Doppelgangers

Before going onto todays topic, theres something I first have to add in relaton to my previous entry about dangerous drivers in China. In the space of two weeks after I wrote that entry there were two serious car accidents involving pedestrians outside our campus, one outside the south gate and one outside the north. I was told that one of the accidents claimed the life of a young child in one, and a student was seriously injured in the other. Last I heard he was in intensive care, and I'm not sure if he made it or not. The details about the accident are a bit sketchy becuase they come from other students who heard it from others ect. But the fact that two serious accidents happened right outside our campus just highlights the real human toll of bad drivers and a lack of road regulations. Anyway, onto todays entry.

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon amongst some of my students over the last year, and this is probably something that happens all over the country. It seems that some pairs or groups of best friends try to make themselves look exactly the same. Now, to many foreigners one Chinese face can be difficult to distinguish from another (God, even I'm Chinse and I still have problems distinguishing!) But the sort of likliness I'm talking here is on a whole different level.

Now this shouldn't come as a surprise to me, as it's well known that asian countries are conformist societies, where individuality is frowned upon and collectivism is the key (although this is slowly changing amongst the youth). But two different pairs of girls  have made themselves look so similar that i can never tell them appart! To start with, they're about the same build, but they'll also dress in a similar fashion, sport the same hairdo and wear the same type of glass frames as their best buddy. Appearance-wise they could almost pass off as twins or sisters, but I'm not sure if they try to replicate each other's characters, since I didn't have the chance to get to know them well enough. I wish I could post id photos from my class database onto this blog to illustrate, but that would be inappropriate. It's funny because China is reknowned for their skill in copying and replication - rip-off rolexes, rip-off designer bags, and now rip-off people!

Personally I haven't seen more than pairs of best friends sporting the same look, but a friend told me she's overheard three girls from the same dorm ask a hairdresser to give them all the same haircut! how strange. I've never noticed this doppleganger behaviour between males though, but perhaps I just haven't stumbled across any yet. 

To a westerner like myself I find this behavour so strange. I can understand people want to follow fashion trends and wear stuff or do their hair the way the celebs are doing it, but completely copying every fashion detail from your best friend? Thats a little too creepy for me. If my best friend in university (or even high school) started to style himself exactly after me, I'd tell him to cut it out, then unfriend him.  It reminds me of that movie 'Single white female'

Surely one of the pairs of friends is taking all their fashion ques from the other, more dominant of the pair. Else how would they decide who to model themselves after when they first become friends? Because if they were both equal partners in this power arrangement, would they meet somewhere in the middle like a negotiation? How would they decide how to change or evolve their taste in fashion over their four years together? Nope, this seems much too complex. There must be one dominant friend and a follower, which if this is the case,  doesn't speak volumes for the follower. The follower could be viewed as someone who does not have a sense of self, or has little self confidence in who they are. But then again, there is another possible explanation to all this.

An overwhelmng majority (like 99%) of all my students who are single children always wished they had a sibbling. So could modeling your appearance after your best friend be some kind of attempt to  experience sibblinghood? Maybe on some sub-conscious level they're trying to play out their fantasty of having that brother or sister they never had. Of course, it's no substitute for spending your whole childhood with a real sibbling and having the same genes, but it's probably the next best thing! Actually  genetically, the next closest thing that some single children have to a sibbling is a cousin. And in fact, you'll find many students will talk about having a 'brother' or 'sister', when actually they are referring to a cousin. However, many of my students have parents who were also caught up in the one-child policy, and thus have no uncles, aunties, and thus no cousins. So for those in this situation, a best friend who you get along swell with and who looks just like you might be the closest you ever get to experiencing sibblinghood.

Then again, perhaps they just want to impersonate each other and take turns skipping class!

Cereal box drivers licences

They say you can judge a country's true development by the way their motorists drive, and if this is the case, then sadly China has a long way to go before it can be considered as developed!

For starters any tom, dick or harry can get their licence here, for a small undisclosed additional 'fee' to the driving examiner. Almost all my students who have taken the exam have told me about this, explaining that if you don't bribe it's extremely hard to pass the driving test. I'd be fascinated to see how a driving instructor or trainer does drive though as I'm yet to see any sane drivers on the roads here, nor have  i seen anything resembling a 3-point turn or reverse parallel park. And how the hell would they conduct the test on the road anyway, when everyone around you is driving like a lunatic? why, if the examinee was to actually follow the rules it would surprise all the other drivers and cause an accident!

