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 think people from all around China is the same basically, maybe there are a little differences. Yes the difference of dialect is a big phenomenon. People just don’t want to go far away from their homeland, just a few people like adventure. So I think the universities in China just want their students to be safe no matter the are in the school or in vocation.
I was born in Hunan province, and spent my childhood in both Hunan and Guizhou province. And then, I enjoyed my college life in Inner Mongolia University. Now, I live in Guangzhou. There are many misconceptions and misunderstandings relating to culture encountered my life. When the first time I came to Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, somebody told me: “I know your hometown. It is a beautiful place. And I like Liu Sanjie. I will come to Guangxi if I could.” (He had confused the Guizhou province with Guilin city which is the capital of Guangxi province.) And the locals don’t like the southern residents. They considered the south people as wild, rude, tricky and tactful guys. Of course, the similar things also appeared in Guangzhou city. When I became a post-graduate of Sun Yat-sen University, some classmates asked me it whether or not that the Inner Mongolian natives only ate meat and none vegetables and always directly drunk milk from a milk cow, that I lived there as the natives just washed themselves once several months, that the residents were all very tall, fat, and strong, that the students there always rode horses to school, … There are often somebody asked such questions, at last, I really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Speak to the life in Guangzhou, the impressing thing was that the inhabitants are so highly confident and blind proud that they couldn’t accept and receive other places as the significant parts of the real world. In their eyes, the whole real world was the place where they lived and worked for a long time. All other people and things in other places were like stories which had nothing to do with them. They heard of them from television, radio, computer, and some travelers. Sometimes they took some trips to somewhere, but they just had a quick look and then got back home. Actually, they got nothing or little things. So, no wonder they misunderstood the natives and their lives beyond Guangdong province.
My hometown is a small city of Guangxi province, before I went to HuaZhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, I felt nervous because I never left my hometown so far. And I didn’t hear about anyhing cross-culture of Wuhan until I live in that city. But I know exactly the terrible weather of Wuhan,very cold in winter, very hot in summer. After sever monthes since I began learning in Wuhan,I could get used to living in this city. And I felt about the cross-culture of Wuhan.Maybe because of its weather , I fould that some of Wuhaner were bad-tempered, impetuous. But I really loved this city after I left, accurately, I love my university in which I had spend 4 years of my life and met my boyfriend. And in Wuhan, I finally saw snow,what I had dreamd for twenty years. Then after I graduated from HUST, I went to Guangzhou and studied in Sun Yat-sen University. Because Guangzhou is not far away from my hometown,I don’t feel any strange. But I felt the different between Wuhan and Guangzhou. In SYSU, all classmates of our Lingnan college are very kind. And most of them are very positively. In particular, since I had been in Wuhan, I loved piguancy food.
I was born in Guangdong Province,but not speak Cantonese.When I entered the university in Guangzhou I felt it totally different from my hometown. In my hometown,the little city ,we live a leisurely life. We can go home to have lunch and have a rest at noon because the home is not far from the workplace.However,people in Guangzhou seems like the non-stop machine. They can rush from one place to another and never feel tired.
In my former university the culture and language is almost Cantonese because most of the students there are Cantonese.Nevertheless,I met students from all around China in Sun Yat-sen University.I don’t think the culture and language here is Cantonese. Most of the time in my former university we spoke Cantonese but in Sun Yat-sen University we mainly speak Mandarin.Sometimes when I chatted with my classmates we found that we had different opinions on the same thing.The communication is very interesting and I learned a lot from it.
I always expect that I can travel to lots of foreign countries. I come from a small city where is a little different from Guangzhou. It is a clean and peaceful place, where people live a slow and pleasant life. That may be the only difference between my hometown and Guangzhou, because my hometown is just about 100km far away from here. The culture and language of my hometown is also Cantonese, not Mandarin, so when I reach Sun Yat-sen University I am used to living here easily.
