Items on the left:
– A small bag with a lip balm and lipsticks
– A USB on a key chain
– My work pass card with school meal card
– A small bag of tissue
– AirPods
– iPad
Items on the right:
– My 6-year-old MacBook Pro
– Bose noise cancellation headphones
– 2 ball pens, one in black, the other in orange
– A menthol nasal inhaler
Hi everyone, this is Wu Juan (or Jane). I’m working at a British Columbia Province Offshore school in a southern province of China. I have been working at the same school since 2013 and I have been in many different positions in my school, including foreign affairs, homeroom teacher, teaching assistant, and program coordinator. And now, I’m working towards going into an educational technology company in Shanghai.
The bag you are seeing above is the bag I carry the most. It is a National Geographic bag with tons of space. I always like big schoolbag style bag instead of small handbag just in case that I need it for something else, like grocery shopping or for my raincoat. My bag has multiple compartments so that I can properly organize my items.
I use my own laptop for work and iPad for note-taking, trying to go paperless and minimalist AirPods are for my commute to the workplace and I use my Bose when I want to concentrate when the working environment is loud.
Most schools in China require an identity card to get in due to most schools have over 3000 staff and students.
The USB I have has two types (A and C) of ports integrated in one so that an Apple product user like me can easily work with other people in case of file transfer.
The bag of tissue always stays in my bag because it is common to not expect any toilet paper in China’s public restrooms and most of the restaurants will only offer paid tissues.
Finally, my Thai menthol flavour nasal inhaler is a lifesaver whenever I feel sleepy or get bit by mosquitos. The tube actually has two parts and the bottom is liquid that you can apply on skin. I’m not totally sure about the effects on mosquito bites, but it works good enough as a placebo.
I would say I used the same type of bag 15 years ago, however, the iPad would be replaced by an actually notebook and headphones would still have wires. And I used to carried a lot more stuff then right now, for instance, a purse with all sorts of cards and instead of two pens I would carry a bag of pens to work with my notebook.
China is very advanced in having most of the things we need in daily lives digitalize. I am able to pay everything on my phone, show my digital ID and driver’s license, get on buses and subway, and register a COVID test and view the result on my phone. And my front door uses a finger-print lock so I don’t even need to have my keys with me anymore.
If an archeologist were to dig out my bag in the future, one might know that I’m a Chinese and my work place with ancient technologies. They might be confused by the two sets of headphones but other than that I think they would get a pretty straight forward idea of who I am. And if the stickers on my laptop stay, they could offer a pretty good idea of the pop culture of this temporal period.
Nobody can really tell whether I am still a student or a teacher. The gradient colours of my bag indicate that I want to appear to be lively. And I would use the same bag with the same stuff inside even when I am wearing a more lady-like dress. I refuse to use any single-shoulder bag when I was diagnosed with scoliosis with uneven shoulders.
I like to keep the stuff in my bag simple but practical, however, that doesn’t mean they cannot reflect my personality. The stickers on my laptop are all gifts from friends I collected throughout different times and images and printed text convey the information of what I like and what I hope for. My friends would describe me as practical and rational most of the time. So, I would say my private content does match my outwardly image.
TEXT/TECHNOLOGIES
There are different types of text and technologies in my bag. The computer and iPad offer unlimited space for text input and output that break the physical boundary of traditional text carriers like papers or plaques. The pens indicate that there are scenarios where I need to write on papers.
Though I still prefer to read physical books, they are big and bulky so if I am on the move I will read using digital platforms. Outside of books, I have worked to digitize my life as much as possible to reduce clutter at home and in my bag.
I use smaller headphones when I’m on the move but prefer over the ear headphones when stationary, especially due to the noise cancellation. I do try to personalize these items as much as possible with my AirPods in a case that looks like a piece of meat that my friend almost throw it into our hotpot. Stickers on my laptop (Football is Life!) are in two different languages (English and Chinese). Especially in the world I live in, my work, home life and media engagement are constantly a switch between these two different languages. My laptop and USB are mainly used for work purposes but you will find some TV shows on there for when I need a break, and you’ll find shows in English, Mandarin and Thai (I have accustomed to read subtitles even if it is in Chinese) so it would require engaging in the contents of my devices to get a little more insight.
Hi Jane,
It was interesting for me to learn about how many things in China are digitized now- have you found this switch to relying more on technology to have been beneficial? I absolutely love your Monsters University laptop case, where did you get it?
Hi Erin,
Thank you for checking out my site. We were in the last course 531 together, I think.
As for your question, China seems to skip the phase of using credit cards, but I’m not saying we don’t use any credit cards, but we would connect that to our phone apps as well. So basically almost everything can be found or done on a smartphone. I would say it is pretty beneficial. When I was in university, the train stations were considered the paradise of thieves. I used to just watch peoples’ bags get open and stuff stolen by thieves but couldn’t do anything because they always work in a group. But now with the safety upgraded by the tech companies, it is hard to crack peoples’ phones, especially with bio recognition login system. The most popular app in China right now is WeChat. It is a social media app however, it is smart to merge all kinds of different apps from millions of companies as its mini-apps. Other than old people, younger people (range from middle school students to somewhere around 50 years old) do not use any physical money anymore and most of the time you don’t run into any difficulties in getting things done.
Thank you for your appreciation of my laptop cover. It is actually a sticker cover not really a physical case. I get it online. Stuffs like these are very easy and cheap to get in China.
Hello Jane!
It is interesting to hear that China skipped the phase of using credit cards and transitioned directly to integration with the smartphones! Growing up in Taiwan, a lot of the services are also combined and centralized, as well as integrated with personal IDs specifically. It is convenient but also, it also feels like the stakes are high and you can’t get anything done if you don’t have your smartphone on you at all times!
I wonder what your relationship with the technology around you is like?
Do you enjoy the convenience of it? Do you feel overwhelmed by being dependent on it in your day to day life?
Hi Sophy,
Thank you for checking my site. Yeah, right now it kinda feels like. You can’t really get much done without a smartphone or without linking your bank accounts to your social media. I watched a documentary these days about people going into deep mountains in Tibet and visiting some craftsmen. I was surprised that even they can be paid through WeChat (the most popular social media and payment method in China). Right now with the pandemic and the frequency of COVID tests, almost everything requires you to register on your phone and check the results on your phone. Especially, in places like Shanghai and Beijing, you can’t get into public space or go back to work without a 72-hour COVID test, if we try to do that without a smartphone or online platform, I couldn’t imagine how long is that going to take.
I guess at least right now, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
I like the question about my relationship with the technology around me. Because I work in a school environment, I see the difference or maybe I should say the changing process from a student to an adult. I recall that when I was a student, the main function of digital technology was for entertainment, to connect with friends. But right now, I mainly use them for work and study. I’m experiencing electronic and screen fatigue. So I would say, I do very much enjoy the convenience of it but what overwhelmed me is not the dependency, instead, what overwhelmed me is the expectation of keeping up to date.
What about you? What would say is the most overwhelming thing in your life right now?