Today I learned in a very real sense a very real difference between Western and Chinese culture. In the classroom I was utterly freezing, my feet hurt they were so cold. At one point I moved to the back of the room to look out the window and I found (drum roll) THAT THE WINDOWS WERE OPEN!!!!! I got them closed and closed the drapes so that no one could see they'd been closed. And then I was even colder at the thought of how cold the open windows had made the room! The hour and a half bus ride back from the branch campus to the main campus where I live was not heated. I was miserable.
It appears to me after reading in the English edition of the China Daily and CNN.com on the internet that China and the US also have opposite issues in terms of our economies. The Chinese need to learn to spend money while in the US we need to learn to save money.
We discussed the Global Economic Crisis today in my classes. I was told about a school cafeteria which could no longer afford to employ all its workers. The older ones were let go at maybe 50 years of age with three months severance pay -- and no pension. Retirement age for women in China is 55 and for men is 60. The student told me that China's social welfare system is not a good one. I did not disagree.
By the way -- in continuance of the entry where I talked about the open windows of the Philippines, something else I learned there was the concept of courtyards being used to circulate the air in buildings. I think this may also have to do with the utility of the hutong in China. The hutong is a family home, or a set of rooms that are built around a courtyard. The courtyard would provide shade and if it is in a building it would serve that function of circulating air. When I visited Beijing last summer I saw some of the remaining hutongs and noticed this architectural practicality, beauty with function. In the Philippines the Silliman University has a courtyard on the bottom floor of the library. It is no longer being used because the building is now air conditioned to preserve the books. Courtyards are not as effective as preservation perhaps as air conditioning in specific forums.
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