Rural Sichuan

21 May 2014

Today, we went to Pengzhou, a small rural area outside of Chengdu that was devastated by an earthquake in 2008. Despite the ecological upset, the drive was beautiful, and I was really surprised at how much the land looks like rural Nicaragua.

We had lunch at a small restaurant, and after lunch, the entire staff came out of the kitchen and into our room to take photos with us. It really sank in that many of the locals of Pengzhou never see foreigners, since tourism in the area, which consisted mainly of domestic tourists, even before 2008, has greatly suffered since the earthquake.

After lunch, we visited a small, family run farm. Though the facilities were rudimentary, the flowers they produced were absolutely beautiful. At the end of our visit, we were all very humbled when the farmers gave us each a flower and did not accept payment.

Following the farm, we went to a primary school, where we interacted with a small group of children. We decided to give our fresh flowers to the students, and everyone in our group took turns handing the children a flower. I wonder what those kids were thinking as we handed them flowers and took pictures of them in the middle of a school day—even I thought it was kind of weird. Among the children we saw, the sex ratio mirrored China’s overall sex ratio of 117:100 (m:f). Though I know the sex ratio is unbalanced, it is harder to detect when you are constantly interacting with locals in a big city.

As a bonus, the long bus rides with the SWUFE students were great. I learned a lot about Chinese society and average Chinese teenagers. Vanessa also showed me how Chinese speakers send text messages!

Also, this is really embarrassing, but today we totally thought we had a fan club following us from the restaurant, to the farm, to the school, to Bailu… but it ended up being our guide.

- Andrea

China Household Finance Survey

20 May 2014

Today was our first lecture day at Southwest University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) in Chengdu. We had two lectures this morning. In the first, we talked about the Chinese economy. I wish we had had more time; the lecture could have easily been two hours longer, since China’s economy has such a complex history. After the lecture, Cheryl, a Bush School graduate now working at SWUFE, introduced the China Household Finance Survey, a representative survey designed to determine financial details of Chinese households, such as how much they are saving for their child’s future, how much insurance they have, etc.

The general findings of the survey were very interesting to me, especially since I just had completed Dr. Mu’s Advanced Economic Development class a few weeks ago.

The survey found that the households who were among the poorest shared three characteristics:  self-reported poor health from the head of household, a low level of education, and no insurance.

The “self-reported poor health” characteristic was interesting because in class we read articles about several development interventions in which self-reported health was used as a dependent variable. Findings showed that individuals who had better early childhood nutrition self-reported better health than those who did not have adequate nutrition in the earliest stage of life. Additionally, they reported higher hourly wages, up to 40% higher in some cases! The link between poor health and wages is strongest in physically demanding, low skilled jobs, which are common among the poorest.

Additionally, while writing the research paper for this class, I found articles that claimed that unmarried males in China self-report lower levels of health and lower wages. This has implications for China, since it is predicted that due to the distorted sex ratio at birth, anywhere from 30 to 50 million males (depending on the scholar) will be unable to find a spouse in the next twenty years.

The survey also reported the average wage of heads of household after having completed a certain level of education. These results were as follows:

Primary School: 22,271 RMB

Middle School: 38,692 RMB
High School: 60,927 RMB

When we studied education among the world’s poorest in Advanced Economic Development, we talked about the perception of an S-shaped curve in returns to education. An S-shaped curve would imply that returns are higher at higher levels of schooling and that it is better to send one child to high school than to send two children to primary school or middle school. Though the S-shaped curve does not exist, it is perceived, and many households in developing countries will focus all of their energy on the education of one child, hoping they will reach the highest levels.

The results of the finance survey support all of the evidence disproving the existence of an S-shaped curve and demonstrate steady and even returns on education at each level of schooling.

- Andrea

Tibet, Taiwan & The Lama Temple

18 May 2014

Today, Professor Xiong Zhiyong gave us some great insight into the Chinese perspective regarding Tibet and Taiwan. He also showed us some nuances in the Sino-US relationship that were incredibly interesting and reveal the tough history China and the US have had. This might have been old news to everyone else, especially those who have taken Chinese Foreign Policy, but since I have only taken one NSD class, the required theory course, I found this incredibly interesting. Now that I know more about the issue, I am anxious to see how the Taiwan issue continues to develop in the future, and if policies towards Taiwan play a role in the next presidential election. Unfortunately, the time limit was short, and the Tibet issue did not receive as much detail as the Taiwan issue received. This may have been on purpose, however.

After the lecture, the group split up and spent the afternoon in different places. Claire, Jason, and I went to the Lama Temple in downtown Beijing. We learned from our lecturer earlier that afternoon that the Lama Temples is one of only two ancient temples in the region that survived the Cultural Revolution, because it had served as a military headquarters. I have been to the Lama Temple before, and I was eager to go back because I knew Claire and Jason would like the site. Though it is a tourist attraction, the Lama Temple is a very active religious site, and one gets a glimpse into a religious culture that we do not often see in the United States. The temple is expansive, and the crown jewel is a Buddha statue that is eighteen meters high (and three meters deep); it was carved from a single piece of sandalwood. From the size of the statue, it looks like it could only have been carved from a California Redwood. I really cannot imagine a tree being that big.

