My Independent Study Project - Completed!

Okay, actually posting my research project on here has been a bit complicated...so I'll probably just email it to anyone who wants to see.

I can easily post the personal reflections section we're supposed to include in our appendix though:

Part 3. Personal Reflection

One of my biggest challenges in Lijiang was the expectation held by many people that a foreigner could not be in Lijiang for any reason other than tourism, despite my insistence that I was a student from Minzu Daxue in Kunming studying tourism (luyouye), women’s issues (funu wenti) and Naxi culture (naxi wenhua). At first, I tried to avoid the situations in which I could be categorized as a tourist, which meant not buying things, turning down tour offers, and not taking photographs. However, eventually I realized that my participation in many of those activities would be very instructive and useful in their own ways, despite how it might establish ‘touristy’ relationships with people. Essentially, I mean that many of the relationships people create in the mass tourism, between guide and tourist, shop owner and tourist, etc., tend to be very shallow and people tend to be less forthcoming about their personal lives and views, instead relying on the popular discourse of tourism that could just as easily be found in a pamphlet.

I found three ways to circumvent this challenge: the length of time I spent in Lijiang, establishing friendships with people my age, and interviewing people who were involved in forms of “responsible tourism”. The first method simply plays off the fact that many tourists do not stay in Lijiang for very long, and so, once people saw that I was staying for a considerably longer length of time–three weeks–I found some of them more receptive and was able to establish more meaningful relationships (like the people running my first hostel, two students working as waitresses at a restaurant in Dayanzhen, the people running N’s kitchen, etc.). Actually, I think staying in one place for so long (even though three weeks ultimately is not really that long) was one of the most useful aspects of my research, because it gave me the opportunity to really get to know Dayanzhen and some of the people living/working there. Being continuously present there (aka, staying at a hostel in Dayanzhen) was also very useful, because I was constantly in a position to observe things that might prove valuable to my project.

I also found people my own age were easy to befriend in Lijiang and were themselves valuable sources of information and suggestions. One of the most significant aspects of my research, however, was talking to people involved in “responsible tourism” because, unlike mass tourism, “responsible tourism” already makes the assumption that people will want to talk on a less superficial level, to actually learn about local culture and issues. The guides I met were not only very open about local culture, but their own lives, experiences, and perspectives. They were also more likely than the mass tourism guides to speak fluent English, which, as my Mandarin is less than adequate, was a stroke of luck. Moreover, many people in Lijiang speak very heavily accented Mandarin or, even worse, no Mandarin at all, only Naxi (particularly the elderly and women in rural areas). However, I do wish I could have created more opportunities to talk with the elderly Naxi women that sell fruits and vegetables around Dayanzhen and dance in the squares in the mornings and evenings. Their experiences and perspectives would have been very interesting to hear. Unfortunately, with my lacking Mandarin and their heavy accents, my communication with them was very limited.

Interviews and participant observations were my main methods of information gathering in Lijiang, but I did try out a survey near the end of my stay. Unfortunately, I was confronted with many problems when trying to implement this survey. For instance, many people refused to take it and I started to notice a pattern in the people who tended to refuse to take the survey; they were mainly women. Annoyed with already apparent bias, I continued. At one point, a woman refused to take it, saying that she was Naxi and could not read or write using Chinese characters. Upset with this development, I took a break to look over the surveys that had been filled at (about 10 surveys, after about two hours of work). Some answers had been left blank, and I am certain that nobody understood my final question. So, I gave up the survey, which had been more of an experiment in methodology than anything else; I tend to prefer the more personal approaches of interviews and participant observation.

Overall, this independent project was a wonderful learning experience. I had taken a research methods class back at my school in the US, but the fieldwork I did there was limited to a few hours on Saturday mornings. This complete immersion in the field was an altogether different experience that was very instructive, particularly in consideration of the senior seminar project I will have to do next year.

Back in Kunming

I've been back in Kunming for three days now, working on my paper. I'm basically finished, got maybe a little more editing and then I'll be done (a couple days early too). It's good to be back in Kunming, to see some of the others (not everyone is back yet though) and because Kunming is a bit warmer than Lijiang was (also food is so much cheaper here, at the cafeteria). Of course, we go to Beijing soon and apparently its going to be freezing there.

