CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERIENCE
Would you like to go abroad?
Do you desire a cross-cultural experience?
While teaching in Shanghai, Tong ji University asked me to go to Urumqi (pronounced ooluumuchie) to teach 400 middle school teachers. I had never been to Urumqi before and thought this to be a great opportunity and a good way to spend the summer vacation.
I asked 10 of my students if they would like to join me and they were also excited. However, a university administrator informed me that I could not take the students even though it was during the summer and was not a school function or activity. Apparently the university would still be responsible for the students since they were with a teacher.
Such school responsibility would be absurd in the west.. When pressed further, the administrator explained that the people in Urumqi are dirty, backwards, criminals, uncivilized and do not speak good English. There was a genuine fear that harm would come to the students.
This made me think twice about my own safety.
During my time in Urumqi I found the people to be very clean, modern, very friendly and civilized and the middle school teachers English was better than that of my Shanghai University teachers. Plus, the people were not prejudiced and biased like the people in Shanghai.
I asked the host university in Urumqi if I could take ten of their students to Shanghai for 10 days. The response was simple and clear – “Definitely NOT! The Shanghai people are criminals, they will beat and rob you on the street. Our students would be in danger.”
I traveled to Kashi (Kashgar) and visited the 2,000 year old free market, originally a part of the Silk Trail. People from many neighboring countries gather there to do business. It is like stepping back in time. People are still riding donkeys and camels and selling them in the market.
China, one country, one people, many misconceptions and misunderstandings within its borders.
You can have a cross-cultural experience without ever leaving China. Many students from around China gather at Sun Yat-sen University in southern China and find life very different. The culture and language of Guangzhou is Cantonese, not Mandarin.
Tell us how university life in Guangzhou is different from life in your hometown.
I’ve been in Guangdong province for almost 5 years. In the early 3 years we studied in Zhuhai campus where we had precious memories. Undoubtedly, Zhuhai is a beautiful and quiet city. It has bright sunshine and colorful flowers. And life there seemed to be so easy. But for us who came from “outside”, it’s somewhat different.
The first and most important thing made us feel uncomfortable is the food. I’m from Chongqing, I can hardly live without spicy food for even one day. But the Cantonese food tastes so light, much less spicy. Then the language is different. We have our own dialect in my hometown, and I was ready to speak mandarin in Zhuhai, but that’s not enough. Sometimes only Cantonese worked well. The pace of life is also different. We walk and do things faster in my hometown, and everything seemed to be just one or half pace slower in Zhuhai. All these culture differences once made me feel very hard to live in that city, but now I found myself get used to all these and love these differences by heart. They make my life much more colorful. Imagine this is a city no different with my hometown, then how can I enjoy the delicious Cantonese food, the interesting Cantonese dialect and the leisurely Cantonese lifestyle? I appreciate the cross-culture experience.
I am from Guangdong and affected by Cantonese culture from little up, though the local culture of my hometown is a little different from Cantonese. So I can get used to the university life in Guangzhou easily. China is so vast that you can find many colorful cultures in different areas around the country. We are proud of the variety of cultures in our country. The cross-culture travel in China is very popular nowadays and it makes people understand each other well. As for the story, the teacher just ranked the students’ safety first with some misunderstandings. Judging something before you really experience it may not be proper, in my opinion. I haven’t travelled a lot in fact and most of the knowledge of my country is from watching and reading. The story reminds me that it’s not enough. Cross-culture experience sounds a good idea.
As what the professor have said, China is different from the western countries in the culture field. Even in China, there are many misconceptions and misunderstandings within its borders.
Take the northerners and southerners in China for instance. In my view, the northerners’ temper is straightforward and forthright. The southerners are opposite to the northerners, who are cautious and prudent. In the northerners’ eye, the southerners have the economic-minded and adapt to be in business.
Before entering in the Sun Yat-Sen University, I heard that the Guangzhou is very different from the northern cities. The culture and language of Guangzhou is Cantonese, not Mandarin. I can not understand this language. And I still heard that Guangzhou’s order is very confusing and there are many thieves and robbers in the street, In short, it is very insecure. However, since I have come to Guangzhou, I find Guangzhou is different from what I have heard. This city is beautiful and the order has been changed very much. I see a variety of culture blending here. I love Guangzhou!
IN SHANGHAI I WAS WARNED NOT TO GO TO HENAN BECAUSE THE HENAN PEOPLE ARE CHEATS AND CROOKS.
AFTER 3 YEARS IN XINYANG, HENAN, A VERY POOR AREA, I WAS NEVER CHEATED BUT THE LOCAL PEOPLE DID ENTER MY LOCKED COURTYARD TO STEAL MY TROPICAL BIRDS AND PLANTS. I LOVE XINYANG AND ITS PEOPLE.
