Hey there loyal friends and followers,
Apologies for the infrequent updates. I have been on a rollercoaster of finishing the term, marking, and organizing our tropical Thai vacation! (We leave tomorrow!)
Since we last updated you, we filled you in on the pollution that we deal with here, my new Badminton buddies, and the birth of the new Wuhan Metro line that has made it much easier to get around. In case you wondered, we are highly satisfied with our tailor made clothing. Will definitely be shopping there again soon.
This post is a look into the world of Chinese Guanxi, the relationship network of China. Here is our Guanxi experience:
A few weeks ago, Molly, Derek, Eli, Julie and I all went for a wonderful stroll down to the Xudong Antique market where we had a look at some amazing stores that had some great pieces like plates from the cultural revolution in China, 20 ft. posters of China’s favorite leader – I like to call him “Mad Mao” Zedong, and countless stores filled with old collectibles from wartimes, beautiful art, pottery, and wooden sculptures.
We went into this nice little store where Julie and I met a guy who spoke very good English and seemed very nice. Turns out he grew up in Wuhan, but lived in New Zealand for a number of years and just moved back to Wuhan a few months ago. It was nice to meet him and after dragging Derek and Molly away from small talk about Mad Mao and a gorgeous salvaged wood table, we went on our way. It wasn’t 15 minutes later that our friend came up to us again while we were browsing a square filled with people selling antiques on blankets. I was confused, but he just wanted to give us his business card and told us that if we ever were looking for work, he had connections at a Wuhan school and could help us find a job. He also said that he could help us out with anything Wuhan related or if we just wanted to chat – he was up for anything.
With the influx of tutoring requests for Julie, we didn’t think much of the prospect of our new acquaintance finding a full time job for Julie. It was just nice at the time for him to offer.
So we forgot about him for a little while, until I texted him out of the blue one day to ask him about a leather goods shop that might make some cool custom stuff. He told me that he knew of a place and told us how to find it, and then I asked him if he had heard anything about jobs for Julie. (I didn’t want to just seem like I was abusing his local knowledge). He told us that he would send the word out through his “sources” and tap into his “networks.”
Cool. We forgot about it for another couple weeks. In that time, school wrapped up and we explored the city some more, went to that leather shop, I had a chance to visit the Hubei Provincial museum, which was pretty awesome, and just hung out in China.
Fast forward until this past weekend. We had spent the day hanging with Molly, Dekes and Eli, when I got a text from our friend.
Him: “What r u up 2 tmrw?”
Me: “Not too sure. What do you have in mind?”
He called at that point and filled us in on what his sources, networks, and magical elves or whatever had brought to his attention since we had last spoken.
“So, my contacts want to have a meeting with us about some teaching vacancies that you could get. You should come to my shop at about 5 tomorrow for dinner and we can discuss the details of the jobs and what exactly you want.”
Me: “Uhhh, seriously? How many job vacancies are there?”
Friend: “Uh, I don’t know. I’ll call you back.”
Next call:
“Yeah hi Tristan, it sounds like there are 3 possibilities so far, but there could be more. First one is a school that is looking for a full-time teacher. I’m friends with the lady who does the hiring so that might be the best possibility. The second is another full time job teaching English at a different school. The third is a recruiter who can get you in touch with any people that want tutoring help.”
Me: “Wow. Do you have any details about these jobs?”
Friend: “Oh. No. Just that there are vacancies. We can meet at my shop and I will know more then.”
So the next day we head over to his shop and when we get there, there isn’t much new info about the jobs, so we end up shooting the crap about cost of living in China, NZ and Canada.
We hopped into his Dad’s car where we learned that you have to wear your seat belt in China! IT ACTUALLY IS A LAW. Here is the catch – you only have to wear it in the front seat! So us back seat folk are in trouble. I put my seatbelt on in the back seat anyway and he was all, “What are you doing, man?!” But I wore it (you’re welcome mom) and had some laughs and told us that we would be heavily ridiculed if we tried wearing our belts in a cab. Thanks, we know.
So we arrived at a cool restaurant called “Hankow Restaurant” or in Chinese “Hankou Private Kitchen” which was an amazing and very expensive place with delicious and organic food. It was decorated like Shanghai in the 1920’s and had beautiful decor and music from the era! We had our own private room, private bathroom, and private waitresses. As soon as we got there, I used the bathroom and when I came out, I turned off the light like any regular person would.
Friend: “What are you doing, man?! We pay for that service! Turn the lights back on!”
So as not to offend, I destroyed the world a little bit more by leaving the light (and fan!) on for the entire 2 hours or so that we ate. How do I sleep at night.
Once our friend’s contacts arrived, we drank some French wine and some wheat tea and we had some Hubei delicacies like wild boar, spicy beef, egg and fish cut up things, fish ball soup, “niro” soup, and yummy bok choy. They were very astonished to find out that white people can actually eat spicy food. They thought that that never happened. Also, they were taken aback that we could actually use chopsticks without too much difficulty. I think this is what convinced them to start calling people and finding Julie a job.
They asked us pretty normal questions (How do you like Wuhan, why did you move to China, What kind of job are you looking for?) for the most part, and also some weird ones and some personal questions which were different for us.
Here are a few of them:
“When will you get a driver’s license?”
“How much do you pay for rent?”
“How much money do you make currently?” (to Tristan)
It was quite a cool cultural experience for us, as we had an entire dinner conversation with people who didn’t speak a lick of English, while our knowledge of Mandarin is super low. We would answer a question and he would translate, they would nod and discuss it, then they would laugh about something – our friend would translate and we would laugh and be part of the joke. The whole time we were talking about all kinds of things, The contact was on the phone calling all kinds of different people about a job for Julie. Weird.
Then, today, Julie had a job interview for a full-time teaching job at a High School! We met our friend in Hankou and all three of us were a part of the interview. It was definitely a weird experience being a part of a interview that was set up completely through “friend of a friend” sort of thinking, and without applying at all for the vacancy. The interview seemed to go pretty well, but we will find out more after our holiday. Speaking of which, we are all packed up and ready to fly out of Wuhan! I should get some sleep…
Next blog update should be from the sandy white beaches and clear sunny skies of Thailand!
So long for now,
Tristan
China, Eh? 