Chinese college life

by Matt Dela Peña

东南大学

Last Friday, Southeast University threw us a welcome banquet! We were pretty stoked since it was the first meal we would be having outside of the canteen which, by that point, some of us were already dreading. Interestingly, the university also assigned a handful of their own students to attend the dinner in an attempt to facilitate an interaction between us and our direct Chinese counterparts, something I personally was looking forward to when I decided to take this course.

They asked our group to meet in our regular classroom at 2:00 P.M. (where we already spend four hours in every. single. day.) But then they informed us that dinner would be served at around 6:00 P.M., so we were like, "Wait, what?" Turns out, they also instructed the local students to go to the classroom, only without telling them what else to do or what would happen thereafter. It was like the blind date they never asked for. At any rate, these guys were the first locals we would genuinely be interacting with, so all of us were thrilled nonetheless.

The first student to approach Leilani, Emily, and I was a girl. Her name was Elaine. Elaine is from Jiangsu province, somewhere outside of Nanjing. She studies English at the university and was for that reason one of their group's more sociable individuals. Literally as soon as we started talking, she gave us her phone number and asked us to add her on QQ, China's version of Line or KakaoTalk. More on this later.

Anyway, in the three hours spent talking to her, we got to know more about the life of a regular Chinese college student than we could have ever asked for. For one, partying and drinking is a rarity. The very thing Americans tend to gravitate towards when they study abroad—alcohol—is actually looked down upon for students in China. Drinking, especially in bars, is reserved for someone who actually earns a living. While some students do drink (often over dinner), it is not something they particularly look for or do on a regular basis.

So, what do they do in their free time? According to the students we met, most of their time is spent just watching T.V., playing sports, eating, or sleeping. When they do go out, they typically go to the city to eat or go shopping. But that's usually during the summer vacation months. During school, students heavily invest their time in their studies.

At one point, Elaine asked me, "Which do you prefer? Your childhood or the present?" I replied, "Well, what about you?" Without a moment's hesitation, she said, "My childhood. There was less stress then." Although college kids from both countries experience stress over school and finding a job, it seems quite more so in China. With a population of over one billion people, the job market is extremely competitive. And like most Asian cultures, the Chinese are pressured not only to find a high-paying job for themselves, but also to support their families.

Further down the conversation, we also got to find out some of the preconceptions many Chinese students have of American college kids. Elaine, who has a boyfriend, was particularly surprised to find out that I wasn't tied to a relationship. "I thought all guys had girlfriends in America!" But even if I might be that one single guy in the entire country, Elaine acquired much of her notions from watching American T.V. shows and movies. We actually had to convince her that not all of us were vampires and zombies.

The difference between the Chinese and American collegiate experience seems immense and could very well foster a conversation of more than three hours. But, in a culture that puts one's family at the forefront of their efforts, Americans, raised to the pursuit of self-reliance, will probably have a hard time grasping at as to why the average Chinese student would rather study than party.

It is important to note, however, that there are, in fact, quite the similarities. Social media plays as huge a role in China as it does in the U.S. I've seen many students walking around preoccupied with their smartphones just as we tend to be wherever we go, the only difference being a separate social network. However the case, forming and cultivating friendships appear to stand as the most basic components of college life in this country and is the one aspect students from both the U.S. and China greatly share.