This post marks the beginning of a few final blog posts in which I’ll give some final thoughts on the summer and the Duke program experience, and also offer some advice for prospective students in the future. For today, I’m going to write up my approximate daily schedule , including class hours, extracurricular activities, meals and sleep.

DAILY SCHEDULE (Mon – Thurs)

6:30 AM: Wake-up, shower, brush teeth, etc.

6:50 AM: Go over text, review characters as needed, get backpack together

7:30 AM: Breakfast at campus cafeteria (typically 2 vegetable dumplings (包子), 1 pork dumpling, 5 hard-boiled eggs, assorted 青菜, all for around 5 kuai)

8:00 AM: Large lecture – Overview of text and grammar points

9:10 AM: First break

9:30 AM: Drill Class – Intensive review of grammar patterns, focus on fluency of response and ability to integrate new grammar into conversation

10:20 AM: Second break

10:30 AM: Discussion class – Instructor introduces topic, students engage in more or less open-ended discussion or debate

11:10 AM: End of group class

11:20 AM: One-on-one session – review of material with teacher, discussion of text-relevant topics. 4th-year one-on-one was split up into 3 slots, 11:20, 11:50, and 12:20, each session lasted 30 minutes.

12:00 – 1:30 PM: Lunch at cafeteria or restaurant around campus. The area surrounding UIBE is home to a variety of restaurants, ranging from standard Chinese 家常菜, to Korean, Japanese, and even Subway. I usually spent somewhere in the vicinity of 20 kuai on lunch meals.

2:00 PM: FREE TIME! How I spent my free time was usually dependent on my level of energy and the difficulty of the next day’s text. Some times I would use this time to visit places around the city, e.g. the Olympic Park or Panjiayuan, and other times I would get a head start on my homework. It’s up to you to gauge how much time you’ll need to devote to schoolwork and how much you can fit in in the way of cultural exploration.

4:30 PM: Workout – I bought a membership at a gym called Hosa, which is about a five to ten-minute walk north of campus. The membership fee is a little pricey, 960 kuai for three months, but the gym had everything I needed as far as free weights, weight machines, and cardio machines.

6:30 PM: Meet with language partner

7:30 – 8:00 PM: Dinner at local restaurant (~ 25 kuai)

9:00 PM: Prepare text, study new characters, go over new grammar patterns

11:00 PM: Bed time

Based on this schedule, you might have better sense as to why I never managed to achieve my original one-blog-a-day goal. I know there were plenty of kids in the program who managed to get by on four or five hours of sleep, but I’ve never been able to pull that off, so I really had to plan my days on an hour-to-hour basis. As I mentioned in one of my blog posts last year, this type of summer program is not really designed to allow for a lot of free time and open exploration of Beijing. That being said, if you can force yourself to stay off Facebook, work incredibly efficiently, and take advantage of every last minute, there’s nothing to stop you from simultaneously making linguistic progress in the classroom and getting to know Beijing on a intimate cultural level.

For those of you who are not on Facebook, and thus have little way of knowing what I’ve been up to lately in the way of extracurricular activities, here’s a little summary. The weekend after the Xi’an trip, i.e. two weekends ago, I managed to cross three more destinations of my bucket list. Friday afternoon, after finishing up our weekly test, three buddies and I took the subway down to Tiantan, otherwise known as the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is one of Beijing’s largest and well-known temples. Although I’m not entirely familiar with its historical or cultural significance, the temple itself is an impressive architectural masterpiece.

After a typically crazy Friday night, we managed to wake up relatively early on Saturday morning to head over the Beijing Zoo, a must-see tourist stop if for no other reason than the Giant Pandas (although I managed to miss it last summer). Come to think of it, prior to this trip I don’t think I had been to a zoo in at least four or five years. At any rate, the pandas were well worth the trip, even though I was struck by the apparent despair shown on the faces of most of the animals. Some people might be quick to jump to conclusions and make this out to be a problem specific to the Beijing Zoo, but I have a feeling that at age 20 I’m just a bit more sensitive to the whole idea of animal emotions as compared to 10-year-old me.

