I finished this on the train from Chicago to New York back around Christmas-time, but January was too busy with moving house to post this. (You may have noticed that I have a thing for trains.) This comic is pretty self-explanatory, so there’s really no need to blather, except to say that when searching for train ticket information, there are about 10 different Yahoo! Answers style websites that provide the information in a far clearer way than the official Chinese rail website.

Thank you for reading. There may be something new here in March as I finally have time to work on other projects.

Here are some signs that I found online:

With gems like “Welcome the World Expo: Be a 7-Treasure Person”

I love the invocation to “Deal in Civility, Cultivate New Airs” without any specificity. But in case you want some specifics:

1. Don’t swear or say rude words
2. Don’t litter
3. Don’t smoke or drink
4. Don’t destroy public property
5. Don’t spit as it suits you
6. Don’t cross the street chaotically
7. Don’t carve or write on walls
8. Don’t destroy greenery
9. Don’t be wasteful
10. Don’t participate in unhealthy social activities

Here is a picture of the side of a building with lots of signs. I think it was a school, but more importantly, it was a GARDEN UNIT.

Loot I got from Beijing 2008 volunteer work:
3 sports jerseys
2 pairs of ill-fitting pants
1 pair of sneakers
a windbreaker jacket
a fanny pack
a hat
a notebook
a binder
a bunch of pins
5 power bands

Not only did I get this, it seemed like half of Beijing got this loot. A taxi driver was bragging about how the people with more connections got *10* shirts. But really, I didn’t need all that stuff … after all, I did pay for the flight and the room and board out of my own pocket. What I wanted was the experience.

As the asterisk says on the comic, the first example story is a composite. There *is* a guy who has emailed and called me to ask about colleges and stuff, who I don’t remember at all. I think he was one of 7 or 8 people that I had dinner with, once. I don’t know how he got my email. He spelled my name wrong and also called me “sis”. Um, yeah. The last panel, however, comes from a few years ago, when there was a guy who asked my mom if she could talk to someone to get his cousin into a U.S. school. It’s one of those things like, “Well, if America worked that way, I’d be happy to help, but it doesn’t, so no.” I kind of feel bad in these circumstances, because if the roles were reversed, the other side would definitely help. It’s just that connections occupy about 20% of “getting things done” here, whereas it’s about 80% there.

The second story, however, is 100% true. The girl eventually stopped watching her Chinese soap to quote me a price and take a picture for me. Then she printed it at the wrong size. When I told her I needed it passport sized, she didn’t believe me, and so she went on chat and asked a friend, who told her the size. She had to confirm 3 times with her friend before she adjusted the size for me. Then she only printed half of what I ordered because it would have cost her too much to print the right amount. I used to be frustrated by the callousness of cashiers, waitresses, etc. Then I realized that it was because I didn’t have any connection to them, so really, why should they be nice?

On the other hand, I’ve experienced great service when going somewhere local with my uncle — people know him, and so give him good deals and give us good service. I always feel like not enough of China is professional, which is perhaps because friendships, family, and connections matter so much more. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing — am I willing to give up the close camaraderie and sketchiness in exchange for measurable and monetized professional standards? Perhaps it’s not an either-or. Taxi drivers are very professional, especially in Beijing, but at the same time they keep the feeling of camaraderie through banter.

Sometimes I would say something casual like, “I’m wondering if you know where I can ship a package”, and suddenly people are treating it as Serious Business, and Something They Should Do As Friend/Family, and they’d whisk the package from my hands and fuss over it and then it disappears and then I find out they had to leave for work a half hour early to mail my package, and that they spent 300rmb of their own money sending it. And all I had wanted was to find out where the post office is.

On the other hand, sometimes it’s nice to know that family is just there for you in really heartwarming ways, and that you don’t always have to say thank you, because those are things that people just do out of a sense of duty and relationship. The Chinese teacher at work once said to me, “Why do I have to thank the students for doing their work? That’s what they’re supposed to do, just as I’m supposed to work hard to be a good teacher.” In the same way, family and friends are just supposed to be.

In other news, I’m planning to finish up China Comics by the end of the year. I have another one to post tomorrow that is a follow-up to this one, and then 3 more that I’ve planned. If I do one a week for the next month, I should have them finished in time.

There are many more things to tell about China, but I feel like 24 pages is a good place to pause, and if I were to come back to it later, it might be in a different format. This has turned into more of a Chinese culture primer than storybook, so if I were to come back to telling stories about China, I’d like them to be actual stories.

