29 ms·

How Chinese Students Experience America

61 points by mitchbob 3y ago

mitchbob 3y ago
https://archive.ph/nIoX5 https://archive.ph/nIoX5
i67vw3 3y ago
>Vincent also intended to make a career in China, but he had specific plans for his time in the U.S. Once, during a class discussion, he remarked that someday he would purchase both a car and a real firearm. The illegal airsoft pistol that he had acquired in high school shot only plastic pellets. In 2017, when Vincent ordered the gun, it had been delivered to his home at the bottom of a rice cooker, as camouflage. If I ever visit America, like Vincent the second thing I am going to do is to visit an American gun range. I too wish to experience a real gun (semi-automatic or automatic) instead of air pistols.
- plantwallshoe 3y ago
  You should check out a “sporting clay” range. Much more fun than shooting at paper targets.
  - beeeeerp 3y ago
    I think it’s just personal preference. A lot of ranges offer both! I enjoy plinking more than clay shooting, but that’s just me. There’s something about long distance shooting that attracts me. Also, if I could afford to try out one of those rotating miniguns from Predator, count me in! (with tracers. I’d really want tracers.)
  - dublinben 3y ago
    So much fun, but so much harder than paper targets. They move!
- keiferski 3y ago
  Not sure where you're from, but there are a lot of gun ranges in Europe, too. Especially in Central Europe.
- CoastalCoder 3y ago
  I'm hoping to take it one step further, next time I'm in New Orleans: https://www.gatorsandguns.com/ https://www.gatorsandguns.com/
- stormfather 3y ago
  Wear ear protection, even the guy next to you will be painfully, damagingly loud.
  - filoleg 3y ago
    Yeah, think of the most loud live concert you’ve ever heard, to the point where your ears physically start hurting, but make it even louder. 22lr rifles go at around 140dB, and large bore rifles and handguns go above 175dB. Meanwhile, the loudest concert ever was sitting at slightly under 130dB (Manowar in the 90s, not sure if their record had been broken since then). Definitely take care of your hearing. Even at much lower dB at large concerts, you cause some amount of irreversible hearing damage. And even at much lower volume than 130dB, your ears start physically hurting from the sound pretty bad. Aftering hearing a typical gunshot without any ear protection just a few feet away from you, you might just not want to come back to a range ever again. TLDR: wear (appropriate type for the specific task) ear protection to concerts, gun ranges, and while riding a motorcycle on highways, you will thank yourself later.
usui 3y ago
Fun and long-winded article, but the author fails to acknowledge the massive blindspot of his lens on overseas Chinese in America. California is mentioned a total of two times in this entire article. Oregon and Washington zero times. The main character and adjacent are students who choose to live on the East Coast (not even New York City) and at universities with small Chinese student populations. Some of them become hardcore rednecks. The author has a main character who "doesn't like California" and mentions briefly only once a couple living in California. This is quite disingenuous or ignorant for an article that titles itself "How Chinese Students Experience America". It should be qualified as "White America" at the very least. Are Chinese students only capable of experiencing America by living on the East Coast/living in White/Black America? The experience of the majority of Chinese students living in Chinese America is not as valid as the minority who don't? Try talking about the West Coast next time. Approximately 40% of ethnic Chinese in the USA live there in particular highly-concentrated areas. I guarantee there would be key differences that change the vibe of the story the author wants to tell. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Americans#Demographics https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Americans#Demographics https://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_significant_Chinese-American_populations https://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_signific... https://ca.style.yahoo.com/most-chinese-schools-america-143007016.html https://ca.style.yahoo.com/most-chinese-schools-america-1430... > In 2021, there were more than fifteen hundred Chinese at the University of Pittsburgh, and around three thousand at Carnegie Mellon, whose campus is less than a mile away. This is not a small number, but not as big as the author thinks. Overall, I think the author is quite credible to write about decades of experience from teaching students in China, but his narrative on the Chinese experience in America is very unconvincing. > Kefalos’s grandfather had come from Greece, and his father had worked as an electrical engineer in the steel industry. Many of his current tenants were immigrants. “My personal experience is that they are relatively hardworking,” he said. “And I think that’s true with most immigrants who come into the country. Whether it’s for education or a better life.” He looked up at Vincent and said, “My sense is that most U.S. citizens born in the United States don’t have any idea how fortunate they are.” I roll my eyes at this closing bit on "Americans are born so fortunate", "American Dream" stuff.
- runeblaze 3y ago
  Well Peter Hessler writes like this. By the way we all know American higher education is often interspersed around the US, so Pittsburgh is actually a nice median -- not a college town but far from a big city like Chicago/NYC. The mental journey Hessler describes rings true to me, a Chinese student in the US.
pcranaway 3y ago
I love suggesting the novel “A concise Chinese-English dictionary for Lovers” as it really shows how people from such different cultures such as the chinese perceive the western world (at least in the first few chapters) (and yes i know the book is about the UK and not the US)
keiferski 3y ago
Very interesting piece – and as an American that's lived abroad for nearly a decade, I think Americans (in America) dramatically underestimate how much cultural influence the West/US has on the world. It is basically impossible to avoid American culture, for better or worse, whether that be Netflix shows or memes. I wish more Americans were aware of this and understood how much passive influence they have via relatively mundane things.
- namaria 3y ago
  > I wish more Americans were aware of this and understood how much passive influence they have How do you think Americans can actually influence things because people abroad wear jeans and watch Netflix?
  - keiferski 3y ago
    It’s far far more than that. I’d say probably 60-70% of youth culture in Europe is just straight from America, whether that be from movies, celebrities, YouTube, or otherwise. Not to mention cultural/political trends and English words.
  - filoleg 3y ago
    “Influencing” is not the same as “manipulating” or “controlling” in this context. Some kid in eastern europe watched Kobe Bryant play and got inspired to sign up for a local basketball team and took it seriously - that’s influencing. People in some countries outside of the US that never had Halloween as a holiday now unofficially observe it (due to the holiday’s portrayal in western media and it being almost a staple for a sitcom series to have an episode dedicated to it) - that’s influencing. But you are right, it isnt the type of an influence you are thinking about, with an evil man twirling his moustache and trying to manipulate people on the other side of the globe to do his bidding via harry potter movies.
    - namaria 3y ago
      > the type of an influence you are thinking about, with an evil man twirling his moustache No I never imagined or implied that. > some kid in eastern europe watched Kobe Bryant play and got inspired to sign up for a local basketball team That's just the cultural adoption reproducing itself. No American is influencing i.e. changing the course of events meaningfully in their advantage. Some cultural export that's all. > People in some countries outside of the US that never had Halloween as a holiday now unofficially observe it Again, just the same cultural adoption reproducing. At best this represents some incremental exports in intangibles. Pay-per-view games, some costumes from China. Hey now American influence is favoring the Chinese economy. Yeah there's cultural hegemony. There's a lot of talk and hand wrangling about "soft power" and "influence" but even letting your imagination run the best you could come up were nothing more than some examples of aesthetics choices.
mitchbob 3y ago
By the same author, about the experience of his American daughters in a Chinese school: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/03/the-double-education-of-my-twins-chinese-school https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/03/the-double-edu... (archived: https://archive.ph/2023.07.07-155232/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/03/the-double-education-of-my-twins-chinese-school https://archive.ph/2023.07.07-155232/https://www.newyorker.c... )

