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OCR for page 41
3. Setding 1h
Life in China is a fascinating blend of common patterns with unique
variations. Overall the experiences of academic visitors to China evince
great similarity, but no two are completely alike. The shaping influ-
ences of personality, timing, context, and a myriad of other factors are
as important in China as in any other country; so it would be unwise
to assume that your experience will mirror those described here. None-
theless, some common patterns have emerged during the seven years
Americans have had the opportunity to live and work in China. Each
returning "veteran'' has a fund of anecdotes and insights, and it is the
most exemplary and interesting of these that have been included in the
observations that follow.
ARRIVING IN CHINA
You should plan to consult an experienced travel agent in the United
States about the many methods to enter China. There are now direct
flights to Shanghai and Beijing, but many travelers still prefer to stop
in Hong Kong or Tokyo for a few days' rest before proceeding to their
destination in China. In Hong Kong the China Travel Service can supply
information and tickets; the address of the main branch is
77 Queens Road, Central District
Hong Kong Island
(phone: 5-259121)
The China International Travel Service, which serves non-Chinese
visitors exclusively, has an office in:
41
OCR for page 42
42 CHINA BOUND
South Sea Centre
Sixth Floor, Tower Two
Tsimshatsui East
Kowloon
(phone: 3-7215317)
The China Guidebook* contains information on travel into China from
Japan on cruise ships, overland by rail, and so on. The China National
Tourist Office in New York (212-867-0271) also can be consulted.
It is the responsibility of the host institution to meet new arrivals
and escort them to their residence. But the sheer volume of academic
travelers to China has placed a strain on host organizations which
sometimes results in less than smooth arrangements for meeting and
housing newcomers. To guard as much as possible against mix-ups at
the airport, be sure to communicate your travel plans to your Chinese
hosts clearly and early on; you can telephone or cable from Hong Kong
if final plans are made there or cable from the United States. Whatever
method you use, remember to notify all the organizations involved in
hosting you. For example, if you are to be associated with a unit in the
interior that has a parent organization in Beijing or Shanghai, you
should not assume that the two organizations will communicate with
each other. The local unit may send a representative to the city to meet
you, or someone from the parent organization may be on hand. Or, in
some unfortunate cases, weary travelers have found no one at the air-
port although airport personnel usually are willing to find a taxi driver
who will help locate temporary quarters. The experience of a non-
Chinese-speaking scientist who arrived on a late evening flight and was
not met is reassuring: "I arrived in Beijing at 10 p.m., but because my
baggage did not make the connection in San Francisco I had to wait
and eventually make the missing baggage report at midnight. By that
time, the Academy person waiting for me had left and I was sent by
the information desk person to the . . . Ritan Hotel, next to Ritan Park
and the U.S. Embassy." This report does not indicate what happened
to the bags; in most cases, they show up on the next flight. If they are
clearly labeled with the address of your unit's foreign affairs office, they
may be delivered there. But you might also want to return to the airport
to check for your baggage. Whenever your bags arrive, you must be
prepared to go through customs on your own because your hosts cannot
meet you until you have picked up your bags and completed customs
forms. The customs process is quite hectic in the Beijing airport; several
flights usually arrive at once, baggage carousels are inadequate for the
*Unless otherwise noted in the text, Appendix L gives publication information
for references cited in this chapter.
OCR for page 43
SETTLING IN 43
volume of traffic, and there are too few customs personnel. One word
of warning: be sure not to lose your customs form in the mayhem.
It is a good idea to have the phone number of your unit on hand so
that you can call if you arrive during working hours. You should try
to avoid a weekend arrival if possible. Most units are open on Saturday,
but Sunday is almost universally a day of rest and offices will be closed.
If your flight is delayed en route, try to cable the unit so that personnel
do not make unnecessary trips to the airport. In Beijing and Shanghai,
these are long and time-consuming journeys. One American teacher
tells how a conscientious Chinese cadre met every plane from abroad
for two days searching for him because he had not been able to cable
an abrupt change in travel plans. If after you arrive in China, you must
make your own arrangements for travel to your final destination, ask
for help at the reception desk of one of the larger hotels. Service workers
should be able to direct you to the nearest office of the China Travel
Service. At the Beijing and Shanghai airports, taxi service is available.
Ask for help from airport service workers if necessary.
THE TENOR OF LIFE IN CHINA
THE DANWEI Every foreigner who lives and works in China is
assigned to a work unit, which in Chinese is called a danwei. For the
foreign visitor, as well as for any working member of Chinese society,
the danwei is the single most important frame of reference for all ac-
tivities. Whether it be a commune, factory, research institute, or uni-
versity, the work unit is a microcosm of Chinese society with its own
political hierarchy, networks of personal and professional relationships,
services, and, in many cases, living quarters. It is through the work
unit that the Chinese government exerts its influence on the life of the
individual, for it is the unit issuing the identification card that marks
the bearer as a working member of Chinese society, entitled to medical
care, ration coupons, and housing. And it is not only the necessities of
daily life that are provided by the unit but also permission to marry,
to bear the allotted number of children, and to travel. The unit acts as
a go-between when its members must communicate with other orga-
nizations and screens outsiders who attempt to penetrate its bound-
aries. Lateral relations among danwei, even those engaged in similar
activities, are cumbersome for permanent members as well as for for-
eign guests because of the autonomous nature of the units.
Temporary movement in and out of the danwei is common for Chinese
intellectuals and administrators, especially since the advent of the new
reforms, which stress the importance of self-improvement through ed-
ucation and specialized training. Permanent voluntary transfers are
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44 CHINA BOUND
still rare, however, and it is not unusual for husbands and wives to
work in danwei in different cities. There is some evidence of more job
mobility for Chinese workers as a result of the economic reforms but
usually only if the unit engaged in "headhunting" or the worker seeking
new employment is willing to pay a stiff fee to compensate the original
place of work. Thus, it is still true that, once they have been assigned
to a work unit, most Chinese remain there for the rest of their working
lives, in close quarters with friends and allies as well as with bitter
enemies, especially since the Cultural Revolution.
