September 25, 2010
Gender issues have always been an interest to me, and so today I figured I should watch a few interactions on the street just to check out a few differences between our interactions and the Chinese. The biggest difference between American women and Chinese women is that they seem to be so obsessed with innocence. Though I can’t be sure if that is exactly what they are concerned about. Maybe they want to just look cutesy or like a little girl. But I am really curious as to why this look is so appealing to men here. Or is it? I can’t honestly tell if they are into the constant whining and giggling, or if they just put up with it. Maybe because in the past women were married much younger, and innocence was a major factor when they got married.
Another thing that really bothers me about the whole situation is the fact that China has progressed significantly in terms of architecture, technology and business culture- but they seem not to realize that the rest of the world has progressed so much further than them in terms of social relationships. I realize that it is really important for them to marry young, but it use to be that way in our culture as well. It seems that in the United States a girl can go years without a boyfriend, and not really stress too much about it, whereas here that is a seemingly good reason to hate oneself. I really hope for their sake that some of the pressure gets taken off of them sometime in the near future- because that kind of ridiculousness would really really bother me if I had to deal with it.
When we ate dinner tonight we had to search every cafeteria to find one that was still open... at seven o’clock! Anyways the third floor cafeteria by the bank was open thankfully and I got the Mayi Shang Jiaozi (my new favorite!) Which is just a dumpling omelet with little sesame seeds on top. The direct translation means ants on dumplings, because the sesame seeds look like ants! This is such a cute name for such a good food! Something really strange though that happened at the cafeteria, and I think it had something to do with how “late” it is, as well as how hard the students at Xiamen work- but there were several students sleeping in there! How strange? Though I have seen people sleeping at coffee shops or book stores- but at a cafeteria with no real cleanlyiness I was shocked to see them with their heads on those gross tables! I have to say I am much more happy with the way that our education system works, it’s just so much more pleasant!
