Shanghai

Shanghai

They say that Shanghai is the Paris of the East.  In reality, however, New York is probably a better comparison.  Shanghai has many of the characteristics we often attribute to the Big Apple. The skyscraper office buildings of the Pudong reminiscent of Wall Street, flashing lights and jumbo screens like Times Square, the high-end shopping on Nanjing Street you might find on 5th Avenue, and even a good touch of historical buildings in the Bund to even it out. The streets around the Bund were packed with excited Chinese and foreigners enjoying the cool air along the river.  A short boat cruise on the Huang Pu River between the Pudong District and the Bund gave us incredible views of both areas, including the Pearl Tower, the convention center, and the nearly completed Shanghai Tower, which will be the tallest building in China.  We have all been trying to decide on our favorite city in China now that we have had a good taste of three very distinct areas.  Each city has its own unique character that has made it a great place to visit.  Beijing with its ancient and political history and great markets, Chengdu with the laid-back lifestyle and surrounding rural communities, and Shanghai with its impressive skyline.

Shanghai seems like the center of the world with its vast blend of eclectic flavors, all mixing to give an incredible experience.  The city has so much to offer and beckons to all throughout the world to join its blend of nations.  The majority of foreigners you see around the streets of Shanghai don't appear to be the usual tourists like you find in Beijing or even Chengdu.  The foreigners in Shanghai don't seem out of place at all. They appear to belong there, an integral part of the city's character. These foreigners are businesspeople or ex patriots who have claimed Shanghai as a new or second home. The city has enveloped them and made them its own.  This is Shanghai, its beauty, and its character.  A place everyone should experience, because seeing could never be enough.

Sean Larsen
26 May 2014

Soft Power

Soft Power in China

For this, my final blog post, I want to look back over the entire three weeks to discuss our experiences directly related to the Chinese and especially our interaction with the Chinese students at the various universities and institutes we attended. The first thing I noticed about the Chinese is how happy they all seem to be.  Aside from their crazy, aggressive driving, they are very friendly to one another and to foreigners.  Especially in cities like Shanghai, Chinese and foreigners seem to coexist and blend well together.

One of the greatest experiences while in China was the opportunities we had to converse with the Chinese students at their school or those who came on the daily excursions with us. Each had a unique life story and interesting views concerning their country, it's past, and the current and future relationship between the United States and China.  In general, after speaking with the students, I felt optimistic about the future relations of our countries.  Most of the Chinese youth speak English very well, watch American TV shows, play American sports, even eat American food. Most have a great desire to visit the US, and most probably will at some point in their lives.  They mostly have favorable views towards the US, even if they don't totally agree with our government.  They know, as we do concerning them, that the youth of today see things very differently than our leaders.  I have hope that the ability of the youth to look past differences and their desire to continue cultural exchange may be what keeps the partnership between our nations.

Sean Larsen
3 June 2014

Word of the Day: China Dream (中国梦)

What is the word? No, in China, “the bird” is not the word.* “China dream” is the word in China today.  Echoed in the media, on screens in Tiananmen Square, in Ministry of Foreign Affairs press briefings, in lectures, in children’s art displays at local museums, in posters hanging in hotel lobbies or fences surrounding construction sites, the message rings clear: “China dream” is here to stay.  The scions of the national vision are none other than the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). 

Propaganda includes variances of “China dream,” including “the people’s dream” and “my dream,” effectively tying society and the individual together into one sweeping theme sponsored by a CPC-led nationalist narrative.
The poet Li Bai (李白) declared, “I will mount a long wind some day and break the heavy waves. (长风破浪会有时， 直挂云帆济沧海。)” President Xi Jinping has referenced the line in an effort to inspire the Chinese people to pursue the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation (Liu 2014).

A variety of opinions exist as to what exactly the China dream is and signifies. This week I asked a municipal bureaucrat in Shanghai what he thought of the China dream. “It’s critical,” he replied. “If a country has no dream, then it doesn’t exist.”

When asked whether the China dream campaign is mere rhetoric or will translate into tangible derivatives, one American diplomat smiled wryly. The diplomat went on to explain that, unlike in the U.S. where policy-makers write and pass detailed, down-in-the-weeds legislation before implementation, in China policy-makers are prone to unveil a sweeping vision and then go on to define the program along the way.

Although there can be no doubt the China dream is sweeping China, what deliverables will result in businesses, communities, schools, and elsewhere is still unknown.

Benjamin J. Hayford

Overview

30 June 2014 

I joined this group at the last minute, and I am so glad that I did. Before this trip, I was asked if I had any career interests in China, and the answer was no. After this trip, the answer is a definite yes. Before joining the study abroad, I never thought that I would spend so much time in China, or that I would know so much about the country.

I wish that every Bush School student could have this same experience. I have learned so much over the past three weeks. The lectures allowed us to understand the social and historical context of Chinese foreign policy, and the interaction with Chinese students and scholars was invaluable; the Chinese students gave us real insight into distinct perspectives and reminded us that even though we live half a world apart, we are essentially the same.

I feel that this trip was especially enriching for me, an IDEP student, since I have never studied China academically. Most of what I knew about Chinese foreign policy and Sino-US relations before this trip came from various news outlets and publications. This made me quiet in our discussion based lectures, since I was constantly absorbing new information. I am heading back to the United States with half of a notebook filled with notes from our lectures.

I am so grateful for this experience, and I look forward to coming back to China many times in the future.

- Andrea

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