Interview 1- China

Interview Preparations

My interviewee name is Ying Liao. She is now a sophomore at St. Cloud State University and she is from China. I knew her since my freshman year. Every semester, we have at least one class together. In this semester, Ying take an accounting class with me. Last Thursday, after the accounting class, I asked Ying if she can be the interviewee for my Country Report (China) and she said, “Yes”. We decided to meet each other in the library at 3:00 pm on Sunday. The interview lasted for 45 minutes. I asked Ying all the required questions and also other questions about her life and her country, China. The interview went pretty well. I recorded the interview by my cell phone.

Interview Report

The interview between Ying and I last for 45 minutes started at 3:00pm and ended at 3:45pm. I started the interview with the greeting; follow by the questions about her daily life, her decision to study abroad, and so on. I asked Ying all the eleven required questions and other questions that I wanted to ask about her country. Ying answered all the questions in details. I was surprised that Ying came to Minnesota to study because her uncle is now living in her Maple Grove. Ying said that her parents wanted her to study in a place that close to her uncle so if anything happened; her uncle can take care of her. I also surprised that Chinese culture and Vietnamese culture (my home country) are very similar. Chinese and Vietnamese have very alike family tradition and educational system.

Country report

My first country report is about China, officially the People’s Republic of China. China is the largest country in East Asia, the world’s most populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion people. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, the country is the world’s second-largest country by land area, and the third-or-fourth largest by total area, depending on the definition of total area. The capital of China is Beijing and the largest city is Shanghai. The language of China is Chinese.

Chinese culture is one of the world’s oldest. The area in which the culture is dominant covers a large geographical region in eastern Asia with customs and traditions varying greatly between towns, cities and provinces.

In education, China set the long-term goal of providing compulsory nine-year basic education to every child. Free education consists of elementary school and middle school, which lasts for 9 years; almost all children in urban areas continue with three years of high school.
Freedom of religion is guaranteed by China's constitution, although religious organizations which lack official approval can be subject to state persecution. An accurate number of religious adherents is hard to obtain because of a lack of official data, but there is a general consensus that religious belief has been enjoying a resurgence in China since the late 1980s. A 1998 survey found that 59% (over 700 million) of the population was non-religious.A later survey, conducted in 2007, found that there were 300 million religious believers in China, constituting 23% of the population, as distinct from the official figure of 100 million.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#Religion

Image Source:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=china&um=1&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1230&bih=604&tbm=isch&tbnid=rpXuY7dF62Md0M:&imgrefurl=http://www.eurasiangroup.org/China.php&docid=LuHdRe8hKeg0bM&imgurl=http://eurasiangroup.org/clones/photos/photo3/Flag_China.gif&w=600&h=400&ei=M_GgUK-IOYaTyQGDn4GICA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=170&vpy=282&dur=738&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=135&ty=100&sig=104032491894295845661&page=1&tbnh=136&tbnw=207&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:0,i:176

Transcription

Me: First, I am just going start with the question “Why you chose America to study?”

Ying: I like study abroad. First, America is the most developed country in the world. My major is finance; studying finance in America is much better than my country. And my uncle lives in the United States.

Me: Oh really? Does he live in California?

Ying: No, he lives in Maple Grove, Minnesota. My mom did not want me to go abroad so early so she said, “If you wanted to go abroad, be close to your uncle.” So if anything around happen to me, there is someone behind me and do something for me.

Me: What is the value of family in your country?

Ying: Value in family? Oh I think value of family in China is very strong. It is a famous value about China. I took a music class and we invited the professor to come to the Chinese culture night and he said he appreciated the family value in China. So I think the value of family is very important in China.

Me: Okay. And the second question is what is your family structure like? Who is the head of the house? Is that the husband?

Ying: It is my mom. It is kind of complicated. If something that we need to spend a lot of money or very significant thing, my father will make the decision. Most of the time, my mom will make decision and ask my dad. For the normal thing in our daily life, my mom will make the decision.

Me: Generally in the whole country, will the husband take control?

Ying: Yes, in most family in China, fathers take control of the whole family and the wives have to obey their husband.

Me: Yes, which is the same in my country. And the third question is kind of similar to the other one. Does gender matter in a family?

Ying: The gender? There are some stay home wife, but in most family, both parents stay work. In my family, my dad and my mom, they work the same. Usually, husbands earn more than wife.

Me: So in the free time, does your dad help your mom to do the housework?

Ying: My mom, she does not do a lot of housework because we have a maid. The maid does most of the things. In the weekend, my mom does some housework.

Me: Yes, which is understandable. And there are some questions about the culture. How does your home country culture different from the US culture?

Ying: I think there are many differences. I can say American is more open, especially at night. Everybody is crazy at night off-campus. But in China, if young people act like this, they will be considered as bad persons. For culture, we have different holidays and we value different things. American wants to be free, express your self, but in China, we have to care about others. If you feel someone did the wrong thing to you, you do not do the same thing to him or her.

Me: I think in America, if you do not like something, you tell them you do not like it. But in Asian countries, you will say it is okay, I like it or something like that.

Ying: Yes… I will not say I like it but I would not express my feeling about that.

