A Fact about FACE

Well I know I was supposed to write about five blog posts last Friday, but I got lazy and distracted so I'll write those some other time this week! I'm really busy at work now because I've just been on a three week vacation... I did want to write a post about white people in China (as if I haven't spoken enough on this topic).

I went to Guangzhou this weekend for Stephen's birthday (where I lost my phone... which I don't want to get into because I'm still pretty mad about) and met some guys from Finland and Denmark and Monika, my new Polish friend and her roommate Heidi who is from Holland. So many new people. My point is that we were discussing working for our companies and we think we are somewhat under the job title "Designated White Person". Although we ALL do something or other for our respective work place, we found out that there actually are JOBS where you are the designated white person. To demonstrate, in Beijing you can rent out white people to come to meetings with you (if you're a Chinese company). Equally important is the story I heard about a female working as the "assistant" of one of the directors in Midea, who doesn't really do anything but sit there and look, well... American (no, this is not me). One of the guys' friends whom I met ACTUALLY is the PA of one of his company's bosses and notably he does not speak a word of Chinese and his boss doesn't speak a word of English. The guy just travels all around China with his boss, looking white. Obviously if someone in a Chinese company has a Westerner as his personal assistant, the company MUST be GREAT (ahem to the sarcasm). Furthermore because neither speak the other's language, they made up their own language (mostly just a series of unreal words) so that clients would think they speak some "Northern European language that not many people speak". And no, I am not joking.

This all derives from the concept of face. You have to (HAVE TO!) hold face while doing business in China. It's deceiving, clearly, but oh so necessary here. For example, a new friend is going to quit her job because she does not get any work, cannot practice her Chinese, and didn't come to China to do what she is doing at her company (or NOT doing). Instead of telling her boss what the problem is, she will "save their face" and say she has to return home because of family problems. This is doing the company a GREAT favor because if a foreigner quit because they were unhappy, the company will really be looked down upon, and even worse, the boss or her immediate supervisor will really get reprimanded. Also, her life while still in China could be made difficult by the company if she "screws" them over by not saving face, so she believes this is the best decision (screws THEM over? When actually it seems like THEY screwed HER over. Another problem with doing business in China.) This makes me wonder... how much can and SHOULD I push my company to do, act, and pay how I want them to? If face is really that important, then they will do A LOT to make me happy.

Notably, a few of my Chinese friends said that I should ask and do whatever I please (within boundaries obviously) because I am NOT Chinese and therefore have different standards and they have different rules for me. I should not think of myself like one of the Chinese employees, but should "act American" and demand what I want... interesting. If I were to act like this, I would think my co-workers would really dislike me, but from the looks of it, this is expected from me because I'm American.

Shànghǎi Part I

First night out in Shanghai after Joanna landed

The Bund, taken with Joanna's sweet new panoramic capabilities camera

Playing a Chinese dice drinking game in the "I [heart] Shanghai" Bar

Pudong View

Panoramic view of Pudong

Shanghai Subway

“Come on now! How could you be me and want to be someone else?”-KW

Today is going to be my blog writing day... but I am am kind of dreading writing all these entries considering I have been traveling for more than three weeks and I don't even know where to begin. Let's begin with day 1 of mine and Joanna's adventure: Shanghai

Actually my adventure began when I first went to buy train tickets with Lily. We went to a travel agency by where I live, seven days in advance. Turns out the train I wanted had already been sold out and there were only seating tickets left for another train which took 23 hours instead of 17 like my first choice. To be honest I didn't even ask about the bed tickets because I wanted to experience sitting and I figured they were sold out anyway. So I got a ticket next to the window. To my surprise there were also STANDING tickets available. Who the hell would want standing tickets? I thought to myself. No one in their right mind would want to stand for 23 hours (ironically this bit me in the ass at the conclusion of my adventure). The fact that there even ARE standing seats is something I thought was stupid and a fault in planning of the government, more specifically the transportation sector of the government. Why not make more trains or more compartments so that everyone at least has a seat?! Because there are SO MANY people in China that there is no way to make that many trains. "There are six BILLION people in the world. More or less. And it makes me feel quite small" China makes you REALLY understand how many people there are in the world because everything and everywhere is crowded (Credit to Lukasz for pointing this out while listening to this song).

I got to the train station pretty early and boarded the train. I still don't fully understand why Chinese people rush so much or wait in line for so long considering most people have seats or beds which are given a seat number, so it's not like someone will steal your spot. The only reason I can think of rushing is to place your baggage in the overhead spots instead on somewhere under your seat where there might not be enough room. Thus my journey began. I sat next to some guy who gave me space and across from another guy my age who spoke English, but barely talked to me and had a huge suitcase that took up MY space (hahahah on trains you have to fight for every inch!). He was a computer nerd who loved World of Warcraft (that's at least what I got out of him) and he was visiting people he met online a few years ago, for the first time. I ate a lot on the train (I brought my own food), slept, played iPod games, listened to music, looked at magazines, people watched... and eventually the 23 hours passed by. Towards the end of the journey I was already in a daze and I felt like I was on some drug or something because I was going in and out of sleep. Aha and I need to mention something equally as important... the fact that Chinese people rarely are quiet. I mean damn, I'm loud myself but not at all compared to these people (on the train at least). They were playing card games, talking loudly, making noise, singing... I was SO GLAD I brought my number one NECESSITY when traveling (and necessity in China in general): EAR PLUGS. I kept those babies in for a majority of the time and only then could I tune out those loud mouths. (I mean honestly, who the hell talks that loud at 3AM, or better yet at 5AM?) To them the train ride is somewhat like a meeting ground and a place to make new friends... Too bad I don't speak Chinese, maybe I could have joined in with their obnoxious screaming and loud games. Probably NOT though.

