Peanuts. The Sopranos. One of the books about Bill Clinton's presidential sex life.
We're probably not competent to address this.
I don't know whether he has access to any U.S. TV in China. I wonder if Hulu is blocked.
I also suggested reading USA Today, as horrible as it is, to get an overview of what's being talked about in the news.
I am not sure that American fiction will give much practical insight into U.S. culture or what it will be like to adjust as a new graduate student. If that's his primary concern, he should seek out the university's international office and international student groups, because quite a lot of the adjustment process isn't to "how do Americans think" (though there's some of that) but "how things are done." where "things" might be how to rent an apartment, how much cash to have on hand, where to find a grocery store, how the bus system works, etc.
We're probably not competent to address this.
And your point is?
Besides, I think you're wrong. The question is simply whether you've read anything (relatively recent) that you think reflects a piece of American history, politics, or culture and is accessible for someone who has excellent but not idiomatic English.
Further, some Unfoggeditians probably have quite useful experience. Doesn't AWB has some students who are recent immigrants?
A lot depends on the venue, I think. US land-grant college towns are bizarre, and very different from cities. Jane Smiley's Moo, maybe. Flannery O'Connor and Bubba Sparxx if the poor fucker's being sent to the south. The biggest shock will likely be lack or respect by students for teachers and education as a whole unless he's going to vary good school. Animal House wouldn't be a bad idea, actually.
I read InStyle magazine and occasionally People as cliffs notes to the parts of culture that I despise but need to maintain some awareness of. I genuinely enjoy O magazine. Auto, fitness, and food magazines will all be extremely educational.
Posted 6 before I saw 5, but his question is specifically about American social life, not about riding the bus, though you're certainly right about that being critical information.
7: He's going to the University of Missouri.
I read InStyle magazine and occasionally People as cliffs notes
Mm-hmm. And Playboy for the articles?
Oh, and he'll be pursuing his master's in the engineering school.
I read InStyle magazine and occasionally People as cliffs notes to the parts of culture that I despise but need to maintain some awareness of.
I basically drown myself in pop culture, but now that magazines like InStyle, etc., are all reality show nitwits all the time, I have zero idea of who anybody is and that makes me feel very old indeed.
Further, some Unfoggeditians probably have quite useful experience. Doesn't AWB has some students who are recent immigrants?
Ok, this I freely acknowledge.
It's hopeless. Just have him watch TV 24/7 between now and then. But reassure him that serial killers are really quite rare.
When I spent a semester at the University of Sussex, the advice that the international office seemed to think absolutely critical was that (they claimed) British women only ever order half pints in pubs and it would be simply shocking if we didn't follow suit.
Animal House, Car+Driver, and Smiley's Moo , then. Nelly's from St Louis, so
http://www.last.fm/music/Nelly/_/Hot+in+Herre?autostart
Glossy magazines or blogs his students might read-- rolling stone, maybe, or 9513.
He should RTFA. Everything I know about the US I learned from Unfogged.
Oh, and Whit Stillman films. That covers everything, I'd think.
The first house I bought had a cache of 1976-1981 Playboys in the attic. The interview with Walid Jumblatt was great. The ads are more interesting than the contrived photos, though the girls are indeed easy on the eyes.
Oh, and Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine, or Max Perutz or Robert Park's essays about science might be interesting for him.
I have not read Jo Ann Beard's essay cited here , but I expect that would be worthwhile, or other matter about those murders.
the girls are indeed easy on the eyes.
I love this phrase. No sharp corners on that one!
he'll be pursuing his master's in the engineering school
He'll be wanting to read the Jargon File, then. Not so much for its immediate relevance as its demonstration of the aesthetic logic of geekdom.
Perhaps your cousin should consider reading some U.S. history.
I think the question is underdetermined. Does he/she want to know about US culture as American culture perceives it, or as it is? They're very different things. With regards to politics, the former might be well represented by, say, The West Wing, whereas the latter would be better represented by, say, The Paranoid Style...
For a familiarity with U.S. culture, wouldn't the best choice be to read a couple of fiction best-sellers? Some should be easily consumed, and they'll give a good clue as to a general cultural interest.
My three-week-old NYTimes book section bestseller fiction lists a James Patterson; "Lover avenged," by J.R. Ward; "First family," by David Baldacci; "Summer on Blossom Street," by Debbie Macomber; and a Mary Higgins Clark, for starters.
24: Perhaps ari should consider reading the post more carefully.
Posted 6 before I saw 5, but his question is specifically about American social life, not about riding the bus, though you're certainly right about that being critical information.