I do know though that the standard hand position on the steering wheel is not like the west. Rather than at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions, it's one hand on the horn and the other on your mobile phone, or dangling your cigarette out the side window. And that brings us to one of the funadamental differences in driving etiquette.

Where in the West, a honk means ''f*#k you where did you learn to drive?'' a honk here in China means  '' hello there, coming through'' or ''i'm approaching this intersection and i'm not slowing down for you'' or '' i'm approaching you from behind so don't make any of your erratic swerves as i overtake you at 100km an hour'' .  and for taxi's it means ''hey you look like you need a lift just cause your walking along the footpath'' . So as you can imagine the horning never stops on Chinese roads. In fact, I think it's the most utilized apparatus on the dashboard. Chinese drivers don't need to read their car manuals, just show them where the horn is and they'll know how to drive it.
So car-horns are really built to last in Asia. Or it makes you wonder if poor little car-horns in the West are never given a chance to truely express themselves, to clear their lungs. Destiny unfulfilled. How sad.

Naturally I've seen my fair share of accidents on the roads. Most of them haven't appeared to be serious, but i can never tell as i cruise past. In China i've heard that whenever an accident occurs both drivers will just get out in the middle of the road (leave their cars where they stop and block all other traffic), and have a shouting/screaming competition. Do they debate the finer points of the Chinese road rules? I doubt it. Probably more like who's the shitter driver. The funny thing is, usually they do come to some sort of agreement on comepnsation (so i've been told). Or perhaps whoever was scarrier, had the louder shouting voice, or had the stronger connections to a government official or gansters won the argument. Who knows?

I've also come across the sight of an accident where one lady was just lying on the road, conscious, probably after being hit by a passing car. Of course the car and had already sped off, but the screwed up thing was that nobody was going to her aid. Even after the case of the 2 year old Yue Yue came to light earlier this year, people here still refuse to go to the aid of people in the street, for fear of being later accused and sued for inflicting the injuries by the victim themselves. Sadly it's still happening here, as detailed in this article

http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/videos/surveillance-video-saves-good-samaritan-from-false-accusation.html

Finally, if you thought that staying off the roads means your safe, think again. Here in China most people still drive 电车 or electric motorbikes, and these horrid things can drive along anything, including footpaths, and get into any nook or cranny. What makes them especially deadly is that they hardly make any noise, so you won't hear one approaching or coming up behind you until they're right upon you. And at night it's even worse as riders are fond of keeping the lights turned off (to save power no doubt, because they don't understand the concept of kinetic energy). Just pray that the riders can see you properly and don't make any sudden sideways movements while you're walking along any footpath in China. I was prompted to write this entry as earlier today I came within a whisker of being mowed down by one of these things from behind. My casual padestrian swagger for an instant turned into a quick-step sideways dance to avoid being maimed. After composing myself I looked up to give the rider a dirty look as he drove past, but he had already turned his attention back to typing his text message as he cruised along the service road. This is China.

Comrade Pharmacist, welcome to China Medical City

For those pharmacy friends out there, hold onto your hats.

Welcome to China Medical City!

I mentioned in my previous blog that a bunch of us foreign workers were taken on an all expenses paid tour of some of Jiangsu province's up-and-coming purpose-built cities, and this is the one of the ones we made a stop in.

Probably the highlight of this place is the entire convention centre thats dedicated to the pharmacy profession, but I'll get to that part later. First though, a bit about the city.

 More accurately, China Medical City (or CMC) is a 30 sq km technology park located within the city of Taizhou. When fully developed, China Medical City will most likely be one of the biggest pharmaceutical and biomedical industry hubs around. Companies and organizations will span the breadth of research and development, manufacturing, trade and exhibition, regulatory bodies, and academia, all complete with Chinese government backing. One would never believe that just 4 years ago this place was just farmland, but as is the standard pace of development in China, entire cities tend to crop up overnight.

