中国任何外国人的爱恨交织 - The Love Hate Relationship of Chinese People and Foreigners

China had had a pitiable/interesting relationship with foreigners, most importantly in the period from the 1840s to the present. The "Hundred Years Humiliation" is still fresh on the lips of 10-year-olds who would have to be more like 60 to maybe have seen the tail end of the kind of occupation that China was subject to by England, France, Japan and the United States. The worse relationship was that between England and China. England, unable to let go of it's immensely successful entry into China's opium market decide it would need to use force in order to show China who the barbarians really were, leading to the Opium War, the second Opium War, the succession of ports to Western nations and Japan and probably the reason for why China has such harsh drug laws today.

Then, on October 1, 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), fresh from running the Guomindang (GMD/KMT) out of the mainland and to Taiwan, declared the creation of the People's Republic of China under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and with the support of China's 老百姓 - China's masses, China's everyday people.

Since 1979, China has been implementing Reform and Opening policies, allowing for preferential policies for businesses in cities on the Eastern coastal cities, and the aim of advancing technology and infrastructure in provincial capitals and the developing infrastructure, economic growth and job creation for ethnic minorities in the West. And with this opening up, Western companies with the foresight to see the potential of the Chinese market flocked and began investment projects in cities like Hong Kong (returned to the Chinese in 1999), Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dalian, Shenyang. Of course all this foreign investment made the quick, and probably unsustainable growth of the Chinese market possible. Which means Chinese should love foreigners, right?

Chinese are a people of grudges and generational hate. You can ask any Chinese person our age what their feelings about the Japanese are and odds are they hate Japanese for their occupation of Manchuria, their militarism (although Japan currently has no military for their actions during WWII) and their attempt at hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region, and probably the world. You can ask any American our age if we hate the Japanese for their bombing of Pearl Harbor and odds are we don't care because Japan has robots and that is so freaking cool. It's not because most Americans don't remember/know the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but because we Americans learn to forgive and to forget.

Chinese are also a people of gross stereotypes. While looking at exhibits in the Jewish Synagogue, Jarrett's roommate told me about how all Chinese people think Jews are so good at business and they make so much money because they are the smartest people in the world. Shocked and trying to suppress laughter I told him about how there were some Americans that shared the same point of view as the Chinese. Luckily there were enough stupid Jews in the world to keep those stereotypes at bay.

So when you look at the history and the current state of Chinese people in regards to their relationship with foreigners you can see why they would be appreciative of the foreign existence in China however, due to generational hate against foreigners, particularly Japanese/Westerners there is a gross lack of understanding and that void is filled with stereotypes that would get all the windows in your car knocked out if you based your opinion of someone based on them in the states.

And where do I fit into this? I am just a confused Westerner who spends most of her time giving dirty looks to the people pointing at me and laughing at the sight of me from behind my back or right in front of my face, not realizing that I can completely understand what they are saying. But upon entering and leaving St. Sophia's Cathedral I encountered a different kind of response: Chinese that were so completely happy to see a Westerner that they just had to get a picture with her, while interested Chinese that realized the Black girl was actually a nice person and not going to bite them in the face gathered round to get pictures and just enjoy the spectacle. I'm not sure whether this goes under the ignorance category or the acceptance category, but it was pretty freaking funny.

(Pictures Coming Soon.)

Language Pledge, also known as how to make study abroad a legitimate learning experience

Some people study abroad looking for a chance to see the world, add perspective to their studies, or experience new culture. Then there are the contemptible few who look at study abroad as a chance to extend their summer vacations, taking trips to private beaches and eating sumptuous, multi-course meals as the rest of the country's people starve themselves, or jet setting to nearby countries with beautiful women. Then there are the valiant few who are willing to cast themselves in the far reaches of a foreign country, denying themselves proper bathrooms, clean water or the convenience of English, in order to have a truly foreign experience from anything that one could come in contact with while in the states (unless you happened to drive through West Virginia or upstate New York).

I don't mean to entirely de-legitimize other peoples' reasons for study nor the other places people choose for their study abroad experience. I personally hold the opinion that study abroad best lends its usefulness to people looking for an authentic environment to learn a language. But there are even those who take advantage of larger, more Westernized cities (for example, the students in Beijing or Shanghai) so that they don't have to worry about the shock of being in an environment where a little bit of English will set you further back from where you started. Thus, I propose for all study abroad programs to adopt an environment that does not let students treat it like an extended vacation where grades don't count toward your GPA. This can be done through the language pledge.

At CET Harbin, the day before classes start we recite and sign a language pledge stating that for the length of the program we will only speak in Chinese. They mention listening to English language music with headphones and even go so far as to suggest reducing the frequency by which we contact family and friends in the US, as the slightest utterance of English could corrupt the precious language environment for our fellow students. While this seems extreme, I think that in the week and a half that the pledge has been in effect, my Chinese has already improved. I'm excited to see the point that I'm at by the time October rolls around.

CET Harbin is a tough program. I probably spend about 8 hours every day looking up characters, writing oral reports, which our teachers seem to assign daily, memorizing dialogues and vocabulary and grammar patterns, and trying to do readings on Chinese-US relations that are entirely in Chinese and don't have an English version or a convenient list of vocabulary words in the back. But despite the enormity of my work, if we had not had a language pledge, I most likely wouldn't wake up every morning wanting to bang my head against the wall (unfortunately that would wake my roommate and every other person in this dorm). The work load would be tough but manageable and it would be easier to explain the ridiculous run-ins I have with the real Chinese out on the streets of Harbin. But then it wouldn't really be studying abroad. It would be like I was displaced from Georgetown and the registrar has mistakenly put me into four Chinese classes (something I'm sure that Georgetown could manage to do).

I think the most important part of study abroad is adopting the environment that you are in and allowing yourself to become a part of it. And in this case it means that you need to take on all the difficulties of the language and the language pledge and start defining yourself and your experiences within it and through it.

To me, this is a legitimate study abroad experience.