Back on campus, me and my roommates often debated about the systematic difference between western and eastern cultures. However, it was stripped straight from the theories we were taught and stories we heard of. Now that we are out of college and step into society, it’s not just the topic of groundless conversations anymore but fills our everyday encounters and leaves such profound perception and vivid impression to us.

For instance, the other day, I caught a bad cold and went to a nearby hospital to get some medicine. It was so difficult to find the department’s exact location. I asked a few nurses, but they were either unfamiliar with the basic structure of the hospital or simply couldn’t care less about a disoriented girl asking for direction. However, with the help of the bizarre road map and some lucky guess, I managed to arrive at the target place but was already exhausted and appalled by its horrible service as well as the messy infrastructure.

Yet another problem came up. There were just too many people queuing before each consulting room, which was extremely depressing and terrifying. I had no alternative but to stand at the end of the line waiting and waiting. After what felt like a year, it was my turn finally. I knocked on the door, went into the room, described my symptoms and the doctor was about to write prescriptions for me. It seemed to be such a massive relief that I would get this over with in just a minute.

Unfortunately, another doctor stormed in at this crucial time and brought his friend to my doctor. It was enormously outrageous and utterly unfair. How could they abruptly cut the line right in fount of me just like that? It’s merely for the silly reason that the patient was a friend of a doctor who was a friend of my doctor. Damn it! My time is also precious and I had waited for too long. What happened to the paramount principle of "first come, first serve"?

Laws should be enforced and power should remain checked. But why connections and networking are always so important to the extent that it becomes tremendously destructive and makes people ignore the regular rules and social protocols they are supposed to abide by.  In many cases in China, it’s ruling by “people” rather than ruling by “law”. Even if the laws and regulations were perfect, they would be of absolutely no value if people do not stick to them, let alone there are so many loopholes and defects in our immature legislative system. Connections always step over and cross the lines whereas rules amount to wasted papers when somebody knows somebody who knows somebody else to get things done in shortcut. What’s worse, they would send a sum of money or presents to each of them afterwards and make sure they always come first instead of those ordinary strangers or obedient citizens. Vice versa, in other domains, the doctor might demand the patient to help and have a superior access to other services. It's like a slipery slope and eventually, every sector of the society transforms into a privilege for all the powerful and the affluent, while normal people could do nothing but suffer and subject to their lawless, selfish behavior. The vicious circle will only aggravate the disparity between different interest groups and lead to more conspicuous social stratification.

Yesterday, I was brought to a presentation at a boardroom where an American woman was delivering an instruction lecture to the therapists on how to operate and utilize a set of cutting-edge treatment devices. Since the American spoke at a fairly rapid speed and full of unfamiliar technical jargons, none of them could understand what she was saying, much less mastering the skills to actually use it. So they asked me to help out and interpret for them right there on the spot.

At first, everything went quite smoothly and they had a lot of interaction by posing questions and getting feedbacks. All of a sudden, another doctor came in and required the woman to direct them through a demonstration in the macro-control room since a patient just applied for the treatment and was waiting on the bench. The woman was astounded on hearing this. Later on, I asked her if there was anything wrong going on. She said, all the therapists were not supposed to start treating until the 5-day intensive training was completed. They wanted to make sure every therapist took the grip on all the procedures and steps before authorizing therapy to patients.

I interpreted the woman’s attitude towards this matter and the dean of the department was impatient and somewhat annoyed by it. He wanted me to tell her that this had already been approved by the president of the hospital and she didn’t need to worry about anything at all, as though the woman was interfering with the internal matters of the hospital and crossed the boundaries. But it was quite understandable and actually the right thing to do. The doctors of the department should obey the common practices of attending lectures first, then receiving one-on-one training and finally becoming fully qualified to start treating patients. If the operation of the machines was obscure and blurry to the doctors, how could they guarantee an appropriate, suitable treatment plan for any individual patient? It’s people’s life at stake and in their hands, not some random meaningless stuff they’re dealing with.

At about lunch time, the dean asked the woman to have lunch for several times but the woman insisted on finishing the teaching work before lunch. Therefore, the dean was too hungry to hold up and decided to rush to the cafeteria first. In comparison, the woman carried on her work at hand without any water or food until 12:30. Besides, she said she would come back to adjust the devices immediately after lunch. The work ethics of these two groups of people are so incompatible and sharply contrasted.

In the afternoon, the woman strongly suggested to substantially modify the treatment plan after learning about the patient’s disease record and pre-existing conditions. But another doctor came over and asked her for guidance in the other room right away. The reason was that the president came to observe the whole process. What an absurd excuse! From the woman's perspective, nothing was as significant as an optimized, individualized treatment plan for a patient and everything else was secondary, even if the president of the United States was waiting outside, not to mention it was just a president of a hospital who should always make every effort to cater to the interests of patients.

This array of events reminds me of the German technicians during Olympics. It was also at noon and high time for lunch. But they didn’t want to leave until all the appliances for the press conference were properly arranged. My boss was so upset that these German workaholics made her starve to death and have such a late lunch while those technicians finished off their lunch by grabbing some simple sandwiches and immediately returned for work.

Recently, I have been assisting the dean’s daughter with her application for study overseas. Good news is, she has already received admission letter from one of the colleges in Chicago. The dean asked me to do some research online and find out the reputation of the college. The funny and ironic part is that the online evaluation and assessment of the program was way below expectation. According to a Chinese student studying there, over 70% of the class came from mainland China, which degraded the overall quality of the program because the Chinese students there often cut classes, commit plagiarism together and always urge to keep up with the Joneses. In the original account, the student wrote and I quote “they came here and did nothing good but only brought all the evil habits back from the mainland to this land, which made the professors very irritated”.

Anyway, this is probably just an isolated case and a biased narration from an unsatisfactory student. However, the message is crystal clear that the systematic difference between the cultures is inescapable and should never be neglected. We should absorb the advanced parts of diverse cultures and dedicate to elevate our own rather than dwell on those conventional, unreasonable customs .

PS:

The institution is trying to persuade me to join the communist party and the reason is I’m the only non-communist in the department, which is a ridiculous joke to me. I make it loud and clear that I do not want to join the party or any party at all in my entire lifetime.

For one thing, I’d like to keep an open mind and get to know different political doctrines. I could never see myself actually becoming a party member and upholding exclusively one belief system of one particular faction.  It’s so easy to get blindfolded and deceived by the one-sided propaganda, just like Plato’s cave metaphor. Sometimes we become such fervent, stubborn believers that we think the shadows on the wall are the absolute and ultimate truth. However, they are just inaccurate reflections on the wall deep in the underground cave while no one actually has ever got the chance to break free and bask in the sun of the real world.

For another, under current circumstances, there is the only ruling party in China and I do not seem to have a lot of options laid before me to select from. The communist party has done a lot of good things as many as evil ones. It is not that hopeful and sometimes quite disappointing such as political corruption, religious oppression, media censorship, full-scale manipulation, etc. So I’m definitely gonna pass, sorry.  If I have even slight desire to join in, I would’ve become one of them long time ago, like back in high school or so.