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
