China Lessons on self: Continued

As promised here is my academic/professional observations on China.

Also, I decided to add two more self-discoveries.

Need for growth

Coming to Fudan and experiencing a lack of challenge in my academics, I have come to realize that I need to keep learning or else I get incredibly restless.  After a month or two of learning nothing, I started picking up Harvard Business reviews because I could not stand the fact that I was wasting my time.  Also in the back of my mind, I felt like I was falling behind my peers and whatever edge I had accumulated with my work experience was quickly wearing away while I was amusing myself around the city.  Basically, when school was teaching me nothing, I went out of my way to learn, which is unprecedented.

Identifying with American Values

Surrounded by Chines culture has made me realize how Americanized I am.  I say American because I miss the diversity in cultures and people that can only be found in the states.  Homogeneous populations bore me and this is with taking into account the expat community in Shanghai, which despite the their varied cultural background all act very similarly. In addition, I have come to identify with the lone ranger, take no prisoners and rules are meant to be broken attitude that Americans glorify in their culture.  The timid, risk averse, keep your head down and work hard mentality that I see in the local Chinese students and which is promoted in Asian cultures annoys me to no end.  These differences in culture is why I cannot see myself living in Asia permanently.  

-muffinman   

China lessons on self

Recently, a few people have asked me what I have learned while studying abroad and often times my responses feel so half-assed that I begin to wonder myself whether I have learned anything or not.  While sitting at Burger King eating dinner, I began to seriously think about the answer.  Here are some of the answers I came up with separated into two categories “things I learned about China” and “things I learned about myself.”  “Things I learned about China,” will be posted in my pro blog in time.

Clicking with older people

Since coming to Shanghai, I have had the opportunity to interact with people who are much older than me.  What I have discovered is that I am able to relate better with people who are older than me.  Somehow, my subjects of interest just mesh better with this older crowd.  Not to mention I feel that I am able to learn more from the experience.  It is a bit problematic though because most of the times this older crowd does not see me as an equal. 

New Found Independence

Walking away from people and events has become almost second nature.  I no longer feel bad or awkward about leaving anymore.  In addition, I have found independence through my camera which has emboldened me to go out and explore the world by myself.  I realize now more than ever that I have internalized Western individualism and could never feel at home in an Asian community centric society. 

       

Culturally from Hong Kong not China

The longer I stay in Shanghai, the more I realize how Cantonese, specifically Hong Kongnese, I am.  Shanghainese, Sichuan and other types of Chinese food all pale in comparison to Cantonese food.  I find myself constantly complaining that there is too much meat not enough vegetables in my dishes.  The food I am having in Shanghai all seems to be too oily and salty, which for the most part I have gotten used to, but I still miss my bland Cantonese food.      

Tourism is boring

For most of the seven months in China, I have stayed in Shanghai and that is because I realize that I hate being a tourist.  Sites and attractions that everybody goes to see hold no interest for me.  Rather than running all around China checking out tourist destination after tourist destination, I explore Shanghai and try to discover as many hidden treasures as possible.  I learned that I like to set my roots down in one place and grow.  For me, fun lies in knowing things about an area that no one else knows and learning all the small intricacies about a place that make it unique.  Of course, it is also about getting to know the people that inhabit the area and having them know me as well.  Part of the reason that I love Shanghai is because at my favorite café, the owner recognizes me and knows my drink order as soon I step through the door.  Traveling to me is about finding another home and the action of visiting a place for a few days and seeing a few sights is too superficial for me to enjoy.  

-muffinman

Bowling with Young Bakers

About a month ago, I got involved with Shanghai Young Bakers (SYB), a nonprofit that takes orphans aged 17 to 23 from the rural areas in China and trains them in French baking in Shanghai. All of the orphans’ living expenses are covered and in addition to classes, they are placed in internships at various bakeries and five star hotels. It has been awhile since I got excited about something in Shanghai but when I read the description about this NGO, I knew immediately that I wanted to join. I sent them an email about volunteering opportunities and two months later after I had forgotten about the nonprofit I got a response. Though, as great as SYB and the people involved in it are, that is not what this blog post is about. Instead I am going to write about how one early Sunday morning, I traveled across town with Stephanie, Cindy and went bowling with the orphans in the program.

The bowling part of the event was not all that exciting at all but it is always interesting to see the people that your organization is benefitting. Bowling was extremely chaotic with many of the bakers running around and bowling in each other’s lane. Nobody bothered to keep score. The most striking thing about meeting the bakers was how normal they all looked. If I was not part of SYB I would have never guessed they were orphans, this observation made me question the bias I had. After all, how is an orphan supposed to look like? Real orphans probably do not look like Oliver Twist.


Highlight: Learning how bad somebody could be at bowling


From left to right: Cindy, Baker(forgot name), Stephanie

More bowling pictures

What was the highlight of that Sunday was the lunch after the bowling event. Luckily, I sat with the only Cantonese speaker in the program, which was a great relief because even though the bakers were receiving English lessons, none of them actually knew enough to hold a conversation. At bowling, I asked one of them what his name was in English and he could not even understand the question, which gives you an idea about the level of English that the bakers are at.

From talking to Luo Zhen I got an idea what the program was like for these young bakers. Luo Zhen is twenty three years old and comes from a province that I cannot recall , but which is very close to Guangdong, hence why she is able to speak Cantonese. She told me that every one of the bakers feel overworked, but they realize they must tough it out and finish the program. The way she described the program it sounded like she was suffering but when I pointed that out she quickly refuted me and said basically said that the benefits outweigh the costs. Suddenly, the complaints I had about school seemed extremely petty.

When I asked her about what she was going to do after the program, she told me she was not sure but that she would definitely go home first. I was surprised by this and I asked her if she was going to pursue a career in baking. Once again, I was met with a noncommittal answer emphasizing that it depends on what opportunities there are at home. Later, at another SYB meeting I was told that many graduates do not utilize their training after the program. What a shame, I wonder how that could be fixed.

The most surprising thing about talking to Luo Zhen was the fact that she had all these international friends, especially from Hong Kong. For whatever reason, a large number of tourists passed through her hometown and she exchanged emails with them. Some of those tourists have been corresponding with her for over a year. Once again, my perception of what an orphan is was challenged.

The lunch ended on a somber note as the students got lectured by the homeroom teacher. This is the teacher who takes care of the whole class, a woman who resonates tough love. From the quick translation I got from Cindy, I learned that the teacher was berating the bakers for giving attitude at their internships. Through the harsh words, I could tell that the woman cared for the bakers and deeply wanted to see them succeed.

I left that lunch feeling more committed to SYB than ever before.

-muffinman