Word: jia
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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Though none regret coming here, Bing, Lynn, and Jia Chang all say the transition hasn't been easy. Bing and Jia, who have no family in the U.S., are occasionally homesick, but say calling each other and Lynn often helps. "Sometimes we have to talk Chinese--we get desperate," Bing jokes...
Despite their Harvard peers' laid-back view of academics, courses have kept all three very busy, thanks largely to language difficulties and unfamiliar "in-class terminology." Like many other freshmen, all three are taking Ec 10; Bing and Jia say they may major in Economics, while Lynn leans towards Applied Math...
Western "commercialism" continues to repel Bing and Jia. "It was my first impression of America, and it was not good," Bing recalls. "People are too concerned with making money. Walking down the street I feel the pressure of this commercialized society," a pressure he says is generated by advertisements and pushy salesmen. Pointing to the Union's overflowing trash bins, Jia adds, "It's criminal to waste something in China; here, they waste lots of things...
...three, who insist they speak only for themselves, reserve their sharpest criticism for the Gang of Four, who controlled the Chinese Government until they were driven from power by current Premier Deng Xiao Ping in 1978. "We hate them. They made the country disunited," Jia says. Lynn, whose letters from her father in Beijing "always tell me things are getting better," also assails the Gang's repressive policies and deceptive practices...
...will probably return to China after graduation and say they'll take with them an image of the U.S. as friendly, prosperous, but perhaps not as socially egalitarian as China. "The rich people here are very rich, and the poor people are very poor--the differences are very great," Jia says. "You can see a lot of old people not being taken care of. I sympathize with them. In China, children have a responsibility to take care of old people...