Last week, my coursework got the best of me, but I’m back now with another post!
Sunday
This Sunday was a pretty chill day. 25% of my cohort was sick with a cold, and I woke up feeling like I might be coming down with it, too. I finished up some homework and spent the afternoon talking to a friend from back home. This was how excited we were when we figured out how to make FaceTime reactions on WeChat:
Luckily, I was able to spend most of Sunday resting because this upcoming week is (was) China’s National Holiday. In honor of the formal establishment of the PRC on October 1, 1949, Chinese students get the first week of October off from school each year. I still had classes on Monday and Friday, but Tuesday through Thursday were class-free.
Monday
I woke up on Monday feeling motivated to tackle the day because I knew that after 4pm, I would have zero responsibilities for three days. After a quick breakfast, I headed to my first class, Hot Topics.
We finished up our discussion of “fan culture” and talked about how in China, internet celebrities can cash-in their social capital and profit from their fan bases. One interesting thing I noticed is that young Americans are more skeptical of sponsorships and influencer promotions, whereas young Chinese internet-users embrace these mechanisms and want to support their favorite internet celebrities regardless of product quality. After that discussion, we did a brief review of the semester’s topics so far in preparation for next week’s midterms.
After my first class, I headed to lunch with some friends. I ordered popcorn chicken with a soup that tasted like raw egg. (I didn’t even realize it came with soup when I placed the order.) I couldn’t stomach the soup, but the popcorn chicken was delicious.
My program is travelling to Shanghai in a few weeks, so in my second class we started learning about Shanghai’s history, culture, and current climate. I presented on the unique style of Shanghai’s buildings, its mixture of religious traditions, and its art scene. I’m feeling increasingly excited to visit – friends told me beforehand that I would love how contemporary Shanghai feels.
For my final class of the day, I reviewed Japan’s colonial history in Taiwan. During their short rule of the island, the Japanese introduced a new education system, a public health system, and a myriad of modern-day inventions and techniques (electricity, railroads, water-conserving irrigation, farming methods, etc.). At the time, Taiwan’s indigenous culture had been depleted by other colonizers and Han Chinese culture was slowing leaving the island with emigrants headed back to the mainland. The only people left in Taiwan were of low social status and limited means, which is why Japan was able to modernize the island so quickly: it wasn’t competing with a pre-existing regime or culture to expand infrastructure. Today, the biggest influence on Taiwan’s popular culture – including music, entertainment, fashion, architecture – comes from Japan.
When my third class ended, I felt so free! I dropped my backpack in my room before heading out on a bike ride to celebrate making it to the holiday. I’ve been struggling with disappointment in my language progress lately, and my favorite way of clearing my head is going for a bike ride.
I finished off the day in the most perfect way: by watching Mulan with Mandarin dubbing. I know I should be watching authentic Chinese media while I’m here, but sometimes you’ve got to do what’s most comforting, and that’s watching Mulan.
Tuesday
I originally planned to stay in and relax on Tuesday, but my friend Katie texted at 9 am to ask if I wanted to go into the city that morning to see what celebrations were happening, and I couldn’t resist. We ended up spending the morning, afternoon, and early evening in downtown Beijing, participating in festivities and window shopping.
Our goal was to hit the National Museum of China, which had free admission, but due to street closures and traffic restrictions, we weren’t able to get to it. As a matter of fact, in our attempt to get to the National Museum, we actually ended up in an hour-long line into a traditional garden that required reservations. When we asked how to exit the line, the security guards told us we would have to remain in line until we got to the front. When we made it to the front, guards weren’t even checking reservations – they shuffled us into the park without listening to our pleas to exit. After a while, we eventually made our way out, but could never get to the museum. The saving grace of the experience was that there was a little boy ahead of us in line who was extremely curious about why two foreigners were speaking Chinese with each other. He kept turning around and waving at us (and also eavesdropping). We endearingly named him “Little Friend”.
In place of the Museum, we mostly just walked around the city center. We found a massive, 7- or 8-story bookstore that we spent hours in, and we also went shopping for warmer clothes. I know my Arizonans are crying while reading this, but I already need a jacket during the cool morning and nighttime hours.
Here are some pictures from our adventure:
Wednesday
Wednesday was a mostly relaxing day with a fun lunch excursion. A few of my classmates took short trips out of Beijing during this break, but one of my professors organized a lunch outing for anyone who stayed. We went to a restaurant nestled within an “immigrant community” of Beijing, with cuisine influenced by the many food traditions present in the area. We ate tons of non-spicy food (I’m a spice hater, what can I say?), but my favorite was this hanging bread course. It was so buttery, I felt right at home.
