Ben Ross' Blog

Chinese New York

Benjamin Ross — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:02:36 +0000

Outside of the Middle Kingdom and Southeast Asia , there is probably no spot in the world more Chinese than New York City. When people think of American cities with heavy Chinese concentrations, usually San Francisco and Los Angeles are the first to come to mind. It often comes as surprise that New York City now has, by far, the largest Chinese population in the Western Hemisphere, and is the primary economic, cultural, and logistical center of Chinese life in the United States.

Throughout the 19th Century and the majority of the 20th, most Chinese immigrants to the continental United States came from Guangdong (the Cantonese province) and settled in California. In an era when ships were the dominant form of international transport, the West Coast was the logical destination for immigrants from Asia. Well into the 20th Century, even as air travel became increasingly feasible, most Chinese immigration still passed through the West Coast, since this was where the established immigrant communities were located.

Then in the 1980’s a dramatic shift in Chinese immigration occurred. Rural peasants from Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, just north of Guangdong, began emigrating en masse to the United States. The immigrants from Fuzhou did not share business and kinship connections with the established Cantonese communities in California, nor could they understand the Cantonese language, the lingua franca of most American Chinatowns at the time. Without ties to existing American Chinese communities, and with the ease of jet travel, the Fuzhou immigrants had little reason to settle in California, as previous generations of Chinese had done. Instead, they flocked to New York City, where a formidable labor vacuum was emerging out of the booming Chinese restaurant industry.

Since the 1980’s the Fuzhou population, and by extension the Chinese population of the United States, has grown by unprecedented numbers. With the quantity of Fuzhou immigrants long surpassing that of the Cantonese, New York has now become the main port of entry for Chinese immigrants in the United States.

Most Chinese immigrants in New York are not from the city of Fuzhou per se, but rather the small villages and townships in its rural periphery including Changle, Lianjiang, Fuqing, and Langqi Island. As someone who spent three years living in and around Fuzhou, the topic of Chinese immigration has always been of particular personal interest. So during my recent stop in New York, I made it a point to visit its various Chinese enclaves.

New York City has three primary Chinese communities, the Manhattan Chinatown on the Lower East Side, the Queens Chinatown in Flushing, and the Brooklyn Chinatown in Sunset Park. Excluding San Francisco’s Chinatown, each of the three New York communities on their own are more populous than any other Chinatown in the United States. The following is a photo essay from four days in New York. Enjoy.

曼哈顿 · Manhattan

Manhattan’s Chinatown is located on the lower east side within a massive tract of tenement housing blocks, not far from the former site of Five Points, the immigrant neighborhood showcased in the Martin Scorsese’s film “Gangs of New York.” For much of the 20th Century, the area which is now Chinatown was New York’s Little Italy.

The swarming, raucous, and grubby atmosphere of Manhattan’s Chinatown exemplifies the perfect marriage between New York City and China. With pirated DVD’s, fake Louis Vuitton bags, herbal viagra, and 50 cent patterned Chinese “famer bags,” there isn’t much you can find in China which can’t be purchased in Manhattan. It’s also probably the largest concentration of Chinese restaurants in North America, and at night vendors crowd the sidewalks hawking 烧烤 (Chinese skewers), 麻辣烫 (ma la spicy soup) and other Chinese street snacks rarely found outside of the Middle Kingdom.

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As New York’s oldest extant Chinese enclave, more Cantonese is spoken in Manhattan than anywhere else in the city. The Cantonese still form a solid population base on the Lower East Side, however they are rapidly being eclipsed by the Fuzhou influx.

Chinatown’s boundaries are clearly delineated by its housing stock. As the tenements lie upper middle class residential high rises, which vividly contrast the immigrant housing in their shadows.

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Although Fuzhou-ites can be found in all parts of Manhattan’s Chinatown, the commercial center of the Fuzhou population is East Broadway, aka 福州街 (Fuzhou Street)

For a particularly native experience, I recommend a perusal through the East Broadway Mall. With shops hocking phone cards, electronics, suits, and rice cookers, and a rudimentary basement food court selling authentic Fuzhou snacks and niblets, the East Broadway Mall (88 E. Broadway) could just as easily be located on a street corner in downtown Fuzhou.

法拉盛· Flushing

Hop on the elevated 7 train, and take it to the end of the line in Flushing. Disembark, and one is immediately transported into the most concentrated Asian population in the United States. To the east lies Koreatown, rather quiet and subdued compared with the massive Chinese colony to the west, which by most counts has now surpassed Manhattan’s Chinatown in population.

In terms of Chinatowns, Flushing is about as diverse as they come. Fighting through the crowds, one hears the sounds of Cantonese, Fuzhou dialect, heavily accented Northern Mandarin, Taiwan Guoyu, and shouts of “ma-sa-gee, ma-sa-gee,” all permeating through the noise and commotion.

The center of the Flushing Chinatown is at Main Street and Roosevelt, the third busiest intersection in New York and the busiest outside of Manhattan. It is chaotic, cramped, and crowded, even by Chinese standards. Flushing has a plethora of authentic Chinese restaurants and street food, making it an ideal spot for adventurous foodies. Like many ethnic neighborhoods in New York, one can easily consume an entire meal in Flushing without ever sitting at a table or using utensils. This is Chinese street food at its best, as many vendors and storefronts offer a multitude of Chinese finger food, much of it unavailable anywhere else in the US, and all at bargain prices.

After several rounds of street food grazing, I settled down to a meal at “Four Choise and Soup All Day Lunch Box.”

“Four Choise and Soup All Day Lunch Box” follows a formula common among New York Chinese dives: 4 servings are chosen from a buffet, plus a scoop of white rice and a bowl of soup, all for the low price of $4.95. The fare at “Four Choise” was was a unique blend of authentic Chinese 快餐 (fast food) and Fuzhou-style American Chinese food, which I found surprisingly tasty, albeit in small doses.

Owing to its comparatively low degree of commercialization and tourism, Flushing represents a less adulterated ethnic enclave than Manhattan’s Chinatown. With direct subway transportation to Manhattan, Flushing is an ideal destination for any traveler wanting to experience the Middle Kingdom on American soil.

布鲁克林 · Brooklyn

With so many ethnic pockets in the city, even many New Yorkers don’t realize that one of the largest Chinese communities in North America is located in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. Of the three Chinatowns, Sunset Park is the least touristy, and the most completely and utterly Fuzhou-ified. Passing along the main drag, 8^th Avenue, the glottal sounds of the Fuzhou dialect fill the surroundings with hardly a word of Mandarin, Cantonese, or English spoken at all.***

Sunset Park is the place to go for the most uncensored Chinese experience New York City has to offer. As the youngest of New York’s three main Chinatowns, Sunset Park is home to a higher percentage of new arrivals than the other two Chinese enclaves. And without bona fide “tourist attractions,” Sunset Park’s Chinatown is NYC’s least frequented by outsiders. Businesses such as fish markets and 网吧 (internet cafes) appear to have been lifted right off the ground from Fuzhou and transplanted into South Brooklyn. Most restaurants serve an array of authentic Fuzhou cuisine and snacks, making it quite possibly the only Chinatown in America where one would be hard pressed procure that famous chicken of General Tso. And most shop owners don’t even bother to translate the Chinese characters on storefront signs into English.

To reach the Sunset Park Chinatown, take the D train to 9th Avenue and walk one street west to 8th Ave. Chinatown runs north and south from 42nd Street to 68th Street.

