Hello, readers!
I apologize for the lack in posts – my already poor Wi-Fi
decided to go out this week and won’t be fixed until sometime next week. I’m
writing this post from a cute Tibetan café with lots of plants and overpriced
coffee.
Since my last post, I’ve been getting settled into the
routine of classes. I’m only taking 13 credit hours, but the program I’m using
only offers intensive language courses. So basically, I’ve already finished all
of the content that the CHIN 302 class at MC will learn this semester, and it’s
only week five. I have a final exam this week, then we're jumping into two more
semesters worth of content. Needless to say, I’ve been very busy with work, and
I haven’t done anything horribly exciting.
As I get more and
more settled in here, things in general are less exciting. I’ve gotten used to
some things about Chinese culture that used to bother me. For example, lines
are a rare thing here. I get genuinely surprised when I go into a store to buy
something and there’s a line-up at the register. Most of the time, there’s just
a crowd of people and whoever puts their goods on the counter first gets to
pay. A few weeks ago, this really bothered me, but I’ve grown to kind of like
it, or at least not mind it.
I’ve also gotten a job since my last post, tutoring a twelve
year-old girl in English. She’s getting ready for her junior high interview,
and needs to work on her writing and vocabulary, so I go to her house once a
week and help her for an hour, then they feed me dinner. She lives in a wealthy
neighborhood, in an actual house,
with her mom, sister, and their nanny. It’s been quite the experience getting
to know them. A general rule is that the more Western something is, the more
expensive it is. For example, Western food costs about 10-15 USD, which doesn’t
seem too bad until you remember that you can eat Chinese food for 2-4USD. The neighborhood
they live in is very Western, and they live in a Western style house instead of
a Chinese apartment, so you can guess just how wealthy they probably are. I don’t
think the neighborhood I live in (Wuhou) is bad, but it just doesn’t compare to
the glitz of their neighborhood (Tongzilin), and I do walk past a Maserati and
Ferrari dealership on my way to their house. How exciting.
This weekend we took a field trip to the Jinsha museum.
Jinsha was an ancient civilization that was discovered when trying to dig the
foundation for a new apartment complex in Chengdu. They stopped the building of
the apartment complex and instead turned the area into an archeological site,
then built the museum around it. When you go through the museum, you get to see
the actual site, which was unlike any museum I’ve been to in the US. Some of
the object they discovered included sacrificial animal bones and tusks, which
were preserved from being buried. These objects would decay if they were
removed, so the archaeologists reburied them. The Art History nerd in me had an
awesome time here, and I plan on visiting other Chinese museums while I’m here.
Pictures of the museum are below.
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| An elephant tusk preserved in silicone |
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| The Modi River |
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| Cong - these represent the Earth. |
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| The archaeological site. |
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| A burial site - the Jinsha people were buried, but without coffins. |
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| The symbol of Jinsha, a sun surrounded by birds. |
As always, I look forward to reading any comments and answering
any questions you might have!
Hi Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you are having great time in China and are getting to experience lots of new things. In global leadership we have been learning about different models of cultural leadership. One of these models is the Hofstede model and how different cultures compare in terms of power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/ feminine, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation, and indulgence. Coming from the United States, a western and linear culture according to the Lewis model, have you experienced any difficulty interacting with Chinese citizens who come from a very different cultural background with different cultural backgrounds. I know you mentioned that you got a job tutoring a twelve year old in English, have you noticed any of these cultural differences in your interactions with her? Have you had to adjust the way you help her learn compared to how you would tutor a westerner because of cultural preferences?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Kayleigh!
ReplyDeleteAs Brianna mentioned in the above comment, today in class we discussed the Hofstede model and used it to analyze cultural differences among countries. (If you are interested, this is what the Hofstede model tells us about China: https://geert-hofstede.com/china.html). Using this model to compare China to the United States, we can see that China has a substantially greater power distance, is much more collective, and has a longer term orientation than the United States. These differences make sense considering China is a reactive culture and the United States is linear as illustrated by the Lewis Model. The Hofstede comparison also showed that the China is substantially less indulgent than the United States. I thought it was extremely interesting that you mentioned Western equates to expensive in China; our culture's indulgence is pretty obvious when compared to China, and it's crazy to think that globalization has been able to carry values like this across the world. I encourage you to look at the Hofstede model if you have time! I think you'll find it very interesting -- let me know if you find anything on the model that surprises you! Best of luck with classes -- I hope you have more time to explore and relax in the near future.
hi kayleigh!
ReplyDeleteIt is so fun to read about your time abroad. I hope you are enjoying yourself immensely and learning a lot. Keep putting yourself out there!
xoxo,
Kelli
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ReplyDeleteHi Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteThe Jinsha museum sounds amazing! What was your favorite part of the museum?
