Maja's Musings

(From my old Substack)

A couple of weeks ago I bought an orange after lunch. I was going to eat it while studying in a café on campus with my friend Liv. But I was feeling restless, so I left my bag with Liv, grabbed my orange, and went out for a walk. 

During lunch that day, I had remembered the Snapchat story I had created to share from my life in Beijing with people at home. I thought I had done a good job with it in the beginning, documenting my travel down here and the first couple of days. I enjoyed the fast replies from my friends and wrote down a list of things I’d like to post about over the semester. A tour of my Beijing apartment. An ode to my new Osprey backpack that was incredible to have with me on the journey down, with a special thanks to Marie who recommended this model to me. Pictures from outings with friends. But then I just forgot about it.

On this day, however, I decided I should to give it another go. My walk had lead me to a nice sitting-area facing the sun, nestled between bamboo and a couple of traditional Chinese houses. I thought: “Why not share this moment with my friends?” I grabbed my phone and starting snapping photos.

The first picture was of the orange by itself. I held it up. Tried to find an angle where the sun would hit it in a sophisticated way. A couple of local students walked past me. I got embarrassed when they looked my way. Then I told myself they probably think I’m an art student, doing a class on photography. Was that believable, with an iPhone? Not sure. I shrugged it off and kept going.

Now it was time for a picture of the orange, and me. I flipped the camera. My hair was flat (quintessential blond person experience: when it’s a little windy outside and all of a sudden your hair looks like spaghetti). I tried smoothing it out with my hand. Took some pictures where I held the orange up to my face, first facing the sun directly before deciding that having it hit one side of my face would look nicer. Then I thought the orange should be opened, and I should be eating it. I put my phone down, and started peeling the orange. The skin was thick and came off so easily, but I hardly noticed as I was thinking about angles and backgrounds. I took one bite and snapped a photo. It looked weird. I deleted it. I quickly finished the orange slice, and tried again. This process was repeated for a couple of slices. 

A guy walked by. When we made eye-contact, it was like I could finally see myself from the outside. Sitting by myself on a bench in the middle of the park, posing with an orange. Looking very, very ditsy.

There was only a couple of orange slices left at this point. I looked at the pictures I had taken. Remembered it was just for my Snapchat vlog. Why was I in such a state about it? Also, why is it that after weeks of silence, this is the moment I chose to share with my friends? Four unprompted photographs of an orange? At this point, I was very much over the whole thing. I posted a couple of the pictures and put my phone away.

When I tuned back into the world, the mood shifted. I noticed the grass was swaying. One of the campus cats was walking by. I ate the last orange slices left and really savored them. I decided that unless I feel called upon to do it, I really don’t need to “vlog” anything*.

—

The first time I encoutnered the concept of “being present” was when I did theater in my childhood/tween years. Instructor Beate always talked about the improtance of really being present when we were present. I remember thinking yes yes, I’m here, aren’t I? I’m showing up — but if I’m doing what I’m supposed to, why does it matter what I’m thinking about? But Beate brought it up again and again. And eventually I gave it ago, and began understanding that being present really does make a difference.

Later that same week of the orange in the park, I went to Tianjin. I brought my camera with me and put my phone away with, discovering another type of presence. I was Maja, 9 years, again. Wandering off on family vacation and snapping photos of things that captured my imagination.

Yesterday I once again had an orange by myself in the park. This time I did not vlog it. But I had my camera on me, so snapped a couple of photos nonetheless. Also this time, people walked by. But it felt a little better to be taking photos with a real camera. I thought this time I could actually pass for an art student! And it might be nice to have something to help me remember the orange in the park.

—

There was a time, right after high school, where I was unhappy and had somehow worked up this idea in my head that the unhappiness I harbored was productive. It was like I thought that the more short-term joys I sacrificed, the greater my long-term reward would be.

Of course that’s not how the world actually works. I must have known that deep down, too. But I never told anyone how I felt, and therefore, no one ever got the chance to tell me that I was wrong.

Eventually, thankfully, I came to my senses and relearned how to enjoy myself. About half a year ago, I heard this line in a song that brought me right back to that weird state I was in post-RCN:

“All the living that you’re saving // Won’t buy your dreams for you”

I don’t know about you all, but so far I’ve pretty much only enjoy getting older. I guess it’s easy to appreciate since I’m not old — yet. What I mean is that I can feel that I’ve gotten at least a little bit wiser over the last couple of years. You live and you learn fr fr.