Last but not least, after an equally adventure-filled Saturday night, I spent Sunday exploring the Chinese National Military Museum. This expedition, needless to say, was quite eye-opening. One of the more important things that I’ve learned as a result of studying abroad is the relatively pervasive notion in the States that the so-called “American” historical perspective is the only perspective worth learning about. Before you judge me too harshly on that comment, allow me to explain a little bit. To be honest, this phenomenon is not America-specific, and in fact, many might argue that it is more an issue here in China than it is in America, and it goes hand-in-hand with the idea that the victors get to write the history book. I might go so far as to say that in most, if not all countries, history class, from elementary school all the way up to high school, is taught from said country’s point of view. And while this actually makes sense on the surface, I think we all know there is something to be said for considering global history from a global perspective. In other words, I don’t think one cannot gain a comprehensive understanding of an event like World War II without seeing the story from Hitler’s side. And not the “Hitler’s side” as told by an American history textbook, but the “Hitler’s side” as told by the Nazis themselves. Likewise, and more relevant to my overall story, one cannot fully understand the Korean War without talking a walk in China’s shoes. I’d love to go further into this topic, but I’m in the midst of fighting a cold, so I’m running a little low on energy. That being the case, I hope this picture sort of sums up the concept I’m talking about.

Even having checked these three things off the list, I’m still sitting here with more than a few trips that I want to make between now and next Saturday. Safe to say, between studying up for the final exam, writing my 4,000 character term paper, touring Beijing’s cultural relics, and exploring the nightlife (all in the name of education, of course), I will have plenty on my plate for the next week and a half. And with that, I better head off to finish memorizing characters. Hope everyone is doing well, enjoy this last month of summer and I’ll talk to you later.

Jamey

So where does this imbalance come from, and how has it developed into such a serious problem? As with many modern social issues in China, we can trace the roots of the sex-ratio imbalance back to China’s traditional beliefs, namely 重男轻女, a social concept that literally translates to something along the lines of “important-male-unimportant-female”. For reasons mainly based in economics and sociology, Chinese culture has always been male-dominated. Ancient Chinese society was dominated primarily by agriculture, and male children were always seen as an economic blessing, helping their fathers in the fields and providing additional income for the family. In modern society, male children have taken on a relatively different economic role – caring for their aging parents. When a daughter marries into another family, she is literally viewed as becoming a part of her husband’s family, and her contact with her original parents and family is relatively limited. On the other hand, male children are expected to bear the economic burden of their retired and aging parents. With pension plans and a health care system still very much in the midst of development, many parents rely on their children to provide food and shelter in the later years, and in some respects this is seen as a form of retribution – parents provide years of care in a child’s early years, and when the parents grow old, it becomes the (male) child’s responsibility to bear that burden. From a social perspective, the Chinese place a great deal of importance on family bloodlines, and as is the case in most, if not all cultures, it is the male child that carries the family name.

This type of  patriarchal social structure might not seem all that foreign even in the world’s most progressive nations, but it is important to note that the effects of this concept go beyond the types of wage and power imbalances one might find in America or Europe. In fact, up until recently, many Chinese parents were still taking advantage of modern technologies such as ultrasound to determine the gender of their children, often choosing abortion upon finding out that the child was a girl. In the past few years, the government has issued a series of laws preventing doctors from revealing the gender of a fetus to the parents, but according to my teachers many doctors have managed to get around this legal barrier, for example, one might say “Oh well that looks OK too” or “Wow, you must be so proud”. Can you guess which reaction matches up with which gender?

The government in Beijing is slowly becoming aware of the fact that the implications of the problem, especially with regards to China’s social stability, are incredibly serious. The Communist Party has survived 90 years in this nation due largely to the fact that its leaders have consistently placed the promotion of stability ahead of all other concerns. Be it through rigid control or carefully conducted and precisely aimed welfare programs, the Chinese government has, to an astonishing degree, managed to ease any and all instances of social unrest. The government’s strong-armed promotion of rapid economic development has certainly aroused tension on a national scale, but with what appears to be an iron fist on one side and a helping hand on the other, Beijing has prevented these tensions from coming to a head.

