The Concept of Time

Everyone has a different concept of time. Some people believe it is acceptable to be five or ten minutes late while others cringe at the idea of even being a few minutes late. Living cross-culturally I have definitely experienced the concept of time differ from my own. To better explain, I will describe two extremes of the concept of time: monochronic and polychronic.

In monochronic time, time is the given and people are the variable. The needs of people are adjusted to suit the demands of time. People do one thing at a time and finish it before starting something else, regardless of circumstances.

In polychronic time, time is the servant and tool of people. Time is adjusted to suit the needs of people. More time is always available, and you are never too busy. People often have to do several things simultaneously, as required by circumstances. It’s not necessary to finish one thing before starting another, nor finish your business with one person before starting in with another.

America is very much a monochronic country, whereas China is a polychronic country. At the bank or post office in America, we form lines and the teller deals with one person at a time. This seems to us the most time-efficient. At the bank or post office in China, the teller may be helping multiple people at one time, with no real line formed. To me this is very frustrating, as I believe a person should be served according to when they arrived. If you arrived first, you should be served first. The Chinese understand time differently and time-efficiency is not a priority. The post office lady will most likely be selling one person stamps, helping another person with a box and making a payment on another person’s bill all at the same time. To me this is inefficient; to them it makes perfect sense.

Here are a few examples of monochronic vs. polychronic:

Mono:

• Time is money
• To be late is rude.
• Schedules are sacred.
• The focus is on the task, getting the job done.
• Plans are fixed, once agreed upon.
• Having to wait is an insult.
• Interruptions are bad.
• People stand in line.
• This attitude is consistent with an individualist viewpoint.

Poly:

• Being made to wait is normal.
• Interruptions are life.
• The focus is on the person, establishing a relationship.
• Deadlines are approximations.
• To be late is to be late.
• Focus on the internal clock.
• Plans are always changing.
• People are never too busy.
• This attitude is consistent with a collectivist viewpoint.

Which kind of person are you, monochronic or polychronic?

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Resource used: Culture Matters: The Peace Corps Cross-Cultural Workbook

Culture Shock

Culture Shock is something I have heard much about and have experienced many times, but each time it is a little different. The Oxford dictionary defines culture shock as disorientation experienced when suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture or way of life. Everyone experiences some degree of culture shock whether they have previous experience abroad or knowledge of the country, it will happen whether you want it to or not.

To help cope with culture shock it is good to break it down into several different phases…

Step 1: The Honeymoon Stage

When you first arrive to your destination, everything is new, intriguing and exciting. Simple things about another culture can seem complex and enriched. Friends and family from home are still close in your mind and everything is good.

A few examples I found interesting and exciting when I first got to China:

-little babies and children don’t wear diapers, but split pants. The parents some how know when their child has to go to the bathroom and the children are taught at a young age to squat and go to bathroom wherever they are…this means the sidewalk, street, park, etc.

-using chopsticks and eating rice at every meal

-people don’t know what a line is and how it works, everyone just rushes to the counter and pushes their way to the front, doesn’t matter who got there first

-the same with buses and bus stops, those little old Chinese women sure know how to elbow their way onto a bus first

I wish I could stay in this stage forever, but alas…

Step 2: The Distress Stage

After you’ve been living abroad for a little while, the simple things aren’t so exciting anymore. The language barrier is frustrating and nobody knows you like the people back at home. Differences are now creating a negative impact instead of a positive outlook.

I just hit this stage this past week. I woke up one day and just didn’t want to be here. I wanted to be around people who knew me and I wanted to be able to go to the store, see a price tag, pay for it without bargaining, and speak English to the shopkeeper. The traffic in China is outrageous and confusing. No one follows the rules, the bigger the vehicle, the more right of way you have. I didn’t want to get pushed and shoved on the bus. Suddenly I was looking at everything in a negative light, instead of a positive learning experience. I knew I was going to hit this stage eventually it just took being here for 2 months to hit it.

Step 3: Re-integration Stage

This stage is a continuation of step 2. You start to dislike the culture, language and the food. You reject it as inferior. You start to question why you came here in the first place, why did you change your life so suddenly. Thoughts of home start to creep in and you start to compare this unfamiliar culture with “back home”. This is normal and healthy. It means you are reconnecting with what you value about yourself and your own culture.

Step 4: Autonomy Stage

This is the beginning of acceptance. You begin to feel like yourself again. You start to accept the differences and feel like you can live with them. You feel more confident, no longer isolated and you are able to look at the world around you and appreciate where you are.

Step 5: Independence Stage

You are fully embracing the new culture and things are enjoyable. You feel comfortable, confident, and you are able to make decisions based on your own preferences and values. You understand and appreciate both the differences and similarities of both your own and the new culture. You start to feel at home.

