Week 9: Seoul Ink

This past weekend for Duan Wu Jie (Dragon Boat Festival Holiday) I was able to experience Seoul, Korea for the first time. Although only two hours away by plane from Beijing, it was a very different culture and an all-around great experience. I feel like my writing doesn't have its best stuff today, so I'll try to scrape through five innings with the help of some junk balling and a pitch-to-contact approach.

• First and foremost, I really appreciated the Korean culture of being polite and courteous. Even though all I said was Kam sa mi da and Anion Haseyo, it was still a nice change of pace from the Chinese people who just ignore you after you make a purchase.

• Apparently I can pass for Korean pretty easily, because a bunch of people came up to me asking for directions (I assume). For the first time this trip, I was a true foreigner who couldn’t fake it. Props to the few shop vendors who called out to me in Chinese from the get go.

• Once when another shop vendor started talking to Vanessa and I in English, I said “No English!” just for kicks, and he switched seamlessly to Chinese.

• Korea is cutesy central. I’ve never seen so many cute socks available for sale on the street, and I’ve never seen couples actually dress the same from head to toe on a normal day basis. All the cafes and eateries also seem to be very “cute date place” oriented. Also, couples have some sort of rule that they must be holding hands or touching at all times.

• Korean guys are very comfortable with their masculinity. They go above and beyond murses and reside safely in the straight up man purses and man clutches zone.

• I’d also say that Koreans on the whole dress more stylishly than Chinese or American people.

• I still don’t get why instead of selling everything for thousands of won, they don’t just simplify everything to one dollar, two dollar etc.

• Korean street food was pretty unique, but I didn’t find a go-to item that I had to get every time I saw it. Shikae on the other hand, I was obsessed with the entire weekend. Also, chilled Makgeolli is delicious.

• It was surreal having Korean BBQ in Korea for the first time. But I guess you shouldn't expect the 8 dollar AYCE to have rice paper or radish.

• I officially like Kimbap better than Japanese sushi. I could have eaten that stuff for every meal. Not such a big fan of the spicy red sauce they lather on everything, nor the extreme-carbohydrate dokba (?). Overall, a big thumbs up to Korean food, even though I didn't even get to have soondubu.

• Other things that will have to wait until next time… authentic Korean Norebang and sleeping overnight at a Jjimjilbang.

• They have these things called Love Motels in Korea apparently, where it’s rather blatant that they’re there for R rated activities. One place I saw had a silouhette of a guy in a top hat and cane plus a heart next to it, with the Chinese character for love on top. Apparently this was also a byproduct of living in Janghanpyeong haha. I digress.

• I was really excited to watch my first international baseball game in Korea, where we saw the Lotte Giants take on the LG Twins. The Lotte pitcher threw 7 1/3rd perfect innings, so it was a fun game to watch and try to see history unfold—there apparently has never been a perfect game in Korean baseball history. We also got to wear orange bags on our heads as fans of Lotte for the day, which was a bizarre but cool sight to see. Unlike American baseball games, fan engagement is most excellent, with support for both the home team and the visiting team roughly 50/50, and the crowd breaking out into songs and cheers constantly throughout the game. The Lotte side sang a version of Glory Glory Hallelujah as their main fight song, while the LG side switched it up between “My Life Would Suck Without You” by Kelly Clarkson (in Korean) and Happy Together by The Turtles.

• More funny moments from the baseball game: when the pitcher throws over to first base too much, the crowd antagonizes him, and in unison says something like ‘MAH!” while the other side responds with another monosyllabic shout. In addition, the Twins featured four mascots, a set of boy twins and a set of girl twins. They break danced. Also, there were four cheerleaders on both sides that danced every time their team was at-bat.

• Nanta! Is like a Korean version of Blue Man Group. I recommend it.

• People are out at crazy hours in Korea! And not just young college kids out partying—old dudes and even families with kids are out eating and stuff at like midnight.

• The amount of public drunkenness is ridiculous.

• They have done a really good job with their Olympic Park from 1988. It was a pleasure to bike around.