***It is a common misconception that the Fuzhou population residing in New York (and all over the US) does not speak Mandarin. While the Fuzhou dialect is the preferred language, since the linguistic reforms of the 1950’s the vast majority of Fuzhou children have grown up bilingual, speaking both Mandarin and the dialect. Only a tiny percentage do not speak Mandarin, and this percentage is likely lower than that of those who speak Mandarin but no dialect.

I stopped in for a meal in Sunset Park and you can probably imagine the novelty for the wait staff upon encountering a 6-foot white guy who can speak about 10 sentences in the Fuzhou dialect. After exhausting my limited arsenal of dialect, I chatted in Mandarin with the staff and several of the other diners, who were able to provide me with a detailed update on the constant state of construction in my old neighborhood in Fuzhou. Being several thousand miles away from your former home, and encountering a room full of complete strangers who recognize down to the address exactly where you used to live and work is an odd sensation to say the least.

The food served at the restaurant was typical Fuzhou fare. On the left are wontons, which in Fuzhou are referred to as 扁肉. The broth has a unique flavor which tastes quite different from standard wontons, or 混沌. Interestingly, the word 扁肉 is generally not understood outside of Fujian province, and the only place outside of Fujian (China included) I’ve seen it on a menu is New York.

On the right is a 包子 (bao), a steamed dumpling, common throughout China, but regionalized such that there is flavors vary from province to province (and country to country). The Fuzhou style 包子 is filled with sweetened pork, although quite different from the more common Cantonese 叉烧包 (cha shao bao), frequently served in most American Chinatowns.

Similar to the “Four Choise and Soup All Day Lunch Box,” many restaurants in Sunset Park also offer 中国式快餐 (Chinese fast food). 快餐 is common throughout China, and can be thought of as the Chinese buffet which is actually Chinese (as opposed to your typical US Chinese buffet which is about as American as Hot Pockets). Also, 快餐 restaurants rarely offer “all you can eat” deals (another very American concept), and instead either charge per serving or offer a package such as 4 servings plus rice and soup for a set price. With stir-fried green veggies, pork fat, squid, and whole fish, this Sunset Park buffet looks just as it would back in Fuzhou.

With its three bustling Chinatowns, each swelling larger every day, the Chinese are increasingly expanding their stake in the ethnic mosaic of New York City. Even in neighborhoods which have not been traditionally inhabited by Chinese, it can be difficult to find a street corner in New York where the sounds of Mandarin, or Cantonese, or the Fuzhou dialect cannot be heard. Much has been written about the Chinese (and specifically the Fuzhou) immigration pipeline into New York City, and further reading, I would recommend The Snakehead by Patrick Radden Keefe (which I reviewed in July) or The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee. I still have more to report from my recent trip to the East Coast, and I’ll try to have additional posts in the weeks to come.

East Coast Excursion ‘09, Photo Highlights

Benjamin Ross — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:37:55 +0000

With the ease of international travel in the 21st Century, as an American it’s easy to forget the array of urban tourism that the United States has to offer. It had been since my roadtrip from Kansas to California just upon college graduation in 2003 that I had embarked on a true multi-stop adventure on American soil. So with two weeks off work over the holidays, I set off on a journey down the American East Coast, taking me through Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Here are some of the photo highlights from the trip.

The first stop on my trip was Boston. Here’s a shot I took from the plane upon descent into Logan International Airport.

Reno, NV likes to bill itself as the biggest little city in the world. I find this title more fitting for Boston. Although it is a prominent educational, cultural, and economic center, Boston, the city itself, is quite small in comparison to other major American metropolises. Even when you assume several of the surrounding municipalities figure into the urban core, Boston is still one of the US’s smaller major cities in terms of both area and population.

One reason for Boston’s compactness is that much of its street grids align up with their original designs from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This means lots of narrow windy streets, some barely wide enough for a single car to meander through.

The result of Boston’s old street grid is that it is arguably the most pedestrian friendly major city in the country (San Francisco also comes to mind). In four days, I was able to cover just about every city neighborhood on foot.

With its curvy street grid and bodies of water surrounding the downtown, Boston is not an easy city in which to find one’s orientation. You actually have to know where places are physically located, as opposed to simply going by an address or cross street like you would in New York or Chicago.

Boston’s downtown is a fine conglomeration of buildings from the past four centuries mixed in with modern high-rises.

I spent several hours on my first day exploring Beacon Hill, one of Boston’s most affluent neighborhoods, with its federal-style rowhouses dating back to the 1700’s.

Another one of my favorite walks in Boston was the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, a long, and uncharacteristically straight residential boulevard just west of downtown. Com Ave’s straightness is due to it being built on reclaimed marshland added to Boston in the 1800’s, hence many years after the original street plan was laid out.

For my travels outside of the downtown area, I relied mostly on the “T,” Boston’s rapid transit system. A week pass on the “T” was only $15 and I generally found it easy to travel wherever I needed to go within Boston as well as several suburban locations, by using the “T.” As far as American transit systems go, the “T” is pretty swank, with comparatively modern infrastructure and rolling stock. I also got a rise out of the public service recorded announcements from Boston’s chief of police constantly reminding everybody to “pay youa faaaa.”

Boston’s compactness makes it an ideal city for rail transit and the “T”’s per/mile ridership is higher than any American city other than New York. An extensive commuter rail network also connects surrounding suburbs and neighboring communities.

Boston’s West End was a downtown working class neighborhood, which before its demolition, was home to much of the city’s Italian-American population. In the wake of Urban Renewal, and among much controversy, the West End was raised in the late 1950’s, ostensibly to make way for the Massachusetts General Hospital. Many elderly Bostonians will tell you the real reason was racism and xenophobia towards Italians and immigrants. This lone tenement is the last standing remnant of what used to be the West End.

Overall, I have to say Boston is one of my favorite American cities. It has a historical charm, but also modern sights and sounds, local flavor but also a wide array of foreign influence, and an active street life redolent of Old World cities. Four days was the perfect amount of time to experience Boston, but I’m sure I’ll be back again to experience all New England has to offer.

The second stop on my trip was New York. My plan was to do as much exploration of the five boroughs as I could fit into 4 or 5 days.

At 71,000 people per square mile, Manhattan is one of the densest places on the planet, including Third World nations. To put that perspective, population density of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh is only 60,000 per square mile.

What I found most interesting in my exploration of Manhattan was its economic diversity. In addition to the nation’s most expensive homes and commercial real estate, Manhattan is also home to numerous housing projects, immigrant enclaves, and various other low income dwellings.

As much as I try to avoid tourist traps, New York does posses several spots which I would have kicked myself for not visiting, such as Grand Central Terminal (pictured above). While many American cities still have sumptuous rail depots such as Grand Central, the true beauty is that in New York (and much of the East Coast) these stations are still in heavy use by both commuters and long distance travelers, whereas in most other regions of the country rail transport has long since been replaced by airplane and automobile.

I knew I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, but with a line wrapping itself halfway around Battery Park, an official visit to Lady Liberty would have likely consumed an entire day of my trip. Solution: The Staten Island Ferry. The ferry, which is the only form of public transportation to connect Staten Island with the rest of the city, is a free service (probably because nobody would ever go to Staten Island if it wasn’t free) and provides impeccable views of the Statue of Liberty as well as the skylines of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Jersey City.

Times Square is New York’s be-all-end-all tourist trap. By that, I mean everybody who visits the city clamors to see it, while everybody who actually lives there avoids it like the plague. While I can imagine the crowds and tourists becoming annoying after a while, I could certainly get used to receiving all of my news in ticker format.

