Doin the tourist thing...

So this week I visited the Forbidden City（古宫）/Tian'anmen Sqaure （天安门）as well as The Temple of Heaven (天坛）。 Here's a tip: if you're a student always bring your student ID and ask for 学生票 (xueshengpiao=shweh shung peyow) because they never write it in english, however if you ask for one it can be as much as 30-40 kuai cheaper, which can buy you some pretty high-class meals in China, or 30-40 bowls of rice. I guess in the back of my mind I know my time here is quickly winding down so I'm trying to 赶快体验中国的文化 (quickly experience Chinese culture) before I go home for the summer. I'm going to the Great Wall tomorrow (Saturday) and next weekend I'm going to Shanghai.

In other news, in my philosophy class two times now we have asked Chinese students to come to our class and debate with us on philosophical issues. In doing this I have noticed a few things:

1. There is a fundamental difference in how Americans view their government and how the Chinese view there government. In my opinion, Americans think that the government exists to serve the people and is a product of their people whereas the Chinese view their government as an entity separate from the common people and highly trust their actions. Most people would probably simply cite each country's governmental structure to account for this difference-- a simple matter of democracy versus communism. While this is definitely true, I think a lot of the difference has to do with our respective world views. In Confucianism, people believe in preserving harmony and ameliorating the connections between people, often this is achieved by trusting each section of society to perform their role and not meddling in their business--trusting that people who are specified for certain roles will perform them well. In western thought, I feel like we spend a lot of time worrying about the rights of individuals--believing that if we as people pay attention to these rights that this will lead to harmony. This is why American's are constantly questioning their government, because they don't believe that their particular human rights are being considered. During our debates, the Chinese students couldn't understand why we didn't trust that our government was doing a good job or why we felt that we had the right to offer our opinions on the issues in Tibet-- and the answer is because we worry much more about certain people, or groups of people, making sure that they are being considered as opposed to paying attention to the whole. Some American students couldn't understand why the Chinese students weren't more angry about their media being censored and upset about the Chinese government's actions in Tibet-- this ISN'T because "oh, poor Chinese students they don't know any better, their government has brainwashed them" (which is how I feel a lot of Americans think)-- but simply that they think that preserving the harmony of the entire society is helped by knowing your place. They think that they are students, the government is the government, and the two don't have anything to do with each other.

2. Perhaps this is a false sense of myself, but during these debates I always feel like I'm playing the mediator. Maybe this is because I am the physical manifestation of East and West, but I also think that maybe I'm not quite as culturally-centric (is that a word? darn Chinese language pledge!) as most Americans, and I can more easily bend the way that I think to mesh with that of another culture, or at least understand, or empathize . I'll have to remember this talent later on....

Anyway, here's some pics of my adventures. Tim that Olympic post is coming soon I PROMISE!