I have been in Guangzhou for four and a half years. Looking back for my first days in Guangzhou, it’s surprising that I got custom to the city very quickly. It’s partly because the East campus of the SYSU is on the island which has a distance from the main city zone of Guangzhou, and the Cantonese students in the campus spoke Mandarin to me and I rarely felt uncomfortable in the campus. When I have to face the language discrimination from the senior citizen of the city, I can understand Cantonese. My home town is a inland city, before I came to Guangzhou, the violation condition is the worst thing I had heard about the city. Some said it’s more dangerous to cross the plaza of the train station of Guangzhou than to cross Baghdad. But I’m safe all these years and I think the unsafe is something exaggerating.
As I know, to some extent, people will have some different impression about people living in other district. But sometimes, these impressions existing in people’s mind are just shaped by rumor. They believe in anecdote other people tell them. But maybe they never saw and experienced that before. I grew up in Shaoguan, a northern city of Guangdong. Before I came to Guangzhou for my college life, I also view it as a city with lots of criminal, rob. At the very beginning, I didn’t like this city. But after few years living and study, I began to feel warm here.
In the campus, I have opportunity to know many friends from different provinces of China. Of course, we have different thought and habit in some aspect. But it doesn’t matter. We also have many things in common. I think SYSU is a place that can tolerate different culture. I am very lucky and glad to encounter all of my classmates and friends.
I am from a small villiage of Kaifeng City, Henan Province and I went to University in Shanghai City, then I came to Guangzhou half year ago. I know the great differences between big city and small villiage. I was well-prepared for the cross-culture. I always tell myself to follow the rules that “Do as Romans do”. I try myself to be water that can be shaped into any container. I am compatible with any environment.
I also fell across many friends that consider Henan people to be cheats or dirty or something else bad. In this circumstances, I usually asked them how many Henan people had they met. I admited that there are some uglyness and bad indeeds in Henanese, but you can’t judge a person ahead of time. Even I can’t change the image of Henan people, I can change the opinion of my friends on me.
Compare Shanghai with Guangzhou, Shanghai is a much cleaner city with faster pace of life. They are different, but I love them both.
Actually, I am from Guangdong province, people speak Cantonese in my hometown Zhanjiang as people in Guangzhou, but we have another dialect besides Cantonese, some people live in Zhanjiang speak the dialect of Leizhou. But since I am not good at the dialect of Leizhou, when I talk to those people, I have to speak Mandarin. In my middle school, some of my classmates spoke the dialect of Leizhou instead of Cantonese, so when we talked to each other, we spoke Mandarin. So I don’t feel a lot of difference about the life between Guangzhou and my hometown.
But it is true that we can have a cross-cultural experience without ever leaving China, there are so many different costumes.
I was born in Changsha and was affected by HUNAN culture.Ever before I came to Guangzhou,I have ever been studied in HUST in Wuhan for four years.However, I donot know Cantonese culture.China is so vast that colorful culture existence in different areas.If we donot have cross-culture experience,we could not understand the others who are from the other areas.In this mean,cross-culture sounds a good idea.
I’m from Hunan where life is very simple and comfortable. The rhythm of life is slow. While after coming here, I found a little uneasy. Before it’s common for you to get up at 10 or 11 am every morning and outside is quiet , but now people are very diligent and get up very early. They nearly begin to work around 6:00 am. Then I understand why Guangdong is richer than my province. No pains , no gains. The cultural around me push me get up earlier than before, and that’s nice. The former uncomfortable feelings is gone. The more I get to know about this city, the more I love it.
Actually,when I was the first time came to Guangzhou from Wuhan by train,my friends all told me that in the Guangzhou station there were many treaters and robbers and they told me must be careful.But things are always be different from our thinking.I was helped by an Cantonese in the train.She sent me to my brother’s house.Of couse,I was not being treated or robbed during the travelling,and what I was received is the help from an Cantonese or the pure love from the other people.
Studying in Guangzhou really give me a shock.
Students in this university are always busy and sometimes I don’t know what are they busy for.Maybe they all have their business to run,but in WHUT,an university located in Wuhan,the students are always being together. Sometimes someone also have the business to run and the person will tell you he will leave for sometime.In Wuhan,I can know what are going on with others,but in Guangzhou,I am confuse with this.
There is a high value on money in this university.Once the teacher asked me to do something for him.I was great to do it.But after I finished the work,he give me some money for reward.You know this made me unhappy because in my mind it’s my duty to do something for the teacher.In Wuhan,this won’t happen in Wuhan with exception of the post-graduate in Wuhan.