New York has, by leaps and bounds, the most comprehensive public transit system in the United States. My 7 day transit pass cost $28, and there wasn’t a single location I could not conveniently reach via subway.

Once you leave Manhattan, many of the trains are elevated, which make for ideal sightseeing excursions. This “L” goes through Williamsburg, one of the more intriguing neighborhoods in Brooklyn, with adjacent communities of Hispanics, Hipsters, and Hasidic Jews.

New York has more Jews than any city in the world other than Tel-Aviv, and one telltale sign was this dumpster, on which is written in Hebrew “shomer shabbos.” If you’re Jewish (or if you’ve seen the Big Lebowski) you probably know this implies “don’t even think about using this dumpster during the Sabbath.”

Also in Williamsburg’s Hasidic neighborhood, I passed this specialty shop selling “designer coats.” Every single garment in the shop was pitch black. They were all out of thongs.

In addition to its concentration of Jews, New York also now has more Chinese residents than any other city in the Western Hemisphere. New York’s original Chinatown is located within a sprawling expanse of tenement housing stock on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the past, this area was home to Manhattan’s Little Italy, which except for a 2 or 3 streets, has now been completely swallowed up by the expanding Chinatown.

Referring to “Chinatown” in New York is becoming increasingly ambiguous as there are now actually three bustling Chinese enclaves in the Big Apple. In addition to the community on the Lower East Side, Chinatowns also exist in the Flushing, Queens (pictured above), and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. I am working on a more detailed post on Chinese New York which should be coming in a few days.

Due to the constant influx of undocumented immigrants, there is no feasible way to accurately count the number of Chinese currently residing in New York City. However, I’m willing to guess that as far as New York’s foreign population goes, the Chinese are definitely top 10, possibly top 5.

One unique aspect of the New York Chinese community is that it is predominantly of Fuzhou origin. Whereas most American Chinatowns are still composed of a majority Cantonese (specifically Taishan) population, New York’s Cantonese population has been dwarfed by pipeline of Fuzhounese pouring in over the past several decades.

By my count, Queens is quite possibly the single most ethnically diverse locale on the planet. After my trip to Flushing, I followed the elevated tracks of the 7 train on foot, en route through a kaleidescope of ethnic neighborhoods such as Corona (pictured above), one of New York’s main Hispanic enclaves.

Due to its population density, New York is one of the few American cities where mass scale street vending is feasible. Vendors such as the one pictured above, can be found on nearly every street corner hawking fruits, vegetables, hot dogs, falafel, DVD’s, watches, bagels, iPods, women’s underwear, or a multitude of other household goods (yeah, it’s basically just like China in that respect).

Relative to its population density, New York actually appears to have a relatively low number of homeless people living in the streets. I noticed this to be the case even when visiting poor neighborhoods in the South Bronx.

While I was able to see the majority of Boston in 4 days, this was certainly not enough time to adequately explore America’s largest metropolis. New York is enormous, in terms of area, population, and population density. This was only my second visit to the Big Apple, but I can say with Schwarzeneger-esque certainty “I’ll be back.”

Next stop on my trip was Philadelphia, and what would be more fitting than commencing my travels with an authentic Philly cheesesteak?

Philly has 2 “famous” cheesesteak spots, Pat’s and Geno’s, both located on the same street in South Philly. Locals have conflicting viewpoints on which is tastier, and many will even tell you that the best cheesesteaks are at neither. I tried Pat’s. It tasted about as good as it looks in this picture.

Philly is an interesting town, and the setup actually reminded me a lot of Chicago, with a downtown of skyscrapers and high-rises, surrounded by a checkerboard of diverse neighborhoods.

The difference however, is that much of Philadelphia is still suffering from the massive white flight and ensuing urban decay of the 50’s and 60’s. This has left many of its neighborhoods outside of Center City (that’s what Philadelphians call their downtown) in a crumbling state of neglect.

Center City, for the most part, is still in healthy shape as droves of city dwellers and suburbanites alike flock downtown every day for work, shopping, and nightlife.

Philadelphia doesn’t receive many accolades for its architecture, but I was a big fan of the downtown skyline, especially with its matching blue toned buildings.

In the geographic center of Philadelphia stands the City Hall, which when it was built in 1901, was the tallest habitable building in the world.

Alright, I know I’m going to get some heat for this, but the Liberty Bell is possibly the most overrated tourist attraction I have ever seen. Even after reading its history I can’t get over the fact that a) it’s basically just a bell and b) it’s much smaller than it appears in middle school social studies textbooks. I can think of at least 10 tourist attractions in Philadelphia alone which are more worthwhile.

One of which is Elfreth’s Alley (pictured above), which is claimed by many to be the oldest continually inhabited residential street in the United States. Most of the housing stock dates back to the early 1700’s.

Another Philadelphia neighborhood which I joyfully explored for several hours in single-digit temperatures was Society Hill, which contains the largest concentration of 18th and early 19th century housing in the United States.

In the intermediary area between the skyscrapers and antebellum row houses of Center City and the sprawling tracts of suburbia, much of Philadelphia is in a state of severe urban decay.

Scenes such as these two above, taken in North Philly near the campus of Temple University, are common throughout much of the city. Philadelphia’s former status as a manufacturing powerhouse and the ensuing evaporation of jobs to globalization has left the city with a massive population urban poor inhabiting the inner city’s dilapidated housing stock.

Philadelphia’s economic troubles are overtly apparent in its public transit system, appropriately called “SEPTA.” SEPTA stands for “Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority,” but to most people the name sounds more like a particular adjective which could accurately be used to describe the system as a whole. Fares are still paid using tokens, and day passes must be shown to SEPTA employees, who using a whole puncher, hand mark each pass before allowing the customer to pass the turnstile. Unlike the Chicago “L” however (America’s other ghetto-fabulous public transit system) SEPTA’s coverage is not comprehensive, and consists of only two subway lines which intersect at a massive unused underground mall/public urination ground below City Hall (pictured above). Thus, unlike New York or Boston (or Chicago), I would imagine surviving in Philadelphia without a car would present significant transportation obstacles.

Philadelphia does show signs of a resurgence, and areas such as Northern Liberties (pictured above) are experiencing gentrification as young professionals flock back to the city. Philadelphia’s proximity to New York and DC, and its affordable housing (not to mention its GDP, which is still 4th in the nation) are proving to be driving factors in Philly’s urban revival.

Let’s put all that serious stuff aside and get back to what’s truly important–food. This was Philly Cheesesteak #2, purchased from a street vendor in Center City. At $4, it was about half the price of the cheesetake from Pat’s…and it tasted about half as good.

The real culinary sleeper from my trip however was the Italian hoagie which I sampled in South Philly’s Italian Market. Although the cheesesteak receives most of the fanfare, I’d say I enjoyed the hoagie almost as much.

I planned my stay in Philadelphia to coincide with the Kansas v. Temple basketball game at the Liacouras Center. As Jayhawks fans from DC, New York, and Philly all descended on the Temple campus filling up half the arena, this quite possibly was the largest congregation of Kansans ever assembled in the city of brotherly love. KU won 84-52

“Aaaaaa-driannnnnnn”…(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Philadelphia is definitely the most underrated city on the East Coast, and possibly in the country as a who;e. People love to rag on it, and with good reason. It’s old, grey, run down, and is easily overshadowed by New York, DC, and Boston. But Philly has a unique charm (not to mention enormous historical appeal) which comes in no small part from playing second fiddle to its neighbors. It’s hip, affordable, unpretentious, and at its heart, a down home blue collar All-American kinda town. With America’s inner cities currently in the midst of massive urban regeneration, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Philadelphia as a major benefactor of this trend.