That being said, this sex-ratio problem could prove to be the veritable straw to break this camel’s back. On a national level, Chinese men are finding it harder and harder to find a suitable partner. In most areas, it is only the richest and most accomplished men who are able to find a wife, leaving China’s poor bachelor crowd alone and struggling to find their place in society. This growing group of poor bachelors seems to be a powder keg waiting to explode, and no one really know what might set it off. Bear with me for a second while I delve into the modern Chinese bachelor’s psyche. It seems reasonable to believe that, unable to settle down and start raising a family, these people become more acutely aware of the injustices of Chinese society and the true flaws in the system. On a day by day basis, they are cognizant of their own lack of success, and become more and more pessimistic with regard to what the future might hold. And there is no silver lining to this cloud. This disgruntled youth population might begin to see their own society from the perspective of an outsider, rather than that of a proud Chinese citizen, beginning to see more clearly the types of exploitation, corruption, and inequity that I as an American recognize instantly.

This scenario has the makings of a legitimate uprising, and I think the government in Beijing is beginning to realize the true nature of this problem. As far as solving this problem goes, I don’t think that any form of legal or political control will suffice. In order to truly fix this sex-ratio imbalance and ease the aforementioned tensions, the government must look to the root of the problem – China’s traditional social beliefs. The Communist Party must make use of all of its power to fix the patriarchal societal structure, a notion that is deeply ingrained in the minds of the people and the culture as a whole. In order to correct these beliefs, the government must effectively write 重男轻女 out of China’s history. As I mentioned before, addressing this social issue will likely prove to be the Communist Party’s greatest challenge in the next decade, and while China will undoubtedly find itself in the unenviable position of facing concurrent, and equally serious, social, political and economical problems, I believe that the government must make the sex-ratio imbalance a priority. Social stability has served as the foundation for China’s ascent to its current position of geopolitical and economic power, and continuing on this path of development, globalization, and modernization will require a content and supportive national population.

As I mentioned last time, I have a ton of things I want to talk about in these next few blog posts, but for now I’ll try to focus on this past weekend in Xi’an. Xi’an is a city in China’s Shaanxi Province, about 1,000 km southwest of Beijing. Xi’an is actually one of the oldest and largest cities in the entire country, and served as the capital city throughout the Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties. The city itself is much like any other industrialized city in China. My own impression was that Xi’an is slightly cleaner and more colorful in Beijing, but that’s only based on the very short amount of time I spent walking around the city and looking around through the bus windows. It’s quite difficult to develop any sort of real appreciation for the true character of any new environment in only two days, but regardless I had a great time this past weekend, and at the very least it was nice to get out of Beijing for a couple days.

First thing on Friday morning we headed to the Xi’an City Wall, which is essentially a miniature Great Wall that I assume in ancient times surrounded the main part of the city. The wall itself wasn’t much to get excited about, but the fact that we got to ride bicycles on top of the wall made this part of the trip infinitely more interesting. On the bus ride to the wall, our tour guide, Helen, advised the group against riding around the entire wall, as it runs a little over 10 km in total. Jonny, Travis, Aaron and myself took this advice into consider, and politely decided against heeding it, riding the entire 10.3 km in just over an hour, which, considering that we didn’t really pick up the pace until we reached the 1/3 mark and realized we only had half an hour left, is not too shabby. The remainder of Saturday was spent checking out the Muslim district and attending a Tang Dynasty-style performance, complete with singing, music, dancing, and a tiny bit of martial arts. While I have yet to fall in love with traditional Chinese music, I was very impressed by the show’s set and costume design, and the overall easiness-on-the-eyes factor made up for some of the hard-on-the-ears portions.

My initial impression was that Sunday would be designated almost entirely to the Terracotta Army, but we actually only ended up spending about two hours touring that area, which actually turned out to be just the right amount of time. The Terracotta Army, as the name implies, is literally an army of terra-cotta statues buried with a former emperor of China’s Qin Dynasty, Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Unfortunately we did not have much time to learn about the history behind the army, but from what I gathered from our tour guide and from what I’ve just read on Wikipedia, the army was intended to help Qin Shi Huang rule his empire in the afterlife. The Terracotta Army itself is actually just one piece of Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum, which was built by 700,000-plus workers over the course of thirty some-odd years – Qin Shi Huang was 13 when construction began. To this day, the mausoleum complex in its entirety, including Qin Shi Huang’s main burial chamber, is still yet to be excavated, and ongoing archaeological projects will likely continue to produce incredible historical findings. According to legend, the burial chamber was supposed to contain rivers of flowing mercury, and our tour guide told us that recent tests of ground mercury levels around the supposed main burial chamber have proven much higher than normal, which seems to lend some credibility to this legend. I for one will certainly be keeping an eye out for when archaeologists finally decided to crack open Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum.