These internal relationships are important and all too often unknown
to the short-term visitor. But foreigners who have become integrated
enough into a unit to be aware of its inner workings usually discover
that surface cordiality among Chinese coworkers does not necessarily
reflect deeper harmony. The presence of a foreigner, even if temporary,
can create further imbalances, as such resources as office space and
the use of assistants are redistributed to accommodate the newcomer.
More importantly, as one veteran of two years in a Beijing research
unit points out, the Chinese members of the danwei who associate most
closely with the foreigner become both more visible and more vulner-
able to their colleagues. It is wise then to refrain from showing too
much favoritism publicly to Chinese friends and from betraying con-
fidences that could create embarrassment or worse for those you come
to know well.
In their informative study of a hospital work unit in Wuhan, Gail
Henderson, a sociologist, and Myron Cohen, a physician, examine in
detail the meaning and position of the work unit in Chinese society and
in their own professional experience:
Danwei are isolated from each other in relatively closed systems, de-
pendent upon higher levels for the source of their power and authority
over members. The danwei system is, of course, not the sole force af-
fecting the lives of work unit members. Other factors include the family,
relationships with people outside the danwei, membership in neigh-
borhood organizations, the power of the professional within a bureau-
cratic organization, constraints on middle-level leaders, and the influence
of the Communist Party and other national organizations. Nevertheless,
the danwei has an extraordinary influence on its individual members
and (in our case) on the formal and informal relations among the hos-
pital administrator, doctors, nurses, and patients. This influence does
not lessen the importance of the other doctors, but rather interacts
with them and provides an additional layer of control with which
Chinese citizens must cope in their daily lives. (pp. 7-8 in The Chinese
Hospital: A Socialist Work Unit, by Gail Henderson and Myron Cohen.
Copyright ~ 1984 Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Reprinted with
. .
permlsslon
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SETTLING IN 45
If anything is predictable about a stay ire China, it is that you will
become a member (albeit perhaps a marginal one) of this highly struc-
tured society and can accomplish very little without learning to work
within its boundaries. Although there may be a certain degree of se-
curity and simplicity inherent in such a setup for example, you need
not worry about the basic arrangements for daily life most foreigners
feel confined when they realize that most arrangements for daily and
professional life must be channeled through the waishi banshichu-
literally, "the office for outside business," but usually referred to simply
as the foreign affairs office or waiban.
THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS OFFICE Although the foreign affairs of-
fice looms large in the lives of foreigners, it does not exist simply to
oversee the foreign guests within the unit. It is also the administrative
office that handles all of the unit's external relationships, including
arranging for its Chinese members to go abroad, receiving delegations,
and negotiating exchange programs. Special waiban personnel, usually
trained to some degree in foreign languages, look after the personal
affairs of the foreigners in the unit and serve as their liaison with other
units and with different departments within the unit itself. The foreign
affairs office thus provides a mechanism that allows the foreigner to
work within the unit without becoming integrated into its hierarchy.
It is the duty of the foreign affairs cadre to interpret, negotiate, and
supervise the implementation of the wishes of their foreign guests—
and to take responsibility for the consequences.
Within this system the foreigner often feels a dismaying lack of con-
trol over the direction of academic work and the more mundane but
equally important arrangements for daily living. In his description of
his relationships in a rural commune that had never before hosted a
foreigner, Steven Butler points out that the foreign affairs officials had
little knowledge of or sympathy for his research goals; nonetheless,
they were responsible for all of his onsite activities:
The foreign affairs officials are responsible for ferrying foreigners in
and out of the labyrinth of highly segmented work and residential units
that make up Chinese society, and their main professional charge seems
to be to make the foreigners comfortable and, as they say, to "promote
friendship between the Chinese and American people." They do this
mainly by arranging things so that foreigners do not have to lift a
finger. For these persons, my visit to China was simply one more profes-
sional assignment, although the length and nature of my stay were new
to them. (The Social Sciences and Fieldwork in China: Views from the
Field, p. 103)
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46 CHINA BOUND
It is the burden of foreign affairs officials to show the best side of
China to the outsider, a task complicated by their own marginality in
Chinese academic society and their precarious role as interpreters for
people whose cultures they know only secondhand. Very few foreign
affairs personnel have the opportunity to spend any significant time
abroad because they are not scholars and they are not highly placed
in the administrative structure and because their services cannot be
spared in China.
It will take time and effort for you to figure out how your unit is
organized, who has formal authority and who has actual power, how
to couch requests, and what role the foreign affairs officials play. Advice
about how best to deal with the foreign affairs office is difficult to offer
because situations vary so much from unit to unit. Some China veterans
suggest that you ignore the foreign affairs officials as much as possible
and instead make arrangements through academic colleagues who of-
ten have more clout within the unit than functionaries and are likely
to be more in sympathy with your academic goals. Others openly advise
their successors that functionaries must be courted. One graduate stu-
dent laments that he heeded warnings to avoid the foreign affairs office:
"It has been my experience this year that if you get to know them well
arid have requests which are within their power to grant, they will be
granted. This is not unlike bureaucrats and administrators in the West."
He goes on to point out, however, that help from Chinese bureaucrats
often hinges on personal feelings. Of one particularly powerful official,
this student states: "If he does not like you, he will use every means to
prevent you from achieving your goals." The traits that may help you
to be perceived as a "friendly foreigner" include good cheer in the face
of adversity, respect and understanding for the limitations of particular
offices, and the ability to offer criticism constructively which means,
in the opinion of one researcher, that when frustrated you should not
slander the socialist system or Chinese culture wholesale but rather
focus on particular problems at hand.
It is helpful as well to understand your own role in the larger sense.