The final stop on my trip was Baltimore, where I only had two days to spend before heading back to Chicago. The highlight of my Baltimore stay was the Lexington Market, a venue of exchange which has existed on its current site downtown since 1782. Today, the majority of the patronage and many of the businesses owners are African American.

From crabcakes to fresh vegetables to homemade doughnuts to pig legs, and even raccoon meat (no joke), you can find just about anything at the Lexington Market. Mixed in with grocery vendors are restaurant stalls which hawk prepared Baltimore seafood, Southern style fried foods, and yes, American Chinese food, which these days seems to be just about everywhere.

This shot is from one of the Southern joints. I had tried pig tail before (although never at an American restaurant), and I don’t even know what smoked jowels are. Unfortunately at the time of this picture, I was already stuffed full of crabcakes (another highlight of Baltimore) so not much to report here on taste. But it does look enticing though, eh?

After 4 days in Boston, 4 in New York, 4 in Philly, and 2 in Baltimore (pictured above) I headed back home. With so many major cities in close proximity, all easily accessible with public transportation, the American East Coast makes an ideal destination for a multi-week backpacking excursion.

As a side note, readers might be wondering why I did not include Washington in my itinerary, and the answer is twofold. Firstly, I had already been to Washington, twice. The other cities (sans New York) I was all visiting for the first time. Secondly, a focus of my trip was to explore the older of the urban cores of the United States, thus my stop in Baltimore as opposed to the nation’s capital. Expect more posts on more specific aspects of the trip in weeks to come.

4 days in NYC, now in Philly

Benjamin Ross — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:13:22 +0000

Time for another short update…I’ll have more thorough write-ups and pictures once I get back to Chicago. I’m in Philadelphia now, after 4 days in New York City. I had previously been to New York only once, so I spent a majority of my time exploring, riding around on the subway and exploring the city on foot. In New York, I was especially interested in its Chinese communities, as the major influxes of immigration for the past couple decades have been coming from Fuzhou, and I spent considerable time exploring New York’s three Chinatowns. My travels in New York also reinforced how effective public transportation can be when people reside in high density urban areas, as opposed to the suburban sprawl which has overtaken the US throughout most of the last half century.

Here in Philly and at my next stop in Baltimore, I plan to explore a cities which have seen more prosperous days in years past. My initial impression of Philadelphia is that the city looks and feels a lot like Chicago, only without much growth and development over the past fifty years, and considerably less ethnic diversity. I’ve already had my first cheesesteak (Pat’s) and today am going to see my first Kansas basketball game since moving back to the US (They’re playing Temple). Go Hawks! I’ll have more in-depth updates when I get back.

4 days in Boston, now off to NYC

Benjamin Ross — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:10:31 +0000

Well, it’s a rainy Sunday morning, and I’m just about to wrap up my four plus day stay in Boston. I’ve spent most of my time wandering various sections of Boston and the surrounding communities and have taken a lot of pictures, but am going to wait until I get back to Chicago for a more thorough update. I must say though that Boston is definitely one of the more livable cities in the United States. Thanks to it being so old and so much of it developing before the automobile, most of the city is a maze of winding narrow streets, all scrunched together in no particular pattern, with many of them leading either in circles or dead ends. I’m sure driving is horrendous, but as far as exploring the city via foot and public transportation, nothing could be more ideal.

I’ve spent the past four days exploring some of the oldest (and best preserved) luxury neighborhoods in the country, such as Beacon Hill, and my own personal favorite, the South End, a well as some of the more run down parts such as Roxbury and Dorchester, where my Grandpa (and most elder Bostonian Jews) grew up. I was warned by several people not to explore these neighborhoods out of safety concerns, but have found that the hoodier parts of Boston are not nearly as scary as some of the neighborhoods on the South and West Side of Chicago I’ve had to travel through for work. The major reason for this I am postulating is that Boston was never as heavily industrial as Chicago, and therefore the deindustrialization of the second half of the 21st Century didn’t hit quite so hard. In this respect, I am quite eager to see the contrast with Philadelphia, which I am guessing will have as much, if not even more, blight than Chicago.

Boston also has an excellent smattering of ethnicities. Unlike Chicago where ethnic boundaries generally have clear boundaries and don’t mix, Boston’s ethnic enclaves feel more eclectic. On one street you might see a Brazilian restaurant, a Chinese bakery, and an Eastern European deli. The Chinatown is located essentially downtown, in an area which is gentrifying. I encountered significant quantities of Chinese people, and Chinese businesses all throughout the city, so I’m guessing the population isn’t necessarily centered around Chinatown. I also visited the new satellite Chinatown located in Quincy, south of Boston proper. It isn’t large, but I imagine as rents are increasing in Chinatown, more and more Chinese are relocating to Quincy. Seemed like most residents of both Chinatowns were either from Taishan or Fuzhou.

In a few hours I’m off to New York City, currently the home of the largest population of Chinese in the Western Hemisphere. Chinese New York is especially of interest to me because it is the hub of the Fuzhou > US immigration ring which spans the globe, sends millions of dollars to remittances to China, and millions of pounds of General Tso’s chicken down the throats of Americans in cities and small towns all across the US. I’m also going to be looking at two universities, visiting some old friends, and hopefully exploring as much of the city as possible via foot and public transportation as I’ve done in Boston. I’m going to be taking the infamous Fung Wa bus to New York, which several Bostonians have advised me against doing, but hey, how much more dangerous could it be than one of those rural buses in China? More updates to come.

East Coast Excursion ‘09

Benjamin Ross — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:22:56 +0000

This past Thursday I sent in my last grad school application. On Friday I turned thirty. And tomorrow I am embarking on my first significant journey of my thirties. It’s been a long time since I’ve traveled extensively in the United States, with my last major trip being my road trip from Kansas to California in 2003. And with all the China excursions in the middle, it’s due time to explore more of my home country.

One of the most crucial skills I learned during my 3 plus years in China was the benefits of efficient circuitous traveling. In other words, choosing a starting and ending point, then traveling from start to finish with short overland trips, stopping frequently along the way, and always leaving room for improvisation. By my measures, the only region in the US which this can be accomplished with any degree of efficiency is the East Coast. So here’s my itinerary.

I fly into Boston the morning of 12/23. I head back to Chicago from Baltimore on 1/5. In between, I’m also planning multiple day stays in New York City and Philadelphia.

The reasons and goals for this trip are multi-fold. First and foremost, over the past year I have been reading extensively from the literature of urban sociology. As this is my hopeful future field of study, I want to take the chance to experience some of the earliest examples of urbanization in the Americas. Thus, I’m going to be shying away from the typical tourist draws and instead focusing on ethnic enclaves, transportation systems, sites of gentrification, areas which have experienced significant urban decay, and several of the districts and neighborhoods specifically studied in Sociology texts I have read. And yes, I will be visiting multiple Chinatowns along the way.

I’m also going to be catching up with various family and friends whom I haven’t visited in a very long time. My uncle my six cousins will all be in Boston for the holidays; Yueting, my best friend from Fuqing, is currently studying in Philadelphia; and I have various friends from college, Kansas City, and Jewish summer camp smattered throughout the East Coast. I’m also going to be scoping out several of the schools where I applied.

From a logistical standpoint, I am curious how my travel methods and techniques I utilized in China will translate into American public transit systems. I have lived without a car since I moved to Chicago in 2007 and am eager to further test what I hope will be the future of transportation in the United States. The circuitous travel method would never work in the Midwest, South, or West without a car, but I am confident I should be able to make all my destinations out East via subways, commuter trains, and of course the now-famous Fung Wa Chinatown bus service.