Currently a number of pharmaceutical firms have already set up shop here, both local and foreign, and Astra Zenica is currently constructing their facilities here too. They've also got these purpose built R&D plants that companies can rent out if they don't wish to fork out the money to build their own. The pharmaceutical school of one university has already located here, and theres also plans to build a 700 bed hospital where all the clincal trials will be conducted. Ironically though I didn't see a single Terry White Chemist around, let alone a community pharmacy.

Cruising around the town in our tour bus, I felt like a stray dog that had found it's way home. I felt like standing up in the middle of the tourguide's dictation and saying ''lady, you're on my turf now'' and casually grabbing the mic from her to continue the tour. But the juices really got flowing when we reached the exhibition and convention centre. Welcome to the ''Shrine of Pharmacy''.

Before this the only exhibition (more like museum) that I'd seen dedicated to pharmacy in all my travels was in some small dingy basement in Germany as part of a secondary attraction to an old castle. Sort of like some supporting act.  And i never expected to come accross any such exhibition dedicated to pharmacy, because let's face it, pharmacy is not the most sexiest profession around. The day they make something like 'Grey's anatomy' with pharmacist protagonists is the day hell freezes over.

So imagine an entire convention centre, with a permanent exhibition solely dedicated to the pharmacuetical industry! OMG! Never in my wildest dreams had I ever expected to find something like this. I must say as our tour group walked around the exhibits I walked a little taller with chest puffed out. ''yep baby, real life pharmacist, in the flesh, right here with yous. I'm happy to field any questions you might have. You see that exhibit of a guy standing behind the counter holding and pointing to a box in his hand? That's me.''

I was like a kid in a candy store. Scurrying around to all the exhibits and taking as many photos as I could. And suprisingly they did manage to make an exhibit out of it. Though i suspect most of the other people on the tour were bored shitless, my eyes lit up when i saw a drug name, term or drug box that looked familiar. heh, it was like seeing a bunch of old friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. Familiarity is a funny thing.

In truth though, there wasn't much mention of the community and hospital pharmacy professions, and no displays dedicated to their 'art'. Most of it centred around the drugs themselves and the evolution of drug discovery. There was a life-size model display though of a chinese chemist/herbalist shop, so i claimed that as my own. There was also quite a bit of information about chinese medicine, and the pioneers of the profession. People like Li Shi Zhen 李时珍 are apparently the fathers of Chinese Medicine, who wrote the Compendium of Materia Medica, or more simply, the Chinese version of Martindale. There was a display of the materia medica, but unfortunately i didn't see the Martindale, AMH or APF.

It got me thinking though, that us pharmacists don't have any single hero or 'father of pharmacy' we look up to. When i think of role models I just think of dear lecturers from my uni days like Ted Triggs, may his soul rest in peace. While walking around the displays I quietly thought to myself that it would be fitting to have a statue of Ted in this hall, sitting on a bench smoking away like he used to on campus.

Apart from the information boards and lifesize displays theres also some tasteful lightshows, yet another model city, and a riveting video on drug production. On my way out the PR officials wanted someone to sign the guestbook, and since nobody else was forthcoming I was happy to step up to the plate. Guess it was fitting that I do it for the group. But doing so led to a conversation with one of the local officials, who was quite interested when I told her I was a pharmacist. Before I boarded the bus she offered to take me on a personal tour of the city if i ever decided to come back. So for all the pharmacy friends out there who are looking for industy employment opportunities or just wanting to check this place out, the local officials are always happy to receive you!

Shaking hands with white people is good for investment

So a few weeks back I had the opportunity to join a free weekend trip to some cities in JiangSu province, completely paid by the JiangSu government. It had been provided to some of the foreign experts working in the province, and our school had been one of the schools to be invited. This being China, we were expecting some pleasant (and unpleasant) surprises, but hey since everything was paid for, who could refuse?

The first thing we noticed was that everywhere we went we had a media crew following us around. The whole trip seemed carefully choreographed and every passing shot and handshake filmed. Some of us (including me), were even interviewed by the local tv news station in one city, asking us what we thought about the tourist site we had just come out of. Since the city was a small one, i think very few of the viewers would've understood our ramblings in English, trying to put a positive spin on a somewhat run-down and underkept lake. ''oh yeah it's so picturesque, and so green, and and, I love how everything here is so new!''

