Huizhou Research

Okay, I owe 2 weeks worth of posts and I will make up for it within this week. I was gone for over a week in Anhui Province for a social research project that HBA hosts. We had internet on and off, depending on where we were and it's been a crazy time transitioning back to Beijing. So for this first post of week 4.5, I have attached a copy of my final research report in Chinese. It has to do with Huizhou, Anhui's status after the Economic Reforms and Openness (改革开放). If you don't read Chinese, you can always use Google Translate, I'm not sure how accurate it is though...you can just copy and paste it into the box provided and it will give you an instant translation (ps if the translation mentions soup, it is supposed to refer to the name of a small town)


For my next post, I will be updating:

• Pictures, lots and lots of pictures...after I go through them with Aperture. They will include: Huangshan, Beijing Acrobats, monkeys, factories, 
• An experience with busking
• A terrible experience with Chinese Immigration Dept
• A few funny mistakes that foreigners make when they fail to pronunce a word correctly
• An exchange program at Southeast Nanjing University with Yale Ivy Council
• HBA student life updates

But for now:

社会调查文章：改革之后的徽州

第一个印象

我在徽州一个礼拜有了一个很丰富的体验。从鬼斧神工的黄山到古老的山城，我利用了这周从不同的角度了解徽州，安徽。我们住的酒店就在黄山的山脚下。这个地区叫“汤口”。汤口这个镇非常小，它的经济发展和存在性都依赖于黄山。我们第一、二天试图找一些好吃的饭馆儿可是一次又一次都失望了。第一天，我们找了差不多一个小时，总算找着一个价格合适的饭馆儿。谁知到，我们那一刹那做的决定让我们体验到中国最难吃的饭。那个饭馆儿是一个农民开的，卫生非常差，我们吃的米饭里面甚至有头发！ 那顿饭不只很难吃，也很贵。价钱大概有我们在北京吃饭价格的两到三倍。第一天，我们都感到非常荒谬，从北京到徽州的区别对我来说，比从美国到中国的还大。我觉得就像我突然被放在一个鬼城一样，除了一些本地人，都是空空的酒店和饭馆儿。

改革的正面影响：黄山脚下的汤口镇
隔了两天，我才开始慢慢地适应这个新的环境。我发现改革开放之后给黄山脚下的小镇带来了很多生意机会。第三天，我们勇敢地徒步走进汤口的主街上。我们所见的东西让我们感到不可思议。那个城市有如一个微型的社会一样，什么都有。一边儿有专卖篮球鞋的店，另一边儿有一个中国移动手机店。我们也发现这边饭馆儿的菜的价格也更合理，不像我们酒店旁边的饭馆儿。我们趁着这个机会跟一个饭馆的老板问了几个关于徽州的问题。因为他住在旅游区，他的生意有赖于旅客的来往。他说，在淡季时，这个镇里的生活节凑很慢，但是在旅游旺季，会非常忙。要是没有改革的话，那位先生说他们的镇不可能会像现在这么发达。虽然他们住在山区里，可是他们生活中的物资是能与别的小镇抗衡的。

改革允许他们自己当企业家，能利用旅客对黄山的兴趣来赚钱。二，三十年前，除了一些古老的房子以外，汤口就乏善可陈。这个老板承认大多数在汤口的企业都是依靠黄山的名气和吸引性来挣钱的。他举了一个例子来说，要是那一天徽州区发生一场地震，那大多数的企业都会歇业。一个很大的缺点就是徽州的企业都是以旅游来养家活口的，而没有其他的方式来帮助经济发展。徽州并且位于山沟里，要是政府想建立一条路需要很多资源，可是建立这些路不值得，因为除了旅游业以外，徽州就一贫如洗。他把徽州的落后情况归咎于它的地理特徵。有些人可能认为徽州拥有得天独厚的环境，可是他却不以为然。他觉得因为徽州在山里，对商人来说，这个地方太偏僻了。旅游发展也有它的局限，所以这位先生认为长期看来，徽州还是会跟现在差不多一样。改革容许他们的发展，可是现在已经越来越接近它的局限了。这位先生说的话不无道理，可是我觉得也有一点儿过于简单。我觉得徽州也有别的发展机会，虽然现在很多经济资源都来自旅游。比如说，我们去了一个很成功的茶叶厂。他们是中国第二有名的绿茶厂家，他们利用黄山得天独厚的自然资源来种茶。从1987年企业开始经营时，现在每年会处理可能几十万斤的茶叶。因为政府支持私人企业，这家公司就一跃成为一个大名鼎鼎的茶叶公司。

