By Mabel Ong
Over the short 5 weeks, I switched primarily to WeChat for communication and Baidu maps to get around. I abandoned Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat altogether because it was too much hassle to activate the VPN all the time. I got used to the honking cars and the feeling of a second chance at life many times when I cross the road. Yes, China is what you know it to be; the Firewall, the aggressive traffic culture, the pollution. But at the same time, it is also something more. I am grateful to the sponsors and organizers behind this programme, my time in China has been truly wonderful and benefiting in many ways.
Lessons in classroom
In his first class, our professor from Bryn Mawr told us that “what you do inside this classroom is probably only 1% of the reason why you are here in China”. I grinned, we all did. Of course, we did not just come here to study. But my time in that old, chalkboard classroom became one of the rare moments in university that I was truly interested in what I was learning. I took up Great Ideas and Environmental Sustainability, both of which have left me a little more pensive than the first time I stepped into class.
The Alton Sterling shooting happened at the time when we were discussing on equality of law. Trump’s presumptive nomination and the shock of a Brexit were also brought to light as we deliberated on the excesses of freedom in a democracy. The interesting part of the lessons lies in the varied perspectives which were picked up, tossed around and thrown back at us. In Great Ideas, Dr Mark Cenite was delicate and quick in picking up salient points in our arguments and uncovering thoughts on sensitive issues that I rarely explored myself. The lessons also brought us to visit some of the 18th century political and literature theories. Theories that very often felt that they implied a dark future. The usually noisy class turned sombre and quiet not because we had nothing to say. It was because we were chewing on these new perspectives which trigged a lot for us to ponder upon. Conversations often spilled over outside of lessons.
Living and studying with friends from all over the world have made the news I read come to life. In between slurps of takeaway beef noodles in our room, my Brazilian roommate described to me how exciting she saw the world to me but at the same time, how fragile it is. She was also worried for her mother who was going to be stationed at Rio Olympics to watch security. There is discomfort in knowing issues that seemed so foreign are plaguing the community of the friends around you. It is so easy to isolate ourselves in this stable island and browse through unfortunate news with the subconscious ignorance that it will never happen to us. Comfort should not be a shameful achievement, but it should not rob us the ability to empathize with the sufferings of others, and certainly not the will to make a difference. Through interactions with many friends, I was brought into the realities of living amidst explicit discrimination, distrust towards authorities and instability. I realized that our professors may have also meant this way.
China
I thought it’ll be good to describe a little more about living in China. I am probably not the best person to do it because I pride myself in being a little stoic at times, so I am clearly not representative of the experiences of others. I don’t dislike China, nor do I love it very dearly. The colour of the skies was a little depressing, but it just made me much more appreciative of the blue skies when it arises. The food was oily and salty, but you just have to remind the cook to go easy on the spices. If you focus too much on the little things, you’d miss the bigger ones.
The inexpensiveness of all things was liberating. A friend spoiled his phone and replaced it easily with a Xiaomi from Taobao. A desire for mid-week adventure after school can be met by requesting for a Didi car to wait outside the school gates while you use Meituan to check out the best places. On the last week of the trip, we treated ourselves to one of the best seafood places in the area and ate to our heart’s content in a private dining room, coupled with beers from a microbrewery across the street. As we rubbed our bellies in delight of the freshness and large portion sizes, we were also silently grateful for the price. When money is the least of your concerns, you can focus instead on the many other more important things – what you want to experience, what do you really want to do.
The e-commerce and digital marketplace in China is very advanced. Wechat is a superior equivalent of a combination of Whatsapp, Facebook, Tinder and the various Bank apps. Unlike Singapore, many small local merchants in China accept Wechat payment and discounts from several apps like Meituan. In terms of transport, the public metros are very quick in getting you across cities. If you fancy getting directly to a specific place, Didi Kuaidi, a cheaper Uber equivalent (which has recently given up on entering the Chinese market), is a brilliant choice. Others are applications such as Taobao and Alibaba. I need not say more. Seeing how quickly and efficiently the locals keep up with technology, it isn’t difficult to imagine how China can be a huge technology hub in the future.
I like the vastness of China: the enormous subway stations, the Great Wall of China, the numerous arches of bridges and roads. We climbed up the Great Wall while it was pouring, a couple of us traveled over nine hours by train to visit Inner Mongolia. The clarity of the blue skies, the golden glow that baked the grasslands – the sheer differences in the environment – justified the long ride. On the train back to Tianjin, I saw a man searching high and low for an empty space underneath the train seats. As he tugged himself into one that he had found, the train officers patrolling down the aisle with a stroller narrowly missed his head as they passed. They looked unsurprised. I tried to look unsurprised. The vastness of the country provides the diversity in places, people and activities. There were surprises at every turn.
I thought it was a pity we did not study much about the country itself, it would have been interesting given the circumstances. Anyway, it was a good 5 weeks; attending lessons in the day, touring China over the weekends, sipping cheap Tsingdao beer at night and laughing at Swedish accents. As I was getting more comfortable with the new lifestyle with my new friends (which also includes you juniors), the end of the trip was also inching nearer.
I am privileged to have met brilliant students at this point of our confused lives and I am excited to know how we will grow to become in our respective fields and interests. Despite having saved pictures on our phones, the moments that are irreplaceable are those with intimacy, familiarity and wonders, which in time will become mere summertime dreams.
We would want to thank the sponsors of the trip: Hong Leong Foundation, Keppel Corporation, Lee Foundation, Dou Yee, and private donor: Mr Wang Haring, Founder of RH Group, without which the programme would not have been made possible. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Singapore Embassy in Beijing for allowing us to spend time there.
Thank you all for reading a part of that dream.
