic Revisited by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld and is centered around Coco Chanel's iconic little black jacket. This piece was created by Chanel in 1954 and has not been redesigned by the house since. Karl Lagerfield, head designer and creative director for Chanel, photographed more than 100 celebrities, both male and female, young and old, wearing the black jacket styled by Carine Roitfield for the book. The photos have now been displayed in exhibits worldwide. It was really interesting to see the various ways that this jacket has been styled, making it a truly versatile, classic piece. The gallery itself was beautiful, located in a classically designed building that could have previously housed one of the European trading companies of old Shanghai, creating an old-world, traditional, atmosphere that was perfect for an exhibit of a timeless piece. The main exhibition room had polished granite floors and beautiful granite columns; the ceiling had coffers outlined by ornate white trim, expensive-looking materials that created a grand interior. There was also an upstairs room with more photos in varying sizes, a video of the photo shoot, and physical books of the images to flip through. A smaller room downstairs had some "fire engravings" of the photos in primary colors. It was very cool to experience such a large but intimate space with a hierarchy in photo size giving the viewer different impressions. We also got some free posters of people modeling the jacket! Check out the online exhibit here : http://thelittleblackjacket.chanel.cn/en_US/experience. |
CHINA 2013
I am visiting China for 3 months this summer to visit relatives in Wuhan and study abroad at Shanghai University. Archives
August 2013
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