SUMMER IN SHANGHAI by EMILY LAUR

This summer the Chinese language department offered a two-block course in conversational Mandarin abroad in Shanghai. The course provided a further immersion into Chinese culture by allowing students to practice their Chinese on an everyday basis in and around Shanghai. Students, led by Professor Hong Jiang, spent mornings studying Chinese language at Fudan University, afternoons and evenings exploring the city, and weekends traveling throughout China. These places included Suzhou, Hangzhou, Beijing, Xi’an, and Wuzhen amongst others.

Speaking from my accounts during the experience, it seems we all dealt with varying levels of culture shock. While there, students learned to rely on their Mandarin speaking abilities in order to grow and thrive within cities. For the most part, conversations with the locals were basic and many times involved charades and Chinese dictionaries to get the point across. Gestures became an important part of everyday conversation. Assimilating into the Chinese culture was difficult. On the streets as passersby we found the natives to be unfriendly and unapproachable, but they usually softened once we stopped to talk to them. Traffic was an everyday fear since traffic law is unenforced in China. Most places we crowded and noisy and at some points we got easily frustrated. As we all shared in these struggles together, we closely bonded as a class and after living in Shanghai for a month, the city began to feel like home, and our group, more like family.

Some of the most memorable experiences occurred during the Block 2, in which we traveled to Beijing to visit the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, and also to Xi’an to see the Old City Wall and Terracotta Warriors. Looking over the vastness of the Great Wall from its ancient side, seeing all the rooftops hovering within the Forbidden City, riding a bicycle around the outskirts of Xi’an’s Old City Wall, gazing into the eyes of the terracotta army – I remember standing amongst these iconic sites and thinking of all the history that was made and left for us to find. Despite the heat and many tourists, there was an awe and natural energy that flowed through all of us as we experienced these trademarks of Chinese culture first hand for the first time.