I’m going to be writing updates along the way, but probably will hold off on thorough write ups until I am back home since I’m going to be squeezing a lot into 2 weeks. I’ll also be tweeting a lot, so follow @BenRoss if you want to keep tabs. Oh, and as for finishing 《奋斗》, that’s going on the backburner until I get back. More updates from the road. Leaving for Boston in less than 12 hours.

Halfway through 《奋斗》

Benjamin Ross — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:54:53 +0000

Well, I’m just over halfway finished with 《奋斗》 and wanted to check in with a few updates and observations. So far, I still agree with everything I previously wrote as to watching the show being an extremely efficient acquisition method. I’ve been spending about two hours a day to watching the show (time I probably should be devoting to grad school essays), and have already noticed improvements in my speaking ability, listening, and vocabulary.

As for the show itself, it’s entertaining…for me. If I were an educated Chinese person, I probably would have given up watching at about the fifth or sixth episode. First of all, the plot, while never dull, repeatedly rests on a series of ridiculously coincidental events. The main character, 陆涛, is an aspiring architectural student and just after he graduates college, discovers that his biological father 徐志森, whom he had been told was dead, was actually alive in the US, and moving back to China. 徐志森 just happens to be a millionaire real estate developer, and offers 陆涛 a job working for his company. After working for 徐志森 for several months, 陆涛 receives an offer to work for one of the top architectural firms in China. He leaves his 徐志森’s company to take the job. However, soon after he starts the new job, he is informed of an impending project with a new client. Who is this new client? Yup, it’s 徐志森’s company. So 陆涛 starts cooperating with 徐志森 on the new project, but soon faces a new nemesis. His stepfather, 陆亚迅, just happens to work for the 规划局 (Planning Bureau) and attempts to thwart 陆涛 and 徐志森’s real estate venture. The situation further complicated when 陆涛’s ex-girlfriend, 米莱, whom he had dumped in favor of her best friend 夏琳, goes into the real estate business (her father is also a millionaire real estate kingpin), solely as an chance to win back 陆涛.

Clockwise from the top left, 陆涛, 夏琳, 向南, 华子, 杨晓芸, and 米莱

In another unrelated scene, 杨晓芸 and 夏琳,who are close friends, run into each other at the abortion clinic (not entirely unbelievable based on the prevalence of abortion in the Middle Kingdom). However, neither of them is aware the other is pregnant, even though they talk every day. They both just happen to be waiting in the same line to get their abortions, on the same day, at the same abortion clinic. Now I guess this would all be somewhat plausible, if the story happened in some small village where everybody knows each other. But 《奋斗》 takes place in Beijing.

My other criticism of the show is its underlying message: essentially that the key to happiness is to make as much money is possible so you can buy a nicer house and car than your peers. In Chinese, this is called 瞎攀比, a phrase which is evoked frequently throughout the show. This is especially depicted by a character named 杨晓芸, who marries 陆涛’s friend 向南, shortly after their first date. 杨晓芸 is the prototypical 80s generation materialistic bitch, and constantly scolds 向南 because he doesn’t make as much money as 陆涛, and he drives an ugly old station wagon, as opposed to 陆涛’s Audi (陆涛 became a millionnaire just over a year out of college, so he’s not exactly an easy act to follow). 向南 for his part, is unsuave, whiney, oblivious to the needs of women, and convinced his wife regards their marriage as “heaven.” The couple are constantly at ends with one other, and 杨晓芸 refers to her marriage as the worst decision of her life. In one scene, while shopping in a mall, 向南 makes a comment about 杨晓芸’s mother. 杨晓芸 starts hitting and slapping him in public, as 向南 yells back, and a crowd gathers. The scene ends with 向南 crouched on the floor, surrounded by bystanders snapping photos with cell phones, crying, and yelling “She stole my heart. She stole my heart.” The two are painful to watch and I am eagerly awaiting the episode where they finally get divorced and vow never speak to one another again.

All that being said, the show does have its bright spots. My favorite character is the third lead male role, 华子. Unlike 陆涛 and 向南, 华子 did not go to college, and therefore has to take the blue collar struggle through life. He gets fired from his job as a used car salesman, and decides to open a barbershop, and then a cake store, with his girlfriend Lu Lu. Lu Lu is sweet, caring, not materialistic, and unlike the others, is not from Beijing (coincidence???). She appreciates 华子 for his character, (not his bank account), and the two have the healthiest relationship in the show. 华子 for his part is a joker, and provides most of the show’s comic relief, often in a self-deprecating fashion, as he is the only one who is not 白领 (white collar). He’s also by far and away the best actor of the cast.

《奋斗》 is entertaining enough that I’m going to continue watching the entire series, but from an artistic perspective, I’m starting to comprehend why my Chinese friends always tell me that Chinese shows are so lacking in quality. The cinematography is fair, the acting for the most part is sub-par, and the plot could have been concocted by a high school screenwriting class. Multiple Chinese friends have recommended that I watch the show 《蜗居》 which they say is both artistically worthwhile, and extremely controversial right now. So I think that’s going to be the plan once I finish with 《奋斗》 . In the meantime, I plan to watch 《奋斗》 in its entirety, and would be interested to hear comments from anybody else who might be watching.

How to Fix the College Football Postseason

Benjamin Ross — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:11:55 +0000

Well, it’s that time of the year again. We are near the end of the college football regular season, and it’s about to re-open the annual BCS bitchathon: how the system isn’t fair; how teams from non-BCS schools get marginalized by the process; how we should just stop all the insanity and move to a playoff. Ever since I was about 6 years old, college football has been my favorite sport of choice, the dynasties, the rivalries, the fight songs, the running quarterback; College football has all the excitement of the NFL, but also packed with the tradition that made America fall in love with baseball…which is why it is so difficult to experience the utter mess that the sport turns into every December.

All things considered, the BCS is actually going to work out pretty well this year. Barring the unexpected, the two best teams from the two best conferences (the Big 12 and SEC) are going to meet in a be all end all, national title game. Sure, TCU, Boise State, or Cincinnati could probably take 2 out 10 against Texas or Florida, but put any of those three teams in the Big 12 or SEC, and I give it 1 out of 100 odds they run the table. But I digress. More often than not, the BCS does not work out as cleanly as it will this season (assuming Texas beats Nebraska) and a system which is intended to leave us with a clear cut champion often raises more questions than it answers. With all the annual talk of reforming the college football postseason, I would like to offer two solutions to the post-season predicament, the first would be my own choice which I think will appeal to some long time fans and most purists, but not the public at large. The second will appeal to a much broader audience, and would probably be the most practical way to end the controversy once and for all. Either one would be an improvement on the system currently in place.

Solution 1
I grew up a Missouri Tigers fan in the 1980’s. Along with Kansas and Kansas State, Mizzou was a perennial bottom dweller in the old Big 8 Conference. We were usually good for a couple non-conference wins, an easy victory over K-State, and if it was an exceptionally good year, possibly beating Iowa State and Kansas. It seemed like just about every year we were 3-8. On the other end of the spectrum were Nebraska and Oklahoma. Back then, the winner of the Big 8 automatically qualified for the Orange Bowl and for the first 10 years of my life (the entire decade of the 1980’s) the Big 8 was represented in the Orange Bowl exclusively by either the Huskers or the Sooners. I have vivid memories of watching my struggling Tigers year by year play against the two perennial Big 8 powers. Usually somewhere in the middle of the third quarter when the score was 49-7, fans from the other side would begin throwing oranges out onto the field in anticipation of their looming Big 8 championship. See, back then going to the Orange Bowl actually meant something. It was the prize for making it through a grueling Big 8 season on top, and afforded the winner a chance to prove their muster against an at-large power such as Miami or Notre Dame. Sure, there was still a figurative national championship, but the Orange Bowl in and of itself was a goal any Big 8 team shot for from the first day of the season. As a kid, I remember dreaming of a Chiefs Super Bowl, a Royals repeat in the World Series, and ultimately a Missouri victory in the Orange Bowl so that I could experience the joy that fell on Oklahoma and Nebraska fans every other year.

