INFJ In The City

Professional teacher living and working in China. I live for my cat, Wang Yibo, and Zhang Yixing. Just trying to make it through this thing we call life. Queer. Partial to potato. Is this thing on?

[infjinthecity]

Soaking Up Local Culture - Longjing Tea Village

My mum was in China last week and I took her to a few of the cultural sites – including the Longjing Tea Village. It was my third trip to the village this year and I have to say, I think it’s one of my favorite parts of Hangzhou. This city houses nearly 12 million people; it is a bustling, thriving metropolis. And the tea village is smack bang in the middle of the city. If you go at a non-peak hour time, it’s easy to forget that you’re in such a huge, sprawling city because the village boasts a real small town, rural charm. It’s less than six kilometers from my apartment so it's incredibly accessible for me, and I just love it!

Longjing tea enjoys a long history that dates all the way back to the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907AD) – China is old guys. The tea that is grown in the West Lake district I Hangzhou is among the most expensive, luxurious green tea in the world. I am always banging on about how cheap everything is in China, but I can’t say that this time. The tea is expensive! Whether you’re drinking it at one of the small sit-down restaurants in the village, or you are bagging it up to take home, expect to pay a small fortune. It’s worth it though. Longjing tea (otherwise known as Dragonwell tea) doesn’t have that strong bitter taste that most green tea has and the health properties of this particular kind of green tea are next level. Apparently, the life expectancy of lifelong Hangzhou residents is higher than the average life expectancy of other Chinese people, and it’s because they drink this tea with such dedication!

There are many great restaurants in the little village all owned and operated by folks that live there. The farmers who own the tea plantations around the village also live in the village. Harvesting month, otherwise known as the Flush, is in April and that’s when you’ll see the most activity on the hills. The Ayis are out on the mountains each day picking by hand – rain, hail, or shine! The tea that is picked during that time goes for an insane amount of money!

My mum was blown away that something so quaint and picturesque was located right in the middle of the city. The gorgeous green lush tea fields that dot the mountain sides surround a small, yet thriving, restaurant and tea house culture below. People come here to sit and eat, and drink tea obviously, and just hang out and soak up the local vibes. Local Hangzhou residents come to the village to get in some exercise and hike the steep weaving fields right to the top – the views from up there are quite spectacular.

I’ve eaten at three different restaurants in the village now and I am yet to have a single bad experience. The food is all very traditional local Hangzhou cuisine, and while Hangzhou is not really known for having great food, I can’t complain when I’m here in Longjing village.

Now that the weather is cooler and I can enjoy the outdoors, I expect I’ll spend quite a lot of time meandering these fields and getting in some hiking myself! For anyone who comes to Hangzhou to visit me, this will always be the first place I take them. I heart Hangzhou, but I especially heart Longjing Tea Village.

[infjinthecity]

Why Do Y'all Want Yibo To Move?

This is not going to be a long blog post about my life here in China, but rather a fandom discussion question.

Photo courtesy of @yibo.w_85 on Instagram

My foray into C-Ent was definitely The Untamed. Like so many of us, I became completely and totally obsessed with the show and it didn’t take me too long to fall into the rabbit hole of Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan. And I’ve been stuck in this hole since 2019 with absolutely no plans to remove myself anytime soon.

Like the rest of you, I’m completely captivated by the creativity, the bravery, and the spirt that Wang Yibo puts out into the universe. From the moment I entered the fandom right up until this day, I often see people – Westerners rather – commenting that they hope Yibo lands an English-speaking role in the West so he can leave his homeland.

I am often reluctant to engage with people on the bad social media spaces when I see these statements because we all know how treacherous engaging can be over there, but I’m genuinely curious – why do people want this for him? What makes people think that he would want this for himself?

I have thoughts and feelings that I’d like to share about this issue, but before I push my own feelings on everyone, I’m interested in your opinions and perspectives.

So, lay it on me. Whaddaya got?

[infjinthecity]

An Introvert And Her Cat

I imported my cat from Australia to China. When I took the job, I told my employers that if I couldn’t get Jonas safely into the country, then I wouldn’t take the job. We go together, Jonas and I. If you look at the header for my blog, you'll see an animated version of the little guy there too. I put him in the header because this is just as much his journey as it is mine.

