the end

first of all, i apologize for that last "totoro" post. it goes without saying, finals week left us all a little nuts.

and last of all, it's over! i am sitting in my BLCU dorm but not for much longer.. need to leave for the airport at 3 or 4 pm. i wish i could tell you about alliance beijing 2010's last night in wudaokou, but for the sake of all parties involved, i can't. i can just tell you that this group loves each other so much, had a great semester, and is freaking wild.

i can also tell you about the little graduation ceremony that bing and jada held for us after we finished our finals and oral exams yesterday. bing made an adorable speech about how we all have the potential to come back and do great things in china. he also awarded the students who had kept the language pledge (relatively) well, won the photo contest (alliance wide and beijing program), and then helped us all thank our chinese teachers.




:) :) :)

totoro tooootoro

we love totoro, the japanese cartoon with the chinese nickname "da long mao" or big dragon cat.

life sized totoro stuffed animals, totoro hats, totoro dvds, totoro balloons, totoro hand warmers...


... AND TOTORO BREAD!

beware... rough draft below

Chinese Discourse on Relations with Japan: Using the Diaoyu Islands Conflict as a Case Study

I. Introduction

Historically, China has played various roles in Asia. They range from far-reaching superpower, to “sick man” of the region, to victim of imperial power and invasion, to inward-looking socialist society. Today, China is on the rise once again, and reexamining its roles both in Asia and the greater world community. When China embarked on reform and opening in the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping instructed that China ought to “bide our time, hide our capabilities, and never be in the limelight.” Since that era, Chinese foreign policy has kept fairly consistent with Deng’s philosophy. However, recent foreign policy decisions suggest that the Chinese may be aware of their rising stature, and have become tired of this so-called “biding” and “hiding.” Is now the time for China to step into the “limelight” of the Asian region?

In this paper, I present educated Chinese people’s attitudes about foreign policy, and analyze the significance of these opinions for the greater stability of the region. In order to address these issues, I zero in on relations with Japan. Japan and China have a long history full of conflict and emotion. It seems logical that, sensing its increasing influence, China would first look toward relations with Japan for vindication. A perfect opportunity recently arose for this case study: the fish boat incident that occurred off the disputed Diaoyu Islands in September. This incident, detailed below, brought China and Japan into a direct diplomatic conflict and caused great indignation on both sides.

I engaged in traditional and field research to find out about Chinese reactions to the Diaoyu Island issue and fish boat incident. My research revealed that educated Chinese people are extremely dissatisfied with their leaders’ “passive” reaction to the conflict. Overall, my analysis concludes that this group would like to see more of their nation’s power exerted in the international sphere. This is surprising, in light of the widespread perception abroad that Chinese foreign policy reactions to the Diaoyu incident were already uncharacteristically aggressive. Nevertheless, China’s leaders have maintained a moderate and rational approach to the conflict, compared with the desired reactions vocalized by the subjects of my research.

II. Background: Diaoyu Island Issue

The Diaoyu Islands (Japanese name Senkaku, English name Pinnacle) are a group of small, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. When Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War in 1895, the islands were ceded from China to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. However, after Japan’s surrender in 1945, the islands were relinquished by Japan as part of the San Francisco and Potsdam agreements that ended World War II. The United States then administered the islands from 1945 to 1972. During this time, the issue was further complicated by a United Nations announcement of valuable, underwater hydrocarbon deposits in the Diaoyu Island area in 1968. Finally, from 1970-1972, the islands were transitioned back to Japan under the Okinawa Reversion Treaty, considered part of the greater Okinawa region.

Immediately after this transition, both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC or Taiwan) announced formal claims to the Diaoyu Islands. The claims were based on numerous factors, including both Chinese and Japanese historical records of Chinese administration of the islands, and Chinese exclusion from the talks and treaties that determined the fate of the islands throughout the 20th century. Oddly enough, the PRC and the ROC present a united front on this issue. Both agree, “the islands are part of Taiwan as part of Toucheng Township in Yilan County.” Therefore, by making formal claims, Beijing implies that the Diaoyu Islands are part of Taiwan, and transitively part of the greater PRC. Japan, on the other hand, responded with claims of its sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands as part of its Okinawa Prefecture. In practical terms, most parties outside the conflict agree that Japan continues to control the Diaoyu area, even if its claims are not fully legitimate.

The history and complexity of this issue provide ample explanation for its volatility with all parties involved: the PRC, ROC, Japan, and less directly, the United States. Many ultrasensitive themes are at play, including sovereignty, natural resources, bilateral relations, and nationalism. For China in particular, the narratives of national humiliation and loss of territory also raise emotions regarding the Diaoyu Islands. Nevertheless, the PRC and Japan seem to understand the volatility of the issue and wish to avoid serious diplomatic or military disputes on its behalf. When the two nations established official relations in 1978, they agreed to “shelve” the matter for future generations to address.

