Migrant Females

Today I attended a Hopkins-Nanjing University event. The ironic thing is: I do not attend (nor have I ever attended) John Hopkins or Nanjing U. No, no, I didn't go just for the heck of it...went with a friend!

Anyways, I just finished reading an article about unmarried female migrant workers' contraceptive health knowledge. Although this article was written in the beginning of the twenty-first century, the basic message still rings true. Premarital sex is, in some areas, viewed with more leniency now; however, acknowledging to engaging in premarital sex (especially by unmarried females) is frowned upon. Even if unmarried women engage in premarital sex, they make sure to hide it from their parents so that their families do not "lose face."

Family planning centers are widely available, but, as the article states, these unmarried migrant females see these centers are places for married women. They are too embarrassed to seek out contraceptive knowledge and resources. Furthermore, they believe that it is sinful for unmarried women to even look inside contraceptive stores; it is not their place to do so. To emphasize this point, one professor told me that even when free condoms are placed in a public area, single females will send friends who have boyfriends/significant others to take some for them.

Maybe a small step toward removing the perception that only married women can and should access contraceptive methods is changing the title "family planning center" to "health for couples" or "relationship health?" These suggestions may not be very good, but hopefully they will stimulate better ideas.

Awareness

This is my second post in a day...quite the record for me. However, this is something I think (and know) is an important and growing issue in China.

I just came out of a lecture on "Homesexuality in China." One of the questions asked is, "Should a homosexual male be responsible for telling his female heterosexual bride that he is a homosexual?" Many individuals in China mask their true sexual orientation, go against their genetic nature, and marry the opposite sex in order to fit into the social norm. Several females in the lecture voiced that this is wholly unfair to the female brides...how can these males be so selfish and ruin these women's lives? Even if these women were to get a divorce, the damage would already be complete (especially if there is a child involved). However, the response was (not verbatim), "All these problems are caused by society, society's expectations that we all fit into this keyhole of characteristics." Society creates the stigmatism that surrounds non-normative social identities. Hence, from a certain perspective, these homosexual males do not have a choice; they are forced to hide their true selves in order to live a "normal" life.

China's current situation is not much different from that experienced by the homosexual community in the U.S. several decades ago (for those of you who have not, please watch the "Milk" film). Even now in the U.S., there is a highly visible residue of these past negative attitudes (though, of course, in some areas more than others). I believe that people fear what they do not know; thus, awareness is the key to moving forward with others. The challenge lies in finding effective ways to getting people to listen.

Food Catch-Up

So, yesterday I nearly went crazy asking for a room phone for the 300th time! Every time I went to ask, the person in charge would say something along the lines of, "Really? You don't have a phone? How can you not have a phone? Are you sure you don't have a phone?" I don't know about you, but I find this line of reasoning quite unreasonable. First of all, if I did have a phone, I don't know why I would be wasting my time asking for one. Secondly, the thought of stealing one of these antiquated pieces of plastic has never crossed my mind.

Okay, so now that that is off my chest, I realized that my blog is still lacking pictures of food. Those of you who have seen my food albums, know that I'm crazy about taking food pictures. However, recently I haven't been doing a good job of even taking pictures! Nonetheless, below are some pictures from a family-styled meal with friends.

Yummy Chinese pancake (above)

Stir-fried vermicelli noodlies with celery

Stir-fried eggplant with green peppers

Dumplings (cannot remember the filling)...better than mom's...?

Very popular cafe around here called 85 degrees

I have a sweet tooth!

Disease is not a Crime

Yesterday in my "AIDS in China" course, we watched the "Care and Love" 关爱之家 documentary by Director Ai Xiaoming. It provides an overview of the Xingtai Hospital situation, in which patients were given blood transfusions with infected blood. Because delivery can lead females to experience loss of blood, new mothers who delivered at the Xingtai Hospital became HIV positive and, subsequently, developed AIDS. However, because they were wholly unaware that they had become infected, they passed on the disease to their child(ren) through breastfeeding. The hospital denied that these patients had become infected through its services...it turns out that the then hospital director's relatives were government officials. In the end, some of these patients and their family members were compensated; the key word is some, NOT all.

I had previously watched this documentary at the University of Michigan, but it was good to watch it again after two years. Although those individuals with HIV/AIDS represents a small percentage of China's population, one must remember that China has over 1.3 billion people; even a small percentage translates into a growing issue.