He is a purebred Siamese and he'll be 7 in January, but before you judge me for buying a cat rather than adopting, I didn’t buy him. I agreed to look after him for a relative for a while and he moved into my house at just eight months old. Obviously, since he's still with me, he never left. He’s a special little guy. He’s tiny and pretty janky. He had all his teeth, except two, removed at the age of three because he was born with bad teeth and developed periodontal disease after about a year and a half of his life. He was the runt of his litter, but he really is very small, even for the runt. And, he’s got a really problematic relationship with food. Even when he moved in with me at just eight months old, he was the fussiest animal I’d ever met. Now that he has no teeth, he’s shocking when it comes to food. And whenever he experiences ANYTHING in life, he stops eating. I call these ‘hunger strikes’. If he’s stressed, he doesn’t eat. Depressed? Good luck. If we move house, he freaks out and won't touch anything. A vet in the United States told me that all of his health issues, his food problems, and his size are probably the result of inbreeding. So, Jonas is a lesson to all: do not get your cats from a breeding house. They were obviously not careful enough with his bloodlines and now my baby has all these problems, and he's the one that suffers, you know?

I had to leave him with my mother when I first came to China. I didn’t have a place to live when I got here so I couldn’t bring him with me when I initially got here. Then, there was all kinds of drama trying to work out when I would be able to go home and pick him up, and in the end, he had to stay with my mum for two months. Apparently, that was too long, and my mum said he got really depressed, like he thought I’d abandoned him. He tried to attach himself to Mum instead, but she kept him at arm’s length because she knew it would be even more traumatic to lose her as well when he finally got here.

He arrived exactly one week ago today and it’s been an up and down week. He was so excited to see me when we got him home but he was still very wary of his surroundings. He didn’t eat anything that first night but by the next day my mum, who brought him to China and was still in the country, managed to get him to eat some KFC. He ate a little bit, but not too much. We tried to move him back to his usual food after that over the course of the week with varying degrees of success. My mum left to go home two days ago and he’s gone back into a cycle of discontent. I did manage to get him to eat a whole piece of KFC last night, but this is definitely not a long term solution.

To everyone reaching out to me on socials with advice on how to prompt him to eat, I’m trying all the things you’re suggesting. I’m hoping he settles down in a couple of days and just goes back to being my baby Jonas. He’s been through so much change, and he’s a very very sensitive little soul so it’s probably just going to take him some time. Jonas not eating is not a new thing, but KFC has always done the trick in the past and it’s just not working it’s magic this time around.

But now that he’s here, he cannot go back to Australia. My country has an import ban on live animals from China. Don’t ask me why. The United States has all the same pet diseases that China does, and I was allowed to import him from the United States into Australia (with a mandatory quarantine), but from China is just a hard no. So we’re either here in China now for the longer term (until he dies), or if we decide we really want to go back to Australia, we’ll move to another country for a year, which will satisfy the Australian Government, and they’ll let him in then. But this is the third country Jonas has lived in and clearly he doesn’t like moving, so I’m hoping that I can pitch up here for the longer term so I don’t have to uproot him again. But, the world is in quite a state right now and you never know what is going to happen in the future, so I’m in the business of saying never say never right now.

Moving a pet around the world is horrendously expensive and when I tell people how much money I’ve spent on Jonas’ travels, they nearly fall over. But he’s my Jonas, you know? I made a promise to him that I would take care of him forever and give him the best life I could, and that means we go together – always. So, if I can’t take Jonas somewhere with me, I just don’t go – end of story.

My house has felt very much like a hotel in the last two months because he hasn't been here, and it’s been so nice to go home and snuggle with him every day this week. I am sure you’ll see Jonas on this blog a lot. I can’t seem to shut up about how much I love him!

Till next time, peace!

[ranfused4ever]

[infjinthecity]

Despite not liking the Big Tennis Man very much, I really really really loved this event. Wang Yibo is a gift that just keeps on giving.

[jaehwany]

Don’t act like you’re going to listen to her whale stories forever and then tell her to stop not even after a year. If you’re going to hurt her like that, you shouldn’t start anything at all. I’m telling you this now, if you think your feelings are temporary, don’t be nice to her. My feelings aren’t temporary!

EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO (2022) dir. Yoo In Sik

[infjinthecity]

The second season should be coming out soon, right? I ADORED this show!

[amorphine]

every day people tell me that the untamed is good, i’ve seen the first episode, stop gaslighting me

[amorphine]

okay i’m giving it another shot. time for episode two.

[amorphine]

i’m sorry? why is this exactly like naruto? this is so stupid. time for episode three.

[amorphine]

update: i would die for wuxian

[amorphine]

i am: so invested. whenever i’m not at home i can only think about getting home and watching the untamed.

lan zhan you have to find wei wuxian and give him back his sword!

