China module is divided up between two cities. Shanghai and Beijing.
Shanghai was the first week. The city looks like any modern city in the world. The city was predominantly built in the last 25 years. The architect is both modern and innovative on one side of the river and on the other-very old European architecture when there was a boom in the city in the early 1900s looking for trade routes with China.
My first impression was the immediate unrecognizable language. I have grown up and been surrounded by the English language, with exposure to the European languages. I can understand a lot more Spanish than I can speak. So traveling in Brazil, Argentina, and Spain I had a familiarity with the dominate languages and could understand enough to find my way around a conversation. However, my exposure to the Chinese language has been almost non existent in my life thus far. I can not identify any key words or phrases. I am lost in communicating, resulting in funny hand wavings and smiling. The first few days I was disoriented losing my western balance. The time change on addition was brutal-15 hours. My internal clock had to be completely reset. Needless to say, I was going to bed early -8 pm was late for me some night-and waking up at dawn.
Our hotel was next to the campus where our classes were taught-at the Fudan University. We studied Entre/intrapreneurship: building successful business models, and SEE: the World Economy at the Turn of the Century.
Both classes were interesting. The entrepreneur class was fun-we broke into small groups-created a business plan and then pitched it to Chinese Venture Capitalist. Our group looked at creating a multigenerational cultural immersion experiences in traditional Peru. (It was my classmates Paul's idea) and it was super fun group to work with. In our classes, we have had multiple group projects, however, it seems like you work with a majority of the same people each time. This time, I was able to work with mostly classmates that I didn't work with before. We had a great chemistry in our team. The group had a few Americans, a Peruvian, and a Spaniard. One aspect hat I love bout this program is that ever team is multicultural. All the "companies" presented varied -from IT platform solution to gather real time metrics for operational supply chains, cloud service provider, a Botox like biotech company, a crowdfunding company for international students that was recently just launched by my classmate Salvador (www.addup.org), a Steel distributor and then our team. Our project actually won the completion and we got a gift certificate for a message in Beijing.. Which I hope to use tomorrow..
Our last night in Shanghai we had dinner with a journalist from NPR, who painted a picture of China through the stories of the people.
We took the train from Shanghai to Beijing. It was interesting to see the country side and to pass towns that were booming.. You could see in one window shot a cluster of skyscrapers under construction next to rumbles of a small town. A reality that requires more inquiry.
Once we arrived in Beijing we took a tour of the city. The architecture was distinguishable-we are in China! On the bus, I had a chat with Felipe, a Frenchman that lives in England, but who use to study the Chinese language. He pointed out the Chinese signs/ symbols, and he started to decode them for me. Like China is the symbol of what means the center, or it can be seen as a king in the center. China use to think (or still does) that it was the center of the world, and hence the symbol of China meaning the center of the world. I find the symbols f the Chinese language incredibly beautiful and fascinating. The spoken language I don't think I could ever learn. Ever pronunciation and tone has a meaning. Very complex, and would require years of immersion to learn.
This week we are studying at Chinas number 1or 2school in the country -the Guanhau/Peking University. We are studying Comparative Institutional Analysis: the Politics of International Finance, and global Leadership and Innovation: Applied Studies. This last class is taught by Professor Bies, an old Seattlelite. He makes ample references to Seattle too, and Ithink he is almost in love with Seattle as I am.
We will also have classes by the Peking's professors on economic, politics and innovation in China.
I am still experiencing china and not sure how to verbalized my thoughts on ths experience. It's hard, it's easy, it's polluted (sneezing like a fool today even with 2doses of Clariton D). It's big and heavy infrastructure, but not well maintained-dirty, as well as cosmetic deteriation. It s both a closed and open system. It's friendly and smiling, and yet unhelpful, and brusk. It's competitive. Survival mentality and saving face and network building.
I had lunch today in the cafeteria. I sat at a table with students from a different management program. They were all senior managers at a hydro-electric company. And guess what-they love Seattle! The table had all come on a tour of our city -to learn from the Ballard locks and the reservation of the salmon ( and the great windows and educational information about the kinds of fish based on Season-he loved) and our grand Coulee damn.
The world is global.
The world is beautiful due to our differences. And the best way to preserve cultures is to witness culture. I love that I get to travel the world and learn from the beauty of humanity's differences.
Okay-it's passed midnight here. Time for bed.
Love ya lots,
Lizzie