Action 1: Starting From Ground
For Action 1: Starting From Ground I was paired with Iris He, who is from Shijiazhuang, China. She completed her undergrad in Wood Design, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. With the entire world caught amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it was no surprise we started our conversation on how our countries were taking steps to track and control the virus.
Interestingly, China like India is also using technology to keep a check on the virus. They have mandatory thermal screenings at all major public places and use a QR Code app to identify and mark themselves safe from COVID-19. If someone is infected the QR code turns Red or else, stays Green.
Covid 19 App 
Covid QR Code
After talking a bit about the pandemic, our conversation shifted to major festivals. It turns out the Chinese also celebrate their New Year known as the Spring Festival based on the Lunar Calendar. This means, that the festival is celebrated on different dates every year. I found this to be the first common ground of our cultures as Diwali, which is one of the major festivals of India, is also celebrated according to the Lunar Calendar. Discussing a bit more about the festivals it was interesting to find that the Chinese also have some desserts which are made for these occasions. One that we talked about was the Wuren or the Mooncake and yes it looks exactly like it sounds! The moon cake is primarily made of nuts and is named accordingly, where Wu stands for 5 & Ren stands for Nuts. Since we had been talking a lot about food the next thing, we discussed was the White Tea. Although tea itself is a very popular drink in India, but we do not have anything called a White Tea. The White Tea is made using baked tea leaves which are also sundried. It is cooked using the simplest way to keep most part of its nutrients intact. Another Chinese drink is the Bubble Tea, which is particularly, popular amongst the youth. This drink is made using the Cassava Flour and Tapioca Pearls which give it the name Bubble Tea.
Soon our conversation shifted to network restrictions. Though we do not have many restrictions in India, but I found out that all the major social media apps are banned in China & they have a substitute for all of them. Just the idea of being connected to the world and not using the same platforms fascinated me. It was more on the lines of being self-reliant.
Through our conversation, we agreed that both India & China are very ancient civilizations/cultures and have a lot of diversity. This bought us to discussing the various Chinese dialects that are commonly spoken around the country. Apart form Chinese, some of the most spoken dialects are Cantonese, Beijing Dialect & Mandarin. Since we were talking about language, soon we started discussing about the movies watched in China. The two most interesting facts about movies in China were, that all the movies are produced by big production houses or companies and they do not have a fraternity like Hollywood or Bollywood. The next interesting thing was that a lot of Hindi movies and actors were very popular in China. It was exciting to know that although Iris could not remember the names of the Indian movies but, did remember their storylines.
Towards the end of our conversation we talked a bit about the sports culture in China. There are a few popular sports in China like Basketball, Cycling, Fishing & Table Tennis, but they do not have a National Sport, like most other countries, which was again quiet interesting. Although she did mention that due to its popularity, some people in China do consider Table Tennis as their national sport.
All in all, I found it gratifying talking to Iris and getting the opportunity to know China and its culture a bit better. Being so close to each other geographically, I realized that there are a few similarities in our culture but some very different aspects. I also liked the fact that how we share some very common interests and likings and how the entertainment industry binds us together. Even though we have a lot of similarities in our culture, but we still have unique identities due to our countries which for me is my home ground.