So it has been a long time since I have written, much longer than I would like. August has been a crazy month. I can’t say I’ve been busy with research, but I have been busy with preparing to do my research. My primary focus recently has been to get settled in Harbin and get set up as a visiting foreign graduate student at the Northeast Agricultural University. As a result, I hate to say I have had nothing fun to write about. So rather than bore you with the frustrating details of dealing with the bureaucracy of Chinese, I thought it might be better to just wait until I had a better sense of the direction that my life and research would be taking. And now, complete with a positive attitude, I am ready to start.
To begin, I have a great apartment in Harbin. Finding furniture and decorating it has been a lot of fun. Most of the place was furnished, but I needed a few extra things and I found that delivery on the back of a bike (followed by the back of the deliverer up 6 flights of stairs) is an easy and efficient way to transport a couch. I also found a night market where I asked for (direct translation here) ‘those little metal things used to hold cloth over a window.’ I had no idea what they looked like, but I knew something existed to attach curtains to the built-in track above my window. Sure enough (well, really, after trying five vendors giving my blank stares), I successfully found them and I have a fantastic orange flowered sheet hanging over my window. The sheet matches the orange paw-print decorated couch that I also got (yes, things in China are quite tacky to say the least).
I could go into detail of the process of getting affiliated with a Chinese university for a year of research, but, really, the details are not fun. What is fun is that I am now officially a research student at the Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin, China. As I was filling out the paperwork, they asked for my major, so I wrote ‘geography.’ Well, this actually caused 20 minutes of confusion because this university does not actually have a geography department. I caught the mistake and told them I meant to write ‘agriculture.’ But they were confused about how I could be a PhD student in geography in the US, but studying agriculture in China. I explained and assured them that I knew enough about Chinese agriculture to be a research student here. I’m not sure I believe I know enough, but I was apparently convincing enough.
This week I got an email saying I had been accepted to attend a workshop I had applied to earlier this summer in Tianjin, China in October. The conference is about political and economic ties in the Northeast Asia region. A little over a year ago, I would not have been even considered my research as having connetcions with the region of Northeast Asia (generally including China, Korea, Japan, and Mongolia), but as I am here studying rice and working with Chinese agricultural scientists (many of whom have traveled to Korea and/or Japan), I am fascinated by the technological and economic connections between these countries. China, Korea, and Japan are the three countries in the world where japonica rice is grown, so of course there are connections. My primary professor at the agricultural university here is a Korean minority in China. He is a Chinese citizen, but speaks Korean and just this week hosted a group of 20 Korean farmers who came to Harbin for a day. So, before I go to the conference in October, my goal is to collect information about such connections and present a decent paper about these connections.
I guess I have been doing a lot of reading lately about rice research in China. Its research, but not quite the kind of research where I get to talk to people and ask them what they think about the current situation of rice production. That part will come, it takes time to get people to talk to me. I just have to be patient.
And in the middle of getting all of the details of my life and research here, I got to enjoy the Olympics with the rest of China. Every block outside lined with chairs and tables for eating also had a TV. Each time a Chinese team was playing or an individual athlete was taking his or her turn diving or vaulting, the hustle and bustle that usually fills the streets here would stop, as all heads turned to the TV. After a week and a half, I was bored with the scene, but it was still fun to watch.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Classes are Over, Research is Beginning?
OK, I promise, this is the last post I will ever write about studying Chinese. Classes are over and it was a great experience. During the first week of classes, I would wake up and recall conversations I had the day before and think to myself, did we really say all of that in Chinese and this morning I woke up thinking about all the English conversations I had yesterday after the language pledge officially ended and thought, why did we talk in English when we could have said it all in Chinese?
There were quite a few highlights of the week, mostly that I felt good after all of my exams. I would say I definitely would say that completing my independent study class with a long essay, an oral report, and answering questions about my research project was definitely a highlight. Over the past year, I have been trying to synthesize my ideas about Chinese rice and write them in a way that would get me grants from an American scientific and research audience. As I spent so much time doing this, I knew that I should be thinking in Chinese about Chinese rice, but never had the time, motivation, etc. to make the effort to spend the time doing so. Luckily, what I was able to do over the summer was to find ways to effectively communicate my research to a Chinese audience. So I felt like I had really accomplished something after my test for that class was over. Altogether, I had my four finals for my four classes in about 26 hours, so it was a lot of cramming and not much sleeping, but I felt good about all of them.
Aside from being able to communicate my research proposal in Chinese, I feel the most valuable experience of the summer was to get me motivated to practice my Chinese everyday and to do so in a productive way. I know what works for me to practice and I am going to make sure I spend at least a couple hours each day aside from research on reading and writing in Chinese.