Part of the reason for the upcoming break is that I feel like growing as an artist — leave my one-page edu-comics comfort zone and actually try my hand at telling stories, but more on that later.

So I wasn’t as impressed by Guolichen as my friends and colleagues at the Fengtai Softball Field, but I was quite impressed by the many uses and meanings of this bottled orange soda that extended beyond simply “a drink”. It helped me better understand the guanxi system (connections culture).

I drew this on the flight back from Illinois, and it came rather easily, because I’d drawn a proto version of this comic on a dining table paper back in October, 2008. You can see that it still has many similar elements:

The power band is in reference to the 5 Olympics-colored power bands that we had to wear on each wrist that were specific to Olympics volunteers. People soon started trading them for other items. This comic is, I think, the first with the Olympics. My 2008 volunteer experience was very educational for me, and so there may be a few more coming down the line.

You may have noticed that these last few comics have small narrative bits. I feel like I’ve gotten to a degree of comfort in portraying my China experiences that I can start doing that. I hope you don’t find it too disconcerting as I move away from “telling” and towards “showing”.

By the way, Minute Maid is 美汁源 in Chinese (“Beautiful Juice Source”). Here’s a picture of Guolichen:

Maybe people who have lived longer in China know whether my friend’s assertion is true. All I know was that she was very uncomfortable talking about this, and that the pad options in China are very advanced. To draw this comic, I actually had to look up the terms for pads and tampons online: “卫生巾” (“Hygiene towel”) vs “卫生棉” (“Hygiene cotton”). Go figure.

So I wrote this about a month ago, and had all but 1 row of panels finished, but then didn’t work on it for about a month, during which school ended and I went to Illinois for a summer institute.

This is one of those cases where there is some exaggeration — for one, I always sit shotgun when going somewhere in the family van. Also, my parents know of other types of non-Chinese food, such as KFC hotwings and Vietnamese spring rolls.

Finally, I actually had to do a little research for this one, since I’d never eaten at a Pizza Hut in China because it’s too pricey for me. But apparently it’s the go-to place for western food (including pasta and a one-stop salad bar) at western prices.

The result of only letting people go to the salad bar once:

I struggled the most with the middle panel with lots of relationships. I’m not sure if it’s clear, but those are in order from closest to farthest. What you see is a small sample of my various relations. I caught myself planning to draw the whole family tree, and stopped. I think what I have can be improved for clarity, but it serves for now. Jono says it’s time for me to break out of the 1-page limit. What do you think?

Notes on relationship titles:
- There are 8 different relationship titles for “first cousin”, and uncles/aunts-in-law also have separate relationship titles depending on who they’re married to.
- These also extend to job titles. For example, taxi-drivers, cooks, and various craftsmen are 师傅. I don’t remember the one for venders. There’s also a whole structure of 书记 and 局长 type government titles, but those are super-confusing to me.
- Last time I was in Beijing, I discovered that 老师 (teacher) was being used to address administrative staff on college campuses, and I was pretty miffed — it felt like the title of “teacher” was being cheapened.
- The generational respect is pretty strong. Even now, I feel uncomfortable addressing friends’ parents by first name, which makes me seem formal and aloof in America.
- Being able to claim a closer relationship is related to your “connections”. For example, being able to call the Deputy Director of something “Big bro” is indicative of a closer relationship, and hence, more mutual benefits because family are supposed to be there for each other. Even if it’s “family”.

I’ve since learned not to pack tank tops, regardless of how hot and muggy it is in Shanghai in the summer. The other incidents referenced in this comic: being told to bring formal wear “that you would wear to a formal dinner”. I went out a bought a proper dress and fancy sandals, only to go there and find out that we were supposed to wear “business” casual. There were looks of shock at my asking if we needed socks. Then I had to give a speech in my dress. We were a group of 20 Chinese-Americans and 20 Chinese, and it was quite striking that all of the American ladies wore formal dresses. The other incident was during the Beijing Olympics. Those were some of the other overseas Chinese girls and guys that I was hanging with. It’s kind of funny that a half-naked old guy can admonish you for wearing too little because you’re in flip-flops and a tank top.

To be fair, the socks thing made sense — Chinese streets are sort of grimy, with various air-conditioner drippings and other stuff, so you don’t want to expose your toes to that stuff.

My major challenge to fitting in with the Chinese youth fashion is that everyone is supposed to be tiny and skinny. This is why I end up wearing 40-year-old “mom” styles. That and I don’t like 15,000 sparkles and misspelled English words.