The thing is, college football has always had a unique distinction among spectator sports in that multiple teams can finish each season with a win. It doesn’t always have to be all about being #1, especially when you have 120 teams in the FBS. And college bowl games were a perfect system for multiple teams to go out on top. The bottom line was that the old college system was unique. You didn’t have a clear cut “#1” each season, but you did have several champions. And to the fans and the players, those championships, be it the Orange, Sugar, Rose, Cotton, or Fiesta Bowl, meant something. Back then, even just the opportunity to play in a bowl meant something. In 1985 there were 15 bowl games. Today there are 34. Over half of all 1-A teams make it to the postseason, and any team which can finish 6-6 and at least 8th in a 12 team conference has a pretty good shot at making it in.

These days bowl games are a consolation. Does anybody even remember who won the Orange Bowl last season? I sure couldn’t without checking Wikipedia. In fact, who knows if it’s even called the Orange Bowl anymore? They’ve probably renamed it the Geiko.com-save-an-extra-15% Winter Classic. Between the elimination of conference tie–ins for major bowls, overblown corporate sponsorships, and the cornucopia of new bowl games featuring mediocre teams with losing conference records, everything which was once unique and special about the bowl system has long expired. So here’s solution 1:

-Get rid of half of the bowl games, including all of the ones with .com in their name.
-In order to make the post season, a team must post at least 7 wins against FBS teams and a .500 winning percentage in conference games.
-Speaking of which, what is the deal with this Football Bowl Championship Subdivision (FBS) nonsense? Let’s save ourselves some syllables and go back to calling it “Division 1-A.”
-Big 12 winner goes to the Orange Bowl; SEC champ to the Sugar; Rose Bowl reverts to Pac 10 vs. Big 10. -Divide the remaining bowls up with subsequent conference tie-ins, so nobody can get complained of being snubbed because they couldn’t promise to sell enough tickets.

I like this system because it brings back what was once unique about college football. True, there wouldn’t always be a clear-cut champion, but is that really all that different from the current system? Remember when Auburn went undefeated and didn’t get a crack at the title, or when LSU won it with 2 losses? If you’re going to do bowl games, at least allow them the significance they deserve…which brings me to solution 2, which involves eliminating the bowl games altogether.

Solution 2
If the goal of the college football season is to determine a national champion (something I don’t agree with, but I know many fans would) then the only fair way to end the season is through a playoff. Consensus about a playoff is pretty one-sided. Other than the corporate executives with their sponsorships of all those silly bowl games, college football fans across the country are generally in agreement that a playoff would be the ideal way to end the college football season. The question then lies, how do we structure the playoff? I believe there is an extremely simple and fair solution to this problem, and it would make postseason college football one of the most exciting and anticipated events in sports.

Before we go into the details of Solution 2, let’s take a look at the restructuring of college football which has been occurring over the past two decades, and which will be integral for this plan to work. Back in the old days, most conferences had between 8 and 10 teams. In 1991 the SEC became the first conference to expand to 12 with the addition of South Carolina and Arkansas. This expansion also allowed the SEC to become the first conference to host a postseason championship between the winners of its two divisions. While this was a marvelous idea in theory, SEC championships, like BCS bowls, are hardly memorable unless they have national championship implications. The Big 12, and then the ACC, later followed the SEC’s footsteps in expanding to 12 team conferences with a championship game to conclude their seasons. But again, these championships hold little significance when the national championship is not on the line.

In order for Solution 2 to work, this movement towards 12 team conferences will need to be continued to the point where Division 1-A (sorry, we’re not calling it FBS anymore) consists of 5 “power conferences” each with exactly 12 teams each. The good news, is we’re already half way there. The question however remains what to do with the 2 conferences which still don’t have a full house. Here are my suggestions:

-Put Notre Dame in the Big 10. The Big 10 has wanted the Irish for years, and with their present stretch of mediocrity, it wouldn’t be too surprising if at some point NBC dropped their television contract, which could hopefully necessitate Notre Dame finally joining a conference.

-Expand the Pac 10 to the Pac 12. There is no shortage of quality programs out West, and the Pac 10 shouldn’t have trouble finding 2 schools who would fit right in. My vote would be for BYU and Boise State. BYU has been the most consistent non-BCS conference school in college football history. They have won a national championship, produced a Heisman Trophy Winner, and year after year show they can play with top tier national competition. And for Boise… since they joined the WAC in 2002, the Broncos have miraculously lost only 1 conference game. While this alone might not make them a national contender, it does render them at very least, an above average Pac 10 team. Moreover Boise’s football success is not entirely a recent phenomenon. The Broncos also pulled 4 undefeated conference seasons in the 1970’s as a member of the Big Sky. Combine that with a BCS bowl win in 2007, and you have a program certainly deserving a spot in the new Pac 12.

-Big East. The Big East is currently one of the 6 BCS conferences, but in my plan, it’s going to get left out of the “Power 5.” The Big East is a basketball conference, and it always has been. Back when Miami and Virginia Tech were members, the Big East had two consistent football powers, which is probably to this day why they still have a spot in the BCS. With the Hokies and Hurricanes gone, the Big East is now an easy ticket to the BCS for whichever above average team decides to run the table any particular season. Under Solution 2, the Big East joins as the WAC, Mountain West, Conference USA, MAC, and Sunbelt as 1-A conferences without the “power conference” distinction.

Ok, so let’s just pretend for a minute that Notre Dame is in the Big 10, Boise and BYU become members of the new Pac 12, we now have five 12 team “power conferences” in Division 1-A. We are now left with the perfect scenario for an action packed, equal-opportunity NCAA football playoff. Here’s how it works.

-Scrap the bowl games altogether. If a playoff is implemented, bowl games will lose even the small scrap of relativity they still possess. Sure, college football won’t be the same without the Meinke Car Care Bowl, but the simple fact is that bowl games and a playoff are mutually exclusive.

-With 5 power conferences, each with 12 teams and a championship game, winning the division, and the conference championship game will finally receive the attention and focus that these distinctions warrant. This is because winners of each conference championship will receive 1 of the 5 automatic bids to the 8 team NCAA College Football Playoff.

-Determining the final 3 slots will be done using the existing BCS formula. Yup, you heard right. We aren’t scrapping the BCS completely. The three teams with the highest BCS rating but which did not automatically qualify would receive “wildcard” bids to the playoff. The reason to use the BCS formula to determine the 3 wildcard spots is twofold. Firstly, it allows a team which has put together masterful regular season but lost its conference championship, the chance to make the postseason. Using this season as an example, that would likely mean both Florida and Alabama making the postseason. Secondly, it gives teams from non-power conferences a legitimate chance to make the postseason, as long as they finished the regular season undefeated. Thus, a team like TCU this year would have their shot at the title. Additionally, the BCS formula would be used to determine the seeding order of the playoff, with the three lowest seeds automatically going to the wildcards. This system works because a) automatic bids mean winning in the regular season remains crucial and b) any team can control its own destiny to the postseason. For a power conference team the goal is: win your conference championship ; for a non-power conference team: go undefeated, and under most circumstances this should earn a wildcard.