Right, but "what Americans are like" I think is also information better gleaned from other graduate students in a similar than pop culture. Both because pop culture is inaccurate (my immigration board is full of stories of recent immigrants who thought they understood everything about the U.S. from watching American TV and were often unpleasantly surprised), and because their cohort might be able to pick out things that surprised them. E.g., American women smile a lot and make eye contact; it doesn't necessarily mean anything about what they're thinking about you.
I'd go with M*A*S*H. It doesn't take place in the US, but it does do great at exploring American values. Plus that Klinger-in-a-dress gag never gets old.
Almost everything needed can be learned from reading Pogo and both the NY and LA times (completely).
The slower route would be to watch a week or two's worth of TV, with a mix of buffy the vampire slayer, WWF wrestling, fox news, MASH, NASCAR and/or football, a daytime soap or two, survivor, part III or IV of an action movie sequence, and a few "screen classics" from the 50s.
E.g., American women smile a lot and make eye contact
Are you sure about this? My experience is that American women avert their gaze and walk away quickly. That's a cultural thing, right?
24: He's not my cousin, he's a friend's, which is why I can't provide much detail on where he's coming from, though. Your questions about what he really wants to know are good ones and I'll pass them on to the friend.
And, um, he's from China, not North Korea. They get exposure to plenty of US TV programs and movies over there. Primarily of the big studio/blockbuster variety, but it's not like he's never seen any of our fine pop cultural products.
de Tocqueville? Pogo? Those are horrible suggestions. This is a real person who wants to know what real people in the 21st century are like.
My mom often jokes that she learned about America through the sitcoms of Norman Lear; not sure what the equivalent would be today. I almost never watch non DailyShow/Colbert TV , but a show that seems pretty solidly and generically American to me is My Wife and Kids.
I might try some Best American Essays collections. That sounds kooky, but since they often derive from small regional presses, they're more representative of non-New York non-LA culture. They're well-written, and they're often on a variety of random topics in every day life. Actually, for that matter, Best American Short Stories or the Puschart Prize collections. Older, less deliberately quirky episodes of ThisAmericanLife?
Ile makes a good point. New York, L.A., and Texas* dominate the popular imagination, but aren't reliable guides to what living in a small college town or small city would be like.
*It's the cowboy thing.
Here's something he should definitely not watch.
oh, actually, de Tocqueville reminds me of "American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville" by Bernard-Henri Levy. I never really got to read it, but I heard it was good.
Or mayb the non Nate Silver part of Nate Silver's blog. there was a lot of exploring america last year. . .
40: I haven't seen that movie, but from the description it sounds like it actually might be pretty useful.
Also, one of our friends is a psychologist and he immediately responded to the e-mail asking the original question with this wise suggestion.
They're coming to go to college? They should read this damn blog. Really.
15. SK, unless you're over 60, they were taking the piss, good style.
They're coming to go to college?
For a Master's degree in engineering.
they were taking the piss, good style
They were whatting the who, how?
(I was there in 1987.)
"American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville" by Bernard-Henri Levy. I never really got to read it, but I heard it was good.
But that would be America as filtered through a wankerific Frenchman, so not so useful for a Chinese engineering grad student.
a wankerific Frenchman
So very, very wankerific.
I was there in 1987.
Not long enough to pick up the language, though. "Taking the piss" = "Taking the mickey". "Good style" = "with a vengeance".
Ari, enough with the history. Everyone knows it repeats itself, anyway, so he can catch it on the next go-round.
I recommend all the von Trier films set in the US. And maybe Krazy Kat.
I've heard "taking the piss" before, but never "taking the mickey".
"taking the mickey" = "winding you up"
50: Wrong again, Jesus. The obvious choice here is Blue Velvet and the complete Twin Peaks.
The first Chinese guy I ever talked to about American culture was the desk clerk at this place where I stayed in Beijing. He said he was totally into it, especially On the Road. Oh. Um, yeah. Interesting. Can I get my key?
The obvious choice here is Blue Velvet and the complete Twin Peaks.
Followed by Dude, Where's My Car and the complete Dukes of Hazzard.
Crash course in 'Merkin culture:
Watch Gummo (Harmony Korine, 1997).
Read The Firm, by John Grisham.
Listen to any compilation of Hair Metal power ballads.
I remember noting while watching The Naked Civil Servant that the protagonist's ordering of a half-pint was a clear marker of his lack of masculinity. Of course, that was set well before 1987.
