Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

International Office As of March 2017

Experience Reports - Part 2 Laura Ceci

Majors, minors and degree China Studies, Faculty of Philosophy , Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg Host country, city Nanjing, China

Start and end date of the stay September 2018- January 2019 abroad Host university / institution Nanjing University, Xianlin Campus

Identification code Nanjing University: 20190500415

- How were your arrival and the first week in your host country?

Our group boarded on the same flight from Europe to China, therefore the arrival was very relaxed. We were quick in arriving to Gulou to start our registration process. In the first week we all had to go through various processes, including the opening of a Chinese bank account, the registration to Alipay and Wechat pay, and the registration at the University. The fact that we were all together in it eased the stress and turned the occasion into an opportunity to explore parts of the city. Biking into the Chinese traffic wouldn’t seem like a recommendable option, but it is extremely fun and I would suggest to give it a cautious try.

- Were you provided with any introductory information and if so, was it helpful?

We were provided with introductory information, it was useful. The University provided a stack of documents, booklets and leaflets. Everyone from the staff was very kind and helpful, they all understood our initial normal confusion and guided us in the various processes with patience.

- Were you able to deal with all formalities (course selection, accommodation, insurances etc.)?

The process of registration for the University and the accommodation were quick and easy to go through. I had purchased an international insurance and I would have preferred not to buy the one recommended by the University, nonetheless the insurance provided by the University in extremely useful in case something happens during your stay at the campus. In fact, I hurt my hand in a volleyball match with friends and I needed to seek medical attention at the campus hospital. The course selection was problematic. I feel we didn’t have enough time to make well thought choices regarding our courses. The most striking problem was the fact that we had a precise requirement over the number of credits we were supposed to earn, and this requirement put me in the position of attending to 27 hours of classes per week, leaving me with very little time to choose a course taught in Chinese.

- What was your highlight of the first weeks? 2

My first weeks had a very confusing and lively tone. I passed from being relaxed to being extremely busy in the span of three days. Apart from that, the process of rediscovering Chinese food was amazing and my recommendation would be to try everything at least one time. Moreover, since the weather was still nice and warm, spontaneous groups would form in the evenings outside the dorm. This eased the process of knowing new people in a rather convivial situation.

-What do you perceive as unfamiliar, strange and/or different from Germany?

Everything is completely unfamiliar, but one learns how to appreciate the uncanny feeling given by the comparison of what one has read and studied about a place and the actual perceptions of that place. I enjoyed almost every bit of cultural diversity. On a negative notice, Chinese society appears to be extremely gender divided. It is not strange to find oneself in conversations about what ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ should like, feel and be (e.g. girls like shopping, boys like football).

-Please describe the course of a typical weekday in a few sentences.

I would go to Chinese language classes every day for 4 hours. After that, I often enjoyed having lunch with some classmates from and Japan. I tended to save these moments to bond with people I had little occasion to see outside class, since my afternoon schedule would include individual study for classes. In the evenings I would often have a tea with my friends in the laundry room of the dorm. In many occasions I enjoyed watching movies with my friends in some classroom that we would reserve appositely for the occasion.

In addition, please send us a copy of your class schedule and describe the differences in comparison with your schedule at the University of Freiburg.

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To this timetable it needs to be added that I attended to the MA course “Comparative Philosophy: Chinese and Western” taught by Professor Hu Xingming every Wednesday from 18:30 to 21:30. The total of 27 hours per week was much more then what I was expecting comparing it to the 8/10 hours of classes in Freiburg and often I could not complete my readings.

- Please tell us about a great and/or formative experience (e.g. a party, university life, food, sports etc.)

I could attribute a formative value to the majority of the experiences I had while being in China. As for the issue happened at Nanjing Railway station (that I will describe aside from my experiences), pretty much anything could be a positive occasion to learn and gain experience. There are three experiences I would like to describe (not including the travels to Shanghai, Wuxi and Suzhou):

1) Movie nights: We often watched Chinese movies in some classroom reserved for the occasion. It was extremely interesting because the movies were chosen by a friend who is a very passionate student of Film studies. Her selection was never boring and she was able to combine auteur films with box- office successes. After the movie we would often discuss the photography and the beauty of the scenes, as well as the reception of those movies from the Chinese audience. Following my friend precious advice, I joined her at the encounter held at her faculty with Tibetan director Pema Tseden, to celebrate his career.

