Thanks to the CLB for this new blog lead …

I thought long and hard about becoming an anthropologist after college (I loved the material we studied in anthropology, even though my professor for the course was terrible). Then I learned how little money anthropologists make, and I had no idea how I would pay my bills. I quickly started looking for a Plan B. Law school turned out to be the perfect compromise — to be a good lawyer one must be able to observe people, understand them, have a feel for what makes them tick, be able to predict what they will do, have a deep sense of curiosity about people, etc. (i.e., these are similar skills that an anthropologist uses), and, you can actually get paid well practicing law.

Tons of new blogs are appearing that deal with China. Check out this one — Ben’s Blog.

Below is an excerpt from new blog. Now THIS guy knows how to experience and do field research in China.

I want you to know that I have approached the planning of this trip for you much like an anthropologist would …. go there, try to fit in and not stand out, watch, observe, observe, observe, ask questions, ask questions, ask questions, take notes, learn, etc. Ben’s Blog is a good example of a template along these same lines that is, of course, much more in depth and time intensive than our three week trip.

My name is Benjamin Ross and I am an American originally from Kansas City. I finished college in 2003 and came to China the following year. My reasons for coming to China were that I wanted to experience a lifestyle completely different from my cushy life in the ‘burbs … I wanted to be shocked and isolated. I also wanted to learn a foreign language and actually have the chance to use it. For this reason, I did not want to go to a major city like Beijing or Shanghai. Rather, I found a job in Fuqing, a small town located in Fujian province in Southeastern China. For a year and a half I worked there as a University English teacher, until I moved to Fuzhou (the provincial capital in Summer of 2005. My current gig is doing ethnographic research for Pacific Ethnography.

I am also an amateur writer and photographer … While in China I have also worked as an interpreter, TV extra, regular game show contestant, and token white guy. Interesting (and often humorous) things happen in China all the time, so this blog is where I try to keep people up to date of what’s going on in my little corner of the Middle Kingdom.

Several months ago I got the idea of working a typical Chinese job for a month to try to experience what it is like to live like a local. So for the month of May I will be working as a trainee in a Chinese barber shop. For more info on the project, click here.

As an American living in China, I have spent the last three years of my life enjoying the benefits of being a citizen of a country which is far wealthier than the one in which I reside. I travel around town by taxi. I drink at expensive bars. I eat sushi. I take trips across the country, and when my apartment is dirty, I call a maid to clean it up. My life is not that different from the other several hundred Westerners who call Fuzhou home. We all come to China for the “China experience,” but we still live our lives with the advantages of being Westerners. But what is it like to be one of the 6 million Chinese residents of Fuzhou, especially those of the working class? For us China is fun and relaxing. It’s a place we come to expand our horizons, to learn a culture, to spend our copious free time studying Tai Chi and Chinese cooking or picking up girls at the bar. But for Fuzhou’s working class, there is no such fun and relaxation, no time for hobbies and no money for Tsingtaos at the pub. Work is a way of life and a means for survival.

Tomorrow I will begin a one-month stint as a trainee at a local barber shop/salon. The manager will be treating me just like any other beginning employee his first days on the job. I will be starting at the very bottom of the barbershop food chain, and my duties will include sweeping hair, cleaning bathrooms, assisting barbers, and entertaining customers as they have their hair cut. Throughout the month I will have only three days off, and work the rest from 9 am to 8 pm. I will essentially be a slave to my job which for one month pays what I would make in one day of teaching English.

What I hope to gain from this experience is an understanding of what Chinese workers go through on a daily basis. What is it like to work a job 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, for a salary of less than $100 a month? How will this put into perspective my life in China as a foreigner, or my life in America as an American? How does the other half (or in this case 99.9%) live, and how do the respond to a foreigner trying to do the same? I hope to find the answers to these questions, and hopefully have a little fun doing it. I will be keeping my blog updated daily for the next month, so check back regular for more updates, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.

I emailed Ben to see if he would be in or near any of the cities we will visit while in China, but unfortunately our timing and respective schedules are off for this year.

Ben, well done! And you get double kudos in my book for being a good fellow from the Midwest (so am I). Keep us posted on your experiences, and, for Heaven’s sake, think about turning your barbershop experience and field study into a book. I think it would do reasonably well (could even be a hit), and I would certainly buy and read it (see, e.g., Peter Hesler’s River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze as a possible model — he is your fellow Missourian!).