That pretty much sums up the Xi’an weekend. It’s hard to believe that we’re already halfway done here, and if this summer is anything like last summer, these next four weeks will go by in an even bigger hurry. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with the guys planning out our weekend excursions for the rest of the term, and luckily enough it’s looking like I’ll have time to make it to most of my top-choice destinations. According to the calendar, we’ll be headed off the the Temple of Heaven and Beihai Park this weekend, so you guys can look forward to some (hopefully) beautiful pictures from those trips.

As far as blogging goes, I’d really like to spend some time talking about my experience at the National History Museum, as well as touch upon some of the topics in our textbook, namely 重男轻女观念 and the now infamous story of Fan Paopao. For now, I have a new text and some characters to go over, but the copy of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” sitting on my bedside table is calling my name, so we’ll just have to see who wins out.

Happy (almost) Wednesday,

Jamey

So I realize some of you might be thinking to yourself, “Hey, didn’t Jamey say that he was going to start blogging every single day for the rest of the summer? Wait a second, wasn’t that a week and a half ago, hold up, he’s only managed to write one blog post since then?” OK, as it turns out, blogging every single day turned out to be a much bigger challenge than I had initially anticipated. It’s not to say that I haven’t done anything interesting or that I haven’t encountered anything that I want to think and write about, but rather that I’m literally too short on time. As far as I’m concerned, writing a blog post is only worth it if you’re willing to put a decent amount of time into considering a given topic, introducing it, and then fleshing out all your thoughts. I could sit here on a daily basis and list out the days events, e.g. “Last weekend I went to the Lama Temple and the National History Museum. I had fun. Blah.” But I’m afraid that kind of post doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what this blog is all about, nor does it require any careful thought or insightful writing. That being the case, I have a hard time starting up a new post if I know that I’m only going to have a half hour or so to complete it. All that being said, I do have a ton of cool things to talk about, so I’m going to do my best in these coming weeks to write as much as I possibly can.

Speaking of interesting things to talk about, we just finished up our midterm tests this morning and are heading off to Xi’an for the weekend. We’ll be taking an overnight train tonight, getting there tomorrow morning, hanging out Saturday and Sunday, and then coming back on Sunday night. Though I’m not entirely familiar with Xi’an or its surroundings, I do know that it is the home of the famous Terracotta Warriors, which I’m incredibly excited to check out.

Anyway, just wanted to throw together this quick update to let you guys know what’s going on here. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and make sure to check back here next week for some new posts!

Best,

Jamey

After moving to the city, most of these peasant workers take jobs in construction, factory production, and sanitation. In Beijing, an overwhelming majority of construction workers, factory workers, hotel maids, and waitresses come from other areas in China. These types of jobs are viewed as society’s lowest forms of employment, so much so that a natural-born Beijing citizen would almost never consider them as a potential source of income. This being the case, there is virtually no competition between the Beijing labor force and the peasant workers; it is an entirely different playing field.

Having learned about this peasant worker migration phenomenon, I was struck by how much it resembles the current illegal immigration problem in the United States. Much like illegal immigrants, the 农民工 are a source of readily available, cheap labor. Just as illegal immigrants take on jobs that do not necessarily appeal to the average American, China’s peasant labor force provides an essential service to urban areas like Beijing and Shanghai. To an undeniable extent, both the United States and Chinese economies rely on these outside workers, and the uncertainty of American citizens regarding the positives and negatives of illegal immigration matches the ambivalence of the urban Chinese toward the 农民工.

On the other hand, these two situations are not altogether the same. The largest distinction lies within the attitude of the government toward these two bodies of foreign workers, and the corresponding policies and laws governing this phenomenon. While many illegal immigrants in America are able to benefit from the education, health care, and welfare systems, the Chinese government, and more specifically the hukou system, prevents outsiders from obtaining these types of benefits.

To explain the hukou system in its entirety would take at least two more blog posts, so I’ll just give a quick overview. Every Chinese citizen belongs to a certain “hukou”, which is based on where an individual is born. This “hukou” stays with a person for life, and determines where he can go to school, where he can buy a house, and a variety of other things. So, for example, if I was born outside of Beijing, but my parents decided to move to Beijing to work, I would have a very difficult time getting an education. Without a Beijing “hukou”, essentially all of Beijing’s public schools would refuse to accept me as a student. In comparison, it is my impression that the children of illegal immigrants in the U.S. have little trouble getting into the public school system. I’m actually not entirely sure how this works in the States, but I get the sense that registering for public schools does not require any formal proof of citizenship.

