Last week, one of the Chinese professors from Xiamen
University taught us a one-hour lecture about Chinese migrant workers, and it
was so fascinating!! A migrant worker is a person that comes to the city from
the rural areas of China in order to find work. In 2012, there were 263 million
migrant workers. They generally came to the cities in between planting seasons and
return to their villages to farm during the planting season.
These migrant workers’ standard of living is very poor
because they do not receive the same public services (such as access to public
schooling, healthcare, unemployment, etc.) as do the native urban residents. In
fact, these migrant workers are compared to illegal immigrants in the USA
because these rural residents do not have legal status in the urban areas. In
order to receive full public services, they would have to return to their village
of origin.
China has what they call a Hokou, or a house registration
system, where every citizen of China is registered with their house (parents or
spouse and children) and that registration indicates whether they are a rural
or urban resident and of what village or city. Residency is generally
established on where their mother is from since the mother is generally not the
one to go to the cities to look for work. They are also given an ID card
showing all their hokou information. They have to show their ID card in order
to receive public services. A rural resident can become an urban resident if
they marry an urban resident but, like trying to get a green card in the USA,
they have to go through a lengthy application process and wait many years. Even
then, it is not always successful. They can also become an urban resident
through military service or going to university in a city. Otherwise it is a
very difficult and long application process to change your hokou to allow you
to move to a city or even a different village.
Migrant workers began coming the cities in the 1980s. Back
then, the cities welcomed them because the economy was booming and the cities
were growing and needed workers to help build them. Consequently, many of the
older generations of migrant workers worked in construction. But once the
cities discovered that the migrant workers weren’t going back to their rural
villages, then the city had to think of ways to motivate them to return to the
country. So the cities purposely started discriminating against the migrant
workers by denying them public services, charging the companies that employed
the migrant workers fees, and in some cases, making it illegal for some
industries to employ them at all.
Newer generations of migrant workers, in an effort to avoid
some of the discrimination, prefer to work in manufacturing and service
industries, receive more education, and try to dress like the urban residents.
They have little experience with farming life, and they are more aware of
freedoms and rights. Consequently, there is kind of a civil rights movement
happening in China right now for these migrant workers. Some see these migrant
workers and their changing lifestyle as symbolic of China’s progress in
development.
Culturally, the Chinese don’t like to travel
because Confucius taught that children should not leave their parents, but
remain in their native villages to care for their parents until they pass away
and then the children could leave. But the Chinese will travel if they have to
for such reasons as education or work. So there is a negative connotation on
those that are required to travel.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Interesting Cultural Findings (Part IV)
I have never had to use so much hand sanitizer in my life as
I have these past four weeks in China. The bathrooms frequently do not have
soap to wash your hands and just as frequently they do not have a means with
which to dry your hands. So rather than rinse my hands off and walk around
swinging them wildly to get them to dry, I just use my hand sanitizer. And to
add to the bathroom anomalies of China, sometimes they don’t even have toilet
paper! Thankfully, I carry around my little roll of toilet paper, along with my
hand sanitizer, all the time.
At church last Sunday, President Britton and his wife told us about how difficult it is to renew their visas to remain in China year after year. They are currently in the middle of renewing President Britton’s and their son’s visas. They said that this year the rules changed unexpectedly such that they are now required to obtain certified copies of their Canadian birth certificates from the Canadian Consulate/Embassy, but the next appointment to do that is weeks after their visas expire. I found out this week at church, that China renewed President Britton’s visa but not their son’s. Sister Britton and their son went to Hong Kong to try to get it renewed there but had no luck. So she had to put their son on a plane back to Calgary to stay with his older brothers until he could get his visa renewed from Canada. Can you imagine putting your 15-year-old son on an international flight all alone from Hong Kong to Calgary? I’m always a little nervous to fly internationally and I’m 33!
At church last Sunday, President Britton and his wife told us about how difficult it is to renew their visas to remain in China year after year. They are currently in the middle of renewing President Britton’s and their son’s visas. They said that this year the rules changed unexpectedly such that they are now required to obtain certified copies of their Canadian birth certificates from the Canadian Consulate/Embassy, but the next appointment to do that is weeks after their visas expire. I found out this week at church, that China renewed President Britton’s visa but not their son’s. Sister Britton and their son went to Hong Kong to try to get it renewed there but had no luck. So she had to put their son on a plane back to Calgary to stay with his older brothers until he could get his visa renewed from Canada. Can you imagine putting your 15-year-old son on an international flight all alone from Hong Kong to Calgary? I’m always a little nervous to fly internationally and I’m 33!
