BAP Initiation

We had our Beta Alpha Psi initiation ceremony, pledging season ended, and officially added a 135 new members to our organization last week.  Initiation itself was pretty intense; we had some big people come, like the head of US recruiting for Deloitte, so E-board was even more focused on perfection than they usually are.

This just put added pressure on me, because as one of the pledgemasters, I had to give a speech to the new member class in front of everybody.  Typically it's the chairs who do the speech (I'm just a member), but both of them had class that time so Steph and I had to get on stage to do it.  I was pretty worried about how my speech would sound, but I got good responses from everyone once it was over so I must have done pretty well for myself.  Steph talked about our time as pledgemasters overseeing the candidate process while I focused on the future and their involvement in BAP.  It's a pretty short speech, but still something I feel is worth sharing.

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From the beginning to the end, I have been amazed at the level of dedication and initiative you all have shown throughout the semester, from engaging yourself in becoming ready for the professional world to the enthusiasm you have shown doing community service. I am honored to have served as your Candidate Master. However, your involvement in Beta Alpha Psi doesn’t end here. As members, not only are you now representatives of this organization, but you are the heart of this community. An organization is more than just workshops and speaker events; it is a group of people who collectively share one purpose, one goal.


PAUSE


To give back to the community. An organization is only as strong as the dedication of its members, and you now are the future of Beta Alpha Psi. Armed with the knowledge Beta Alpha Psi has given you, I hope that motivates you to give back, as future leaders, mentors, and members, so that future BAP candidate generations will be even stronger going forward; so that they may have the same great experience that you have had.


-Emoinacloset

Martial Arts at People's Park

Another paper for my Shanghai Global City class. This was supposed to be a group paper, but I ended up writing 90% of it, which I was alright with because I just tackled it like a blog post. Hopefully all of you will find it as interesting as I did.

- muffinman

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At the heart of Shanghai lies People’s Park, an oasis of recreation and calm is surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the surrounding People’s square. In the small exercise corner of this park, our group discovered the martial artists that call this park home. Our research group set out to learn as much about these recreational martial artists in People’s park as we could.
On our first day of field work, our group wandered to the exercise equipment area, where we observed various individuals striking the trees repeatedly. Puzzled by what we saw, we approached these individuals, all male and around the age of forty, and asked them what they were doing. The first man that we talked explained that the reason that he was hitting his knuckles against the tree was to strengthen them. When he showed us his knuckles, they were all perfectly aligned presumably from his training. He explained to us that he practiced a “san da” style and that there were masters teaching on Sundays at nine o’clock in the morning. The second man that we talked to was also hitting a tree but was doing it with his forearms rather than his knuckles. Like the first man, he was hitting the tree to strengthen his body. The goal was to hit each of his forearms three hundred times against the tree every day. He went more in depth about the teaching that occurs on Sunday mornings, explaining that there were four main styles being taught at People’s park.

We arrived at People’s park at 9:25AM on a sunny Sunday morning and as soon as we entered the park, we spotted the first group of martial artists. At first we only noticed a small group of six or seven martial artists who were practicing with the master. It was very easy to pinpoint the master out of the group as he was the one leading the routine, as well as correcting the students’ posture and footwork. The group of students were predominantly male and well into their forties or fifties. On the sides watching the students, were other martial artists who were stretching and socializing. Further away, there were a group of younger students who were practicing something that looked like a different style, but we could not spot the master.
We approached one of the individuals on the side, a man in his forties dressed in a white martial arts uniform and asked him about what he was doing in the park today. Needs more info (Max) The man confirmed to us who the master was and named the style that he was teaching.
Next, we approached the only foreigner in the group of students, an Australian male in his forties. The Australian had been practicing with this specific master for three and a half years, though he has practiced martial arts prior to becoming this master’s student. He trains to improve his health and flexibility, claiming that it has helped him find balance and keeps him centered in Shanghai’s fast paced lifestyle. The Australian comes to the park to train with the master four to five times a week in the morning before going to work.

The Australian student gave us good understanding of the structure of this master’s teaching as well as how martial arts are taught in the park in general. The master teaches seven days a week from 6:30AM to 4PM, though these hours are subject to change at the master’s discretion. Saturday and Sunday are the busiest and also the most relaxed and social. Most students who come, stay for about two hours. According to the Australian, the master is world-renowned for his technique. The master travels and teaches around the world at various times of the year. The Australian told us that foreign students will raise funds to have the master come and teach in their home countries, something, which the Australian has done more than once.

As for his own martial arts experience with this master, the Australian explained that the master is very old fashioned. The master’s teaching style is reminiscent of kung fu movies, where students are told repeat a simple move over and over again, only being taught something new when the master has decided that the student had mastered the technique. The Australian told us how he practiced walking around in a circle for two months before being taught a new a technique. The younger students who we initially thought were doing a different style were actually new students who were just practicing one technique repeatedly, most likely for two months, before moving on. The students that we saw doing a routine with the master had at least one year of experience.