This post would be amiss if I didn’t mention how appreciative I was to have Vanessa and Tim (if only for an afternoon) as my gracious hosts during my time in Seoul. I realized what a huge difference it makes when you get to travel with old friends instead of by your lonesome; there’s really no contest between the two. While some independence and silent pondering while exploring is okay once in a while, I much prefer the reminiscing and old jokes that naturally play out even amidst a new setting. It confirms my inherent extrovertedness, as well as the value I place in personnel over location. While Seoul the city was a great deal of fun on its own, it became that much better with a few familiar faces, and I’d rather hang out with good company in a thoroughly boring place than be stuck all by yourself in the greatest amusement park there ever was.

Week 8: Notes From a Company Cafeteria

During the many lunches I’ve had with co-workers, one of the recurring topics of discussion is a cultural exchange between how things are in the states and how things are in China. Through these chats, I’ve gained a better understanding of not just how things are in China, but a possible explanation of why they are the way they are. (Disclaimer: I’ve been reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, which may have influenced the blog content this week. However, none of this is all that well researched, and more speculation than actual research.)
Some of the topics we talk about are fairly simple. For example, Chinese people eat much less meat, drink less milk and eat no cheese in their diet, which is why most Chinese kids are shorter than their ABC counterparts. The breakdown that follows however, struck me as a minor revelation.

My initial prompt: When you think about it, China has the history, manpower, and early advanced civilization that should allow them to be a global power. Not just an emerging one that is making huge strides in recent years, but one that should have been duking it out with the Soviet Union and the United States decades ago. The Chinese are known for their four original inventions: paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing, so how come today China can’t make an automobile that can compete on the global market?

My co-worker’s response: In short, Chinese culture is too conservative (loosely translated). Throughout history, they spend too much time stuck in one era while other civilizations moved on. A feudal China remained intact for much too long, which eventually led to the Communist takeover which further set back industrial growth. Whenever China latches on to something, it seems like they don’t want to let go. They grow comfortable and prefer not to change things up.

For example, buddhism, which originated in India, but is no longer the main religion of India... still the most prominent religion in China. Socialism, which originated with the Soviet Union, but is no longer in power... China steadfastly refuses to abandon it. An alphabet system, which pretty much every other symbol-using language has adopted (Japanese, Korean, and going way back, Egyptians)... China still largely has no alphabet.

***

Call it loyalty, or preserving tradition, but in the long run, it has set China back. Compare this to the founders of the United States, who not only had the courage to rebel against their former countrymen but boldly establish a new form of government, and it’s a stark contrast. Of course, how China and America are now operating in the 21st century and how things will look going into the future is a whole ‘nother topic for another day.

Obviously, this is an overly simplifed synopsis, and there are plenty of alternate explanations, missing pieces and huge loopholes, but it’s an example of what I get to ponder about out here. Hopefully I’ll return to the states with a broader understanding of things that expand beyond the Socal bubble.

Note: Happy 150th post, Proverbial Putts! Special thanks to those who have been here all along.

Week 7: Lost in Translation

Despite my subtle boasting about my improving Chinese conversational skills last week, this week brought that all crashing back down to earth. The scene of the crime? Mickey D’s.

To preface the situation, earlier this week when my co-worker took me to Starbucks (a luxury destination in China), I ordered the drink name in English, and not only did the barista understand, but she called out the drink in English to her fellow workers. Thus, at Mickey D’s, I figured that I could do something similar since the English names are also written on each packaged item. Usually, I get around ordering directly by saying "What kind of chicken dishes do you guys have?" or “Can you recommend a good soup?” and then just repeating something that sounded good. Very rarely have I been in a situation like Mickey D’s, where a menu (although without numbered value meal choices) is simply before you, visible all at once.

