Week Two
Over the weekend, Lily and I did some sight-seeing in our new city! We decided to book through a third-party website (GetYourGuide sponsor me please) for a guided tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. This proved to be for the best as there were many instances where Lily and I just looked at each other and shook our heads from confusion. Thank goodness for Lisa, our tour guide, who instructed us on where to go and loudly conversed with the policemen to get us through the queue as quickly as possible.
Once inside, the square turned out to be even larger than I anticipated containing the Great Hall of the People, where China’s Congress meets, and the Monument to the People’s Heroes, a 100-foot-tall obelisk dedicated to those who lost their lives during the 1949 Revolution. Lisa explained the history of the Square and made sure we all got time to take lots of pictures. Then, as we crossed the massive Square to get to the gate through to the Forbidden City, Lisa continued to explain the long history of emperors who ruled over China. The Forbidden City was built in the 15th Century by the Ming Dynasty and saw two dynasties and twenty-four emperors before the PRC took over. Lisa explained that the gates are divided into five bridges wherein only the Emperor could cross the middle bridge, while the rest of the royal party or political officials were relegated to the side bridges. She took us through the palace, again always stopping for that good picture, showing the different palaces and gardens where the concubines (sometimes numbering upwards of 3,000) would live. In one of the courtyards, there was a small museum with items the concubines would use in their daily lives. These kinds of items always make an incredible and historical experience like this seem personal. I can picture a young woman, maybe my age, spending her time laughing with her friends or brushing her hair with the wooden comb shown behind glass and it makes it all seem so much more real.
Seeing the sights took most of the day but we still had to meet Warren and Kevin at the police station to register our presence with the police. This process took much longer than expected, but we kept Kevin entertained with many games of “I Spy” in the police station (“I spy with my little eye something red!” says Kevin, gleefully. Me, rolling my eyes, “Is it my sunburnt arms?” Kevin laughs).
Sunday was my first lesson with Kevin, helping him with his English. He has an English competition at the end of June we are helping him prep for. Three hours is a long time for a six-year-old to focus on one subject, so the time flew by. Sunday evening, we returned to the Walmart and restocked on some essential items. Warren had mentioned the last time we were there that the Walmart in America is for the cheap, affordable items, but in China, the higher quality the item, the more likely it is to be found at Walmart.
Our week resumed at Zhicheng picking up where we left off on Friday. Lily and I continued our research into our own memos on the effects of excessive internet use on juvenile delinquency. I also had some consultations from my supervisor to review. Zhicheng accepts requests across several platforms (WeChat, Douyin [the Chinese version of TikTok], and others) for free legal advice. Many members of the general public will reach out through these platforms with their own issues and employees here at Zhicheng will get back to them within 72 hours. My supervisor sent five examples of these for me to review and reply with both Chinese and American law.
Tuesday, I was told we would have a meeting with Chen on Wednesday regarding child influencers here and to complete a brief memo explaining the status of this issue in America in anticipation of this meeting. Unfortunately, there aren’t many resources out there for protections on child internet stars in American law. After the meeting, Chen explained there was a similar predicament in China. In the meeting, we discussed the two contrasting viewpoints on how to protect children’s interests in this realm. In America, there is a focus on the child’s individual right to be protected under labor laws and receive compensation for any work or profit they generate from their videos. However, in China, the property of the child belongs to the family so there is less debate over the financial compensation the child is entitled to from their work. Instead, the Chinese government is more concerned with the collective problem of requiring these children to work long hours and the threat to their mental and physical health.
Thursday everyone from the old office moved into the new office so there was a lot of ambient beeping of large trucks coming and going with the remnants of the previous office. During this time, I continued my research into child internet stars, reading articles and comments of those who looked into this topic. As this is a developing topic in both America and China, the resources are limited. However, I was able to find a few helpful journals, notes, and articles (even one published in our very own William & Mary Law Review). That Thursday evening after work, Lily and I went off in an attempt to see “MAMMA MIA!” After purchasing tickets at the box office, we grabbed dinner in the area before making our way back to the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center.
The performance was, thankfully, in English with Chinese subtitles on large screens on both sides of the stage. This led to a slight delay in how and when the jokes landed; Lily and I would often find ourselves laughing seconds before the rest of the theater joined us. At a Mamma Mia! show, the energy is always high, however, often people were singing and clapping along to the music and cheering during the performances. Lily and I laughed at the sight of a wave of phones coming out to record the last song. The actress who played Donna asked in Chinese if Beijing wanted one more song to which she was met with cheers from all. The cast performed “Waterloo,” and Lily and I danced as the performance came to an end. We discovered we were only a 20-minute walk from home, grabbing ice cream from the 7-11 as we did so.
Friday morning can only be described as chaotic. We were both late waking up, rushing out into the rainy morning. This is probably the last day under 90 degrees Fahrenheit for a while so we enjoyed the morning while we could. Our morning routine now includes grabbing a second bottle of coffee from the convenience store located at our work subway stop. Friday morning, I grabbed a delicious pineapple bun (a sweet bun that does not include pineapple) and a coffee flavor I hadn’t tried before for the steep price of 13 yuan ($1.82). The bun was delicious, the coffee was not one I’ll get again. As Director Tong was back from his business trip, he assigned the three of us to combine our slightly different research into one large paper for his consumption so we can discuss once we’re back from the holiday weekend. As we were talking about our projects, we realized we had all taken the same topic and morphed it into slightly different papers, making combining them tricky. We spent most of the day combining the papers, adding a section about video game use on juvenile’s behavior patterns per Director Tong’s request.
In anticipation of the holiday weekend, we were told we could leave at 3pm! This weekend is the Dragon Boat Festival, which is a festival to commemorate a past emperor and eat sticky dumplings and watch dragon boat races! This weekend is full of activities and events, so Lily and I hope to spend our days going to these and learning more about this festival.