A cross-cultural experience is much attractive to me, and also I am very luck to spend my graduate life in university of Guangzhou and to spend my college life in Xi’an which is the capital of Shanxi Province, so I have experienced three kinds of life style. Comparing these three life styles from several aspects: First is the language, my hometown was in Hunan in my hometown, one city will have many kinds of dialects. People from the west of the city may not be able to understand what the people are saying who from the east of the city; while in Guangdong they have the same and popular dialect called Cantonese, no matter people from which city of Guangdong Province except few cities; in Shaanxi many local people do not how to speak dialect, they learn Mandarin since they were little children. Second is the food, in my hometown we really love the spicy food, without chili in dishes we can not eat; the taste of the most food especially the dishes of Guangdong is so light to me, everyday I can only eat the dishes chose to our hometown; while in Shaanxi their food categories are so many, and also there are many features snacks which are popular with girls. Third is the attitude to women’s stature, my hometown’s is the same with Shaanxi’s, people especially elders do not like women who are too skinny, they think it is not healthy; however, when you walk around the streets of Guangzhou, you will find the most local women is thinner than normal. I once asked my classmate who is a local why, she told me that people belong to Guangzhou think women should be in that status, or will be not beautiful. Their parents limit their amounts of food. There are so many differences between this three place’s life style.
as i live in the south of Jiangxi province, where is just the boundary of this two provinces, i feel few difference between my hometown and GuangZhou. However, there still exist something differences. first of all, of course comes to the language. there are many dialects in china. the language in our howntown is different from Cantonese. however, there are some words which are the same. secondly, the eating habit is different, we eat very spicy food in our hometown, while sweet food are more common in Guangzhou. then there are some different in our culture especially the customs in special days like the do and dont in spring festival and other chinese traditional festivals.
I was born in Guangxi Province, graduated from college before I had to stay in Guangxi.Now I, in Guangdong, a graduate student.Guangxi and Guangdong customs on the similarities are many, and climate are almost identical, so here I quickly adapted.Guangdong’s economy, education and other more developed than which in Guangxi, people’s standard of living higher, and the concept is also open more.
I was born in the east of Guang Dong. Before I go to Sun Yat-sen University, I haven’t speak Cantonese. I find that the life in Canton is full of pressure, which is totally different from my hometown. There are various people living in Guang Zhou, including the students in Sun Yat-sen university, all of whom have a common characteristics—rushing. They rush, for everything. It seems like that they all hold the view that time is so limited that we should make full use of every single minute, or even second. I think I have got used to the life style.
In addition, in Sun Yat-sen U, it seems that one could enjoy liberty of opinion more easily, comparing with the other cities, the other Universities I have gone to.
I am from Jiujiang, a beautiful city in Jiangxi province. Although it is not far away from here, but there are many differences between these two cities. For example, the languages in the two districts are different. It’s troublesome for me to understand the Cantonese. And food here is not to my taste. All things are sweet, so sad when I can’t find some spicy food. To be honest, I don’t like life here, crowded and noisy. The atmosphere is also not so clear.
I come from Shanxi province, in the north of China. My undergraduate school is also in Shanxi, It’s the first time I am from home so far, when I came to Guangzhou last year, I ‘m not quite used to the hot weather, and the food. We always eat noodles, rarely eat rice, so at the early days I hate this place very much, I didn’t like the food especially the sweet stuff and the whole day rice.
Gradually I adapt to the climate, the eating habits .but at the same time, I find the competition pressure is very big, the interpersonal relationship is quite indifferent, they’re all independent, I have never met this case maybe because I come from a underdeveloped city. It may have some positive influences to our growth-up, we can improve our individuality, increasing our competitive sense etc.
Since China is a big nation, combining of 56 peoples, and its territory is vast, different places have their own customs and ways of behavior. I can’t agree with what the author said ‘You can have a cross-cultural experience without leaving China.’ any more. Therefore, people in one place may have preconceptions towards those in other places, while these preconceptions are often too misunderstanding. This reminds us that do not judge anything until you have experienced it. If you want to find out what people in other provinces look like, just go there and find it on your own. And I really, really would like to travel around China and experience different life style and customs, and I think it will be an amazing thing; however, I have not enough money and time. But I won’t give up, and I think I can achieve my dreams step by step.
I was born and raised in the west of Guangdong province, and I speak Cantonese in my hometown instead of Mandarin. And I think that Guangdong is quite different from the provinces in northern China, both in language and life style, and sometimes there are some conflicts due to different cultures. But I believe that those conflicts are normal in an open country, but we have to decrease the frequencies, and make people understand and respect each other, trying to build a harmonious society together.
My hometown is Guizhou Province,and I graduated from Wuhan University,I feel there are many differences of my university life between Guangzhou and Wuhan.For example,Many people use Cantonese in Guangzhou, which makes me always encounter a little trouble when communication with others,but in Wuhan this situation will not happen. In addition, you will find the fast rhythm of life in Guangzhou but Wuhan is relatively slow.Last but not least,Guangzhou is a developed city with a very high price levels,however,Wuhan’s price level is much lower, and then students in Wuhan will have much smaller pressure.
