Good ol' China ways

I have been working on preparing an application for the Canada-China Scholar Exchange Program. The process is more complicated than any of the other applications I have done so far. It would be wonderful to get as it would mean I could come and study in China for 4-12 months. However, I am required to have notorized copies of this and that, 5 copies of everything, a guarantor here in China, a medical check, and and idea of which school to study at, why and with whom. All this is do-able...except for anything that has to do with China.

It is the age old struggle of first finding the information then, once found, convincing the school officials that what you are asking can actually be done. I contacted ZJU and was told that I needed to have HSK 6 to enter the program. I responded by explaining that I didn't want to enrol as a grad student but would be under and exchange and would like to get in touch with one of the professors from the department of Sociology with whom I might be able to arrange something. I was again told that the key professor in the department could not speak English and, hence, HSK 6 was necessary. I responded again by requesting anyone within the department who could speak English and, if this individual was unable to assist me I understood and would ask for assistance from my Chinese colleagues in Hangzhou. Funny enough, the next message provided me with the name of a professor from the department who had written an article in English that I might be able to speak with.

When the answer is "no" here you can't stop pushing because you know that it really means "this is complicated and I would prefer not to deal with it so it is impossible".

PKU was slightly more helpful in that they responded positively. However, the email address to the Sociology deparment didn't work and I was told to get in touch with the webmaster (who may or may not be able to understand my request). ACK!

And now we know why everything here is "manman lai" (it will come slowly).