Since then, a number of events have threatened China and Japan’s “agreement to disagree.” Most recently, a Chinese fishing trawler in the Diaoyu area was pursued by the Japanese coast guard, and collided with two of the Japanese patrol boats on September 7, 2010. The Japanese Coast Guard took the Chinese trawler, its crew, and its captain pending legal charges. Chinese official reactions included “suspended bilateral exchanges at and above the ministerial levels, and halted contact with Japan on the issues of increasing civil flights and expanding aviation rights between the two countries,” as well as “an embargo on sales to Japan of rare earths, minerals used in hybrid cars and electrics parts.” Japan released the crew on September 13 and the captain on September 24. No one was charged.

III. Survey and Answers

In order to gather information on Chinese people’s attitudes toward the Diaoyu conflict and current relations about Japan, I conducted a survey using an open-ended questionnaire. Men and women of different ages answered the survey. Half were students at the Beijing Language and Culture University, and half were employees of a Beijing software development company, effectively limiting the pool to educated, urban residents. I asked eight simple questions with the goal of finding out how people learn about the Diaoyu issue, what their subsequent opinions are, and what they predict for the future of China-Japan relations.

The questions were: (1) 你什么时候听到或者看到钓鱼岛（渔船）事件？ When did you hear about the Diaoyu Island fish boat issue? (2) 说一下什么时候，通过什么方式，你第一次听到了钓鱼岛事件？ Describe the first time you heard about the Diaoyu Island conflict. (3) 你最近还在关注钓鱼岛事件吗？如果还在关注，请谈一谈你了解的情况。Have you continued to follow the issue? If so, explain what you have learned. (4) 中国政府对渔船事件做出的反应怎么样？How did the Chinese government react to the recent fish boat incident? (5) 对政府的反应，你满意吗？为什么？Are you satisfied with this reaction? Why? (6) 对钓鱼岛的事情，你和父母有没有不同的看法？你和朋友呢？Do your parents or friends have different opinions than you do? (7) 年轻人对钓鱼岛的看法是什么样 ？老人呢？What do young people think of the Diaoyu issue? Old people? (8) 最后，你认为在你的有生之年，中日关系会不会有所改善？Do you believe relations with Japan will see positive changes within your lifetime?

Of the 14 people surveyed, a clear majority of 9 people first heard about the fish boat incident “online.” The remaining 5 heard through conversations with friends, family, or teachers. Regarding the first time they heard of the Diaoyu Island territorial conflict, the answers “high school history textbook” and “online” tied for majority. Others saw on television, read online or in the newspaper, received cell phone news updates, or heard in conversation with family members and peers. These answers confirmed my expectation that most people rely on online news for information about current events and foreign policy, but were aware of the territory dispute prior to this event, often encountering it through education.

The third question (have you continued to follow the issue?) was intended to differentiate the interested from the indifferent. Only 3 people, all university students, answered that they have not followed the issue and have no opinion. Others, who answered that they have been too busy to follow closely, still provided detailed opinions in following questions. This gives the impression that one does not need to actively follow the Diaoyu Island/fish boat issues in order to hear about them, comparable to current events like the war in Iraq and the economic crisis in American news and daily life.

The following two questions (how did the Chinese government react to this incident, and were you satisfied with this reaction?) generated the most surprising and telling answers. 2 people responded, “I don’t know.” Another 2 responded that they felt satisfied because the reaction was “rational” and “conservative.” This leaves the majority of 10 people who expressed open dissatisfaction with the Chinese government’s reaction and provided distinct reasons why.

This group unanimous agreed that the Chinese government’s reaction was “not strong enough,” to quote several answers and paraphrase the rest. They responded that China had resisted Japan’s actions in words, but not in actions. A 39 year-old male software engineer answered, “There have been no practical actions, only slogans.” A 21 year-old female university student said the reaction amounted to, “Not much, just lip service, the response was almost equal to zero.” A few people elaborated on this opinion, saying that soft power and diplomacy cannot replace military force when it comes to asserting territorial sovereignty. One university student listed the following proscriptions:
“permanently ban sale of ore to Japan, increase taxes on Japanese goods sold in China, strengthen China’s military, increase economic restrictions on exports of raw materials to Japan, increase corporate taxes on Japanese companies in China, step up patrols by Chinese submarines in Japanese waters, investigate the Japanese blockade of the Straights of Malacca and Japanese monitoring of fishing vessels.”

While this student’s response stands out as the strongest, she has captured the sentiment of the others who believe that China’s “sovereignty” came under attack with the fish boat incident, and was not adequately defended by its leaders.
Questions 6 and 7 were designed to gauge opinions among different generations. Here, students unanimously expressed that they are “radical,” “indignant,” and believe that China must “take back what is ours.” They explained that their parents and grandparents are “conservative,” “unconcerned,” and “sympathetic to the government’s methods.” Middle-aged people’s explanations differed. Some responded that young people are more indifferent than the elderly, because they never suffered Japanese war crimes, ethnic hatred, or refusal to surrender; they only “inherited the hatred of the fathers of this nation.” Others responded that Chinese youth is quite angry, and is well informed of what Japan has done to China “in the past and what it is doing now.” Nevertheless, most agreed that all generations are disappointed with the current situation.