[waterandsilver]

[canary3d-obsessed]

[sweetlay91]

lay_studio Weibo Update

[infjinthecity]

I want to bop his nose

[ranfused4ever]

[infjinthecity]

NOOOOOO he's so cuteeeeeeeee

[infjinthecity]

Teaching At A Chinese Public School

So I work at a relatively prestigious Chinese public school. Without completely doxing myself, some of the most powerful and wealthiest people in the country sent their kids to my school, so I understand that when I talk about my experiences teaching in China, I’m definitely coming from a place of privilege. Not all the schools are like this, and not all the schools have this caliber of kids, but there are some things about my experience here that is universal across the board.

For example, in high school (years 10 – 12) the kids live at the school. Even at less prestigious public schools, this remains true. Parents can opt out and keep their kids at home if they want to, but most don’t. It seems to serve a dual purpose: the kids are scheduled into classes from 7.30am until 9.00pm at night, therefore maxing out on their learning time, and the parents are free to work as much as possible, ensuring the productivity of the country. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it yet. The kids seem to like and accept it enough and don’t complain about it at all, but maybe that’s just because it’s the expected norm in the country. I will say this: of my students who don’t live in the dorms, and I do have a couple, those particular students tend to have more personality than their counterparts.

Another universal is that school in China is utterly cut-throat and competitive. When it comes to actually enrolling in a high school, all students are required to sit an entrance exam. Your score on that exam determines the kind of high school that you can go to, or whether you can go at all. Obviously, the score to get into my public school is exceptionally high, so I have some of the smartest kids in China walking around my campus. But for kids that don’t do so well on the high school entrance exam, their future is pretty much determined for them at a young age. Kids who don’t do well on those exams end up going to schools that take them out of the running to sit the Gaokao (which is the college entrance exam) and there isn’t a chance for them in the future to go to university. One of my students told me a story this week that his 15-year-old cousin didn’t pass the high school entrance exam at all. When I asked what he’s doing now, my student said that he ran away from home, stole his parent’s car, and is off not attending any school because he couldn’t get into one. He’s basically running around the country getting himself into mess. So yeah folks, that kind of stuff does happen in China too.

I work at the international center at my school. There are a few thousand kids that attend my school, and about 400 of them go to our center. We’re kind of like a school within the school. Our classes are all in English, and our students are all attending university abroad, unlike the other kids they share the dorms with, who are all sitting the Gaokao and will be competing for the elite positions at universities in China. This is another huge decision that kids and families make from an early age. If a student opts into the international center, they immediately take themselves out of the running to sit the Gaokao. That means, despite the fact that they’re Chinese nationals, they cannot go to university in China. And once that decision is made, as soon as high school starts for them, they cannot undo that decision. However, if a student starts on the path of the Gaokao exam, but changes their mind half way through high school, they can then opt into the international center and switch curriculums. They just can’t do it the other way around. So, my kids are all going to university overseas, and some of them will go to the most prestigious universities overseas as well. I currently have a student sitting in my year 10 class that is Oxford bound. Oxford takes only one Chinese international student a year, apparently. Just one from the whole country, and she’s suposedly in the running so we’re all rallying around her to make sure she has the most competitive edge possible.

Obviously, the families that I’m working with have money. You have to, in order to be able to go through the international system. Sending your kid abroad to study is extremely expensive so that means that the kids I’m working with are definitely among the very privileged in the country. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, if your parents don’t have loads of cash, then your only option is to go through the Chinese system, take the Gaokao and stay in China. Which is also a good option. China’s university system has come leaps and bounds and now, apparently, seven of the top ten science programs in the world are here in China. The only problem is, the Gaokao exam is so incredibly difficult and competitive that it’s making the kids mentally ill. China’s youth suicide rate is pretty shocking at the moment and it’s because of this exam the pressure put on the kids.

Not so fun fact: the windows at our school don’t open more than a handspan wide. When I asked why, I was told it’s a preventative measure to stop the kids from jumping. Which – my god. It’s a lot to take in.

As I sent all my kids home from the dorms yesterday and waved them into Golden week (a national holiday to celebrate the unification of the People’s Republic of China) they all told me their parents have scheduled them into private tutoring sessions all week, so they wont be resting and they won’t be playing video games or having fun. They’ll be doing school away from school. I hope they at least get to eat some great food, sleep in their own rooms and in their own beds, and get doted on by their parents. They work so hard and they deserve it.

Till next time, peace.