(regular font is translated from Chinese. Italicized font is spoken English)

Mickey D’s Cashier: Hi.
Me: Hi, can I get a Oreo McFlurry?
MDC: (puzzled frown on his face) What?
Me: Uhh, that ice cream?
(pudgy middle school kid next to me turns around, wondering who this idiot is)
MDC: … which kind of ice cream?
Me: (starting to panic, I point in the general direction of the Mcflurry on the menu. I desperately try to read the Chinese letters again, even though I know I can't. I only recognize the last word - wind - and so mutter something to myself instead)
MDC: Oh, the (somethingsomething wind)? Which flavor. We have strawberry and oreo (pronounced ah-ree-ah).
Me: Right, the… ah-ree-ah.

Nothing like McDonald’s to humble the spirits.

***

For the most part, it seems like the general American to Chinese translation is better than it was in 2004 when I first came to China. Grammatical signs aren’t so egregious, and misspellings are forgivable. One thing that I still get a kick out of though, are the weird English words that people print on shirts. Many times it will be just complete randomness like “Machine IPSQ X PP.” Other times it’s some poetic phrase that’s just a bit off, like “Live to Laughs… Love in the Quiet… Flow like a River.” My top three favorites so far though:

3. A balding 50-60 year old guy wearing an oversized fake ECKO shirt
2. A peppy 20-something year old girl wearing a shirt that just says “STOIC” in huge block letters
1. A stocky 8-9 year old boy wearing a shirt that says “Goddess” in a bland font

One more thing. Angry Birds is all the rage right now in China, and I’m not talking about people playing the game. Little kids love Angry Bird T-Shirts like fat kids love candy. I’ve also seen hats, watches, and even entire outfits that come together… I’ve even seen a Chinese style Angry Birds fan. It’s much more common than Mickey Mouse or really any other cartoon figure that kids should like. It’s a decent game for your phone, but the birds are not that cute. They don’t have much personality. There is basically zero storyline besides what is implied with their name. There are no jokes, heartfelt moments, epic scenes, hero figures, nothing. It’s just a simple slingshot game where you try to knock things down! Simply baffling.

Week 6: In the Absence of Twitter

It's a bit surreal that I only have about a month left in China. 30 + days still seems like a good amount of time, but the last 30 seem like a blur. I also feel like I have been writing too much on each blog post, to the point where I am no doubt oversupplying my readers with content. So, I will try to be more laconic in the coming weeks while holding out hope that my few remaining voracious readers will voice their displeasure and demand more proverbial putts going forward.

A few random thoughts that I probably would have tweeted if I were able to do so in China...

• Mark my words: lung cancer is going to be a major problem in Beijing in the future. Although the air quality has been much better (or maybe I'm just getting used to it, who knows) in the past couple of weeks due to a healthy amount of wind blowing the pollution away, you can't go anywhere without running into smokers. Sometimes I will be walking on the sidewalk and there will be four guys walking in a row ahead of me, all smoking at the same time. In times like these, it is nearly impossible to avoid breathing the secondhand smoke that inevitably comes drifting my way in this miserably large cloud. Then there are the hardcore smokers who smoke without using hands and while biking. Remarkably, they puff in and out without ever removing the cigarette from their mouths. People also openly ignore "No Smoking" signs in restaurants and stairwells, puffing away at the table while the waiters and attendants do nothing to stop them. [Matt: I've thought about you several times in these situations and how you would probably enjoy being in my shoes.]
• Watch where you step. That pool of liquid on the ground might be baby urine. It always strikes me as odd when parents let their little ones simply pee on the ground outdoors, sometimes in a tree planter patch of dirt, other times right on the side of the sidewalk. Instead of diapers, babies simply have a slit in their pants, providing convenient access for peeing in public. I even saw a mom let a 10-year old pee on the side of a wall, in a heavily trafficked area. C'mon people. [Trace: I wonder if you'd still find these babies cute while they were urinating in public. The jury is out on this one.]
• There's something pretty fun about meeting new people in a foreign country. Everyone has a more interesting story to tell, something different from what I'm used to. Whether it be English-speaking expats or Chinese middle-aged white collar workers or even the barbers and masseuses I happen to encounter, everyone has a wonderfully different story to tell. I take a bit of pride in being able to talk to anyone among these drastically different groups of people, and especially enjoy trying to pass off as a Chinese native who doesn't know English. Sometimes I'm successful, but other times people can see right through me. One of the taxi drivers I encountered bluntly asked me if I grew up in a foreign country, because he noticed that I reached for the seat belt upon entering the cab. [Mwen: you'd be proud of me. It's like I'm you at Tea Station, but all the time.]