I've known grad students from China who adapted easily to life in the US, another category who don't really adapt but spend all their time among other people from China, and one in particular who found it extremely difficult to adapt and very depressing. I don't know what would help someone like the latter; she was, for instance, shocked by the very idea of going to bars, and even after joining groups of students and seeing that the bars were unthreatening places, couldn't overcome some idea that bar = den of iniquity, prostitution, etc. But it doesn't seem like many people experience that degree of extreme culture shock.
Watch Gummo
I'd love to know what a non-American's takeaway lesson on American culture would be from watching Gummo.
Then move on to:
Watching "Mama's Family: The Complete First Season".
Reading any recent bound volume of "Newsweek" back issues.
Listening to "Now That's What I Call Music Vol. XLI" or whatever they're up to by now.
For some reason, when I first read the question, I immediately thought to recommend Catcher in the Rye. I have no idea why, as it's probably not particularly useful for these purposes, although it is one of those sort of touchstone pieces of culture because so many people have read it or think they should have.
What exchange students need are insights into social mores, so that they can decide when someone is behaving within the bounds of normal/acceptable for US culture, when to follow up with someone or when they are being dismissed, when it is appropriate to express feelings or personal information and when not, etc. So I'm thinking that the teen high school genre would be helpful, at least in an initial pass. That's one of our few mass fictional forms that really address how we treat each other in our social lives.
Heathers, Buffy, Pretty in Pink, Say Anything, Brick, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, whatever those young fuckers on my lawn are watching nowadays.
I actually think Friday Night Lights (the series, not the movie, although that might be as well but I haven't seen it) is a fairly good representation of an American family, some focus on race and disability and religious issues in contemporary American life. Plus, there's stuff about football, which is very American.
First and second seasons on DVD! Plus, it's really good.
It would have done me a fuck of a lot of good to watch FNL before I moved to Texas for college. Of course, it didn't exist then.
I think it's also based on a book, though I haven't read it so I can't recommend it.
Further study would include A Million Little Pieces, Tuesdays With Morrie, The Civil War (Ken Burns, 1990), Korn, Pink, "Cars That Go Boom" by L'Trimm, and any regional touristy/home&garden magazine.
He should watch a bunch of Quentin Tarintino movies to learn how Americans interact. Like how we're always waiving guns around and calling each other "motherfucker."
So I'm thinking that the teen high school genre would be helpful, at least in an initial pass.
Good idea. I'd probably add "My So-Called Life" and "Freaks and Geeks" to your list.
"Friday Night Lights" is also an excellent suggestion.
I also think Seinfeld is great for exploration of banal social dilemmas that crop up in American life. I was riveted by it when I first moved here. Also, it's got good cultural currency since people are still talking about it all these years later.
Like how we're always waiving guns
That won't be necessary ... and that one, you don't need that ...
since people are still talking about it all these years later.
Not on THIS blog. Never.
You mean this isn't a blog about nothing?
||
M/tch and I met Hawaiian Punch yesterday> She is seriously adorable, particularly when all swaddled up like a catepillar in a cocoon and sleeping on her father's knees.
|>
68: I was thinking of Apatow's post F&G sitcom Undeclared.
Oh, and he'll be pursuing his master's in the engineering school
Once he's learned about how to socialize with Americans, he should teach his classmates.
Obviously, all he needs to do is to listen to the complete This American Life. Duh.
At first I'm tempted to say that they should have something more recent than the sitcoms and dramedies and teen movies mentioned upthread, but on second thought I wonder. Have things changed significantly since Buffy? A student using slang learned entirely from Seinfeld will sound stupid, but is there any danger of the student adopting slang from one source so completely?
I'd also suggest Office Space. The non-white-bread-American character in it is not Chinese, obviously, but the movie does make explicit some difficulties of assimilation faced by people from more conservative cultures than ours, while at the same time not making it the whole focus of the story.
In the spirit of 62, he could also take the family sitcom route, with selected episodes of Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, The Brady Bunch, All in the Family, (some 80s crap I missed, mercifully), The Simpsons. Depending on how he feels about Confucianism, it might turn him into the Chinese Sayyid Qutb.
Also: Chinatown.
recent immigrants who thought they understood everything about the U.S. from watching American TV and were often unpleasantly surprised
Whereas, as an American, I frequently find that watching American TV leaves me unpleasantly surprised.
But seriously, what were they watching that made them think IRL America was worse than TV America? I mean, sure, the people are uglier here, but less petty and angry and greedy, IME.
Also, super-serious, maybe the student would like to stop in at the Community Arts & Media Project in St. Louis. Wouldn't be much like the rest of St. Louis, or Amerika for that matter.