So yeah! Tuning into the IRL is important. It’s not always easy, but I think I’m doing a good job of it these days in China.

PS: did any of you see those TikTok videos about oranges in China? I still don’t know exactly what was up with them, but the fruit here really is so, so delicious!

*Incidentally, the vlogging spirit came over me just two days later. And now I’m having fun with it again! The mind can be so odd.

Sharing world class knowledge from China’s #1 university ᯓ★

(From my old Substack)

Hello hello!

I hope you’re all well ˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

It’s been a month since last update, and a month since we started our classes here at Peking University. I’d like to use this occasion to write some words about my academic experience so far.

This semester I’m completing five courses from the university’s LL.M program in Chinese Law. That means that I pretty much only study, well, Chinese law. As opposed to for example international law (which I do a tiny bit of, but not a lot). When I tell people this, I’m sometimes asked why. As in, why are you choosing to study Chinese law — in what way is that relevant for your future plans?

I don’t always know what to say to that. Admittedly, I have no concrete plans to work in or with China. But then again, who knows? Maybe I’ll join a company or an organization that sends me to one of their branches in the country. Maybe I’ll start a business with one of my many talented friends, and an opportunity arises where I can use my Chinese law-knowledge to break us into the Chinese market. Or maybe I can use what I learn about China to promote peace and international cooperation in a career that allows me to do that. That’s an old dream of mine that was recently revived during a visit at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beijing. I have lots of thoughts and feelings about this topic, but maybe that’s a Musing for another day. 

But of course – I’ll admit I’m mostly doing this because it’s fun. Studying in Beijing is fun and interesting and a thing I can do in this season of my life so why not. With all that said, today I thought I’d write about a couple of things I’ve learnt over my first month of university here. Just in the spirit of sharing knowledge — and a little bit to test myself. Have I retained anything? Let’s see!

International Foreign Investment Law

International Foreign Investment Law is my first class of the week. Honestly? It’s only after the last class that I maybe understand what these ‘foreign investments’ even are. On a theoretical level, I guess I get it. Someone from country A invests something in something in country B. But for some reason, I just couldn’t picture it. A lot of things in the realm of economics feel a little too abstract to fully grasp for me. But now that we’ve looked at some examples, it’s starting to make more sense.

My main takeaway from this class, though, is probably the things I’ve learnt about China in general. Our professor has this blanket enthusiasm for the country that shines through a lot of the topics we talk about. She spent the better part of our first class giving us a run-down of all sorts of information about China she just thought we should know — including how rice was domesticated, the most typical Chinese poem structures, and what sort of pictures are typically found in Chinese schoolbooks. She talked about China’s natural beauty, showing us pictures of the mountains of Zhangjiajie (the ones that look like they’re from the movie Avatar), exclaiming that they’re “even more impressive than the Alps!”. Her excitement is contagious. China really is a fascinating place.

Our professor is also good at actively connecting the history of foreign investments law to the broader changes in China at the time. For instance, she’s highlighted the year 1978 as the beginning of China’s market-oriented (“socialist market!”) economy — and from there explained how the foreign investment laws of respectively 1979, 1986 and 1988 contributed to, bit by bit (or law by law), liberalize the economy. It’s also been intersting to hear about China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001. She herself held a very high positions in the organization, before becoming a PKU professor. Come to think of it, most of my professors have very impressive resumés. Impressive resumés — and a genuine enthusiasm for what they teach. It’s a great combination.

Chinese Civil Procedure & Arbitration

Hmm.

I don’t have much to say about this class. A bit of a transition from Foreign Investment, hah! 

It’s not that the professor or the class is bad. It’s just very theoretical. We have this phrase “material law” (at least in Norway), which means the stuff that the laws actually say. This class has very little of that. Instead, it’s about the technicalities of resolving disputes resolution. The different instances of courts, at what point you bring up evidence, things like that.

One thing I’ve learnt, though…

Actually, this is the class where I for the first time in my life used AI as a learning tool! It was helpful, but I got distracted fast: 

Me: 

Hello! How are you? I have a question about legal mediation in China. Do all civil cases have to undergo a mediation procedure?