[yibochronicles]

240920 Yibo Official Weibo update 🌊

The background music is "Fake love" by BTS 🙃

[infjinthecity]

When I watch this all I can think about is @sparklynature’s diving fic and my mind is going to be so corrupted during this episode.

[infjinthecity]

Zhang Yixing on the Cover of Elle Men China September 2024

I bought this month's copy of Elle Men here in China because it has #ZhangYixing on the cover (of course I did). I ran the interview through google translate and its probably clunky and not great, but here you are, if you're into that kind of thing. Sorry about the size, you're going to have to scroll in and enlarge the text to read it!

[ranfused4ever]

Sound ON

[infjinthecity]

SQUEAKY YIBO!!!

[infjinthecity]

Zhang Yixing: Grandline4, Shanghai (August 2024)

Four very short days after I arrived in China, I left Hangzhou where I’m living and got on a bullet train to Shanghai. Thinking back, it was insane of me to do this. There was so much I had to organize before I started work, but this was an opportunity of a lifetime. I had been trying to get tickets to Grandline 4 quite literally anywhere in the world, but none of the dates worked with my moving schedule. I felt like the only Beiker on planet earth that was going to miss this concert series. Then, a couple of weeks before my departure from Australia, in a very China-esque fashion, but especially typical of his studio, they dropped dates and ticket sales for Shanghai. It was his last stop on the Grandline tour for 2024, so it was going to be like the Hunger Games trying to get tickets.

Fortunately, I have an army of awesome women around me in this fandom and with their help, I was able to secure tickets for BOTH Shanghai dates. I was also fortunate enough to see him when he headlined Metamoon in New York City while I was living there but he was only on stage for 45 minutes, and it wasn’t his show. Besides, everyone knows Zhang Yixing in China is superior so I was simply dying to see him on his home turf.

And oh my god, he did not disappoint.

I joined the fandom after finding him on Street Dance of China Season 3. I showed up for Yibo but left with an obsession for the introverted Krump King of China. I fell in the Yixing hole back then and I have no desire to climb out – haha! But when I joined the fandom back then, and actually since then as well, it seemed that Yixing was moving through the world with an unhealthy amount of melancholy. Maybe it’s just me, but for so long all he was talking about was how lonely he was, his age, and his fears about his unrealized dreams. Now I understand that right after I joined his fandom COVID hit and many people around the world fell into a massive slump, but it was more than that with him. It seeped into every live stream he did, every interview, and his song lyrics became about these feelings, and it painted his face for a few years.

Well, after being in Shanghai, I think the collective agreement among fans is, that version of Zhang Yixing seems gone. His body is super healthy, and it’s obvious he’s done work on his mental health and the way in which he looks at the world in front of him. He radiates joy and happiness, and it is an absolute blessing to witness. It was unexpected, but his happiness and his contentedness eminates off of him. His smile is full and genuine. It was, hands down, my favourite part of both dates. I am so thankful I got to see him like that and I really hope that whatever he’s doing, he continues to do more of it!

I made it all the way through night one and almost all the way through night two before the tears started. He closed the second night with Breathe and if you follow me on other socials you will know I’ve been screaming about this song since he dropped it. It speaks to my heart and soul right now and I feel like he wrote it about me. Isn’t it funny how music can touch us like that? Anyway, the opening beats of Breathe started and I couldn’t hold my tears in. The Chinese auntie next to me chuckled at me, but it’s fine!

I really hope I get the chance to see him in China again. Shanghai was the last stop for 2024 as he’s focusing more on his stage and screen performances for now but music is his life so I’m sure there will inevitably be more shows next year.

A quick shoutout to his studio. I know as a fandom we tend to collectively and loudly shit all over the incompetence of his staff, but they really came through for me and my friend on night one. We were sitting in different sections (like everyone in China does) and she was much further away from the stage than me. We asked security if my friend could come through to my section and take some close up photos, but they weren’t having it. Someone from Yixing’s staff saw the exchange, clocked that we were both foreigners, and came to our rescue. He made a call and escorted us down to the barrier for photo ops. It was so nice of them, and it made our night – especially for my friend who wouldn’t have had the chance for such photos otherwise. So we’re on a no-ragging-on-studio kick – FOR NOW!

If you ever get the chance to see this wonderful soul in the flesh, don’t hesitate. He is worth every single dollar I spent on tickets – and I spent a loooottttttt.

I love him I love him I love him I love him. Probably not a normal amount, but that’s okay.

I have lots of videos from both nights but Tumblr only lets you upload one video per post so I'm dropping the video in question that brought on all the tears.

