One of the topics we talked about that really peaked my interest was life after 高考. Gaokao is a notorious Chinese exam that students take at the end of high school. This test is said to make or break a student's future, and so they spend all their time to study hard and get good grades in school. In some ways, this is true, but in others I have found it isn't totally true. Of course, I wouldn't dare tell my students about this, but I haven't actually talked to a single person who said they did really well on the gaokao. However, these friends are having a lot of success in their lives now, and they are really incredibly intelligent. I don't want to mention specific examples, because I don't want to compromise anybody's face (which is another really important part of Chinese culture).
I think based on these friends' stories, I can apply something I learned from the field of positive psychology. These days Hui and I are watching free online Harvard lectures on positive psychology, and one thing we learned about was levels of happiness. The professor used the example of professors hoping to make tenure. Before they found out, they said they would be devastated if they didn't get it, but after they didn't get it, they found they were okay with it and went on with their lives. If something happens in your life, you might be completely devastated for a while, or you could be completely over the moon for a while, but you will almost always go right back to your base level of happiness. Just remember this if you are feeling pressure over any type of situation.
I have also recently subscribed to the youtube page of the National Committee for US China Relations, which is a page that every once in a while posts really great and informative videos on different events that they host. Most of them that I have seen have been talks on books that have to do with China. Besides that, they also post videos of events and talks with American government leaders, the latest one of those I saw was with a panel of US defense secretaries, and watching that really opened my eyes about so many different things. For such a long time now, I have had a really negative view on my country's government, but, after watching these videos, I realized that the thing I disliked wasn't the people in the government, but was actually the American media, and the way they approach politics. I think now more than ever I am going to stay away from news channels. I think I will need to start linking these videos on my blog, because they really are so great, and you can learn a lot of things not just about Chinese culture and history, but about how America's government truly views China.
Actually, that last paragraph was completely rambling, because the thing I really wanted to talk about was a certain video I watched, which was a talk about a book written on the topic of the one child policy. Now, I can't stress enough how intriguing all of the books they introduce on that channel are, but this one in particular made me really sit down and think. Specifically, the speaker discussed the personality of a single child in China, saying that they were not all, "little emperors", as people often say they are, but in fact people who give themselves way too much pressure. They feel so much pressure to have success for their family, and this means that it is easy for them to become depressed. I can completely see this kind of characteristic in Hui, and it really scares me, because he has had a few friends who have committed suicide, so we are both extremely careful to keep our well being in check by studying psychology, and having fun as much as we can. I know it doesn't help that he has chosen to work for Alipay, and often working until 11pm every night, but you can't say he doesn't work hard. I think I am going to have to grab that video and stick it in here for all of your to see to finish out this post. Sorry if this was really random, but I just wanted to let all my thoughts out.
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