My Study Abroad is Cooler Than Yours

Sure, students studying here in the spring have the option of extending through the summer and going to Beijing to see the Olympics along with the hoards of other foreigners who will be there, but this fall in Hangzhou occurred a very cool event that involved less hassle, more personality and a lot of fun: The Semi-Finals of the Women’s Soccer World Cup. That’s right, the FIFA World Cup 2007 was hosted in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan, Tianjin and Hangzhou, and tonight was the semi-final between the US and Brazilian teams.

Of course, we bought the tickets before we knew who’d be playing, and were all the more excited when we found out. For less than 20 dollars, I got a seat fairly close to the action, and right at center field. Most of our classmates turned out for the event, along with a large percentage of the foreign population of Hangzhou, who were still a vast minority to the Chinese spectators. During the first half, we spent some time getting group shots with various people’s cameras. The funny thing was, every time we’d group up and smile, about five other cameras would point at us from the Chinese people sitting next to us. We thought it was kind of amusing, and would turn and smile at their cameras, too. Then it became halftime and all of a sudden we were the most interesting thing happening. People stopped waiting for us to pose, and would just sort of snap away, and many people would actually jump into photos with us, with or without asking. When I turned around, I was faced with rows of lenses pointed at the backs of our heads. It was a bit unnerving; I spent most of halftime posing next to strange Chinese men and flashing the peace sign. I think I’m in more pictures on Chinese cameras than American, though to be fair the odds were against me, as there were a lot more Chinese people taking pictures than Americans, and I’d be willing to bet there are many times more digital cameras in China than in America. I sort of wish I’d gotten a picture of a random Chinese person on MY camera, but alas, did not think of it.

To the dismay of many of my classmates, the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people were supporting Brazil. In an effort to turn the tables a bit, they started refusing to pose for pictures unless the person taking the picture said they supported America. Their enthusiasm worked, and during the second half the people in our vicinity erupted with cheers of “美国加油” and the English equivalent, “Let’s go, USA”. Sadly the team was beaten soundly (4-0), and we left dejectedly in search of a taxi. Several cabless and one bus that refused to stop because it was already full beyond capacity prompted Xueqin to declare that there are far too many people in China.