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March 13, 2006
China Day 1: China Briefing
After breakfast this morning (I was very pleased to eat from an assortment of dim sum and fried rice with fruit and vegetables instead of the typical Western fare, but unfortunately no congee yet), our delegation was presented with a briefing on Chinese history and culture, along with more details to help us along in our trip. Tony Zhao and Leonard Wang are the National Guides for our trip, which means they are in charge of our group professional program logistics, as well as general contacts for the People to People program. Both gentlemen have been very kind, informative, helpful, and humorous as our fearless guides, using bus trips as opportunities for cultural education, meeting debriefing feedback sessions, and just good jokes.
Tony presented a good amount of information this morning. While the Destination Guides we received from People to People before our arrival in China pretty well detailed a brief history and cultural description of China, and the folder filled with excellently useful cultural information handouts provided tons of material, there were a few things not detailed in our documentation that I learned from this morning's meeting:
* If you look really closely at a map of China, and "use your imagination," as Tony put it, you can see that China looks like a rooster (this is like growing up on Long Island and learning in school that the Island looks like a fish, with Brooklyn at the head and the Hamptons at the tail). The same way that the US has a North and South with cultural differences, China is also broken up into North and South by the Yangzte, and the areas exhibit differences in:
- dialect
- food
- social welfare: for instance, in the north in the winter, the government requires all hotels provide heat in hotels, while in the south this requirement doesn't exhist.
- wedding traditions: for example, in the north a wedding banquet is held around lunchtime, while in the south the wedding banquets are traditionally around dinner.
* "China is dashing into an aged society," Tony told us this morning. A large percentage of China's current population is elderly.
* The Chinese government reportedly offers significant social welfare to resident minorities. For instance, minorities are not subject to the nationwide family planning and population control policies, and are not required to cremate their deceased (all Chinese nationals must be cremated post-mortem, to help the country conserve land area).
* Chinese citizens all hold a "household registration," which records whether or not they are considered an urban or rural citizen. Registrations are not dictated by where a citizen lives, but by the area of the mother's origin. The significance of registration in rural vs. urban areas is that the social welfare benefits are different. You can switch out of the regional registration you were born into; it's way easier to go from urban to rural registration than vice versa. Simple ways to go from rural to urban status include a degree from a 4-year college or university, accepting a public service position, military service retirement.
* When eating and drinking, it's customary to have leftover food on the serving platters, so it's not a problem if you don't eat everything. By having leftover food on the table, it shows that the host is generous and good, not cheap or uncaring. When you're done eating or drinking, the key is to leave some food on your plate, or some drink in your glass. Otherwise, you're supplies will be quickly replenished.
* When a Chinese person is asked to participate in something, but they cannot attend, it is customary for them to say, "We'll see," instead of "no."
Carol announced during the meeting today that I would be blogging my trip, so a big hello to those of you reading this from "back home," wherever you may be.
I also have tons of photos, but the computers here in the Business Centre of the hotel are not equipped with the drivers for my camera, so I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to post them. Carol also mentioned that her husband and trip co-coordinator Marcos Casiano would be posting photos of our trip to his site in the near future.
March 13, 2006 10:45 AM