Entry #3 - Let God be the Judge? I Think Not.

God and I Differ in Perspective, So I'll Be Doing My Own Judging Thank You Very Much

It seems that the most difficult task one faces as an American abroad is how not to judge a different culture according to our own values. I will be the first to admit that I have utterly failed at this task. I might as well be walking the streets wearing a t-shirt made of our star-spangled banner and whistling to the toon of Yankie Doodle. So, often times, usually periods where I am too lazy to care about things like propriety and tact, I will let my ignorant and inflammatory opinions run amuck and allow my mouth to spew out a number of things that I am sure to regret in hindsight. This is one of those times.

People in China are Shallow

Although this may hold true for a large number of other cultures, I believe that it is especially apparent in China. Here is why.

China is a developing country and as with any developing country, the gap between the rich and the poor will be greatly widened in the initial stages. In the later stages, the rapid upward movement of people in the middle-class will create a social vacuum which will bring up the the social-economic conditions of the lower classes. Therefore, as of now, the chasm between the rich and poor or even between the rich and moderate are reaching new lengths. With 1.3 billion people and so many who are newly wealthy, a widening aspiration for wealth and riches is taking the country's population like some malignant cancer of insatiable greed. Homeless women and their children eat out of trash bins on streets lined with boutiques selling overpriced merchandise aimed to profit from people's need to chase meaningless trends. People go to starbucks not for coffee but to see and be seen. They value anything foreign and belittle things grown from the soil on which their homes are built. In the largest and most worldly city of China, it seems almost that a wave of treason has taken its residents.

By shallow, I don't mean that they are merely materialistic but also that they are guilty of trivializing the grander things of life such as love and truth. It seems that in China, love is the equivalent of a successful job interview while truth lies in the decisions of those who wield the power. Even the holy institution of marriage, that which gives rise to families and act as the bedrock of nation-states, has been besmirched here. The other day, I heard about a "Marriage Corner" in People's Square where parents bring resumes of their children in hopes of making a match. The usual list of personal statistics includes, first and foremost, salary, the ownership of any vehicles and real estate, the background of the family, and the most important factor for women - the equivalent of salary for men - a photograph. While some may argue that this is perfectly reasonable in cultures where families are close-knit entities and parents are very much involved in the lives of their children, I personally - perhaps due to an overly idealistic outlook on life - feel that there is something inherently foul about turning marriage into a contract where both parties are vying for the best terms possible. The entire notion of it seems absolutely Medieval to me.

Everywhere I go, I see beautiful women with men who are, well, not quite so. This phenomenon is more prevalent here than even in the US. Now, while you may think that saying this makes me shallow as well (or bitter if you think I say this out of spite), you would be thinking so under the impression that these women might be with these men for their personalities, which, while might be true occasionally, surely cannot account for all of the couples that have come across my observation. The general rule is that 9s date 9s while 3s date 3s and although this rule may not be hard and fast, it certainly cannot be the exception. So, what are we left with? Could it be possible that these women date these men for the lifestyle they provide them with? Would it be entirely inconceivable that certain women who otherwise have relatively few career choices, would choose to find themselves a comfortable home in the arms of men who offer it? I think not. 3s become 9s through compensation and the same is true in reverse.

Just so that people don't think I'm a sexist, the men here aren't much better. A large number of them think women are undate-able after the age of 25 and near death at 30. The real tragedy is, this general outlook on the peak age of women has been so widely accepted that even women begin lose confidence in themselves as they get older. There is a possibility that this may also contribute to the aforementioned prevalence of "mismatched couples". To cause a person to lose his/her sense of self-confidence is the worst kind of psychological enslavement.

Obviously, the problems I have so far described have all been formed from my own personal views. It might be that in reality, none of these problems exist in China or at least are not perceived as being problematic. I realize that these problems of life are shared by the world's population as a whole and that a great many countries in the world have much more devastating problems to tend to. But as I have said before, if God wanted to do my judging for me, then he would not have given me the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.

