katiekate's Guestbook

Re: Have fun
Thanks Aunt Nancy! I'm also very glad I was selected, haha. So far, I've been able to see parts of Xi'an during time spent with my language partner and roommate so that has worked out well! I also just got back from karaoke with some program friends, which is both a lot of fun, and a good way to sweat evrything out (the room felt like a sauna)!

Re: Mosquitoes like Yiwu Girls
Hey Terry, thanks for reading! I'm definitely not jealous of the weather there, but Lianne has been taking some really cool pictures! There also seems to be a lot of rain, so don't get too wet! You can dry when you're back in CO though, so enjoy yourselves!

Re: Interesting Sociological Insights
Hi Weatherly! I really enjoy learning about the social changes that have come to affect the daily life of the younger generations here in China. To answer your question about the gender gap, I don't think it plays into effect much in this scenario. For the most part, the gender gap isn't very prevalent in the major cities (where the educated women tend to be found), as people living in the big cities tend to be much more open minded and less traditional, so having just one daughter was accepted much more quickly. The gender gap is most obvious in villages and areas that are of a more traditional mindset, as those are the areas where babies were more often drowned or left for dead. Those are also the areas where Chinese women need to be more careful, as kidnappings, forced marriages, and polygamy are more common, as men find themselves without wives. I think the worry that more educated women would be less likely to stay at home and take care of the children is one of the factors in them being less attractive, but the practice of having an 阿姨 (ayi) who comes in to take care of the children during the week and to cook and clean is more and more popular in these large cities. I think the biggest factor is the intimidation, and the traditional mindset that has remained that men are supposed to be the ones to take care of the family, especially in terms of finances. They are supposed to have better jobs and act as the breadwinners, and when they find so many women who are just as if not more successful than they are, having a relationship is made difficult. Also, I think the women who become so successful also sometimes have the same mindset, and so they don't want to marry men who make less than they do for the same reasons. Shanghainese is impossible to understand. It's basically a whole different language, and even the Chinese from outside Shanghai are unable to understand it. Luckily, basically everyone from Shanghai (with the exception of some of the older people) can also speak Mandarin, so I am still able to communicate. The downside is that the southern and northern parts of China in general have very different pronunciations (for example, northerners put a hard "-er" sound at the end of lots of words, and southerners sometimes will change a soft "c" sound into a "ch," or an "sh" into an "si" sound). Oh Chinese...