In the park, the teaching of martial arts is completely recreational and is often done for the health benefits. There is no application, or sparring, done in the park. Classes are taught in Mandarin, but there are many foreign students who do not speak any Mandarin and learn through mimicking, though according to the Australian, some styles are not as foreign friendly. There are at least half a dozen masters in the park and all of them have some fame. Permission must be granted by an unspecified group before being able to teach in the park. The masters all hang a small banner to show that they have permission to teach. Every year, all the schools come together and perform in the main area of People’s park.

After talking to the Australian, the rest of my group left while I stayed behind at People’s park. I walked around a little and watched the other masters’ teaching. One group particularly drew my interest, because it seemed the most practical. Their strikes and movement were all very direct as well as the master taking great care to explain the theory behind the movements. I saw the heart that the master had for his students, much more so than the first master that I watched, this master had a brand new female student, who was performing horrendously. Nonetheless, he took much care and patience in teaching her, which was very admirable.

Seeing the martial arts in People’s park gave me a whole new perspective about the place. Just when I thought I had seen all there was to offer at this old park, I discover a whole new subculture that I had completely missed.

Major and Minor Characters

With less than a month left for this semester, this entry about the characters in my Shanghai life cannot wait any longer. Now you can put a face to a name when you read it!

Major Characters


Jeanni

The angel during my first 48 hours in Shanghai and now my big sister, hopefully for life, Jeanni is the closest thing I have to family here in China. Our shared interest in all things out of the ordinary, along with her daring and heart always makes her a welcome addition to anything I do, but you already knew that if you have been reading my blog posts because she sure shows up in a lot of them. Even though she never seems to have time for me anymore (or as much time as I want) Jeanni still manages to take care of me, which I am thankful for. Looking forward to starting a chapter of a nonprofit with her in the coming months and, of course, going to try hard to keep in touch with this amazing girl once she leaves Shanghai.



Crystal

My go to girl for whenever I need company for an adventure, Crystal always seems to have free time and the willingness to do something,. There were a couple of weeks when I spent nearly every day with her because she was always available to explore. As a person, Crystal manages to be a walking contradiction. She is openly opinionated yet frustratingly secretive, often quite bold but other times very shy, and most intriguingly, shamelessly brash while having a huge heart. As a friend, Crystal is one that can always be counted on, as evidenced by her willingness let me pass out drunk in her bed with a broken heart. With this in mind, it looks like I have another good friend in New York, watch out Emoinacloset you have some competition now.



Linda

Hands down my favorite person out of the whole UC program, Linda is the down to earth architect from Berkeley who I always feel comfortable talking to. It is actually a shame that I did not start getting close to her till so late in the semester. She has some great insight and I wish I had more time to dig out more of it. At times Linda has been known to be very direct, but whenever I seem upset by something she said, she quickly takes it back and passes it off as a joke, a sign of her soft heartedness. If fortune allows, I hope to run into her again once I get back to the states.


Minor Characters


Varun

The big brother in the apartment, Varun cooks, cleans and keeps me on the level. In many ways Varun is Jeanni’s foil and has kept me firmly grounded during my stay in Shanghai. It was him who knocked some sense into me when I hit rock bottom in Shanghai. Despite being a fairly safe guy, Varun does have some mischief in him, which makes him a willing participant to some of the dumb things that I do. With the addition of Varun, it looks like I am fast building an international family.



Elena

Innocent, shy and sweet are the words that come to mind when I think of Elena, coincidentally those are also the words that least describe me. So it is no small wonder that I am able to have hours long conversations with this foil of mine. Elena’s youth (just a sophomore!) hides much wisdom and in many ways she reminds me of Ellie, just younger and less experienced. Look for Elena to start showing up in blog posts when I get back to San Diego.



Nick

I am not quite sure how to describe Nick other than constantly shifting. Nick acts very differently depending on who he is around so my experience with him ranges from annoyance to appreciation. A self proclaimed follower, Nick is wherever the action is, which surprisingly means that I am around him a lot.

-muffinman

Meeting with Uncle Edward

While on a class tour of the French concession, I received an unexpected call.  It was the man who lent me his driver when I arrived in Shanghai, and who was supposed to have met up with me two months earlier.  Not holding any grudges and very curious as to why he was calling me, I picked up the phone.  Turns out Uncle Edward, wanted to have dinner with me that night!  Despite being a bit annoyed at the last minuteness of the invitation, I nonetheless accepted because I was curious to meet this man who has helped me so much and who claims a close connection with my family.  Uncle Edward picked me up at the end of my French concession tour at Tianzifeng, where I was contemplating what to talk to him about.  The dinner conversation went off without a hitch and I actually learned quite a great deal from him.