Entry #2 - Jobs That Weren't Quite What You Were Looking For, But Close Enough

So I've been in Shanghai for nearly a week now. On my second day here, I got a job offer from Sinomedia, Ltd. A publishing company in China that handles magazines, translations, and an assortment of other things paper-media related. Originally, as you may recall, I came to China in hopes of getting a job teaching English. Well, after realizing that people here would rather hire a retarded penguin than a Chinese guy to teach them English, I gave up. (Not to say, of course, that there is anything inherently wrong with penguins, not even the retarded ones.) I began looking for freelance work for a couple of English magazines here, but after realizing that they either couldn't pay me enough or couldn't offer me enough work, I bailed on that idea as well. So as I write to you, I am sitting in the office of Sinomedia's translation dept, getting ready to start my day. I'm one of the first people to get here - 9 AM - because I refuse to come in at 10 AM like everyone else and leave at the ungodly hour of 7 PM.

Oh, perhaps I should clear things up a bit. A week before I left for China, I took on a couple jobs as a Chinese to English translator for this company. I continued to translate for them after arriving in China. Apparently, they had been missing someone in their dept (other than the CEO) who was fluent in both Chinese and English. Now, I can see that your initial reaction is clearly identical to mine. How a translation company can manage to exist in China under such conditions is beyond me, and likely the scope of rationality.

So I've been working here for about a week for 8000 RMB a month, which is a little more than a thousand US dollars. My cousin tells me that I make more than most of the people in China, but that doesn't exactly comfort me as most people I know here live with their parents. Which, I imagine, must significantly cut down on their living expenses. I, on the other hand, must move out of my grandmother's place soon. No one has lived here for a while and it really shows. Everything is broken, from the toilet to the fridge to the electrical outlets. My accidental death is no longer a matter of chance or fate, but merely of time itself. I've been looking around for a while, but any place decent is going to cost me half my salary. Therefore, I've decided to ask for a raise. That's right, I've worked here a week and am leaving a 5 months and I'm asking for a raise at the end of this year. I'm pretty sure I'm doing more work than I'm getting paid for, anyways. I translate 3000 words a day and am one of two English consults in the office, of which the other guy doesn't understand a lick of Chinese. I also have to proofread all C-E translations coming into our dept.

On the bright side, China is an amazing country and it feels great getting back in touch with my roots.

Diary of a Chinese-American lost in the Orient: Entry #1

Quick update of my life for the handful of people that care: I took up a job as a Technical Writer for a research firm after returning from my summer trip to China. I've since quit that job after I received notice that I got into medical school. The weekend before I left for China I received a call from Dr. Greenberg, the Dean of Medical Education at Baylor College of Medicine, that I've been accepted to their medical school. And as of right now, I'm furiously tapping away at the keyboard of my Dell 700m set atop the desk of my dad's office located within the confines of a kitchenware factory in Shen Zhen, China after a 20 hour trip across the Pacific. And there, in a nutshell has been my life for the past 3 months, minus any personal details that I wish to keep to myself.

Life here is different. People are different. Most of the people here seem to be doing nothing most of the time. They squat on the streets and smoke wherever they please. The majority of the citizens in Shen Zhen are still quite poor, further intensifying the increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots in a government that claims to have abolished that particular dichotomy so long ago.

I can't say I don't like it here though. There's a certain closeness any animal feels to those that bear his/her physical resemblence and I'm no exception. I have to admit though that I like Hong Kong much better. It's so much more like civilization in the States. There are community and charity events such as 5K's and culture in the form of museums, orchestras, universities, and what not. People here value human rights and democracy. The ideals of being a valued member of society. It's all quite familiar, especially since everything here is in English as well as Chinese. Plus, I suppose it helps that I lived in Hong Kong for the first 7 years of my life.

More updates for when I return from Macau.