Steven Butler achieved a rapport with the officials responsible for him,
despite their constant scrutiny and attention, by displaying sensitivity
to how his presence affected the balance for them. He compares the
lavish hospitality accorded him to the treatment a populist-minded
president might expect if he
descended on a rural backwater to attend a town meeting.... To com-
plain about such treatment makes you look like an ungrateful guest
and makes people feel that they have been bad hosts. Rather than fight
it, it is better to play along. It works out better for everyone. I became
convinced toward the end of my stay that even ordinary Chinese peas-
ants perceived of the way I was treated as role playing, in the fullest
OCR for page 47
SETTLING IN 47
sociological sense and part of an elaborate ritual. The status conferred
on me was not intrinsic to myself, but derived from the role played in
a situation that was really beyond anyone's control. When I played
along, it put people at ease. They felt that they knew what they could
expect from me and they could relax. (The Social Sciences arid Fieldwork
in China: Views from the Field, p. 119)
Experiences vary, and indeed some foreigners might envy Butler the
solicitous attention he received. Your status, linguistic capabilities,
prior contacts with the danwei, and outside networks, as well as the
unit's own history and style of dealing with foreigners, all play a part
in determining how to best approach the foreign affairs office. In ad-
dition, the number of foreigners in their care is a major factor influ-
encing the way foreign affairs officials treat any individual. Butler was
the only foreigner in his unit, and he enjoyed the status of a research
scholar. A student in a university crowded with foreign students from
all over the world can expect less help and even, at times, a disturbing
lack of cooperation from overburdened officials. What students lack in
comfort and attention, however, they are compensated for by a relative
degree of freedom to make their own arrangements. Students can make
their own travel plans, for example, and in doing so can determine the
style and schedule of their trips far more easily than the honored foreign
guest who tours with an entourage or is met along the way with in-
terpreters and guides. Ironically, students also have the opportunity to
understand the intricate workings of the bureaucracy because they
often come face to face with it, and such experiences, although frus-
trating at times, also offer insights not always available to those shel-
tered by high status.
Sometimes busy foreign affairs personnel, who may not have been
involved in placement negotiations at a higher level, are not quite
certain of the status of their guests. One senior scholar, whose housing
and travel arrangements were far from satisfactory because the waiban
did not offer assistance, concludes that, in general, China does not have
the physical facilities or student and faculty personnel to handle all
those it would sincerely like to welcome. He goes or to say that the
result of so many people coming in through the new "open door" is
that "China seems to find it difficult at this stage to discriminate among
her visitors with respect to their usefulness, seniority, etc. As a con-
sequence, allocations of all kinds seem to be made literally on a first-
come/first-served basis." It can be assumed generally, however, that
when foreign affairs officials work on behalf of their foreign guests, it
is to their own advantage rather than against their interests because
they bear ultimate responsibility for the visit. As one young woman
who works in the foreign affairs office of a large, prestigious Beijing
unit remarked to a foreign couple about to embark unaccompanied on
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48 CHINA BOUND
a long journey to western China, "If anything happens to you, I will
pay for it!"
THE QUALITY OF LIFE Every work unit is a minisociety with its
own traditions, folklore, factions, history, and style of working with
foreigners. Among university campuses the superficial aspects of life,
such as dormitory accommodations, organizational structures, even the
style of the buildings, might be uniform, but the flavor of daily life may
be very different. The location of the city in which you live, the size
and personality quirks of the foreign community there, the unit's ex-
perience or lack of it with foreigners, and its standing with other or-
ganizations all make a great difference. A small normal college that
does not enjoy prestige within the educational system may be either
more defensive and rigid with its foreign guests or more welcoming
than a large key university; a research institute that has never hosted
foreign guests may be eager to establish new ties or, alternatively,
suspicious and unhelpful at first. As a result, generalizations about daily
life must be made with caution. Nonetheless, recurring themes do emerge
from reports and conversations with foreigners who have lived in China
for any length of time.
One frequent observation is that there is little separation between
personal and professional life, especially for those who live on the cam-
pus of their work unit. But no one, not even a hotel dweller in a far
corner of the city, is immune to frequent visits from anxious colleagues,
especially in the first few weeks when there is a genuine concern that
newcomers become acclimated as soon as possible. There is reason for
worry: most foreigners do in fact fall ill or at least feel out of sorts
initially. But such attention sometimes only prolongs the adjustment
process. As one American comments, "Some things are difficult to get
used to the absolute lack of privacy is one. There are people hovering
about me from 6:30 a.m. until I retire. They are all well-intentioned,
trying to make me comfortable and trying to help. But it's hard to
adjust to and in many ways sets up a barrier between me and the society
I am studying. I am gradually finding ways to get around this, but the
key here is patience."
Indeed, the word "patience" comes up again and again as Americans
offer advice for getting along in China: "Patience is the most valuable
trait to take to China. The Chinese don't operate from the same premises
as Americans do in terms of the appropriate way to get things done
and a good measure of understanding is required to avoid considerable
frustration." And from another: "Be sensitive to Chinese personality
traits; they are much more patient than we, and a quick temper will
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SETTLING IN 49
get you nowhere. Never take yourself, or the Chinese, too seriously;
they are extremely modest, a trait we Americans should learn to prac-
tice more assiduously."
Foreigners learn very quickly that there is a severe shortage of space
in most Chinese organizations and that few of their Chinese colleagues
enjoy the luxury of a private office or for that matter, any office at
all in some cases. Foreign visitors have admitted feeling ashamed at
being so well-housed when their Chinese colleagues have to work with-
out quiet space and to live in small and crowded quarters. As one
researcher in a scientific unit put it, she felt guilty when she realized
that her office had once accommodated six or eight of her colleagues,
who now had to do without in order to supply her, the foreign guest,
with adequate office space. Some scholars whose work takes them to
the countryside discover that special quarters with showers, kitchens,
and personnel to staff the establishment—have been put together just
for their use. Such luxurious accommodations place them embarrass-
ingly far above the living standard of their Chinese neighbors.
On the other hand, some researchers and teachers have been dis-
mayed at the conditions of laboratories, classrooms, and dormitories,
which are not generally heated or well-maintained and are sometimes
downright unsafe. One scientist, for example, discovered asbestos ma-
terials filtering through the heating system, and others have com-
plained about inadequate fire escape outlets in dorms and hotels. But
anyone who has visited a Chinese home, or is sensitive to the working
conditions of colleagues, understands that in most cases foreigners en-
joy conditions far superior to those of their Chinese counterparts, who
are often quite frank about the problems generated by lack of space.