Another case in point is money is sometimes among the students.If you help some of your classmates,he/she will give some money back without your request.Of course this is the cultrue in Guangzhou and the classmates can’t change it.In WHUT,it’s OK if you help others.And we all felt happy to help others without money.
Democracy is always happened in this university.The chairman of the student union is elected by the students themselves but not like WHUT which is elected by the teacher.We can arrange our spare time without the interruption of the teacher but in WHUT you must go to bed before 11:00pm because the teacher will cut off the electricity.If the class want to hold a party the monitor must take everyone’s opinion into account but in Wuhan if most of the students want to hold a party the others will go to the party without excuse.But things are always have two sides.Sometimes you may find it difficult to coordinate all the opinions,it is difficult to do something.In Wuhan because we studied together and we played together, democracy is not important because we will take all the opinions into account in our mind.So sometimes we found it was easy to hold a party or other things.
After all,I know that if I cann’t change the world,what I can do is to fit in the need of the world.Thanks god,everything is good for me in this university.Maybe some of my opinions are nor proper to some extext,but this is my truely feeling.
I was born in Guangdong and didn’t have too much feeling about the differences. I lived in school when I was a junior high school student. Though my roommates in my dormitory of university came from different places at all, we got well with each other. I thought the most difference was our habit on food. It was so wonderful that we could share our special food in our hometowns.
i’ve almost stayed in Hubei province for 22 years,born in Yichang and spent most of my happy time there, then studyed in Wuhan for four years.Nearly all i met with in my daily life was about Hubei,the culture,the tradition ,dialect and so on.i never thought about that i would come to Guangzhou oneday,not to mention to study here.Actually all the impression i’ve got on Guangzhou before was not that good,but only after spending half year here,i’ve totally changed my view.i want to emphasis the fact that the service industry develops very well,especially when compared with the level of service in Wuhan.what’s more,the students here are more initiative and active,which indeed has inspired me to move on and make progress everyday.In a word,i really enjoy myself here in Guangzhou.
My hometown is a inland city, which is famous as peony flowers. So I do think that my hometown is a beautyful city and a good touring city. Being different from my hometown, guangzhou is a international metropolis which belongs to coastal region. And guangzhou is known as its flourishing, so it is a good place to plunge into the commercial sea engaging in your business career.
Although I was born in Guangdong province, yet I was raised up in the Chaoshan culture, which is quite different from the Lingnan culture. We have our own dialect, habits and culture. Before coming to Guangzhou, my mother told me that Guangzhou was a insecure city full of thieves and robbers, besides people there were snobbish and unfriendly to out comers. However, when I came to Guangzhou with a cautious mind, I found out what my mother told me was an misunderstanding. People here are generally friendly and willing to help; they have natural business sense instead of snobbishness; I haven’t lost anything for the past 2.5 years. Besides, I discovered that Guangzhou is a open-minded city which enables various kind of cultures blend together, the Cantonese culture, the mandarin culture, the muslin culture and the western culture. It’s a fascinating city. Although I still have difficulty of speaking Cantonese, however I’ve already fell in love with this city.
I am local people of Guangzhou. Maybe I have not the qualification to respond this thread on the difference between Guangzhou and my hometown. But I just want to say something that when I enter into sysu as if leaving Guangzhou and going to other parts of China. Why? In campus, there are few opportunities for me to speak in catonese, because most students speak mandarin, even that meeting another student from Guangzhou in campus is a marvel and through the communication with others, I can extend my vision about what the cultures, mores, livings and values in other regions of China. On some extent, despite as a native, school is a wonderful approach for me to comprehend other cultures mores and thoughts. As to me, it is a center for cross-culture here.
I have been in Guangdong for more than half year.The most intriguing problem for me is that I can not understand and speak Cantonese.I am often feel lost or embarassed when others talking in Cantonese before me.
And secondly,In south China,rice is the staple food,but in my hometown we eat flour everyday.
In Guangdong ,it’s very humid from April to October.I hate such weather.
But almost 1 year has gone,I feel i began to love Guangdong gradually.
I love China but I also like the other countries on the earth.
Well, my hometown is Guangxi, a neighbor of Guangdong’s. I didn’t understand Cantonese before. However, it can be learned easily for me, and I can speak fluent Cantonese now. Maybe because Guangxi and Guangdong have many similarities, I adapted quickly to this new environment.