改革的负面印象

除了黄山以外，改革开放也开展了很多其它的旅游地点。比如说，我们去了呈坎，一个猴山，和宏村。呈坎自称为“独一无二保存最好的明代古村落”。那个猴山则是一群农民开发的。然后宏村可能是最有名的旅游地点，可是其实跟呈坎大同小异。从一个宏观的视角来看，一个共有的特征就是这些地方都非常商业化。旅游地点卖工艺品和饮料，食物等等是理所当然的。我提的这种“商业化”是完全把一个有特色，又充满历史的地点改变成一个浮动地点。就用宏村当例子，这个地点，这个800年的老城市现在做为一个旅游地点天天有上千个旅客。还有一件很有意思的事就是很多城市里的房子都住着人。这些人的祖先就住在这里，所以按照中国传统的文化，他们有责任一直保管祖先留给他们的地。我采访的一位老年人跟我谈了谈改革开放之后对徽州的影响。他先承认改革有助于徽州的经济发展，带来了外地旅客的生意，这种生意现在是徽州的经济基础。当然，有更多旅客就会有更多人口和物质货源。要是没有改革开放，就不会有这么多人来观看他们的鼓楼了。

她说了一会儿，可是再找不出其他的好处了。这是因为她本人觉得改革开放后的徽州对他的生活水平带来的好处小于它的坏处。这位女人有几个孩子，而且他的祖先就是宏村本地人，所以她到今日还是住在祖先给她的房屋。每天，多不胜数的学生都会坐在她的房子门口画画。她说有一些“受过教育”的文明学生不会挡他的路，也不会破坏环境。可是她也常常会遇见一些“流氓”，他们不知会打扰到她的平常生活，而且有一些甚至在听到她的怨言时开口骂她，会说他们是掏钱到她家来画画的。从改革开放以来，徽州很多政策都充满了腐败。她说这种腐败不只是从本地政府来的，也来自于一些把本地地点变成旅游地点的人。他们一点都不理民怨。老百姓也无法抗议这种腐败，只好让当地的官员把他们的家变成旅游地点。她说那些旅游地点的员工大多数都不是本地人，因为他们工作的时候会更听话，但他们对徽州这块土地和文化并不关心。这些本地的老百姓有些也会把他们的家变成一个小商店，有卖饮料的，有卖工艺品的，也有卖徽州小吃的。其他的则自己种粮食，养活自己。她说她的孩子和别人的孩子们都是抱着去城市的愿望的。他们都宁在大城市里当小鱼，不要回到老家。因为徽州处了旅游之外，就没有其他的发展机会。

最终结论

我来徽州之前，是戴着有色的眼睛来看这个山城的。我自以为改革开放带来的东西都是好的，农民的生活以前肯定非常艰苦，所以应该没有一处不是往上提高的。可是这一次从我的社会调查中，我发现每件事情都会带来好处和坏处，我们必须站在不同人的立场上来分析一个情况。改革可能对徽州的整体经济有利，但是对一些本地的老百姓来说，其实负面的影响也很多。而且我觉得对很多像我这样的美国留学生来说，我们是无法觉察到这个社会问题的。

汤口：I don't know why this picture makes the town look so big but just imagine the buildings you see mirrored
onto the other side of the stream and that's the entire town. in the background is Huangshan. there's only one bridge,
the bridge in the further background is actually a highway that passes by the town.

Settling In

so this week went by pretty quickly, a lot of it was more or less just classwork and some mini adventures. in terms of academia, i think i definitely have learned more characters and grammar, but i dont think my speaking ability has improved much. prepping for class only takes about 2-3 hours a day now, which is really not that much compared to how difficult the program was at the beginning.

last friday i went to houhai, unfortunately i didn't have my camera with me. houhai is this area that is northwest of tiananmen and it is a large lake that is surrounded by restaurants and bars. it was a really beautiful night and the night life there was pretty active, next time i'll definitely go there again to spend some time just enjoying the atmosphere. one that that many people found annoying was the fact that there were live performances by random singers at nearly ever restaurant/bar and it sometimes didn't sound too pleasant... oh! and that reminds me...we coincidentally bumped into a group of yalies from the duke program when we went into a restaurant there which was really surprising but also a lot of fun

on july 4th, HBA bought us pizza for our "chinese table" for us to celebrate u.s.'s independence. although i'm not a fan of pizza, this time it came at a good moment, i'm starting to get a little sick of chinese food everyday. the good thing about the u.s. is that although a lot of the foreign food it offers isn't authentic, it has a lot of variety. in beijing, unless you make an effort to do so, you won't find many foreign food with the exception of fast food... i don't really miss american food or any other food specifically, but i do want to eat some other food occasionally.