Monday, July 15, 2013
Shanghai
First of all, the food was heavenly! We recognized the
dishes and chowed down in silence every time since we were enjoying the food so
much. They served us stuff like kung pao chicken, sweet and sour pork, orange
chicken, Mongolian beef, etc.
We started off by visiting the Yu Garden, which was beautiful! The garden was definitely one of my favorites sights in Shanghai not only because the garden was beautiful and landscaped in the traditional Chinese style, but also because they had a Dairy Queen in the market that surrounded the garden! So I totally bought an Oreo blizzard!
Then we went to the Bund, or the waterfront to see the skyline in the daytime. We later went back and took a nighttime cruise on the river to see the city’s skyline at night. It was beautiful at both times! It’s crazy that the entire city is built on the silt brought in by the Yangtze (Yellow) River since its delta is nearby. In fact, the silt is kind of taking its toll since there is at least one building on the Bund that is leaning to one side. And even on that silt, they are currently building the Shanghai Tower that will be the tallest building in the world!
We also went to an amazing acrobat show. Everyone should go to an acrobat show! Then to the Jade Buddha Temple, the Pearl TV Tower, the French concession area, and then the Shanghai Museum – that had some pretty cool ceramics and jade carvings. We also visited the Jewish ghetto in Shanghai. Did you know that Shanghai was among the last city to accept Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe during World War II? The city accepted at least 23,000 refugees. But then the Japanese occupied Shanghai and gathered up Jews into the ghetto we saw.
Our flight out of Shanghai. Ugh. That was
terrible. A typhoon was actually due to hit Taiwan and kind of Xiamen that day,
and we had been praying that our flight would be canceled before we left for
the airport so we could stay in the nice hotel one more night, but it wasn’t to
be. Dang China Eastern Airlines said our flight was still scheduled to leave on
time. So we drove out to the airport. And got to our gate by 2:00 PM. Our
scheduled departure time (4:15 PM) came and went with no boarding and no
announcements. I finally went up to the gate desk and asked about our flight,
and they said it was delayed with no new estimated departure time. So we sat
and waited some more. Then at 9:30 PM they told us to line up for boarding. We
boarded our plane at 10:00 PM. Then we sat again, on the rocking plane that was
being rocked by the very strong winds that I think were coming at the front of
the weakening typhoon. And we sat until 12:30 AM when they finally decided to
takeoff. The takeoff was scary – the
plane was jerking from side to side a ton! The rest of the flight wasn’t as bad
as I imagined it was going be. I even sent an almost-goodbye email to Mike
because I was so nervous about flying in the typhoon winds and storm! The
flight just had some turbulence and the landing in Xiamen was just fine.
We started off by visiting the Yu Garden, which was beautiful! The garden was definitely one of my favorites sights in Shanghai not only because the garden was beautiful and landscaped in the traditional Chinese style, but also because they had a Dairy Queen in the market that surrounded the garden! So I totally bought an Oreo blizzard!
Then we went to the Bund, or the waterfront to see the skyline in the daytime. We later went back and took a nighttime cruise on the river to see the city’s skyline at night. It was beautiful at both times! It’s crazy that the entire city is built on the silt brought in by the Yangtze (Yellow) River since its delta is nearby. In fact, the silt is kind of taking its toll since there is at least one building on the Bund that is leaning to one side. And even on that silt, they are currently building the Shanghai Tower that will be the tallest building in the world!
We also went to an amazing acrobat show. Everyone should go to an acrobat show! Then to the Jade Buddha Temple, the Pearl TV Tower, the French concession area, and then the Shanghai Museum – that had some pretty cool ceramics and jade carvings. We also visited the Jewish ghetto in Shanghai. Did you know that Shanghai was among the last city to accept Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe during World War II? The city accepted at least 23,000 refugees. But then the Japanese occupied Shanghai and gathered up Jews into the ghetto we saw.
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| acrobats on a bike |
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| ceramics at the Shanghai Museum |
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| the French concession |
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| Jade Buddha temple |
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| sitting on glass in the Pearl TV Tower |
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| the Pearl TV Tower. I was up in the second ball. |
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| Jewish Ghetto |
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| laundry drying on the street in the Jewish Ghetto |
Tolous – Hakka Round Houses
Last Tuesday, we (most of the BYU students) took a day trip
to see the tolous, or round houses of the Hakka people. I’m so glad I did it!
It was amazing and well worth the long hours of working on Monday and Wednesday
and the long drive to and from the tolous.
We got up early and caught a coach that would drive three hours up into Fujian province to the area where tolous are located. Breanna, another BYU student that is here in Xiamen on her own for an internship, and her coworker, Yimi, joined us too. Yimi was a lifesaver as she ended up being our interpreter because the tour guides that took us to the tolous didn’t speak a lick of English.