Actually i had been warned by one of the other teachers about the film crews before the trip. The footage of foreign (esp white) people visiting a city and shaking hands with a few Chinese people in suits makes for great P.R. and promotion for investors.You see, all of the cities we visited weren't exactly your typical tourist destinations. Rather they were all newly or recently built cities in dire need of an injection of foreign investment. And the destinations we were taken to were also a bit odd. One day we were taken to a shipping port, just to get out, be filmed, hear some 5 minute speech (that we couldn't even hear for the gusty winds), and then whisked away to another location. You could say we more felt like the investors ourselves, being taken on a tour of the facilities. Everywhere our buses went there was a police escort with us, clearing the traffic in front of us, and electronic signboards always reading ''warmly welcomes foreign experts to xxxxx''

And then there was the exhibition centres and their models. Every city we went to the first thing we did was pay a visit into the exhibition centre.  There we were met with miniature models of the city(or proposed plan) complete with light features, displays about the local products, and speeches and videos about the city. Let me tell you, the mini-model makers are kept busy in China. All of us westerners felt an urge to jump up onto the model cities and play godzilla/kingkong with a few of the buildings. I don't know why, must be the destructive natures in us! Though we didn't end up doing this, my collegue and I did end up pinching a souveneir plastic tree each from one of the model cities. It won't take the shine off the model i'm sure :)

All of the cities also had their own 'europe town' shopping area, complete with clock tower, and every one of them looked exactly the same. seems theres a template  'europe town' in every chinese city. We were also given information booklets about each city before we arrived, detailing all the info and statistics about the city. The chinese love quoting figures, numbers, and rankings. 'the product output last year increased by 16%, making xxxx the 13th fastest growing city in China of 2011', you get the idea.

Actually there was one touristy thing we did, and that was to visit an elk reserve. Pretty interesting, though we didn't have the chance to get up close to the elks.There were some entertaining Chinglish signs though :)

The other place worth a mention was 'Taizhou - medical city'. The whole place was built up from scratch about 5 years ago, and is being touted as a centre for the medical industry. At the moment, most of the companies there are pharmaceutical companies, both foreign and local, along with a few medical device companies. One of the pharmacy schools has even moved it's campus there. But perhaps the city will remain focused on pharamaceuticals, since the exhibition centre is all about the pharmacy industy. I'll write more about that in the next blog, because it deserves a whole entry!






Although the choice of most of the destinations were a bit dubvious and uniteresting, we couldn't complain about the accomadation and meals. Every lunch was a gorgeous buffet, each dinner a Chinese banquet with booze and a few toasts and speeches from local government reps, and each hotel at least 4 stars. Even if you found no interest in any of the sites, this alone was worth the trip!

You can bargain for anything in China

This post is somewhat of a follow on from my previous post about the perks of being white in China.

I'd been contemplating joining the gym down the road for awhile now, and finally I decided to join after taking the tour. However, since I knew my two young American workmates were also looking to join a gym, I thought I'd join up together with them if they took the tour and were keen. Best decision I ever made!

In the end another visiting American lecturer, we'll call him professor Haris, also decided to come along for a look. Since all four of us weren't sure if we were staying beyond 3 months from now, we would've all been forced to pay for the higher price/month for the 3 month membership. That is, if I had gone individually, that might have been the case.

This being China, one can bargain for anything if the circumstances allow it, and that includes gym membership! First of all there were four of us, so obviously we could bargain on the basis of a bulk discount. However, secondly and probably more importanly of all, I had three caucasians with me. There aren't as many foreigners in our city compared to the bigger cities in China, and this gym is also located in the outer suburbs of Nanjing, so foreign folk are somewhat of a rarity in this area. Make no mistake, foreign patrons (and especially caucasians), would be a big drawcard for a gym in China. Why? Well for a couple of reasons.

The first I mentioned in the prior blog. There's this perception that if your establishment is used by foreigners, the quality must be superior to the competition's. This makes sense since people from developed countries are accustomed to and generally have higher expectations of goods and services than people from developing countries. I can't fathom how people in China put up with some of the service (or lack thereof) everywhere you go - supermarkets, banks, transport etc etc.