61 points by mitchbob 3y ago

https://archive.ph/nIoX5 https://archive.ph/nIoX5

>Vincent also intended to make a career in China, but he had specific plans for his time in the U.S. Once, during a class discussion, he remarked that someday he would purchase both a car and a real firearm. The illegal airsoft pistol that he had acquired in high school shot only plastic pellets. In 2017, when Vincent ordered the gun, it had been delivered to his home at the bottom of a rice cooker, as camouflage. If I ever visit America, like Vincent the second thing I am going to do is to visit an American gun range. I too wish to experience a real gun (semi-automatic or automatic) instead of air pistols.

plantwallshoe 3y ago
You should check out a “sporting clay” range. Much more fun than shooting at paper targets.
- beeeeerp 3y ago
  I think it’s just personal preference. A lot of ranges offer both! I enjoy plinking more than clay shooting, but that’s just me. There’s something about long distance shooting that attracts me. Also, if I could afford to try out one of those rotating miniguns from Predator, count me in! (with tracers. I’d really want tracers.)
- dublinben 3y ago
  So much fun, but so much harder than paper targets. They move!
keiferski 3y ago
Not sure where you're from, but there are a lot of gun ranges in Europe, too. Especially in Central Europe.
CoastalCoder 3y ago
I'm hoping to take it one step further, next time I'm in New Orleans: https://www.gatorsandguns.com/ https://www.gatorsandguns.com/
stormfather 3y ago
Wear ear protection, even the guy next to you will be painfully, damagingly loud.
- filoleg 3y ago
  Yeah, think of the most loud live concert you’ve ever heard, to the point where your ears physically start hurting, but make it even louder. 22lr rifles go at around 140dB, and large bore rifles and handguns go above 175dB. Meanwhile, the loudest concert ever was sitting at slightly under 130dB (Manowar in the 90s, not sure if their record had been broken since then). Definitely take care of your hearing. Even at much lower dB at large concerts, you cause some amount of irreversible hearing damage. And even at much lower volume than 130dB, your ears start physically hurting from the sound pretty bad. Aftering hearing a typical gunshot without any ear protection just a few feet away from you, you might just not want to come back to a range ever again. TLDR: wear (appropriate type for the specific task) ear protection to concerts, gun ranges, and while riding a motorcycle on highways, you will thank yourself later.