As the others have mentioned, I am curious in learning about your experiences based on the Lewis Model and the Hofstede model. Instead of your reactions to the differences, I was wondering how Chinese citizens react to the culture aspects that you have brought over from the U.S.? The U.S. is linear-active while China is reactive. Linear-active countries are polite but direct, talk half of the time, and plan things step by step. Reactive countries listen most of the time, react to other’s actions, and are polite but indirect. In the Hofstede model, China generally has a higher level of power distance. They’re collectivistic, masculine, and have a low level of uncertainty avoidance. They also have a high level of long-term orientation, and a low level of indulgence. In the United States, we are individualistic and masculine. We have intermediate levels of power distance and uncertainty avoidance and a low level of long-term orientation. In addition, the U.S. has a high level of indulgence. I thought it would be interesting to examine the way they view our culture. I was also wondering if you interact differently with the family that lives in Tongzilin than you typically would with your classmates and people in Wuhou?
Hello Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteI am so interested in your experiences. Like Ryan, I especially found the story about your trip to the grocery store very intriguing. In our Global Leadership Class, we have been discussing the LMR Lewis Model. Cultures tend to be either linear active, multi-active, or reactive. We learned that Asian cultures are generally more reactive. I believe that your experiences tie into this well. Reactive cultures, according to the Lewis Model tend to react to the actions of others before they themselves act, and they can be very polite and indirect and patient. In contrast, Western culture, individuals are more impatient, direct with some politeness. Western individuals also tend to think with logic and facts instead of waiting for the actions of others before making a decision. I was wondering who amongst the group of individuals waiting in the group tended to act first? How has your perspective about this changed as you have spent more time in China?
I look forward to reading more about your time studying abroad!
Shannon Garrison
Hey Kayleigh!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you are enjoying yourself while traveling abroad. A few weeks ago in class, we discussed the East Asian culture and their view of leadership. We discussed how leadership is viewed as service and the concept of Wu Wei (doing without forcing). Furthermore, we discussed the Tao and its influence on leadership. I am curious to see if you have picked up on any of these things. One of the things that I struggle with comprehending is the Tao and how you can go with the flow, yet be productive and have a job (typical Westerner I suppose). Perhaps you can shed some light on this topic for me. I look forward to hearing back from you.
~Derek Krieg
Hello Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are having a fantastic trip! In our class today we discussed Hall's definition of subsistence as a part of the Primary Message System. We discussed how what you eat can determine your status. For example for a business meeting you would go to a nicer establishment than eating with friends. You mentioned that western food cost more than Chinese food. Does it seem as though living a western life style or using more western products is a status symbol in China? Or is this phenomena more centered on just food. Additionally, do you see any Chinese cultural aspects where wealth is also a status symbol? I'm interested to hear what you have to say on this topic.
Tom Kimmins
Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your experiences so far in China and I bet that you are learning a lot about what it is like to live in a different culture. As Bri and Rachel have already mentioned, we have been learning about the Lewis's LMR model and how it relates to how cultures vary in their leadership and leader/follower interactions and ways of reaching a common goal. According to this model, the USA and China are very different, with the USA being very linear-active (punctual, timely, factual), whereas China is reactive, meaning that the people there are better at listening, are more people oriented, and more patient.
I am wondering how hard it is for someone from a very strong linear-active culture such as the United States to interact and adapt to a very strong reactive culture such as China. I think the lack of a line at the grocery store is an excellent example of this-- we would never have this happen at a store in America, and as soon as somebody even hints at cutting in front of you in line, it is completely acceptable to defend your spot in line! How are you able to accept this different lifestyle without resorting to a linear-active approach to interacting with others, and how long has it taken you to at least get used to the notion of a reactive society?
Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteSounds like China has been a great experience for you so far! I find it especially interesting that you are already beginning to adapt to the new culture you've immersed yourself into.
One thing that I found interesting when looking over the Hofstede models of countries was the seemingly inverse correlation between Individualism and Power Distance. Since I asked you about your relationship with teachers last time; this time I was wondering how the other Chinese students behave in front of professors compared to how they act in groups of other students. Another interesting detail was how much higher China's long term orientation was compared to the United States. Have the Chinese students you've gotten to know been heavily focused on planning their futures and making decisions based off of that plan?
Thanks,
Tristan Bailey
Hi Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteRecently in class we did an activity where each of us were assigned a country and we then had to act as a citizen of that country would in a "mock-tail" party. It was a very interesting experiment. I was a Kuwaiti and I learned a lot about things that are/are not offensive in their culture. For instance it is offensive to give the thumbs up sign, but is not uncommon for someone to answer a call from anyone in the middle of a conversation. Have you picked up on any of these subtleties in the Chinese culture? What are some of them? In other words do you think you would be able to culturally survive a cock-tail party in china?
Thanks,
Michael Undersander
Hi Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteI hope you're enjoying your time in China!
In the latter half of the semester we have been comparing countries cultures and understanding the fundamental differences and similarities that are typically unknown. Geert Hofstede's country comparison shows China to be significantly different in their everyday actions from that of the U.S. The largest difference it individualism, showing the the U.S. is far more individualistic than China. This is a characteristic that can be understood through the actions of different individuals. China has a very low score in regards to individualism, as they put more emphasis on whats best for the group as opposed to themselves. Is the low individualism score in China evident when observing their everyday life, and how different is it from individuals in the U.S.?
Thank you,
Daniel Fox