I was born and raised up in Shantou, which locates in the east of Guangdong Province. In Chaoshan Area, we have our own culture. We use the dialect which is quite different from Cantonese and mandarin but has more similarity to the dialect used in Fujian Province. so, although I am a Cantonese, I can hardly speak Cantonese. Young people from all over the province may choose Guangzhou city to open up their career and future life, and various kind of cultures get together here hamoniously. I have come to Guangzhou for more than two years. I can feel the differences between the cultures of Chaoshan and Lingnan, however, I enjoy my life in Guangzhou and take it as my second hometown.
When I first came to Guangzhou several years ago, I was tagged as the one of the “northernesses”, which confused me quite a lot. I came from Fujian province, which is in the southeast of China, so how can I come from the “north”?
Then I realized that in their(Cantonese) eyes, north and south are not divided by the Qin mountain-Huai River, but by the boundary of Guangdong Province. Anyone who came from provinces like Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi(north of Guangdong) are considered northerness, not to mention Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang, etc.. Only people who were born in Hainan and Guangdong are those who come from the “South”.
After that, I learned to get used to it.
After graduating from college, I chose to Thailand with a few friends to mark the four-year time. May be due to Thailand close to China and influenced deeply by Chinese culture, I did not have much feel the cultural differences. Thai people are very kind-hearted, because they believe in Buddhism. I clearly remember them when they meet their palms together. As long as into the room, whether it is a hotel or supermarket, must take off your shoes. I have asked why? They said that because each room has dedicated Buddha statues, the room must be kept clean. Finally, I want to say By the way, Thailand is very beautiful, very worthwhile vacation.
I was born and grew up in Tangshan, Hebei province. It’s an industrial city but the air is much better that of in Guangzhou where I’m living. To most people, Tangshan is well known because of the dissolving earthquake 34 years ago. Tangshan people rebuilt their home with the help from all over the country. That’s why the local people are very friendly and grateful to others. Tangshan has another name ‘Phoenix City’ originated from an ancient fairy tale. Phoenix which is a fairy bird survived in flames has been the symbol of the city which also survived the earthquake. And when people talked about the city, they always call it ‘The New Tangshan’. People there lead a happy life in peace.
Comparing with Tangshan, Guangzhou is a multi-outlet city where I’ve been for nearly 5 years. With the development of economy, people here are very open-minded, smart and good at business. Before I came here, some of my elders and friends told me that people in Guangzhou are prejudiced and biased. Now I think that it’s a little exaggerated.
Maybe because of the increasing external population, the public security has always been a big problem of Guangzhou though it has improved a lot these years. What really impresses me is the Guangdong food here, countless and delicate. I have to say, the local people really know how to enjoy life in a society with fast rhythm. Maybe you don’t believe that, but one important reason that makes me like Guangzhou is that its language which I don’t understand very well. People stick to speaking Cantonese to maintain their own culture, from where I can figure out the main reason of their success in economy. They know what to do and how to do without going with the stream.
I have been in Guangzhou for less than year. However, I enjoy life and attract deeply by Cantonese and the culture here. It is different from my former life. People are low-pitched and polite. When you go shopping, sellers are so warm. You will never be looked down upon no matter what you wear. Furthermore, everybody is hardworking and ready to learn new knowledge. They still know how to arrange their life meaningfully. I love Guangzhou.
There are really some differences between my hometown and Guangzhou. The first one is that people in Guangzhou take shower every day regardless of the weather. In my hometown, people only do that in the mid-summer because of the sweat. In winter, we nearly take shower once a week. The second one is that people in Guangzhou rarely eat spicy food. But the people from my hometown cannot live without pimiento.
The above two differences are just some examples. In reality, there are still a lot. People from different areas have their own customs and traditions, so it is not proper to judge others in the view of your own.
I think the most obvious difference is that the people here will speak the native language first, not mandarin. Whenever you go out for shopping or eating, the server always receive you by the native language. The first time I am very excited because that is the first time someone speak native language to me, but later I find it is not so comfortable because I can’t understand what they are saying totally. It makes me feel lonely as a vagrant.
Because I stay in school at the most time, it is not different too much to me. Maybe some day when I graduate from the school, I will find more difference.
I envy you because you can travel around,have so interesting experiences.It’is true that there exist misunderstanding between different areas in china,let alone misunderstanding between countries.Recently,I heard a lecture which told by a chinese news anchor in Yale University,and he said something that I think it make sense,he said if you really want to understand china,please don’t through medium,what you should do is just to go to china,and know china by yourself,because that is real china.
Yes, China is a multi-ethnic country. You can have a cross-cultural experience without ever leaving China. Different regions have different cultures, many parts of western China are lagging behind and some of them are very poor, while most parts of eastern China are very rich. It is very different in two places, and they do not understand each other.So There are some misunderstandings between them. This phenomenon is a common thing in a multi-ethnic country. I think the only way to make both sides understand is education