The thing unique about the gym compared to other types of businesses is that they are a western concept, adopted by asians. A couple of decades ago the concept of paying for gym membership would have been ludicrous in China, but now with growing incomes and western influence more and more Chinese are embracing the concept of communal workouts. So it only stands to reason that if one sees a white person at their local Chinese gym, he/she must be some sort of gym guru. On top of this my two young American workmates are fitness fanatics, so they're in shape with relatively good figures. Depending on how you look at it, it can be a good thing to have not only white people in your gym, but also white people who know what they're doing! It's sort of like giving street cred to the place. On the flipside though, personally if I walked into a gym where every other guy there had arms the size of my torso I'd be a little intimadated and turned off from joining. This actually reminds me of another quirky China thing. Whenever my workmates would work out in the crap little free gym in our uni other Chinese guys in there would just gawk and stare at their bodies. Often they would just walk up close, stand in front of them and stare, while they were doing their workout. I know my American mates relish the attention they receive in China, but even this has been a bit too much to handle!

The advertised price was 880 yuan for three months per person and initially we were offered 700 upon asking for the bulk discount. Professor Haris is an economics lecturer, so he was pulling out all sorts of other reasons any typical economist would - frequency of visits, our low wages, inconvenience to travel here etc. That, and he was also a hard-ass at bargaining.

Between his broken English and my translations our 'salesman' had to keep making phonecalls to talk to his manager and mediate the bargaining process. When it was clear that they weren't going to budge on 700, we wrote down our mobile numbers and pulled out the ole walk-away trick. Immediately, the manager came running out of his office and we were begged to come back and sit down! Seems like those phonecalls were not long-distance at all :)

In the end we were able to get them down close to what we were aiming for - 500 yuan per head. This was on condition that we didn't tell any other member about this special little deal, which of course we wouldn't divulge. Not like any other Chinese members would have the same bargaining chips though. So, yet again, an example of the perks of hanging around foreigners in China! Although I'm white on the inside, it counts for nothing if you look like a local on the outside.

The only other interesting thing to mention about the gym was that they also had a room full of pool and billard tables! Oh and also nobody puts down towels on equipment when they use them, but that's nothing of a surprise to me now!

Celebrity white status

If you're white and come to china, be prepared to receive a lot of attention, especially outside the bigger cities. Theres an evolution that all caucasians go through. At first when they arrive, the concept of being gorked at and asked to be taken pictures with is novel. However after a few weeks this quickly gives way to annoyance and frustration. Not to mention the random shouts of 'hello!' (often in a mocking tone) from passersby. It's not so different from white people shouting out 'ni hao' to asian people back in the west.

You sometimes also get the random eager-beaver strangers who come up to you and just strike up a converstaion. 'hi, are you from america? I have an english exam in a few weeks time. let's practice english together. what's your phone number?' and then if you're not firm enough you'll be politely responding with vague answers all the while trying to leave the scene or shake them off your tail. believe me, i've seen this happen a few times already to my white friends.

Being caucasian also affords you a bit more consideration from the locals. From my observations, if you're white they're less likely to cut in line in front of you, and give you wider berth in crowded spaces like buses. I've lost count of the number of times i've wished i was white while sardined up in the bus, six to eight ass-cheeks rubbing agasinst me. (They really don't understand the concept of 'Maximum safe capacity' in China) I'm really starting to lose my patience with the queue jumping though, especially at check outs. next time someone blatantly tries it, i'm considering unleashing a torrent of profanities in the strongest Aussie accent i can muster, then ask them in chinese if they ever went to school.

So theres good things and bad things about being white in China. But on the opportunities side, its definitely a plus. For starters, every time i go out to a club with my white friends we'll almost always be shouted drinks and cigarettes by some rich chinese guy or the club owner, just because they want to have white people around them or in their establishment. They feel it boosts their credentials or profile of the club.

Then theres the odd jobs and modelling gigs. Weston was paid 3000 yuan to put on a santa suit and walk around a shopping mall handing out candy to kiddies. that was for about 9 hours of work, spaced out over 3 weekends. The only thing about Weston that's santa-like is his height. he's hardly fat or jolly, and at 24 is the fittest santa around.

