The Faces of Students in Longzhou

Earlier I shared some of the challenges faced by students at a university in Longzhou, Guangxi. Here are some of the students I met there two years ago:

I don't know what any of these students may be doing now. Nevertheless, I bet most, if not all, of them would believe they have many more pressing concerns in their lives right now than whether The New York Times is blocked in China. Just something to ponder...

More soon.

Still Able to Dream in Guangxi: Studying at School and Working at the Factory

Before moving on to other posts about the conditions at college dormitories in China, I want to provide a sense of the life of students who attended the school in the previous example, the Longzhou campus of the Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities.

When I visited the school in the spring of 2010, I met Connie Wieck, an American woman who was teaching English there and had previously taught English in Luzhou, Sichuan province. In a blog post she wrote about a month later she shared some of her students' stories:

Almost all of my students are from remote farming regions here in Guangxi. And almost all of their parents are farmers.

Farmers account for 70% of the population in China. An estimated 700 million rural farmers provide 60% of the food for the country with their average income being $300 to $450 a year. Those considered at the extreme poverty level make less than $120 a year.

But among my students, I learned that many of their families have no income at all. They live off the land with few appliances to help them in their daily rituals. Home-grown peanuts are pressed into peanut oil for cooking. Vegetables grown year-round become the staple for meals. Raised pigs and chickens are their protein supply. Washing clothes by hand in nearby streams and rivers are a daily chore.

I have been to a number of these regions in Guangxi and have seen what Connie describes. It can be hard to believe these places are in the same country in which can be found cities such as Shanghai or Beijing.

Curious about how her students could meet their costs while in school, during a conversation with several female students Connie discovered that some of them work at factories when school is not in session:

I asked about the conditions of the factories they worked at.

Basic non-climate controled dorm rooms for 8 (bunkbeds, a toilet, a sink) are provided for workers but purchasing food is their own responsibility. They can either go to the factory cafeteria or outside.

Roommates are iffy. If you don’t know them, best to carry all your money and valuables with you or expect your things to be stolen...

Their pay ranged from 1,200 yuan to 2,000 yuan ($190 – $280) for 6 weeks of work. Hardly enough to cover the $800-plus our school requires.

In one case, the girl said she quit due to exhaustion after 5 days standing 12 hours straight at the assembly lines. Her pay? Nothing. Workers are paid by the month, not the week, so if you don’t stick it out those 30 days, you’re out of luck.

When I met Connie, she struck me as positive but aware of the realities for many in a region such as Guangxi. Combined with what I know from my own explorations, I was not at all surprised to read this:

I asked about their hopes for the future, after college.

Since these students are the first in their family to get a higher education, they’ll most likely be the main breadwinners after they finish school to help repay what was spent on their education. It’s a big burden, especially since finding job is so difficult.

In this area of the country especially, white-collar work is hard to come by. Guangxi is a poor province and city jobs are for university graduates, many who have connections. Those that come to these small vocational schools in remote areas don’t stand much of a chance to succeed in China. Despite having an education, they might still be stuck returning to factory work to help out their families.

But at least for now, they can enjoy an environment of learning and holding onto their future dreams.

I have asked many youth in China about their own hopes for the future and helping parents who living in difficult conditions is a common answer. I will later share a story of someone I met in Guangxi with a similar story, except she didn't even have the opportunity to complete her education and saw only one way she might be able to achieve this dream.

I recommend reading Connie Wieck's full post where she provides more details about the challenges faced by her students and their families. And although it may not be obvious to people in places such as the U.S. how these students perceive their own situation, a topic I will discuss later, I think Connie's final thoughts in her post are well worth considering. I don't want to fully reveal them, so again I recommend reading "American College Kids Don’t Know How Lucky They Are".

College Dormitories in China: Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities in Longzhou

In southwestern China more than a 40 hour car drive (map) from the Dalian Maritime University dorm room I previously featured, you could find the following dorm building at the Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities in Longzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

But start driving now, because this oldest campus of the school will soon be closed. The faculty and students who currently remain will be transfered to a newer campus a few hours away in the outskirts of Chongzuo city.

Nevertheless, an 8 bed room I visited in the dorm is similar to many others I have seen in China.

Despite Longzhou being in a southern climate with hot, humid summers, the rooms do not have air conditioning--typical for the dorms I have visited in China. I could point out several other things, such as the various shelving units, but instead I want to focus on the reddish paper next to the bed. Is it decoration? Well, it can be, but it also serves a more pragmatic purpose. Here is a similar example next to another bed in the same room.

The paper has been placed there to prevent a white dust from coming off the wall if a student rubs against it while sleeping. I have seen dorms elsewhere in China where students faced the same problem and employed the same strategy. This seems consistent with many other signs I have seen of apparently poor construction quality in university buildings, even newer ones, in China. A story for another day...

Another familiar aspect of the dorm was the hanging power strip.

Finally, the dorm room did have one piece of luxury not found in many other Chinese dorm rooms, including the one at Dalian Maritime University.

This dorm has its own bathroom.

The squat toiles that can be seen is typical for the dorms I have visited in China. They are also very common in many of the homes I have visited, but that can vary depending on region. I could easily write several posts on toilets in China. At this point, I will just say that I have seen renovated expensive restaurants with shiny new squat toilets and that there are several arguments for their superiority.

Finally, the bathroom also included a shower:

As would be typical for private bathrooms in dorm rooms, the shower was in the same space as the toilet. This arrangement can also be found in many homes in China. And like squat toilets, it has its own advantages and disadvantages.

That's all for this dorm room. More on showers later. You might be surprised where they can be found if they're not in the room. And if you are looking at the above photo and wondering about hot water, well, that's another story for later too.

Soon, I will share a story about some of the students at this school. Not only are they familiar with school dormitories, but factory dormitories as well.

UPDATE: See here for that story.

College Dormitories in China: Dalian Maritime University

Earlier I provided an introduction, an overview of some of my relevant research experience, and a brief methods section for a series of posts on college dormitories in China. And now finally an actual dormitory room, this one from the Dalian Maritime University in China's northeastern city of Dalian, Liaoning province.

There are many comments I could make about this four-person dorm room that I would rank as one of the more "upscale" I have seen in China. But since more is to come, and I have already written plenty in the previous recent posts, I will keep this simple and focus on one issue that can be important in college dorms: storage space. This dorm was remarkable in the amount that could be found.

One shelving unit mostly held toiletries.

There were also two units for locked storage.

The student who had earlier offered to guide me around the campus opened up one his locked storage compartments to reveal a number of items such as a pair of headphones, a laptop, books, and of course... toilet paper.

Even the area above the door was used for storing items.

And an area below the desk was also used as storage space.

You may have noticed some curious aspects of the storage space in the above photos. For example,  one of the units doesn't match the rest of the room. Also, some of the units look like they could be suitable for more than four people. Well, that is not an accident. Someday, if not already, the greenish storage unit may depart and more beds will be moved into the room.

Again, there is much more I could say about what can be seen in these photos, and there are many questions to ask, even just about the storage issue alone. I would be interested to hear your thoughts. In upcoming posts, I will share views of other dorm rooms, some of which will serve as striking comparisons. I will also later comment on some typical features of college dormitories in China that most Chinese students don't seem to give a second notice but would give most American students pause.

More is on the way.

UDPATE: See here for the next post: a view inside a dorm room at Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities.

College Dormitories in China: A Brief Methods Section

Before sharing the examples of college dormitories in China (introduction here; my relevant research experience here), an informal post on some of the "methods" I used may prove useful in interpreting what will soon follow. Although the methods varied, there are some commonalities worth mentioning:

1. None of these visits were arranged in any way by the universities. I visited all of the dorms at the invitation of students.

2. The students and the dorms were not selected by the universities in any way.

3. The choice of the specific dorms was not planned in advance. When the students woke up that morning, they had no idea I would be visiting their dorm room. The photos are all of "natural" conditions, and the students had no opportunity to prepare for my visit.

4. I made no effort to view any specific type of dorm.

Finally, I want to thank the many students who guided me around their schools, allowed me into their dorms, and opened up to me about a variety of topics. It reminds of the many other people in China who were friendly to me.

Now that those formalities are out of the way, on to the main posts...

College freshman in Dalian, Liaoning province, participating in their mandatory military training

UPDATE: See here for the first post of views inside a dorm room, this one at Dalian Maritime University.

College Dormitories in China: The Research

In the previous post I mentioned that I will share examples of living conditions in a variety of student dormitories in China. And as I wrote before, I would like to provide some background on why and how I became familiar with this topic.

While working as a user experience (UX) researcher at Microsoft China, I helped to inspire and guide the design of useful, usable, and desirable technologies for global and China-specific markets. What I learned on a daily basis through a variety of projects ranging from the usability testing of new applications for mobile phones to participatory design sessions with amazingly creative Shanghai high school students never ceased to amaze me -- both in terms of what seemed so familiar, and what seemed so different. And often, what I discovered not only surprised me, but my teammates as well.

One set of projects I led focused on the life of youth, 18 to 25 years old, in China. Based on what I was permitted to earlier share for an international conference in Germany, I can say that one of the projects covered five provincial capital cities in China: Changsha, Hunan province; Guiyang, Guizhou province; Xi'an, Shaanxi province; Ji'nan, Shangdong province; Changchun, Jilin province. They are cities in very different regions of China -- important since we well recognized China's diversity. Our specific recruitment requirements ensured that the Chinese participants whose lives we delved into came from a range of income levels, backgrounds, and environments. Since half of the participants were students and interviews began in participants' place of residence, I visited a number of college dormitories. I am not able to share the specific goals of this research study, even the participants didn't know the details (and sometimes they expressed confusion about what they could be). I am also not able to share the findings nor their impact other than to say I presented them to a wide range of teams at Microsoft both in China and the U.S.

But I mention this project because combined with others I conducted in China for Microsoft and similar technology companies, it serves as a background which implicitly guides some of my recent independent research. And as part of that recent research, I have visited many more universities in China.

Since beginning this blog, I have shared a variety of individual examples or stories that capture key themes in China: a migrant worker's first payday in Shanghai, a Guizhou woman's thoughts about Google's challenges in China, a Sichuanese waitress's surprise about the lack of censorship in Taiwan, or the "Sansumg" computer I found in a Nanning college classroom. Like the examples in those posts, I do not necessarily claim that on their own the upcoming examples serve as definitive proof for any particular "big" claim. But based on previous experiences, I am confident they are representative and significant examples. Most importantly, I hope they can provide a new perspective and stimulate further thought about the many topics they touch on--many do not only relate to China, but elsewhere as well.

College student in Changsha, Hunan province, displaying her map of the world

UPDATE: See here for the following post.

College Dormitories in China: An Introduction

Yesterday an American reader wrote to me:

I recently found your blog and just wanted to say how much I enjoy the pictures you post. They really show a different side of China than the image I have had in my mind.

I asked if he could say more and he replied:

My mental image was of a much more dismal place. I never thought much beyond the image of huge factories full of underpaid workers, but your pictures show that there is more than that in China (which I knew on some level, but never really thought about).

I'd really like to visit China if I am ever financially able to at some point.

First, I appreciate the comments, and I hope the reader someday has the opportunity to visit China.

Second, the reader's comments about his image of China are a great setup for some posts I have been planning to provide more context about working and living conditions in China. In another coincidental but perfect setup for what I will soon post, James Fallows is now sharing photos from his recent tour of a Foxconn site in Shenzhen, China. As Fallows writes, Foxconn:

is the hyper-secretive, highly controversial company that makes so many of the smartphones, computers, tablets, and other devices that you use.

At the moment, Fallows has four "Inside Foxconn" posts, all including photos. You can find them here: One; Two; Three; Four.

The third post includes photos inside a dorm room. In commenting on the dorms Fallows writes:

...I've seen enough other Chinese factories, rural schools, villages and so on to recognize that these are on the higher end of the spectrum.

Based on the many dorms I have seen in different regions of China, the photos shared by Fallows left me with a similar impression.

On that note, I will post series of photos from a range of dorms not at factories, but at universities I have visited across China. They will provide points of comparison for the dorms photographed by Fallows and also some perspective on the living conditions common for students in China. But before that, I want to provide a brief overview of why and how I became familiar with university dorm conditions in China as part of my research. That's coming soon.

In the meantime, I recommend checking out the Foxconn posts by Fallows if you haven't already. Newer posts may already be available on his blog at The Atlantic here.

UPDATE: Here is a current (as of Oct 27) list of links to posts on this topic in the order they were published:

• College Dormitories in China: The Research -- a brief overview of my most relavent background, including research at Microsoft China

• College Dormitories in China: A Brief Methods Section -- issues that could impact interpreting what I share

• College Dormitories in China: Dalian Maritime University -- a four bed male dorm room

• College Dormitories in China: Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities in Longzhou -- an eight bed male dorm room

• Still Able to Dream in Guangxi: Studying at School and Working at the Factory -- challenges faced by many of the students at the school in Longzhou

• The Faces of Students in Longzhou -- a photo of some of the students

• College Dormitories in China: Central South University of Forestry and Technology in Changsha -- a four bed female dorm room

More is on the way.

UPDATE 2: Here is a list of links to later relevant posts:

• Hanging Clothing at Dormitories in China -- hanging clothing is a common sight at universities

• College Dormitories in China: Zhaotong Teacher's College -- an eight bed male dorm room

• Hard Beds in China -- context for considering the thin mattress on the beds in the dorm rooms

• Stools in China -- context for considering the stools in the dorm roooms

College students outside their dorm rooms in Longzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

A Musical Experience in Beijing: Menuhin, Wieniawski, and Lee

Last month Beijing had the honor of hosting the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. The competition describes itself as "the world's leading international competition for young violinists" and includes two age groups: "Juniors" who are under the age of 16 and "Seniors" who are 16 to 21 years old. Americans won first prize in both groups and had three prize winners in total. South Korea also had three prize winners and China had two.

I did not become aware of the competition until a friend who was a conservatory classmate of mine and is now a professional musician positively commented on a video recording of a performance. Especially since this friend rarely shares recordings, I was rather curious. It only took a few notes by the junior group 2nd prize winner for me to be captivated. The performance is not just technically impressive, but surprisingly musical for one so young. I am sure a lot of practice was involved, but you cannot play like that without an excellent ear and a lot of spirit. I could go on, but performances are better listened to than described.

Below is Soo-Been Lee from South Korea ripping up Wieniawski's "Variations on an Original Theme in A Major" like I never imagined possible for an 11 year old. I recommend listening even if you do not care about the performers young age:

Young Workers at a Restaurant in Zhuhai, China

I met the two girls taking a lunch break above because they worked at an inexpensive local restaurant I frequented in Zhuhai. Almost any day from before lunch until after 8pm I could count on seeing them there taking orders, serving food, cleaning up, and more.

The girl in the striped shirt left the restaurant after I had been in Zhuhai for a couple of weeks. I later discovered her working at a nearby hair salon. I had several light conversations with the other girl and found out that she was about 15 years old. If that sounds young for someone to be working full time keep in mind that she had been working there for two years.

In my explorations across China I have met other girls who are also working full time at a young age. Sometimes it is the costs of high school (yes, it is not entirely free even in "Communist" China). Sometimes it is a family's need for additional income. And sometimes this additional income is primarily to support the education of a younger brother who may one day be a bread winner and source of pride for the parents. Whatever the case, they are sacrificing their education and the opportunities it could possibly bring.

Although many people may consider their situation unfair, it is not uncommon to hear them speak about their lives in very pragmatic terms. Though, typically more revealing thoughts and emotions can be found if one carefully digs deeper. But if you ask the girl on the right what she wants most now she will answer without hesitation.

Money. And what she realistically hopes for is probably far less than someone in a country such as the U.S. would guess.