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| oSha Shireman |
On May 30th, we traveled to the Shanghai Museum. Here, we discovered the symbols and artwork of many centuries in China. One of the most interesting exhibits displayed was the clothing and attire of the ethnic minorities of China. A huge map of the geographical dispersion of the various groups revealed a large number of different ethnic groups. It was interesting to see the different clothing of groups based upon their geography. Groups with similar natural resources and similar climates produced similar cultural wear. This applies outside of China, as well. For example, clothing from a colder region in Tibetan provinces closely resembles that of the Laplander peoples in Northern Finland.
During a break at the museum, a couple of us sat down for some tea. We tried both Pu'er Tea and MoLiChunHao Tea. Our new friend, Xia, a student guide, spent some time explaining examples of Chinese slang to us. After a few days with the student guides we are having a lot of fun sharing with them. They said they are very excited to practice their oral English language as well. Our classmates are not yet this comfortable but we did invite several of them to go to karaoke with us and found that they were very excited to bond with us as well. I am really enjoying these new friendships and they are very helpful to learning about cultural norms in this large city!
oSha Shireman, of Meade County, Ky., is a junior McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. She is studying English, political science, and Women and Gender Studies.