The drive was crazy. We drove through some really poor towns and cities. The buildings were crumbling or only half built and yet people still lived or worked out of them. We saw banana trees everywhere!
The coach stopped a huge market that had tons of coffee and food. At least half of that market was different flavors of coffee. And they had the rows of the market set up to herd all the tourists through every row like cattle. There were also market employees on nearly every corner you had to turn inviting you to try some coffee or some candy. The only thing I tried was some papaya powder drink, some coconut powder drink, and some coconut candy.
Once we reached a little town with a strip of restaurants, the tour guide told all of us Americans to get off the coach. This is where I was really grateful Yimi was there because she told us that all the Chinese on the coach were going to see some different tolous than us, so we had to get off to eat at a restaurant here and then another tour guide and bus was going to take us to the tolous.
Our new tour guide also didn’t speak a lick of English, and yet he was constantly yelling at us in Chinese. He was obviously telling us to get a move on it because he was always yards ahead of us. Despite our impatient guide, we loved the tolous. The scenery around them was amazing too. The first few we visited are definitely used to tourists as they were highly commercialized with little shops all around the courtyards. But we finished up the tour in a village where there was a less-commercialized tolou. We happened upon it because the rain decided to dump on us and we took refuge in the tolou. There were only two ladies that had shops set up in the entrance of the tolou. Otherwise the rest of the tolou was more authentic. It had common water spigots in the courtyard, a little temple, outside sinks with washboards also out in the courtyard, and what appeared to be little stoves out in the courtyard too. Plus there was a cute little puppy and some chickens roaming around. It’s crazy to think that people still live in these rudimentary homes.
It was also in this last village that I had my first photography shoot. A woman and a young girl walked up to me saying what was obviously their only English: “Hello.” “Where are you from?” “How long are you here?” I’d answer her questions but she didn’t understand them. And the whole time these two were talking to me, a man was circling around us snapping pictures of me talking to them. It’s crazy to think that some of these people that come from the countryside have never seen Westerners in real life hence the reason why they take pictures of us – we’re like celebrities to them!
We got up early and caught a coach that would drive three hours up into Fujian province to the area where tolous are located. Breanna, another BYU student that is here in Xiamen on her own for an internship, and her coworker, Yimi, joined us too. Yimi was a lifesaver as she ended up being our interpreter because the tour guides that took us to the tolous didn’t speak a lick of English.
The drive was crazy. We drove through some really poor towns and cities. The buildings were crumbling or only half built and yet people still lived or worked out of them. We saw banana trees everywhere!
The coach stopped a huge market that had tons of coffee and food. At least half of that market was different flavors of coffee. And they had the rows of the market set up to herd all the tourists through every row like cattle. There were also market employees on nearly every corner you had to turn inviting you to try some coffee or some candy. The only thing I tried was some papaya powder drink, some coconut powder drink, and some coconut candy.
Once we reached a little town with a strip of restaurants, the tour guide told all of us Americans to get off the coach. This is where I was really grateful Yimi was there because she told us that all the Chinese on the coach were going to see some different tolous than us, so we had to get off to eat at a restaurant here and then another tour guide and bus was going to take us to the tolous.
Our new tour guide also didn’t speak a lick of English, and yet he was constantly yelling at us in Chinese. He was obviously telling us to get a move on it because he was always yards ahead of us. Despite our impatient guide, we loved the tolous. The scenery around them was amazing too. The first few we visited are definitely used to tourists as they were highly commercialized with little shops all around the courtyards. But we finished up the tour in a village where there was a less-commercialized tolou. We happened upon it because the rain decided to dump on us and we took refuge in the tolou. There were only two ladies that had shops set up in the entrance of the tolou. Otherwise the rest of the tolou was more authentic. It had common water spigots in the courtyard, a little temple, outside sinks with washboards also out in the courtyard, and what appeared to be little stoves out in the courtyard too. Plus there was a cute little puppy and some chickens roaming around. It’s crazy to think that people still live in these rudimentary homes.
It was also in this last village that I had my first photography shoot. A woman and a young girl walked up to me saying what was obviously their only English: “Hello.” “Where are you from?” “How long are you here?” I’d answer her questions but she didn’t understand them. And the whole time these two were talking to me, a man was circling around us snapping pictures of me talking to them. It’s crazy to think that some of these people that come from the countryside have never seen Westerners in real life hence the reason why they take pictures of us – we’re like celebrities to them!
