Cross-Cultural Studies- Where Do I Fit In?

This has been on my mind for awhile: What am I? A future scholar? More specific: a person working on a bridge that connects one culture to another. More specific than that: a sinologist in training.

I'm a westerner-- and American-- studying Chinese language and literature in Hong Kong. All of my peers are from Hong Kong or China, studying Chinese from a distinctly Chinese method. What their research means to them and their field isn't the same thing as what my research means to me and my field. And yet we are, in name, the same. I know I'm different than them-- I have a different standard, a different obligation I should hold myself to. And yet how can I allow myself to be judged differently? Is this a fairness issue?

I read back on my research. Ugh. I sound like an academic, and a bad one at that. What about my research promotes --mutual-- cultural understanding? Am I doing my job, or am I -- desperately-- treading the same waters my Chinese peers easily brave and conquer? Am I holding myself to the wrong standards as I imagine myself to be pursuing the right ones?

I don't know! Perhaps Meiguo pengyou studying Chinese and writing about Chinese in English is enough to uphold that "mission." Is it? I don't know! Perhaps I can't judge-- only others can. And perhaps the judgement of others doesn't matter, anyway.

I'll just do my thing. Let's read James Liu's The Interlingual Critic today.

Nanjing?

Huh. Blogger hates me lately.

Guess you guys can just check out all the other China photos here:

http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff421/perpetualjoe/Nanjing/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ16

Shanghai! （太多車！）

So, I was gone last week. I'm back now, and I think I'm going to dedicate the next month or so to recounting my trip to the mainland. I went to four cities, so maybe I'll spend a week or so on each.

First stop is Shanghai. Me and my two peers （woah, I have peers now?) set out very early on Friday, and took a train to Shenzhen so we could catch a bus going to the airport. Flying from Shenzhen is a lot cheaper than flying from Hong Kong. Anyway, after going through customs, taking my first step in the mainland, getting on and off the bus and in and out of the Shenzhen airport we finally arrived in Shanghai, where we could just sort of relax for the night. Our hotel was quite nice, but I didn't take a picture of it.

Anyway, after 4 modes of transportation we were all pretty swamped, and decided to get some food and then call it a night. Food is considerably cheaper in the mainland than in Hong Kong, so we ate some very authentic Shanghai cuisine, drank some beer, and then headed back to the hotel. The next day was spent almost entirely in the Shanghai Library and the Shanghai Museum. I took nearly a hundred pictures at the Museum, and I won't bother boring you with most of them. However, I was happy to see the find a set of Zhou Dynasty ritual bells there, since Ancient Music is pretty much central to my research topic.I was also happy to see the incredible variety of art and calligraphy they have there.

More pictures of what I saw in the museum can be found here: http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff421/perpetualjoe/Shanghai%20Museum/

Anyway, after spending the majority of the day in the Museum, we checked out the Catholic Church at Shanghai, which is one of the oldest churches in Asia. I'd post the picture here, but it did not come out very well. You can find it in the link above if you really want to see it :)

Next stop, XuZhou 徐州 and the Han Dynasty Stone Engravings!

Lantau Experience

Another week goes zooming by.

I spent today in Lantau, on a trip with some students from the mainland. A good time was had; however, weather was not permitting. Actually afraid that I've come down with a cold. Anyway, here's some pictures because that seems to be what everyone seems to like best :)

This is, more or less, the entrance to the place:

You can see the big Buddha statue in the upper right hand corner. The statue is actually a recent edition to mountain and, in the eyes of some people on the trip, a tourist trap. I don't know. It's not an authentic Buddha statue from ages past but it was still pretty cool to see. There did seem to be some religious people paying homage regardless.

Here's a closeup:


And let's go for a closer closeup:

More about how the day actually went now...

Basically, I had fun. Traveling with people from the mainland and practicing my Chinese was cool too, especially after discovering that paying a private tutor was going to be out of the question for the time being (even if I just learned more internet slang than anything else 神馬？）. Oh, and did I mention the cable cars?