i'm very experienced now with the public transportation system. bus 307 goes straight to 北大 and one stop later goes to 中关村. it costs only 0.40 RMB if you have a transportation card, so it's extremely cheap. public transportation gets heavily subsidized by the government because beijing's traffic is soooo bad. apparently there is on average, 6000 new privately owned vehicles that are bought in beijing each day. one of the biggest reasons for why beijing's pollution is so bad is because it's becoming industrialized so quickly, and despite the fact that the government has moved all the factories out of beijing's city limits, the amount of dirt created by building new buildings and paving new roads each day is enough to really mess up the environment. in addition, all the cars and what not only worsen the situation. my allergies are really bad in beijing, i spend most of the first 大班课 sneezing everyday. luckily, some of my friends from the states brought me some claritin when they visited beijing so i'll be okay for a little while.

for our weekend interview project, we had to interview someone about the cultural revolution. personally, i don't think this was the best question for us to ask because as expected, we really didn't get much response. perhaps that was the point of the whole interview... but anyways, we interviewed some 70 year old men sitting outside of the hutong area we were at. their responses were pretty hysterical, i don't know if it's because they were brainwashed by the government or because they simply didn't trust us because they knew we were americans and were weary about actually talking about this kind of stuff. politics is an extremely sensitive topic in china and of course, any negative information about the government can lead to very serious consequences.

some of the things they said (which i think were lies):
-they were about 40-50 years old during the cultural revolution and were workers, and so all they did was work. they were not affected by the revolution AT ALL, and that it was a matter that was dealt with by government officials and intellectuals at the time.
-i heard from my grandparents before that during the 1940s before china's "解放" china was so poor in some places such that people actually ate one another and were forced to sell their children to each other to eat... although this is an extremely example, the two people we interviewed acted as if china was not lacking anything at the time. they said my grandparents were just too old and telling me lies, and that during the time, the chinese were very wealthy and there was never a problem of starvation.
-they also said that before the communists came into power, a piece of bread (馒头) was almost 400 RMB but after the communists came into power, one piece was only one CENT, and a piece with oil and sesame seeds was only two CENTS. a 油条 (the title of my blog), which is a traditional breakfast item, cost less than ten CENTS. (this one might not be a lie. i verified)
-lastly, they said they saw chairman mao on the bus all the time and that america sucks and is not safe because the presidents always get shot and have to hide in bulletproof cars... (the chairman mao part was definitely a lie)

something very interesting coming up in my next blog post...if it happens this week.

south gate of imperial palace from 景山公园

just outside of the 西四 subway station

old vs new? 胡同 @ 鼓楼街

found at a hutong that has been commercialized

景山公园

titanic?

public bathroom @ hutong

warning sign(s) outside a public bathroom

tao and charles

playing with aperture too much..

What is the Chinese student's viewpoint on America?

What is the Chinese student's viewpoint on America?

This was one of the lessons that was covered in our Chinese textbook last week. It's interesting because I know that much of the American viewpoint on China is misinformed or swayed by the media. I think that the Americans can also justify lots of things on the media as non-biased because of the fact that the media is not owned by the government and that we have freedom of speech. However, I think sometimes in America, we are ignorant of the fact that the media's portrayal of foreign countries often has underlying political propaganda and other agendas. If anything, I don't think a lot of the negative articles written about China accurately portray the amount of wealth and the transformation of the citizens in Beijing. Yes, we know that there's "tremendous economic growth" in China, and that it is "slowly catching up to America" but it really wasn't until I got here and spoke with local citizens, from students to elders, that I realized how amazing of a feat that was. Prior to the cultural revolution, people have described to me that China was comparable to present-day North Korea. How did a country like this, in such a short span of three or so decades, become a global superpower? How can it be that some of the adults right now in this nation, who own multiple apartments in Beijing that sell for nearly 1 million USD for a two bedroom apartment, once grew up in an impoverished country that had just about nothing? (using my vocab here: 一贫如洗)

Chinese students once worshipped America for its freedom, its democracy and human rights. I think these are areas where even citizens today willingly admit that they admire about America. But now that China's economy is so strong, and so powerful, I can sense a feeling of nationalism and patriotism that isn't unfounded. Sure, every nation's citizens have a sense of pride for their nation, and I'm sure Chinese people always had nationalism. However, from some of the interviews I conducted, one especially with a friend of mine from Tsinghua, I remember him saying something along the lines of this: This is why our people are so proud. This is why our parent's generation is so proud of this country. They literally rebuilt this country in a span of 30 years. After centuries of being colonized, mistreated, and overpowered by foreigners, we're finally back on top. Every year, there's so much change but everyone is working together to make this new China. There's no longer a need to worship America, but rather the viewpoint of China-US relationship now is more economic partnership than anything. We have our differences, and many are cultural; America needs to better understand us as a nation and as a people. We know more about your history and we've read your constitution and watch your films and listen to your music; your country knows little to none about us as a people. He told me of how although most Chinese students despise US foreign affairs and policies, and feel like they only get in the way of other people's business using the name of "democracy", they still admit that there any social and economic norms that they can learn from America, and that America also has a lot to learn from China. This is a statement that he is now able to proudly say, and say without worry.

