Working in China: My Experience at a Yunnan NGO

My internship finished last Friday, and I am still wiping the sweat from my brow. I spent the weekend properly by lounging on my couch watching ancient episodes of The Simpsons, sort of in a state.

These past four months have really been something; I say something, because I still can't quite tell what. Working with my group has been incredibly challenging, and I am still figuring out which combination of factors made it so difficult for me to adjust. Foreigners in China are prone to blaming their problems on "China" with a capital C, but since China is such a large country with varying cultures I try to avoid doing this. I am more apt to say that maybe it's a Yunnan thing, but I also don't thinks so, because we are actually pretty relaxed out here in comparison with the more developed areas out on the coast. I am at an NGO, which are notoriously fast paced and 辛苦, according to all of my classmates in NGOs right now.  There is also the intern factor, where they were just piling on the work because, well, I work for free. But then again I'm not even really familiar with what real American work life is like, so maybe I am just being overly sensitive about the whole thing.

I remember arriving at my office with my two classmates on the first day. Us three, along with my two coworkers and my boss Amy sat around that giant dark wood conference table eating watermelon. There was a small whiteboard and a giant piece of white paper absolutely drowning under the ink of hastily written Chinese characters, which I would soon find out was the plans for my four months of work. My work was strange and nebulous, hard to pin down: about ten different long term projects were plunked down in front of me, some of them of types completely unfamiliar. "Just begin like you are starting a qualitative research report," Amy says to me. "You can interview news media reports, it should be fun," Amy says-- please imagine the my dear-in-headlights look that might accompany these intimidatingly offhand statements. After four months, many deadlines, and an excruciating number of meetings later, a large bulk of these plans, plus some other projects added on top, were only about halfway completed. I completed the major ones, but I was disappointed to see so many slip by the wayside.

Working with my organization sure had its quirks. We are made up of university professors in the area who come together several times a week to plan and do projects. This makes for much running around between universities, extended meeting times, company meals, and rescheduling. Much different from the classic nine to five scenario, I didn't have a classic boss who came to check in on me very much, and sometimes I felt like I didn't have all the support I needed to get my work done. It even dawned on me that the professors themselves might not be entirely clear about the organizational structure of the group. Three to four meetings per week was not only a total time sink, but would also make it difficult to keep priorities straight as they would add on new and "important" projects for me to do.

On a more positive note, being with my NGO also gave me some really interesting opportunities to learn about Chinese life. I will never forget the ability of my coworker Geng to be able to buzz around gracefully keeping everyone's teacup full, or Yin to be able to graciously fill everyone's rice bowls at our lunch meetings. I reflected to my classmate that it was really foreign for me to pour tea for the professors and serve them as needed and took some adjusting, whereupon he cried "I would never do that!" Our workplace had an unspoken hierarchy in which I and my two coworkers were much below our teachers. Another very interesting experience I had was listening to my professors speak openly to each other about their opinions on the Chinese government and Tibet and other topics which I thought were off limits. There was even one of these discussions in which a government worker participated in! I was surprised and delighted to be included in on these talks, and to find that contrary to popular belief, intellectual Chinese people have no qualms about talking politics. Another major discovery I had was that academics are cool. It's where the young people are and it where the interesting progress is happening. I'm not sure why this surprised me, because America is similar in this respect, but I always sort of had a tendency to think that academia is stuffy and snobby. It's part of the reason why I never had the urge to immediately enter graduate school. But in this country where so many people don't even make it into high school, college students clearly have an advantage for understanding the global zeitgeist, and they were crowd with which I felt most comfortable and welcomed.

Overall my experience was surprising, interesting, and challenging. I am really thankful to my organization for accepting me into their group and having me work alongside. I feel that a position at another NGO is not in my immediate future, but they have successfully launched me on a good trajectory, and I am looking forward to new employment in a similar vein. Maybe getting a job that actually pays me money will put my work into a more positive light? We shall see! I am fast in pursuit of a new job, and hopefully I will be able to answer that question very soon!

Yunbike is best bike, or a tale of two bicycles

In my crusade to make my life better and more exciting, I rented a bicycle. This was a GREAT idea. I rented it for one month from a bike shop in my neighborhood. Little did I know, this bike shop was magical.