And due to the relatively small population of white people in Nanjing, you're considered as model material as long as you're white. We have seen some somewhat questionable looking models (i.e. shockingly ugly white folk), in some advertisements plastered around the shopping malls and public spaces (see attached photos). I don't mean to be harsh but let me tell you, these people would not be able to get a modelling gig to save their lives if they went back to the west.

Britton was approached by a modelling studio rep in a club the other night, so his face might soon be plastered across a few billboards or coming to a restaurant near us soon. It's ironic becuase we're always making jokes of the shockingly ugly white models in ads. LOL. so i guess it hasn't boosted his ego much. I'm just going to warn him not to let the agency take random shots of him. i.e. do job specific shoots, rather than generic stock footage to be used for whatever purposes later. One doesn't want their close up downer portrait to be later used for say a genital herpes or male premature ejaculation ad.

Maybe I'll accompany him when he goes for his shoot. I'm always being told i look korean, and since all the chinese girls love the korean dramas maybe i can get a gig as a fake-korean model :)

The strange university clubs in China and membership funds abuse?

So I've now attended two uni club recruitment days, and I can tell you the clubs you get in universities here in china is much different compared to those in the west.

For one thing it's safe to say won't see any political or religious clubs, for obvious reasons. And if you tried to set one up, i'm sure you'd be promptly shut down. (and maybe taken away for questioning).

There are also no 'socializing, or clubbing/drinking' type clubs either. Some students do drink, but they usually do it just among friends in a restaurant private room or in their own dorms. Most don't drink at all though since many of them are not interested or can't afford it.

They do have sporting clubs, though obviously the sports they play are a bit different - the badminton and pingpong clubs seems to be the most popular, but also on offer is self defence, rollerblading and dancing (latin and hip hop).

Just like the west they also have the anime appreciation society, however these clubs go one step further and actually combine it with cosplay activities. For those of you who don't know, cosplay is when a bunch of full grown adults dress up as Japanese anime cartoon or video game characters. Actually i think some of these clubs are pure cosplay clubs, which leaves me to wonder what they do when they get together. Do they dress up and take pictures of each other, or walk around campus and town like some sort of posse/gang? Strange.

There are also some real dubvious clubs here that you would never see in the west. Like the 'make-up' club, that teaches you how to apply make up, and the 'model' club for anyone who thinks they can strutt it like a tiger. This one and the 'work-out' club for boys (see picture) seems a bit wanky to me.















and of course it wouldn't be asia without a karaoke (ktv) club. On open day you could step up to the mic and showcase your talents, but i'm unsure what sort of activities they hold. perhaps competitions, discounted room hires in the surrounding ktvs?

The rest of the clubs are also quite odd - the magic club, the 'mystery' club, if you're a fan of mystery novels and shows, the korean cultrue appreciation society (more for those girls who can't get enough of korean dramas), and the arts and crafts club, something i'd expect to see at a clubs day for a primary school. well each to their own i suppose.

Some clubs are much more popular than others. There was an environmental protection club stall, but sadly they didn't seem too popular. The english club apparently takes in the most number of members each year out of all the clubs. Appart from organizing weekly English corner (language exchange) sessions, i'm not even sure what other activities they organize.
Despite recruiting about 500+ members the joining fee is not cheap, at 20rmb per person. This is for the duration of their undergrad studies though.
The thing is, from the type of activites i've seen them hold i can't really see where all the money is being spent or where the expenses are being incurred. I also recall that many of my students had told me they had joined clubs in first year, but that most turned out to be disappointed with the activities organized by most of them.

Even more disturbing is the fact that every time i go out to a local restaurant outside of campus, there always seems to be some club holding a committee dinner in one of the private function rooms, complete with alcohol. and I know it's a commitee dinner because several times some of my students have been part of those little parties and have told me what they're doing there.
Seeing that transparency is not the greatest in China, it wouldn't surprise me if several of these 'committee dinners' are classified as 'sundry expenses' when it comes to deliving the yearly budget (if in fact budget reports are done at all!).

I thought it was funny that corruption is happening at even the very grass roots levels of chinese society. The poor freshmen students who bring in the new money each year don't realize where all their membership fees go. But after they reach second year I'm sure most of them are clamouring to join the committees to 'reclaim' some of that money and to get a piece of the action. TIC.