Albeit, I made it to Shanghai in one piece (groggy and bladder-filled [I didn't use the restroom since I left my place which was about 25hours before I reached Shanghai] Those that really know me are mist likely wondering how this is possible...but even my bladder knew it DID NOT want to go into those nasty, to say the least, train toilets). Charlie (a Chinese guy whom I met in Shenzhen and our new travel companion for a part of this trip) met me and we went to a travel agency to buy tickets for Huangshan and Xi'an. In China you can wait in long lines and buy tickets SEVEN days ahead in a railway station, or you can go to a travel agency, pay 5 Yuan more and wait in line to buy tickets, TEN days before hand (NOTE TO SELF: Talk about what happened with Xi'an at the train station to demonstrate Chinese incapability to plan and organize... at least Charlie's incapacity... ) We were only able to get seating tickets to Xi'an because beds were sold out, and beds back from Huangshan (Yellow Mountain). Tickets for these places were about 200Yuan one way... so as you can see, it is not expensive to travel in China by train at all (although in Europe you can buy airplane tickets to certain places for pennies...)

Finally it was time to meet with Lukasz (he is Ewa's husband and both are Polish and awesome people. I won't get too much into our gracious and amazing host because it would take up too much of this entry!) I met Lukasz with Charlie, went to eat (Lukasz pointed out Shanghai's ranking system with restaurants: Smiley face for a clean and sanitized place, a sad face for a dirty place... or not up to certain standards of Shanghai officials. The faces come with colors, but I have already forgotten them). After lunch (I arrived in Shanghai around 10AM) Charlie and I went back to Lukasz's apartment which was AWESOMEEEEEE and I took a nap, showered and then got ready to pick up Joanna at the airport! We got there about 20 minutes after her plane was supposed to land (by subway), but she was already waiting for us! Of course I started crying and getting emotional that my little sister was with me in China, but got over it! Joanna and I went back to Lukasz's place and went to eat. This was Joanna's first Chinese meal and so of course I chose a Sichuan restaurant! We both love spicy food. We walked around after dinner for a little bit and went to sleep (not too eventful of a night).

Day two of Shanghai Joanna and I walked around the Bund and looked at Pudong across the Hangpu river. Pudong includes the Oriental Pearl Tower, Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zones, and other cool newer looking buildings. The weather wasn't too amazing, a little cloudy, but the pictures came out great nevertheless. After the Bund we went to Yuyuan Garden but did not go in. It was way too crowded so we went around the shops and circled the area. Joanna and I bought some random things like postcards, bags, and fans. An old lady told me I was beautiful and I am very proud of myself for understanding and being able to reply to her comment (conversely when she proceeded to have a conversation with me in Chinese I had to tell her that I didn't understand anymore. Too bad.) Later we met up with Marc (Joanna's best friend's cousin who is studying Chinese in Shanghai) and David (Swedish guy) and ate dinner after searching for a place to go (don't be offended that the descriptions of people in these upcoming blog posts are vague BUT don't worry... I remember you clearly in my head). Dinner was followed by drinks where it was Ladies Night (on Tuesday NOT Wednesday at this bar). The bar was called I [heart] Shanghai.

The following day Joanna and I explored some museums, The Urban Planning Museum (which shows what Shanghai is predicted to look like in 50 years) and went to the People's Park. It was a busy, but fun day. Equally important was night time when we went to drink at David's (or someone's place) and then went to Zapata's (another bar for foreigners in Shanghai) which was having Ladies Night (TWO Ladies Nights in a row... YES!) At Zapata's we drank watered down margaritas for 15 minutes (Ladies Night was over at 12AM), but at least we danced on the bar and had a good time. I can't remember if this was the night we made a taxi driver take us to a local noodle place and the young boy who was supposed to be working was sleeping on a folding chair outside the "restaurant" (AKA hole in the wall in American English). He was pretty mad when we, including the taxi driver, woke him to make us some noodles bitch! (hahaha had to add that in). The noodles were delicious. Joanna was obsessed with them actually... (it was a Chinese Muslim place so they really know how to make noodles, all hand tossed and stretched). I hadn't eaten drunk food in a while, but this food was good. For Joanna and I, I ordered fat noodles with spicy cabbage and peppers. YUM. I can't get enough of spicy Chinese food... which is probably really doing a number on my digestive system this year (oh well, I guess in the US I can eat bland food). Side note: Marc speaks Chinese because he took six weeks of intensive Chinese in the US and is still learning it in Shanghai.

By this point I still had NOT learned how to say the street Lukasz lived on. It wasn't hard, but a simple mistake would lead to the taxi driver not understanding... thank God for the Shanghai Help Line which really helped us out when it came to taxis. All we had to do was call the "magic number", tell them where we wanted to go, and they'd tell the driver. These people were trained and required to understand over 50 different English accents. Nice.

That's all for this post... next one will be ALL about the EXPO and my first impressions of Shanghai.