Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Guanxi Makes the World Go Round

Monday--8 AM class again. Almost impossible, getting out of bed. I was late. But it was interesting and worthwhile. I notice that my listening comprehension fades in and out. Sometimes I'm just lost. I can understand individual words, but because I'm clueless about the topic, it doesn't come together. Other times, I latch onto the topic, and even if I miss a few words here and there, I can follow the drift and get something out of it.

For example, I had always wondered about the difference between the so-called Old Tang History and the New Tang History. Both are part of the so called Twenty-five Histories, the canon of official Chinese dynastic histories. But the New Tang History is a revision of the Old Tang History. According to what principles? With what results? Now I know, and also know where to go if I want to find out more.

I can't take it all in, but what I can take in still makes it worth the game.

Usually I don't bring my computer to school, but this time I did. Making good use of two-hour blocks of free-time in my schedule has become my new goal. It's such an awkward amount of time, too much to fritter away, too little to make it worth going home. Bringing my computer makes all the difference, as it tends to keep me better focused.

Monday after class I went into the reference room and spent a good hour and a half on my translation of LGs's Dong Zhongshu article, making good progress. Though I do occasionally get bogged down in trying to figure out a single elusive character. Too much attention to detail! Still, once in a rare while these wild goose chases yield a big fat interesting wild goose, so I can't complain. LGs says: "Don't worry about going too slowly. Do less, but do it well." This may be bad advice for me, as I tend that way anyway--but in this field perfectionism is a big plus, just so long as it doesn't completely prevent you from doing anything.

It was lunchtime so I dashed across to the nearest cafeteria and had a quick and random lunch--ham'n'egg patty on a mantou, a dish of cucumber salad, all eaten standing up. And then went off in quest of an internet account. I swear, the people at the computing center are the meanest people ever. They are to begin with angry that you came by at all. Then they act terrifically outraged if you don't understand what you are supposed to do, or fail to catch their rapidly barked orders. Under their irritated guidance I put 100 RMB on my campus card (didn't even know you could do that), coaxed them into giving me a password, then headed up to the machines on the second floor. To do…something. I asked a lady in an office up there, and she said, just go use the machines.

I faced the machines. Incomprehensible options, three of them. I tried each one, carefully typing in my password. Password accepted, but the service failed. The failure messages flashed across the screen too fast for me to decipher, but the upshot was that they couldn't connect with my bank. Why not? Because I don't have a bank, probably. But do I need to have a bank to use the campus network? I would have spent more time trying to sort all this out, but I had another engagement. Next time I have a free moment, I'll have to go back and brave the nasty fast-talking bureaucrats. To be continued!

Meanwhile, my next engagement. I was meeting HJ, the girl I was to help with her grad school applications. She suggested we meet at something she called "san jiao di." Okay, I could do that. "San jiao" (Third Classroom building) is where I go to class everyday. But my niggling feeling of unconfidence (due to that "di") grew when she didn't show up. I sent her a text message. She sent me one back--OH, different "san jiao." Stupid homonyms! Of course they're not homonyms to a Chinese ear because the tones are different, but to me, tired, hassled, and talking on the phone, damned if I can tell the difference.

I told her where she was, and she came and found me. On the way to where we were going, she showed me the actual "san jiao di"--Triangle Area--which makes a good meeting place because the center of the triangle is all billboards, which you can loiter and inspect while waiting for the person you're meeting. Live and learn.

We sat in the western food snack bar--because there's never anyone here, she said--and looked over her stuff. Do you realize that Chinese would-be graduate students write their own letters of recommendation? There are a number of reasons--because their professors don’t generally have the English skills to do it, and because they're too busy to be bothered. But still, it was kind of shocking. The students write the letters, and then the professor may offer corrections, or may just sign it without even reading it. My goodness. It takes a long time, and is hard to write in three different voices like that.

I corrected them, and she's lucky--I worked long and hard to not only fix grammar mistakes, but actually give them the right tone as well. Good practice for if I ever have to write such letters, I suppose. Also, I wanted an in to the network of guanxi (connections and mutual favors). It feels better to get in as a participating member rather than as a free-rider, and this was a rare opportunity of something someone needed that I could give. I could tell that the obligation got to her, as she did several nice things for me, including buying me a beverage while we were talking about the letters, inviting me to go along with her to a gathering at the house of a professor I admire (I'm terrified, but it should be interesting), and taking me to an awesome secret discount bookstore whose existence I had not even suspected, actually not far from my house.

In the bookstore, she suggested several books that are really worth having, and (remembering my advisor's suggestion that this is a super way to navigate through the Chinese bibliographical world) I picked them up straightaway. These sorts of favors are themselves worth an afternoon of my time, but since there are many more parts of the application left to do, I am hoping I can eventually parlay this into help with a translation (into Chinese) that I have been stuck on. This girl's foreign language ability is excellent, and, as her recommendation letters mention, she is an experienced translator. Doing a big translation for me would be a chore for her, but I bet I can get her to do it or at least proof-read it for me if I do her enough favors. You see, I am already thinking in the logic of guanxi, which I once thought I would never understand!

I made it back just in time for my literature class, which was excellent as usual. And then I had to make a quick grab for dinner--they stop serving at 7 and my class gets out not much before that. There weren't a lot of choices, but I ended up with a really interesting sort of stew--mostly golden potatoes and chestnuts, with small strips of meat for flavor and fattiness, as well as big slices of ginger and slightly crushed garlic cloves. It sounds, weird, but it was actually quite a culinary success, good filling comfort food.

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