“Everything Is Different in China”

VERENA MENZEL

STUDYING in China isnt just studying abroad. Everything is different here; its an- other world,” says Jade Li, 18, from Hamburg, Germany.

Jade has been in Beijing since September last year and recently passed the challenging entrance exam for the Beijing Film Academy, one of the oldest and most famous fi lm schools in China.She will start a bachelors degree in performing arts at the prestigious institution in autumn this year. She is the only foreign student in her class.

“Many Germans arent aware of these great differences when they come here for the fi rst time,” she refl ects.

We are sitting in the air-conditioned cafeteria of the Beijing Film Academy in Haidian District. Li is keen to discuss cultural differences, why its been hard to make friends in China, and her experiences on Chinese fi lm sets. Theres a lot to tell.

With her slender fi gure and long, straight black hair, Jade wouldnt really stick out in a crowd of students here. But her striking emerald-green eyes betray her Germanic roots.

Jade is German-Chinese, or should we call her Chinese-German? She isnt really sure herself. “I have never really felt one hundred percent at home in either country,” she says.

Jades father is Chinese, originating from coastal Shandong Province in East China. Her mother is German. Jade herself was born in Hamburg and has a German passport. At the age of six months she was brought to China for the first time and stayed with her grandparents in Beijing for about two years. Her grandparents still live there today.

Jades schooling was all in Hamburg.“I came to China only once every two years, during summer vacations,” she recalls.

Although her father always spoke German with her, Jade speaks fluent Mandarin with no discernable accent. “I still lack some vocabulary,” she admits with a charming smile, “but its getting better and better.” Sometimes when she speaks to locals, she says, they ask her why she knows Chinese like a native speaker but has the eyes of a European. “Well, I am actually Chinese,” she answers, but most of the time this is taken as a joke.

Jade came to China from Germany last year directly after finishing her abitur at a “terribly elitist” high school in Hamburgs posh Blankenese District. “I never really got along well with the kind of people there,” she says.

Although her spoken Chinese was already fluent when she came to Beijing, she still struggled with the languages notoriously complex written form. “When I first arrived, I couldnt write a single word in Hanzi, Chinese characters. Now I can manage to read newspapers and even some easy books.”

What advice would Jade give to Germans coming to China for business or study? “People should know what theyre in for when they come here. China cant be judged by other countriesstandards. I met one German girl here in Beijing who received a scholarship from a Chinese university. She was complaining about everything the whole time: about the dirt, the supposed rudeness of the people and that everything was different from Germany. Why did she come, then?”

In Jades opinion, most foreigners dont come to China because they like the country or because they are fascinated by its culture. “They come only for the development going on here and the chance to make big money. Its a shame.”

Jade says her reasons for coming to China were more genu- ine. The chance to study at the Beijing Film Academy is something that Chinese, let alone foreign students, would die for. It is seen as a vital stepping-stone to a career in acting in China.

Jade was selected as one of 80 students from over 6,000 applicants. “The selection process was really tough. Ive never experienced anything quite like it,” Jade recalls. “During the three selection rounds applicants not only had to prove their acting skills, but also dancing and singing talent.”

For Jade, the written exam on Chinese culture was always the hardest nut to crack. But she is obviously a fast learnerand managed to pass the test. Now, shes waiting for September to start studying side by side with her Chinese classmates.

Why do performing arts hold such a great fascination for Jade? And why did she choose to study in China?

“I came to China because above all else I wanted to improve my Chinese. I think its a shame that, as half-Chinese, I havent really mastered the language yet,” she confesses.And acting?“Actually its not the performing itself that Im interested in. Its the people Ive met and am going to meet at university. They are somehow similar to me and I can see myself in them, no matter where they come from. I have the feeling that studying at the academy is going to be something really special.”

It was during an exchange year at a high school in the U.S. State of New Mexico that Jade gained her first experience on stage. Back in Hamburg she continued acting in her free time and took part in a youth talent program at the Stage School in Hamburg. A couple of stage performances followed as well as projects with small drama troupes in Berlin.