usui 3y ago

Fun and long-winded article, but the author fails to acknowledge the massive blindspot of his lens on overseas Chinese in America. California is mentioned a total of two times in this entire article. Oregon and Washington zero times. The main character and adjacent are students who choose to live on the East Coast (not even New York City) and at universities with small Chinese student populations. Some of them become hardcore rednecks. The author has a main character who "doesn't like California" and mentions briefly only once a couple living in California. This is quite disingenuous or ignorant for an article that titles itself "How Chinese Students Experience America". It should be qualified as "White America" at the very least. Are Chinese students only capable of experiencing America by living on the East Coast/living in White/Black America? The experience of the majority of Chinese students living in Chinese America is not as valid as the minority who don't? Try talking about the West Coast next time. Approximately 40% of ethnic Chinese in the USA live there in particular highly-concentrated areas. I guarantee there would be key differences that change the vibe of the story the author wants to tell. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Americans#Demographics https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Americans#Demographics https://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_significant_Chinese-American_populations https://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_signific... https://ca.style.yahoo.com/most-chinese-schools-america-143007016.html https://ca.style.yahoo.com/most-chinese-schools-america-1430... > In 2021, there were more than fifteen hundred Chinese at the University of Pittsburgh, and around three thousand at Carnegie Mellon, whose campus is less than a mile away. This is not a small number, but not as big as the author thinks. Overall, I think the author is quite credible to write about decades of experience from teaching students in China, but his narrative on the Chinese experience in America is very unconvincing. > Kefalos’s grandfather had come from Greece, and his father had worked as an electrical engineer in the steel industry. Many of his current tenants were immigrants. “My personal experience is that they are relatively hardworking,” he said. “And I think that’s true with most immigrants who come into the country. Whether it’s for education or a better life.” He looked up at Vincent and said, “My sense is that most U.S. citizens born in the United States don’t have any idea how fortunate they are.” I roll my eyes at this closing bit on "Americans are born so fortunate", "American Dream" stuff.

runeblaze 3y ago
Well Peter Hessler writes like this. By the way we all know American higher education is often interspersed around the US, so Pittsburgh is actually a nice median -- not a college town but far from a big city like Chicago/NYC. The mental journey Hessler describes rings true to me, a Chinese student in the US.

pcranaway 3y ago

I love suggesting the novel “A concise Chinese-English dictionary for Lovers” as it really shows how people from such different cultures such as the chinese perceive the western world (at least in the first few chapters) (and yes i know the book is about the UK and not the US)

keiferski 3y ago

Very interesting piece – and as an American that's lived abroad for nearly a decade, I think Americans (in America) dramatically underestimate how much cultural influence the West/US has on the world. It is basically impossible to avoid American culture, for better or worse, whether that be Netflix shows or memes. I wish more Americans were aware of this and understood how much passive influence they have via relatively mundane things.

namaria 3y ago
> I wish more Americans were aware of this and understood how much passive influence they have How do you think Americans can actually influence things because people abroad wear jeans and watch Netflix?
- keiferski 3y ago
  It’s far far more than that. I’d say probably 60-70% of youth culture in Europe is just straight from America, whether that be from movies, celebrities, YouTube, or otherwise. Not to mention cultural/political trends and English words.
- filoleg 3y ago
  “Influencing” is not the same as “manipulating” or “controlling” in this context. Some kid in eastern europe watched Kobe Bryant play and got inspired to sign up for a local basketball team and took it seriously - that’s influencing. People in some countries outside of the US that never had Halloween as a holiday now unofficially observe it (due to the holiday’s portrayal in western media and it being almost a staple for a sitcom series to have an episode dedicated to it) - that’s influencing. But you are right, it isnt the type of an influence you are thinking about, with an evil man twirling his moustache and trying to manipulate people on the other side of the globe to do his bidding via harry potter movies.
  - namaria 3y ago
    > the type of an influence you are thinking about, with an evil man twirling his moustache No I never imagined or implied that. > some kid in eastern europe watched Kobe Bryant play and got inspired to sign up for a local basketball team That's just the cultural adoption reproducing itself. No American is influencing i.e. changing the course of events meaningfully in their advantage. Some cultural export that's all. > People in some countries outside of the US that never had Halloween as a holiday now unofficially observe it Again, just the same cultural adoption reproducing. At best this represents some incremental exports in intangibles. Pay-per-view games, some costumes from China. Hey now American influence is favoring the Chinese economy. Yeah there's cultural hegemony. There's a lot of talk and hand wrangling about "soft power" and "influence" but even letting your imagination run the best you could come up were nothing more than some examples of aesthetics choices.

mitchbob 3y ago

By the same author, about the experience of his American daughters in a Chinese school: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/03/the-double-education-of-my-twins-chinese-school https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/03/the-double-edu... (archived: https://archive.ph/2023.07.07-155232/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/03/the-double-education-of-my-twins-chinese-school https://archive.ph/2023.07.07-155232/https://www.newyorker.c... )