ChatGPT: 

Hello! I’m here to help. In China, mediation is indeed a common procedure in civil cases. According to the Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China (…)

Me:

Thanks. I also wonder how much I should listen to my heart versus my brain in matters of love and life. I believe they both are important — but how exactly should I balance the two?

ChatGPT: 

It’s common to experience a conflict between our emotions and rational thoughts, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. When trying to assess your feelings, it’s important to consider both your emotions and rational thoughts, as each provides valuable insight. Here are some suggestions for navigating this internal conflict:

1. Acknowledge Your Feelings: Recognize and accept the emotions you’re experiencing. Your feelings are valid and deserve to be acknowledged, even if they don’t always align with your rational thoughts. (…)

I guess that’s something I’ve learnt. In China, mediation in civil cases is common and often encouraged, but not necessarily mandatory.

Let’s move on!

International Law as Applied in China

International law is my favorite class! We’ve already had a unit on this in Bergen, but this course is pretty different. So far we’ve mostly gone through the history and sources of international law. The history bit has been very interesting — and has given me a lot to think about. Especially one question in particular. It might be a little weird, and it’s not fully thought through. But since this is my newsletter, I’ll share it anyway:

In class, we’ve been learning about how much of the early developments of international law was based on natural law. The idea that law is not created by legislators alone, but that it stems from God through ∼creation∼. One example of this idea as found in the history of international law, is the Bellum iustum doctrine, which (to my understanding) is the idea that it is sometime’s moral and righteous for a nation to go to war. But also the notion that human beings have innate value stems, at least from some of the thinkers, from the idea of creation, that they were created in God’s image. Thoughts like these lay the foundation for our modern ideas of human rights. 

Nowadays, the international legal system doesn’t regard God as a source of law. But we still talk about human rights. My question is — how is the concept of human rights grounded now? I suppose we can agree on certain baseline values without bringing any deity into it. But somehow I feel like that’s not a fully satisfactory story. Could you say that ‘Human Rights’ itself has become a new natural law?

I don’t know how much of that makes sense. It’s very possible there’s a good and obvious answer to this. If you have any input, please do share! I’ve just enjoyed thinking about a great deal of the content of this course. If I ever were to become an academic, I’d like to look into stuff like this. 

Chinese Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual Property is another course I enjoy a lot. Of all the private law subjects we’ve done in Bergen, it was definitely my favorite. It’s cool to revisit it in the Chinese context!

A lot of the material law is the same. Also, just like in Norway, there’s all these interesting borderline cases — many of them arising from our rapidly changing digital world. For instance: when can you own a picture that you created through artificial intelligence? Maybe you can’t own something that’s generated from a five-word prompt, but what if you used thirty? 

Another case that I recall was one where someone posted a picture of a flower bouquet in a WeChat group. The florist sued, claiming that they owned the work and by extension, the exclusive right to publication (cf. Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China Art. 10 (1)). The court agreed that the florist owned the work (which makes sense, I suppose — but it’s still interesting to me that you can own a flower arrangement). However, they decided that the WeChat group, consisting only of a couple of friends, didn’t constitute the public. But it was clear that a such a social media group could constitute the public, had it looked different. 

Our professor took a pause there, and asked us to think about what that means. The court seemed to allude to a hypothetical situation where if it was a really famous person who shared such a photo, then it would have been a breach of the right of publication. But what if it was a moderately famous person? What if it was someone who is huge in a specific community, but no one else knows about them? How about just a really popular person in a local community? When are you famous enough so that your circle can be regarded as the public?

In my view, intellectual property law is filled with these great examples of how sometimes the lines we draw in law aren’t perfect — but you still gotta draw ‘em somewhere.

I want to share one more thing I’ve learnt in this class. From my memory of it in Bergen, we largely considered intellectual property rights as an extension of property rights in general. An author owns the book they write in a similar way to how they own the house they live in. But underlying in our legal system (both in China and Norway, and in a number of other countries too) is what’s called the moral rights in copyright law. The moral rights aim to protect the non-economic interests of the creator — like their artistic integrity and reputation. A lot of the exclusive rights you have when you own a work, such as the right to be attributed as the creator or to object to derogatory treatment of your work, are grounded in these personal interests. They might have an economic side as well, but oftentimes that’s just part of the reason — and sometimes it’s not applicable at all. There are some rights the creators have, just because they created something.