To the final question (do you believe relations will improve in your lifetime?) 2 people answered maybe, and 1 added that this would be thanks to China’s rising power. However, a strong majority of 12 answered “no” and explained why. A 49 year-old male manager said he did not want relations with Japan to improve; Japan is simply “too arrogant.” Other reasons for people’s predictions that relations would not improve included: resentment between the two nations is too deep, the fish boat conflict has worsened conditions, Japan will never show remorse the way Germany did, historical reasons prevent improvement, the United States has interfered with the relationship, China cannot continue to be passive while Japan is aggressive, Japan will never abandon militarist ideology, neither side will compromise, and most foreboding, “Either China will wipe out Japan or Japan will wipe out China.”

IV. Analysis: Public Discourse on Diaoyu Issue in China

Many analysts in the West and in China’s neighboring nations are concerned by China’s recent foreign policy moves with respect to the two Koreas, territorial disputes with Vietnam, and the recent fish boat incident with Japan. This fall, one of the hottest topics in foreign policy was China’s “nationalism” and “new assertiveness,” which generated fears about instability in the greater Asian region (WSJ). As presented in the field research presented above, there is a giant gap between the domestic and foreign perceptions of China’s policy toward Japan. The Chinese public believes their leaders to be meek and passive, while observers abroad call them “petulant and provocative.” I used traditional research, online media, and follow up questions to examine how this gap develops.

I found the most effective fuel to the flames of anti-Japanese sentiment to be in the state-sponsored media. While many survey-takers added that they had grown up with grown-ups talking about Japan’s past crimes, with Japanese “bad guys” in all their favorite films, and with denunciation of the Japanese in school settings, it is the online media that informs their opinions about such current events. Media coverage of the Diaoyu fish boat incident was overwhelming. Radio 86 Beijing correspondent Thomas Rippe reported,
"In the very beginning the response in the media was very intense, I guess the only word really is propaganda. Some of the articles contained the most politically driven and politically motivated language that I've seen come out of the state media since I've been here. Every story that went out included Chinas demand that the captain be released. And they included all these, sort of veiled threats and demands for apologies and very, very, very intense political language in all the stories that went out on the whole issue.”

I was able to confirm this for myself by reading English translations of articles on the Xinhua and China Daily websites. The search “Diaoyu fish boat Japan” generated over 30 articles from each of these news sources.
An exemplary article, “Japan's actions over Diaoyu Islands defy facts, draw protests,” was published in Xinhua on September 21st. The article’s first subheading was “CHINA'S SOVEREIGNTY OVER DIAOYU ISLANDS UNDISPUTABLE,” which detailed historical records of China’s presence in the Diaoyu Islands (“part of China's Taiwan Province”) since the 1403. The second subheading, “JAPAN'S CLAIM CONTRADICTS INTERNATIONAL NORMS,” refutes several of Japan’s claims to the Diaoyu Islands and says Japan blatantly violated international maritime law.

The third subheading, “PROTESTS FROM CHINESE PUBLIC,” tells about Chinese public reactions in cities and online. The author points out that the fish boat incident’s timing commemorates the 79th anniversary of Japan’s invasion of China. Touching on the national humiliation narrative, it reports, “In Beijing, dozens of protestors gathered outside the Japanese embassy, unfurling banners and shouting ‘Japan, get out of the Diaoyu Islands,’ ‘Boycott Japanese goods,’ ‘Don't forget national humiliation, don't forget Sept. 18.” The article states that protests have taken place all across China, from major mainland cities, to Taiwan, to Hong Kong. It adds that the “Diaoyu” and “Zhan Qixiong” (the name of the fish boat captain) have become the most searched words on the net. The final subheading, “DAMAGE TO SINO-JAPANESE RELATIONS,” explains the bilateral meetings between China and Japan that were cancelled because of the controversy. It also quotes the Wall Street Journal as calling Japan’s actions “very dangerous.”

The media has also tapped into people’s emotions, inspiring anger toward Japan. On September 22nd, Xinhua published an article titled, “Torture, anger overshadow family reunion festival for relatives of detained Chinese fisherman.” The article reported on the condition of the detained fishermen’s families. One crewmember’s elderly mother had suddenly died of grief when she learned of the situation. Other villagers said they would starve without the right to fish in China’s territorial seas. Captain Zhan’s mother wept for two days straight through painful cataracts, as did his 13 year-old son who cried, he hoped the Japanese would give his dad back soon.

Although young Chinese people have shared their distrust for state media with me in interviews, this anti-Japanese sentiment somehow takes a strong hold in their generation. I asked older university students about this phenomenon, and they attributed it to 愤青 “fenqing,” or angry youth. According to them, young people, especially those born after 1990, are caught up in their own dissatisfaction with everything. No matter what the topic is, they are dissatisfied with it. They are “self-centered” and refuse to try to understand other points of view. So when conflict with Japan arises, they become almost indiscriminately angry, with both the foreign aggressor and the incompetent leaders at home.

The media inflamed Chinese public opinion and created high expectations for hard-line foreign policy against Japan’s actions. But only weeks later, the tone of the media abruptly shifted. Rippe explains,
“The state media has [begun] reporting that at the Asia-Europe summit, Wen Jiabao and Naoto Kan apparently sat down in a hallway and talked over a few things. And so now the state media apparatus are starting to send these signals that the situation is turning to normal, and that we can get back to the business of business.”