80: I found the belief that American women would basically sleep with anyone at the drop of a hat to be pretty widespread among my Chinese students.
82: That is certainly the most common one! Is it Dynasty's fault?
Amerika
He's from China, not Soviet Russia, minne.
Big article in the paper yesterday with lessons from Seattle for Pittsburgh and the G-20. Most noteworthy was the Seattle chief acknowledging that they completely failed to distinguish between peaceful/civilly disobedient protesters and the black mask/vandal types, and that they never should have used chemicals. Hope that lesson sticks.
It's interesting how unhelpful most of the suggestions here are. Not bad suggestions, really, but they point out how hopeless it is to really come to understand a culture by looking at its literature or cinema,whether from pop or elite culture.
83: No, it's you and all your American sisters' fault, for being so slatternly. Do you see what you're wearing?????
85: I'm quite surprised you haven't recommended this movie yet, Rob.
82, 83: Samoans had that impression too, and once I figured out what it was based on, it's not that far off from a Samoan baseline. The deal is that American women have the option of deciding to have sex with you if they feel like it, and Samoan (I'm guessing Chinese, but don't know anything about them) women socially don't have that as a normal social option. So your odds of persuading an American woman to sleep with you really are much higher.
American women were pretty unattractive by local standards in Samoa, but we got a disproportionate amount of attention because the local men thought (accurately) that we were more of a possibility than any given local woman.
86: Watch it, M/tch or I'll turn off the webcam.
85: Well, mine were mostly tongue-in-cheek. Was that not clear? Not having been to St. Louie, I'm not sure what would best prepare someone for living there in particular. I'm sure even now, in some dusty corridor in a Beijing university, someone is saying to this guy "St. Louis? Dude, whatever you do, don't go to East St. Louis." But in Mandarin.
AND YOU'RE EAST OF EAST ST. LOUIS
AND THE WIND IS MAKING SPEECHES
AND THE RAIN SOUNDS LIKE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE
Further study would include A Million Little Pieces
For what? So he knows what it looks like when someone makes up an unrealistic story about prison?
American women would basically sleep with anyone at the drop of a hat
Sadly, very few men wear hats these days, so our women are mostly bitter, resentful vessels of unrelieved sexual tension.
Having written 91 I realize what this person should do, namely, watch a bunch of Jim Jarmusch flicks.
90 -- Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest that somehow I could suggest anything better; it's just interesting to me how hard this game is.
I mean, as a person inclined towards the written word, I've generally assumed that if, say, you wanted to learn "about France" you would be better off spending 2 months in the library reading contemporary and classic French literature than you would spending 2 months rambling around the French countryside. This thread makes me question that assumption.
Actually, my Newsweek recommendation was serious. The further back in time you go, the better the ostraianya gets. The liquor and car ads alone in the average late-1960s bound volume of Newsweeks are enough for a dissertation. (As ably proved by Thomas Frank.)
American women were pretty unattractive by local standards in Samoa
American women and those skinny calves. I bet they can't even rip a palm tree out of the ground with their bare hands.
95: Yep, if you had to pick one director for this project, Jarmusch would be your guy.
But seriously, what were they watching that made them think IRL America was worse than TV America?
Not worse, just different. In TV America, not only is everyone very beautiful, but everyone is very wealthy. If you are a waitress at a coffee shop, you can live in a giant NYC apartment. No one ever worries about bills. Cars are always new. All women will sleep with you at the drop of a hat. All black people are criminals, except for the ones that are cops. Americans wear cowboy hats and boots and carry guns. Bars are dangerous places. No one in America takes infidelity seriously.
It's like claiming to understand Iran because one watched "Not without my daughter."
I agree with 62. Teen culture is actually pretty useful. The slang changes but the mores really don't. And master's-level engineer students aren't as far removed from h.s. as you might think. Heck, read some S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders, etc.).
Definitely some black American literature, because he is very likely to get given a boatload of caricatures by well-meaning friends and acquaintances both before and after he arrives in the U.S. So maybe a Walter Mosley mystery, maybe Gloria Naylor, maybe some August Wilson. Hey, maybe Ta-Nahisi Coates's autobiography!
If his English reading ability is better than spoken English, read people who are good at dialogue. Plays are good. Suzan-Lori Parks is a little dense for non-native speaker. Aaron Sorkin's breakout, A Few Good Men, used to be really good for understanding a certain segment of 20- and 30-something American men, but aside from the Jack Nicholson monologue, people don't remember it as much any more. Chuck Palahniuk is very big now, but kind of a cold-water shock if you don't have a larger context of American culture to place it in.
Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles has some really interesting personal/sociological musings on being a Chinese immigrant in the U.S., especially in the South. The class differences might outweigh the insights, though. Engineering students aren't usually coming from the same social class as somebody who ends up running a takeout in Southeast Georgia.
Also, is he Christian? Because Chinese Christians IME have different assumptions when they arrive here, and different reactions to what they encounter when they do get here.
102: Bars are dangerous places.
That's for sure! I hang around in bars all the time, and I've never seen an actual coming-to-blows bar fight. I've seen one or two get to the friends-holding-people-apart stage, and half-a-dozen people asked to leave, but you'd think people were throwing chairs through windows every night based on TV and movies.
I've been meaning to read Friday Night Lights. The few bits I've read were really good, particularly the one where George H.W. Bush makes a campaign visit during halftime.
Clearly, we need more movies and sitcoms about grad students.
Oprah. Dr. Phil.
One of the big differences between America and other countries is the culture of compulsive self-revelation, and how cheap that self-revelation is. Someone can tell you about how their divorce and alcohol problems one day, then not even say hello to you in the street the next. This confuses foreigners.
People magazine, too. Did someone say that upthread? Really, go to the gym and sit and read everything. But definitely People.
||
Just got our notice about food stamps. Just under $500/mo., plus medical for the kids in the fall (when AB's insurance lapses). Whoo!
|>
Oprah. Dr. Phil. [...] People magazine
Wait, are we trying to change this person's mind about coming here?
It confuses me too. Why am I hearing about your spectacularly messy personal life, near stranger at the bar?
105: Cue the British Isles commenters calling Americans soft in one, two....
Bars are dangerous places.
Counterpoint: the bar is not dangerous.
Clearly, we need more movies and sitcoms about grad students.
This is true!
Moreover, I should be hired as a consultant on all such, for outrageously high sums.
Novels are no good for this. I'd recommend Studs Terkel, or something like Blue Highways
114. Nah. Quite sure there are rougher bars in the US than England (maybe not Scotland). Be surprised if most here present spent much time in them, though.
Why is nobody recommending this aspirant engineer the works of Paul Morissey? Trash, anyone?
People magazine, too.
Yuck. Does this person want to learn about American cultural fantasies, or about how American social life works in real life? I thought it was the latter -- what to expect in his real-life interactions with fellow grad students and so on.
If there's a claim that real-life interaction is flavored by People magazine type projections, that would be interesting. Watching sit-coms would work in the same way. It would be a lesson in who we're all pretending to be, or who we think we are.
Michael Vanderwheel's recommendation of Studs Terkel is interesting.
As far as fiction goes, Then We Came to the End is the most helpful I can come up with.
Oh, I know! It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
85, 98
how hopeless it is to really come to understand a culture by looking at its literature or cinema,whether from pop or elite culture.
When you put it like that, this problem seems obvious. Culture in general is big. Culture affects everything: how we talk, what we wear, what we like, who we meet and why we grill their cheese sandwiches... Narratives that are self-consciously about culture(s) usually focus on one moment of one sub-subculture, and narratives that are about their own plot and are merely set within some culture make it hard to tell what is just there for the story and what is "really" part of the culture.
While rambling the countryside you can see all that stuff at once, what people wear and eat and how they talk. You're only seeing one house or town at a time, but at least you know that. By book or movie you're only seeing one author's take on it at a time with the illusion of universality from the box office numbers or critical commentary or whatever, and there's no telling if you're getting out of it what the author meant for the reader to get out of it at all.
Also, yet another suggestion for the original bleg: Grosse Pointe Blank. In addition to the virtues of the teen comedies and sitcoms others have mentioned upthread, GPB also has a more adult take on American relationships (or maybe I should say a more realistic take on relationships between two Americans, who are not necessarily particularly "adult"). Martin's high school sweetheart justifiably gives him shit and doesn't fall into bed with him at the drop of a hat. Martin's mother is in a nursing home and it's not treated like it's all that weird, nor particularly heinous of him.
On the other hand, though, I've just recommended two of my favorite movies. This might be a problem with my methodology.
Definitely some black American literature, because he is very likely to get given a boatload of caricatures by well-meaning friends and acquaintances both before and after he arrives in the U.S.
This is a great point. The warnings he's likely to get about E. Saint Louis won't help. I wonder if Alex Kotlowitz's The Other Side of the River would be a good recommendation for him. It takes place in Michigan but I imagine there are plenty of parallels. (I do recommend it in general.)
Has anyone mentioned www.unfogged.com yet?