Week 5 Part II: One Body

Inside the crowded auditorium, faces representing just about every single major ethnicity in the world stand together, singing praises to the same God. The worship team features a mix of Americans, Africans, and Southeast Asians. The pastor is from Oregon, the lady he brings on stage to share a testimony from Hong Kong. Having gone to Asian American churches my entire life, it's pretty funny that God took me to China, a land with a largely homogenous population, to truly experience the global church for the first time.

Culturally, I’ve found a melting pot community more vivid and unique than the relatively easy to ignore hodgepodge of original ethnicities that have now formed mainstream American. Beyond partaking in different cultural foods and dabbling into foreign affairs and cultural differences, we don’t usually have a chance to truly understand what being in the midst of a melting pot means in the U.S. I feel that people that have been in the states for a long time are more similar to the "typical American" than they might care to admit. I admit that I'm guilty myself of diregarding certain newcomers seen as "fobs" as they are easily ignored unless you go out of your way to form friendships. Here, in the Beijing International Christian Fellowship community, I’ve discovered what it means to interact with different peoples and exchange culture equally, because there's no other choice. Everyone has a different story and different background, and together I like to think that it creates the image of one body under God that the Bible talks about so frequently in the new testament.

Granted, this is not the typical China experience either, as a large portion of Chinese (especially away from the big city) never experience a melting pot culture of any kind, at all. But I'm glad that I've been able to experience this unique international environment, something that you definitely can't appreciate in the U.S. I'm beginning to experience the value of diversity first-hand - as opposed to UCI which was predominantly Californian and I hung out with people predominantly from the same types of backgrounds - and it's much more interesting and valuable than I originally anticipated.

Week 5 Part I: Tower of Babel Fallout

During my last few years of college, it became a cliched revelation from people that studied abroad that living in another country has changed their life for good (cue Wicked music). Until now, I’ve been a bit skeptical of such remarks, wondering how much of the experience was really “eye-opening” cultural stuff and how much of it was just because you’re in a foreign country with an easy workload and a bunch of same-aged friends looking to have the time of their life. Hopefully, my thoughts this week (a little more than a month into my time in Beijing) will help all you people who sat in the same skepticism boat understand what really can be so “eye-opening” about living abroad (in my humble opinion). Part II is waiting in the wings.

***

To sum it up, I appreciate my Mandarin speaking abilities more than ever before. Living in the U.S., speaking Mandarin is something that has three main benefits as a kid:

1. Impressing/not losing face with the older generations.

2. Being able to speak in code when the situation calls for it (i.e. on the softball diamond or in a publicly crowded place commenting on someone within earshot).

3. Silly entertainment value/for fun/a common shared bond with your fellow ABC friends.

In other words, the importance of being able to speak Chinese is understandably lost to Chinese-heritage transplants growing up in the U.S. Here in China though, being able to speak Mandarin pays off tremendously in that I can actually, well, communicate with people, as well as translate things orally. People are almost always impressed that my pronunciation and speaking is so satisfactory considering that I have only been to China once before in my life (of course, I then downplay my ability and say that two of my former roommates are American-born like me and speak/read/write much better than me). My slight Beijing "qiang," aka accent, also usually amuses the non-Beijing natives.

A funny little joke one of my co-workers told me: “If you can speak four languages, you’re quadrilingual. If you can speak three languages, you’re trilingual. If you can speak two languages, you’re bilingual. If you can only speak one language… you’re American.”