A Typical School Day in Xiamen
Mike asked me about my typical day in Xiamen and I thought
that would be an excellent blog post! So here is a run down of my typical
“school” day in Xiamen. My “school” days are Mondays and Wednesdays.
Wake up at 7:00 AM and get ready for the day. Do a little reading. Get breakfast at the hotel which consists of a hard-boiled egg, a steamed roll, and some sort of warm milk – I think it is rice milk . . . maybe. And take a multi-vitamin.
Have a prayer with the group in Catherine’s room at 8:25 AM.
Walk to class on Xiamen University campus and marvel at how hot it can be that early in the morning (the temperature variation between night and day is only about 5 degrees!). When walking to class we hear all the cicadas in the trees. There are a lot of them. They are so loud that they sound like one of those electricity power stations that are always humming. And we also walk under some trees that appear to be spitting on us – we’re not really sure what the liquid is that is falling on us. Hopefully it’s not cicada spit or pee. Ha!
Start class at 8:55
AM. We always have to turn the air conditioning on once we get to class
since they turn it off if there isn’t a class in there. So there is no
immediate relief from the heat when we first get to class and I’m always ready
to pull up my hair by that time since I try to start out the day with it down.
I sit in the front of the classroom by my Chinese teammate, Sky. She’s a hoot. Then Carol teaches the class and gives us some time on occasion to discuss what she’s just talked about with our Chinese teammates to make sure they are following the lecture. Generally, Sky is pretty good about keeping conversations on topic, but every now an then she wants to ask me (out of the blue!) what I think of a Chinese person marrying and American, or if her friend that has been promiscuous with men should tell her future husband about her promiscuity. Ha ha!
Class gets out at 10:55 AM and, at first, I went to lunch at the canteen with everyone. But now that the other BYU students have wanted to take day trips on Tuesdays and I can’t say “No,” I have to stay back at the student lounge and work. And I have to work long hours! Like 5 hours on both Monday and Wednesday so that I can be sure to get my full 10 hours of work logged.
Before I get started on work, I’ll Skype my family and Mike. And then I’ll respond to some personal emails or mess around on Facebook for a bit. Then I’ll start working around 1:00 PM.
Then around 6:00
PM, I go “home” to the Luxury Hotel and . . . work on homework and do laundry.
Some times we’ll all go to dinner together, and sometimes I have to say “No” so
I can work on homework.
Wake up at 7:00 AM and get ready for the day. Do a little reading. Get breakfast at the hotel which consists of a hard-boiled egg, a steamed roll, and some sort of warm milk – I think it is rice milk . . . maybe. And take a multi-vitamin.
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| breakfast |
Walk to class on Xiamen University campus and marvel at how hot it can be that early in the morning (the temperature variation between night and day is only about 5 degrees!). When walking to class we hear all the cicadas in the trees. There are a lot of them. They are so loud that they sound like one of those electricity power stations that are always humming. And we also walk under some trees that appear to be spitting on us – we’re not really sure what the liquid is that is falling on us. Hopefully it’s not cicada spit or pee. Ha!
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| a dead cicada on the ground |
I sit in the front of the classroom by my Chinese teammate, Sky. She’s a hoot. Then Carol teaches the class and gives us some time on occasion to discuss what she’s just talked about with our Chinese teammates to make sure they are following the lecture. Generally, Sky is pretty good about keeping conversations on topic, but every now an then she wants to ask me (out of the blue!) what I think of a Chinese person marrying and American, or if her friend that has been promiscuous with men should tell her future husband about her promiscuity. Ha ha!
Class gets out at 10:55 AM and, at first, I went to lunch at the canteen with everyone. But now that the other BYU students have wanted to take day trips on Tuesdays and I can’t say “No,” I have to stay back at the student lounge and work. And I have to work long hours! Like 5 hours on both Monday and Wednesday so that I can be sure to get my full 10 hours of work logged.
Before I get started on work, I’ll Skype my family and Mike. And then I’ll respond to some personal emails or mess around on Facebook for a bit. Then I’ll start working around 1:00 PM.
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| working in the student lounge or coffee shop |
Eating in China
Let me tell you what. I have a mantra for eating in China
that has to be applied most of the time (but not in Shanghai because the food
was so good there):
I’m never going to knock someone for eating at McDonalds or KFC or Subway in China. I do it fairly regularly just to get some recognizable and familiar and non-greasy food on occasion. Although I greatly prefer Subway since the grilled chicken sandwich I got at McDonalds one night did not look, feel, or really taste like grilled chicken. Even the food at KFC and McDonalds isn’t what we’re used to seeing at the same restaurants in the states. I think I’ll stick to just ice cream from those two places and meals from Subway since their stuff is the same as in the states.
