Globalization and Change

Chen and I started discussing about Globalization and Change in China. I asked him About Poverty in Chinese current situation. He replied “Poverty is a big aspect in china. we have so many people who earn $1 per day.” He mentioned that income equality has gone up and thus the gap between urban and rural people has risen. I asked him whether Globalization affects It’s economy or not. He said ” Of course, I think market systems are one of the main cause of poverty. he mentioned that there are so many different factors which affects our economy. futhermore he explained that globalization has also an effect on the growth and development. It has caused urbanization to happen.

Talking about population pressure he said couple of years ago our birthrate was very high although it has been going down through china’s one child policy. He said “people Often living in urban Areas tend to have one child however People in rural areas might might 3 or more but since government policies have been implemented, it is making an impact and I think Its going down gradually.” He mentioned that china suffers mostly by population, inequality and it results in poverty. Talking about how trade system works with other countries he explained that there is not much free trade in china although we do some import and exports for particular goods. Furthermore, Going deeply into globalization he mentioned that our economic interdependence and interaction with countries is becoming stronger.

He mentioned that for development progress and prosperity could be achieved through integrating with outside world, through steeping up exchanging and corporation with other countries and through absorbing the fine results of human civilization. I asked him whether he supports Globalization or not. He said ” Of course I do, we should take all the opportunities presented by globalization and adopt reforms to be with world’s growth.

I think it was a pretty good topic to talk about. Chen is an Economics Major and he knows a lot of concepts therefore I was able to ask him several questions related to globalization. It is obvious that Chen supports Globalization but also knows its negative consequence.

Medicine

Chen and I started talking about medicines in china. He told me that ” China has two different kinds of people in which some of them believe in traditional medicines and some of them in western medicines.” Asking further questions about traditional he said that ” we have our own traditional medicines which a lot of people use. In rural areas, people use mostly traditional areas whereas people in urban areas don’t. He told me about a fact that how senior (old) people in china strongly believe in traditional medicines. Chinese traditional medicines are mainly herbal. He told me that” We do have people in china who go a Traditional doctor to solve their health related problems. there is something called Koro” in which Male and Female both perceive that they are losing their masculinity and Femininity respectively due to unhealthy sex. These people often visit Traditional Doctor.

Further  going on, he mentioned about syndromes which is evaluated as confrontation between pathogenic factors and body resistance. he said ” any problem’s treatment is not just based on symptoms but also the differentiation of syndromes.” One of the fact of Chinese traditional medicine is that the illness or a disease is primarily based on diagnosis and differentiation of syndromes. He also mentioned about illness “koro” as a culture bound syndromes as well as Shen kui.

Chinese Traditional treatment seems to be very different from western societies due to their practices. Psychosocial diseases or illness are very important for treatment. Chinese values in general and theories of medicine and the body in particular continue to shape the experience of illness in china.Traditional Chinese medicine seems to be majorly based on philosophical concept in the human body. As Chen mentioned about traditional model of treatment being different from others societies, because they have their own models of body which concerns about functions.

Religion

Chen and I started talking about his religion and his perspective on it. Chen said ” I am an atheist” ,  I was shocked to hear that because I never had thought of a person being atheist. Then he suddenly replied that ” His mom is Buddhist and his father is atheist. Then my next question was that ” that means you follow your father”. He said “No”, “its just that i don’t like any kind of restrictions and I think religion restricts you.” In his perspective, people are atheist more than religious and this is specifically among the teens and youngsters.

I was going more and more deeply learning religion aspects. He mentioned ” In china, people are Buddhist as well as Christians, however I think that people are influenced by Christian religion and they are becoming Religious, although Buddhism is still the largest organized religion in China.” Asking him about any more religions, he spontaneously responded that “Yeah there is Daoism which is very philosophical rather than a religion but people do perceive it as religion. In English, this term is written as “Taoism.”

Going more deeply about his experience and knowledge about religion he mentioned that ” We have something called heaven worship.” He said ” Many people believe that heaven is their god and therefore they do pray for it.”

He said”  I think religion is as important as ethnicity and some kind of social group. There may be some people who have their own social group and so a different religion.”

Religion in china seemed to be very different from others. Although the interview was very interesting to learn about a lot of different aspects of his country. He is an atheist and he mentioned about the fact many youngsters being atheist too.

Race and Enthnicity

“Of course! Race is something which is socially constructed” This was Chen’s response when I asked him about Race. Him and I started talking about Race and Ethnic Groups in China. He told me that ” there are 56 different ethnic groups and Han Chinese people are the one who are dominated and have majority.” Asking him about other ethnic groups, he said ”  Other different ethnic groups are like mongols, Tibetans, Manchu, Miao, Yi, Koreans etc. He also explained that these people are majorly live in the borders and have their own kind of culture.

He told that ” there are only white people like us majorly however some Tibetans may be darker in colors.” Many Chinese people may discriminate Tibetans but not other people. He also told me about throughout the years some people from different ethnic groups abandon their culture and becoming completely absorbed in American Culture. This seems to be an anthropological term ” assimilation”. I also realized that China is a nation state when he said about his distinctive national culture and historical things.