Me: What about the food?

Ying: The food is much more different. I think we are more like the same (she mentioned about my country, Vietnam)

Trang: Yeah, we do not use a lot of cheese and the fat stuffs.

Ying: American food made me gains a lot of weight. I just don’t like it. When I was in China, I liked American food because it is different from out own food. I think American food in China is more delicious than the food here.

Me: Yes, it is so fat. I think I gained 20 pounds since I came here. But I lost 15 pounds.

Ying: Yes, I gained 10 pounds. After I came back to China this summer; my mom was like, “What happened to you?” I only ate a little bit rice and no other things; every time I went to bed, I was so hungry. I told my mom, “Mom, are you torturing me?”

Me: Ha-ha, yeah… I can understand. So what are the highlights in your culture? What things will make people immediately think about your country?

Ying: It is China, because China is the name of China. And I live in the most beautiful city. I feel like the whole town is about China. There are museums about China. It is the symbol of China. And I think panda is also the symbol of China. Every time when China wants to show friendship with other countries, China will send some panda to those countries as a gift.

Me: So is the Great Wall also the highlights in your culture?

Ying: Yes. When I was in elementary school, we talked about the Great Wall a lot, so Chinese people start to feel like, “Why we talk about this all the time? Let’s find something new about China”.

Me: So did you visit the Great Wall?

Ying: Yes, when I was 6.

Me: Did you walk through the whole Great Wall, from the bottom to the top?

Ying: Oh, actually the Great Wall is separated in several parts. Every time you went there, you just visit one part. The Great Wall is broken some ways.

Me: Okay. I thought you have to walk all the way through.

Ying: So I think we need to sleep on the Great Wall. Ha-ha. It’s too long.

Me: Ha-ha. So what is your hometown and where do you love?

Ying: I live in Nanchang, Jiangxi.

Me: Could you tell me a little about the city where you live? What is the highlighted characteristic of the city? What make it different and unique?

Ying: It is famous for being the modest city. It ranked 10 in the modest city in the world. Teng Wang Ge, in our city, is one of most the ancient building in Southern China. There are also other things. My city is famous for the birds. We have a park; there are many kinds of birds in it. And the most famous painter in China spent the life in our city. We have a museum for him.

Me: Okay. Let’s move on. How a young person considered troublemaker (not good)?

Ying: If a young kid did not listen to their parents, did not listen to their teacher, they are considered as troublemaker. In our ages, whoever always go to the pubs, the nightclubs, people who do not work and spend their parents’ money are considered as troublemaker.

Me: So do a lot of people in our ages in your city go to work or they just go to school to study?

Ying: At our ages, most of them go to universities. Some of them go to work or stay at home.

Me: So what are the famous universities in your city?

Ying: In my city, Nanchang University and another business school are famous. But most students in our city go to university in Beijing or Shanghai.

Me: Oh okay. So what do you think about the music culture in your country? Is it significant in your country?

Ying: I don’t know if it is significant but we have a lot of traditional instruments. I don’t think people in China care much about music. For traditional music, minorities of Chinese care about that. 55 minors in China have their own special music.

Me: Do Chinese movies more important than Chinese music? I knew a lot of Chinese movies, but not a lot of Chinese music.

Ying: Yeah… There is some Chinese music in Chinese movie though.

Me: So do Chinese teenagers listen a lot to Korean music?

Ying: Yes I think so, but not me though. I know some Korean music but not too much. I think the Chinese generation before me, they like Japanese music better. Our generations like Korean music.

Me: I think Vietnamese teenagers also like Korean music and Korean movies a lot. They like everything about Korea. They even dress up like Korean.

Ying: K-pop is famous around Asia.

Me: Yeah. Is marriage important that everybody pursue?

Ying: Marriage… I think marriage is an important part of China. In ancient time, the husband and the wife never see each other before they get married. Their parents decided whom they married to. But now, we are freer. We can marry with anyone you like. But if the parents don’t satisfy with the wife you choose, they will forbid you form getting married.

Me: So, do Chinese people rarely get divorced?

Ying: I think for that, I don’t know the rate. Rarely people get divorced but the rate become higher and higher. The rate in China is still smaller than in America though.

Me: If a woman has no one to get married, is she going to be discriminated?

Ying: I don’t think so. Recently, there are a lot of Chinese movie about women reached their 30 or 40 and do not get married. They are success in their career. The older they get, the more people wanted to married them.

Me: Okay. Now is the question about the food. What is the most famous food in your country?

Ying: I think the most famous food is rice.

Me: Can you tell me specifically? For example, in my country, PHO is one of our most famous foods.

Ying: Oh because our country is large so there are many different foods. So basically rice is the most famous food in China.

Me: Okay. What are the meals like? Size, number, times of day?

Ying: We eat 3 times a day. We eat less than America. Moreover, people in North China eat more than people in the South.

Me: Yeah. So do most people eat spicy food?

Ying: For certain provinces are famous for spicy food. My province, Jiangxi, is one of them.

Me: Okay. So what is the education system in your country?