There you have it. 8 teams, 7 games, 1 undisputed champion and everybody has an fair shot at the prize.

While fixing college football is easy to do on paper, it’s going to be a long time before any new change is implemented. As much as I like to fantasize, solution 1 is never going to happen. Those who prefer a return to the old system are few and far between, and any plan which provides even more controversy over the national championship is unlikely to receive much traction. I bring it up because too often it’s easy for people to forget that at one time college football actually had a postseason which was exciting and memorable.

Solution 2 however, I believe is doable, and in effect, we are already halfway there. The movement towards 12 team conferences is already halfway complete, and with the current trends in college football economics, I wouldn’t be surprised if the other 2 conferences were to follow suit sometime in the not too distant future.

As for the postseason itself, as fair and logical as I believe Solution 2 is, it’s going to take a lot more than fairness and public opinion to bring about a playoff. College football bowl games are big-time operations which in effect are their own entities separate from any amalgamated system. Convincing executives and investors to scrap the bowl hubbub and big name corporate sponsorships in favor of a playoff system which likely will bear them little benefit is not going to be an easy sell. What’s needed is an entire system overhaul which will likely require decades to implement, prepare for, and to allow time for contracts to expire. If implementing a playoff were that simple, it would have already happened years ago. So for now, all we can do is sit back, dream, and make our picks for the upcoming San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. I wonder what it’s like to win one of those.

Having fun with Chinese colloquialisms from 奋斗

Benjamin Ross — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:18:20 +0000

Well, it’s been almost a week and I’m now 8 episodes into 《奋斗》. It still continues to be an invaluable learning experience, and I probably haven’t really felt myself pushed like this since my first 6 months of Chinese study. One of the benefits has been a whole new slew of fun new colloquialisms I have been picking up on, and wanted to take a minute to share.

动手动脚 literally means “move hands and move feet.” But more precisely it’s what we’d probably call in English “hooking up,” sexual relations in the Clintonian sense, if you will. 动手动脚 doesn’t necessarily imply having sexual intercourse, but it does tend to mean more than just kissing.

胡说八道 is an idiom which is sometimes shortened to just 胡说. It means “nonsense” or “bullshit.” For example, if somebody tells you that Hu Jintao is doing an autograph signing at Starbucks, you can reply 胡说八道.

物质主义 means “materialism,” and oh I wish I knew this word when I was still living in China. In the show, the concept is introduced by the main character’s father who has spent the last 22 years in the US. He asks his son 你知不知道物质主义是什么？ (Do you know what “materialism” is?) to which his son replies that he does not. Therefore, I’m not sure how commonly used this term is in China, although it sure is applicable.

One of the more interesting characters thus far is the mother of 杨晓芸, one of the main characters. In the words 杨晓芸, her mother is 小市民 or “small town folk.” This issue arises several times and embarrasses 杨晓芸, including an instance during her wedding when she asks the MC not to announce her mother by name because it sounds 太土了,* “too dorky.”

Conflict is already starting to brew between 杨晓芸 and her 小市民 mom.

One of the small town mother’s side jobs is that she works as an agent selling and renting apartments. For this, she is called a 房虫, literally “house worm.” The small town stereotype is evoked when at one point she rents an apartment to her daughter’s friend for 500 RMB over the actual asking price. I’m thinking this small town folk/Beijinger dichotomy is going to get juicier and juicer as the plot progresses.

And finally, what TV drama would be complete without a 三角恋 or “love triangle?” 《奋斗》 is no exception, with multiple 三角恋 ‘s already at the forefront.

Can’t wait for more. And I must admit, I am honestly interested in how this plot further develops.

*This is probably my all-time favorite Chinese adjective. It’s difficult to translate directly into English, but implies that the object is out of touch with what is cool and hip.

On the benefits of learning Chinese from television shows (Part 1)

Benjamin Ross — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:52:00 +0000

In the last few posts, I’ve been focusing on several of my own personal beliefs and opinions in regards to Chinese learning. By now most of you are probably quite familiar with my various stances on the topic. A few weeks ago I suggested 10 ways to study Chinese which are more useful than going to class. Of the 10, 9 were based primarily on personal experience. However, one of the methods, ironically the one which I believe provides the best path to advanced language mastery, I admittedly haven’t given much effort toward over the years. And this method would be…the power watching Chinese of television and movies.

So after all the discourse on Chinese learning, I decided to give Chinese television another shot. The most formidable hurdle with Chinese television…I’m not really sure how to put it nicely is…well, a severe lack in quality programming. While Chinese students lap up shows American shows to the point where I am no longer surprised when Chinese acquaintances ask me “Your last name is Ross, like Ross Geller?” or “If you date a Chinese girl, would you like her to be like Carrie or Miranda?” there has yet to be a Chinese show which has so captivated foreign audiences.

This has been my obstacle as well, and I owe a big “thank you” to Peter Jeziorek for suggesting I watch 奋斗 (Struggle). 奋斗 originally aired in 2007 and is one of the first shows to focus on the 八零后 generation, those born between 1980 and 1989, the first generation to grow up entirely during the years following the Reform and Opening Up. The main characters of the show are a group of friends who have recently graduated from college, and are dealing with the typical struggles which face young adults in China such as finding a job, love and marriage, and the looming burden of caring for one’s parents.

奋斗 is not the greatest show I have ever watched. The acting is fair. The story grows excessively corny at points. And the plotlines are predictable. But the characters are well-developed and it tackles enough realistic issues of Chinese society to make it both interesting and educational. So far, I’ve completed five episodes, and I am shooting to watch all 32, for two reasons. Firstly, it’s a much needed Chinese workout. Secondly, from a pedagogical perspective, I am curious what specific effects watching Chinese television will have on my language skills. If all goes well, expect more blogging as I get deeper into the project. But first I wanted to provide a few random observations and thoughts I’ve had up to this point.

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1) I call it “power watching,” because you don’t just sit back, relax, and watch a show all the way through. The method I have been employing entails watching each episode three times, pausing throughout to look up unfamiliar words, and replaying words and phrases which need to be added to my repertoire. I am quite convinced that had I been watching each episode only once, and without pausing and rewinding, the linguistic benefit would have been minimal.

2) For any method of language study to be efficient, it needs to be done every day. Therefore I have been spending 1-2 hrs per day, every day, in front of the screen, “studying.”

3) Often, I find instances where I am familiar with a phrase, but realize my inflection has been totally off, or a word for which I have been pronouncing the tone incorrectly. In these cases, I rewind several times and repeat the entire phrase out loud. This has served to both call attention to, and rectify, several long-ingrained mistakes and malapropisms.

4) Television shows have two major pedagogical advantages over movies. Firstly, watching, digesting, re-watching, and comprehending a thirty or forty minute shows is much more manageable (and practical) than doing so with a movie which could last two hours. Secondly, there is a certain sense of linguistic continuity that goes along with following the same characters episode to episode, which would not apply to movies, where each new film contains entirely new characters and concepts.

5) Certain aspects of the Chinese language cannot be taught or explained in words. They have to be felt. The example which comes to mind constantly as I watch 奋斗 is particles. There are no set rules for when you say 啊，嘛，呗，呀 or the multitude of other particle words which have no explicit meaning in Chinese. And for most of us laowai, we cope with this dilemma the easy way: we omit them. Although I still have a long way to go, I am starting to feel where and when I should throw a 呀 or a 哇 at into a sentence. It adds an entire new dimension to the tone of speech, and I’m going to pay special attention to this as I continue through 奋斗.

