A Tale of Two Cultures

The tale of two cities began in 1973, when the Philadelphia Orchestra visited Beijing, an ice-breaking journey finally developed into a three- decade engaging relations.

The tale of two cultures begins in 2007. It tells of the five-month adventure of me, Lou Yi. It is as ambitious yet much more personal as the orchestra's relationship.

As a reporter from Cajing Magazine, a leading Beijing business publication, I am working on a fellowship as a fresh Philadelphia Inquirer journalist. I spent a year in Washington D.C. in 2004-2005 as Caijing's first correspondent in the United States, so I do not expect any culture shock here. But I expect to be shocked somewhere, some time by something. As they say, the devil is in the detail.

I come, I see, I write. Stay tuned. And visit often.

The third day I came here, I finished my first story for the Inquirer. Actually it was not a story, but only a brief. However, it was my first English-language piece after many years writing in Chinese for my magazine in Beijing.
Imagine how excited I was about it. But when my colleagues asked me about the story I said:
“Oh, there are only four sentences. It is not worth reading.”
My American colleagues were surprised and asked me:
“Why do you think your own story not worth reading?”
I realized I was talking in a Chinese way, which means you should always down play yourself to show your humbleness.
My colleague finally understood and told me a story about his friend in Hong Kong. This woman went to a doctor, and the doctor said:
“Madam I should first apologized because I am such a bad doctor and the condition of the hospital is so poor……”
This woman was frightened.
My colleague said:“in the States, a doctor will introduce himself to you , beginning with I am graduated from Harvard and my hospital is the best. We never know when you guys are telling the truth.”
“Don’t worry. Truth is often behind the first sentence,” I replied.
Actually, I found being humble is not only important in Chinese culture but also in other Asian cultures.
When I had my journalism training in Washington DC, I did an interview with a journalist from Bangladesh. To ask for an interview we wrote letters to the PR person separately.
The title of my letter was “interview inquiry”. His was “a humble request”.

At the same time, I also have problem figuring out whether Americans really mean that they say. No matter what we talk about, food, my working plan, my story, all the reactions I got are positive and encouraging.
“A terrific plan!”
“Good job!”
“Fabulous interview!”
“Great work!”
Am I a genius?
After being overwhelmed by so many praises，I started wondering whetherthey were telling the truth.
Americans always speak positively even they don’t really say that from the bottom of their hearts. They appreciate active attitude, my friends says. She thinks people just want to encourage me.
“Don’t say you are bad,” She warned again,”They will believe what you said. “

Ok, I guess I need down play their review too.
“I am interested in it.”means ”I am not interested in it.”
“I love it! “ means “It is ok.”
“Terrific! “ means “ Good. “
“You are great!” means “You have a good beginning.”
Today when I went into the newsroom everybody I met congratulated me for my story on Sunday newspaper.
There comes it again! I warned myself when I heard praises like terrific stories, very good work and so on. Is it really that good?
Finally I believe they really like it. When they told me to make the Sunday frontpage a story has to be trulyy competitive.
A sentence was at the tip of my tongue, like I did so many times in China:
“I did verylittle for the story. I don’t deserve it.”
But this time I swallowed the words and said:"Thank you."

On a unusually chilly and windy morning, I walked across the empty streets in Washington and went into the Starbucks at 17 Streets and Pennsylvania Avenue. I was there for an interview with Helen Thomas.

"The First Lady of the Press," Helen Thomas, 87, is the former White House Bureau Chief of United Press International and now Hearst Newspapers columnist. She began her White House correspondent career in 1961 and has covered every president since Kennedy.

I met Helen at the White House press briefing and witnessed she firing questions to the spokesperson from the middle of the front row, exactly as she described in biography "Front Row at the White House".

She said we could meet at 7 o'clock at the Starbucks where she stayed for the White House press briefing every morning.

It was 6:35. I found Helen reading Washington Post. Another paper, The New York Times, lied on the table with a big cup of coffee.

We talked about Bush and Tony Snow, the press secretary. She talked about her favorite president, the "Watergate", Iraq, and her trips to China.

Want to know details? Learn Chinese first! And go to my chinese column at www.caijing.com.cn