One quote from the documentary that particularly struck me is, "AIDS is a disease, not a crime." The question is: are people willing to (are they ready to) increase their self-awareness and overcome the collective stigmatism surrounding AIDS?

Happy 100 RMBs!

Today I had the pleasure of attending my first Shanghai Rotary meeting. Although there is a standardized way in which meetings are conducted, it was quite interesting to see the cultural twists on familiar agenda items. For example, when we recited the Four-Way test at the beginning of the meeting, we also recited the lines in Mandarin Chinese! Secondly, instead of donating "Happy Bucks (or Dollars)," people donated "Happy (or sad) 100 RMBs!"

Midway through the dinner, I was asked to hold the money bucket. One of the club officers auctioned off 3 boxes of mooncakes and a cigarette ashtray (which, he claims you can use to hold nuts if you don't need it as an ashtray). The ashtray was sold for 900 RMB...although the bidder first offered 888 since eight is a lucky number in China.

Finally, we had an absolutely excellent guest speaker. Anthony Elvey, a Director at Cisco, spoke about the organization for the upcoming Shanghai World Expo. Apparently, all chicken products will be sold without the bones...as the organizers are afraid that it will cause more unhygienic conditions. Secondly, the organizers are most afraid about the toilet system that will be in place. Thirdly, you must go to the Expo with a plan on what you want to see and get out of it. It is simply impossible to see everything.

The dinner was excellent...as you will see from the below photos. The meeting took place at the elegant Shanghai Hilton near the Jing'an Si Metro stop. All the Rotarians and guests were/are incredibly friendly. I met one from Michigan (also a UM graduate), one from Kansas, and several from the UK, South Africa, etc. There was a group taking a tour across China; the first tour is ending and there will be another group coming soon.

For more information about the Rotary Club in Shanghai, you can go to http://www.rotaryshanghai.org/!

This past weekend, I attended the Shanghai Expat Show. Various companies/organizations from around Shanghai come to display what they do and to develop professional relationships.

I had the pleasure of sitting at the Rotaract (Rotary in Action) booth. Rotaracts are a group of young professionals ages 18-30 who seek to connect with the community at age through a dedication to service. The Shanghai Rotaract Club will be hosting a charity in November...more details soon!

Our booth was situated right next to the Shanghai Rotary Club's booth. At first, Rotary did not have a banner...so visitors thought that only Rotaract was present. Many people older than the age of 30 would ask us if they could join and we would just tell them to take two steps to the right. :)

My Second Post!

So, I originally started a blog on another website, but then found it to be inconvenient for my readers. Plus, I can finally now acess Google blogspot...and Facebook! I finally feel complete, haha.

What have I been doing in these past few days? Well, classes began Sept 8. I'm taking a gym and English course for fun. Interestingly, even master's students are required to take gym! As for the English course, it is titled "Contemporary Medicine English." We regularly watch clips from 20/20 and other media news distributors. The other day, I invited one of my friends from the main Fudan campus (Handan) to my English class. When we walked in, everybody turned to stare at him (yes, he's Caucasian American). The entire situation was a bit hilarious. We watched Obama's speech promoting nationalized healthcare. The professor translated Obama's speech into Chinese and my friend and I were, like, that's not what he [Obama] said.

The other day, I had to go to the internet office to ask why I still do not have internet access in my room. The staff members told me I would receive a phone call. I thought that I had received a text, but since my cell phone currently cannot display Chinese characters, I only saw black blocks and some numbers. As the female staff members ate their lunch and watched a typical Chinese drama, I sat in the office (bit of an awkward situation). One lady then had the bright idea of me forwarding the text to her so that she can view the message. When I did, it turned out that the message was a commercial asking me to buy a computer. When the internet guy finally did call me, I was initially quite rude to him because I thought he was trying to sell me something. Oh dear. I've just heard so many horrer stories about telemarketers here trying to embezzle people's money. I've even heard that some pretend to have kidnapped your friends and/or family and somehow even know their names.

Change of subject: Just a few days ago, I attended a biochemistry conference. Of course, I barely understood anything, but tried my best to remember what I learned in high school AP Chemistry. The department is working on a new website and they would like me to help them translate it into English. I think it should be quite fun. After the conference, a few students and I had dinner with the professors. It was quite sumptious...two types of fish, crab, exotic-looking vegetables, duck meat, etc. I still can't get used to the ceaseless "gan bei" (cheers) that takes place throughout the meal. I mean, it's just too much standing up for a meal!