Because of the shortage of space and because many members of the
damsel live on campus, business that is considered public and profes-
sional in the West is often conducted in the room of the foreign guest.
It is not unusual for a foreign visitor's room to become the only place
to hold language tutorials, conduct financial negotiations, arrange for
travel, and so on. Although first meetings with Chinese colleagues may
be very formal, once a relationship is established, friends and colleagues
feel free to stop by, without phoning ahead, simply to visit; or they may
make vague plans to meet, leaving you bound to your room for hours
at a time waiting for a friend or student who promised to stop by
"sometime in the afternoon, today or tomorrow." Sometimes Chinese
colleagues and friends will appear without any notice at all at times
when they are least expected early on a Sunday morning, for instance.
The only time that you can be relatively sure of privacy is during the
xiuxi or rest period, from noon until 1:30 or 2 p.m. You, in turn, should
not disturb Chinese friends at that time, which is not only a respite but
for many an opportunity to run errands or do the day's marketing.
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50 CHINA BOUND
There is, in the words of one American scholar, a "different concept
of privacy in China people walking into one's room freely, inspecting
personal items, reading mail, asking questions. An adjustment is needed."
You will also find that the boundaries in China between acceptable
questions and embarrassing intrusions are different, and you must be
prepared to answer all sorts of questions that Americans generally
consider taboo about money earned and spent, where you have been
that day, or where exactly you plan to go tomorrow. But rarely will
Chinese colleagues and friends especially the older generation ask
you about your personal life beyond a polite concern for health and
family matters, nor will they offer details about theirs. Some foreigners
have learned only by accident, for example, that a longstanding Chinese
friend is divorced or about to marry. As one senior scholar observed,
"It often took a genuine effort to establish a dialogue that moved beyond
the superficial aspects of daily life, especially with my older Chinese
colleagues."
Younger people are sometimes far more open. American students can
expect a great deal of curiosity about U.S. life (from rock stars to ro-
mance), and they may, in turn, be offered insights into Chinese family
life, courting behavior, and marriage expectations. Often the most in-
tense encounters occur when you are traveling, for it is easier to talk
frankly with people you will never see again.
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS Barriers between outsiders and
Chinese citizens are still formidable because they are the result not
only of cultural differences but of official policies designed to mitigate
the influence of foreign culture. Some of these barriers are obvious:
Chinese guests often are required to register when visiting a foreigner
in a hotel room; the Chinese are denied entrance to stores reserved for
foreigners unless they have special permission. Other impediments are
less clear and more troubling. Some Chinese intellectuals are cleared
for contacts with foreigners while others must ask permission to visit
a foreign friend. And some Chinese are obviously nervous about contact
with foreigners for reasons an outsider may never be able to fathom.
In addition to individual fears of the consequences of friendships with
foreigners, your Chinese acquaintances may be responding to changes
in government policies that affect their relationships with outsiders.
Many times these shifts are known to foreigners only indirectly for
instance, when their relationships with Chinese friends subtly change
without explanation or when the rules governing access to institutions
or materials become more restricted—because policy shifts of this sort
are rarely articulated publicly.
Over the past few years, vicissitudes in regulations affecting foreign
students have created a good deal of confusion. Students report that
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SETTLING IN 51
at times they are free to invite Chinese friends into their dormitory for
conversation, and then suddenly new registration procedures will be
announced that limit visits to certain hours or prevent them altogether.
These procedures are rationalized with explanations that make little
sense such as the common one that officials are only "protecting"
their guests from the unsavory designs of certain "bad elements." Many
Americans in China during the antispiritual pollution campaign in late
1983 described how they began to suspect a policy shift when all their
Chinese friends suddenly became cool or were simply unavailable, and
when libraries and reading rooms previously open were abruptly closed
to them. Because as guests, as outsiders, foreigners operate so much in
the dark, it seems best to let Chinese colleagues take the lead in deter-
mining the kind of relationship that can develop under circumstances
that only they can fully comprehend. Some foreigners have expressed
doubts about whether the Chinese even know fully the present or future
consequences of contact with foreigners.
As Anne Thurston observes in her useful comments on the personal
side of carrying out fieldwork in China ("Social Sciences and Fieldwork
in China: An Overview," in The Social Sciences and Fieldwork in China:
Views from the Field), antiforeign and anti-American feelings can be
found at all levels of Chinese society. Suspicion of a foreigner's activities
is most easily aroused when the outsider steps out of the bounds of the
category in which he or she originally has been placed.
Whether the foreigner is labeled a tourist, a foreign expert (a teacher),
an undergraduate or graduate student, or a foreign scholar will have
considerable bearing on what the foreigner is permitted to do. A tourist,
after all, is expected to sightsee, a foreign expert to teach, a student to
study, and a foreign scholar to conduct research. For a foreign expert
to attempt to conduct research without official permission is to risk
serious misunderstanding and potential jeopardy to Chinese friends
who may have assisted in that research. (The Social Sciences and Field-
work in China: Views from the Field, p. 24)
Those who travel to China to carry out serious work of any kind must
have the sanction of officialdom at some level. Even with that sanction,
they may well find it hard to balance the demands of a project with
sensitivity to the situation of Chinese colleagues and friends.
The term guanxi comes up again and again when anyone, Chinese or
foreign, tries to discover how to accomplish anything in China. It seems
that the bureaucratic structure at times merely provides a framework
for the more intangible workings of intricate webs of personal relations
and favors. Chinese friends will tell you that personal relations (who
you know, who owes you a favor, or who thinks you might be able to
be of use in the future) are far more important to understand than the
formal lines of authority. For example, Chinese friends that you have
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60 CHINA BOUND
afternoon; or that a long-awaited trip to the field is finally scheduled-
for the next morning.
HOUSING
Foreigners who study or work in the Chinese educational system are
categorized according to the type of program in which they participate.
Each group is subject to different housing and financial arrangements.