It is, at its core, a very romantic idea. It stems from the image of the artist working tirelessly to perfect their craft and their creations. Our professor mused that we’re not really sure what to do with this concept today, when so much art is created so fast. It’s still a part of our legal framework — but can we apply it the same when the creation is “just” a couple of clicks?

The concept of moral rights is more emphasized in China and Europe than for example in the US, by the way. Our professor cited thinkers like Kant to be influential here. Not sure what thinkers the Americans looked to.

Chinese Economic Law

My final class of the week. I have little prior knowledge about economics, and I really feel it. Our professor is the dean of the law school and the ‘flink pike’ in me (what little’s left of her) wants to make sure I’m paying attention. But it’s also an evening class, on an otherwise packed day, so sometimes my mind wanders.

For the term paper in this class, we’re writing a review of a book on China’s economy. I’ve chosen Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos. It got some really good reviews. Should be interesting.

Bonus: International Security Studies

In addition to the law subjects, I’m auditing a class called “International Security Studies”. I’m having so much fun taking it! It’s great to be in a different type of academic environment. Where my law classes generally are made up of half bachelor-level exchange students such as myself, and half semi-seasoned lawyers looking to get their nth degree, this class is for exchange students only. It’s also a big group, and people participate actively. It’s nice. 

It’s the only class I have on Tuesdays, and it’s from 18:40 to 21:30. Tuesdays have becomes much a great day of the week. I usually wake up late-ish, do a little school work and wander around, before grabbing dinner with my classmates and friends Atsuya, Aline and Valerie. Practicing slow living.

The content of the class is cool, too. We always start with “solving” a couple logical fallacies. I think the idea is that understanding logical fallacies is important in game theory, which is utilized a lot in international relations analysis (I didn’t know this). Since I’m only auditing and not doing any exams, I sometimes allow myself to not attention. Like this week — I wrote most of this entry during this week’s ISS class. 

A final, general life update

I want to shout it from the rooftops: I love Peking Univeristy! In fact, I love everything about my everyday life here. I love waking up to the sun shining into my room every morning. I love biking to university, swerving scooters and cars all with a smile on my face like ☺. I love the food. And the prices! There’s many days where I spend 30-ish kroner or less. Can you, reader not currently in China, believe it?

And now, since last week or so, the weather has been so, so good. We’ve already gotten most of the prompts for our final papers, so I technically could start writing them now. I’m going to try to be good and get them done early. There are some places in China that it would be fun to see before I go. Would be good to be completely free in the summer…

Alright! I’ll round off there. It was fun writing here again. If you made it this far and there’s some parts that you liked or didn’t like, it would be great to know! 

Hope you have a great weekend. Good-bye!

– Maja

(PS: this entry’s title is stolen from this Swedish song I stumbled upon. I considered modifying the title to “Peking Took My Law Away”, but decided that was too stupid. Also, I do love PKU, so why not.)

(From my old Substack)

Hei hei!

I’m writing this from a world-famous burger chain location somewhere in downtown Beijing. Ida, my roommate and the only other University of Bergen-student at Peking University, is with me. We’re usually very good at only going to authentic Chinese places and restaurants. But today we both had computer things to do, so undisclosed burger chain with steady internet access it is.

We’ve been in Beijing for about ten days now. Tomorrow, we have our first orientation session at the university. I therefore thought this was a good time to write a little about my initial impressions and some of the things that have happened!

For whatever reason, I feel like I have to start with this: when I scanned my ticket from Munich to Beijing, I was pleasantly surprised with a free upgrade! Instead of flying Economy, I got to fly Economy Premium. And the premium was palpable. The chair was so much nicer, and I actually slept quite well. Sat next to a friendly man, too, who had also been surprise-upgraded. I remember thinking wow, everything about this journey is going so smoothly.

Things got trickier, however, soon after landing. After immigration, I grabbed a taxi to get to our place. When we arrived, I tried paying the driver with the apps I had installed, but it didn’t work. Luckily, I had backup cash – but only 100s. The driver (allegedly) didn’t have change (I believe him), so it got a lot more expensive than it should have been.

Ida was arriving the day after me, so I met with the landlord by myself. Our place is really nice! But there were some things missing. Main problem was that the internet hadn’t been installed yet. Which meant that it was me and my Telenor 4G against the world. I was texting with Ida when my data suddenly ran out. I tried buying more through the text message, but it wouldn’t work. In retrospect I understand that all this probably does not sound like a big deal at all. But at the time, it was enough to make me quite panicked. I was supposed to meet someone in a few hours – but we still hadn’t picked an exact place and now I had no means of contacting him. Beyond that, no data means no translation apps, no payment apps, no anything. How was I supposed to buy internet, without internet? It seemed impossible.