If you ever travel to China, you'll notice that many people have (what I consider to be) interesting names. For example, the ones I personally know are: Stone, Big Bear, Summer (for a guy). I've heard some are Celery, Sucky...

Finally, I'm taking an extremely interesting course called Sexual Health, AIDS, and Homosexuality in China. The professor is awesome and there are always guest speakers. Furthermore, students do field work outside of class. For the first class, we watched "Kinsey." I've already seen this, but it was quite interesting to witness students' reactions...several gasps. This past Friday, a professor from Nanjing University came to speak about the drug culture in China. Apparently heroin and something called K-powder is quite rampant...not much of a cocaine culture here.

More news to come...

What it means to be in Shanghai

I arrived in Shanghai, China Tuesday, September 1, on a slightly foggy afternoon. Since then, I have met a myriad of individuals...from the dormitory's doorman who continues to ask me whether I am a guest or resident, to professors who lecture on the reproductive health challenges in developing countries.

This is my first official blog, so please bear with me if you find this entry difficult to follow; I tend to write by stream of conciousness. First off, I forgot to introduce myself and what I exactly I am doing in China! For the 2009-2010 academic year, I am studying at the Fudan University School of Public. As a Fulbright Research Fellow, I am conducting research on women's access to care issues and working to gain more knowledge about the health insurance distribution model in China. However, even in the few days I have been here, I have found so many interesting things that are worth investigating/researching. Now it seems that a year is such a limited amount of time!

Now, back to my first day in Shanghai. My advisor's student was kind enough to pick me up from the Pudong International Airport. From there, we took a bus to the university's campus, where I am currently staying at the Foreign Students' Dormitory. It is the only building here with an elevator. In future entries, you may sense this difference in treatment toward foreign students (versus that toward domestic students). Although this is obviously a form of inequality, all I can say is that I thank my lucky stars that I don't have to climb up the slippery white tiled stairs.

On the evening of the first, I tried Shanghai 小龙包 "xiao long bao" for dinner. It is a small bun filled with pork meat; it is famous for the soupy broth that spills out when you bit into it. Now, in my defense, although I claim to be a pescatarian (which means I do not eat meat except for seafood), there is a Shanghai saying that if you leave Shanghai without eating "xiao long bao," you might as well have not been in Shanghai. Thus, I got the meat eating over with the first day. Nonetheless, I must say that I am a hypocritical pescatarian.

In the days that ensued, I ran around like a chicken without its head making sure I had all the papers to file for a resident permit. In the more eventful moments, I had dinner with my advisor and his graduate students, visited the main campus "Handan," and discovered the oh-so-wonderful Walmart. The Walmart here is a behemoth compared to that in the U.S. With four huge levels, it is filled with furniture, clothing, house things (didn't care too much to pay attention), and food, FOOD, FOOD. Sometimes, just looking at the food can make you full because you simply do not know where to start buying (or, in my case, it makes you greedier and hungrier).

Finally, I attended a lecture on "Responding to Reproductive Health Challenges in Developing Countries." Written underneath this title on a poster was the slogan, "Everybody will enjoy their reproductive health by 2010." The lecture was specific to China. I learned many, many interesting facts and below I have provided a few (in no specific order):

A. One-fifth of pregnant woman have a miscarriage
B. 15% (some say up to 50%) of abortions are partial-abortions
C. HIV prevalence has increased more rapidly since 2001
D. Xinjiang, Wuhan, & Henan provinces have the highest HIV percentages
E. 13% sex workers die from unsafe abortions, and one-fifth of these deaths are among females ages 15-19.

The lecture provided alot of food for thought. The following week, I began to take courses with other graduate students. Thus far, the only class I can completely understand is my English class on medical terminology. Nonetheless, I am hopeful that my Chinese reading and writing will vastly improve in a few months.

I am sure the next few days, weeks, and months will bring many more exciting things. I look forward to my time here, but still think about and miss my family and friends at home!

DISCLAIMER: None of the views and/or opinions expressed in this blog are necessarily reflective of the views and/or opinions of the Fulbright Program.