Chinese leaders are aware that their public perceives any conversation and compromise over issues of territorial sovereignty is as loss of face (WSJ); this sentiment is undoubtedly linked to media as presented in the above Xinhua articles. Nevertheless, it seems that rationality prevailed among China’s leaders. They turned to the media once again, but this time to cool heads and reassure that further action was unnecessary.

V. Conclusion

I believe the combination of inflaming media, receptive youth, and retracted sentiment generated the extreme disappointment and calls for more aggressive foreign policy that I received in my surveys. In the days immediately following the fish boat incident, Chinese media hyped up an opportunity to assert Chinese power and teach Japan a lesson. Soon after, leaders changed their tune for reasons that aren’t completely clear. Perhaps they had never intended to be so aggressive; perhaps they realized that this nationalistic approach would not be well received outside China. Either way, the media aroused anger against Japan and then left Chinese people feeling like their demands had not been fulfilled. This is a dangerous pattern for China, because it sets up expectations for the public that cannot be met with rational, realistic foreign policy. Most of the world would consider a military confrontation between China and Japan over these uninhabited islands to be absolutely unthinkable, yet several survey answers advocated military force as the only way for China to solve this problem once and for all.

Although anti-Japanese sentiment and the desire to confront Japan in foreign policy seems ingrained in Chinese public opinion, state sponsored media can reverse this trend just as effectively as it perpetuates it. Instead of presenting one-sided analysis and harping on Japan’s crimes, it can emphasize the need for cooperation and the undesirable consequences of conflict. For example, not one of these articles mentioned that Japan and the United States are China’s top two trade partners. A full-blown conflict over the Diaoyu Islands could irreparably damage relations with both these nations. Chinese media analysis also ignores the fact that aggressive foreign policy has raised anxiety in its Asian neighbors and driven them closer to the United States. From the American perspective, this might be advantageous, but both Chinese leaders and citizens would probably like to prevent such movement.

If the Chinese public became aware of the limitations of aggressive foreign policy, perhaps they would not be so frustrated with the current state of relations with Japan. One important underlying desire that surfaced in my research was for China to be a respected member of the international community. Many Chinese believe this can only be achieved by hard-line insistence on China’s will in world affairs. However, if responsibility and rationality can be emphasized as characteristics of a sophisticated world power, the Chinese public might embrace these values and become more sympathetic to their leaders’ foreign policy decisions. In turn, leaders would not be under such great pressure to preserve “face” in international affairs.

swan lake

follow up: chinese people can't be quiet during ballet. or make their children be quiet. this proved to be highly frustrating and inspired me to yell at the people behind me... but that's what 30 USD buys these days. and the show was amazing! so how can a student complain? :)

WORK

the semester's end in china is about the same as it is at home. nonstop work! projects in the mix include:

(1) capstone research project for sociology class, which is mandatory for everyone. it's a 15 page field-research (survey and interview) based research project on any aspect of chinese society you would like to study. mine concerns chinese attitudes about relations with japan.

(2) film final paper, 7 pages, can respond to several provided topics. i think i am going to write about the last film we watched, "shower." highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in seeing a chinese movie that is actually about modern china, not crouching tigers, hidden dragons, and flying swordsmen!

(3) econ final exam, a take-home test (score) with identifications and essays.

(4) chinese finals, not too worried about these.

alas, i should not really be worried about any of these projects. the workload is much lighter than it would be during finals at GW, and i am taking the courses pass/fail in terms of credit. but when a bunch of projects are thrown my way, i revert to psycho-hermit-library mode, no matter what the circumstances. so here i am.

anyway i have come up with a few "highlights" of the week, although putting them that way just makes me feel kind of sad haha.

wednesday: an epic conversation with my language partner, liu jing. i love this girl; she is so fiery and i know that it turns some other american students off, but i think it's awesome. she's a kou-yu (spoken chinese) teacher on the BLCU campus. i think she's about 24 years old. we talk about everything under the sun but lately our conversations have been straying into politics, which make things extra interesting. on wed night she asked me right out,

liu: "xian fang! many of my international students ask me, do i think the china one-party system is good? they think it is bad. i want to know what you think."

me: "... i think it's bad"

liu: "me too. but what to do? it will always be this way."

and so on. we also talked yesterday about the wikileaks concerning li keqiang and xi jinping, china's next prime minister and chairman. the wikileaks have been 100% absent from the chinese news. when i told her about the particular ones concerning china's fudged GDP numbers and li keqiang's favorite movies, she was outraged but not surprised. she hates him to begin with... he was the governor of henan (her home province). she said she would not be surprised if she was the only chinese person in china who knew about the wikileaks. it would be unacceptable for anyone to know that about china's future p.m. we talked about how americans love to know about their leaders' personal lives. chinese people don't know anything about their leaders - where they live, how many kids they have, what they like to eat. all they know is, they wear bulletproof helmets when walking from building to building.

thursday: got a set of 100 business cards made at my campus print shop with chinese on one side and english on the other.. for $7.50. i love china.

front: Grace Shin Fang Warrick
George Washington University Class of 2012
International Affairs and Economics
English, Mandarin

email, mobile, linkedin, skype, QQ

back: 吴贤芳
乔治华盛顿大学2010毕业
国际关系和经济
英语，普通话

电子邮箱，手机，网址，skype, QQ

on thursday, also received another postcard from sue, my roommate in shanghai. she had this photo made into a postcard! i almost cried.