After finishing exams on Thursday, I was able to relax for a day and organize my papers and run errands that needed to be done. It was a good feeling to have time to do that. I got to see my friend Afton for the last time before he left Harbin to go back to Colorado. And then I rushed back to the dorm and sat in front of the TV to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. A group of American students and our Chinese roommates crowded together to watch it. I did not think I would be this excited about the Olympics, but it really is fun to watch how China presents itself to the world. And I love talking to Chinese people about the games. I guess I am looking at the Olympics through the perspective of a researcher, trying to understand how this experience is evident in people's lives here in Harbin. And its fun to watch the games that are important to Chinese people and that I don't necessarily see in the US.
So this morning everyone from my program left early to head back to Beijing and then most are going back to the US. And I stayed here in Harbin, with the task of trying to figure out how to begin 'research.' I looked at some apartments the other day and I am still deciding where I want to live. I have a meeting set up this week with the northeast agricultural university to get me set up as a researcher there. So I am hoping that over the next couple weeks thing will fall into place and I can get going. But I am not pushing for it to happen too fast, I am ready to take a little break and rest after my classes.
So I hope soon I can start posting interesting stuff about rice soon, but for now, I am taking it slow. I am making a lot of lists. List-making is a lot of fun, and makes me feel organized. It gives me a place to begin and goals to work towards. Getting started with research is a multi-faceted process and, in China, especially, requires getting to know lots of different people.
There were quite a few highlights of the week, mostly that I felt good after all of my exams. I would say I definitely would say that completing my independent study class with a long essay, an oral report, and answering questions about my research project was definitely a highlight. Over the past year, I have been trying to synthesize my ideas about Chinese rice and write them in a way that would get me grants from an American scientific and research audience. As I spent so much time doing this, I knew that I should be thinking in Chinese about Chinese rice, but never had the time, motivation, etc. to make the effort to spend the time doing so. Luckily, what I was able to do over the summer was to find ways to effectively communicate my research to a Chinese audience. So I felt like I had really accomplished something after my test for that class was over. Altogether, I had my four finals for my four classes in about 26 hours, so it was a lot of cramming and not much sleeping, but I felt good about all of them.
Aside from being able to communicate my research proposal in Chinese, I feel the most valuable experience of the summer was to get me motivated to practice my Chinese everyday and to do so in a productive way. I know what works for me to practice and I am going to make sure I spend at least a couple hours each day aside from research on reading and writing in Chinese.
After finishing exams on Thursday, I was able to relax for a day and organize my papers and run errands that needed to be done. It was a good feeling to have time to do that. I got to see my friend Afton for the last time before he left Harbin to go back to Colorado. And then I rushed back to the dorm and sat in front of the TV to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. A group of American students and our Chinese roommates crowded together to watch it. I did not think I would be this excited about the Olympics, but it really is fun to watch how China presents itself to the world. And I love talking to Chinese people about the games. I guess I am looking at the Olympics through the perspective of a researcher, trying to understand how this experience is evident in people's lives here in Harbin. And its fun to watch the games that are important to Chinese people and that I don't necessarily see in the US.
So this morning everyone from my program left early to head back to Beijing and then most are going back to the US. And I stayed here in Harbin, with the task of trying to figure out how to begin 'research.' I looked at some apartments the other day and I am still deciding where I want to live. I have a meeting set up this week with the northeast agricultural university to get me set up as a researcher there. So I am hoping that over the next couple weeks thing will fall into place and I can get going. But I am not pushing for it to happen too fast, I am ready to take a little break and rest after my classes.
So I hope soon I can start posting interesting stuff about rice soon, but for now, I am taking it slow. I am making a lot of lists. List-making is a lot of fun, and makes me feel organized. It gives me a place to begin and goals to work towards. Getting started with research is a multi-faceted process and, in China, especially, requires getting to know lots of different people.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
The Olympics are Coming
Seven years ago, I sat in my host family's living room in Sichuan and watched fireworks explode in Tiananmen Square. Members of my host family jumped up and down, elated to hear that China had finally proved to the world it was ready to host the 2008 Olympics. I've been in China (not continuously) just about every year since 2001 and the country has certainly done much to embrace the coming of the Olympics. And now the time is almost here. I know that I could go see the games, but I am perfectly content to skip out on the opportunity to squish myself into an already-overcrowded city where traffic can be a nightmare and personal space on public transportation is all but non-existent on a good day. So, as China puts on its two-week show for the world to watch, I will be following from the TV, the conversations I have with people on the street, and the news I read online. I've avoided commenting on the Olympics up until now because, well, I think I am just as sick of hearing about them as others. But for what its worth, here is my two cents.
I read the NY Times online everyday and have been following the way that the games are covered. Earlier this week, I was bothered by criticism of the government for blocking certain web-sites for the foreign media to access, after promising a free and open media to foreign journalists. The story claimed that web-sites about the three Ts (Tibet, Taiwan, Tiananmen) had been blocked. Why, I asked, did foreign media need to read about these when they are in Beijing to cover sporting events? There was no answer in the article, just criticism that China had not passed this certain test that the media was holding it up to. Today, I read an article about how China is more free today than it was twenty years ago, despite lack of certain freedoms (such as freedom of speech). It appears this article was written in response to the world's critical spotlight on China's human rights. Then there was one saying that despite these human rights issues, China is going to provide a fresh face and a new spectacle to the games.