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Everyone won’t go through these stages at the same time or in the same manner. It is just nice to understand some feelings in a progression and to know other people are feeling the same way. It is nice to talk to family and friends, to know that they are still thinking about me and that I didn’t ruin some friendships by moving to the other side of the world. Some days are harder than others, knowing I am the one that left, that I am the one who chose to do this. But I find comfort knowing I am here for the right reasons. He sent me here to do His work and He will help me get through those tough days. Please keep me in your pr-yers for when I go through those hard days and question why I am here. I also pr-y that He will give me the right opportunities to share His love and that I might feel and see His work being carried out here.

Roommate Rivalry

This past Saturday, Mizzou played Illinois in football. To anybody else, this would be just another game on just another college football schedule, but in China, it created major roommate rivalry. My American roommate and co-worker, Whitney, went to Mizzou and has the same amount, if not more, school spirit for her school than I do for Illinois. Thus, we drew a ducktape line down the middle of our living room and each decorated one side with our school colors and flag. We weren't able to watch the game, but we did have a toast to each of our teams.

Whitney and I proudly wearing our school shirts.

My side of the living rom, decorated for the right team.

Whitney's side of the living room.

And of course, the dividing line.

Celebrating my 23rd Birthday in China!

I had the pleasure of celebrating my 23rd birthday in Kunming with some of my new friends. My roommate, Whitney was so sweet and had a balloon, flowers, birthday banner, presents and a birthday cake waiting for me when I woke up. I started my day by opening up the boxes my mom and sister sent, the ones I've been staring at waiting patiently to open until my actual birthday. My sister sent me some great presents, I call it the practical box (oatmeal, tampons, and make-up, thanks sis!). My mom sent me the box I call the impractical, but fun box, she entitled it "Birthday Party in a Box". She mailed all the way to China, balloons, streamers, noisemakers, candles, matches, a birthday banner, chocolate, and a birthday teddy bear, so my friends and I could have a real American birthday, which we certainly did later that night.

I chose my favorite restaurant, a Japanese place, to eat dinner, then we came back to our apartment to eat cake and open presents. I was so surprised that my new friends had all gotten me something, so thoughtful! We made sure to fully utilize the party in a box, noisemakers and all.

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes, I had a fabulous birthday and wouldn't wish it any other way.

A pleasant surprise when I woke up

Look Mom, we are using everything you sent in the "Party in a Box"

Enjoying being sung Happy Birthday to, it took us so long to blow out these trick candles, it certainly was a group effort.

The birthday teddy bear my mom sent me. She made it at Build-a-Bear, hugged and kissed it and sent it all the way to China. We named him Xiong Mai for Beautiful Bear.

Exploring Eastern China

I fortunately had the opportunity to travel to Shanghai and the surrounding area for 9 days before our CWEF orientation at the end of August. Myself and two other Americans who teach English in Yunnan met at the Shanghai airport and headed into the largest city in China, Shanghai, population 15 million. We took the maglev from the airport into the city, a train that travels at over 300 mph! It took us 10 minutes to travel the distance it would normally take over an hour on the metro. We settled into our quaint hostel, preparing ourselves for the next day, when we were heading to the World Expo.

Shanghai and The World Expo

Being at the World Expo was a bit surreal. Not having heard much about the event back in America, the World Expo has been advertising around China since the 2008 Olympics. Shanghai basically revamped their city, building new metro lines, roads, hotels, etc. We went first thing in the morning to try and avoid as many long lines as possible. We went into the Chinese Province Pavilion first, to check out the different provinces and see our home province, Yunnan! Each province is unique making China very culturally diverse. The rest of the day truly felt like traveling around the world. To name just a few, we went into the Isreal, New Zealand, Peru, and Africa pavilions plus many more. It was an extremely hot day, above 100° F, so the length of the lines outside the pavilions determined a lot of which ones we went into.

The rest of our time in Shanghai consisted of Yu Yuan (Yu Gardens), The Bund, Renmin Guangchang (People’s Square), and my favorite, the Shanghai Museum. The museum had a painting and calligraphy section that I spent all my time in. My eyes were drawn to the traditional landscape paintings on long horizontal and vertical scrolls. The brush strokes, the ink, the paper, the mountains, the bamboo, the flowers, all so mesmerizing and beautiful. Needless to say, I am truly inspired to dust off my oil paints and brushes and get started on some Chinese landscapes myself.

Suzhou

Our next stop was Suzhou, a large city west of Shanghai, 2 hrs away by bus. Suzhou is known for its gardens, so we choose one out of the many, Zhouzheng Yuan (The Humble Administrators Garden) and spent several hours exploring the lush greenery, ponds and flowers. This garden was owned by a rich administrator and was very large and peaceful. It was a rather large tourist attraction so the garden lost some of its tranquil aspects to the crowds of tour groups, but I was able to sneak off into some nooks and relax next to some beautiful flowers and ponds.