Different country has different culture. And different area has different culture too. I come from the city of Maoming which is one of the cities of Guangdong province. I came to Guangzhou five years ago. Guangzhou is a modern city so it is open. In my colleague time I communicated with the friends who come from all around China even all over the world. For example the classmates who come from the Hui do not eat pork and celebrate the New Year. I like traveling and I want to know different culture. I hope that I have the opportunity to go aboard.
I am from Shantou, a city which is in the southeastern of Guangdong Province. We speak not Cantonese, even not Mandarin. The language spoken in our city is Chaoshan dialect, one language that is similar with Minnan dialect, which is spoken in Taiwan and some cities of Fujian.
Besides the different languages, Shantou has a culture which is totally different from Guangzhou. In Shantou, we treat family as the most important thing. We care about relationships with our relatives, our friends. There are some special festivals on which we invite friends to dinner at home. But in Guangzhou, I think people now don’t take these traditional things serious. They go travelling in the spring festival rather than visiting friends. Compared with Shantou, I think Guangzhou is a much more modern city, and people in such a modern city are too busy to do things we do in Shantou.
And misunderstanding referred in the article really exists around me. When my mother calls me, she always tells me not to go out of the campus by myself because Guangzhou is such a dangerous city filled with robbers and criminals. But you know, my mother even hasn’t been to Guangzhou. Maybe the negative news should be blamed for the misunderstanding.
May be because I am born and grew up in Guangzhou City,so I did not feel the big differents between my hometown”Panyu” and Guangzhou.But actually, I can still notice something dissimilar.For insurance,Panyu is much more peaceful and quiter.There are less cars,people,buildinds and stress .As a result,the air is much fresher and clear.Someone like living in big cities,but I prefer little town.
I am from Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province. Unlike Guangzhou-a city in the pearl river delta, Zhanjiang lies in the west of Guangdong and seen as a tourism city rather than an industry one since it is bounded on three sides by the sea and boasts the good air quality and well-preserved natural landscape. Though Cantonese is also spoken there in downtown, we have our own dialect wide spread in the rural villages. In a whole, people in Zhanjiang live a more peaceful or even self-sufficient life with a relatively slow pace. Yet more and more young people have been immigrating to Guangzhou or other cities in Peal River Delta for job opportunitiesm, but I more miss the coastal life in my hometown
There may be some different habitates,customs,recognizations in differet places. For example ,as i know that people in the north whose main food is wheat,while the west eats rice everyday.As i was young,some people from henan province live next to us and they work here in transilation.my father teld to keep a disstance from those people they are wild.When i grow up,I studied in Wuhan city.I worked as a tutor in he henan family who are working in wuhan city.they treat me very well and I don’t have a litte felling that they are wild.what make me surprising is that the student told me that they henan people have a bad bad ruputation for stealing.From his words ,I feel he is guilt. why people think that henan people haven’t a good habit,even henan’s child have this view.In my opinion ,The media play a very important role in it . I think the henan people is not wild ,and there is just a very few of them has do some thing which harms the henan people’s reputation ,while the media grabs it and zoom it to make it news.So I think the most important reason why people has mistake with each other is that the media zoom the defect of some people in other place and atack to each other.
if i want to change this situation ,the government should play a guiding role and avoid false reporting.
My hometown is a county town in Hezhou,in the eastern of Guangxi province,whose population is around one million.There is not many factories and companies,and the economy is backward relatively,but the people there are optimist and simple. My mother is a Hakka resident and my father is a local Resident,so the local curture and Hakka curture both have a influence on me.
When I came to this city, my first impression of Guangzhou is that the weather is hotter than my hometown and the street is crowded here,but the economy of the city is very developped and there is subway I have never seen before. People in Guangzhou is pragmatic , that is why most of them are good at being in business.
I grew up in Hunan province,then I went to Beijing to study,and now I am studying in Sun Yat-sen University in southern China.I still remember the first day I went to Beijing and saw my roommates.Six of us in the same dorm come from different provinces.When I told them my hometown is in south of Hunan province.One of my roommates who from Liaoning province asked me”Are all the Southerners(she called me southerner)smart to make money?…”In her opinion,the Southerners are some unreliable and cheat each other and also know how to make money.When I came home saw my highschool classmates,some of them asked me if the Northerners(now we call them Northerners)are all forthright and everyone are tall and strong.Sometimes it is very hard for me to explain to them.Just as my roommate said her grandfather told her about the southerners’s story.It is also ture there are still some borders in China.Just as chairman Mao said “There is no investigation, no right to speak!”.So if you want to understand local culture,just go and investigate yourself!