Till next time, peace!

[infjinthecity]

Hi Tumblr, What's Up?

Hello Tumblr! Can you believe I have existed in fandom spaces for this long and have never been on this platform? It seems that Tumblr is fandom’s MVP but I just never made the trek over this way – anyways, I’m here now. If you’re reading this, it’s probably because I told you about it on one of the other social media platforms and you probably at least know that I’ve very recently packed up my life and moved to China! I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to document my experiences here, and although we live in a visual era, I’m just not interested in being in front of a camera. I love to write and want to talk about my journey, so a blog seems like the best fit for me.

So, why China? Despite the fandom spaces that I occupy, my decision to move to China had absolutely nothing to do with Zhang Yixing or Wang Yibo. When people ask me why I made this change, I jokingly tell them it was an act of sheer desperation, but really, although I’ve always been joking when I’ve said that, it’s not too far from the truth. If you’re interested in learning why I moved to China and hearing about my experiences here, I hope you’ll stick around.  

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

If you don’t know, I’m Australian but I have spent the majority of the last 14 years living and teaching in the United States. I worked in Los Angeles for 11 years and then in New York City for another 2 before I packed myself and my cat up and went back to Australia. I left the United States for three main reasons – all of which were related to my job. In no particular order, because they were all as problematic for me as each other, I left because of low teacher pay, egregious student behaviour, and the insanely high workload. In short, I was b u r n e d o u t. A lot of Western countries are experiencing a teacher shortage right now, and America is definitely leading the charge. There is a reason why people are fleeing the profession, and most of them are rooted the same reasons that I left the country.

I went back to Australia naively thinking that work was going to be better there. I grew up there and went to school there, and I completed my teacher training in Australia.  When I went through my university degree and prac assignments in Victoria, the job was definitely not this. So I returned  home with rose-coloured glasses thinking that teaching would be far superior in Australia than the experiences I was having in the United States. Boy, was I ever wrong! While the kids in Australia don’t have guns like they do in the U.S., their attitudes towards education and teachers in general is very reminiscent of what is going on in the U.S, and schools are still places of violence and conflict. I can’t speak for the private system, but all my friends in the public system say the same thing. And honestly, teacher workload in Australia is not lesser than that of the U.S., so I found myself – again - completely stressed out all the time, despite making this huge change that was supposed to better my life. That coupled with the outrageous cost of living in Australia (my god things got really expensive while I was living abroad) prompted a pervasive idea that just would not stop taunting me. The voice inside me kept saying I can’t do this anymore.

And so, it became clear that I had a choice to make: either stop teaching altogether or find somewhere to teach that isn’t going to break me. I did not initially consider China but as I continued to research my options, all roads always lead right here – The People’s Republic of China.

And, to cut a very long story (which I will elaborate on in other posts) short, here I am!

Right Here, Right Now

I’ve been here for 38 days now and it’s been the mother of all whirlwinds, for sure. I had been to China twice before on holidays (one of those holidays was to scope out my city and my school) so it wasn’t like I was coming into the country blind, like so many other foreigners do, but even so, it’s been hard. Very hard. Maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever done? Probably.

I don’t speak the language very well, despite all the lessons I’ve been taking. Man, nothing tests your skills like absolute immersion and being surrounded by people who don’t speak a lick of your native language. I’m an articulate, educated person and here I’m reduced to a blubbering mess who stumbles and fumbles over sentence fragments, and fragments of fragments! The language is going to take time. A lot of time.

I’ve had many low points, and there were a few days a couple of weeks ago when I was legitimately considering throwing in the towel and going home. But, I am still here, so obviously I didn’t do that. And I’m glad I didn’t because it’s getting easier and all the things I love about China are starting to overshadow all the hard things that make me feel like living here is impossible.

My cat is arriving from Australia on October 11 so we’re here for the longer haul after that. I can’t take him back to Australia from China (I’ll make a post about that later) so we either stay till he dies, or we exit and live in another country for a year before returning home. Don’t worry, I have an exit strategy planned if I need it, I just don’t want to need it, if you get me.

I’ll be blogging about teaching here, my fandom experiences (of which, I’ve already been lucky enough to have some of), travel, and general thoughts and insights on what it’s like to live in China as a foreigner.

I hope you stick around because this place is crazy and I’ve got so much to tell you all. If you’ve got questions, I’m happy to answer them. I'm new to this Tumblr thing so be kind and patient with me while I work it all out!

Till next time, peace.