Corn, Kung Fu, and Observations

A cup of tea and a bunch of grapes is a nice way to end a long day.

I ate corn for breakfast. Coming from the South, corn is certainly not a foreign food to me, but eating straight up corn for breakfast is something I’ve never done. In truth, why eat Corn Flakes when you can eat the real thing? I must say that the average Chinese diet seems to be healthier than the average American diet. I haven’t encountered a lot of processed foods. Every meal I’ve eaten has been real, fresh, whole foods. Any who, after a satisfying meal of corn, oatmeal, peaches, and apples, my host dad drove me to ESSMS for another full day of classes and cultural activities. After class today, we did Kung Fu again. Kung Fu, like most sports is a lot more difficult than it looks. We learned some simple moves without a stick, and then we used a stick to do some cool rotations and attack poses. Busara, a strong, muscular NSLI-Yian, was such a pro at Kung Fu that the instructor, who only spoke Chinese, enlisted his help to demonstrate some moves. I wasn’t the worst, but I certainly wasn’t the best. Again, I always value a little cross training. In addition to Kung Fu fighting (da na na na na na na na na na), I learned a bit more about the notorious Gao Kao. Yang Lao Shi, a medium-statured man with a straight up hair cut and a trendy clothing style who is also the afternoon teacher for Class C, told us about his Gao Kao experience in middle/high school. During his childhood and teenage years, he lived in a poor area in the Sichuan province. For high school, he went to the best school in his district, and he was also in the best class in his school. His grade level class had around 3,000 students, and his classroom had about 135 students. Imagine this: 135 students in a classroom with no heating or AC. In China, instead of having students move from room to room, students often stay in the same classroom, and teachers move instead. Of the 135 students in his class, only 5 had the test scores that allowed them to go to good Chinese universities. They were the best class, so the acceptance rate in other classes at his school wasn't any better, if not worse, in comparison to his class. In addition, according to Yang Lao Shi, getting a perfect score on the Gao Kao is impossible. Out of 750, having a score in the upper 600s is seen as highly respectable. Compare that to the SAT where earning a perfect score has occurred many times. As an additional observation, indirect communication is something that I’ve noticed as a common occurrence in China. Indirect communication involved not explicitly stating something, but instead hinting towards it. For example, in America, I often say thank you all the time, and many other Americans do as well. I thank my parents for making a meal, buying me clothes, picking me up from school, etc., but I’ve noticed that when I thank me host family here in China when they do similar things for me they either quickly and quietly say “no need to thank” or faintly and briefly smile. As a family unit, most of those aforementioned tasks are a given, as though there is some unstated contract that I do this and you do that. I’ve found myself trying not to say thank you quite so much and instead imply gratitude in other ways, such as cleaning up after a meal and taking care of/washing my own clothing. It seems that indirect communication is more common in collectivist cultures where helping out and carrying your own weight is for the good of the group. Individualistic cultures, such as that of American, emphasize the conditional aspect of relationships and the need to be concise and up front. It’s all very interesting. After a long and thoughtful day, I sat in the little alcove looking out onto the street at the back of my host sister’s bed while drinking jasmine tea and eating lychee and mildly sweet plums. After dinner, 吴璨 taught me a little bit of Chinese poetry. I want to thank my host family for giving me time to do my homework and relax and eat fruit quietly. During the summer, weekdays are for hard work and occasional fun, and weekends are for relaxation and occasional work.