"dear grace,
how are you doing these days? you know, i miss you soooo...o much! looking at this card makes me miss the time when we lived together, that happy summer, i am sad and miss it so much! in a short time, you will return to america. i don't know if we will have another opportunity to see each other. we will always be able to see this picture of us together and feel happy. i hope our friendship lasts for a long time!
love you, sue"

i will be sending an american christmas card back her way :)

whew, i guess thursday was an eventful day. i also went out with christy, katie, bobby and lili to enjoy our last "ladies night" in wudaokou. this means free entry and three free drinks for the girls at both solutions and propaganda, for a total of six. for the boys... shotgunning beers in the back of seven11. ha. it's an awesome time but i realized i am not going to miss suffocating in cigarette smoke and a sea of koreans every time i want to go out and socialize.

friday: shopping for cutsie things that i have wanted to get all semester from the wudaokou mall, e.g. the CUTEST planner ever for next semester.

saturday: found out that i got third place in alliance's fall photo contest (revenge for my "honorable mention" over the summer, muahaha) with the train station photo. you can see below in the post, "photo contest entries."

fun stuff coming up: tonight going to the beijing national performing arts center.. aka coolest building EVER to see the ballet swan lake. i dropped 27 big ones (US dollars!) to see this show with some of my girl friends from the program because (a) i have never been to a ballet, and (b) i really want a chance to go in this building and look around. emma, our in-house ballerina, is dying in anticipation :)




sunday: attending GW's "beijing brunch" at the peninsula hotel in wangfujing. hopefully a fun get together/networking opportunity. also on sunday, becca arrives in BJ! (GW friend and spring 2011 roommate, currently studying abroad in kunming, yunan province). very exciting. next week i hope to meet up with her and on friday we have plans to go to a chabad dinner with her parents. eeek!

monday: "day on the job" at toyota's lexus office in beijing. gotta get my game face on for that one.

tuesday-friday: whirlwind of presentations, papers, and exams

friday night: no sleeping allowed

saturday night: flight!

stopping and thinking

... two things i am not particularly good at. especially lately! you have probably noticed the excess photography and lack of written word. this comes from two things: (1) feeling the crunch and not taking time out to write (2) spending way too much time in front the computer doing homework, research, and keeping in touch with friends (so when i'm done, the last thing i want to do is look at my blog)

but what was this week like? it began with the whirlwind trip to and from xi'an. i am so glad i got to spend a little more time there over the summer, because this trip would have been FAR too short to call my only visit. but i finally got to see the famous bing ma yong... qin huang shi's army of terra cotta soldiers. just like everyone says, the history is actually more interesting than the site. only about 1,000 soldiers and horses have been unearthed, because it is so difficult to piece together and preserve them. 5,000 more remain underground. but when people casually throw around the total number of 6,000, you think you are in for a massive sight. not quite true. i think the tomb of jingdi that i visited this summer was actually more interesting and better preserved.

the highlights of the weekend for me where seeing my friend jesse again, and walking on top of the city wall (best preserved in china, most were destroyed during the cultural revolution. another activity that i anticipated alliance covering, so didn't do over the summer). "jesse" is from chaozhou in guangdong province. i met him and his friends in my hostel lounge over the summer, and he showed me around xi'an for my last two days there. it was tons of fun to go around with a "local" (he's lived there for his marketing job, over a year now). he even postponed his winter trip home so we could meet up this last time!

when he was dropping me off back at the hotel, i introduced jesse to mr. yang, our teacher and guide for the weekend. they engaged in a very interesting debate about cantonese versus mandarin. i was able to follow the general idea... jesse's point of view is that cantonese is an important, historic dialect of chinese that absolutely must be preserved, but the central government is trying to stamp it out through the education and employment systems. yang laoshi countered that mandarin is china's new standard, and it should be adopted by everyone for the sake of modernization and development. i just walked away feeling glad we don't really have this issue in america.

returning to beijing this week, everyone got sick. probably the lack of sleep (1 night on train, 1 night in hotel, 1 night on train, class). whenever my immune system is down, i get a sinus infection, so here i am! drinking tons of tang, per baba bing's instruction. nevertheless, it was a busy week.

monday: dinner with wei laoshi and tim quinn. wei laoshi was my first chinese teacher ever! CHIN 001 at GW, last fall semester (only a year ago. wow). wei laoshi is now back at her home institution, the intensive chinese language program of BLCU. it was so wonderful to see her; she is adorable and hyper as ever, praised my progress, and admitted that she was downright worried when i left for china. 一句话你都不会说！"you could not say anything!" tim quinn is a classmate from gw who (1) also studies chinese (2) also has a parent who works at toyota and knows my mom! he is a sweet kid, finishing up his program with ACC right now, and we'll both be back at GW in the spring.

tuesday: drawing a blank here.

wednesday: friend from the university of nanjing visited! antonio, from chile. we met in lhasa over the summer. he was stopping through beijing so we got coffee, went to the zhongguancun electronics market (i held a macbook air! eek!), had a yummy korean dinner, and went to solutions in the evening, per the alliance beijing custom.

