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Q: Culture shock. It's real..it exists. How bad was your case of it?
Nearly every foreigner experiences or has experienced culture shock when they came to China. How bad was your case? How long did it last? Did you even have culture shock? What did you do to overcome it? Or did it just become better or worse with the passage of time?
Everyday............It's tiring to live here. The locals have given up and accepted the mundane existence that is forced upon them. My will cannot be broken and I will not give in to the suppression that is China. Culture shock is always on my mind........that is to say that I believe that many parts of their way of life is not culture or tradition, it's simple ignorance and acceptance.
Harsh? Maybe.
Truth? Yup.
Didn't exist for me. I grew up in a city that's half Asian.
derek:
I spent 12 years in Vancouver before coming to China. I see a huge difference but your point is well taken,
nevermind:
for me just being around asians all my life made it no big deal. The other stuff I didn't really get shocked by, but notice difference of course.
I prefer to think of it as being like a bad relationship. It was great at first, but once the initial love affair was over, I just couldn't ignore the faults anymore and the whole thing became drudgery. Once its all over, and it and I have gone are separate ways, I might look back fondly on the good times, but even I know better than to go back to a psycotic ex.
981977405:
Understandable answer, Matt, for sure.
How long have you been here -- can I ask? I think perhaps a year-or-two.
Also teaching high school kids, which is what I think, or I have come to understand what you do or did, is probably the worst form and most grueling form of public school teaching in China. If your students were not unruly, then you were very lucky.
Third, Shenyang has a lot going for it, I think, but the weather isn't one of those. Traffic is terrible to say the least, and finally the subway system has opened, or at least two lines but still. Shenyangers as a rule can be quite, quite brusque, unlike other Chinese in other parts of the country, so that might have influenced you too. For a city with as many international businesses as it has, it can be quite insular (like Chicago, to be frank).
Additionally, trying to get any kind of customer service in Shenyang requires a near Act-of-God. The service mentality around here tends to the 1950's Soviet-type model. It's just atrocious and unhelpful almost to an extreme sometime.
Maybe if you had been down south somewhere or in Xiamen, or on Hainan, or in the southern parts of Guangxi on the bay, your bad experiences might have been tempered a bit by the warmth of the people. My experiences with the Shenyang locals is that they can flip from rude-to-nice-to-rude in the bat of an eye.
All the best to you in the future for sure.
I hated China with a flaming fire for the first few months...for reasons that are so plentiful I will not bore you with the details.
I only grew to tolerate China because of a girl (girls?) I love and accepted the quagmire because of it.
I remain a silent observer of the disaster that is in the works.
Culture shock is real?!?! It exists?!?! It certainly is more real than your ability to ask pertinent questions.
Does anyone else think that Matty & Number boy are the same person? Or maybe they just share the same pattern of making me cringe every time I see their avatar on my screen.
981977405:
I am surely glad that you have left China. Less pollution around here.
TedDBayer:
I see the same pattern. I think one must on when the medication kicks in and the other is drunk.
981977405:
Ted, I don't drink -- not ever -- and I'm not on medication. And I never had to come to China because I was a middle-aged, overweight white North American who had to come here to pay for girls. Get the metaphor?
TedDBayer:
I'm not over weight and I only paid for some of the girls, like when I felt like having twins. Many of them came free after hours and they were all married. I came to experience some place different, a different culture.
Xpat.John:
Ted, I think you hit a nerve. But, in all honesty, we should take it easy on kowtow by the numbers. After all, it isn't easy being a hutong hipster. It is his goal in life to show us how we are all wrong about China and Chinese people. And we should be grateful that they even allow us in their country. That is a big banner to wave all by himself.
981977405:
So Ted you can actually boast about having frequented prostitutes? Where I come, that's really very low class to say the least. Hope were you sufficiently condomed to avoid any trouble. And actually from your pictures, you do look overweight. Sorry.
TedDBayer:
My experience in China was that people I had contact with really liked me. I made them laugh, they said I am very friendly. They also said I was famous. One man said I was a hero. The Chinese are different, but there are many things about some people at home that I don't like, If I came from someplace else, I probably won't like my home. I just wish they'd learn to debone the chicken and leave some meat.
TedDBayer:
Hookers are not low class, nor using them. They are every where in China, some full time , some part time. Many are good women, with sad stories. I had friends that were working girls and they were some of the most honest people I met. What pictures?
Xpat.John:
Ted,
Don't waste your brain cells on this guy. It isn't worth it. From his high horse, he thinks everyone is beneath him. You are right, most hookers I have met are actually really nice people who are just doing the job out of circumstance. It takes a lot of guts to do their job, much more than I think I would be able to muster if I were in their shoes.
Thank you for asking this question but i guess after seven years i must have just got over this shock................not sure but still i got ''Face'' to keep so i am sticking to this answer for now.
I have never experienced culture shock before. Most times when I go away on vacation I want to come home after 3 days. Before coming to China I knew about the lying and cheating. That was my first experience in China. It lasted for about 15 minutes, then I blew it off and went on my way. After that I met some great people, had a great time. I was in the honeymoon stage. I loved my time in China. I don't think I ever got over the honeymoon stage. I had BCD, mostly when my GF was in a bad mood or I had to put up with some lazy foolishness. I never wanted to go home, just had to. But I must confess that some things really irritated me. Before I left, it seemed all I heard where ever I went was people spitting.
I went through a bad culture shock in China. Staring, spitting, littering, crazy traffic, snowless Christmas drove me nuts. I became grumpy, I used to wear a hood to cover my blond hair & a pair of sunglasses to block the stares.
Then I realized that coming to China was my choice & Chinese will not change just because I came. I read about Confucius & his teaching, communicated with my Chinese colleagues & it clicked for me that Chinese don't hate me, this is just their way. They don't think that staring is rude, they 're disgusted at the thought that we keep the unwanted juices in our mouths instead of spitting them out.
I didn't start spitting or littering, but I've learned to be more tolerant. I had never thought about my own cultural identity before I came here. I contemplated a lot & figured out that I am NOT Chinese (when it comes to culture). I like freedom & logic. I have a strong will, that's why I subconsciously resisted the alien culture. I feel comfortable in China now. I haven't become Chinese & never will, I've become more ''Western'', I've come to realize who I am & what is my world view.
There're many positive things in Chinese culture, I enjoy them & make the full use of them but I don't have to view them as a part of my own culture.
So, folks, relax & enjoy the show. Chinese have been behaving this way for five thousand years & they will continue their ways. We are guests, so like it or lump it. If you've have really had it & start going loony, you know the way to the airport.
Best regards,
Elena.
981977405:
Неужели вы русский?
замечательный английский язык. Может быть, вы канадец.
