Post 5

I may not have traveled as far as China but moving from Novato, California to Chicago, Illinois was a huge change for me. I no longer needed a car to get around and I have never lived so far away from my parents. Most of my friends went to colleges in California and could easily drive back home for a weekend. However, I wanted to go somewhere that was new and was an actual city. I was really excited to move to Chicago but I wasn't excited about the coming weather change. I constantly got worried about getting lost or getting off the train at a bad part of Chicago. The thing that scared me the most about moving to Chicago was making new friends.

I had to adjust a lot if I wanted live in Chicago and become a permanent resident. Like Peter Hessler I had to be patient with myself and push myself to be more open with people I hardly knew and to also be patient with them too. I may have not had a difference in language like Hessler but I was really good at being a loner and if you’re a loner you usually don't like to go out and do things. So I pushed myself to go outside and try to get to know the city. I got lost many times but I wasn’t scared to ask someone how to get somewhere or just get lost so that I could find some place that hardly anybody knew about. Like Hessler I was trying to become a native but sometimes I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb.

Mimi Zycherman

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Post 5

In this week's reading of River Town, I noticed stark similarities between experiences I have had and Hessler's description of feeling like an outsider.  My ethnographic research site is in China town at an authentic Chinese dim sum restaurant.  Upon reading this passage and making observations at my site, I felt as if I could relate to how Hessler is feeling.  Of course it can't come close to comparable as far as magnitude, but I felt very similar feelings to what is being described by Hessler.  From my understanding, dim sum restaurants are typically heaping with customers (tourists and non-natives) on weekends, but I went to my site on a Friday morning.  I was the only person in the restaurant that wasn't of oriental descent, which was already a little strange for me.  I could feel all the eyes and indecipherable whispers directed towards me, and this is exactly what I could see on page 193 in River Town.  I didn't know how to order correctly, I was alone, which put more of my attention on the other patrons, I felt extremely subconscious of my chopstick prowess, and I could just feel a judgmental shroud coming over me.  Nonetheless, I still very much enjoyed myself, and learned some things about myself and another culture, but it helped me see things from Hessler's point of view much more clearly.

Post # 5

In pages193-200 Peter Hessler experiences an adjustment in the Chinese culture while living in Yulin. He states, "I had to allow things to happen-if somebody approached me, I talked with him, and I accepted virtually any invitation. I couldn't expect to control every situation, and I couldn't be constantly suspicious of people''s intentions, which were almost invariably good." This statement reminded me of when I moved from New York to Chicago when I was 6 years old. My mom decided it would be best for her and I to move into my Nani's house in Chicago while my parents were going through a divorce. During this time I had to learn how to be accommodating with my new surroundings. I went to a new school with new faces and like Peter, I accepted any invitation to be someones friend or acquaintance. When I read Peter Hessler's statement about how he couldn't be constantly suspicious of people's intentions I realized how I had the same thought process when trying to meet new friends. If I was constantly suspicious of people's intentions I wouldn't have made any friends or learned to trust my peers.   

pg 193-200

I could compare the experience that Peter had in pages 193-200 to moving into Columbia dorms and getting used to everything around me. In these seven pages, Peter is visiting Yulin and becomes quite fond of it and it's people. He loved the fact the the people in Yulin didn't stalk him and try to keep track of him like the people in Fuling did. There is a part in the selection where Peter has lunch with a group of women and all of them understand very well what he is doing visiting Yulin when he told them he had been staying in Sichuan. One thing that is very similar to his small stay in Yulin and my year long move to Chicago is that the people don't really hover over you. What I mean is that it is very obvious when someone is a visitor but no one watches you like a hawk, they hold conversations with you about where your from and things of that nature but it's not anything like the way Peter describes his experience in Sichuan. Like Peter, I found it very peaceful to be in a place where no one knew me but there was no one that was fascinated with me because I'm a visitor. He found people that he could talk to without being judged or patronized for what he has said. They understand that he is a foreigner but do not treat him like he is an alien. Moving to Chicago was somewhat of an easy transition but I wasn't the only one making that transition. Peter has people that are in Sichuan with him that experience that same thing that he does so he should never feel alone. He was able to experience Yulin culture without being the center of attention.

Post #5

When I read about Peter and his experiences in a new place I immediately connected this to when I first came out to Chicago for school. It’s scary walking into the unknown; not being familiar with your living situations, not yet having a routine or really knowing any friends or people to connect with. Adjustments certainly have to be made when trying to make a new situation more comfortable, but Peter’s story is much different than mine because he is pretty much alone in a new place, whereas I had several hundred people all in the same boat as me. That fact alone helps the adjusting process go by much smoother. Peter, though, doesn’t have that luxury and on top of that, he is in a new country with people who don’t even speak the same language as he does. So, his opportunities for finding people to bond with are much more slim than mine were. But, he still puts himself out there and tries to make living less lonely, much like I did at first. He said he would go on walks and wait for locals to spark up a conversation with him. And even going to school events and participating in class was my way of finding people, the overall outcome is the same.

