Danelle Marie Jones and Dr. Dana Scott Bourgerie, Asian and Near Eastern Languages
The Yangtze River region in China abounds in rich sources of ancient, as well as modern, Chinese history, literature, and culture. The River’s Three Gorges area overflows with some of the world’s most breathtaking scenery and invaluable historic sites. Throughout China’s history, particularly the Three Kingdoms period, significant events and dynastic governments emerged from the Yangtze River region. More recently in the early to mid 1900s, Chiang Kaishek and his Nationalist forces headquartered on the Yangtze River before the Communists pushed them to Taiwan. Peasants in the Three Gorges region epitomize China’s traditional culture, while residents of China’s larger cities are “modernizing.” The whole area is rapidly changing as China develops, and particularly as the new and controversial Three Gorges Dam looms over the gorges.
As a result of ORCA funding, I have been able to gather information and pictures about the gorges, the people, the history, and the culture of the Yangtze River region. So far I have over 1000 digital photographs of the area’s scenery, historic sites, and cultural points. I have also studied and learned the significance of these photos and indexed the photos with their explanations. I have interviewed over twenty local Chinese from this area about their lifestyle, their background, their opinions, their education, their outlook on life, etc. The informants were selected in order to provide representation from the different occupations, lifestyles, backgrounds, localities, education levels, ages, genders, interests, etc. of the residents in the Three Gorges region. The interviews have been recorded digitally and saved on CD’s with the photographs and the indexes. I am still in China gathering information and will be here until November 2000. After I return to America, I plan to put the information I have learned on an educational CD. The purpose of the CD is to help learners of Chinese enhance their understanding of Chinese culture, lifestyle, and history.
I am gathering the information while working as a cruise director and river guide on a boat sailing pass the gorges for seven months. I chose this internship partially because it enables me to learn and collect the information I need to create the CD. Since I work, play, and chat regularly with Chinese from the Three Gorges, they have grown to trust me and feel comfortable speaking with me. The better I know the person, the more open they are with me. So, a lot of my time is spent gaining trust, building friendships and developing guanxi. This is time consuming, but essential to gaining accurate and complete information in China. However, even with my family-like friends, I still find some hesitancy to answer questions on certain topics. They have told me they do not want to discuss these topics sometimes because of fear and sometimes out of pain from bad memories. Furthermore, all of them request me to keep their identities anonymous, especially from their coworkers and neighbors. I have found that the Chinese in this area try to keep their backgrounds secret from other Chinese, while they are relatively open with foreigners like myself.
Depending on the informant and their background, I ask about their city’s/town’s population, the cost of living there, unemployment (a major problem in this area with around 50% currently unemployed), unique features, etc. I inquire about their family—who is in it, where they were born, the occupations of their parents, how long their family members have lived there, their societal status compared with others in their town, etc. I interview them about themselves and about their opinions. I include questions about getting employment, wages, work hours, job benefits, ideal jobs, education, marriage, dating, courtship, children, housing, childhood, youth, life history, population control, differences between living in the countryside and living in the cities, attitudes towards women and men, their use of computers and TV, their greatest dream, what they do with their time and money, what they think is the most important thing in life, what they think about America and Americans, what they think China will be like in 50 years and why, and so forth. I also invite them to tell stories, including ones from their own lives and ones they have learned as they have grown up.
Based on the information I have gathered, I have decided to organize the CD based on the following outline:
I. Acknowledgements
II. Introduction A. Project Development and Purpose B. Background for the Information Presented
III. People’s Lives—mini biographies of various people in the gorges
IV. Cultural Anecdotes
V. Stories of the Three Gorges’ Scenery and Historical Sites
VI. Dough Dolls’ Background, Stories and Pictures
VII. Kite History and Symbolism in China
VIII. Jokes, Songs, and Childhood Stories
IX. Pictures and Explanations About: Buying/Trading Stocks; Exchanging Money at Banks; Using Taxis, Buses, and Mamu’s; Eating, Ordering and Paying for Food at Restaurants; Going to Post Offices, Train Stations, and Travel Agencies; Bargaining on the Street: Food, Souvenirs, Clothing, etc.; Bookstores and Department Stores; Internet Bars; Karaoke and Hot Pot; Window Shopping; Guanxi; Fighting for Bills; Working Relationships and Regulations—fines, wages, etc.; Buying Housing; Dating, Courtship, and Marriage; Raising a Child; Education; Work
X. A Comparison of Lives, Opinions, Backgrounds and Beliefs Between Myself and An Average Peasant
XI. A Bibliography of Books and Other Information on the Three Gorges Region
I have personally learned a lot while doing this research, and I look forward to sharing it with others in a more formal way than emails and chatting. The information I have gathered has enriched my life and the lives of those I have shared it with so far. The importance of understanding other nations, peoples and tongues cannot be overestimated, since understanding others helps us understand ourselves, understand life, and understand how to work with others.