thursday: dragged body to class and film studio field trip. it was freeeeeezing.


peng kai di busting moves in the alleyway from crouching tiger hidden dragon, where zhang ziyi first escapes with chow yunfat's green destiny sword.


me freaking out in front of the teahouse set, also from CTHD.


oliver "flying" in wuxia martial arts style.


thursday evening: interviewed over the phone with ____ think tank in DC for spring 2011 internship.

friday: woke up to excellent news from ____ think tank, but more on this later. did basically nothing except skype and drink tang (let's call it resting)

saturday: hiked the great wall with the group! pics in post below. stayed in and watched inglorious basterds with caro and mallory. since when do i watch movies.

sunday: more rest and nothingness. did my homework for another upcoming interview, took a practice HSK test (ick gag yuck die), translated interview responses for my research project, drank tang. what is becoming of me?!

actually, i can kinda answer that question myself. i'm ready to go hooooome! so i am spending more time engaging with "home".. skyping with friends, doing research for internships, downloading xmas music (or receiving it in emails, 多谢 cissey ye), mapquesting me and my dad's road trip across the country, stalking my little and new grandlittles, etc.

it's fair to accuse me of wasting my precious little time left in zhongguo. but on the contrary, i like to argue that i am psychologically preparing to return. late in the summer, when i was in peak china-mode, i had to look up people on facebook and places on google when friends brought them up. i had literally forgotten many elements of my life at home. buxing! not okay... now that i am actually returning to all of it soon. and i am pretty darn excited. bring on the christmas lights, cuddlefests, peppermint mochas, and trips to mammoth. and tap water.

photo contest entries

just for fun, i am posting the photos from this semester that i entered into my program's photo contest. i think you have seen some of them before!

benefit concert for special needs orphanage, wanfujing beijing


villagers staring at a bus full of foreign kids, outside xining qinghai


children at a tibetan elementary school grabbing for new school supplies, tongren qinghai


child monks unlocking a chapel for tourists, tongren qinghai


qinghai-tibet railway stop at night, geermu tibet


pilgrims passing potala palace, lhasa tibet


mother and daughter paying respects in sera monastery chapel, lhasa tibet


prostrating pilgrims at the jokhang temple, lhasa tibet


our fearless leader, kanbula national park


chinese girls taking photos at the national panda research center, chengdu sichuan

jinshanling great wall

our director, han bing, has finally returned from his three-week business trip to america. how we have missed him! his homecoming meant that we could make our long awaited journey to the GREAT WALL at jinshanling... a remote part of hebei province where parts of the wall are refurbished, but most still stands in its 700 year old glory. captions later ;)

the small village by the wall where we had lunch and hung out with locals before we climbed. i swear the pig in the second picture could talk. i was infatuated. then the little girls in the third picture are 9 year old twins! beautiful.




jinshanling great wall.. in the hebei valley. this is the great wall like you see it in movies... a dragon snaking along, climbing steeply and then dropping, great calve work out...


my dears looking picturesque! carolina and roomie jen


matching nikons and furry hats. hell yes.


some rougher parts


obligatory group photo. yi... er... sannnnn!

xian round 二

weekend in the ancient capital with my class.
details to come!

arriving at our hotel at 7 am after overnight train from beijing



terra cotta warriors



meeting up for an evening out with my friend from my last trip, "jesse"




shuyuan calligraphy street



xian city wall (only one completely intact in china), view of the city



grand mosque

film midterm assignment

who says chinese professors can't give positive reinforcement? i guess this is no ordinary chinese professor :)

"Dear Grace,
Thank you for your excellent paper. I enjoy reading it very much. Indeed this is a very standard survey and your questions are all designed to serve the need to discuss an issue of far reaching impact opon a nation that used to be torn by war inflcited by foreign aggressors. Your questions are wonderfully designed and the different answers you collected reflect the psyche of a nation on the rise. Your findings well articulated the current sentiments among the general public, it is full of details of the change I myself feel strongly about over the years. I am glad you are collecting new answers to a question that posibly will divide this country the way it does in the US. But I am glad the overall attitudes are against the war, esp. among the young people.
Best.
Teng Jimeng"

Midterm Paper: Comparing Two Landmark Chinese War Films and Analyzing Current Chinese Attitudes about War

Tunnel Warfare and Assembly are both Chinese films about war, but they were produced generations apart and shaped by completely different historical-cultural circumstances. Tunnel Warfare, directed by Ren Xudong and released in 1965, is the inspiring story of a village that cleverly defends itself against invaders during the Sino-Japanese War by building a network of tunnels and outwitting their enemies. Assembly, directed by Feng Xiaogang and released in 2007, tells the story of People’s Liberation Army Captain Gu Zidi, who loses his entire unit of soldiers in one of the Chinese Civil War’s final battles. The Captain then spends the rest of his life in pursuit of honor and recognition for his fallen men.