Uncle Edward took me to a Hong Kong style café/restaurant which I was extremely grateful for.  Shanghai food just does not compare to Hong Kong food and my attempts at getting decent Cantonese food have all ended in expensive disasters.  That night was the first night in Shanghai where I had a proper pineapple bun, none of that Taiwanese imitation garbage that is 85 Degrees.  The meal itself is worth writing about because it was just such a great break from the meat heavy and vegetable-less food I had gotten accustomed to.  By Hong Kong standards, the meal itself was just mediocre and the price was astronomically high for the type of food that we ordered, which could be had in Hong Kong for half the price.  Thankfully, Uncle Edward picked up the tab adding another thing to the list of things that I was grateful for that night. 

It turns out that Uncle Edward has an extremely long relationship to my Dad’s side of the family.  In fact, my grandma had specifically told him on the phone to take care of me while I was in Shanghai and to make sure nothing happened to me.   Starting all the way from elementary school, he was friends with my aunt.  As a child, he was invited to a lot of family outings as friend of my aunt’s and he has many memories of spending time with my grandparents, aunts and uncles.  He recalled times of visiting and playing at the old family home in Hong Kong and taking part in barbeques by the beach.  Uncle Edward also told me that on two occasions after college, he had stayed over at the family home while visiting Hong Kong.  As a result of this long standing relationship, my grandma was very close with his parents as well.  The most interesting part of hearing all these stories was not the fact that there was this significant family friend lurking just around the corner, but hearing that my dad’s family actually acted like a family.  Looking at the present state of my dad’s side of the family now, I cannot have imagined that they had these fun family outings that Uncle Edward was telling me about.  It gives me hope that things can be reversed. 

While asking Uncle Edward what exactly it was that he did for a living, I gained some insight into how Singapore society works.   As a Singapore national and an employee of a state owned company, Uncle Edward had a unique insight to share.  In the US, state owned companies are often vilified to be badly run and doomed to failure, however, in Singapore’s case the opposite is true.  Singaporean state owned companies are models of efficiency and industry leaders.  Uncle Edward tells me that the firm that he works for runs a tight ship and that being state owned actually gives the firm an advantage in the field.  Especially in China, honesty in business dealings is very important and an honest reputation is something that many Chinese companies.  However, as a Singaporean state owned company, Uncle Edward’s firm has that reputation for honest dealings that is so in demand.  He says that often times his firm gets projects not because they necessarily have the most talented people, but because clients can trust the company.

Uncle Edward also went on to explain why state owned companies are so excellently run and how the executives of these companies are groomed from birth by the state.  It starts in the schools, where the most brilliant children are separated from the rest into elite institutions.  The Singaporean government invests heavily in their education system.  After grade school, young men are conscripted into the military where they are further separated.  The ones who show the most promise are chosen to be officers and given leadership training.  The most brilliant minds are kept in the military for national security purposes, while the rest are released from the military to continue their education.  The Singaporean government covers all the expenses of its students and actively pays for its citizens to study abroad.  Those brilliant minds that were kept in the military are further groomed for high posts in the military.  High ranking members of the military are forced to retire at a relatively young age at forty something and then are shuffled to either state owned corporations or other high government posts, which ensures that their talents are well utilized and at the same time allowing a new generation of leaders and new ideas.  This whole system of taking care of its citizens and providing opportunities for them breeds loyalty to the state, allowing the authoritarian Singapore government to maintain its power.  All in all, it is a very interesting system that seems to be working wonders for this small island nation.

The most fascinating thing that Uncle Edward said that night had to do with his Malthusian explanation of Chinese people’s behavior.  When I said that I found Chinese people to be a bit more rude than Hong Kong people, Uncle Edward said that this was due to their past, where they had to be rude to survive.  He explained that with so many people in China and such limited resources, the Chinese are always competing to survive and that being civilized meant you missed out on resources.  Continuing, he said that even during this time of plenty in China, the rudeness is still present because it is left over of an era of scarcity.  This tied directly into my observations of how Hong Kong was a lot more efficient than China in almost all aspects.  Uncle Edward contends that China’s inefficiency is state created through the need to keep unemployment low in order to maintain power.  He says that the Chinese government over hires the amount of workers needed for the job and at the same time resists mechanization. Though I do not necessarily agree with his explanation, it certainly opened my eyes to a different perspective.  Also I can see some merit to his argument that the Chinese government demands the hiring of more workers than is efficient in order to keep its populace employed and happy. 

Thanks Uncle Edward for the great dinner conversation.  I look forward to meeting you again, whenever that might be.  Please keep dropping that knowledge.    

-muffinman