Getting Started

Statue of the poetess Xue Tao, who died in 832. 

After weeks of getting ready, and several days of travel, I finally officially started my work here on Friday. My first meeting, however, was at a lovely local park (I’ll always remember it as the bamboo park, as I didn’t catch the official name) which also included a memorial to a woman poet, Xue Tao. It’s not a bad place to have a meeting at all! Liu Liu and I went over the schedule for my visit, which includes several formal meetings with the various library departments, as well as planned sightseeing excursions. We talked a little bit about how the Sichuan University Libraries are organized, as well as what Dr. Ma, the library director, is hoping I would share.

After the park, we headed to lunch with Dr Ma, another top administrator, and several librarians, including both of the librarians who have visited ASU. I was worried about how that lunch, as I wasn’t sure how formal it would be and it’s hard to be formal when you can’t use chopsticks very well! Much to my delight, the group was warm, friendly and took very good care of me. They even provided me with a fork, which I am proud to say I did not use. The food was amazing: they kept bringing dishes out and putting them in the middle of the table on a lazy-susan like device. Dr. Ma and Liu Liu very graciously served me, as my chopstick ability precludes being able to serve myself with any delicacy. I’m not sure what everything was, but two things I remember specifically were lotus root and a local vegetable that was very potato-like (but purple hued), in addition to a sizzling fish. I tried every dish and found that I pretty much liked them all.

One of my basic approaches to small talk in life is to talk sports: this works almost all the time, and I found that it can even work internationally! I knew that Hu Lin, one of the former exchange librarians, was an NBA fan, so I asked about sports in general. I found out that several of them enjoy playing badminton and table tennis, but that they don’t seem to have intercollegiate sports the way we do in America. We had an interesting discussion about the importance of sports and athletes in American universities – and one of them asked me if it was true that head football coaches can make more money than the university president. I confirmed that truth, but tried to explain how they were funded separately. All in all this was a wonderful experience, and I felt quite welcomed indeed.

Later in the afternoon Liu Liu took me on a campus tour and we stopped in two of the libraries: the Engineering Library and the Liberal Arts Library. It was interesting to see the use of space (including outdoor study spaces), and to note just how quiet it was in every room. The only noise I heard came from the staff! (Which isn’t too different than on some of our floors too). My first meeting with library staff is on Monday, and I hope to be able to take more photos and find out more about their services then.