Negotiations

When the Chinese are in authority, they are not required to give a logical reason for what they request, or any reason at all.

The international office asked me to give them my passport on Thursday, so they could apply for my work visa on Monday and perhaps return it to me by Wednesday. Why did they need it on Thursday? Just so they'd all be in one place. To me this seemed unreasonable. I agreed to give it them on Monday when they actually needed it.

I may not see the books from which I will be teaching until tomorrow. The official who has the key to the book room is not in. There are, I am told, no duplicate copies of the key. I shook my head in disbelief, and the graduate assistant who told me this began to laugh.

Now, everything I have read suggests that in instances like these, you simply acquiesce to the demands of the host culture. But Western friends who have been here a long time counsel otherwise. Barry Jowett and Carl Mather say it makes more sense to question and even fuss about practices that don't seem reasonable.

Confucius (see above), China's first sage, counseled obedience to superiors. But he also emphasized justice and reasonableness by those in authority.

Writing my name

Many Chinese take an English name because their names are hard for us. I've always felt this was an unnecessary concession to our chauvinism, but the practice is so ensconced in English teaching practice that I felt I couldn't fight it. So I took a Chinese name: Gan Mei. 'Gan' is the Chinese word for sweet; 'Mei' means rose. Sweet rose. Similar to the English Rosalind, fair Rose.

It's not hard to write the Chinese word 'gan'(top left) but 'mei' is a complex character and difficult to write. Yesterday, some students on the beach were giving me lessons (below).

Campus by the beach

At my age, it's hard to live on a college campus. I am used to more control of my life, more personal space. The people here are gracious and solicitous; but at times this feels like surveillance. Nevertheless, this is a beautiful place, on China's Northeast sea coast. One has only to walk through the campus north gate to be on the beacch.

Getting to know you

The strangeness of a new place wears off when you begin to know people. As I was eating dinner on the square, a young law student approached me and asked if I could help him with his English. I told him that if he and I talked, he would automatically learn lots of English. He called over several of his friends (below), one of whom turned out to be a former student of my colleague Dr. Steven Gross, who was here last semester.

Coping with culture shock

I had not counted on intense culture shock, for I'd been to China before. But in Nanjing, I worked at the Oxford English Academy, which was run by a British director and reflected his values. Now, I live and reside at a Chinese university. It's totally Chinese.

I find resting helps, and doing practical things like setting up my printer. Afterwards, I explore. I'd grown tired of the dining hall, and often eat on the square by the dormitories where there are several food stands (above). People have warned me about eating from carts, but I find I'm no more likely to get an upset stomach from cart food than from restaurant food. I apply this rule: Don't eat it in China if you wouldn't eat it in the states.

We are still on summer break, but students are gradually arriving for the Fall semester. In the evenings, they sit out on the square prepare for the year's work in informal study sessions (below).

Uniforms and uniformity

As noted earlier, the Chinese are big on uniforms. Many more occupations wear them than in the West, and they are very varied. In addition to marking a person's occupation, these uniforms help socialize wearers into the expectations of a collectivist society.

Americans continue to debate the appropriateness of uniforms in public school. The advocates argue that uniforms impose standards of appropriate dress and behavior. They maintain that uniforms reduce competition over clothing and make impossible the wearing of gang colors.

Now, I have always disliked school uniforms, and more so now that I've seen China. I think student attire should be neat, clean, decent, and appropriate to the occasion. There is room for occupational uniforms especially for those who protect public safety. But school children should not have their identity flattened in this way. They are just developing it.

Above: The staff of the Oxford English Academy in their recently adapted uniform.
Below: Dining hall chefs on break at Shandong University

Matters of Privacy

To teach at a Chinese university, I had to be cleared by the Department of Entry and Exit Inspection and Quarantine for the People's Republic of China. A thorough physical examination was required. Along with three newly arrived professors from Korea, I was driven to a government clinic in a university van. Two graduate students from the international office accompanied us. Below: graduate students and two of the Korean colleagues.

Dozens of foreign students and professors lined up in the lobby(above). We submitted passports, our 3"X 2" photos, and piles of paperwork, we were lined up, and in full view of our colleagues and future students, a technician drew our blood. Personnel wore gloves and used new needles for everyone, but spattered blood on my shirt as they withdrew the needle. Neither gauze pads nor bandaids were available when I failed to stop bleeding. I made a fuss, and someone finally handed me a tissue.

After this, we were marched to various rooms where our eyes were checked, weight and blood pressure taken, and EKG's, chest X-Rays and sonograms performed. We were ushered into these rooms in groups of four to six, and there was no privacy; everyone saw everyone else's procedures. Other than medical personnel, men were seldom present; once or twice they were.

In the U.S., these services would have cost several hundred dollars, but because of low labor costs, were less expensive here. But even in an era of HIV and bird flu, the exam was more thorough than anything necessary to safeguard public health, and I still wonder why they did so much. The Asians were accepting of the disregard for privacy. I was told that for China, en masse delivery of healthcare is routine. With the long lines, the process was far from efficient, and it serves to erode individualism.

It is interesting what different societies consider necessary for safety. For example, our Department of Homeland Security compels visitors, including foreign professors we have invited, to supply their fingerprints.

Navigating

It takes awhile to figure out how to do things in a new location, especially when you're not proficient in the language. I write from Weihai, where I arrived three days ago. I've been occupied with such tasks as figuring out how to use a washer whose directions are in Chinese. There are different quirks to the Internet server we use here, and I'm not always successful when I try to post.

As of Tuesday morning, I am happy to say I have figured out the blogging puzzle. Incidentally, you may send comments, as a friend in Nanjing showed me a way around the "Great Firewall of China," and I can see my own blog.

I live in a residence for foreign faculty, where I have a furnished 2 1/2 room apartment (see above). The dining hall downstairs features Chinese institutional food, something entirely new to me, though it isn't bad. I haven't lived directly on a college campus since my early twenties, and it feels weird because I'm used to more privacy. The facilities are great, especially by Chinese standards. It's obvious these people want to be gracious. There's a small lake in back of our residence (see below), and the ocean is a short walk-- perhaps a quarter mile.

Getting to China

Getting to China is never that simple. It's too long a trip. Last time, you will recall, I managed to get to the wrong city, due to a mixup in translating Chinese characters to English letters. This time the weather was foul. I nearly missed one flight and also spent half a day in the Beijing Airport waiting for the fog to lift.

The Weihai campus is large and quite lovely. My quarters are in a residence for visiting faculty, and the apartment is quite spacious. There's a dining hall which featuring inexpensive Chinese institutional food, which is a new experience. I have 24 hour Internet in my room, though it took some doing to get it hooked up. There is even a small washing machine in the bathroom, though I'm not very good at using it yet, as the instructions are in Chinese.

Incidentally, I can see your comments now-- a Nanjing friend found a way around the "Great Firewall of China." However, there seems to be a problem currently in posting pictures using this server. I'm going to try again in the morning. Sometimes there are glitches when you try doing it from here.