Other foods…. I can’t even begin to describe some of the stuff I’ve seen. Chicken heads in airplane meals for the meat. Fried whole fish with their eyes, tails, and scales still there. Seaweed. Bamboo – which is actually quite good. Lots of bok choy. And they have the same thing for all three meals generally.
Shanghai was different because they served us Chinese food that we’ve heard of! Kung Pao Chicken. Mongolian Beef. Egg Drop Soup. Orange Chicken. Sweet and Sour Pork. Pork and Cabbage. Stuff like that.
So far, at all of the meals we’ve had, they serve Sprite/7Up or Coca Cola and that’s it for your drink. Unless you’re lucky then they also serve a little bit of water. And they fill up these tiny glasses to the brim! The dinner place setting also consists of a small plate, fork, chopsticks, a small bowl, and Chinese soupspoon.
“A spoonful of rice helps the mysterious food go down.”Guess the movie. Some of the food can be very mysterious and scary.
I’m never going to knock someone for eating at McDonalds or KFC or Subway in China. I do it fairly regularly just to get some recognizable and familiar and non-greasy food on occasion. Although I greatly prefer Subway since the grilled chicken sandwich I got at McDonalds one night did not look, feel, or really taste like grilled chicken. Even the food at KFC and McDonalds isn’t what we’re used to seeing at the same restaurants in the states. I think I’ll stick to just ice cream from those two places and meals from Subway since their stuff is the same as in the states.
Other foods…. I can’t even begin to describe some of the stuff I’ve seen. Chicken heads in airplane meals for the meat. Fried whole fish with their eyes, tails, and scales still there. Seaweed. Bamboo – which is actually quite good. Lots of bok choy. And they have the same thing for all three meals generally.
Shanghai was different because they served us Chinese food that we’ve heard of! Kung Pao Chicken. Mongolian Beef. Egg Drop Soup. Orange Chicken. Sweet and Sour Pork. Pork and Cabbage. Stuff like that.
So far, at all of the meals we’ve had, they serve Sprite/7Up or Coca Cola and that’s it for your drink. Unless you’re lucky then they also serve a little bit of water. And they fill up these tiny glasses to the brim! The dinner place setting also consists of a small plate, fork, chopsticks, a small bowl, and Chinese soupspoon.
Interesting Cultural Findings (Part III)
The Chinese say that Beijing is their political center,
Xi’an is their cultural center, and Shanghai is their economic center.
The Chinese totally believe in ghosts, but they believe the ghosts can’t lift themselves off the ground or turn corners so they build raised thresholds into their doorways and lots of turns into their hallways and homes.
We saw a bunch of fruit in Buddhist temples so we asked what it was all about. Apparently, the people pay to leave fruit on the altars so that it will become enlightened and then when the people eat the enlightened fruit, they become enlightened!
The red, round lanterns are for festival whereas the carved wood and paper/glass lanterns are for their homes.
80% of the Chinese population lives in the country/rural areas and are farmers, and 50% of the Chinese population lives along the Yangzte (Yellow) River.
In the Chinese language (Mandarin to be exact), “x” in words is pronounced like “sh” and “q” in words is pronounced like “ch.”
I'm beginning to pick up on the language a little. "Shan" means mountain. "Daxue" means university. "Lu" means road. Ha! Some of the Chinese characters that I see a lot are for entrance and exit and both have a common character that looks like it is just a box. That box literally means “mouth” while the character before it (when intending to mean exit) means “leave” – but together the two characters mean “exit.”
The Chinese totally believe in ghosts, but they believe the ghosts can’t lift themselves off the ground or turn corners so they build raised thresholds into their doorways and lots of turns into their hallways and homes.
We saw a bunch of fruit in Buddhist temples so we asked what it was all about. Apparently, the people pay to leave fruit on the altars so that it will become enlightened and then when the people eat the enlightened fruit, they become enlightened!
The red, round lanterns are for festival whereas the carved wood and paper/glass lanterns are for their homes.
80% of the Chinese population lives in the country/rural areas and are farmers, and 50% of the Chinese population lives along the Yangzte (Yellow) River.
In the Chinese language (Mandarin to be exact), “x” in words is pronounced like “sh” and “q” in words is pronounced like “ch.”
I'm beginning to pick up on the language a little. "Shan" means mountain. "Daxue" means university. "Lu" means road. Ha! Some of the Chinese characters that I see a lot are for entrance and exit and both have a common character that looks like it is just a box. That box literally means “mouth” while the character before it (when intending to mean exit) means “leave” – but together the two characters mean “exit.”
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| Entrance |
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| Exit |
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