Today was harder to wake up for than most days. This has less to do with demanding schedules and more to do with the fact that college students hate 8 AM classes. It feels like we've been in Nanjing for months, even though it's only really been five days.
The heat wave finally loosened—we got rain. It started as a light drizzle, but got progressively thicker; the humid air and the leafy trees gave off the impression that we were in a tropical jungle. As we walked to class, we agreed that the weather was a refreshing change from the heat.
My intermediate Chinese class was long but fun: one of our teachers gave out brown sugar lollipops. I'm in a class with three other Northeastern students—Ashley, Lili, and Megan. Megan was fifteen minutes late today, but she had a good excuse: her skirt got caught in Dong Laoshi's bicycle on the way to class. Because Megan's skirt was ripped, one of our Chinese teachers let Megan borrow hers (the teacher lives close by). Our Chinese teachers are pretty awesome.
After class, a group of nine of us went out for lunch. Because we always have afternoon activities, quickly ordering and eating dishes is a struggle. It was especially hard today, because our group didn't have anyone who could fully read the menu. We spent at least ten minutes trying to figure out how to order. Because we tend to frequent small restaurants and because we often eat in large groups, it is difficult for the food to be served "on time". Maddie's fried rice was served just as we were about to leave.
At one, we returned to our classroom building to hear from Helmut Gusten, a German entrepreneur and former general manager of the EU Chamber of Commerce in Nanjing. He spoke engagingly about his thoughts and experiences about business in China. Before 1994, the Chinese government distributed goods and resources at a low capacity. Though markets were liberalized between 1994 and 2003, there was still a low capacity and a high demand for products. This changed after 2003, when capacity began to exceed demand. As Gusten has emphasized, China cannot be considered a cheap manufacturing base anymore. Because labor wages are growing at an annual rate of 10 to 15 percent, China is beginning to outsource its labor elsewhere. Gusten also gave us a few insights from his business experiences. For example, he observed that the Chinese local business approach is different from the Western approach. While Westerners often try to find and occupy a new niche in the market, the Chinese often try to copy the most successful existing model and take part in the established niche's profits.
Gusten also gave a short presentation about what he likes about China. Among the things on his list are wet face towels, foot massages, public dancing, and the fact that the culture has no labels. He advised us to enjoy China's hospitality: in his words, "foreigners can get away with everything." We really admired his enthusiasm, and realized how negatively the Western media portrays China. If Canada had the same coverage as China, then the only headlines about Canada would be about cannibalism.
Following Gusten's lecture, we heard from Mr. Yu, Fangqiang. Mr. Yu heads a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Eastern China. He spoke about the working styles, accomplishments, and challenges of NGOs. Although China is the most populous country in the world, it has less than twenty policy advocacy NGOs. Mr. Yu's NGO (Justice for All) is the only policy advocacy NGO in Eastern China, an area with 220 million people. He mainly deals with issues of food safety, anti-discrimination, and public interest law. His organization tries to make food safety data transparent by sending letters to and pressuring local governments. Their efforts have successfully made more tap water data public. They also draw attention to discrimination through "street art", and lawsuits. We discussed the role of civil society in China. Yu believed that Eastern China is politically conservative and particularly restrictive.
I find Gusten's and Yu's talks very interesting. I definitely appreciated their varying approaches; while Gusten disapproves public criticism about China, Yu's life work deals with making such issues public.
After these talks, I met with my language partner. Today, she took me out to a KFC. KFC is one of the only Western fast food restaurants in Nanjing, and it has adapted admirably to Chinese taste. I had shrimp and rice, as well as vegetable soup and a type of fungus. I'm eating at a KFC, but the circumstances couldn't be more different. Am I really halfway around the world? It's still difficult to fully comprehend.
- Wendy C.
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