Her first genuine experiences in front of the camera came in China. “Id been on camera in Germany, but mine was just a small part on a ‘trashy fake reality TV show,” she says, rolling her eyes.

In her nine months in China she had already been in a Chinese music video, a commercial for a mobile phone and a short publicity film sponsored by a German software and communications company. Today, she is just back from the shooting of a Chinese adaptation of the Hollywood flick Revolutionary Road, in which she took the female lead role originally played by Kate Winslet. “Kate is one of my biggest idols,” she says. Most people probably know her from the James Cameron blockbuster Titanic. “I really admire her. To follow her footprints was real pressure,” she laughs.

What is it like to be on a film set in China? And how do Chinese work differently from Germans?

“Its a little more chaotic than in Germany,” Jade admits. “The differences already appear in preparation for shooting. In China, personal relationships play a very important role. Its not unusual for inexperienced cousins of the director to play a lead part in a movie. You dont see that happening very often in Germany.”

“In China looks are more important than acting skill. Actors are primarily selected for their appearance. Ive never actually had to do an audition in China. Id just send in some pictures and would get the job; its as simple as that.”

Chinese filmmakers are also less picky when it comes to the post-production grind, for example the post-processing of col-ors, Jade says. “Germans are much more perfectionist in this regard.”

Jade has been impressed by the patience and endurance of her Chinese coworkers and their ability to “eat bitterness,” as the Chinese expression goes. “One time in winter we shot outside at five degrees below zero. Everyone was freezing to death and there was nothing to eat the whole day. The ones complaining were always the foreigners; there wasnt a peep of discontent from the Chinese cast members.”

Not only is work culture on the set different, but cultural differences also arise in every sphere of life in Beijing, Jade says. This starts with the simplest everyday matters, as she explains:“I feel that in China everything is twice as exhausting as in Germany. Everything needs more time here. It might sound stupid, but even a simple act like crossing the street is a real challenge here for me.”

One of the hardest things to cope with as a German here, Jade says, is that in China you are never alone. “It is really hard for me to get used to that. There is no place where you can be on your own. There are always people around, and more often than not they are looking at you; sometimes it really gets on my nerves,” she admits.

Jade has also realized that Chinese spent their free time quite differently from Germans. “Nearly everything is about eating. There seems to be nothing else,” she says. “Maybe I just met the wrong people, but when I go out with Chinese friends in the evening nothing really happens. We are sitting together and eat and maybe we go to a karaoke bar afterwards. But everything seems somehow forced, not natural.”

Even when making friends Jade has had her work cut out for her. “The meaning and significance of friendship is very different in Germany.” Shes found it much more difficult to establish personal relationships in China. “Chinese have a completely different understanding of friendship. It seems many struggle to find really close friends, because everything is always about deriving benefit from others. If you are nice to someone, people get the feeling you expect or want something from them. In China I get the impression, and maybe Im wrong, that the reason for having friends is to either get something from them or to find a partner.”

Jade sometimes still struggles with the language barrier. “In Chinese Im sometimes unable to express exactly what I want to say. Thats why I sometimesdont say anything, especially when I find myself in a big group of Chinese people.”

“Also, slight linguistic subtleties can lead to not-so-slight misunderstandings. For example there is a phrase ting hao de, which literally translates as ‘quite good. At the start when people were saying this to me I was often quite disappointed –I thought what Id done was better than ‘quite good. It took me a while to realize that the expression actually means ‘excellent.And there are a myriad of expressions like this.”

Asked about her future plans after her bachelors degree, Jade answers: “Ive got no ideas yet – I dont have something like a dream job that I want to do for ever. I cant imagine doing only one thing for the rest of my life,” she says.

But staying on in China permanently seems to be out of question for the young German. “To be honest, I would prefer to live in Europe or the United States”, she says. But no matter where her future path may take her, one thing seems to be for sure: Jade will always take a piece of China with her.