Jia Jia Li is a Murray State international student from China. She has been studying at Murray State for two years and is a TESOL (Teach English as a Second Language) major, with a focus on translation. Matt Markgraf speaks with Li about differences between southern and northern China, Chinese food in America, the authenticity of American Chinatowns, learning English, cultural misconceptions and plans for the future.
She says she wants to be a teacher and plans to continue her study in the United States when she moves on to graduate school. She's also the president of the Chinese Student Association. She came to Murray State through a connection with her home university in China, located in the Shandong province in the north. She grew up in the south.
Jia Jia says in her hometown the weather is always wet and rains often. There are a lot of rivers and bridges. There's not much snow and she says she was excited to see snow when coming to the U.S.
Growing up in the south and going to school in the north was a challenge, Jia Jia says. One of these challenges involved people sharing the same bathrooms. She says she was suprised to hear from her northern classmates that people take showers together as a normal activity and that it's normal to take showers with parents. Another change was the food - in the south rice is more common and in the north noodles are more common, she says, adding that the food is also spicier. She also struggled with her southern accent and said northerners found her difficult to understand at times. Some northerners think southerners have a "cute and soft" voice, she says, while in th north there tends to be a harsher tone that she says can sound like 'arguing.' -- People in China travel around the country much in the same way Americans in the U.S. do, a difference though is that China has a well developed high speed rail system, Jia Jia says, and often takes public transportation. She said public transportation in Chicago felt unsafe by comparison. -- In coming to the United States, Jia Jia says one of the biggest differences was the food. In China, many celebrations and traditions are centred around food. While rice and noodles are popular in China, in the United States she says sandwiches, fried chicken and pizza tend to dominate. Also, she was not used to eating raw salad in the U.S. and says it feels like a cow eating grass. In China, vegetables would be fried. -- She says American Chinese food is good, but not really authentic because of the oil used. However, she says she likes the effort to bring Chinese food to Americans and like that she can still eat familiar food in America. She says many Americans might not like authentic Chinese food because of the difference in tastes and textures. She says Americanizing the food is a way to share the culture. -- Jia Jia says she likes to cook, but her mom does the cooking back home. Coming to the United States, she has learned to cook Chinese food. When entertaining guests, she might go to Nashville for ingredients, but says she can buy most regular ingredients at the local Walmart. -- She says it's difficult to find a fish with a head on it. She says in China there is a desire to maintain the fish as a whole - with heads and tails. She says there are many popular dishes in China cooked only with the fish head. While there isn't much meat in the head, she says people like the texture. Personally, she prefers the fish meat. -- Other things for fun back home, Jia Jia says she enjoys karaoke and mahjong. She also enjoys moutain climbing with her parents and jogging. Bowling, she says, was a new experience in the U.S. -- Visiting Chinatown in Chicago - she says the food in restaurants was authentic but the gifts and souvenirs aren't as interesting for natives of China and might be more for Americans. She says Chinatown felt like China, but perhaps more like China in the 1980s. She says many of the "cultural" elements in China have made way for modernization. There are still places that have that distinct cultural feel, she says, but those are primarily tourist areas. Not many people live in those areas, she says, preferring to live in apartments in the cities. She says it's sad to lose some sense of cultural identity and that preserving some of that can help show future generations what China is really like. -- In China, learning English is an obligation, Jia Jia says. English classes are required for entrance into Middle School, High School and University. At the university level, one must pass the National Standard English Test to graduate, she says, adding that this has been a practice for decades. There is some backlash to this now, with a growing desire to learn other languages. She says, for instance her brother, who is getting ready to go to university, can now choose whether or not to take the English test. Some of her friends are good students but struggle with English and languages in general. She says there is great benefit in learning English - getting a job or going to the United States for education. She says her uncle exports mops and she is able to help becuase she can speak both languages and translate. -- On the importance of Mandarin in the future, Jia Jia says since China has the largest population, the language might become more popular in some American states, like California. But she says she feels like sometimes Chinese people take too much pride in their culture. She says when talking about the country, there's too much of a focus on the past and not enough attention on the future. While Americans are more inclined to step into the future by building and improving, she says, when trying to introduce some part of China to foreigners, there is often an emphasis on heritage and the past. She says she wants to contribute to the future of China in some way, but doesn't know how to go about doing that. -- In addition to English and Chinese, Jia Jia says she also knows three local dialects that are fading. In her hometown, there are 80 dialects, she says, and the three she speaks with her parents aren't written down. Young people aren't as eager to learn these fading dialects, but she feels proud that she knows them and wants to pass them to her children. She says the dialects sound very different to people who only speak Mandarin (more common in the north). -- Jia Jia says her brother is soon to graduate high school. Her dad owns an architecture company that builds houses. Her mom is a housewife. She says they have traditional family gender roles where the father works and takes care of the family financially. She says other households have double income where both the husband and wife work. This is changing very fast in Chinese culture, she says, for instance her uncle's family has double income. -- She said living in China she had stereotypes about America and an American culture that she overcame after living and learning in the U.S. She says some of the negative stereotypes were that Americans were fat, didn't work hard and were mostly white. Since coming here she has learned that there are more similarities in many ways, for instance she says there are lazy people in China, too. She says people misunderstand a lot of aspects of people with different nationalities. -- Some of the misunderstandings she has encountered includes being asked "Do you have electricity in your country?" To which her response is "What kind of question is that?" Wedding customs have also westernized. Red is the more traditional wedding dress color in China, but people prefer to wear white dresses now and tend to have smaller, more western-style ceremonies. -- She says another feeling she has in the U.S., while no one has said anything, she says she feels like people look down on Chinese students as being poor or receiving government help. She says most of the Chinese students pay for themselves and pay three times as much as an in-state student. She says she feels lucky because her parents value her education in America and pay her way at Murray State. -- Adapting to American culture as a student is challenging, she says, for instance when people say "have a great day" as a way of saying "goodbye" is unusual. If she were to say that back home people look at her strangely. She says she is realizing differences every day. -- One, more complicated difference, she discovered in her grant writing class. She was suprrised to learn how non-profits get funding from donations. She says the idea of donating is differnt in China. Whereas in the United States there is an incentive to donate by getting a tax break, in China donating to an organization is just that - a donation. She says taxes are also less transparent in China and that if there was a lower tax rate, people may feel more inclined to give more to nonprofits. -- Jia Jia says both countries have a shared value in helping people in need. The method of going about doing that is somewhat different, though. In China, there is a general sense of collectivism - a WE that unites people in time of need and in the United States there is more of an individual or I sense of helping. In China, she says there is some drawback to collectivism. Sometimes she says it makes her feel like she's not important. Her parents would sometimes say "you are not special" or "you are not the only one to suffer from this problem" but an American hearing that might feel disappointed. In the US, people tend to stress every individual's personality and capacities, she says, but in China one is encouraged to go with the mainstream and not act so important. She says in class, Chinese students are less inclined to ask questions because unless the question is very good there is a fear of looking bad or unprepared. In this aspect Americans have more confidence, she says. -- She says there are around 200 Chinese students at Murray State. She says there is not a sense of collectivism as in China since living in America they have adopted some American values. She says they celebrate some festivals, including the mid-autumn and spring festivals. -- After graduating murray state, Jia Jia says she's planning on attending graduate school in California or Chicago. She says she will eventually go back home to be with family and wants to do something for her country as well.
