Zhang Bai and Li Wei make dumplings for Chinese New Year.
Christian Gutierrez grew up bilingual, bicultural and had a degree from UCSD. It was not enough, though, to prepare him for the exotic, ancient, bewildering and wondrous culture of China.
He arrived in Daqing, China in June 2012. He had studied Chinese every day for a year prior to his arrival, but still struggled with the Hanzi-based language.
He lived and worked in Daqing for two years. Although he has returned to San Diego County, Gutierrez said those years remain with him, as does his desire to travel and live abroad.
It was a long road from Southwestern College, where he was a student from 2006-09, to the northeast corner of China. It started with an application to the Peace Corps. While waiting for a response, Gutierrez enrolled in an online Master’s program and began applying for jobs in China. By the time the Peace Corps responded with a position in Kyrgystan, he was already far along in his Chinese studies and close to accepting a position teaching English in Daqing, a city of 3 million.
Daqing is in an area known for its oil fields, the most productive in China. Located about 500 miles north of the North Korean border, the region endures short, humid summers and long, bitter winters. January highs average around one degree Fahrenheit.
Living in China and not being fluent in the language was challenging, but not impossible, said Gutierrez.
“I could talk to people on a child’s level,” Gutierrez said. “When I lost luggage at the airport, I was able to resolve it.”
Although he found the transportation system complex and difficult to navigate, Gutierrez said he traveled extensively in eastern China, including sojourns to Guangzhou, located on the southern coast, and the capital, Beijing. He also visited Dandong on the North Korean border.
He said the contrasts on China’s border with the “Hermit Kingdom” were striking.
“You see this river and on one side it’s pretty developed,” Gutierrez said. “On the other side you can see a house on a hill and a Ferris wheel that’s all for show. You can see it rusting from a mile away.”
Apart from traveling, being immersed in day-to-day life offered glimpses and insights into Chinese home life many Americans never see. The most important holiday in China is its new year, which takes place on the lunar new year in January or February. A student invited Gutierrez to her family’s celebration, an honor for a foreign visitor.
Gutierrez said one exchange between the elders of the family in particular really touched him.
“Her grandmother was teaching me how to make dumplings,” he said.
Gutierrez said the grandfather took exception to his wife’s technique and described the importance of sticking to the traditional method. He inserted himself into the undertaking and began demonstrating the traditional dumpling-folding approach.
“He told me I had to do it in one motion,” said Gutierrez.
Then, he said, the wife jumped back in to scold her meddling husband.
“She said, ‘Nobody has time for that,’” he said. “It was funny.”
Life in China was not always a cultural struggle, said Gutierrez, and there was a tight-knit group of fellow expats who would hang out at bars that catered to the small population of Westerners.
Gutierrez’s girlfriend, who was studying in Spain at the time, was able to visit China and vice versa.
“Breaking up didn’t work for us,” Gutierrez said.
They got married eight months ago.
Certain cultural differences stood out, he said, especially in regards to courtesy and social grace. In China a timid call for a waiter at a restaurant is going to be ignored. Patrons typically yell for service.
“It’s not that they’re rude,” he said, “It’s that their language is entirely different.”
It was, at times, a challenge to keep life in perspective and not let ethnocentric ideals cloud his thinking.
“Sometimes you’re tired, sometimes you’re cranky,” Gutierrez said, describing a taxi ride with an excited driver who would not stop talking. Keeping perspective was important, he said. “This guy has probably seen very few foreigners in his life.”
Upon his return to the U.S., Gutierrez said he was grateful just to be able to read again.
“For a while I would read every sign I saw,” he said. “I was so happy to be able to read. For two years I was highly illiterate.”
Gutierrez said nothing can replace the experience of getting out of one’s comfort zone and recommends that SWC students consider working abroad once their college careers are over.
“Travel as much as you can,” he said. “You hear of other people and then you finally meet them.”
Gutierrez said people around the world want the same things, like big family feasts, barbecues and a job that permits them. He said traveling and living abroad can give people a life-changing perspective on the world and their place in it.
“You meet other people and you realize the world is different, sometimes, more than you think,” Gutierrez said. “You just can’t put a price on that.”
