Thursday, May 31st
With this being the last day in May, many of us are starting to realize how little time we have left on this dialogue. I am sure all of us are sad to be leaving 川大 (the university) in just over a week from now, until then, however, we have something very exciting in store -- the homestay
This afternoon we watched a documentary called 'Dream Empire', and were debriefed on the details of our homestays. The film itself documented the life of a woman called Yana from Xinjiang province, who set up a business hiring foreigners ('white monkeys', they were called) to perform at real estate events. The purpose of this, in general, was to show potential buyers, many of whom had never seen foreigners before, that the building they were visiting was highly desirable, hence making them keen to purchase the property. Foreigners showed the building had international promise, that made the future of development for the city in which the building was located bright; property (in their point of view) would be a good investment. (Spoiler alert) Ultimately the business seems to be failing, and many people who bought property in buildings belonging to unsuccessfully developed cities were furious. The movie ends with Yana being unable to pay back her debt, and finally sells the shares of her own company that she fought so hard to build up. The movie was very informative of both economic development, in terms of the boom of cities and subsequent creation of 'ghost cities', as well as Chinese culture in personal relationships, showed by the ways in which people were convinced to buy property, and how Yana was tragically at a disadvantage in her business, since she is a woman.
The homestay information debriefing next was a relatively lighter topic of conversation. We were told "do's and dont's", and given information on each of our own families. Some people are very far (up to 2 hours away); some people are with very young kids (the youngest being 1, the oldest being 14); some already have activities planned for the weekend to follow (mostly camping it seems). It seems there are some clusters of homestays in various parts of the city. I myself and not far from my current roommate Cedrick. I also know that Winnie, Leanne, and Leah are quite close to one another, as well as being relatively closer
to the city center than most people. Regardless of geography, the classes must continue! (starting now at 9 am instead, to give us more time in transit). I'm sure for many people, the experience of being in the middle of the morning rush hour will be quite interesting in itself. While I am sure we will all make the utmost of this opportunity to practice our language skills and study cultural history through our research projects into the history of our respective families, we also have to keep in mind that the purpose of the families to take us into their homes was to teach their children English. Finding a compromise in speaking Chinese and English will be key in making the most of the week to follow.
Readers will be hearing plenty more stories about the homestays in the week to follow. Until then, thanks for reading!
- Gustaf P.
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