The recommendation of This American Life above wasn't bad -- it's from a particular perspective, but it skids around a fair amount. Roseanne? As sitcoms go, I never particularly found all that entertaining, but it seemed more recognizable than a lot of other sitcoms.
Waxwings by Jonathan Raban has an excellent perspective on the outsider in the United States. Raban and his protagonist are both fairly recent U.S. arrivals living close to the academic community (Raban is from Britain). Bonus: Waxwings has a lengthy side story about an illegal Chinese immigrant starting out in a Chinese restaurant, interesting for depicting U.S. attitudes towards the non-English speaking yellow man, although not of the grad student class.
Raban also has some excellent non-fiction on how an outsider perceives the U.S. heartland, particularly Hunting Mister Heartbreak and Old Glory.
127: Mentioned it? Damn near killed it!
I love Studs Terkel, but my experience is that even native English speakers can't always translate oral history into an understanding of the people around them. I'd be mildly skeptical that a non-native speaker would be any better. I think Americans (humans?) often find fiction more accessible.
Travel books might be good. A Turn in the South looks interesting.
I haven't read any Gish Jen, although people seem to like her stuff. Lawrence Yep's books are too West Coast, too historical, and I think too child-oriented for this purpose.
I can't believe I'm blanking on other Chinese-American authors. Amy Tan I can hardly remember, but I have a vague sense that male readers did not find her as approachable or meaningful as female readers did.
111, 116, 121: Next meet-up, the government cheese is on me!
There's Maxine Hong Kingston.
It would be really, really hard to get a good read on American society through novels and movies. What you could do, though -- and what would probably be more useful anyway -- is to get a sense of how Americans will treat and view you as a foreign Asian student. Like, by watching "Sixteen Candles."
Another useful exercise would be to read about the experiences of foreigners in the U.S. "The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai and "The Foreign Student" by Susan Choi give a good sense of the crushing loneliness and sense of total dislocation.
the government cheese is on me
It's probably cheaper to buy clothes at Goodwill. Certainly, they'll stand up to the weather better.
Part of the problem is that America is very big and very diverse. I think Annie Proulx's short stories are great, and capture something true about a certain type of Western American. But the life they describe doesn't look like my life.
I'm coming around to the idea that whatever the young man reads, volume is more important than any particular work.
What you could do, though -- and what would probably be more useful anyway -- is to get a sense of how Americans will treat and view you as a foreign Asian student. Like, by watching "Sixteen Candles."
Master's student in engineeringMaster's student in engineering
Master's student in engineering
Master's student in engineering
Master's student in engineering
Master's student in engineering
volume is more important than any particular work
NOT A PROBLEM, CALA!
Culture in general is big. . . . narratives that are about their own plot and are merely set within some culture make it hard to tell what is just there for the story and what is "really" part of the culture.
Right. I'd want to include a few sentences with any recommendation I gave to try to give it some context --
"Police procedurals happen to be very popular on TV right now. They'll give you the very broad outlines of how the U.S. criminal justice system works, but are also quite melodramatic. New York isn't typical of American cities."
"This NPR story about 'hooking up' claims to be about Young People Today but in fact describes a subset, the size and mores of which will vary enormously by geography and class, the high school and/or college, etc., etc."
BTW, his cousin here in the States emigrated from China about 10 years ago, in her early 20's, so she'll also be able to give him some reality checks.
We've done two employer-verifications for food stamps here at the office this week. My sister was going to try to get on, but some of the particulars of her situation make it prohibitively complicated.
Also for the bleg, some David Henry Hwang (plays/movie)? I'm iffy about Kotzlowitz -- I felt like The Other Side of The River pulled too many punches. Suffered from The American Journalistic Ideology a bit too much for my taste. But it would be interesting to get a non-US perspective on it.
Are there some texts we could recommend that would impress upon our visiting friend that he will, upon arriving, be able to move in a few feet from a context where he is substantially privileged to one in which he is the object of intense, overt racism? The point above about other Chinese grad students coming here and mixing mostly with their compatriots is well taken. If he really wants to know what he's in for, something that could describe the way that he'll be one race at the convenience store, and another at the fancy restaurant and yet another in his grad seminar would be instructive.
something that could describe the way that he'll be one race at the convenience store, and another at the fancy restaurant and yet another in his grad seminar would be instructive.
Find the person who's written it, and I'll love you forever.
BTW, his cousin here in the States emigrated from China about 10 years ago, in her early 20's, so she'll also be able to give him some reality checks.