We ended up getting ice cream from a nearby shop after our meal. The neighborhood was packed with food options – here’s a picture of the building our restaurant was in, and how many other options there were in that building alone.
Thursday
I really dragged my feet getting out of bed on Thursday; I wanted to sleep forever, but I knew I had school work to complete. What finally motivated me to get up was the promise of spending the morning in a coffee shop, working while sipping on tea. One of my professors recommended a nearby cafe that I had never visited, so I decided to head over. I was pleasantly surprised by the ambiance of the coffee shop – it was bright and contemporary, and they left the doors open so a light breeze was constantly blowing through. I ordered a honey ginger tea (that ended up giving me a huge sugar rush) and got right to work. I also ordered a “muffin”, but this is what the server delivered to my table. Biggest muffin I’ve ever seen…
I spent my afternoon hand-writing characters in the coffee shop, and at one point experienced a serendipity when I titled my head upwards to stretch. The ceiling of the coffee shop was covered in European-style religious art. How funny!
Friday
Friday was the last day of regular classes before midterms and fall break. In my first class, one student was absent, so it was just me, one other student, and our professor. We finished up our last undiscussed section of the Communist Party Constitution, which was about the disciplinary committees that take over when a party member or group violates the Constitution. After that, we had an impromptu discussion of whether the world has already entered WW3 and what we think the global response would be if the mainland seized Taiwan. We finished up with a brief recap of the semester so far and a reminder of our midterm paper’s Sunday night due date (which I had totally forgotten about).
After that, I grabbed lunch to go, but I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of this guy’s shirt. Does anybody else find this as funny as I do? No, just me?
In my second class, I gave a presentation on the key differences between my hometown and Shanghai (of which there are many). However, my classmates were most interested in the Mormon religious culture of my Gilbert. I ended up going on a tangent about what it was like to grow up in an LDS stronghold – my teachers were fascinated! There aren’t too many Mormons in China.
Fun fact from my presentation: the population of Shanghai is 100 times the population of Gilbert.
Once my classes finished, I headed back to my dorm for a long nap. I found myself rudely (but appropriately) awoken at 5 pm by a strange, booming voice. For some unexplained reason, my school has started broadcasting music and advertisements across campus from 5-9 pm, and it drives me nuts. There’s a speaker right outside my dorm building, and I can still hear it when the windows are closed and I’m wearing noise-cancelling headphones. I asked my roommate what it’s for, and she said it’s how they make announcements and “broadcast public entertainment”. She was baffled to learn that American universities do not use the same system. Alas, no peace and quiet for me.
Saturday
As soon as I woke up on Saturday, I started worrying about midterms. I spent a lot of the day thinking about being halfway through my fall program and how I feel about that. Part of me is excited by that, but another part of me is frustrated that I haven’t made more progress with my language skills. Knowing half of the semester has slipped by means that I have such a short period ahead of me to reach my language goals, which is stressful. I’m in the fortunate position of having already graduated from college, so there is no formal pressure on my shoulders to make good grades (my grades won’t be sent to Yale, and I’m not earning another degree or certificate through this program) – I’m here for the sake of learning. However, the flip side of that coin is that grades aren’t a measure of my success. Even if I work hard academically and pass my classes with flying colors, I won’t be satisfied with my time in Beijing unless I am actually increasing in Mandarin fluency. It sounds like those two things would go hand-in-hand, but what I’m finding is that I have increased vocabulary and stagnant fluency. I’m hoping to discuss this with my program director next week, because I don’t want to be feeling this way when I get to finals!
After a long phone call with my Mom, though, I was able to push these thoughts out of my head and start working. I put in a few hours on my Modern Politics paper, handwrote pages and pages of characters, and started practicing for a presentation on Tuesday.
Eventually it was time for dinner, and I decided to order delivery. This is probably the most common meal choice on campus, despite the fact that we have a cafeteria, so I figured it was time I gave it a try. The problem is, the biggest delivery app is only available in Chinese, so I spent about 20 minutes translating different pages of the app before I could actually figure out how to place my order. Then, when it got delivered, the poor man on the phone had to repeat himself five times and eventually just hung up because I couldn’t understand what he was telling me. Even though I have spent years learning this language, I still struggle immensely with casual interactions. Full disclosure, I did come back to my room and cry tears of self-disappointment after I picked up my food, but that might have been because I was hungry. On the bright side, my food was delicious, and with delivery it was less expensive than the McDonald’s I ordered in-person a few weeks ago.
That’s a Wrap: Week Six
Highlight: Spending the day in downtown Beijing during a national holiday and observing the traditions and pride here.
Lowlight: Constantly wondering if I can even call myself a Chinese speaker.
That’s all for now! I’ll be back next weekend with a report from midterms. 🙂
很想你们，
婉婷
