In Britain, it is probably a rule of thumb that the greater the density of coffee shops and pubs, the closer you are likely to be to a university. Certainly, the streets surrounding Edinburgh University are crammed full of coffee shops, pubs, bars, vintage and charity shops and would probably scream student even without the actual students who populate them.
Conversely, Dalian University of Technology is probably located by the number of cheap food outlets which cluster the nearby streets (so like almost anywhere else in China, then), and ultimately by the sign on the entrance to campus saying 'Dalian University of Technology'. There are admittedly two coffee shops, but these exist more or less solely for the amusement of the foreign student population, but there is not a bar for miles. The student supermarket says it all really - it contains one solitary shelf of wine thickly covered in dust, which proved on closer testing to be not so much wine as an unsual kind of vinegar.
As a result, I've been wondering for a while what exactly Chinese students do to amuse themselves. The answer appears to be 'not much'. They live in dorms, which from my experience of Chinese student dorms are likely to hold 4-6 students to a room, and come minus facilities such as hot water. Unlike Edinburgh where a mulitude of student societies vie for your attention, the only ones here are either solidly career enhancing, government endorsed, or purely for the glorification of our fine university (ie sports societies to compete in intra-university matches - but only those who will actually compete at that level may join). Our campus at night is filled with a selection of very shy hand holding young Chinese couples, escaping their dorms for something approaching privacy, but otherwise Chinese university life appears to continue where school left off - an endless round of classes, exams and studying, alleviated only by the occasional game of ping pong.
There are of course exceptions - students who do party and do go out, but the majority are a little like my friend Koko, who reacted with shock when I suggested I liked going to bars, and for who the concept of going out was a little alien. Hence why turning up to the inaugural meeting of the Graduate Student English Society proved a little interesting...
They were trying so hard. However, we were a little surprised to be the only foreigners in the room, and a little surprised when they all spontaneously applauded our entrance. Then followed the introductions of the committee (including a 'Minister for Propaganda', who declared his hobbies to be making friends and speaking English), and the President sang us all a song. We then each had to introduce ourselves, by the end of which I wished to track down and murder whichever English teacher had rendered these students incapable of speaking anything but the purest cliche. Given there were probably 40 people or so in the room, this took some time. I did quite take to the guy who stood up and declared his favourite film to be The Big Lebowski, but couldn't quite restrain myself when a different guy claimed he understood British teenagers from his detailed watching of Skins.
Things did improve, as we moved on to free conversation, which more or less meant I was interrogated for an hour over anything they could find the English to formulate. However, I was left unable to believe I was sitting in a room of 23 yr olds. The whole thing had the atmosphere of a slightly unfortunate children's birthday party, where everyone wants to have fun, but nobody has ever met before. The adults are desperately trying to encourage the children to go on, and make friends, but they haven't quite worked out how to start going about it....
On the plus side, having escaped, I think I may finally have found some Chinese people willing to play ping pong against me.
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