The lesson learned is that knowing Chinese isn’t only important if you are a person of a certain heritage. It’s important because being able to communicate with the largest population in the world is extremely useful. In addition, almost every single other country in the world has a largely bilingual population except the U.S., and it's because we're one of the few privileged countries that have the mindset that we don’t need to learn anything but English (Ex. All the fuss and political debate over laws requiring exclusive English language usage on the job. People forget Americans don’t have this problem because most can’t speak another language to begin with.).

Now that I've been in the Chinese workplace and also see how dedicated other foreigners are towards learning Chinese, I think I finally fully appreciate the value of being multi-lingual. I think my time here has cemented the fact that I will one day do my best to teach my kids Chinese, even if that means forcing them through the dreadful weekly exercise that is Chinese School. Looks like my parents were on to something forcing me to slog through those countless Sundays. Who knew!

Week 4: A Tamed Bull in a China Shop

Another week is in the books here in China, the highlight a weekend foray to Shenzhen and Hong Kong. I mostly went along as my grandma’s accompaniment/assistant as she had to take care of some matters there. It was a very short stay (Saturday afternoon arrival, Monday afternoon departure), and I was only in Hong Kong long enough to eat some authentic dim sum (especially memorable: the luo bu gao, the shrimp dumpling, and the mango pudding; especially disappointing: the chang fen and lack of almond tofu.) and go up to the Peak, but it was still nice seeing some relatives and new scenery down south. As has become the running theme when visiting different cities during my stay here, I was there just long enough to get a glimpse of the place — an appetizer for a future visit moreso than a main course indulgence.

Some Things I Like About China

1. Cheap Transport: My hour-long commute from work back home costs me 0.40 RMB, or, about six cents U.S. I can also zone out and listen to my iPod everyday, which has been revitalized from the dead, getting used to the max everyday. Like, I’ve-nearly-beaten-Temple-Run-and-I-only-downloaded-it-after-getting-to-China to the max.

2. Delicious Green Bean Popsicles: There are always a wealth of little food stands selling beverages and ice cream and various other hot foods (that I’m too afraid to try due to a constant fear of explosive diarrhea), which bodes well for convenient thirst-quenching and a brief escape from the muggy weather. Sadly, I cannot say the milk tea here are any good. The weird Chinese milk really throws things off (and the boba reportedly has been caught with fake plastic-y stuff in it). This may be my greatest disappointment in China to date. Luckily, the green bean popsicles more than make up for it.
3. Large population = always having someone to talk to/service you: The plus to having a ridiculously large population is that the service labor force is bursting at the seams. Every foot massage place or barbershop features at least one if not two greeters, while a large parking lot may have 5-6 people guiding you to the correct spot on a normal day basis. Even the public buses feature people who are just stationed at each bus stop, waving little flags to usher in each bus while screaming at the lurching mob trying to cram their way on. Each public bus has an additional person besides the driver whose only job is to sell tickets and announce each stop (even though there’s already an electronic announcement). Elevators in modest buildings have elevator-button-pushing-people so you can spare yourself the tremendous physical expenditure. Toll booths are well stocked. I could keep going.

4. People can fly kites really, really high. Seriously, it’s downright impressive. Random kites fly way above my 10-story building, with the kite-flyer no where in sight. In fact, it's so high that it looks like it's flying over the highway, with the assumed park not even in sight. I guess it’s one way to brighten the smoggy horizon.

5. The lack of freedom of speech and the general absence of checks and balances. Rumor has it that certain internet searches for the term “democracy” will be redirected/blocked. Also, I find it amusing that every single dollar bill has Mao Zedong on it. Talk about repetitive. Although, I better shut my trap before I get deported or something.

***

Okay, so that list didn’t last as long as I anticipated. I’m sure there are some more things I have forgotten. For example, as soon as I finished last week’s list, I realized that I forgot to include the fact that I miss having clean, ice cold water available at every single restaurant. Here, you usually have to buy bottled water, and many restaurants don’t even carry ice cubes. After playing badminton last week and becoming weary, I was handed a nice cup of steaming hot water. Anyway, I digress. I’ll have more noteworthy things to blog about next time around.