I come from Henan province,it is in the middle of china .Now I am in Guangzhou, This is my first study far away from my hometown.at first ,I can’t adapt to it.there many differeces from my homtown. In my province we almost eat cooked wheaten food,and we get up at about 7:00 in the moring ,go to sleep at about 10:30 in the night. but here we eat rice ,and the steamed bun is sweet.when the sun is rising high in the sky ,we still sleep in the bed .because weather here make me want to sleep late.all these are differece in lifestyle .
Besides the metioned differnces,there are other differences between Henan and Guangzhou,Before I came here ,I thought Cantonese are cold ,but when I am here , I find they are warmful and they are very polite,they also smart,they know how to save money ,and they don’t arrogant. usually they are loose ,but when there are important thing,they will pa more attention and make you surpurise.this the impression I have .
If you never have been in one place ,please don’t comment it by listening from others.only you acknowledge it by yourself you can really know it.
I come from a small city of Hunan province and I spent four years in Changsha which is the capital of Hunan province. When I came to Zhuangzhou, I found that there are much different from Hunan and Guangdong.
1.first of all, Cantonese cuisine is light, but as we all know, the feature of Hunan cuisine is spicy, almost all Hunan people is “No hot unhappy”.
2.I also find that the language of Guangzhou is Cantonese, people from different cities of Zhuangdong can communicate in dialect. But there are many diferent dialect in Hunan. When I was undergraduate, I have two roommates come from the other cities of Hunan, I totally did not understand what they were saying when the telephone their parents.
3.furthermore, people in Guangzhou pay much attention to food. They concern food nutrition very much. But people in Hunan attach importance to entertainment. They concern their clothes, their free time activities. Changsha is also called “Star City of Entertainment”.
I come from Maoming city, a small city which lies in the west of Guangdong Province. Therefore, there is little difference between my hometown and Guangzhou. Guangdong has the largest GDP in China, and Guangzhou is the third biggest city in China. It offers a lot of opportunities for finding a good job. Meanwhile, many students find that it is not easy to adapt to the life in other Province. So many students choose to study in a university who lies in Guangzhou.
University life in Guangzhou is very busy. As a postgraduate student, we cherish the two years in campus. My classmates spend most of their time in doing homework, reading lots of books about our major, finding a internship in company. To be contrast, life in my hometown is easygoing, people go to sleep and get up much earlier than Guangzhou.
Different people want to have different way of life. Therefore, different places have different culture. I am looking forward to paying a visit to a foreign country to enjoy another kind of life and culture.
I grew up in a small village in Shandong Province.I spent my college life in Changchun,the capital city of Jilin province.Last year I came here to beggin my postgraduate life.There ara some differeces between the lives in Guangzhou and my hometown.In my home town,people are all farmers.There are no tall buildings ,no wide roads,no trains and even no large supermarkets.There are not so many cars in my hometown as in Guangzhou,either.While in Guangzhou,there are many conviniences.Many cars,supermakets,dress stores,tall buidings are here.Those give me a different feeling to live here.But there is a same point that people are deligent and friendly.
China’s big. City born and city bred, I’ve migrated a lot. Every city that I’ve stayed is not alike in its temperament and that of this citizen’s value and way of life differs. The four cities I’ve stayed vary greatly. Ji’An’s modest and simple, while Huizhou’s elegantly at ease; Beijing’s an erudite museum, and Guangzhou’s a fruit stand peddler.
And, migrants do fly back. Every time I made a visit back to my hometown (Ji’an), I’d be finding changes and remains that delight me. They may well be grandma-made forever-yummy minced chilly in the jar that spices me up always, local citizen’s idyllic pace of living that can be felt at their constant pauses in wandering and lively little chats, countless varieties of choice in items in supermarkets of all sorts. It’d forever be my hometown, an amiable senior friend that I can turn to for a comfort at any time. But Guangzhou, where I stay now, is more likely to be a young soul mate of mine. Talking about this city, streams of such stuff would pop out of my mind as HK-adjacent, shopping bliss, earliest trading port of china, and its profound food culture. Amid all these, I’ve experience a higher pace of living, have been more overwhelmed in an air of commerce, enjoyed a considerable amount of amenities that a modernized city would offer. And virtually none of these would be there in my hometown. Though different, I love them both.