Yes, I took that picture from inside one. And, as you can tell, it was fun and a little bit scary. Oh, and cold. I thought it was spring here already, but I was wrong. In Hong Kong we're currently getting the cold rainy season that comes in Spring's place and ends with the arrival of the brutal summer. Can't wait for that :P

Anyway, figured I'll do something a bit more erudite before I sign off here for the week. After several conversations with friends, I've come to realize just how much of a give-and-take language learning is. What I'm finding to work best is when people learning each others' languages make time to help each other practice. It's good to set up certain time periods just for speaking one language, and then moving to the other afterwards. What doesn't work is when people get selfish, and only want to practice one language without helping someone else learn their own. I've come to realize, too, that some of my biggest frustrations with language learning have come when I've felt like people were 'taking' more than they were 'giving' or, on the other hand, when I was expecting to 'get' more than I was willing to 'give.'

Anyway, back to the grind of learning Chinese, thesis writing, and so on. I'm now officially 1/4th done my time here. It has flew by, so far, but there's still a long way to go. And I have to admit, I do miss home a bit.

New Years pt. 2

Not much new this week. Worked pretty hard on my topic this week, and relaxed this weekend. Blisters on feet from hiking 30 kilometers are gone.

Haven't gone out, because it's been cold and rainy. And I thought spring was here! Haha. Anyway, instead of doing another real update, I'll just post some more pictures from last week.

Hiking back:



Beach



牛肉



I would like to know what this is



Rocks



Friends



The gate

Happy New Year!

Have I really not updated this in a month? I'm terrible! :P

Anyway, this week was the Chinese New Year. As can be guessed, there was a lot of celebration going on. Unfortunately, most of my friends went home to their families (good for them!) so I had no choice but to celebrate on my own for a majority of the week. One of my friends here, Nancy, took me to a special market that's only around during the New Year and bought me some presents. Props to Nancy for being a good friend!


Other than that, I didn't do much for the New Year. The good thing is that my holiday boredom inspired me to join some events that I normally wouldn't. As a result, I wound up going to Xigong again, this time with a lot of other international students. We wound up hiking through a lot of mountains (about 15 miles worth) in order to get to a beach, where we just kinda slept, chilled, and played soccer for the afternoon. It was a lot of fun, and very relaxing. Though I am a bit tired and sunburned now.

We took a cab back and ate in XiGong. I was hoping we'd eat some expensive Seafood, especially after the long hike, but a couple people we were concerned about the price so we just wound up eating at a normal cafeteria. It was a bit of a let-down after an otherwise awesome day, but thankfully it didn't stop me from enjoying the time I spent with everyone. I do hope, though, that next time we all agree on a place to eat beforehand.

Anyway, as of Wednesday the break is over; though I'll probably go to the office tomorrow. Also, vague plans to apply for my Visa on Tuesday. Better print out the form. Here's a couple more pictures before I go (and, of course, you can always find more on the photobucket I linked to in the first post):

Rosary Church

This weekend, like last weekend, was a pretty uneventful one. Friday night, I went to Hong Kong's Ikea for some reason (I still don't know why) and last night I went to an Indian restaurant with a classmate and had curry. It was good, but a little bit expensive; and I'm still not sure it was worth the price! Today was looking to be another lazy Sunday of relaxing, napping, video games and music-- especially since, once again, my friends are all busy-- but I decided to do something different and went to church. There were a couple of Catholic churches near by, but I decided to go to one in Tsim Sha Shui due to its proximity to shopping and the fact that Tsim Sha Shui is an all-around decent place to spend a Sunday.



Mass was nice. The priest who does the English mass, Reverend Sheridan, is from (and was ordained in)Ireland. I talked to him briefly after mass, and he seems nice. He invited me to come more often, and I think I will. I think it'll be nice to get involved in a church-- or, any community outside school, that is. It's always good to have a life that consists more than wasting time on the internet and one's current school-job.

After mass, I walked around shops and eventually bought this CD. It's good; not quite as good as the Arcade Fire album I purchased recently or Jose Gonzalez's solo stuff, but still really good. And, it sounds good played on my new speakers which came (along with a bunch of scholarly books) in the mail this week.

This weekend was bad for productivity. But what are weekends for? Thankfully, Fallout New Vegas has glitched out so much I can no longer enjoy it, so I probably won't be playing that next weekend. Of course, I get paid this weekend, and I've got a decent hunch I'm also going to be purchasing Dragon Age: Origins :)

Will update again next week. Possibly after church :P