He illustrated that Race in china is very different, in which a person is determined by his/ her heritage in modern society, which is ideologically same as America determines a person.  In the last I asked him If he has ever been discriminated of any kind he said ” No” but there might me some. Race there looks similar to few cultures.

Lastly, Race and ethnicity of china was interesting to go through. I was able to learn a lot from this interview and Link up with some of the anthropologicals terms. Race looks like a folk and popular for ethnicity.

Marriage/Kinship In Chinese Culture

Chen and I both started talking about marriage and kinship in his culture. Very First we started talking about the marriage in the Chinese culture and Chen said ” People often have a ceremonial ritual within society that involves marriage arranged between families. He also mentioned about one wife that’s when I understood that he is basically pointing up monogamy within Chinese culture. The other thing came up was incest and he said that ” we consider incest if couple have the same surname or last name. also People prefer having a boy rather than a girl because boy gets married and continues the family line of paternal clan

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continuing on marriage rules and all, he said ” in our culture there are some very important rituals which includes three letters and other manners that are supposed to be done. going more deeply he said ” there is a request letter in which groom’s family sent a request to bride’s family. there is a gift letter which accompanies the gift given by groom’s family to bride’s family. and the last letter is wedding letter which confirms the wedding. The other manner he mentioned were that ” proposal, birth dates, Bride wealth, wedding gifts and wedding ceremony is considered really good.

Discussing about polygamy he said ” laws and legislation does not really prohibit or encourage polygyny, however it may be possible that polygyny is limited in upper class because of financial situation of men while among the other people monogamy is considered as a norm. Going more deeply, explaining Polyandry and asking about it he said ” No way, it very immoral, prohibited by law and there are no cases that can be seen.”

Going on to the kinship part he said ” we have several rules for it such as maternal or paternal lineages are distinguished, the relative age of sibling relation is also considered, the gender of the relative is distinguished and most importantly the generation from the ego is indicated. furthermore asking him about the extended family he said ” extended family can be considered due to paternal lineages, maternal lineages, nephew and nieces, grandchildren etc.

This all information seemed to be very difficult to elaborate i terms of writing every single rule of his marriage and kinship. Going through the interview I realised that It has been difficult for the girls father for following all the rules because they have to do a lot of spending and gifts etc with a nice big wedding ceremony. This can be seen as a reason of female infanticide in china in some past years though its now gradually decreasing.

Sex and Gender

Chen and I started started talking about Gender and sex roles in China. He said ” Women have higher status than men as in have they have more rights and are allowed to do anything they want.”  The gender role refers to a set of social and behavioral norms that, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific gender.

We continued talking about Sexes and Chen said ” I think that,  in a modern society there is no inequality between sexes however in most rural areas A lot of people prefer boys than girls.”  The phenomenon of female infanticide is as old as many cultures. On asking about the house maker and and raising the children he replied that ” It is same as many cultures, women tend to do all the work in house including raising the children. ” he continued, although in urban areas it happens but men or women can share house work and maintaining the house.

Talking about jobs between men and women,  he replied that ” Women can do any jobs in china but there are some jobs which are only for men because of reasons like women make house maintenance rather than working out, In terms of labor and physical works males are considered better.” He said ” There are always differences due to society, for example due to urban and rural societies. Talking about men dominated the Chinese culture or women, He said ” Men are more dominated the society than women and due to this we have patrilineal system.

Lastly, due to energetic steps by government for female infanticide and sex-selective abortion of female fetuses, it is decreasing and it’s rare now. In all classes, specifically female infanticide reflects the low status accorded to women. as seen in most cultures that male superiority is found tight, sedentary while females are superior in cultures that are loose, nomadic, and hunter-gathering based. On the other hand, the function of women’s literacy and workforce equality has been to improve communist state. Finally, for centuries before the early 1900’s there was a prominent male domination in China however it is gradually changing and women status is increasing. Government has made several laws for women welfare and according to laws and legislations women have equality in education, marrige, rights and freedom.

Economy

As I interviewed my partner, I learned that there is a lot to talk about and It was not easy to elaborate everything. We started talking about Economy of China including labors, capital, and knowledge. he said ” As everyone knows China is one of the biggest countries in the world in terms of economy. I am doing economic Courses so it is very easy for me to understand the economy of China. I know that China is growing and growing more, there are a lot of people who think that China is one of the country, can grow independently”. in other words, they are not very dependent on other countries in terms of resources. We changed the topic eventually we came onto the topic about reciprocity , redistribution etc. He replied that ” people in china always give gifts in several occasions but most important is New year Festival, when you give a lot of gifts.” He went on and said that ” There is something like giving money to children and always in a red paper. This was interesting for me because I never thought about how giving gifts can be very specific.

We went on talking about gifts in wedding ceremony  or when its a new born baby. They have their own gifts for giving for example , in wedding ceremonies you are most likely to give money but when its a new born baby, often silver bracelet or some kind of necklace. when it comes on old people you give then some kind of food stuff and especially Chinese mushroom.

it is very important that giving gifts should not be one way business, it always requires reciprocity. The person who receives the gift always looks for a chance for giving a gift back. In terms of buying food for friends he said ” we always buy even numbers of fruits because we consider odd numbers of fruits as bad luck.