2) Dinner of the 25th December: in this occasion our group reunited to dine in a very fine restaurant close to the campus. The food was great and we had a great time, it was a situation to celebrate conviviality more than Christmas but the ones among us that felt the Christmas spirit were not bothered by the lacking of any religious symbol. On a negative side, some Chinese friends decided not to join us because there would have been too many foreigners to the dinner and this situation would have made them feel awkward. While not completely satisfactory, the solution of having separate occasions to be with Chinese and international friends usually proves to be effective, because I would not try to talk any of my friends in doing something they don’t feel at least completely comfortable in doing.

3) Food and drinks: the offer is particularly variegated at the canteens and I would recommend to try everything, including the Nanjing duck blood soup. Since I am sure many have already described more than enough the delicacies available in China and in Nanjing, I would like to spend some times on the drinks. Tea is obviously the preferred choice, and in the restaurant where we held the 25th December dinner it can be found a great selection of very fine tea. Moreover, milk tea and bubble tea are extremely popular and cheap, apart from being a great small gift to show appreciation to friends for tolerating one’s (my*) poor level of spoken Chinese. Note: some people may consider bubble tea as “unclean”, due to alleged unclear origins of certain chemicals used to treat the “bubbles”, but I haven’t find anything on the topic so I would suggest to take is as a rumor. Aside from the soft drinks, the jasmine tea from the brewery Master Gao surpasses the Chinese I have ever tried. The company is from Nanjing, but you can obviously find it all around China. Regarding the famous , if you find a good bottle of it (as I did in a café in Wuxi) try to buy one for yourself even if you have to pay a high price, because Baijiu can also be extremely enjoyable. Both and Soju (Korean) are supposed to be light drinks, while Jinjiu is a variation of Baijiu and is usually used as a medicament. I would not recommend to use the latter as a medicine, but it can have some sort of relief in case of cough and sore throat when drunk alone or mixed in ginger infuse. In any case, stay away from the cheap (or free) alcohol especially in clubs. Anyway, during my stay I preferred staying away from clubs altogether and I went very often to the KTV. Note: women are not supposed to drink alcohol nor smoke in formal situations.

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On a personal notice, I would strongly recommend to anyone who identifies as a woman to be careful in very 4 crowded places. I actually incurred in the extremely unpleasant situation of being touched in an inappropriate way by a male stranger while I was leaning to grab my backpack from the security checking to enter in the Nanjing Railway station. In case anything happens, try to give yourself a moment but be quick into trying to report the issue. If the person in question denies, and people around (including the staff of the security checking) say they haven’t seen anything, and the policeman standing nearby hesitates, I would recommend to take the issue as it is: something you can’t really do anything about, but that needs to be told and shared as it is. My way of coping with this issue was to take a picture of the man and calling a friend. Both the actions helped me in restating a bit of my agency. I would recommend not to post the picture on social media (both Chinese and non-Chinese). Some girls that asked me about the issue after seeing me cry at the station suggested me to put the picture on social networks, but I would discourage anyone from doing that for two reasons: a) the experience of #BalanceTonPorc (said to be the French counterpart of the American #MeToo) has already proven that this can go too far too quickly; b) you don’t know if what you write and post could backlash, since you are not in control nor part of the main narrations that the general public holds about the issue. Further conversations with Chinese and international people (while not being real data) confirmed my intuition that this issue recurs in crowded places. All the Chinese people I discussed the topic with condemned this behavior as “disgusting” and “inappropriate”, which is a sort of refreshing standpoint coming from a culture (the Italian one) that has the hideous habit of seeing this kind of unwanted and unasked “attentions” as positive remark on the person’s beauty and sexual desirability. I have no data or account on how often this issue recurs in Germany, nor on how it gets handled. I believe that unpleasant situation like the one I found myself in are unpredictable: would I have worn a different set of clothing doesn’t really matter and I will surely not throw away my pink girly dress just because some say that it is too pink or too girly. In case you hear or experience a different kind of expression that puts on the spot what you were wearing, I would suggest to keep calm and to take the occasion to discuss the issue if possible.

- Please complete the following sentence: ‚… is what I miss most.’

I did not miss anything apart from the fluffiness of non-Chinese beds. Overall my stay was extremely pleasant and I would have loved to stay more time.

- Pictures are always welcome!

Food and drinks

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Views of Nanjing

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Imperial Examination Museum, Nanjing 6

History Museum, Shanghai

Dinner of the 25th December

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7 Pet in a fan shop, Suzhou

Street, Wuxi

Rain, Wuxi

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8 Preparation for Chunjie, Shanghai

Statues of Chinese Doctors in front of a renowned pharmacy, Nanjing

Suchbild, Nanjing

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