Suzhou also offers some beautiful pagodas. We went to the Beisa Ta (North Temple Pagoda), climbed to the very top and looked out upon the entire city of Suzhou. It was interesting seeing ancient pagodas in the distance representing China’s past, and the tall, modern buildings and construction cranes representing China’s future, all together on one horizon. We also went to a silk museum and witnessed silk strands being extracted from the cocoons of silkworms. I really wanted to buy a whole silk bed set, but I don’t yet live that glamorous life.

Wuzhen & Hangzhou

On our way to the next big city, Hangzhou, we stopped in a small water town, Wuzhen. It was similar to Venice, Italy, with canals as streets, weaving around the small town, lots of bridges and boats transporting goods and people. Back on the bus, we headed for Hangzhou, known for its West Lake, one of the most famous lakes in China. It is actually pictured on the 1 RMB money bill. There we sauntered around the lake, taking a boat out to one of the islands, explored tea fields and a tea museum, hiked around the mountains and temples, and enjoyed the scenery and fresh air.

Huangshan (Yellow Mountain)

After Hangzhou, we took another bus to Huangshan, a place famous for its large mountains. I had heard this place was where many of the old artists went to paint traditional Chinese landscapes, but I was not prepared for how gigantic and stunning they were going to be. We took a cable car to the top and were instantly hit with large rock mountains and a view of the surrounding area for miles and miles. The images of the ancient scrolls I had seen at the Shanghai museum came rushing back to me as suddenly I was looking at the mountains in person. We hiked for most the morning and afternoon, trying to enjoy the natural scenery with hundreds of thousands Chinese tourists. I have never seen so many people on a mountain before. It was up on that mountain that I was reminded I am living in a country with a billion more people than the United States.

Overall the trip was really cool. It is always great to see different parts of the country you are living in, especially one as large as China. I was very happy to come home to Kunming and sleep in my own bed again. The best part was, I do feel like this is my current home, not just some place I am visiting.

Christmas in August & The Waiting Game

It’s Christmas in August here in Kunming! Receiving mail in China isn’t always the most reliable and not the most secure, so we have all our mail sent to our Hong Kong office. Then whenever anybody comes over they bring our mail, letters and boxes. Well, my supervisor flew in from Hong Kong for CWEF orientation this week and brought all of our mail. I got three packages! One was a box my mom sent over shortly after I left of things I forgot or felt I really missed here and wanted, along with some delicious goodies. (I am craving mac n cheese so much!) The next two are birthday boxes. The catch is, my birthday is not until August 31^st. So I am patiently waiting till my actual birthday to open these next two boxes. They are sitting in my room staring at me, whispering, “open me, open me”. I will stand strong and wait until next week, when I will have a wonderful mini Christmas in China, opening my birthday boxes.

Bamboo Temple

This past weekend, my roommate Jian Juan, took me to the Bamboo Temple up in the mountains of Kunming. We took a bus/van up the switchbacks which gave me a beautiful view of the city below and the mountains to the east.

The strong smell of incense hit me instantly as we entered onto the temple grounds. There were several buildings and courtyards, all housing different g-ds. Many of the alters had apples, bananas, and different kinds of offerings left for the g-ds. Many people were bowing down to each of the g-ds, burning papers/offerings, praying and reading about the history of the temple. It is hard to understand what the Chinese believe about Buddhism, where their hearts and minds are at and how much of their daily lives are devoted to this religion.

Talking to my roommate who is Buddhist, she told me that each g-d represents something different; wealth, work success, health, strength, school studies, etc. You can pr-y to the specific g-d for the area you need help in. I then explained to her that we, as Chr-stians, also pray for all of those things, but to one G-d, that we attribute everything we have and receive to our one and only G-d. We also go to church to feel closer to G-d, but that doesn’t limit our relationship with Him to within the church building.

My heart was saddened by physically being at the temple and watching the people bowing down to statues and paintings of multiple deities. There is a lot of work to be done here and I can only trust in Him to work in these people’s hearts so that they can see the true G-d.

I did have one funny moment at the temple. We were walking around inside one of the buildings looking at all the different statues that represented this one g-d. There were multiple signs that read “Quiet Please” so I was trying to whisper while talking to Jian Juan. All of a sudden a cellphone goes off. I turn around and one of the Buddhist monks pulls his cellphone out of his robe and starts talking on it, quite loudly. I just had to laugh to myself at this merge of ancient traditional methods and modern technology.

Please keep the people of China in your pr-yers as all they know is to bow down to multiple deities, that He may work in their hearts and lead them to His will.