The China Teaching Web

Dear Jean,

1. What do you think about articles in local newspapers about people who have spent only 3 or 4 months in China and they are “experts” about China. I lived in China for 5 years and don’t pretend to understand China at all! What do you think about that?

2. What’s with the Chinese and the “COLD” thing? Everything is about cold is bad cold is bad. What’s up with that?

3. So is it the year of the bull or the year of the ox??

4. Where can you get real unbiased News about China in English and Chinese?

5. Should I study for a Masters in Chinese history or a Masters in the Chinese language? how useful would that be?? What could I do??

Thanks for your answers!!!

Magnus

Jean answers Magnus’ questions

Dear Magnus,

Wow! You have asked some interesting questions. I will do my best to answer them but hopefully others can help me out as well.

1. What do you think about articles in local newspapers about people who have spent only 3 or 4 months in China and they are “experts” about China. I lived in China for 5 years and don’t pretend to understand China at all! What do you think about that?

It doesn’t bother me. After all, we do receive  foreign ‘expert’ certificates when we apply for our residence permits, don’t we?

All kidding aside, I don’t really see the harm in it. Like you said, who really is an expert on China? Five years or three months – it doesn’t matter to the newspaper – they just want your photo. Me personally? I don’t do interviews with local newspapers because I’d like to maintain some level of privacy.

What does bother me, however, are foreign news anchors on CCTV-9. They are basically foreign mouthpieces for the Chinese government.

2. What’s with the Chinese and the “COLD” thing? Everything is about cold is bad cold is bad. What’s up with that?

I’m going to take a ‘wild stab’ at this one and propose that this fear of “cold” has to do with the Yin-Yang and traditional Chinese medicine. The ‘Yin’ is considered to be dark and cold and stands for confusion and chaos. The ‘Yang’, which is white, is ‘hot’ and represents peace and prosperity. In traditional Chinese medicine, too much ‘cold’ will hurt the body while too much ‘heat’ will hurt the spirit. This would explain why on this very warm afternoon in southern China today, I was served a cup of ‘hot’ water even though all I asked for was a glass of water.

3. So is it the year of the bull or the year of the ox??

Neither. My Chinese friends tell me that we are now in  牛年 (Niu Nian in Chinese Pinyin) or ‘Year of the Cow.’ Simple enough, right? We don’t have to worry about the difference between a bull and an ox.

4. Where can you get real unbiased News about China in English and Chinese?

A better question would be where can you get real and unbiased news about anything? I don’t know of one special place where news about China is objective an 100% accurate. I know I may ‘hurt’ some of my Chinese readers for saying so, but CNN.com and the Associated Press do a decent job of covering major events over here. I do like to have some balance though, so I try to hit the China Daily and Xinhua websites a couple of times every week. Really though, you have got to find a source outside of China in order to hear about recent events such as that shoe being thrown at Wen JiaBao in England.

5. Should I study for a Masters in Chinese history or a Masters in the Chinese language? how useful would that be?? What could I do??

I would definitely go for a Masters in Chinese history because any good Chinese historian should learn the language anyway. As my friends always tell me, “the more Chinese you learn, the better you will understand our culture and history.” Amen to that. Kill two birds with one stone and go with a major that will give you a good foundation in Chinese history and language. 

Hope that helps! Feel free to respond in our comments section below.

Sincerely,

Jean

Ask Jean about China is a weekly feature on TeachAbroadChina.com. We welcome any questions related to living and working in China. Feel free to submit your questions by clicking here. We look forward to hearing from you.