I think people, whenever or wherever they are in a new place, there’s always fear there, but as long as they try to make the best of it and adjust, their new place will eventually form routine and will become more comfortable, just like Hessler and I’s did. 

Post #4

The pages 130- 135 were especially interesting to me not only because of what Peter Hessler was talking about, but the way he was using emotion in his writing. Hessler describes how he “intensely dislikes” Mao. Hessler hasn’t expressed such a strong opinion to this point, so hearing that it caught me off guard. After reading why he doesn’t like him, though, I could see where his anger was coming from. I also found this section interesting because of the way Mao was brought up. The fact that so many students admire him and idolize him seemed strange to me because I don’t think I have ever heard a student say they admired our president. And this may be just another difference between our two cultures, which Peter Hessler seems to question just as much as I do.

Blog #5

After you've read 150-200, read over the section from 193-200.  Write a post of 250-350 words in which you compare and contrast Peter Hessler's experience as described in 193-200 with your own experience of adjusting to a new situation, whether in visiting a totally new place, or in trying something new at home.

I can relate to Peter Hessler's experience to a certain extent. I did attend my freshman year of college in the south where I grew up. I grew up on Hilton Head Island, which is a very small island and everyone knows everyone and everyone knows everyone's business. So when looking for colleges, I clearly began looking at places nearby to where I grew up. All I had ever really known was the south. I then attended my freshman year of college at Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, SC. I enjoyed having a homey vibe, but there was a huge slab missing in my life. I realized I had chosen my school for the completely wrong reasons! I enjoyed being by the beach because I had grown up on an island and was surrounded by beach and water. I knew that if I really wanted to become an actress and follow my dream, I would have to look at bigger options here and maybe city schools. That's when my mom told me about Columbia College Chicago. Moving schools was a huge change. I was nervous because I wasn't used to the "city life." I was used to sandals, shorts, bathing suits, tanned skin, and beach days. Coming to Chicago meant a whole new wardrobe, new culture, and a whole new weather pattern. It was a huge adjustment, but I couldn't picture being back at Coastal Carolina University for a second. I would never go back to the way my life was. This change might have been the best change and decision I have ever made in my entire life. 

Mackenzie Ogden

responding to 150-200

After you've read 150-200, read over the section from 193-200.  Write a post of 250-350 words in which you compare and contrast Peter Hessler's experience as described in 193-200 with your own experience of adjusting to a new situation, whether in visiting a totally new place, or in trying something new at home. 

Post 4

In this week's reading (100-150), the particular spot that caught my eye was the Wu River section, which took place on pages 125-130.  The experience that Hessler has with the Wu River is not only representational of the surrounding culture, but is also very symbolic as well.  The way that Hessler describes the river using the example of the old fisherman give the river a personified characteristic.  When he juxtaposes these two ideas, something in nature and something of the human world, it is showing me a simple idea of what a river can do for a culture or and environment in a totally different way.  The effect that I see that this comparison has, is that it makes the river seem just like the old man; it will only bear fish if it is lucky, it's prime years are long gone, it is more tired and weak than it ever was, etc.  I've obviously seen other examples of personification, and I probably have seen examples in similar fashions as this one, but this is the first time that I can recall seeing something true and real about a culture through the use of and indirect personification, and an elaborate symbolic comparison of something in the human world and the natural world.

Post 4

What interested me from reading pages 100-150 was on pages 131- 140 Peter Hessler talks to a woman named Anne who described why the Chinese flag on the teaching building was at half-mast. She went on explaining to Peter that the flag was at half-mast because of Deng Xiaoping's death. I find this passage interesting because when the American flag is at half-mast it means we are in remorse. This same meaning is translated into the Chinese culture as well. To be able to understand one symbol in two different countries and cultures fascinates me because it's a way of understanding one another. On page 142 Peter talks about how America is different from China with Teacher Kong. Kong states, "Our China is different from America. The education level in America is higher." This quote surprised me because I had always thought that the education level in America was lower than the education level in China. It always seemed to me that in China, students were more serious about education and appreciated it more than students in American. Whether that's true or not I'm not exactly sure but it's interesting to see different views about the issue. 

Post 4

In the first full paragraph on page 110, Peter Hessler is surprised by the lack of interest of the Fuling people have about their historical sites being covered by the Yangtze River when the new dam is put up. Most of the Fuling people are not educated enough to really understand the risks of the dam being built. He asks many people in town if they care at all or even know about the risks that the dam will bring in a couple of years but none of the Fuling people care. Hessler then connects this lack of interest that the Fuling people have with the Fuling people not having “a strong sense of community”. Most Fuling communities are consisted of a small group of people, mostly family members (110).