Students almost always are assigned to a campus dormitory reserved
for foreigners. Most colleges and universities do not allow Chinese and
foreign students to room together, and the trend in the larger schools
is to segregate foreign students in separate dormitories. How much
students pay out of pocket is determined by the.kind of program in
which they enroll. Most U.S.-sponsored language programs charge a
flat tuition, room, and board fee that covers all the essentials including
meals; other programs include only partial payment to the Chinese
organization for these services. Graduate students and undergraduates
who make their own arrangements with a Chinese institution of higher
learning will pay all expenses directly to that institution. In addition,
there are a variety of agreements between Chinese and U.S. institutions
for student exchanges that include remission of tuition or room-and-
board costs.
"The Regulations Concerning the Admission of Foreign Students in
Chinese Schools, 1986" (see Appendix B. items IV.A and IX.B) spell out
the rules governing student housing. "Chinese schools have separate
dining halls for foreign students. However, foreign students may, if they
wish, have meals in the canteens for Chinese students. They should
observe the regulations of the dining halls and canteens and maintain
order in them. Chinese schools provide dormitories for their foreign
students. In general, two students share one room. No special accom-
modations are available for married couples or for students' family
members. Foreign students must abide by the school's regulations re-
lating to housing." In some schools, if space permits, students can
occupy a room alone that is, if they pay for the unused bed. The 1986
regulations also set dorm rates: US$1.50 per bed per day for a double
room, two students sharing a room. The cost of a single room is US$4.00
per day.
Scholars and academic visitors above the student level are considered
guests; they usually are housed in hotels and guest houses and must
pay tourist rates from their own funds. Because Chinese organizations
usually have longstanding arrangements with one or two hotels to house
their foreign guests, there is not much room for choice. Recently some
foreigners who know the system well have been able to arrange their
own housing but only if space is available. The high volume of tourists
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SETTLING IN 61
in China often negates the possibility of striking out alone to find hous-
ing even if the host unit tolerates such initiative. Sometimes guest
houses on smaller campuses will house students, scholars, and foreign
teachers but at different rates depending on status and amenities.
Teachers are classified either as foreign experts (who are selected by
the State Education Commission) or as foreign teachers (who make
direct arrangements with the host unit). Provisions for teachers vary
according to the organization, but generally either on-campus apart-
ments or hotel suites are provided. As noted earlier, the regulations
governing foreign experts state that the hiring party must provide hous-
ing and the following related items for the employee: furniture, bed-
ding, a bathroom, a television set, a refrigerator, and the facilities for
heating and air conditioning. However, returned experts caution their
successors that while these material comforts are usually in place, prob-
lems with maintenance and electricity sometimes seriously reduce their
rr. ~
ertlclency.
There is a good deal of flexibility in this scheme. If space permits,
some institutions allow researchers to live on campus in housing re-
served for their own faculty or foreign experts. In such cases the rates
are higher than for teachers but usually considerably lower than the
cost of a hotel room. Similarly, in some units researchers and teachers
have been able to live in student dormitories but usually only after
some negotiation and for a higher fee than students normally pay.
Researchers who travel or who work in the countryside have been
housed in a variety of accommodations- from dormitories (at about
Y4 per night) to moderately priced hotels in larger cities (at Y80 and
up).
HOTELS Hotel accommodations in China range from the very ex-
pensive joint-venture hotels that offer Western amenities and service
at Western prices to very modest establishments that house Chinese
travelers as well as foreign guests. In most cases, if your Chinese hosts
make arrangements, they will place you in medium-priced lodging,
usually one of the older Chinese hotels. Typical suites include one or
two rooms, a private bath, a very small closet or wardrobe, a bureau,
a desk, a telephone, and a color television. The amount and type of
furniture in each room is fixed by regulations, which allow for very
little maneuvering within the system. Most long-term residents find
ways to decorate their room with plants, prints, and extra furniture
purchased outside. For a small daily charge, some hotels will set up a
temporary cot for visitors, particularly relatives.
Kitchen facilities are rarely provided, but all hotels have a dining
room and most offer both Chinese and Western food. Hotel fare is
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62 CHINA BOUND
usually relatively expensive (about Y6 to Y8 for a simple lunch and Y15
for a dinner with several dishes) and almost always monotonous. To
combat both high prices and the monotony, you can eat out frequently
in neighborhood restaurants or other hotels or find creative ways to
eat "at home" (see the section on food and cooking supplies in Chapter
2, "Preparing for the Tripod.
Some residents have lunch at their work unit for a few mao per meal,
eating only breakfast and dinner at the more expensive hotel restaurant.
Some units strongly advise their foreign guests against eating in the
canteen sometimes to maintain the separation between foreigners and
danwei personnel but sometimes because the food is genuinely of poor
quality. One researcher who insisted on principle that he be allowed
to take lunch at the workplace was told repeatedly by colleagues that
the food was not up to minimal standards of cleanliness. When he finally
won the right to eat at work, he became violently ill. Some reading
rooms and offices close down for the noon xiuxi, and it is simply easier
to return to your hotel for lunch and rest or to prepare for the afternoon's
activities.
Hotel life in China is comfortable but confining. The academic visitor
who goes to China to gain access to the culture often finds that social
life there revolves too much around a community of foreigners, many
of them cynical and disillusioned. There are far too few opportunities
for casual, everyday contact with Chinese friends, who often cannot
visit a foreigner without signing a slip at the hotel desk that identifies
their unit and the room they are to visit. In some hotels Chinese visitors
cannot even enter the grounds without a pass. The irony of hotel life
is that it is hard to see Chinese friends naturally within its walls but
even harder to maintain some privacy from the Chinese staff at the
establishment. Keys are usually kept at the service desk on each floor,
and service personnel are generally very responsible about protecting
guests from outsiders. But because they consider the hotel their place
of work rather than the living quarters of their guests, work schedules
generally take priority over the individual needs of temporary residents.