I live in Foshan, a city near guangzhou.Differences between these two cities are simplely not so much. We share the basic culture. If it doesn’t have any, well, the difference of dialect. But in face we all can speak Cantonese.
In my domintary, my roommates come from different parts of China.I find that although we share the same chinese culture basically,we still have something called culture shock.They don’t quite adapt to the diet here.In Guangdong,we seldom eat noodles.But my roommates find it afflictive to eat rice everyday,and always say that noodles in Guangdong are terroble.They say that Guangzhou is too hot,and sometimes too humid,which they also think it’s hard to bear it.
There’s no standard criterion about the culture.What we need to do is to look into it, with inclusiveness and criticalness,learning how it comes into being.
No other countries have more races than China.That is one of the important reasons why I love China so much.We can experience different cultures without going overseas wich may be more dangeous and costly.
Fifty-six races in all,unbelieveable!And we live harmoniously with each other. Of course there exists bias and misunderstandings between races.Probablely because China is a huge country and lack of balance in economy development,therefore,cross-cultural communications maybe be difficult. Fortunately,it’s changing! The centual government has make great endeavours to enhance communications among diverse cultures,for example,the government invested billions of RMB to build Qinghai to Tibet railway to stimulate the links between western places and inland.
I would be very exiced if I could go to Urumqi.I am a person who likes to experience different life style.I came from Jiangsu Province and lived there for my first 20 years,and I went to Zhejiang Province for my university life.Now I’m in Guangzhou Province for my postgraduate education.I lead a happy life in each place.Different cultures broad my life and it is surely benifitial troughout my life!
I was born in a small country in Shandong province. I spent my college life in Haikou, the capital of Hainan province. When I first arrived in Hainan University, I found so many people wearing a pair of sandals, which is different from my hometown. Later on, through the communication with the local classmates, there is a phenomenon that most of the men of Hainan are a bit machismo and slack during their daily lives. Besides, the people of Hainan usually eat insipid food especially be fond of the sweet food, which is not my taste. In addition, when the two people of Hainan have a word to each other, they usually talk loudly; if you are not aware of the customs you may in mistake for that they are having words with each other. Generally speaking, the people of Hainan are friendly. When I got Guangzhou, my postgraduate school—Sun Yat-sen University, the biggest difference I feel is the emphasis towards the morning tea, sometimes they even eat the morning tea till the noon- the time for lunch. In summary, I adapt the life in Guangzhou.
I was born in Guizhou province, Guiyang is the capital, it’s a very very beautiful city, it has many mountains and rivers, the air is very fresh, the climate is very suit for living. I think Guiyang and Guangzhou has two different aspects.
Firstly, Guangzhou’s climate is hot and humid, the food is greasy, these tend to make the body uncomfortable, then it will affects the mood. people from Guangzhou are impatient. on the contrary, people form Guiyang are all slowcoach and very leisurely.
Secondly, although Guangzhou’s economy is Prosperous, their thought is very conservative and traditional. Guiyang just be on the contrary.
Anyway, Guangzhou is a place fit for the youth to strive, while Guizhou is a good place for people relax themselves.
Guangzhou is a prosperous city of the South, and I am from the north of the small city.It makes me feel really a big difference between North and South. The first, people’s way of thinking is different: northerners are more concerned about the overall situation;southers pay relatively great attention to detail,and more realistic.The pace of life in the South is significantly faster than the north, and the quality of life is poor:severe environmental pollution, traffic jams, more hot and humid climate,and so on. However, when I come to sun-yat sen university ,the most satisfying thing is the great studying atmosphere.
My hometown is Guangdong JieYang.People there like doing business very much!They admire people who have business brain and encourage their child to learn business.The generation of our parents is still traditional on marriage and behavior and many other things,so they don’t like people from other places.But they are very kind and friendly to their relatives and friends.
Guangdong province is a strange place for me until last may. From May to August of last year, I came to Foshan, a city of Guangdong, to have avocation job there. The first important thing I have to fit in with this strange place is the weather here. It is so hot and so wet. At that time, it rained everyday. I almost can not stand. But later I was suit to the weather here. So when I reached Guangzhou, the weather is not a problem for me. And second problem is language. The local language of Guangzhou is so difficult to understand. One day, when I bought things in a supermarket, an old lady came to need my help, but unfortunately, I can not understand her at all. So I had no idea. Sometimes it takes some troubles for me to communicating with others. So the culture here is a wholly new one for me. Now I am studying the local language here, I hope I can know this city better by doing this.