So the boss rented me this great bike. They tuned it up all nice for me and gave me a helmet and a bike lock. It was pretty red and white, slightly flashy, definitely new-ish and rust-less, as opposed to ancient like most of the bikes people ride around here.

So I had this bike for a grand total of FOUR DAYS. I thought that bringing the bike up into my apartment building to the sixth floor and locking it to the fence would be plenty fine theft prevention. After all, its a pretty schmancy place, and I didn't think that anyone would take it. But lo and behold, I come out of my place on Thursday morning, to an empty fence with a cut lock on it. Who would do this!!

So I'm pretty bummed out, and I don't know what the heck I'm gonna tell the bike boss. I'm like turning this over in my mind, thinking of ways to turn the story to make it seem like its not my fault, thinking of how to argue my way out of paying for the bike, etc.

I head over to the shop the next day, fully prepared to have a chinese yelling match about not paying. I get there, sort of nervous, you know, and just lay it on him. "You're bike got stolen." -------

And the the boss just kind of looks at me, slightly bummed out, and basically just says, "oh, well."

And then, he invites me to go biking with them on Saturday. And I'm thinking, well you know, I don't have a bike anymore, so... And he says just says to go ahead and take the other rental bike. What!! This guy is the best ever!

So on top of having gone on the most epic bike trip that I have probably ever been on today, I also have a bike to ride for the next month! Totally excellent.

If anyone is coming to Kunming and looking to get hooked up with a bike and an awesome biking group, go to --->Yunbike<--- they are totally the bomb. Also if you are coming to Kunming and thinking about biking, it might be worth it to schlep along those U-locks you've got, apparently bike theft here is awful, ahem.

Kunming is Kool

Dear Friends,

Since I've gotten here and gotten settled in, I've fallen in love with the place. Things are just excellent. I have my own little apartment, which is smack in the same building as my work! Let me tell you, it really cuts down on commute time ;) Also, Kunming is located in southwest China(<---look at it on the map!), very very far from the watchful eye of Beijing and the super-rich commercial centers of Jiangsu province and Nanjing and Shanghai and all of that, so things seem much more relaxed. Women wear less fur, there are less high heels, people don't look at me as frequently or as suspiciously. And it's much cleaner, with flowers everywhere, people spit less, or at least try to keep it in the gutters. I've got to say, this place is much more "civilized" than Nanjing ever was, and it's out in the middle of nowhere basically (signs everywhere remind you to be 文明, civilized, in the metro, in cabs, in the restaurants...).

Work is going really well also. I know have the pretentious title of being "an intern" which I think is funny and laugh about. I am working at the Yunnan Province Health and Development Research Association, which does grassroots research in rural areas of Yunnan Province to help increase public health conditions. I feel really lucky to have landed a spot here, and I feel like my education and training and personal thoughts really go well with this organization. They are going to keep me really busy though, I will definitely be on my toes for the next four months.

My social life has diminished greatly since I've left Nanjing. All my friends are dispersed all over the place, as I have lamented about at great frequency... Its okay though. I'm doing my best to stay open and friendly, and to hopefully make some new friends here. I went to Salvador's last night, which is an international coffee house on the main drag here to try and meet some new people (go there if you're in the area, they have organic milk and Santa Cruz Juices haha!). Turns out it was mostly drunken foreign students from the local Yunnan University, and Chinese couples snuggled up together, but I did manage to meet a traveler from Shanghai who was just on her way out. We did have a fun chat though, we talked about China and America and Ireland, where she'd traveled before...

I've been tired lately. Chinese company's don't really do "weekends" or "overtime." You just sort of, work. You work at a company, and then they tell you to do things. And they text you and call you and send you messages on your QQ at any old time. Lord how I miss good old American work culture where, when you're off the clock, you're off the clock. My work had made plans for me on both Saturday and Sunday of this weekend...!!! I just about died when they casually mentioned that, by the way, we are having a meeting tomorrow, Saturday, at 8:30am, and make sure to leave early because it's an hour away by bus. Now, I didn't actually end up attending for other reasons, having to do with my ATM card being mysteriously swallowed up in the ATM machine, but that story, that is something for a whole other blog post.

Anyways, love to my friends everywhere, be safe, eat good food, drink clean water, get some rest, because tomorrow, we got some work to do...! Love, R.