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Government
Cultural understanding in Washington, DCPosted by Joel Martinsen, November 29, 2008 5:20 PM
![]() Future leaders live here iColumn (爱专栏) is a collaborative blog whose contributors are largely Chinese media professionals but also include overseas students and journalists stationed throughout the world. Here's how the site introduces itself:
The US presidential election figured prominently in recent blog posts, and although there's a lot of wonky political content overall, iColumn is also home to other "personal stories," from travelogue-style pieces and culture review articles to cross-cultural encounters both inside and outside China. It's interesting reading from a variety of voices. One blog post by iColumn editor Tony Lee (李梓新), who recently concluded a three-month stint in the US, was reprinted in a recent issue of the Shanghai-based lifestyle magazine The Bund. In the piece translated below, he makes some interesting cultural observations about life on Capitol Hill: Interns on Capitol Hillby Tony Lee / The BundI live in northwest Washington, DC, in an international youth residence known as the Consulate Apartments. Most of the people living here are the leaders of the future, a squad of young people from all over America, and the world, crowding together here to compete for a meal ticket in Washington. A fair number of them haunt the offices of senators and representatives on Capitol Hill, serving as interns to those eminent individuals. And from the fashionably-dressed young women who go in and out of the apartment every day, it's possible that one or two Monicas might emerge. I understand a little better the life of young guys on the Hill, because one of my building-mates works for a Florida representative. He's got a full beard and looks somewhere between white and latino. The floor in his room is piled with all sorts of clothing in an unkempt jumble, just like his beard. But every weekend he sets up a small table and meticulously irons his clothes, because on Monday he needs to wear a wrinkle-free shirt when he goes whistling off to work. Hill interns seem to have little spiritual life. Their time outside of work is spent on the sofa watching movies or football, and their tables are covered in all kinds of cans. The few of us Chinese residents spend our days hidden in our own rooms writing or doing other things, and in their eyes we must be mysterious indeed. A friend of mine who looks like Harry Potter is an intern at the US Council on Foreign Relations. He can speak a little Chinese — he once spent two months studying at Nankai University, so he's got a little bit of -r in his speech. His sister is apparently a Chinese to English interpreter. He's certain to look us up every day to practice conversation. We always teach him slang, and he's even figured out that "awesome" on the lips of American youth is niubi in Chinese. We can forgive his awkwardness in Chinese, but will today's globalized world forgive our awkwardness in English? A few days ago I went to the famous Brookings Institution. The Chinese officials from the Development and Reform Commission, which included a Tsinghua University professor, could only speak in Chinese. And the Powerpoint files they had prepared were all in Chinese. The foreign computers couldn't handle them and simply displayed everything as a bunch of boxes, to the bewilderment of the foreigners in attendance. However, John McCain's old high school has started Chinese instruction and his college offers a major in Chinese. As we size each other up, the world moves forward toward a common goal. Links and Sources
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Comments on Cultural understanding in Washington, DC
I lived in NW DC but I didnt know the Consulate Apartments are for future politicians only.
A powerpoint presentation in Chinese at the Brooking Inst' sounds insane? Are you serious?
Cass: I think the author is painting in broad strokes here. Although the version in The Bund calls the Consulate Apartments "youth apartments," the blog post it was adapted from describes it with a bit more nuance.
There's a photo of the messed-up Powerpoint slide in the blog post.
the messed-up PPT slide is a better illustration of the differences between east and west than the author realizes. Consider that:
* in China, it goes without saying that someone other than the Tsinghua lecturer should have been responsible for ensuring that the PPT presentation would function flawlessly during the lecture. in the event that it did NOT, blame and embarrassment would redound solely to the host, not to the lecturer; WHILE
* in the U.S., though it also goes without saying that someone other than the Tsinghua lecturer should have been responsible for ensuring that the PPT presentation would function flawlessly during the lecture, in the (likely) event that it did NOT, blame and embarrassment would redound both to the host and to the lecturer for wasting the audience's time with such careless glitches.
"The foreign computers couldn't handle them and simply displayed everything as a bunch of boxes, to the bewilderment of the foreigners in attendance."
I always find it so interesting - and revealing - that when Chinese are abroad, they refer to the locals as "foreigners".
"As we size each other up, the world moves forward toward a common goal."
What exactly does this mean? The world's common goal is to study Chinese?
What other suggestions do you have Bert? Sending more Chinese to study abroad so the US or the West would provide free education? lol