After the Lama Temple, we went to Nanluoguxiang, a narrow alley full of small boutique stores, and sat in a café to rest and people watch. We kept an eye out for shirts in English that make any sense. My personal favorite had a picture of an apple and said, “chocolate.” Luckily, we found our entire group there, and we all went together to Hohai, a recreational lake area. We were supposed to meet at the front gate, but I really doubt we would have been able to find each other since it was a good distance away from the metro stop. The area was really nice, but it clearly catered to Westerners. Nevertheless, there were many Chinese enjoying the weather and the lake. Thanks to Ben’s Mandarin skills, we were able to find a reasonably priced restaurant after being led through several layers of hutongs. I’m surprised anyone who is not a local can find this place. After dinner, I stayed in Hohai with Ben, Caroline, and Sean for a little while before heading back to the hotel.

- Andrea

Shanghai Institute of International Studies

Tuesday May 27, 2014

The lectures we have had at SIIS have been really interesting and more interactive than the past two universities. The Chinese students sit in on the lectures too, although they are not as vocal as us (most likely because it is hard to debate politics in your second language).

Today's lecture was especially stimulating because the professor conducted it more like an actual class. Instead of lecturing and having a Q&A at the end, he asked us tough questions and forced both the Chinese and American students to not only answer the question, but to think through the logic of our answers and provide logical reasoning. He also gave us all push back on the answers we gave, essentially playing devil's advocate. This approach was just like our classes back home and I think it is the best way to learn. If you aren't put on the spot and forced to think through these issues it's easy to just give any answer and not really understand the depth of these issues.

The first question he posed, which we spent a significant amount of time on was "is China becoming more assertive?" The Americans generally answered that yes China is, while the Chinese all agreed they weren't. However I think this divide is largely due to how each side views the word assertive. I think the Chinese students view it with a negative connotation, therefore it would not apply to them. I also think they do no see how their military modernization, regardless of their intentions, appears inherently threatening to the US and the region.

There were so many great comments, I wish I could regurgitate them here, but there is not enough room so I wii have to end here!

Cheryl

To ‘Avoiding Entrapment’

While out at dinner with graduate students from the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) tonight, the world’s favorite dictator came up in conversation. Namely, the tradition of
memes begun under Kim Jong-il, entitled “Kim Jong-il looks at things,” which has been so nobly continued by Kim Jong-un, under the auspicious label “Kim Jong-un looks at things,” came up.

One of the SIIS students bemoaned the Chinese-North Korean relationship as an embarrassing nuisance.  We shared our concerns that North Korea’s precarious political leadership and penchant for provocations could lead to conflict on the peninsula.  In comparison, I observed, “The United States worries about entrapment by Japan in the same way China worries about entrapment by North Korea.”  In other words, both China and the United States could be pulled into armed conflict because of long-term allegiances and promises to two nations which recently increased in feisty-ness.  In a semi-solemn moment, we gladly raised our glasses to ‘Avoiding entrapment.’

If the students we ate dinner with tonight reflect the thinking of China’s next generation of diplomats, then there is hope China will at least refuse to be drawn into another peninsular debacle stemming from the Kim family’s hunger for power and perhaps even clamp down on the
North Korean regime’s erratic behavior.

Look on, little Kim.  So long as looking is all you do.

Benjamin J. Hayford

Chinese Television

Watching Chinese TV is an interesting experience. Unlike in the US where we have telenovela, every single channel is in Chinese. Not that I expect them to accommodate us, we don't have any Chinese channels in the US. But it really hits you how much you are cut off from the world without news when you get email that Thailand (where I am going after this trip) has declared martial law and absolutely no one on the trip knew.

My favorite Chinese show, hands down, is a show called something like "Sing With Me." Basically it's like The Voice except judges vote by deciding to sing along. It's all very dramatic when a judge pushes a button and a microphone comes swinging around and they burst out in song. The interesting part is how much they have taken form American TV vs how much they have added. They have shows that are literally The Voice China, but once they find a good idea they take it to a whole new level. It results in a whole group of American students talking about the great Chinese television rather than some of the less appealing aspects of China like extreme inequality or lack of human rights. Well played China, well played.

Caroline Rothrock

Tian'anmen Square

Tiananmen Square was an interesting experience. In America you hear about the event involving the students in the 1980s, however much of the population seems unaware that there were any deaths there just a few decades ago. Much like the other sites, we were treated like super stars. People came up to all of us to get pictures with the tall Americans, which is still a novelty to them.

One thing that surprised me about Tianamen was how open the area was. For some unknown reason I assumed the area was somewhat blocked off. Instead it was surrounded by rather busy roads. We were able to walk to the square from the Forbidden City and then right over to the national museum afterwards. Seeing the squares surroundings explains why that location was chosen. Not only was it right next to the historically important Forbidden City, but it was also directly in front of the People's Congress. We didn't get too close to the giant picture of Mao, but honestly we didn't need to. It was just a wall next to the street. For a place with such intense history the scenery was surprisingly underwhelming.

Caroline Rothrock