My hometown is Xi’an (city), the capital city of Shanxi Province. It has long history including 16 dynasties. People of the city are friendly and kingly to many foreigners because we know that what we do is the window of foreigners understanding the china. Now, I come to the Guangzhou city for university. I feel that people in this city are same to my country-fellow in some fileds. They are diligent and brave. But the most distinct is the people in Guangzhou are flexible. They have many ideas about making money and dealing works. I should learn this point from them. In brief, the cross-culture can bring different from life.
I come from a small town in Fujian Province. The life in my home town is very diffierent from Guangzhou, including local culture, life style, dialect and so on. I still remember clearly the first day I came to Guangzhou.What impressed me most was Cantonese, that is a strange and complicated dialect for me but everyone around me all spoke Cantonese no matter whether I understood.The second thing is that people in Guangzhou are so independent that busy doing their own thing and have no much time to care about others , while I kill my most time with my friends in my hometown. Life of Guangzhou is more challenging but lack of humaninterest, Life of my hometown is more leisurely but lack of enterprising. What’s more, as a big city, Guangzhou has the cultural diversity, so that everyone can adapt themselves to the life here and soon find out the position in the city.
There are many things be done in Guangdong province that I don’t do in my hometown in Guizhou province.
1. They wash their bows and sticks with tea before a meal in restaurants. But it may be considered as a waste in my hometown.
2. Meal after soup.
3. They regards pineapple as dish but it is regarded as just fruit in my hometown.
4. You can call the waitress “beauty” here instead of “sister” in my hometown.
5. There are rare public baths which is popular in my hometown.
6. I take shower everyday but 3 or 4 days once in my hometown.
7. Broadcast on bus or subway is trilingual contains Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese and English. But in my hometown, there is no broadcast on bus, passengers just call “stop” where they wish to stop.
8. Cantonese spoken here, which heard like a foreign language to me.
9. CCTV-1 is not the first channel here.
10. There are even special characters for Cantonese!
Every country has its own culture, life style and habits. As a big country, China has many different cultures in different provinces. Compared my hometown(Shannxi province) with Guangdong province, you can find the influence of cross-culture. Firstly, we use different languages. My dialect is Shannxi hua, but theirs is Cantonese. After a semester of living Guangzhou, I still couldn`t understand their language. Regard to diet, we prefer hot food , especially noodles, but they like sweet food and fishes. As to the festivals, such as Spring Festival, Tomb-sweeping Day and so on, we have different celebrating habits. So, if you want to understand a country better, you had better go to there and experience it.
It’s ture the life of guangzhou is different from that of my hometown. my hometown iS a beautiful town which is distance from big city and have fresh air、beautiful sence and kind people.It’s so relaxing. but in guangzhou ,there is so many people that the eviroment is bad. moever, in the morning, people goes to work in a hurry,so does in the afternoon. the relationship among peolple is indifferent. nobody care of others. they only kown go ahead. There is ont a smlie in their face. if saying my hometown is walking , in guangzhou is running! so Nervous!
Culture shock? Oh,it is very interesting in our life.Sometimes it will brings a fun story. Sometimes it will really come to conflict.Many students from around China gather at Sun Yat-sen University in southern China and find life very different.I think each of us maybe have ran into the cross-culture experience more or less.In Guangzhou,the people speak Cantonese ,but many students from other places speak mandarin.sometimes we maybe make mistakes when we argu some topic or thought.In Guangdong the people very indulge in “Immortal”(like Guan yu, hero in the time of the Warring States),to hope the “Immortal” will brings the luck and well property.The wedding ceremory in Guangdong Province largely vary from other provinces. The bride must be wear a large number of gold decorations around the neck or arms or rings,that symbolizes the wealth.that is share of my own ideas about the different culture.As we all know,different culture will product the culture shock.So when we reach a strange place,it is indispensable to know the places’ culture.