Suddenly I wonder, then, have you referred the question to the cousin, your friend who's already here? What was her answer?
When I was in your friend's position - a younger relative was getting ready to live in a culture with which I am much more familiar, but still not a native - I suggested comic books. However, that advice was given to someone who was still working on the language, and probably doesn't apply to America as much as to France.
You know, I don't know specifics, but there have to be Chinese-American community websites/newspapers, probably with bookreview columns. If I were this guy, I would google for some such websites/newspapers, and read any lifestyle content.
As far as fiction goes, Then We Came to the End is the most helpful I can come up with.
I just finished this book. I loved it, more than any novel I've read in at least the past couple of years.
In case no one's brought it up:
http://www.enotes.com/watching-tv-with-red-chinese-salem/watching-tv-with-red-chinese.
I only read the first 100 pages, but it was pretty good--cultural references will now be a bit dated.
There's apparently a film version, of which I know nothing.
Suddenly I wonder, then, have you referred the question to the cousin, your friend who's already here? What was her answer?
She referred the question to us. Her cousin wants knowledge from whiteys, not from another Chinese person.
I don't have time to read the thread, so I apologize if this suggestion has already been made, but what about finding expatriate Americans in China? There are lots of American grad students in China (or at least there are lots of American graduate students in China on my Facebook friends list) - can the cousin find a group of them and hang out a bit? It doesn't even have to be field specific, and my sense is that your average PhD candidate or the like would enjoy the chance to procrastinate.
Suddenly I wonder, then, have you referred the question to the cousin, your friend who's already here?
Let me be clear.
M/tch and I are friends with a couple who live in Houston. Wife X is Chinese, Husband X is not.
Wife's cousin is coming to the U.S. for grad school.
Husband has been helpful in reviewing Cousin's personal statement for his application & etc. and Cousin has asked for other assistance, such as the book question. Husband forwarded the question looking for additional suggestions, other than what he and Wife have come up with.
On preview, further to M/tch's 148.
what would probably be more useful anyway -- is to get a sense of how Americans will treat and view you as a foreign Asian student.
Vanishing Son would be great.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112210/
On a side note, I'd forgotten about the awesomeness of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDTeBD6xuIg
I watched a lot of Baywatch before going to the US.
I evangelized season one of FNL when Chinese people in China asked me for stuff to watch about America.
The Wire? Clearly establishing that it's one crime-ridden part of one city, and the US isn't all like that, but it catches a tone of US culture really well. (Yeah, yeah, I'm five years behind the rest of you. I'm just watching Season 4, and am sympathetically cringing at Prezby's travails as a teacher.)
Also, Simpsons. High and low culture all at once, and they even make fun of grad students.
The Wire?
I, uh, wouldn't think so. The Wire is difficult enough for Americans to understand -- the lexicon is difficult, the accent is difficult. Unless the cousin-friend guy is really already quite caught up in American ways, it would be bewildering, I'd think.
156: English subtitles can make a world of difference.
I'm behind even you, LB. My sister and I are intermittently watching the first season. She has expressed severe doubt about watching the second season; she cannot believe that a tv show could realistically portray ports. "That container is TOTALLY perpendicular to the flow of traffic and why is it on the wharf, anyway? That's the most valuable open space in the port." I, on the other hand, would love to hear her rants.
158: Oooh, there's a plot device that turns on a software system for tracking containers that I cannot believe is realistic. If you guys get to that part, please post her reaction.
Season two is great. The musical part of the final episode especially. It's the most didactic, and in that sense weaker, but both acting and filmmaking are wonderful.
I'll report back, but at the rate we're going that'll be months from now. If you have a specific question about container tracking software, I might be able to get a faster response.
"Directors think that containers are just scenery and stack them anywhere! They don't even THINK about traffic flow."
Wait till you get to the subplot in Season 6 about pricing water for agricultural uses.
Season two holds up very well on a re-watch.
162: The best part is the showdown in the weightlifting room.
If you have a specific question
Nah, I don't remember it that clearly. I just recall looking at what they were doing and thinking "Yeah, right."
164: I preferred the Ultimate tournament. Who knew it was big in Baltimore?
I am predictable and you guys are mean.
27: Sorry to hop in the wayback machine*, M/tch, but the post asks for an introduction to American culture, right? Via novels or representative figures? So what's the problem with history? I mean, beyond the obvious. Or am I missing something? Anyway, I'm feeling touchy because of the annoying meeting I just left.
Anyway, I'm feeling touchy because of the annoying meeting I just left.
Dammit, ari, either quit apologizing or start being a lot more dickish first. You're making the rest of us look bad.
