Explorations: Cultural & Geographic

Last spring Valpo gave the current study abroad students a series of lectures about the different aspects of the study abroad experience. I remember one particular lecture which reviewed the common pattern of cultural adjustment. Unsurprisingly I didn’t adhere to the typical pattern of adjustment—I skipped “culture shock” completely. Yes, I road a ‘high’ for the first month here—but that was due to the newness and plentiful travel opportunities. Most of October was the simply rhythm of school, though without the crushing academic load of stateside classes and extra curriculars. It wasn’t until this week, possibly prompted by last weekend’s trip to Songyang, that I started to feel a little homesick. (Though I’ve missed the Pacific Northwest while at Valpo, so the feeling is nothing new.)

Browsing NationalGeographic.com and OutsideOnline.com did little alleviate my ache for the wild beauty of the Oregon coast, Holden Village, or Bristol Bay. Luckily my week ended with events that will likely become in retrospect the highlights of my study abroad experience.

On Thursday evenings I have been attending an “English club” in Hangzhou. It usually meets a bar or coffee shop across town where we chat or play games for a few hours. Last week we started with “trust falls” and other summer camp-esque activities. This week’s club was rescheduled due to Halloween, but Damen (one of the organizers) offered to meet me on campus and bring some friends. Damen (like most Chinese) has been incredibly generous, taking me (and a few other American friends) out to dinner on multiple occasions and he even suggested going camping before I leave in December. Damon’s “few friends” actually turned out to be the or so dozen Chinese who regularly attend the English club—so it might as well have been a typical Thursday night.

(A quick aside.)

For my Chinese Civilization class (taught by Professor Pati from Valpo) we are doing a collaborative project (with Chinese students from ZJUT) on Chinese perceptions of the body. One element of the project requires conducting surveys. Back in the United States collecting such information (especially when our questions include topics such as sex and virginity), is as appealing as grade-school door-to-door fundraisers. China though was totally different.

I brought my surveys to Thursday’s English club where the Chinese were more than happy to fill them out, they even asked me if I wanted them to ask others to fill them out also! I shouldn’t have been at all concerned as to whether I was breaching a taboo topic—the “discussion topic” for the evening was the whether or not prostitution should legal.

If you want to find true difference between the U.S. and China—it is this. A group of friendly acquaintances coming from various backgrounds voluntarily get together to socialize and discuss topics such as sexuality and prostitution. (We talked about homosexuality and gay marriage a few weeks back.) I believe China’s non-participatory government style and lack of a religiously conservative populace has helped foster an environment for open and thoughtful discussions on topics including race, religion, and sexuality.

Caught off guard I took a few moments to form a cohesive response (regarding prostitution). They listened attentively (I was speaking as representative of 300 million Americans) and were impressed and affirmative of my viewpoint. Though they immediately suggested a flaw with my position which required me to further elaborate. I like to believe they were somewhat surprised by my multifaceted response, though I did explain that my view wouldn’t be shared by all Americans. We proceeded to talk about prostitution in China along with examples of a regulated sex industry in places like Nevada, and the Netherlands. I was continually impressed by their thoughtfulness on topics like this one that are taboo in the States. (Although they still hold wacky views such as believing a secret cabal controls Obama (& Clinton), Ebola spread in the U.S., and U.S. involvement in the #OccupyHK protests.)

At one point during our discussion I was asked about my personal experience with one night stands. Unfortunately I couldn’t provide any salacious details on that particular subject. We even talked about how much we (Americans and Chinese) talk about sex.

But that was just one of the many topics we talked about. We also talked about Elon Musk (and his three companies), BYD, OccupyCentral, racism/discrimination, mobile operating systems, cell phone/battery radiation and even Kim Kardashian. Actually the Chinese seem to know far more about Elon Musk and Tesla Motors than the typical bunch of Americans.

I found it enlightening and incredibly fun, I haven’t found such open discussions since my time at Holden (where homogenous political and social beliefs were almost guaranteed).

It is hard not to overstate how friendly, open, and generous the Chinese are… except that I am an American. Foreigners (particularly Americans?) have somewhat celebrity status here, so it is hard to get a intimate understanding of how Chinese actually treat one another because I can only observe their interactions (and without understanding Chinese it is hard to develop a nuanced view).

Although it is still shorts and t-shirt temperatures here, Hangzhou finally got a few rainy days to end October. On Friday after class I decided to go for a walk up in the woods behind campus. Leaves covered the broken paving stones as I followed the ridge south for almost five miles. The air was pungent and (unusually) clean as low grey clouds swirled around the peaks. As I hiked south the hills spread farther and farther to the east, at some points I might as well have been in the wilderness, thickly forested hills and grey sky was all I could see. Given the gloomy weather few people were out. The occasional building and broken stonework reminded me I wasn’t in a remote mountain range, though for respite from living in a city of million this was best thing possible—an expansive area of untamed hills. Just the ‘wilderness fix’ I was needing. I descended from the ridge along a narrow dirt path through the surreal vertical lines of thousands of bamboo trees. I came out at the back of the Ling Ying Scenic area which contained various temples, shops, hotels, and tea fields. It was dark when four hours later I got back to campus. The crush of traffic and mopeds stood in sharp contrast to the quiet and empty trail I had walked along just hours earlier. It was a wonderful exploration for a west-coasty-weather day. Next time I’ll have to leave earlier so I can go even farther.