As this is being written, both of us have now returned to Brussels. Two days after arriving back in Brussels, Jesse flew to Slovakia for a wedding before spending a few days in Prague and Vienna. Dan started work immediately after returning at the NGO he had previously interned at.
Our last few weeks in Beijing were spent doing research for our theses. Trips to the 外交学院图书馆 (CFAU Library) and the 国家图书馆 (National Library) yielded mixed success. While we were able to take out books from our University Library and found many useful ones, several we wanted were not available there and instead had to visit the National Library. This in itself was not an issue, but the requirement of a ¥1000 deposit to loan books dissuaded us from that and instead, we spent several hours figuring out how to find the books we wanted and then paid the equivalent of $5 each to get the entire thing copied. Now if that isn’t copyright infringement, I don’t know what is. Ok, the DVD’s we bought for ¥5 on the street were just as blatant copyright infringement. This is actually a big point of contention between the US and China, with the US saying its companies are losing millions because of these actions. While the government has put forth regulations and whatnot, these are generally ignored and the fact that there are physical stores selling these DVDs shows little is being done. We even saw a boxed set for the TV series 24 of the full 8th season before it had even been aired completion on TV in the States.
We did some last-minute shopping for gifts and a few more custom tailored dress shirts. For $15 and your choice of fabric, style and cut, it was a great deal. Of course, the “Adidas” shoes I bought didn’t last more than six weeks before multiple holes developed. I’d much rather pay four times as much to have them last for a year like the real pair I had before.
One of the best parts of our last few weeks (aside from the World Cup, but we will come to that) was a meeting we had with the Vice President of CFAU, Qin Yaqing. In addition to being a Party member, Professor Qin is one of the most renowned and respected Chinese scholars of International Relations Theory. He has translated many books, including those by Robert Jervis and Alexander Wendt into Chinese. He also wrote an article titled “Why is there no Chinese International Relations Theory?” that questions the absence of a Chinese perspective on international affairs. The hour meeting we had started a little awkward, with him seemingly annoyed by our request for a meeting. But as we got into conversation and asked probing questions about Chinese foreign policy and the thoughts of the party, he opened up noticeably opened up and gave both of us very useful advice and information that both of us have since incorporated into our writing. We were both very happy with the outcome and returned to our papers with a renewed sense of purpose, the theoretical approach more solidly formed in our minds.
Now, the World Cup. My favorite event every four years. With us being in Beijing, the timing of the games was not the most conducive as the games started at 7pm, 10pm and 2:30am respectively. However, because of our research, we informed our Chinese teachers that we would not be sitting the final exam and not attending the final two weeks of class. It was a difficult decision, but the amount of studying it would have taken just to catch up from the classes we missed with our travels would have consumed all of our time. We both hope to continue our studies in Chinese, as it will only grow in importance in the international arena.
Ok, I got sidetracked. Back to the World Cup. Throughout the entire month of football, we missed less than 10 games, meaning we watched nearly 55 games in total. This is by far the most games in a World Cup I have watched, and I loved every minute (Ok, I didn’t love every minute of the final, which was really quite boring and very brutal). I’m sure everyone knows the result, so I won’t go into all of that, but I was quite happy with two teams that had never won the trophy battling it out in the final. The Dutch have now appeared in three finals without winning a single one while Spain marked its first appearance past the quarterfinals with its first World Cup trophy to accompany the Euro triumph two years ago. I will now start saving up for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
This blog was always intended to only be for our time in Beijing, and now that time has concluded, so will this blog. We appreciate all of those who have followed and read our entries. The number of readers we had astounded us. If you have any questions or comments for either of us, please send us an email to the following addresses:
daniel.skillings@gmail.com
jesse.belcher@gmail.com
谢谢朋友 (thank you friends) for reading and we urge you all to travel to China/South Korea/North Korea if and when you get the chance!
Dan and Jesse （大呢尔和杰西）