Ying: Education system? Our education is free until you graduate from the middle school. You didn’t need to pay anything to study. But when you go to high school, you have to pay. The government set the law that all Chinese have to finish at least middle school. But after, we need to apply to high school. If your grade is not good enough, you can’t get to high school. If you want to study in the universities, you have to take the entrance examination. It is the most important thing in China. Many parents said that examination decide your life, it decide which university that you can go to.

Me: So what is the most important subject?

Ying: They are Mathematics, Chinese, and English.

Me: Okay. Do you need to wear uniform when you go to school?

Ying: It depends on the school. I had to wear uniform on Monday because we had the meeting for the whole school.

Me: So do you prefer to wear uniform or not?

Ying: I prefer not.

Me: Oh I thought you were going to say you prefer to wear uniform ha-ha.

Ying: Ha-ha. My uniform is green. Other schools have red uniform. But because my school is the best high school in the province, so the school president wanted students to have different uniform than others.

Me: Okay. So can you wear shorts or flip-flop to school? Not on Monday?

Ying: I don’t think we have a rule like that but we don’t wear shorts or flip-flop to school. I remembered when I was in elementary school, I was overslept one day and I wore flip-flop to school, the school guard in the front door told me that I could not go to school with flip-flop. But in high school, there is no rule.

Me: So do a lot of people get a chance to attend college in your country?

Ying: I don’t know. But all people around me go to the universities. Like what I said, my school is the best; so about 98 percent of students go to universities.

Me: Is it expensive to go to universities?

Ying: If you compare with the United States, it is super cheap to attend universities in China.

Me: Okay. So we just have few questions left.  What are the top three social pastimes/hobbies? (Sports, Group events, various activities)

Ying: The top three sports are basketball, soccer, and ping-pong.

Me: What about the special events?

Ying: Special events? The spring festival is the most important one.

Me: When is that?

Ying: It is the first day after New Year in Chinese calendar.

Me: What about the second one? Moonlight festival?

Ying: It is actually not that important in China. It’s just the time for family to get together. Even few years ago, we don’t have a break for Moonlight Festival. But now we do. I think the second festival is the National Day. It is on October 1^st.

Me: Okay let’s move on. Do you think that people in your country generally reserve when meeting new people?

Ying: I think comparing to American; we are likely reserve from new people. American can just sit there and chat about their personal life, but Chinese don’t do that.

Me: Okay. So which way people pay a bill? “Separate” or “together”? Who would be the person pay the bill?

Ying: It depends on the persons. In the North, it is always one-person pay the bill. But in the South, we separate the bills. For my mom, every time she get together with her university classmate, the most success person and has the most money in the class will pay the bill.

Me: So which way do you prefer?

Ying: I prefer separately.

Me: Do you think girls pay for boys is normal in your country?

Ying: No.

Me: Okay. How many children can each couple have?

Ying: In China, for parents, they can only have one child. But now, they can have two children.

Me: We have a few questions left. What are your views on tattoos?

Ying: I don’t like tattoos. I think it’s bad person.

Me: Uh huh. What are the views your country has on tattoos?

Ying: I think most people don’t like people with tattoos. But many pop stars have tattoos. And young people think that is cool.

Me: Yeah I can understand. Where would you suggest other traveling to? Why?

Ying: There are many places that they can travel to. The first option would me my city though. There are ancients building in a modern city. I think most people travel to China go to Beijing or Shanghai.

Me: Okay, so which age is considered adult in your country?

Ying: 18.

Me: Do you think that people in your country are hard workers?

Ying: I think so. Many people don’t need to work that hard but they do. Like my dad, when I visited home this summer, I saw him no more than five times.

Me: Really? So he has to travel back and forth to work?

Ying: Yes. He became the president of the hospital. My dad is an eye doctor. He needs to go to other city to cure other people because he is famous for being a doctor. He also has to attend the meeting around the world; he travels a lot. Even if he stays in the city, he will be in the hospital and work for the whole day.

Me: Okay. What are the different religions in your country?

Ying: Buddhist is the most famous one in China, then Catholic. There is another traditional religion in China called “Dao”. But not many people believe in that religion. There are people believe in Muslim.

Me: Muslim? In China?

Ying: Yes, some minority’s people.

Me: And what is the predominant religion?

Ying: Buddhist.

Me: So what is your religion?

Ying: I don’t have religion.

Me: Okay. What are some holidays that you celebrate in China?

Ying: Spring festival and National day.

Me: And how do you celebrate them?

Ying: For Spring festival, families just get together and cook big meals. For National Day, we don’t do much. We just have a break and celebrate with families.

Me: So the last question is here. What things you do not like about your country? And what you feel proud of.

Ying: Some people cross the streets without obeying the rules. They cross the red lights and they don’t even notice that is wrong. They are not educated about that. And that’s what I don’t like about my country. In China, you also have control about your speech. For example, if you say some bad thing about the government, you might be punished. But it’s better now. And what am I proud of is being a Chinese. My country is becoming more and more developed and my country has a good influenced around the world. Yes, I just say that I am proud of being a Chinese.

Me: Okay. So that’s all the questions. Thank you so much.

Audio file recorded

http://soundcloud.com/user643942237/memo