The second difference lies in the attitude of the people toward these migrant workers. While I believe I could safely say that most Americans realize that illegal immigration, in some ways, has a positive effect on our overall economy, there is a formidable portion of the American population that opposes illegal immigration on the basis that Americans are being forced out of their jobs by migrant workers. As I mentioned earlier, the 农民工 are employed in the lowest sectors of the Chinese economy, and, for example, natural-born Beijing citizens are not actively competing against the peasant workers for employment. On the other hand, some might argue that illegal immigrants in America, though perhaps helping to drive down certain commodity prices, steal potential jobs from the hands of American citizens. Whether U.S. citizens would actually ever accept a life of picking oranges or mowing lawns is another question entirely, but I think there is a definite break between American and Chinese opinion with regards to the respective migrant worker groups.

Overall, I believe both these phenomena will require the continued attention of U.S. and Chinese citizens, and also the careful scrutiny of the governments. To a certain extent, the 农民工 and illegal immigrants have the same goal at heart, that is to pursue a more comfortable life and secure a better future for their children. This type of ambition is something that we can all relate to, especially those Americans whose parents, or grandparents, or great-grandparents left home many years ago with only one dream, and one end in mind – to experience the promise of America. This is an issue that we as a people have yet to resolve, but it is my sincere hope that we will continue to promote equality of opportunity for everyone, helping people of any and all background in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.

It’s truly hard to believe that I’m already halfway through my third week in Beijing. For the time being I’ll refrain from making any references to the speed of the passage of time relative to one’s age, considering that a large portion of my audience is much more well-acquainted with this phenomenon that I am. Regardless, given that these past two weeks have flown by, it has dawned on me that now is the time to take a step back and consider what it is that I really want to accomplish this summer.

Firstly, this post marks the start of what will (hopefully) be 39 days of consecutive blogging. Sitting here today trying to compose this post, I’ve become very aware of one of the most important benefits of writing a blog. Forcing myself to think about what I have accomplished since my last blog post, and trying to condense said accomplishments into a coherent series of paragraphs, requires a sort of self-reflection that takes me out of the daily grind. During the times that I’m not blogging, I find it very easy to slip into a monotonous daily routine, one that requires little in the way of soul-searching thought. And while this type of inner reflection may often lead to doubt and even fear – regarding future plans and current actions – I think it is paramountly important in allowing me to learn from my experiences. Blogging, or any sort of daily writing, serves to break up the steady flow of time, giving me the opportunity to look back on the day and consider what it is that I want to pursue tomorrow.

For the first time this summer, I took out a map of Beijing today and circled all the places I want to visit, and also took the time to write out my own summer bucket list. I’m convinced that by putting this down on paper, and having it sitting in full view on top of my desk everyday, I’ll be much more motivated to go out and explore, crossing out each activity one-by-one. I’m sure I’ll be just as worn out as usual come Friday afternoon, but this week, instead of wasting the afternoon listening to music or watching a movie, I’m going to cross something off the list. My hope being that, by the time August 6th comes around, I can look back at the summer and know that I took advantage of every single waking hour (and maybe even some hours that might have been better spent as sleeping hours).

Speaking of sleeping hours, it’s about that time here at UIBE. This past weekend we took a trip to the Great Wall, which was nothing short of miraculous. The rain gods looked favorably upon us DSIC students, and the downpour leading up to Saturday morning provided for some of the bluest skies I’ve seen in China thus far. Needless to say I took more than enough photographs, some of which I’ll put at the bottom of this post. And for those of you on Facebook, I’ve made all my China albums available to the public, so you can take a look here:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=886115313&sk=photos

Anyway, since I’ve spent all afternoon and night planning out my summer and writing this blog post, I still have some text to go over and new words to memorize, so I’d better get on that before it gets too late. Hope everyone has a wonderful day, and I’ll be back tomorrow!

Best,

Jamey

http://tenthousandmilesfromhome2011.blogspot.com/

Cheers to the mates,

Jamey