三人行，必有我师 = Three People Walking, Must Have My Teacher

The subject contains a phrase that really struck me last week, a phrase that kind of sums up what I like about Chinese culture so much and my life here. It came at a time where I was trying to find a way to better explain to family and friends why it is my life has been so intertwined with China. The saying is this:

Chinese: 三人行，必有我师
Literal Translation: Three People Walking, Must Have My Teacher
Paraphrase: When there are three people together, one of them must be my teacher

The interesting thing I found about China is that here, everyone is trying to always learn from someone else. Not get something from someone else, but just learn something. This seems to be true about all the Chinese I meet. I don't think it has to do with me being a foreigner, except yes, I do have a lot I can teach them. But even observing Chinese people (like I am this week at a "special" school in ZhengZhou), they seem to seek to learn from others and about others.

Last year when I went back to America without even knowing I'd even be back this year, I desired to be able to also learn from my American friends, but it was so much harder. I remember trying to with one friend about a foreign language she knew and experienced, driven just by my own curiosity that started when I was in China to know about other cultures, and while no matter how hard I tried to learn a little bit, to her it seemed she thought it was strange and pointless for me to learn from her. Yet here in China, I can ask almost a complete stranger, such as a Tibetan girl at this school where I'm visiting, about this-and-that in her language, or talk about the meaning of flags with a Malaysian woman, and we are constantly trying to figure these things out together.

No offense to Americans, yet it does seem that even when I get together with American friends here, we act like we don't need to be learning anything, and are just perfectly happy with what we know (myself included sometimes). Yet in China, everyone is every one's teacher... and as that saying goes, most likely, if three people are together, we are learning something from someone. I find that feeds my mind which is always running at 1000 cycles per second, and I'm not good at just reading something on my own, so China has been a great wealth of information and I have been able to contribute to that wealth, which I pray I'll be able to do for years to come.

In Sickness or in Health...

Sorry, today's blog is not about marriage, even though I wish my life was heading that way, but not.

No, it's actually about sickness. Having lived in China for four years, and also experiencing a lot of Chinese culture since 2001, I have gotten used to a lot of Chinese culture, from stampedes onto buses and trains, to the fact when in traffic, you don't look back... what's in front of you is all that matters.

But when I get stick, as I had the 24-hour flue today, I still can't get used to the advice I get from Chinese friends, as well intended as it is.

Okay, from the minimal of catching a cold, to not the all-uncommon vomiting a little from who-knows-what-got-into-your-system, the common "去医院吧" ("Go to the hospital") to "喝热东西吧" ("Drink hot stuff"). I am just full of warm-fuzzies that my Chinese friends care, and even bring me 粥 (Chinese porridge). But when it comes to telling me to go to the hospital, and drink a lot of hot stuff, problems arise.

I am not afraid of the hospitals here, despite their lack of sanitation (people still can smoke anywhere in the hospital, spit on the ground, etc.), but just find it pointless. I've had a friend say "You've caught a cold, go the hospital", so, to experience Chinese culture, I go, and guess what the hospital tells me out of a few pointless examinations? "You've caught a cold." Then I get medicine which I don't find helps me as good as a few days rest.


Okay, so today, I was pretty bad. And of course as soon as I told a good Chinese friend who often cooks for me anyway that I was sick, she and her roommate were over at my home at noon with the porridge. But there was conflict. When I have a fever and upset stomach, I find Sprite to be the best medicine, for both making my stomach better, making any vomit not bad tasting, and just cooling down my body. But when these girls saw what I was drinking, it was if I was stuffing poison down my throat. They took it away from me, despite my protest, and made me eat the 粥 they brought, which was full of sweet dates and salty vegetables. It was good in itself, but I really can't eat such hot and salty stuff for so long without needing something cool to drink... but they wouldn't even let me think of doing such a thing. After about 15 minutes of this, I was burning up, that I went into the kitchen, opened the fridge door, and grabbed a bottle of water, despite what they though... of course they cased me in there and told me that was bad for my health. I couldn't stand it any longer, that I put up a fight, saying that you MUST only have hot stuff is not actually sciententific, and even if it was, I know what my body needs. They thought it was strange, but after I had to get my nose flaring and, in the not most friendly voice, told them I needed to drink this, I finally got to take a few sips.


To them, it was strange that all the sudden the sweat stopped pouring down my face and I regained color. They didn't understand. I told them, this hold-cold thing is just what we are used to. Americans are use to having ice cold water within arms reach whenever eating, whether it be winter or summer. They are used to having hot water to drink when they are invited over to a friends house, etc.

It is amazing how our body adjusts to how we were raised. To me cold drinks are not that cold, to them hot drinks are not hot (I still haven't got used to just drinking hot water with nothing in it), and to Koreans (for another example) spicy pickled food is not spicy... all because of what our body is accustomed to when growing up. That is probably more scientific than the advice that almost caused me to faint of heat today.

I just wish I could figure out a better way to explain to my Chinese friends that I NEED to drink the cold drink or my body will over-heat...without having to come up with weird excuses like "I really don't think I'm going to die if I drink this cold water!!!" Which I ended up resorting to yelling, all because they acted like it was going to kill me.

So there you have it... when it comes to health and sickness, Asia and America differs greatly. Fortunately I got my point across, and when I had dinner with these same girls tonight, they actually made me drink cold Sprite, thinking that was how to make me happy (and for a while it did, until the common Chinese "keep drinking/eating even if you're full" kicked in, in which I had Sprite almost coming out my nose... I just can't win!)

Why We're Here

I've been living in Tianjin, China for over 4 years now. This blog is to talk about my past life in Tianjin as well as the future changes of Tianjin. I invite any one who is interested in Tianjin, China, has any questions, or has their own experiences to post here. Look forward to the talks we have as we explore and live a life IN TIANJIN.