It is not unusual for five or six fuwnynan (service personnel) to visit
the room every day, each with a different task from cleaning the
bathroom to watering the plants. The hapless foreigner who spends
any time at all in the hotel room must adjust to these elaborate routines
because it is nearly impossible to have them altered. On the positive
side, however, getting to know hotel personnel and to understand the
nature of the hotel as a workplace offers another interesting perspective
on Chinese life.
CAMPUS APARTMENTS Campus housing is remarkably similar
throughout China. Henderson and Cohen's description of the physical
plant in their urban medical danwei represents a typical layout:
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As one faces the hospital, the staff apartments are to the left, specialized
or newly constructed facilities at the back, and the medical college on
the right. Bricks lie in large and small piles in every empty lot, tangible
evidence of the constantly changing physical environment. In the midst
of the bricks, chickens scratch, children create makeshift platforms for
table tennis, and construction teams are rarely absent. The apartment
buildings are brick and cement. The older ones are one story high, with
communal kitchens and baths for several families in individual three-
room apartments. The newest buildings are four- and five-story cement
structures housing one-hundred families. In addition to housing, the
unit includes a dining hall, a day-care center, a bathhouse attached to
the hospital boiler room, an administrative office, a garage for unit
cars and jeeps, and shops for the maintenance and repair staff (plumb-
ers, carpenters, electricians). (The Chinese Hospital: A Socialist Work
Unit, p. 12)
Many teachers are housed in apartments on the campus of their host
institution. Some of their comments about this housing appear below.
Foreign teachers at the college share an old brick house which is cen-
trally located. It is a spacious, two-story structure, but attracts furry
four legged friends (our cat ran away in frustrations. There are large,
single rooms and bathrooms, with reversible heating/air conditioning
units. Overall, it is very pleasant.
For a family of four, we had an apartment on campus in the Foreign
Experts' Building. The apartment included two bedrooms, a good sized
living room, Western bathroom with bath but no shower, a small kitchen
with two gas burners and a refrigerator (which we moved from the
living room to the kitchen). Hot water is generally plentiful at night
and in the early morning. Radiator heat was available for several hours
in winter evenings after December 1. The furniture provided was fine;
esthetic improvements can be made inexpensively.
We're in a newly constructed guest house for foreign experts. The rooms
are modern, spacious and relatively well appointed. There is a living
room, two bedrooms, small kitchen (with no cooking appliances), and
bathroom. The furniture is tasteful and abundant: four armchairs (no
sofa), two end tables, two nightstands, two large desks, three single
beds, a vanity, two bookcases, and a crib. However, the central heating
is not adequate. We also have problems with our housemaid who thinks
the apartment is hers, not ours. She lets herself in anytime she wants
with her own key, gives advice loudly on all subjects and does not clean
well at all.
There is a compound for foreign experts and Chinese professors and
administrators. There are four apartments per building, which are brick,
two story, circa 1950 vintage with mice in the downstairs apartments.
The apartments are either one or two bedroom, with a kitchen, living
room, and bathroom. They are largely carpeted and have bookshelves,
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64 CHINA BOUND
desks, chairs, beds, and almost everything needed. Bedding is provided.
Each apartment has a propane stove, refrigerator, washing machine,
color television, and air conditioner.
Our housing is adequate but cramped. We use the one large room as
a bedroom, sitting room, and office for my spouse. The smaller room
serves as my office and our dining room where we eat light meals.
(There is no kitchen.) There is a separate room outside the apartment
for our teenage son. The furniture, carpet, and wallpaper are pleasant.
It is air conditioned, and we have a small refrigerator and a color
television. However, there is insufficient drawer space, inadequate closet
space, and hot water is only available for a couple hours in the morning
and evening.
Overall, the most common housing problems included poor and leaky
plumbing, insufficient heat, a lack of hot water, inadequate storage
space, poor lighting, and erratic electricity. And there was one other
commonly noted condition, to which most Americans (like the teacher
whose comment follows) became resigned: "Be prepared to share room
and board with local vermin. They are ubiquitous and bold but rea-
sonably well-mannered and thrifty."
Foreigners in China, like the Chinese themselves, devise different
ways of coping with food preparation. Henderson and Cohen present
some of these:
At noon, people pour out of the buildings and stop by the dining hall
to purchase a square-shaped portion of rice or several squares for a
family.... To avoid the ten or fifteen minute wait for lunch, some carry
their rice home and cook vegetables in their own kitchens. Others, for
convenience and to save home fuel, buy their lunch and either take it
home or eat it at the dining hall.... Most agree that home cooking is
better and a little cheaper, but the dining hall is chosen for convenience.
Foreign residents have the same range of choices, and most eat out,
either in the dining hall or in local restaurants, for the same reasons
that motivate their Chinese colleagues. Some returned teachers indi-
cated that the food provided by their work units ranged from excellent
to disastrous:
The food at the cafeteria is inadequate, so I make my own breakfast
and have an ayi (maid) who cooks dinner for me five nights a week at
a cost of Y50 per month. There are a number of good restaurants close
by also, and good vegetable markets abound in the area.
The residence dining room serves Western breakfasts and Chinese lunches
and dinners; three times a week, a Western lunch is also offered. The
food is generally good, occasionally outstanding. I have a refrigerator
in my apartment, so I can also shop and cook for myself.
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We must eat in the foreigners' cafeteria where the food ranges from
very poor to good. The atmosphere is reminiscent of a cross between
an automat and a warehouse. The "window style" service means you
have to wait in three different lines before getting all desired items;
this means the cold food (supposedly hot) gets colder. In the section of
the cafeteria served by a waitress, the food is somewhat better, but it's
repetitive and disproportionately expensive.
There was a woman who cooked for the five foreign experts at the
university. We paid a monthly fee for food (she'd do the buying and
give us a bill at the end of each month). I usually ate one to two meals
daily and my monthly bill averaged about Y35 each month (US$12.50~.
I also did some cooking for myself; my kitchen had cold running water,
a one burner hot plate and small refrigerator (all supplied by the uni-
versity), to which I added a small toaster oven purchased second hand
from another foreign expert.