I appreciate these articles and I do want to see a more open China in the future. But I just can't help but be annoyed about the standards that the world press appears to be holding China up to. Fifteen years ago, when China put in an unsuccessful bid to host the 2000 Olympics, the same conversations about lack of political rights were discussed. Just five years after the crackdown on the Tiananmen square protests, this was a more urgent and understandable concern. I would like to think that our understanding of what constitutes human rights has progressed over the past 15 years. The latest article acknowledged that Chinese people's lives are much better these days due to opening up (traveling abroad, for example) and economic reform. Yes, I agree that many middle class urban people are happy these days and not concerned about what they can or cannot access on the internet. [Here I feel it is extremely important that I add a disclaimer that this broad generalization does not include minorities or struggling farmers/workers in the countryside]. Sure, many people want more freedom, but they are happy, prosperous, and proud of their country. Isn't that enough?
Why does this limited view of human rights overshadow the games? Why is it that we think of human rights in the narrow frame of access to all internet sites or freedom of speech? These are important, but they are not all that this vast country has to share. Can't the press think beyond its narrow view of what constitutes rights to look beyond the obvious, immediate display of what internet sites are available? People around the workd have a lot of different views about China, and only some of them are political. Can we please move beyond these drawn out views of human rights and think about something else?
For the most part, people are happy and yes, the government-just as any other-has problems keeping everyone happy. Not everyone has benefitted from economic reforms and not everyone necessarily wants what the government offers them. Students and professors are well-aware that internet access to certain sites is blocked, but they find ways around it or they deal with it. It does not get in the way of their daily lives. I know I sound like I am taking the government perspective here, but really, China has done a lot of amazing things over its long history. It continues to change, in some ways dramatically and in others, more gradual. The Olympics are about sports, after all, not human rights. I think China is becoming much more free, its just a gradual process and one big event like the Olympics is not necessarily going to bring dramatic change.
I read the NY Times online everyday and have been following the way that the games are covered. Earlier this week, I was bothered by criticism of the government for blocking certain web-sites for the foreign media to access, after promising a free and open media to foreign journalists. The story claimed that web-sites about the three Ts (Tibet, Taiwan, Tiananmen) had been blocked. Why, I asked, did foreign media need to read about these when they are in Beijing to cover sporting events? There was no answer in the article, just criticism that China had not passed this certain test that the media was holding it up to. Today, I read an article about how China is more free today than it was twenty years ago, despite lack of certain freedoms (such as freedom of speech). It appears this article was written in response to the world's critical spotlight on China's human rights. Then there was one saying that despite these human rights issues, China is going to provide a fresh face and a new spectacle to the games.
I appreciate these articles and I do want to see a more open China in the future. But I just can't help but be annoyed about the standards that the world press appears to be holding China up to. Fifteen years ago, when China put in an unsuccessful bid to host the 2000 Olympics, the same conversations about lack of political rights were discussed. Just five years after the crackdown on the Tiananmen square protests, this was a more urgent and understandable concern. I would like to think that our understanding of what constitutes human rights has progressed over the past 15 years. The latest article acknowledged that Chinese people's lives are much better these days due to opening up (traveling abroad, for example) and economic reform. Yes, I agree that many middle class urban people are happy these days and not concerned about what they can or cannot access on the internet. [Here I feel it is extremely important that I add a disclaimer that this broad generalization does not include minorities or struggling farmers/workers in the countryside]. Sure, many people want more freedom, but they are happy, prosperous, and proud of their country. Isn't that enough?
Why does this limited view of human rights overshadow the games? Why is it that we think of human rights in the narrow frame of access to all internet sites or freedom of speech? These are important, but they are not all that this vast country has to share. Can't the press think beyond its narrow view of what constitutes rights to look beyond the obvious, immediate display of what internet sites are available? People around the workd have a lot of different views about China, and only some of them are political. Can we please move beyond these drawn out views of human rights and think about something else?
For the most part, people are happy and yes, the government-just as any other-has problems keeping everyone happy. Not everyone has benefitted from economic reforms and not everyone necessarily wants what the government offers them. Students and professors are well-aware that internet access to certain sites is blocked, but they find ways around it or they deal with it. It does not get in the way of their daily lives. I know I sound like I am taking the government perspective here, but really, China has done a lot of amazing things over its long history. It continues to change, in some ways dramatically and in others, more gradual. The Olympics are about sports, after all, not human rights. I think China is becoming much more free, its just a gradual process and one big event like the Olympics is not necessarily going to bring dramatic change.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