I'm really happy with how my project turned out and the semester overall. I'll post my paper when I'm done, although it's a bit long (about thirty pages, without counting the appendix and the citations). Kunming has been a lot more relaxing than Lijiang, and I'm happy to take it easy now (although I should probably also study for a Chinese exam I have in about a week, and I also need to prepare for my presentation in a few days).

Here are some photos from Lijiang:

Thanksgiving

So, last night, Lexi and I managed to get a thanksgiving dinner: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and even stuffing! It was amazing, although of course not on part with Moline Thanksgivings. Still, it was better than nothing. We talked to this Chinese man, James, who was sitting at our table and he said he might bring us ice skating in Kunming, if our paths overlap. There were so many American men there with Chinese wives and little half-Asian kids running around everywhere. It's funny how couples are almost always an American man and a Chinese woman, instead of the reverse (except for Lexi, because she's the anomaly - her dad is Chinese and her mom is American). The hostess there was very kind, checking to make sure we were enjoying the food and we all took a group photo, which Lexi has and will hopefully make its way to facebook.

Now I'm at Mama Naxi's waiting for my breakfast. We leave for Kunming on a night train in a few days, and I've already pretty much finished with fieldwork and started writing my paper, which I think is coming along well. It's fun to write, I think, despite how interesting fieldwork is, writing will always be my favorite part.

Photos with Strangers

So since so many people ask for photos of me a day (yeah, I'm that good looking), I've decided to give them my email and ask them to send me the photos. That way I'll have a ton of photos with random Chinese people. So far I have the following:


Right now I'm at a place called Mama Naxi's (I moved from my previous hostel). This place is very homey; Mama Naxi really does take care of you. In fact dinner is going to be served in a few minutes, so that's all for now.

ISP Starting in Lijiang!

Last, Friday, we left Zhongdian (aka Shangrila), leaving behind four brave souls: Ellie, Katherine, Richard, and Lauren (and DT, but he already lives there, so he doesn't count). I slept on the bus for a couple hours, occasionally mustering the energy to peer outside my window at the touring mountains and sheer cliffs. Seen it, seen it...
Anyways, we got to Lijiang for lunch (and, of course, to finally get rid of me). I managed to spill sprite perfectly on myself and Lexi - not one drop managed to actually hit the chair or the floor - and then back on the bus for a few minutes. Then the bus suddenly stopped, I gave my farewell speech ("I hate you all!"), hugged everybody goodbye, Xiao Zhou pointed in a random direction ("that's where old town is! bye!") and I was left, abandoned on the street corner with nothing but my suitcase, some money, and a random direction.
Haha, not quite so bad. I got a taxi to the old town and he dropped me off at the main entrance, which is good because that's the only entrance I'm familiar with (by the way, I totally didn't write a post for this, but we stopped in Lijiang for a few days on our way to Zhongdian, so I was thankfully already a little familiar with everything). I made my way to the International Hostel, which I found surprisingly easily considering how much I would get lost later on (the record of my wandering with no idea where I am has currently reached about four hours; the only marker for where I wanted to get back to, that I knew how to express in Chinese, was KFC. Surprisingly, it worked when I asked a little girl and her mother [didn't so much when I asked older people]).
Sooo, anyways Lijiang is a cool place. Here's my proposal if you want to look at it (there were separated paragraphs in the abstract before, but they kind of just disappeared on here):

I. PROJECT ABSTRACT
Minority women have been represented as exotic and erotic not only by the Han Chinese but also by minority members themselves, who are distinct players in the process of commodifying ethnic culture and are not passive objects (Schein, Chee-Beng Tan, Gladney, Blum, Swain, Walsh, Hui, Chun and Ying). One of the issues of tourism and cultural construction, as both Swain and Schein identify, is power structures. Minorities are generally not dominant in the process of cultural construction for the sake of tourism and development. The state generally exercises dominance over minority groups in many aspects, although the relationship between the state and minority culture has changed significantly over the last century (Blum). During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, ethnic traditions were derided and suppressed as feudal and backwards. Today, several years after the economic reforms of the 1980s and early 1990s, the government now promotes ethnic difference as a source of profit, a connection to the international community (Schein), and as an other against which Han identity can be constructed (Gladney, Schein). However, minorities also, “by allowing the objectivizing gaze of the state-sponsored media, establish their own identity and right to a voice in their own affairs, appropriating and turning, whenever possible, these objectivizing moves to their own benefit” (Gladney 117). Schein also identifies methods by which minorities resist against the commodifying gaze of the outsiders and the state. In her ethnography about the Miao, Schein describes situations in which photographers attempting to photograph or videotape Miao women encountered forms of resistance; the Miao women would claimed embarrassment and would not allow themselves to be photographed, or they demanded money in exchange for the photos. Either way, they took some measure of control, using the methods of resistance Richard Robbins might have described as weapons of the weak: the “subtle ways of resistance” used by people suffering from inequality (309). In addition, tourism aggravates economic inequalities, particularly between urban and rural areas (McKhann, Swain). In Lijiang, for instance, the tourism industry was based in the following areas, which thus received the most profit: Lijiang Town (Dayanzhen), Dry Lake Basin (Ganhaizi), White Water River (Baishui He), Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiao Xia), Lugu Lake (Lugu Hu), and a few towns, like Baisha and Longquan. According to McKhann, there are also fewer Naxi people actually living in Lijiang Old Town because they disliked the intrusive gaze of tourists and came into conflict with non-locals opening up businesses in the area. The departure of Naxi people and the commodification of their culture has led to concern over the ‘loss’ of Naxi culture. However, Tan Chee-Beng also made the argument that changes as a result of tourism are still part of culture. His argument is basically that the effects of tourism are less of a “loss” of culture than a change in culture, which was never static to begin with. Groups, like the Naxi of Lijiang, are simply responding to changing environments. Tourism also has a significant impact on perceptions of gender and gender relations (Swain, Walsh). For instance, Swain made the argument that tourism affected and subsequently changed Sani gender relations. According to Swain, “the Sani are not patriarchal but in order to participate in the global tourism economy they must often engage in consensual patriarchy of Chinese capitalism and the global economy” (136-137). Walsh uses the example of the Mosuo to portray changes in gender relations caused by tourism. According to Walsh, although Mosuo women are portrayed by outsiders as part of a matriarchal society, “the negotiation between tourist desires, outsider representations, and identity creation is forcing women into a position of working more than men for the sake of preserving ‘traditional’ culture on which their new wealth depends, a wealth that is often controlled by men” (119). According to a study implemented on Lijiang’ tourism industry, by the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences and the University of California at Davis, “issues of gender equity have been raised [in previous studies of tourism] regarding the differential social and economic impacts of tourism on male and female hosts (division of labor, control of revenues, health, and human rights)…special problems include prostitution (sex tourism), separate male and female economies, and relocation of resources in ways that put a disproportionate burden on women hosts” (Approaching the Jade Dragon: Tourism in Lijiang). Hathaway argued in 2007 that the anthropology of tourism, despite “connections to issues of acculturation, authenticity, identity construction, and consumption theory,” is still a relatively unexplored area. This proposed study would be an opportunity to expand on anthropological scholarship on tourism. Tan Chee-Beng argues for the significance of “how tourist sites and people are represented to tourists and how this representation affects local people” (2), because “ethnic tourism has a significant impact on the lives of minority peoples…it impacts on their self-consciousness and identity” (15-16). Understanding the impacts of tourism is very important because of how widespread the tourism industry is, particularly in Lijiang. Lastly, the issues of gender and inequality mentioned above are issues very relevant to not only developing tourist centers like Lijiang but all over the world, and therefore warrant attention.

II. RESOURCES
A. Okay, the citations turned into a mess here, so I took them out...

B. Zhao Xiu Yun (advisor)
Zhang Li Wei

III. METHODOLOGY
A. How does the Lijiang tourism industry affect the lives of Naxi women? How has it affected their social and economic status? How has it affected gender relations? How are Naxi women involved in the commodification and consumption of Naxi culture? How, if they do, resist the power structures of inequality imposed in the process of cultural and identity construction? How has the relationship Naxi women have with tourism changed over the years (how has their involvement changed? How have the effects of tourism changed)? B. I intend to use interviews (both structured and unstructured) with the aid of a translator and, in some cases, a recorder. A few of these interviews will be for the purpose of collecting life histories, as I am interested in the effects of tourism over time. My recordings I will then transcribe, code and look for common themes and points of interest. I also intend to use surveys, observe and if possible collect cultural artifacts (like pamphlets, photos, tourist goods, etc), and to use participant observation (spending time in tourist shops, agencies, attractions, museums, etc as well the ). I intend to take field notes to record my observations, which I will, like the interview transcriptions, code and look for themes.

IV. ITINERARY
A. Lijiang from November 5th to December 1st Kunming from December 1st to December 7th B. A 9-hour night bus (or train) from Lijiang to Kunming.

V. BUDGET ¥870 – lodging (30 per night/24 nights in Lijiang and 25 per night/6 nights in Kunming) ¥750 – food (25 per day/30 days) ¥300 – transportation (getting around Lijiang, Lijiang to Kunming) ¥300 – miscellaneous gifts ¥400 – translation fees ¥200 – miscellaneous items

VI. EXPECTATIONS
A. Language barriers will be a challenge as I do not speak Mandarin fluently and older inhabitants of Lijiang and particularly rural areas might not speak Mandarin fluently either. Another challenge will be the limited time I have available to conduct this study.
B. In order to surmount the language barrier, I hope to find the services of translator(s) who can speak English well and also, when possible, ask my advisor for translation help. Also, although my time will be limited, I believe that with the preparation I have already accomplished and with flexibility, I will be able to make good use of this limited time. Also, in case my proposed study is rendered completely impossible, I have a back-up study in mind. In this back-up study, I would analyze Naxi myths as they are presented by different groups of people (the Naxi themselves, non-locals working in the tourism industry, the dongba cultural institute, etc), what these different presentations mean to different people, and what the purposes of these different presentations are, as they are connected to identity and cultural construction, and commodification.

Last Day in Kunming

I’ve spent the last two weeks living with my host family; my host mom, dad, and little brother. Just like before, I had class in the morning, then Taiji, then more class…Only today was my last day. I had two tests this morning, turned in my Life History paper and the rough draft of my ISP proposal. Tomorrow we leave for, eventually, Dali, Lijiang, and Zhongdian and I won’t be coming back to Kunming for probably about a month.
My Life History paper was actually a lot of fun to write. I interviewed one of my friends, July (her Chinese name is Sun Manli). She’s a student from Sichuan studying English at Minzu Daxue. She was very eloquent in describing her life; her English is pretty fluent. More importantly, she was very open about talking about her life, telling me stories about living with her grandparents and, later, her parents. For this reason, I’m glad I picked a friend to interview. I don’t think I would have gotten such detailed responses without having already established a friendship. However, later on I will have to interview people I don’t know very well, although I’ll probably use a translator and hopeful that will help. My Chinese has improved so much, especially my speaking, but I don’t think I would be able to understand the answers to the kind of questions I’m going to ask people…
Speaking of asking people questions, I’ve picked out an ISP topic. I’ve decided I want to research ethnic (specifically the Naxi) women’s representation in the tourist industry. I’m wondering to what capacity they are involved in the construction of this representation and how it affects their lives. I’m going to be doing my fieldwork in Lijiang, which I’m going to in a few days as part of the group excursion. I’m excited to see the place I’ll probably be spending some of the next few weeks in, but I’ll miss Kunming.

Yunnan Exploration Project - Tengchong, Ruili, Wanding, and Mangshi

I started off the trip in not exactly the best state of mind and body–throwing my guts up on a ten-hour sleeper bus–but after a day of recovery in Tengchong, I was ready to explore and, of course, find some nice hot springs. Tengchong was relatively easy to get around and I did not find much difficultly in getting a feel for the town. Aili and I walked for hours all around the town, took one of the buses from one end to another, and hiked up one of the surrounding mountains to the pagoda that was visible from nearly all parts of town. Outside of Tengchong, we went to one of Tengchong’s Volcano Parks and the Rehai Hot Springs. Although the language barrier sometimes resulted in much confusion for all three of us, more so for Kalyn and I, we somehow managed to always get to where we wanted and enjoy ourselves despite difficulties (like finding the cheaper hot spring swimming hole, which we did find eventually). The hot spring was worth the wait and the trouble. Floating on my back in the warm water, all I could see was the blue sky and huge, green mountains rising up on the peripheries of my vision.

Ruili was very different from Tengchong and much more of a challenge for me partially because of the town’s large sprawling streets and lack of public buses (or so it appeared to me; I never saw a single public bus). Still, despite a lack of a strong tourist base, Ruili was interesting in its own way and I enjoyed being able to go to the Burmese border, where we briefly stuck our hands and feet over the border (“my hand is in Burma!”), and going out the one night we spent there (chewing on sugar cane and playing pool at an outdoor deck area). Ruili was definitely very different from other Chinese cities I’ve been to. I felt Burmese influence all around town, with writing in both Chinese characters and Burmese script, foods that I have not generally seen that much or any of in Tengchong and Kunming (like sugar cane and avocados!), and the many people I could easily see were not Han Chinese. I bought some avocados, actually, and made guacamole when I got back to Kunming, which disappeared fairly fast at the hands of myself and a few of the other SIT students.

After Ruilli, we went to Wanding, a small border town close to Ruili. We only stayed a few hours, looking at the shops full of jade, coffee, and baskets and doing a brief expedition to a nearby village, where the driver we hired kept warning us to stay away from the village dogs. As it worked out, Kalyn and I ended up leaving Wanding for Mangshi on an earlier bus than Aili. We both agreed that this was a good opportunity to handle things on our own, as Aili, being the more proficient speaker, was frequently the one handling hotel bookings and bus tickets. We both bought our bus tickets on our own, mine for that same day and Kalyn for the next day. I was pleased to be able to do this on my own, as even with Aili trying to give me the opportunity to handle things, I would invariable turn to her if there was a word I did not understand or a phrase I could not quite remember how to say.

Although throughout this trip there is much that I did not understand and was unable to get others to understand, I found myself able to communicate sufficiently to be able to efficiently (and relatively cheaply) do what I wanted to do and go where I wanted to go. For instance, in Mangshi, I took a taxi by myself to a nearby Bhuddist temple, as Kalyn booked a hotel room for herself and Aili. Upon arrival to the temple, which was a little ways out of town, the driver told me there would be no taxis or buses to take me back and he offered me his number so I could have a ride back. I had never talked over the phone in Chinese before, and I’ll certainly remember this first experience: I understood very little of what he said, and could only repeat over and over in Chinese that I was the foreigner from before who was at the temple and needed a ride back into Mangshi. When he did pick me up, he laughingly told me that my Chinese was very bad over the phone. Still, I had managed to make myself understood.

Two Weeks of Yunnan

My bathroom in the dorm room at Yunnan Minzu Daxue (云南民族大学). Basically, showers involve drenching the entire room.

The lake on which Green Lake Park is situated.

Chinglish

Miao (Hmong) Village

Our direction, Lu Yuan, with a Miao woman and child; the old woman sang for us (the Miao are famous for their singing).

(left to right) Xiao Jo, Kalyn, Catherine, DT, Lauren, Richard, and Lexie at the Western Hills (it's good luck to drop the coin in the mouth of the statue - I think maybe a dragon - at the bottom of the pot).

View of Kunming and skyline from Western Hills

Lauren, Kalyn, and I climbed up one side, David, and Rebecca the other (they're the little red dot you might not be able to make out).

View of Western Hills from the lift

We climbed up and took the lift down

View from Western Hills lift

Mid-Autumn Festival

Yesterday was the Mid-Autumn Festival, AKA Moon Cake Festival. We had classes off because it was a holiday, except for a lecture that morning on economic and social changes in China. The lecture was okay, but not nearly as interesting as some of the other speakers we’ve had, like the oral historian, Huang Cheng, who spoke about his years as an interpreter for the Communist Party and how he spent twenty years imprisoned for being ‘counter revolutionary’.

So yesterday I went to Black Dragon Pool (黑龙潭) with some of the other SIT students and some Chinese students from Yunnan Nationalities University, who have some very interesting English names like July and Snoopy. July was a lot of fun to talk to and tested my Chinese a little bit, every now and then. She’s a sophomore from Sichuan province and she’s majoring in English. We walked around the park, which was fairly large and not very crowded, by Chinese standards. People were actually fishing in the pools with what looked like possibly rented fishing poles (they were all the same), putting the fish they caught in little buckets, and then bringing the fish to a grill by the park’s entrance. I saw people eating the fish, which looked smothered in spices (as things often are here).

When I got back to the University, I went out to an Indian restaurant on Foreigner’s street with Lexie, Ai Li (my roommate; her real name is Ellie, but there are two girls called Ellie here so I call her by her Chinese name), David (whose Chinese name is something like Jang Wei, which sounds kind of like John Wayne with a Chinese accent), Rebecca, and Lauren.

Afterwards, we went to Green Lake Park, where there were celebrations going on for the festival. The whole thing was kind of childishly euphoric, although, as we were not children, we were kind of barred from a few of the games and rides (like these giant clear bubble-things that float in the water; kids crawl in them and then run around like a hamster on a wheel). We all bought heart-shaped balloons and Lexie got a pair of green devil horns, as well as a paper lantern with a candle inside. I saw a very serious, middle-aged Chinese man wearing a headband like the devil horns, except that they had sheep on either side, flashing red and white.

We all sat down by the lake (joined by Kalyn and Lucas), and began singing various American songs, many Beatles songs being among them. There was actually a lot of singing (and dancing) going on everywhere. After a couple hours, we decided we had to get going, seeing as classes were at eight o’clock the next morning. Regular students at Yunnan Minzi actually get today and tomorrow off, but then they have classes on Saturday and Sunday.

In addition to classes and lectures, I’ve spent the last few days trying to figure out where to go for my Yunnan Exploration Project. About a week from today, I get a week off from classes to go somewhere–anywhere–in Yunnan (or even further, if I wanted). I’ve been debating going to either Tiger Leaping Gorge (near Lijiang) or Tengchong and/or Ruili, both of which are in the west, close to the Burmese border. As of a few hours ago, it looks like I might be going to Tengchong and Ruili.

Getting into the Rhythm of Things...

I actually wrote this post on Saturday but the internet would not work…

Today is the first day since I’ve gotten to China that I have the whole day free. No class. No excursions. No lectures. Just free time. And maybe some homework.

Classes started two days ago, on Thursday. My regular weekday schedule is pretty much as follows: starting at 8:00 AM, I have two hours of Chinese with Charles, one hour of Taiji with this really funny old man who does not speak English, about another two hours of Chinese with Huang laoshi (黄老是, literally ‘teacher Huang’). Then we have lunch at the dinning hall, for which we all have meal cards and little metal pots/bowls. At the entrance of the dinning hall, we wait in line for someone to scoop rice into whatever dish we have, for which we have to press our cards on a sensor for it to deduct a couple kuai (which is the equivalent of about 50 cents). Then we go around the dinning hall, where they have different dishes set out at different ‘stations’. Once a dish is picked, the cost of the dish is deducted from our meal cards. Of course, the restaurants here are so cheap that we go out a lot and can get a good meal for the equivalent of a dollar or two.

After lunch, I usually have a bit of time to do some homework or go online. Then, there’s usually a lecture or movie that I have to go to at 14:30, which can last for a couple hours. Then free time, which is usually spent walking around Kunming or doing homework/trying to narrow down my ISP ideas. Speaking of ISP ideas, I’m thinking I want to do something with mythology and folktales (which is totally different from what my original ISP proposal was). I’ve read a few ISPs on the topic, but they all simply recount the stories, whereas I’d like to do something like what I did for Anthro Theory last semester, when I read stuff by Levi-Strauss and used his methodology to analyze certain myths. And I think I’d also like to investigate how material circumstances might affect different versions of a myth…or something like that. I need to read more about the different ethnic groups around here to decide where I’d like to go for this or if it’s really what I want to do.

This schedule is actually not absolute because excursions sometimes alter it. For instance, yesterday, the language classes were shortened and we didn’t have Taiji because we went to a Mosque. There were so many people there for the end of Ramadan (Eid ul Fitr) that we simply waited outside for a while, as people took photos of us and we took photos of them taking photos of us. Then we went inside and sat on mats as a man whose name I unfortunately can’t remember talked about Islam and prayer. The day before he had also been present when a Hui man (Hui being the only minority in China that is based solely on religion) had talked about China and Islam amongst the Hui and Uighurs. We also had a lecture on Chinese modern history and then a movie about the Mao years, which was very interesting.

I had some photos...but the when the fifteen minute mark passed on uploading the first photo, I decided I could just try again later, hopefully with a stronger connection.

Impressions

Most of this blog post is from a short piece of writing I had to do for SIT about my impressions of China so far, except this version has photos.

I arrived in Kunming on Friday feeling a little bit self-conscious about the fact that everyone around me looked Asian and spoke Chinese. I felt very much engulfed in a sea of people and yet entirely disconnected from them. I walked through the baggage area, trying to follow the crowd and hoping I would be able to tell which baggage belt I should go to.

Feeling out of my depth, however, is something I have found a giddy excitement in. Many things are unfamiliar to me in China, but this is exactly what has attracted me to this particular place at this particular time. More importantly, the feeling of being disconnected from the people here has been fading quickly with every day, as I meet people here on an individual basis and get to know about their lives (moreover, remembering some of the Chinese I had forgotten over the summer has also helped).

For instance, there are the little old ladies from Liuyi village, who are living examples of the practice of foot binding that I had read so much about at Wheaton College, and yet stand apart from those historical texts because they are not solely women whose feet are bound, but women who work, dance, and find companionship among one another.

(women with bound feet in Liuyi)

(women with bound feet dancing)

There are also the people from Tonghai, like the musician we ate with, whom I could not communicate with directly, but found amusing. And Albert, who invited us to see and talk to the children at his English school, then took us out that night to friend’s party where we (kind of) learned Chinese dances and then in turn tried to teach American dances like “Twist and Shout,” and “Cotton Eye Joe”. Finally, Albert took us to a bar with a Chinese alternative rock band that covered “You Are My Sunshine,” which is now definitely my favorite version of that song.

(street in Tonghai)

(old men playing chinese chess on Xiu Shan)

(little kids at Albert's school playing chinese chess)

Even simply attempting to converse with strangers in shops–to buy a cell phone (albeit with the help of one of the other students, Lexi), get a meal, or find an outlet adapter–has helped me feel less like an outsider and made me more aware of my own capabilities. I came to China with the confidence I could figure out my way, but without a complete realization of the extent of my abilities, which I now feel a little more aware of. However, I am also recognizing more and more how I have only just begun to test myself, particularly in consideration of the Independent Study Project (ISP), which I have the impression will be just as rewarding as it is difficult.

In conjunction with the unfamiliarity of China, there is the comforting familiarity of being in a group of American students, the absence of whom during the ISP will probably be somewhat testing. Yet, despite their familiar mannerisms and distinct American accents, our group is also interesting and diverse. We have music lovers, a linguistics enthusiast, anthropologists, sociologists, basketball players, a water polo player, Texans, East Coasters, advanced mandarin speakers, somewhat less advanced speakers, and people who understand next to nothing. I may have only known the other students for less than a week, but I know our group is filled with very capable, interesting, and creative people.

(in order, from left: Kalyn, Richard, David, Ellie, Jake, Lucas)

As a whole, China is a peculiar mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar. In the past week, I’ve been to both a Wal-Mart and a Carrefour, both of which are basically reminders of home yet are entirely different. After all, China is very much connected to the world I just left (I only have to look at the “Made in China” stickers and tags back home to understand that) and yet still completely different in immediately obvious ways (like language, food, and architecture) and other ways that will perhaps take a little bit longer to notice.

(on temple Xiu Shan)

(LOL. In a Buddhist Temple.)

The purpose of this blog is to write about and share my experiences of studying abroad in China with whoever happens to be interested and to also occasionally let my parents know that, yes, despite the infrequent phone calls, I’m still alive (although, I swear, this year skype is my best friend).

I’ll be studying in Kunming, Yunnan with SIT for fall semester and then Xi’an with the Alliance for Global Education in the spring. The SIT program is called Chinese Culture and Ethnic Minorities and the Alliance program is called Globalization Then and Now: Xi’an and the Silk Road.

I won’t be in China for another two weeks, which feels like either ten years or ten hours. I’ve done very little in the last few days except laze around the house in Verton, occasionally striking up conversations with other bored residents of the town, but otherwise simply wishing the time away (and reading a few books, like Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham, which I really liked). I’ve also tried to motivate myself to review my Mandarin notes and have occasionally done so. Now I’m in Paris, waiting for Callie to get here. Mom’s apartment here is a lot bigger than I thought it would be and the view of the Eiffle Tower is…just…





This almost makes me want to stay in Paris. Almost.