Notes of a Chinese illiterate

If someone could only read a few dozen words, would you consider that person literate? Probably not. Guess this makes me illiterate when it comes to Chinese. I can write the character for my family name -- Gan-- but my first name, Mei, is a complex character which I never produce satisfactorily. In first grade, I also had trouble learning to spell 'Rosalind.' In China, my world is full of strange dashes and squiggles whose meaning I cannot puzzle out.









Illiterate people develop comples strategies for coping with a world which employs codes they do not understand. Here's what I did when I needed a surge suppressor for my computer: I found a pictue of one on the web. Then, I showed it to our administrative assistant. She wrote its name in Chindse on a slip of paper. This I took to an electronics store, and showed to an attendant, who directed me to the correct department. I successfully negotiated the purchase, but I am an outsider to the code in which it was mediated.

Chinese Fast Food

A number of you have asked about the food here. Pictured is the lunch I had today, which came from the Chinese fast food place which serves our office. Clockwise: white rice, fish based soup with sea weed and white melon, tiny green beans with chicken, roast pork, bean curd, green cabbage, white cabbage. The white cabbage is flavored with pepper and ginger. The green cabbage has a slimy texture. It's all pretty good, aside from the ginger-flavored bean curd, which to me tastes like cigarette ash. It's a totally foreign cuisine, and nothing tastes the way you expect it to. It's a lot to manage with chopsticks. I give up after eating about half the meal.

More on Chinese Toilets

Marie Cope suggested I offer some clarification on the structure of Chinese toilets. At the risk of telling you more about this subject than you ever wanted to know, here goes: The plumbing of a Chinese toilet is quite conventional. The toilet fills with water and flushes like a Western toilet. The difference is the position of the bowl. A Chinese toilet is actually an indentation in the bathroom floor. Its use requires that you to do a deep knee bend and squat, a difficult maneuver unless you've grown up with this contraption. Fortunately, there's a Western toilet in my hotel room, and we have both Chinese and Western style toilets at the office.

Reverse Sticker Shock

The weather had oppressively hot, and a thunderstorm which hit Nanjing last night provided some relief. The storm struck around dinner time, and seeing how hard it was blowing, I decided I better not go out. In my hotel room, there are no cooking facilities, so I've been eating at inexpensive restaurants. I try to avoid the pricey places with American menus which cater to tourists. These are a rip off. I've also avoided the hotel dining room, which has seemed ritzy and expensive. But last night there was no other choice.

The service was elegant. Beautiful china, hot towels for your fingers, excellent tea. The staff helped me make a selection from the all-Chinese menu with no prices listed. How much would this cost? I resigned myself to being soaked as I dined on a beautifully presented rice, green vegetables and mushrooms, and baked fish. At the end of the dinner, I inhaled deeply, bracing myself for the worst as the check was presented: 29 reminbi-- the equivalent of $3.50. For an elegant meal. Wow!

Parasols

Instead of wearing hats, most Nanjing women carry parasols to shield them from the punishing sunlight; but I have opted for a hat to keep my hands free. It's hard to work with a camera while carrying an umbrella.

In this part of the world, a good summer tan is not a status symbol. It suggests a person recently worked on a farm and is new to Nanjing. There are many such migrants, and they rank low in the social pecking order.

Office etiquette-- but whose?

The Oxford English Academy of Nanjing where I work is a class act, a proprietary school affiliated with Oxford University in England and committed to Chinese access to English. The office bustles with activity as we prepare to do an in-service for sixty elementary school teachers the week after next. Staff morale is high even though the weather is oppressively hot and there's much to do. We take an occasional break as in the photo below in which Sir Barry Jowett, the school's director, poses with the pink hat I bought to keep off the sun.














As with every excellent operation, there is a highly competent and professional second in command-- in this case a young woman who goes by the English name "Bonnie." Barry, consults with her on most details of the operation, including the linguistic and cultural interface. But at times we have conflict due to the difference in culture ,as occurred recently when during an afternoon ice cream break, Bonnie innocently seated herself on Barry's desk.














Barry was horrified. "Bonnie," he spluttered, "You may not sit on my desk. Get down at once!"

I gather that in China the act of sitting on a boss's desk is not socially marked as seductive. Bonnie, who is highly professional, had no idea why Barry was making such a fuss. "No need to get down. I am comfortable."

Barry had turned bright red. "Bonnie, sitting on my desk is not, ladylike, and I cannot permit it. In the West, I would be criticized if I allowed it."

Bonnie's sense of etiquette is different. "Barry, this is China. No one will think anything."

Barry insisted he could nevertheless not permit it, and, shaking her head over her boss's unreasonableness, Bonnie climbed down.

This was cultural clash. Both people were abiding by the rules of their repective cultures, and found the other person's reactions incomprehensible. In such instances, I normally think the member of the guest culture-- in this case the Westerner-- should defer to the culture of the host. That's a good guideline, but in this case it didn't work. There is no way a proper middle aged male executive shoulld allow his cute and competent office assistant to sit on his desk. You simply can't step out of your culture all the time.

Communicationis not simply verbal. It is symbolic and gestural. We seldom notice the symbolic and gestural norms of our culture until we encounter another. Remember the Book of Ruth-- Boaz formalizes his commitment to Ruth by handing her kinsman his sandal. That sounds weird to us. Perhaps Barry's consternation over her choice of seating sounded equally strange to Bonnie.

Wedding Fever

Weddings in China are accomplished without ceremony. Partners simply fill out some paperwork and turn it in at a government office. But many people, religious or not, find this unsatisfactory. We seem to need ceremonies to mark occasions, and wedding ceremonies have become an industry in China. Little girls gaze longingly at Western style bridal dresses, and people ask me to show them photos of my daughter's wedding. Downstairs from the place I live is a busines, Romantic Weddings which assists couples in doing their weddings in style.

On the Varieties of Indoor Plumbling

Just because cultures have indoor plumbing, it does not follow that they will create identical installations. Witness the Chinese toilet.

More Public Spaces

In China, some streets are designated as "walking streets." Bicycles and cars are not permitted. They are a little like our malls, but since they are near the places people live, they promote a sense of community. Pictured: a student of my former roommate, Li Yuehau, enjoys a snack of preserved sugared fruit on a skewer and bright lights on a "walking street"
on a warm summer evening

Artifact of America

The girls on this boat, like just about everyone I meet in public, reacted to me as the representative of a type. There are few Americans around, and my nationality is rather obvious. People frequently shout "Hello" at me in the streets. These young ladies, who according to my companions are students at a prestigious high school, entertained me with an obscen version of "Mary had a little lamb."

Public space

One thing I really admire about the Chinese is their attitude toward public space. Streets and parks are immaculate; one sees street sweepers everywhere. Even more important is the attitude that parks and other places are truly for everyone. Since parks are extremely safe, both young and old can use them for recreation.

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore

One of the differences between China and the U.S. is the attitude toward the flow of information. While I am able to write this blog and post it on the web, I cannot go into the web and see my posting. Nor can I read Ben's blog, Dennis and Marie's blog, or any other blog. So if you want to send me a comment, use the email: gannr@etsu.edu.