St Louis (even leaving aside E. St. Louis, which no one in the city thinks is a real thing anyway) is tricky, because it thinks of itself as the midwest, but is also this really unstable amagam of North and South. It's also one of the more segregated cities in the U.S.
If someone else suggested them, I missed it, but I would say that Toni Morrison's novels would be useful reading, maybe starting with Song of Solomon. They're usually set in a version of OH, but it's pretty analagous
169: I have highlighted the part that concerned me:
Perhaps your cousin should consider reading some U.S. history.
Otherwise, a good suggestion, if a little general. Any recommendation of a good general intro?
What this blog needs is a top-secret list of who used to be who, available only to trusted commenters anyone who blows apo or sends neb an autographed copy of Strunk & White. It gets confusing around here.
Hey, Megan, has your sister read the recent-ish William Gibson novel about container traffic? (Spook Country)
What, unfogged doesn't support the cite tag? Pfui.
Re. the original question, I'd go with magazines for blending in, and ask for novels/shows about particular issues afterwards.
Not to my knowledge. I can put it in her library queue, though.
170: I find preemptive apologies are the best way to win the War on Terror.
172: Because of China's impending hegemony, I think it probably makes good sense for all of us to begin to acknowledge that our cousins are Chinese.
I second 178. I'm just highly amused to learn of the Infrastructure Sisters.
Oh, I was laughing.
There are only two professions in my family. The ones who aren't statisticians are specialists in infrastructure. We've got water, ports and airports covered. If the baby siblings want to express their innermost beings, roads and waste are still available. Or statistics, of course.
And power, of course. I don't know how I left that off the list.
173 is right, but apropos of what?
182: My trying and failing to figure out whether a couple of newish handles are newish commenters or old commenters with new handles (or possible old commenters with old handles and I'm just dense).
I've given up. If you've changed your handle, it's very likely that I don't know who you used to be. (I remember NPH, Parenthetical, and m.leblanc offhand. Beyond that, maybe, but mostly no.)
And neb. He used to be that little bitchy grammar person.
183: Ask BG. She has encyclopedia-like recall of Unfogged history.
I remember NPH, Parenthetical, and m.leblanc offhand.
I remember m. leblanc offhand, but didn't even know the other two were old commenters with changed handles.
Because of China's impending hegemony
Speaking of which, one of the two gold medalists announced last night at the Cliburn competition is a 19-year-old Chinese guy, one of two Chinese players among the six finalists (he shared the gold with the 20-year-old Japanese guy whose Beethoven was awesome and who also happens to be blind). China will soon be a dominant force in piano manufacture, mark my words.
The Americans? Didn't even make the semifinals. We suck.
the 20-year-old Japanese guy whose Beethoven was awesome and who also happens to be blind
I didn't listen to the other competitors, but that Beethoven was really wonderful.
"That container is TOTALLY perpendicular to the flow of traffic and why is it on the wharf, anyway? That's the most valuable open space in the port."
Is your sister available for marriage? I will give your family many cows.
108,113: it confuses me, too. You told me the five year history of your marital problems, about your father's rampant infidelity when you were a child, and your brother's suicide attempt -- and now today I'm another random stranger? I often have difficulty figuring out when I've made a new friend.
191: Excuse me, but do I know you?
192: Heh. Actually, as I clicked "post," it occurred to me that I have indeed shared similarly personal confessional shit here with lots of people whose actual names I do not know... But I do think of you as friends! If ever you were in town, why, I would feel totally guilty about not actually managing to meet up with you!!
190 - I will refer your offer to my father, who properly decides such things.
195: Be sure to mention the cows. Many cows.
For most of our teen years, my dad kept a running tally of our brideprices. There was a base rate of a few cows, but he'd add livestock when we learned something new or take it away if something bugged him. I remember getting chickens added on when I started baking bread. Mostly though, he'd throw in an extra hamster or two for something he liked. There was a conversion table for when the little livestock got too numerous. (Three hamsters to the chicken, I believe. Several chicken to the pig.)
Sometimes someone would bring up a dowry, but my dad was sharply opposed to that notion. He looked forward to getting his cows.
197: All togolosh's cows are belong to Bave Dee?
Or is it that Bave Dee is Megan's father??
198: I was at a wedding where the father of the bride presented her with a notebook in which he'd kept detailed records of every expense he'd incurred on her behalf since she was born. He graciously indicated that he'd accept repayment on an installment plan.
Heh. When we wanted to insult a girl in high school we'd tell her we offered her dad a tin of corned beef as bride price and he accepted.