Although politics is a sensitive topic that really has no absolute right or wrong, after having this conversation with my friend and others, I feel like I have a greater realization of foreign countries. Chinese students are no longer pushing for a drastic change in government policy, because they know that at the speed with which China is growing, the amount of social progress has also been tremendous as well, and that it would be asking for something that is unrealistic for China to completely democratize right now. Many people are happy with the government; they sacrifice some rights which Americans view as unalienable, and get extreme efficiency, security, and amazing economic growth. For a nation that was impoverished 30 years ago, I think many citizens are more economic oriented and are willing to achieve economic goals at the expense of certain rights for the time being.

extra curricular activity: peking opera actor comes and teaches us
how to appreciate peking opera and then paints some of our faces!

fervently love the communist government

the drum tower (which is across from the drum tower),
next to some hutongs we went to

quiet picturesque eh? 

tsinghua university... wait what i wish i went here

monkey king!

pouring tea! it looked cooler than this pic can describe..

First Impressions

我在北京已经一个礼拜了，对一切适应得还可以。

Academics & Activities Relating to HBA:
HBA is as difficult as people have described it, at least for the first week. My entire chinese class from Yale that's at HBA took Heritage Level Chinese L1 and L2 last year. At HBA, we all got placed into Year 4 (L1+L2=Year 1). Though our verbal and listening skills are on par with the degree of difficulty, our written and reading abilities are years behind. Classwork has taken me anywhere from 4-6 hours a night, in addition to a total of about 5 hours of class per day. During the first week, HBA has been like a prison camp, and sadly, with all the hundreds of new characters ~400 this first week that we've learned and been exposed to, we have rarely if ever been able to use it with locals due to our hectic schedules.

Aside from all the excessive negativity from above, I've improved my reading and written ability dramatically in just one week alone. It covered basically how much we would cover in about a month or more of school at Yale. All of the learning comes at the cost of sleep and time to do other things like exploring Beijing. Nevertheless, I think it's definitely worth it; it's just really rough at first, and students have been completely burnt out by the weekend. On a brighter note, Friday, I placed 2nd place on a "pronunciation competition", which is the first of a series of weekly competitions that HBA hosts, where the teachers choose participants from each grade level.

Extracurricular Affairs:
Beijing Language and Culture University (北语) is very close to all the other universities in Beijing, and is located conveniently next to Wudaokou (五道口), which is a subway station/area with lots of malls, restaurants, bars, and clubs. A large group of us students went out Friday night as a reward for ourselves after a long week. We went to some of the popular bars/clubs for many study abroad students called "Propaganda" and "Sensation". Having never been to a club in the states, I can only say that it was kind of awkward in the clubs here in Beijing. It was fun, but many of the actual locals would stand on the outside of the dance floor and just kind of creep around or just look at everyone else who was dancing. Even the dancing was just very different from what I've seen in the states. However, all of the music is mainstream pop music from America.

in chinese, it says, "no graffiti!
whoever does so will be spanked!

Saturday, three other Yale students and I decided to go to on our own excursion instead of going to the Great Wall with HBA because we've all already been there multiple times. We decided to go to the 798 Art District. We took the subway and then a cab there, it was a lot of fun. This entire district used to be factories and such, and a lot of "starving artists" displayed their artwork here and also used the buildings as a form of art. Most of the artwork was modern/post modern works. It was interesting to see this artwork and compare it to a lot of the artwork that you would see in places like the MET, Yale Art Gallery and such. 

this was a laser art exhibit

this work is called "fantasy love"

There were also some interesting...works of art..

Afterwards, we went to this shopping area where they have a lot of fake goods and you have to bargain with them called the Silk Market I think... Anyways, we bought a lot of random stuff that we probably didn't need just because it was fun to bargain and it was cheap. Added another shotglass to my collection, and got an I "heart" BJ shirt. This morning (Sunday) I woke up and took bus 307 from BLCU to 中关村南站 and wandered around for a long time until I found the church that I was looking for. I attended the english service at Haidian Christian Church and it was very pleasant to have found a church here in Beijing, though it is actually one of the "approved" churches that are regulated by the government.

I will take more pictures next week of interesting things!
Random pic: I was actually at Lanzhou, China for a week before coming to Beijing. This is a picture of "兰州拉面" which is a nationally famous beef noodle soup: