Signing for Love in Malaysia

What's the best way to seek a boyfriend's forgiveness? One young woman in Malaysia decided the answer included collecting signatures from people in various Malaysian cities and taking photographs with them while she held a sign. When I happened to meet her today in Melaka, she already had many signatures in a previously blank book. For what was she seeking forgiveness? That didn't seem to be something she wanted to discuss.



One reason her actions caught my attention was that I could imagine a similar story playing out in China on a service such as Sina Weibo. And like the messages I saw on a bulletin board in a Changsha dormitory room, there could be important insights to gain about why she did not chose to express herself online.

Many may now be wondering if her boyfriend will respond favorably when she shares the fruits of her efforts. Without knowing more I don't think I could make a meaningful prediction. But she happily agreed to provide an update. If I hear anything, I'll pass it on.

Students Selling Christmas Apples in Quanzhou, China

Tonight I met five college students at a popular shopping street in Quanzhou, Fujian province.

They were all selling apples in paper bags with various designs for about 10 yuan (US $1.60) each. Why? Because it was Christmas Eve.

One of the ways some Chinese celebrate Christmas Eve is to give apples to their friends. The explanation usually given is that the Chinese word for "apple", "píngguǒ (苹果)", sounds somewhat similar the word for "peace", "píng'ān (平安)", and "Christmas Eve", "píng'ānyè (平安夜)". The apple simply represents goodness, happiness, or safety, and like wearing a Santa hat, the Christmas eve tradition has no religious connotation for these students. The apple giving practice is an example of how a Western holiday has been "localized" in China.

As I spoke to one of the students, further evidence of the tradition appeared when a young woman who was selling clothing nearby received an apple as a gift from her friend.

The students weren't just selling the apples to help others celebrate the holiday. They were all members of a business club at their university. Like many other students I have spoken to, they are concerned about gaining the "real world" experience they feel their school does not provide. The club helps to arrange such opportunities, even if it involves selling apples on the street and avoiding the local chengguan (城管), urban management officials whose responsibilities include cracking down on unlicensed street vendors. The occasionally appearing chengguan weren't perceived as a significant obstacle, but the students still found their job to be rather difficult. It didn't seem that many passersby needed a tastefully packaged 10 yuan apple. But at least the students had already sold 15 that night, including 7 to one woman alone.

In a later post, I will share a religious aspect to the Christmas holiday that I stumbled upon in Quanzhou. I didn't see any apples or chengguan involved, but there were plenty of police.

Stools in China

In an earlier post I shared some details about beds in China to provide relevant context for considering the thin mattresses often found on college dormitory beds in China. Another feature of the dorm rooms I shared here that received comments from readers can be seen in the following photo from the post about a dorm room at Dalian Maritime University.

Most of the comments mentioned that the small stools looked uncomfortable.

Although some have chairs, I've seen similar stools in many of the dormitories I have visited across China. I am not going to get into the issues of why they may be so typical or what students think of them. Instead, like with the thin mattresses, I will provide some context from the non-college world.

The simplest way to sum it up is that small stools are common in a number of settings in China. To provide a taste, I will share some photos from central areas of Changsha, Hunan province. It was easy to find relevant examples just by looking through my previously taken photos.

To start, here is the inside of a restaurant with a more traditional decor.

In my experience, the log stools are not common, but on the left side of the photo is a glimpse of more standard square traditional-style stools. Round traditional-style stools can also be found in some restaurants and I recall seeing them more often in the city where I was previously--Guangzhou.

But more of the Changsha food-establishments I have seen use the following types of stools.

Outside a snack shop

Outside a dessert restaurant

Outside a restaurant serving steamed dishes

Inside a restaurant

Outside a restaurant serving Japanese-style food

Just to be clear, not all restaurants in Changsha use stools. Chairs can be found in many of them. But I'd argue you would miss out on some great food and experiences if you had a strong aversion to stools.

Restaurants are not the only domain of stools in Changsha. The following are just a few examples of where else they can be found.

At a market

At a park

At one of the many marriage photography studios on a pedestrian shopping street
(note: the workers sat on stools as well)

I do not claim that this sample is fully representative for Changsha, but I am confident that these are not extreme or unusual examples. Variation in stool use can be found across China. For example, stools appear to be less common at restaurants in Shanghai than they are somewhere like Changsha. Regardless, stools are a part of regular life for many in China, and this context can impact perceptions of the stools found in college dormitories.

This post has made me realize there is much more to say about stools in China, but I'll have to leave at this. In a later post, I will discuss another set of issues about college dorm life in China relating not to sleeping or sitting but to drinking and washing.

Hard Beds in China

After what seemed like a successful fix this morning, I am still having challenges connecting through my VPN in China. Nevertheless, I will try to get back into the swing of things with several posts responding to some readers' earlier comments or emails. So on from the Great Firewall to the topic of beds in China.

On a post showing the inside of a dorm room at Zhaotong Teachers College a reader left this comment:

Going through all the dorm room pictures, I noticed one thing in common: The mattresses on the beds are VERY thin. Is that common everywhere you go, or is it just for dorms? And if it is just for dorms, have you found any exceptions to the thin mattresses?

A number of other people also asked about the beds, apparently because they appeared to offer a less-than-soft surface for sleeping.

I have seen a rather broad variety of beds in homes and hotels in China. There is a relevant trait many share to varying degrees. According to Western standards they would be considered hard no matter how thick a mattress they may have, if any. For travelers to China who desire softer beds, foreign hotel chains in particular can be a haven. There are also some mid-range Chinese hotel chains that offer softer-then-normal beds which makes me wonder if they are becoming more common or preferred. Regardless, in many cities even the priciest Chinese hotels can have beds that don't feel much softer than the floor.

I will avoid delving into the topics of why hard beds are so typical in China, why many Chinese people may prefer them, and what the future may hold for beds in China. My main point at the moment is simply that hard sleeping surfaces are common in China--a point that may change perceptions of the dorm beds seen in the photos I shared. In an upcoming post, I will share a similar example where broader knowledge about life in China can make a difference in evaluating its dormitories.

Finally, there is one exception I have seen to the style of dormitory beds seen in the earlier posts. A couple of the college dorms I visited appeared to have beds with much thicker and softer mattresses. In all the cases I saw, they were dorms specifically for foreign students. But those dorms are another story.

College Dormitories in China: Zhaotong Teacher's College

Before moving on to some broader dormitory-related issues, I want to share a look inside one more dorm room to provide a comparison with the previous examples from Dalian, Longzhou, and Changsha.

This male dorm room holds eight beds.

I visited it at the Zhaotong Teacher's College in Zhaotong, Yunnan province. Zhaotong is about 20 hours by car from either Changsha or Longzhou, but it is 227 miles (366 km) closer to Longzhou (map of the route from Longzhou to Zhaotong to Changsha).

Like the dorm examples from Dalian and Changsha, it did not have its own bathroom. A closer look at the photos will reveal signs of issues related to storage space, mosquitos, and so on. One feature of this room that I have seen in some others is its lack of desks. This can be one of the reasons why it is not uncommon to find students studying in college classrooms when they are not otherwise in use.

That's all for this dorm room. Again, I will touch on some broader issues soon. In the meantime, you may want to take a look at an example of a dorm room in Zhaotong at a less common type of school. It can be found amongst the photos in the post "Islam in China: Some Scenes from Zhaotong, Yunnan".

More Halloween in Changsha, China

On Sunday morning I posted about my Halloween weekend experiences in Changsha, Hunan province, which were minimal compared to my experiences during the same weekend last year in Taipei. But of course, Halloween day had yet to arrive. During the next few days I saw far more signs of the holiday around a popular central shopping district. To provide an example of American culture's growing impact even in China's interior regions, I will share some of what I saw.

Several shopping centers at or near the popular Huangxing Road Commercial Pedestrian Street were in the Halloween spirit. For example, the New World Department Store had some typical Halloween decorations.

The Fashion Time mall was spruced up for the holiday as well.

In addition to the decorations, the female staff wore eye masks.

And some of the staff in individual stores dressed in other styles.

Yesterday, one shopping center even had a Halloween Cosplay Party. During my few minutes there, I saw a couple of dance routines.

Although I saw no examples of kids trick-or-treating, I did see two kids dressed up.

Despite the fact they were not seeking candy, I felt guilty I had none to give them. Fortunately, they had no eggs.

Halloween night was rather busy at the clubs and bars near the pedestrian street. For those who did not come equipped, there were a number of people opportunistically selling Halloween supplies.

Of the people who dressed up, most seemed to be wearing the face masks or other items that could be purchased on the street. But not all...

Several of the larger clubs were decorated for the holiday and packed with people dancing and drinking. Although the staff typically wore costumes, most of the customers did not. None of the clubs I saw charged a cover fee (making it easy to take a quick look), and the song Gangnam Style was playing when I entered several of them.

Although many of the bars on a popular bar street were decorated for Halloween, the one I like to call "Kobe Bar" did not.

Instead, it appeared to be decorated for another holiday.

I don't know, ask Kobe.

Finally, although the above may provide a feeling that much of Changsha was in the Halloween spirit, it certainly didn't feel that way to me. Even around the pedestrian street many stores had no Halloween decorations. And farther away I did not notice a single sign of Halloween.

Or Christmas.

That's all. At least until next year, this likely concludes the Halloween theme. I likely won't be here to observe it, but I expect the Halloween spirit will be found in even more Changsha places next year.

Physical Education at Colleges in China

The above scene in front of the library at the Hunan First Normal University in Changsha, Hunan province, represents something I have seen many times at universities in China: students participating in "physical education" classes--though sometimes they seem to involve rather light activities. There has been growing concern in China about the physical fitness of its students. As China Radio International (CRI) reports on a recent attempt to address this issue:

A circular, recently published by China's State Council has proposed an assessment system for middle school students' physical health, including a compulsory PE exam for students being recruited to universities or colleges...

Recently, increasing study pressure has forced Chinese students to spend more time at their desks rather than on playgrounds. Obesity and poor nutrition are quite common, as described by Qu Guoyong, a middle school PE teacher at east China's Shandong Province.

And the China Daily reports on new policies for colleges:

Experts have praised new policies that encourage physical education at universities, which will see students being tested on their fitness levels...

The policy will see students' physique and fitness added as a factor in evaluating their performance at the university, Wang Dengfeng, director of physical, health and arts education for the Ministry of Education, told China Youth Daily.

[Mao Zhenming, dean of Beijing Normal University's sports college] predicted that student fitness levels will become part of the evaluation system for universities.

The current evaluation system looks at physical education programs, including investment in sports facilities, recreation areas and the rate of students reaching the national fitness standard, Mao said.

He hopes there will be more ways to measure physical education, such as the number of sports clubs, involvement in dormitory sports, and opening hours for recreation centers.

Random inspections from authorities are also necessary, he said.

If you are skeptical any of these methods, you are not alone. CRI reports that some experts have expressed their doubts about their effectiveness:

Cheng Fangping, a senior researcher on education studies with Renmin University of China says the plan is not feasible since the promotion of students' physical health cannot be achieved through PE exams alone.

"Students would take physical exercises just for the purpose of passing the exams rather than developing a healthy lifestyle. They would have no incentive to pursue more sporting activities after they finish the exams. They may have high exam scores but poor health conditions. So, teachers should encourage students to take exercises as an effective way of improving their learning efficiency."

But further change is possible. And some professionals in the field appear to be seeking ideas from outside of China. A press release from the U.S. Department of State describes a recent example:

Chinese physical education professionals will travel throughout the United States from October 15-23 to exchange ideas and experiences with their U.S. counterparts, as they look to achieve the shared goals of ensuring that all sectors of the population have access to sports and recreation, and the opportunity to learn physical fitness skills.

I will refrain from any jokes that could be made about Chinese coming to the U.S. for advice about physical education. Instead, I will positively note my support for cross-cultural exchanges such as this one. They can open up each side to new ideas--on the topic of improving the physical fitness of students, both China and the U.S. could probably use some.

Advertising a Pole Dancing School in Changsha, China

The other day in Changsha, Hunan province, I met this college student at a large shopping center:



It proved to be an experience that led to seeing a side of China familiar to me and a side I had not yet seen.

Like the student I had earlier met elsewhere in Changsha, she was handing out printed advertisements for a part time job. Unlike the other student, she was not earning 40 yuan RMB for working four hours. Instead, she was earning 30 yuan RMB (approximately US $4.80) for the same amount of work. However, if she chose to work a full day she could earn 50 yuan RMB--the same as offered to the other student.

What most caught my attention, though, was what she was handing out:

Front of the printed advertisement

Back of the printed advertisement

Yes, Changsha has at least one pole dancing school, and it was seeking new students. Given the many clubs in Changsha and what I have seen at some clubs elsewhere in China, this made perfect sense to me. However, I had never seen a pole dancing school before.

On a later day, I met another student handing out the same printed advertisement. After I asked her a few questions about the school, she offered to bring me there. So we went up to the 7th floor of a large building which also includes several clubs. Not surprisingly, inside the school next to the lobby was a dance room full of poles and pole dancing students. While there, I had a pleasant conversation with a manager, and he proudly told me about one of their graduates who now dances in the UK.

If you're curious to learn more about this school, their website (in Chinese) can be found here. It includes a variety of photos and a video which can also be watched on Youku here (probably will begin with an unrelated ad). In case you are concerned, I would consider it all safe for work (the video is similar to what is displayed above but with movement). As they say on their website, the school believes it is about being "专业 Professional", "健康 Healthy", and "自信 Confident".

I will refrain from explicitly making any deeper points--just sharing more of what I have seen in a country that has surprised me in a variety of ways, including in how it is both different and similar to a country such as the U.S.



*Updated link from currently dead www.rooduu.com to currently working www.rooduu.cc on May 31, 2015.

Hanging Clothing at Dormitories in China

In the post about the dorm room at the Central South University of Forestry and Technology in Changsha, I mentioned that it was common to see clothing hanging outside of college dormitories in China. For example...

Clothes hanging outside at a Guangxi University male dormitory in Nanning, Guangxi

Clothes hanging outside at a Qingdao University female dormitory in Qingdao, Shandong

More soon about water-related topics, such a showers and drinking water, at university dorms in China.

College Dormitories in China: Central South University of Forestry and Technology in Changsha

In my series of posts about the conditions in university dormitory rooms in China, I have shared examples from the Dalian Maritime University here and the Longzhou campus of the Guangxi Normal University for Minorities here. To round them out I will share an example from a dormitory at the Central South University of Forestry and Technology in Changsha, Hunan province.

If you drove from Dalian to Longzhou you would likely pass Changsha at about 26 hours into your 40+ hour drive (map displaying all three locations). In addition to being in a very different region of China, the room contrasts with the other two in another important aspect: it is in a female dormitory. Typically in China, college dormitory buildings are single sex and the opposite sex is not allowed to enter. But in this case security allowed me to be escorted inside. I will save why they were so kind for another day.

The dorm room I visited had four beds, each with a desk and storage space below.

This room was unusually spacious for this dorm building given its particular location and layout of the building. On some of the floor space in the room an assortment of items could be found.

One feature of the room that I have seen elsewhere was the central fan.

If you are now fretting over me sharing a photo of the young women's underwear, don't get your panties in a bunch. It is extremely common for universities students, and other people in China, to hang their clothes out to dry outside where they can be seen by all. If you want to study underwear preferences of college students in China, you could learn a lot just walking by many dorms.

Finally, unlike the dorm room in Longzhou, this room did not have its own bathroom. Here is a peek at a section of the nearby shared bathroom.

For the moment, I will avoid digging deeply into this specific example. But now that I have shared three different examples of dorm rooms, I will later write about some issues common to many universities in China. I will also provide a small taste of how visiting these rooms can aid in the design of new technologies.

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.