For two films of the same war genre, Tunnel Warfare and Assembly share almost nothing in terms of plot, characterization, cinematography, and overall message. This divergence comes from a basic philosophical disagreement on the very nature of war. By portraying the villagers as a unified and intelligent force against evil, Tunnel Warfare tells us that war brought out the best in the Chinese people. Assembly, on the other hand, shows us that war brought out the worst in the Chinese, causing countrymen to turn against one another and resulting in massive death tolls.

Each film uses its respective devices to communicate its message. In the case of these two, plot is the most impacting element and provides the starkest contrast. In Tunnel Warfare, the villagers are disadvantaged in every way against their Japanese invaders. However, they are inspired by Mao Zedong’s writings and use their own ingenuity to fight back. Instead of employing conventional weaponry and tactics, they work together to dig the tunnel network. When the tunnels fail, the villagers persevere in improving them, until they achieve victory against the Japanese enemy in a final, glorious battle. Assembly lacks this linear quality and “happy ending.” It begins with Captain Gu losing all the men in his People’s Liberation Army unit in one of the final battles with the Guomindang. Each man falls, because Gu is under strict orders not to surrender until the bugle is sounded and the troops may retreat and assemble. After all is lost, Gu is plagued with the guilt, tormented by the possibility that the bugle in fact sounded, but he ignored it instead of saving his men. Long after the war is over, Gu’s search for his dead comrades causes him to discover that the bugle was never sounded. Gu’s superior officer wanted Gu’s unit to continue fighting as a diversion, while the rest of the forces retreated. Gu is forced to deal with this bitter betrayal and tragic realization.

These two plotlines give the audience two very different impressions of warfare. Tunnel Warfare’s story is inspiring and exciting. It tells us that war unifies people and forces them to think of creative ways to solve problems. It portrays war as a fair engagement in which the good will always triumph over the evil, no matter what the material circumstances of each party are. In Assembly, however, war is just a senseless conflict between men. Neither party can be delineated as right or wrong. The hero and his comrades are shown to be imperfect. Betrayal and the committing of war crimes demonstrate that battle brings man’s deepest flaws to the surface. Finally, by narrating the journey of a soldier after the war is over, Assembly emphasizes the abysmal psychological effects of soldiers who have faced combat, whereas Tunnel Warfare ends on the simplistic and joyful note of victory.

I used these two films as a starting point to begin a discourse with Chinese people on their war-film experience, and their attitudes toward war in real life. In order to survey different types of people in a timely manner, I wrote a multiple-choice questionnaire with nine questions. With each question, I also provided space to write one’s own thoughts, in the case the person surveyed did not find any of my answers suitable.

The questions were as follows: “Have you watched Assembly, and what was your impression like? Have you watched Tunnel Warfare, and what was your impression like? What does each of these films tell us as an audience? Which film do you like better? If a serious issue arose between China and another nation today, would you advocate diplomacy or war as a solution? Has China’s “中国和平崛起”or “peaceful nation” policy affected Chinese leader/citizen attitudes about war? Do you have any relatives who have fought in wars before? How do they feel about war today?”

After conducting this survey, my overall impression is that many people have seen both of these movies and perceive them very differently, just as I do. The greatest differentiation in answers occurred in people’s impressions of the respective films, so I will detail those answers below. In the second, “real life” section of the survey, everyone agreed that China is now a peaceful nation with the ability to solve external problems using diplomacy, and internal problems through stable, one-party rule. Most agreed that priorities such as economic development and education have trumped war making. However, all stipulated that if diplomacy and other means fail, war is still a viable option for China. Two people surveyed went out of their way to specify that conflicts involving economic interests or presenting potential profits (such as oil or territory) would be most likely to provoke war.

Returning to the films, I found that three out of six people surveyed had not seen Assembly. This surprised me because, upon watching the film, I immediately drew comparison to the American film, Saving Private Ryan. Equally disturbing and violent, Saving Private Ryan is considered historically significant and therefore its screening is treated as a “rite of passage.” Young Americans must watch it in order to understand the Western experience in World War II. This statistic made me reflect upon the fact that Assembly’s assessment of the Chinese Civil War is actually quite new and controversial, therefore the film is not placed on a pedestal like that of Saving Private Ryan. Of the people who had watched, the only person who felt deeply impacted by the film referred to the fighting spirit and undying loyalty of Chinese soldiers. He was more inspired by the characters and less perturbed by the brutality or terribleness of war.

All except one person agreed that Assembly’s message is not “war is completely bad,” but rather, “even though war has bad aspects, it is sometimes necessary.” That one person was the only elderly man I interviewed who had watched Assembly (most elderly had not watched). This man, sixty-eight years old, believed that Assembly tries to tells us that war is completely bad, but does so falsely. He reasoned that the director uses “new ideas to tell an old story,” thus distorting the true nature of the Chinese Civil War. He added that, “war is just war,” and it need not be dramatized as so terrible. I found this an interesting perspective from someone who lived through the Civil War and whose father was a veteran of the War of Resistance against Japan. It caused me to think that perhaps those who have lived through war are actually most accepting of it. Even though they have suffered the consequences, they believe most deeply in the causes, whereas we cannot directly relate to the events and emotions that provoked theses wars.