An Example of this lack of community is when hearing the mob of people who would crowd around an accident and constantly ask, “’Sile meiyou? Sile meiyou?’ – Is anybody dead? Is anybody dead?” and not go to help was not very surprising. Like in any country we as civilians must be rubberneckers and look at something that we know we cannot help. So, the Fuling people are just observers of what the dam will bring to their city.

I find the connection that Hessler makes between the nonchalant way of thinking of the Fuling people have about the dam and the lack of community important to understanding Fuling people’s culture. Also when writing about culture it is important to make those connections so that you can better understand what a culture stands for or does not stand for.

Mimi Zycherman

Post #3

The story of the White Crane Ridge is a great representation of how tradition can influence and mold culture. Culture is often seen as always changing and growing, which is absolutely true, but culture, just like many other things in life, needs a base- a foundation- to keep it growing. This idea of recording these pictures on the White Crane Ridge is one of the foundations for Chinese culture. Peter Hessler was explaining how multiple different Dynasties travelled through China, but still through all that change of new emperors, new societies and rule, the tradition of recording these carps remained. So, culture does change, but a bit of it always stays the same.

Blog Post 4

The section that interested me the most were pages 125-130, The Wu River chapter. This weeks reading selection focused a lot on the land that made up Fuling and around it. I chose this selection because it fascinated me how the Wu and the Yangtze river met with such contrast. At the beginning of the section, a retired fisherman kind of sets the scene for the Wu River and continues to add things in throughout the section. What interested me the most about this section is that the Wu River has it's own identity compared to the Yangtze. "At the river's mouth even the great Yangtze appears to stand still, its muddy water sluggish in comparison to the quick-moving tributary...the Yangtze is brown, the Wu is green, and they meet like two slivers of painted glass that have been pressed neatly together below the rough-brown peak of White Flat Mountain" (125). I could imagine how beautiful it would be to actually see how the rivers meet. My favorite part in the section is where Peter shows the Chinese symbol for Wu and illustrates how it's shape reflects that of a bird. As you read this, you begin to witness the very words that Peter has written. The mystery of where the name has come from is unknown, but that mystery adds to its unique beauty. It was also interesting to me how the fisherman knows river so well that the beauty he used to see is no longer there. That little observation is unmistakably true and it is something we all have witnessed either one way or another. If you stare at something you love for so long, you begin to get used to its' beauty and it slowly fades into just another feature.

Blog #4

Please choose a five-ten page section that interests you and focus your response on it.  What's interesting about the section?  Why?  What can you learn about writing from it?

Starting on page 125, Chapter 12, you read about how the old fisherman has actually no real hope of catching anything. He knows that fishing is no good right now in the winter weather because it's too cold, meaning that the fish don't move as much. But the part that really stuck with me is that he goes fishing, knowing that he most likely won't catch anything. He shares that the main reason he still goes fishing in this weather is because he just wants to play, because he is retired. He enjoys the stillness of it. For four hours the old man sits there knowing full well that he won't catch a thing. When Peter Hessler shares that the old man smiles as he looked over at the green water of the Wu River, I got a sense that the old man just has many memories sitting on that very rock and fishing. I don't think the idea is that he wants to quite catch something, it's that he just wants to be happy and be somewhere where he used to have happy times. It's quite uplifting if you really read a lot into it. I basically just learned that life doesn't always have to be this big extravagant party, you can just sit and do nothing to be happy in a place that makes you happy.

Mackenzie Ogden

Blog Post #2

Throughout this chapter we get even more in touch with Chinese culture through Peter Hessler’s words. Within these 50 pages I especially enjoy the parts when the students write about the English books they are required to read. When I was a junior in high school I also had to read these books, and so, when I hear that these Chinese students are analyzing Beowulf and Hamlet like I did, it fascinates me. When I first heard they were going to be reading these two works I was surprised but then curious to see how they responded to them- assuming they wouldn’t have the same thoughts or ideas as me, simply because we weren’t from the same culture. After realizing the Chinese students seemed to have more similarities than differences in comparison to myself and the culture I was brought up in, I was better able to recognize those qualities that did vary from my culture. Specifically, I found a difference on page 40 when Peter explained how his students rarely questioned official texts because that is how they were taught. I was always taught to question and have a mind of my own, so this definitely showed that first big difference between his students and myself. Later on he also touched on the idea of racism and sexism- both issues in both cultures, but then a student added homosexuality to that list, which didn’t quite match American culture because homosexuality has now become more of an “okay” lifestyle here. Seeing as this idea of homosexuality is relatively modern, that shows how culture can evolve throughout time. Chinese culture has also evolved through revolution, which we saw demonstrated in Hessler’s short story about the Heavenly Kingdom on page 54. I am eager to learn more about Chinese culture and the differences and similarities it has with American culture.