Now after I come here, I have too much feeling about Sun Yat-sen University, not only about this University but also the student in this school and the habit of the people here. First, I want to say something about school’s environment. It is very beautiful and very quite. And I think this is a great place to stay without any pressures; second, because this year is my first year come here, and a lot of things I don’t know how to do. But the people just like the guards in this university is very kind and friendly, let me feel very warm, but there are also someone who is not so friendly, and even very selfish. So I don’t like them. Because I am from Hunan province, it very near to Guangzhou, and my college life is spend in Zhengzhou Henan province, so I think may be when I was in Zhengzhou the culture shock between Zhengzhou and Hunan is more definitely. And my feeling is more deep, the most impressive things to me is the attitude to spend money, through my family is not very rich, even is a bit of poor, but my attitude to spend money is enjoy myself, but people of Henan will never spend a little more money to buy something, everything they buy is the most cheapest. And sometimes they will quarrel to each other just for a piece of cake. And the way of thinking is also different. And after I came to Guangzhou, I found the people here also have some unique characteristic. For example they will have a bath with cold water, and bathe frequently, it is due to the weather here, it is too hot, and the person here can not stand the hot. And another difference is the food, the Yue cuisine have lots sweet. I am also not very familiar to this food. But I think there are not very much culture shock between here and my hometown, and maybe after some year I will love here.
I grow in Guangdong, so I can’t find so many differences in Guangzhou. However, I have been to several other provinces and those varied experiences make me learn more about China. Just as one tourist says”China is so big that you can’t understand her”. I want to give an example. When I was in Anhui province, I’m not adapted to the climate and diet there. You know, at the very beginning, I really can’t believe how could people have dinner without rice! It seems to be a funny idea now but surprised me at one time.
I was borned in Guangdong, when I was an undergraduated I studied in Hunan University which lies in Changsha .Before I reached Changsha , the people of my hometown had told me there is a backward and poor place and its residents are uncivilized and wild. But in fact , Changsha as a capital of Hunan province is not only a modern urban but also cultural and historial city.There are many places of interest ,for example yuelu academy , tianxin pavilion,Ma wang dui.For the four years I stayed there , I found the people outgoing,friendly and civilized.Because we are all Chiese ,we live in the same culture circle.Moreover,with the development of our country, the gap between the eastern citys and the midland is getting nearer.
My hometown is a common village on the side of Changjiang River. Four seasons are clearly separated there. However, there is a so long summer and no spring or autumn in Guangzhou. The food is so different, too. People like bland test in Guangdong because the weather and the body status. After I came here, I lost a kind of my fun to enjoy spicy food for the reason of my health. Of course, the life styles are a little different in the two places but not so much.
Nowadays, people live on similar life in majority of China for the Han nationality except the langue, weather and food. It’s interesting that people in different regions hold some deep-rooted attitudes to center cities like Shanghai. There is an old saying that: The unique features of a local environment always give special characteristics to its inhabitants.
I got 4 wonderful years for college in Wanzhou, in Chongqing province, where I take for my second hometown.
People in Chongqing are really friendly and hospitable, wherever you come from. My roommates show me around the whole city, introducing all kinds of delicious food to me. They tries to chat in Mandarin whenever I with them, though it’s really hard. When I get in trouble, they will be just there, giving me hands but never make me feel bad. Once I made a trip to “the passage 3 the heavenly pit and earthly ravine”, in Fengjie city, where I got very lost in the mist. I was really tired, cold and frighten, walking more than 16 kilometers in the rain. Then I got a ride by a local, a man. When I was in his car, I felt a bit frighten. What if he does something terrible to me? I didn’t know. Then, he gave a ride to an old lady, with whom there were still several kids, who were also strangers to the driver. I really felt ashamed of myself. Late in that day, I got a warm place to stay and enjoyed wonderful food with a whole local family.
People in Chongqing are also very honest and frank, being famous of “gengzhi”. They will tell you their true feelings about things and people directly, even it will make you uncomfortable. However, they will not treat you uncomfortable.
When I was in Sun Yat-sen University last semester, I always felt lonely and helpless. No friends, only a few acquaintances. I thought they just put too much more attentions on themselves, and were a little indifferent. Not all people here are like that, but in my eyes, most of them are not passionate. I’d like to back to Chongqing after graduate.
It is common to find different cultures in china in my opinion, for china has so large lands and so many people. Though I was born in Guangdong province, I could still feel something different from what people in Guangzhou city feel, since there are at least three different kinds of dialects which means different local cultures. Maybe it is quite usual to find people with very different traditional cultures in land which is large enough, even in land not so large it is possible because migrates coming from all around the world can bring a lot of traditional cultures from their origins. This give us the key point that mutual communication and trust rather than multi-cultures is the main problem. The lack of communicating and understanding may lead to more problems, which maybe caused by transportation or religion or politics. But no matter what the reason is, it is caused by us, and thus every one of us should try to help enhance the communication between different people living in different culture, which will definitely unite our country and diminish the misunderstanding and nurture a more friendly atmosphere.