On the other hand, answers regarding Tunnel Warfare were essentially identical. Only one out of six people interviewed had not seen the film. All who had watched agreed that the film impacted them deeply, while three added that it was a childhood favorite. This reaffirmed what I had read at Beijing’s Chinese Film Museum; Tunnel Warfare is the most watched film in the world and a beloved of the Chinese people. Young and old answered that Tunnel Warfare is patriotic, showcasing their countrymen’s cleverness and capability. All agreed that the film is exciting and comedic, but its main purpose is to demonstrate how to prevail in unfair circumstances. In spite of decades of peaceful foreign policy, I believe that part of the reasoning behind China’s vigorous military development is the understandable desire to avoid “unfair” confrontation in the future. Nevertheless, according to the people interviewed, Chinese leaders do not view themselves as aggressors. They responded that it is actually the Chinese people who sometimes wish their leaders to be more aggressive in the international sphere.

I naturally conclude by comparing this situation to that of my home country. In the United States, I see huge variations in opinions about war stemming from people’s age, political affiliation, etc. Young people generally oppose war no matter what the circumstances, while older people believe that sacrifice is necessary for the preservation of freedom. Republicans are considered “war hawks,” while Democrats are considered “doves.” A survey like this, conducted in the United States, could have generated a plethora of answers. Some people would be indifferent, while others would have fiercely opposing answers.
Through these films and interviews, I see Chinese attitudes about war to be more uniform. This overall similarity could be due to the many educational, cultural, and political differences between these two nations that inform the nature of debate. When asking these type of questions in China, I have often been told, “莫谈国事，”or “nobody discusses country (political) matters.” On my campus, students are encouraged to seek information about America’s politics and wars, then develop their own opinions to discuss with their peers and professors. This type of contentious atmosphere may not be encouraged on Chinese campuses.

Similarity of answers could also be attributed to the limited scope of my survey. One person interviewed was a high school educated, twenty-year old male shopkeeper. Two people interviewed were retired elderly men relaxing on the campus. The remaining three were female university students. One of these students went out of her way to explain that her answers bore relation to her high level of education. Uneducated people, such as her parents, or the middle aged men that she overhears taking the train back to her home province, have extremely militant attitudes, and would like to see China go to war again in their lifetimes. These comments suggest that a more differentiated survey might provide a wider range of Chinese attitudes toward war.

感恩节快乐！

gǎn'ēnjié kuàilè... "happy thanksgiving"

it's the day after one of my favorite american holidays, and i am eating microwaved leftover stuffing and sweet potatoes in my dorm in beijing. i don't know if i can convey how happy this makes me!

in the week leading up to turkey day i was rather homesick [worth noting, "turkey" is 火鸡 huǒjī, literally "fire chicken"]. this is probably because thanksgiving sums up all the things that i am really beginning to want ... western food, english, my home, my friends, and most of all my FAMILY. but i have not always been good about being home for this holiday. senior year of high school, i went to seattle to visit my close friend from camp, nicole, and celebrate thanksgiving with her family and friends at their cottage on orcas island. it was like a dream :) freshman year, tickets home were expensive and traversing the country for a weekend seemed silly... so i went to a friend's home on the chesapeake bay for another wonderful weekend... but definitely cried in a corner once and thought about how i should've made the trek to cali. sophomore year, i reunited with my entire 50-day cabin in montreal, a decision that is impossible to regret.. just like the decision i made to come to china this year.

nevertheless, alliance did a wonderful job of at least addressing the "food" and "good company" aspects of thanksgiving. last week, some of us helped jada, our assistant director, find recipes for sweet potatoes with marshmallow, stovetop stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, corn soup, and broccoli casserole, then multiply those recipes to serve about 60 people! she totally went the extra mile by making salad and finding gravy and cranberry sauce. this woman is my hero. we students helped cook, decorate, explain the history of thanksgiving, and put on performances for our teachers, language partners, and other chinese guests.



and finally, a picture of my language partner, liu jing, and me! love this girl. she is so intense and so awesome.



so that was last night. this week hasn't been too eventful, because we were so busy rushing to turn in papers, take tests, prepare for the holiday party, because we are jetting to xi'an tonight on an overnight train. our program is making a 48 hour trip [tragically short...] to the old capital this weekend.

last friday was interesting though, a few classmates and i went to the gigantic capital art museum with our calligraphy teacher, zheng laoshi. he is the funniest old man in beijing. we adore him because he is totally honest about when our characters suck, but he tells us in such expressive ways, e.g. "those characters have evil feelings" or "those characters look like an angry drunk man wrote them! smoother, smoother" or "that looks like korean..." ok, those might not be the best examples, but he really is a master at giving constructive criticism.



here's zheng laoshi examining some cursive script in the museum. it's so pretty... we asked if we could try it in the next class but learned a harsh lesson on how DIFFICULT it is. i think that's when i got the "drunk man" comment.


that night we went to a benefit concert for an orphanage in beijing that specializes in children with developmental disorders. our classmate namgyel volunteers there and sold us the tickets. it was wonderful to do something so fun for such a good cause. but when the managers introduced some of the children and told their stories (abandoned shortly after birth, or when parents became too old and tried to get rid of them), it was pretty heavy. these kids have something, but there are so few places like this in china.





oh dear. i need to be on a bus to the train station in half and hour. more next week from xi'an! xo