He laughed and said ” Its would be very unfamiliar for you to look deeply at my culture because you are from different culture but it is just the way it is.

It was a good interview for me learning about a lot of specific facts of china culture and economy. As he preferred to talk about Chinese culture he was very happy to tell me about all this.

After all, Chinese people have their own culture when it comes on giving friends, relatives, anyone gifts.

Making a living in different Country- BOTSWANA

Of course everyone has to have their own living in today’s world. As I interviewed my partner chen zuo who is from china but living in Botswana for a long time. He tells me a lot of facts about Botswana.

He said “ My father has a business of construction and my mom is housewife but she also has a major part in our business.” I asked him whether what do you think about making a living in Botswana? he replied ” Botswana was a poor country but since the independence it has been growing and growing fast.” I am not sure but I think it has been. I don’t work in the home because culture is very different there and children and teenagers are mostly dependent to their parents. he smiled and said “Here students can work and have an idea about making their living but there we do not think about our making a living until we complete our education and get a good job.” Getting a good job depends on the education and I think that I came here to get good education as people consider that America provides a good education. then he went on to people’s life there, he mentioned that ” a countable number of people there live in their traditional way and they have their own making a living.” In on topic of anthropology class I learned about Bushmen, and he explained that ” some people are bushmen and they make their own living, hunting  and gathering”. However Many more people living are different they live in modern lifestyle and its gradually changing.

” I would say this because through the centuries , as people of different tribes joined and shared many of their customs. today all these different customs help make culture of Botswana and so Botswana is modern country”.

He told me that ” people income depends on their job and field therefore people try to choose those fields that they can earn money and their life can be better. I would never think of working in this age If i was there because according to culture children must get educated before they make their own living”. Government also tries to give education to all children for country’s development which I think is good but I think American system is good when You start to work from a specific age you get an idea about living, expenses, etc.

I asked him question about his parents and normally people’s income and how do they manage it? he replied ” I am not rich but my family earns enough that they can save, spend whatever is needed”. As I am the only child they sent me here to get an good education. He later told me that he considers his family between high income and middle income people.

I asked him about How is he going to make his own living. he laughed out louder and said ” I really want to join my father’s construction business and this is also what y family expects from me that is why I am majoring in Business”.

He later on said ” I really like America’s system where you don’t really have to be dependent on your parents for your living. he explained that culture makes a difference but I am also fine with the policy of “only eduction while children” as a government policy”. This is important because for living in a developing country government has to think about children getting education first.

Finally, This interview was vital and I learned a lot from him especially his culture and their ways of making a living.

Language and Communication

As I had a new topic to discuss with my course partner, I fixed a time with him. It was like an official interview, In which we sat in room where nobody could disturb us. Firstly, My partner is Chen Zuo and he is from China however due to his family business, he lives in Botswana.

As I was prepared with some questions for him and he was ready to answers all the questions. First, I asked him about Family background languages. he replied that ” my mom and dad are both Chinese so they basically speak Chinese and  since my father is a businessman he speaks English while mom does not”. he said ” I was born in china and due to my parents, family I learned Chinese but since the beginning, I was going to English school”. although he does not remember all his language learning but he says that he never use to communicate in English in china but as soon as went to high school in UWC, he got an environment there and so he was able to speak English quite fluently.

After living China for 12 years, his family moved to Botswana and here he had to communicate in English all the time. As his understanding, he told me that ” In the beginning, there is always cultural differences in discourse. I was facing differences in pronunciation,  and grammatical structures of other people. I use to have problems understanding their English and specially their native language.  but now I am fine to communicate in English although I cannot speak or understand their native language..”

He also mentioned about he only knows two languages Chinese and English. He said ” even though in china people speak in Chinese but some dialects are mixed and sometimes its completely different from the original language.” he mentioned that ” every ethnic group has their own different dialects, pidgins however its always quite similar to the simplified Chinese.” Many ethnic groups and tribes have their own kind of dialects.

Lastly, I would say It was a good interview for me. I gained knowledge by the experience of my partner. My partner speaks two languages and he is fluent in those however he almost understands all the dialects in china. As explained in cultural Anthropology about innovations, Chen Believes that ” yes innovation has taken place and languages are mixed but the origin is same because speaking and script is not much different except a few words. Finally, Linguistic Anthropology is one of the main parts in Anthropology, In which  human communication is focused upon the importance of socio-cultural differences, communications, structures, functions and history of languages, dialects, pidgins and creoles.

Thanks to Chen Zuo

My first Blog

Hello everybody,

My name is Vinay Ramteke (Freshman) and I am from India. As I am enrolled to this interesting subject( cultural anthropology) I will be posting a lot of aspects That I have learned from my partner. Anyway My Class partner’s name is Chen Zuo, and he is from china but currently living in South Africa. As I interview him, I will be posting a lot of aspects about his culture. I want to learn his culture as much as I can as part of this class.

I am excited about blogging, writing and publishing my own work. I pay a thank to my international partner for helping me.

Thanks A lot