The food in the dining hall is fine, but the service is very slow and not
at all well organized. However, there are many good local restaurants
where the food is inexpensive.
STUDENT DORMITORIES Whether located on the campus of a
university, a research institute, or a medical college, dormitories are
remarkably uniform in their outward appearance and furnishings. Al-
most all dormitory buildings are gray, three-story cement edifices with
communal shower rooms, spartan laundry rooms equipped with wash-
boards and clotheslines, communal bathrooms with Asian-style squat-
ter toilets, a television lounge, and a reading or reception room. In
many dormitories boiled water for drinking must be carried from a
boiler room. Hot water for laundry or showers is usually available only
a few hours each day, often right after the dinner hour. Not all dor-
mitories are heated, and those that are usually have heat for a few
hours in the morning and again in the evening. When the heat is on,
the rooms are quite comfortable, but hallways and communal rooms
can be cold and dark in the winter. Electricity is erratic, especially in
the evenings. Many colleges and universities are building new dormi-
tories with more Western-style facilities to house foreign guests.
Room sizes vary. Some (for example, in the Shaoyuan Lou Guest-
house at Beida) are small (3 meters x 4.5 meters); others are quite
large, even by Western standards. No matter what their size, however,
all rooms are furnished with a bed and desk for each occupant and at
least one bookcase and wardrobe. Rooms are spartan: whitewashed
cement walls, drab gray cement floors, and a stark fluorescent tube
overhead. Every newcomer is routinely issued a thermos for storing
potable water, mosquito netting, a padded cotton quilt, woolen blanket,
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66 CHINA BOUND
two sheets, and a wash basin. This basic "survival kit" should be taken
along whenever you move in China and should be turned in upon final
departure.
Most students have found that with some imagination and effort
rooms can be decorated and arranged to suit individual tastes. How a
room might be made more livable is described by a CSCPRC-sponsored
advanced graduate student who lived in Beijing from 1983 to 1985:
During my second year at Peking LBeijing] University, I stayed in a
west facing room on the fifth floor of the Shaoyuan foreigner and guest
compound. The room has a small porch and a spectacular view of the
West Hills to the northwest of the Summer Palace and the Yuquan
Pagoda. It was warm enough in the winter after I winterized the win-
dows and porch door by applying polyethylene sheeting and paper
"storm windows." However, under the afternoon summer sun it was
uncomfortably hot, even with a Venetian blind to let the air through
and keep the sun out.
This student and others mention frequently the importance of fol-
lowing the Golden Rule in finding ways to live harmoniously, in the
absence of clear legal and disciplinary codes, with more than 500 for-
eigners from over 60 different countries expected just at Beida in 1986-
1987.
Foreign students can eat at the foreign student dining hall for a few
ynan a day, or they can eat at the Chinese students' canteen for even
less. The latter are crowded and lively; there are usually no tables or
chairs and students are responsible for bringing their own bowls and
utensils. Most students complain that the food is monotonous and some-
times greasy and cold, but in fact an effort generally is made in most
institutions to provide a nutritious diet at a nominal cost. Chinese and
foreign students alike devise ways to cook in their rooms using hot
plates and ingredients from local stores and markets. Most neighbor-
hoods have at least a few good restaurants for eating out.
The dormitory community is a mixed one on most campuses. For-
eigners of many nationalities, Chinese caretakers, teachers, and some-
times foreign teachers all live together. The dormitory is cared for by
the shifu, the workers who answer phones, clean the hallways and
common rooms, distribute newspapers and mail, and generally watch
over dormitory residents and their guests. Mail comes in twice each
day and is generally placed on a hall table or in mailboxes designated
by nationality. Most dormitories have only one or two telephones for
incoming and outgoing calls, and residents are notified of calls by loud-
speaker. Some of the dorms that have been built recently have better
telephone facilities. The Shaoyuan Guesthouse at Beida, for example,
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has a phone on each floor, and the apartment suites have their own
telephone.
ARRANGEMENTS FOR ACCOMPANYING
SPOUSES AND CHILDREN
Chinese regulations prohibit students from bringing spouses and chil-
dren to China, but researchers and teachers may be accompanied by
their families if prior permission has been received from the host in-
stitution. Not all institutions may accede to such requests, however;
most have problems supplying housing for foreigners due to acute hous-
ing shortages. In addition, not all cities can provide adequate medical
care, especially for small children. These factors may lead to a reluc-
tance on the part of host institutions to accommodate families. Often
those Americans who do take their families to China have been espe-
cially grateful to their Chinese colleagues for their efforts to help find
adequate housing, to secure slots in overcrowded day-care centers, and
to arrange for language tutorials for older children.
Spouses who accompany Americans going to China as "foreign ex-
perts" often are invited to teach English or other subjects in demand
as a "foreign teacher"; their salaries usually are lower than those paid
to foreign experts who may teach identical courses. But most spouses
find work of any kind preferable to spending long hours alone in a hotel
room or apartment. More important, the position offers them an entry
into Chinese society and an opportunity to make a much-needed con-
tribution.
Arrangements for children in China vary. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing
reports that there are no English-language schools of any kind for de-
pendent children of foreign experts or researchers working in China
except for those operated by foreign diplomatic missions. One of these
schools, the International School, was founded in Beijing in September
1980 by the embassies of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United
Kingdom, and the United States. It is a coeducational day school for
grades one through eight admitting foreign children 5 to 13 years old.
The curriculum is based on but not limited to U.S. educational models.
Space is extremely limited at the school, and priority is given to chil-
dren of official personnel of the five sponsoring missions. Students of
other diplomatic missions receive second priority; dependents of other
nationals of the five cooperating countries such as businessmen, jour-
nalists, and foreign experts have the lowest admission priority. If you
are interested in the school, you should submit an application as early
as possible before your proposed arrival in China. Annual tuition is
US$4,200 with no additional fees.
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68 CHINA BOUND
The U.S. Consulate General in Shenyang has established the Amer-
ican Academy, which is located on the consulate compound. Tuition is
US$2,500 per semester. The curriculum consists of an accredited cor-
respondence course administered by an American teacher. The school
operates only if there are sufficient students and an available teacher.