Indeed,there are many differences of life between Guangzhou and my hometown.I born in Hunan province and I spend my college time in Jishou university locating in west of Hunan.Although the city of Jishou and my hometown belong the same provice , the style of the life still be a little different.For example,in the Fenghuang county called the one of most beautiful town in China by famous New zealand Writer Louis Alley,what the people wear are different from my hometown.So ,in Guangzhou, there are more different from my hometown.First, people born in Hunan like spicy and strong irritant food.in Guangzhou ,people like light food ,they also put sugar in food when cooking.Althoug there are so many differences ,I still love the style of life at Sun Yat-sen University,I am use to this style.China is such vast that is not strange to find differences in the different province.So I think ,travelling in China ,you will comprehend the custom and the people.
I’m from another city located in the southeast of Guangdong, which is one of the major cities where Hakka people live. I think the most significant difference between the culture of my hometown and Guangzhou lies in the way we cook. In my hometown, people select poultry as the main material to cook, usually by stewing, baking and stuffing. The Hakka dishes taste salty and thick in taste., while cantonese dishes usually have a mild flavor. The difference in people’s flavor prefernce illustrates the diverse cultrue in different places. The uniqueness of a particular culture is a reflection of the special history and environment there. After all, every culture has its outstanding points that are worthy of reference by other races. For those culture differences, we should show more understanding and tolerance. In China, a country with 56 ethnic groups and a vast territory, people from different regions speak different dialects, have different lifestyles. The cultual difference is especially significant here. Such differences should be treated properly so that the differences become chanels that tie us together but not gaps that separate us. Then, ethnic unity is not an empty political banner, but our substantial efforts and practice.
I was born in Heilongjiang province,and I enjoyed my college life in Dalian city.After graduated from my Dalian nationalities college,I had been working in petrochina Daqing oil field corporation for there years. Now I live in Guangzhou to finish my master curriculums.In fact,I had been live in three different provinces from northeast of China to central of China and then south of China.I never had the feeling of misunderstanding and cross-culture.MY classmates and roommates are all friendly and humility in every university.But I had to admit that some of my friends told me that the individual characteristics of people living in Shanghai are xenophobia and discriminate,because they have a sense of superiorty being a citizen in the prosperity and international city of China.So about the topic of cross-culture in China,it just reflected the differences of individual characteristics in my opinion.
The life in Guangzhou?It’s amazing!Honestly speaking,I have never been so happy since I graduated from my high school..The city is modern but still be full of humanity.Rather than chillily in Shanghai or Shenzhen,where I dislike.
Meanwhile,I do like Cantonese!the special dialect.the pronounciation and the spelling of words are so interesting!So,I study the Cantonese fervidly,with my friends who live in Guangzhou.It’s amazing I think,cause I never study a language with such a strong feeling!
however,I am unused to the foods here,which are so light.As a girl from Hunan Province,I like spicy food so much,But the hot weather here isn’t fit for the spicy food.It makes me depressed when I faced to my food in the University Cafeteria.It’s the only problem I’ve been worried here.
such is my life in Guangzhou,maybe here will be my second home.So,In short,I love Guangzhou so much.
I was born in Kunming Yunnan province and spent most of my time in Hunan province except holidays. I came to Guangdong for the vacation every year. I do not understand nearly one word about Cantonese when I came to Guangzhou at the first time. I am impressed that the food in Guangzhou is different from my home town Hunan and people in Guangzhou are not so kind and hot as people in Hunan province. I like spicy food. I am not interested in this city at first. But this years I know more about this city and love the city gradually Including people and the food especially the soup here. In my opinion The food is more health than spicy food. In a word every place has its advantage.
After living six month in the Guangdong, I am sure that there are many differences between my hometown and Guangdong. As my hometown lies in the middle of the China and Guangdong in the northeast, so I think it is no surprise to see the differences, because in the Chinese history this two locations belong two countries and we have very different climate, customer, food and so on. However, in the other country in the word, this phenomenon also exit and very normal in the daily life. We should not only indifferently see the these differences but also advance some plans to narrow these gaps.