6) I suspect that the cultural benefits of watching a show based in modern times starring people roughly my age (I still have 2 more weeks of my 20s) are going to be significant. As a foreigner in China, you always affect a situation in a different way than you would had you been Chinese, especially those situations which involve yourself directly. Watching Chinese people interact with one another (albeit fictional Chinese people) has already provided me with cultural insight that probably would have been of considerable value in say…dealing with ex-girlfriends or professional endeavors.

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Between work and Chinese friends, the days in Chicago when I use Chinese generally outnumber those where I do not, so I’m already having ample opportunity to test out what I have learned. Roughly a week into this project, I’ve noticed expressions from 奋斗 have begun creeping into my idiolect (along with an 儿化音 taboot). But more importantly, I’m noticing subtle influence on my patterns of speech, specifically in regards to accent and delivery. It’s as if the voices of the characters are trapped inside my head and are providing an active template for my syntax and pronunciation.

Although it’s still early in the game, I would already say that hour for hour, watching 奋斗 has been the most efficient Chinese studying I’ve done in years. It wouldn’t have done much good at the early stages of my language study, but at this point I feel like it is going to be the absolute best way to continue to improve. If all goes as planned, I should be able to finish the show by the end of the year, and will hopefully have more observations in the weeks to come.

Ok, So you learned Chinese…Now where’s that dream job???

Benjamin Ross — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:21:34 +0000

Earlier this week I received an e-mail from an American friend of mine who had recently moved from China back to the US. My friend had spent three years in the Middle Kingdom, taught English, studied Chinese, and even worked a “real” job in Shanghai for half a year, and had now been back in United States for three months. His Chinese was solid, as it should be for anybody who spends three years in China, and good enough to be used on an occupational level. In his e-mail, he explained the frustration he was experiencing trying to secure a job in the United States which could build on his experience in China.

“I thought learning Chinese would be a hot commodity when I got back, and didn’t expect it would be this tough to find a job,” he expressed.

His sentiments are not out of the ordinary. In fact, the post-China unemployment funk is practically unavoidable for former expats upon their re-entry to the Western World, even in times when the economy is healthy. Part of the funk is due to the natural difficulties in transitioning back to American life. However, these frustrations are often aggrandized by high expectations, which are predicated on a fallacy that seems to follow any Westerner who has spent significant time living in China. It usually goes something like this and comes from the likes of parents, grandparents, teachers, generally anybody who is in a natural position to give you advice:

“Oh, you’re learning Chinese? China is the world’s next super-power, you know. You’ll be in high demand when you get back home.”

(Notice how people who make these comments never seem to be in the position to make use of your services. Yet they are confident others will be lining up to do exactly that.)

Chinese people provide similar, unsolicited life coaching. The line I hear most is:

你会英文也会中文。你应该做生意。 “You speak English and Chinese. You should start a business.”

(As if that’s all it takes.)

The funny thing is that most of the people dispensing this kind of advice have never actually been in the situation which would require testing it out in the first place. They’ve never been an expat in China. And they’ve never looked for a “China job” in the US. However, they have heard all about it in the news, and they all seemingly buy into the axiom that: China is the next world superpower, and therefore there is no better way to cash in than to study Chinese.

The simple fact is however, mastery of Chinese, no matter how good you are, is NOT a golden ticket to employment in the United States.* That is, of course, unless your career goals are purely linguistic in nature (i.e. Chinese teacher, interpreter, or translator). More often than not, expats who learn Chinese and return home, find their way back into the same career (or school) path they had before they ever left for China in the first place.

Big money, international trades, product sourcing…these dreams are all in the trajectory of the scores of Tom Joads who show up annually in the Middle Kingdom. Everybody comes to China with a plan to strike it rich. Rather than a fortune and a new career, most expats seem to return home with little more than a thicker waistline, a prodigious collection of DVD’s, and possibly a new spouse. While China certainly is the current land of opportunity, capitalizing on this fact is not simply a matter of learning the language.

Although Chinese may in fact be in high demand, what’s equally important is to factor in is the supply of Chinese speakers. According to the US census, in 2006 there were 2.5 million** people in the United States who speak Chinese at home. That’s more than any language other than English and Spanish. What this means is that not even counting the hundreds of thousands of American currently studying Chinese as a second language, there are already over two million Americans, who by virtue of growing up speaking Chinese, speak the language better than you ever will, regardless of how much you study. From international traders to insurance salesmen to delivery boys at the local chop suey joint, most of the “China jobs” in the US are filled by Chinese Americans.

On the other side of the ocean, English proficiency in the Middle Kingdom is spreading like SARS in a Chinese train station during Spring Festival. Every year Chinese universities are churning out millions (literally) of graduating English majors, a large percentage of whom don’t find jobs with their bilingualness either. Those that do, tend to start out in the 1000 RMB per month range, about 170 USD. In short, there is no bottleneck in communication between China and the United States. And in a capitalist world governed by the laws of supply and demand, there is little justification for hiring an American and paying him an American wage solely because he can speak Chinese.

That being said, it certainly is possible to create a career out of your China experience, but here are some points you should consider.

-A decent “China job” is best attained by using Chinese to augment a pre-existing skill set. While the language alone won’t procure much in the way of employment, Chinese should give a competitive advantage to individuals who already have existing qualifications such as an engineering degree, a background in biochemistry, or experience in the financial sector.

-There are a substantial amount of career-oriented positions available which will make use of your Chinese skills. The thing is, most of them are in China, particularly Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. If your goal is to base your career on Chinese, you should be comfortable with the idea that you’re going to be spending the majority of your time in China.

-In order to secure a job using your Chinese, you’re going to have to be pretty good. Basic conversational skills and “knowing the culture” aren’t going to get you squat. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly, but you should be able to sit in on a business meeting, soak up the details, and contribute to the conversation without falling too far behind. We’re talking a pretty advanced proficiency level here. Being literate helps too.

-But most importantly, finding a good China job relies much more on your actual skill set than your language skills per se. This is where people tend to kid themselves and hide behind their HSK scores. If you’re a poor communicator, disorganized, or can’t create an Excel spreadsheet, these traits are going to hurt your chances at employment much more than your inability to properly pronounce the third tone. Regard the bulk of your China job search as you would any other job search which wouldn’t pertain to your China experience. Your Chinese language chops are the gravy.

Now all of this is not to say that learning Chinese is a waste of time. Learning a foreign language, especially one spoken by 20% of the world’s population is, provides access to a wealth of knowledge and experiences unattainable to monolinguals. The ability to speak Chinese will allow opportunities for personal and intellectual growth to which it would be impossible to attach any price tag. But in terms of paying dividends measured in annual salary, the rewards of learning Chinese will likely never exceed the time and effort put into it. If you do decide devote the time and energy to study Chinese, do so out of a desire to further your own personal curiosities and intellectual development, not under the pretense that it will directly boost your career. For that, you’d be better off getting an MBA.

*I am assuming the same would apply to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or Western Europe, but since I’ve never lived in any of those countries, I’m going to limit my direct discussion to the US.

**I’m willing to grant a significant number of that 2.5 million speak a dialect other than Mandarin (Unfortunately the census lumps all Chinese dialects together). However, current trends in immigration indicate that a) Chinese immigration to the US continues to increase and b) the vast majority of recent immigrants are proficient Mandarin speakers.