For information, write to:
Shenyang American Academy
c/o U.S. Consulate General Shenyang
FPO San Francisco, CA 96659-0002
Several foreign experts and consulate staff members in Shenyang
have placed their children in local schools. Tuition per semester is Y120
for middle school and Y90 for elementary school. There is no single
school designated to accept foreign children; however, several schools
have admitted them in the past.
The U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai also has established an
American school in one of the consulate's buildings. In 1982, the tuition
was US$5,000 per year. For updated information, contact:
U.S. Consulate General Shanghai
1469 Huai Hal Zhong Lu
Shanghai, People's Republic of China
The American School of Guangzhou is located on the fourth floor of
the Office Tower in the Garden Hotel. The school accommodates chil-
dren of kindergarten age to the eighth grade. Tuition for the school
year is US$8,200.
If there is no English-language school in the area in which you will
be working, one alternative might be send your children to a Chinese
school. For information about such possibilities in Beijing or in a city
in which one of the U.S. Consulates is located, contact the U.S. mission
in that city (see pages 120-121 for addresses). It might be possible for
Chinese schools to accept foreign children, but, of course, classes in
such schools will be in Chinese.
Americans who have taught in China and who have taken their chil-
dren have worked out a variety of solutions for day care and schooling.
A few examples are presented below.
Teachers located in Beijing who had a two-year-old child hired an
ayi (maid) through the Foreign Experts Bureau. The ayi worked eight
hours a day, six days a week, for a fee of Y50 per month. For an extra
Y5 per month, the ayi washed the child's clothes and diapers. Another
couple in Beijing whose son was in the ninth grade arranged for him
to take correspondence courses from the University of Nebraska School
of Continuing Education. He spent eight hours a day studying eight
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SETTLING IN 69
subjects and had a tutor for French and Chinese. The parents noted
that there were no other teenagers in the area, a circumstance they
regretted, but they hoped the experience of being in China would be
compensation for the lack of peers.
A couple in Tianjin with two children sent their five-year-old daugh-
ter to a Chinese nursery school six days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Their 12-year-old son attended a Chinese music academy from 8 a.m.
to 12 p.m. and then returned by bicycle to their hotel where his mother
taught him his American curriculum in the afternoon. Neither child
spoke any Chinese on arrival nor were there any English-speaking staff
at their schools, but the parents felt that their children did remarkably
well and that children of other foreign experts in the area also seemed
to adjust rather easily.
Teachers in Shanghai commented that American preschool children
seemed to thrive in Chinese kindergartens but that older children had
some trouble adjusting to Chinese schools which in turn had difficulty
accommodating foreign children. The American school at the U.S. Con-
sulate has received plaudits from parents in the past, but unfortunately
the school now has stopped Chinese-language training. It also has be-
come rather expensive to arrange transportation for children from in-
stitutions at some distance from the school because the city of Shanghai
has abandoned its former policy of allowing foreign teachers to pay
Chinese rates for taxis and some institutions are reluctant to provide
cars.
During their first year in China, a couple in Lanzhou with children
aged 11 and 13 sent them to a Chinese school three afternoons a week
for art, music, and physical education. During their second year, the
local school system was reorganized and the arrangement was no longer
possible. So the children's mother taught them their American curric-
ulum at home, with advice from the children's teachers in the United
States. A teacher from the university's primary school taught them
Chinese for three hours a week, and another university teacher gave
them Chinese painting lessons once a week.
As there is no foreign language school in Nanjing, a couple there with
children sent them to the university's Chinese preschool in the morning
through lunchtime. In the afternoon, their seven-year-old child did his
American second-grade work at home. The arrangement worked out
well, and the children gradually learned some Chinese. One note of
warning was added to this report, however. The parents had given strict
instructions to the children's school not to give them any medications
or vaccinations without prior parental approval. They were glad they
had made this request because there was a serious health incident at
the school when the wrong medication was mistakenly given to a large
number of children. The parents believed this was probably an isolated
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70 CHINA BOUND
incident that would not be repeated, but they wanted to recommend
caution about such school medical treatments to other Americans tak-
ing children to China.
In Wuhan, Americans with children there reported that at the local
primary school "foreign children are extended every courtesy and the
teachers are warm, helpful, considerate, and very flexible." Their chil-
dren attended the school when they wished and also had an English-
speaking tutor. The parents also reported that the children liked the
school so much that they went even when they were not required to
attend.
The son of a couple in Xuzhou who was a sophomore in high school
studied by correspondence with the American School in Chicago and
the University of Wisconsin extension. His parents commented that the
latter is superlative and has high academic standards.
One last piece of advice: some of the teachers offering comments
urged parents who plan to take children to China to find out about
arrangements for housing and meals before they go or they may re-
ceive a large bill at the end of their visit for their children.
THE ACADEMIC CALENDAR
The academic year in China revolves around the Spring Festival or
Lunar New Year (chunjie), a celebration that theoretically marks the
end of winter. The month-long holiday after chunjie, which usually falls
during the last week of January or the first of February, marks the end
of the academic term that begins in late August or early September.
The second term begins around the end of February depending on the
date of chunjie and runs through late June. The pace in most work
units slows considerably during these holidays because staff often travel
to visit relatives or for sightseeing. Most foreigners in recent years have
found these holidays especially enjoyable when celebrated with Chinese
friends and colleagues. If your research plans require meetings with
specific scholars or continuation of work during one of these holidays,
be sure to make arrangements as far in advance as possible, recognizing
that your plans could force your coworkers to give up their vacation
time.
Foreigners are given time off to observe Chinese holidays, and many
institutions schedule trips or other activities during semester breaks.
Shorter holidays, such as National Day (October 1) and May Day (May
1), may offer opportunities for two or three days of travel. Foreigners
are not entitled to time off for their own national or religious holidays,
but it has been possible in some units to arrange for celebrations of
Christmas, Hanukkah, and other holidays. Chinese guests appreciate
joining in these festivities.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
china bound