But of course, things worked out. Since we live near a university, I ran out to the nearest building, hoping to find some trusty old Eduroam – to no avail. In the end, I had my dad help me call the phone company and get some extra data. Thanks, pappa! I guess I’m just sharing this story to illustrate that I really was very lost in the beginning. There were several moments like this. But by now, Ida and I have pretty much everything sorted. We have internet, a decent VPN (shh) and I know how to pay for stuff with my phone. Here’s some other things about life here:

Ida and I are staying in Haidan, the district where most universities in Beijing are located. When we started looking for a place to live, we first tried the area immediate to Peking University. When that proved difficult, we gradually expanded our search. I figured that as long as we live in the district, it didn’t really matter. Turns out that Haidan has more than 3 million people (more than half of Norway’s entire population), and covers quite a large area. We ended up living about an hour walk from campus instead. But there’s a metro station nearby-ish. And we’ve been eyeing the scooters that a lot of Beijingers drive around. Maybe we’ll get one and drive that to campus every morning.

As mentioned, we ended up living right next to another university campus: Beijing Forestry University. The area is nice. It’s quiet and there’s a decent outdoor gym on campus that I sometimes go to. Only problem is that the university campus is fenced-in, and the port guards don’t always let us enter at night without a student ID. In practice that means that we usually have to walk around the entire premise, which easily takes an extra twenty minutes. Ida and I are getting our steps in, at least.

Everyone I talked to who had been to Beijing told me that you stick out a lot as a foreigner, and it’s definitely true. I have never before felt like such an odd-one-out in a major city. A couple of times I’ve talked to people who say I’m the first foreigner they’ve spoken to. Occasionally people ask for a picture. Recently, when that happens, I’ve started asking to take pictures with them, too. 

Speaking Chinese is so, so hard. I thought I had learnt some words and sentences before coming here, but I have yet to have anyone understand them in a real conversation. I don’t even think I’ve been able to correctly say “I don’t speak Chinese” (although that probably is the most useless sentenceI taught myself – everyone can tell that). Instead, I have often resorted to just pointing at myself and saying “I am Nor-we-gian. 挪-威-人!” Sometimes that works. Most of the time, however, Ida and I follow the philosophy of smile and nod. If we have to appear clueless, we should try to seem friendly as well.

It’s been pretty discouraging to never get it right. But over the last few days, I’ve met a couple of other foreigners who have a decent grasp of the language and insist that it really is worth it to keep trying. So, we’ll see.

Aside from that, Ida and I have done a fair bit of sightseeing. We got here just a couple of days before Chinese New Yearskicked off and have gotten to see some nice celebrations. The highlight was the Dongyue temple. I could have spent hours looking at everything and reading the plaques.

Big cities are always a wee bit exhausting. But Beijing issurprisingly manageable. The city feels very orderly, and the metro system is easy to understand. I think it was good that we got here during Chinese New Years, when there’s a lot less people in the city. Sort of a practice run with the public transport and everything, before the real challenge (big crowds) start.

Overall, my biggest impression from Beijing is that there’s so many impressions. My eyes are buzzing every night when I go to bed. But it’s really cool.

Another thing is that these couple of weeks (especially the very first couple of days) have been a real meditation on how people need people. I truly don’t know how I would have gotten anything done on my own. My mom’s Chinese colleague helped us look for places and communicate with the agent and landlord. His ex-colleague met me when I got here and helped me set up a Chinese SIM-card and taught me how to pay for things. Ida has also been great at navigating everything. Me? I have honestly been quite useless. Useless and clueless. But maybe that’s okay, as long as you show some gratitude for the people who help you out. And as long as you’re not useless and clueless forever.

Tomorrow is our orientation at the university. I’m getting a little restless from just roaming around every day. It’s going tobe good to have something to do again. And I’m starting the semester with most of my life-essentials in order, a good grasp of the subway system, and even a number of interesting new people on my phone. A promising start!

Note: this post was written on Saturday February 17th. Internet access is still a little tricky and I was only able to publish this through the iPhone Safari version of Substack. If there’s any formatting issues, that’s why!