The Greasy Hair Battle and Politics

Ever since moving to China I have had the biggest issue finding a good shampoo and conditioner. Those of you that know me well know I'm not really a shampoo snob. Just give me any store bought shampoo and that should work fine. In China, though, every shampoo and conditioner somehow leaves a bunch of grease at the top of my head. It's like I have a helmet of gel that will not go away, no matter how many times I wash my hair. After trying three different kinds of shampoo I gave up and tried dish soap. It did the trick and my hair has never looked better since being here. So now I can officially say I am washing my hair with Chinese dish soap.

My 'shampoo':

For my university classes this week I taught politics. I thought it would be appropriate with the re-election of Obama (wooo!) and the start of the transfer of power from Hu Jintao to Xi Jingping as President. The transfer is set to be officially completed in March 2013 and is the first in a decade. One thing that really surprised me was how little the country seemed to care about this takeover. I guess some of the lack of enthusiasm could be attributed to having a non-voting system. The people are less emotionally invested in the politicians. However, from talking to a couple of my students and my Chinese friend Rose, they essentially do not feel connected to everything that is happening in Beijing. People in China like to celebrate, fireworks go off outside my room almost weekly (although that's decreasing with the approach of winter). I thought there would be mass firework displays throughout the city marking his transfer, but alas, no.

Another thing I've noticed is the Chinese are extremely nationalistic. Extremely. You would not want to be Japanese in China right now. Even all of the Japanese made cars are covered in pro-China stickers. Restaurants and stores have big anti-Japan stickers plastered on their doors. It's really crazy how almost everyone jumps on board. So many of my students mention how they hate Japan, at which point I abruptly change the topic. Yet at the same time, this criticism and hatred is all focused outside of the country. None of it is focused on the issues within the country. The Chinese just don't do it, and they very few who do tend to remain quiet about it (or become dissidents of the Chinese government). It's just such a different concept from the US, where everyone openly disagrees with the government. And it's one thing to hear about these cultural differences, but another to actually see them.

This contrasts to another point I read in some other article (I've been reading a lot of articles lately). It was discussing how a lot of the world (or America) is worried about China taking over as the kind of leader of the world. It discussed how throughout history, despite China's vast power, its focus has almost always been inwards. In colonial times it had the power to colonize abroad, but due to various factors, it didn't. One of these reasons, it argued, is due to the Chinese mindset. Its focus is within the country, not on expanding its power outwards. This is in stark opposition to the people, who focus their nationalism outwards, not inwards.

In class I mentioned how one of the issues in the election was gay marriage, something that is just not accepted in China. Rose mentioned how there are a few gay people on campus, but not many as it generally is not accepted here. Most gay Chinese head to the bigger cities of Beijing and Shanghai. I read an interesting article that mentioned how some individuals will marry a person of the opposite sex to have the facade of a marriage and then continue relationships with same-sex individuals. I didn't ask my students if they thought gay-marriage was an acceptable idea. I felt that would be a little too heavy for an English speaking class! Some of the other issues I mentioned were abortion, foreign policy, healthcare, and illegal immigration. I think the students really found it interesting to hear about some of the topics people in the US found important.