Living in another country and learning about different cultures is something many Elon University students hope to experience by studying abroad. But for sophomore Kaylina McKelvey, seeing the world at a young age wasn’t just a dream — it was a reality.

“I grew up in Guangzhou, China,” she said. “When I moved there when I was 10 years old, there was hardly any Western influence. The infrastructure was very traditional Chinese, and by the time I left there when I was 18, it changed so much.”

According to McKelvey, the Western influence is the modernization of Europe and the United States. During her eight years there, the influence really began manifesting in Guangzhou, where there are now Western restaurants and stores like H&M and Zara.

Moving across the world

When making the move from the United States to China, McKelvey was not sure what to expect.

“I thought China was going to be crazy. I remember stepping off the plane and I was like, ‘Whoa, there are buildings, there are cars,’” she said. “My perception of China was just not what it is, and I think a lot of Americans don’t know what it’s all about.”

McKelvey said a misconception is that people only think of the city life in China and the pollution the cities create.

“People think they’re building way too quickly and it’s really effecting their ecosystems, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that outside of the main cities, it’s all farming, it’s all agriculture,” she said.

Though China is known for its big cities, McKelvey said the United States has at least 15 times the number of cities China has. This means there is more local and reachable agriculture found in markets and grocery stores, making the food much fresher.

While there, McKelvey found a passion in nutrition and eating right. If there is one thing she said she misses most, it is the food.

“You go to the local supermarkets and everything there is fresh,” McKelvey said. “I can remember the stench of raw meat and fish, but it’s great because there is never the question of, ‘What am I eating?’ like there is in America.”

This is just one of the many influences the Chinese culture had on McKelvey, which she has brought to her friends in the United States.

McKelvey’s boyfriend, junior Chris Liebenberg, studied in Shanghai in the fall and has been able to recognize her Chinese influence since he’s been back. 

“There was always a feeling when you looked at her in social situations — she didn’t seem as comfortable as the other people around her,” Liebenberg said. “At first, she didn’t seem Chinese in any way, but you could tell she had been raised differently than everyone around her.” 

Discovering cultural differences

McKelvey said since Liebenberg’s been back, he has started making more comments on the culture she picked up from her childhood.

Leibenberg said she definitely got her driving skills from China. 

“Sometimes she would stick out like a sore thumb here at Elon, whether it be pushing through to the front of the line or weaving her way through traffic,” he said.

When she came to the United States., McKelvey failed her driver license test several times before she finally learned that traffic laws are really enforced here.

“The drivers there swerve in and out of traffic, don’t use blinkers and don’t stop at stop signs,” she said. “When I went for my license, I was like, ‘If they don’t do this in China, why do I have to do it here?’” 

Each time she visits China, McKelvey is cut off from part of the world.

One of the most substantial cultural differences McKelvey noticed while living there was how much the Chinese government controls everything.

“Twitter and Instagram are blocked in China,” she said. “The government doesn’t want certain things to go viral because when things trend [in the United States] they become a 1.3 billion-person trend.”

She also said the government does a good job of shielding citizens from crime.

“The government doesn’t want its citizens to know about these things so they block them,” McKelvey said. “Rape [is underreported] there because they keep the people from knowing about it. Gun control isn’t a thing there because there aren’t gun-related crimes.”

Keeping crimes off the television and shielding citizens from seeing them on the Internet is one of the reasons she thinks crime rates are so underreported in China. 

Crime-related programs aren’t the only things blocked from the Chinese people. McKelvey also said that sex and drugs are not really included as part of their entertainment world. 

“Twerking was never a thing there,” she said. “They don’t see these things and the government doesn’t want them to.” 

As for culture shock, McKelvey said she never truly experienced it, but she came close when she moved back to the United States.

“I really don’t know as much about America as I thought I did. It’s about knowing where you come from, and I don’t,” she said, “Living over there, I knew about the Kardashians, but that’s about it.”

Being shielded from a lot of pop culture and the depressing news left McKelvey in for a rude awakening when she came back to the United States.

“When I first got to Elon, I turned the TV and CNN was on and I just remember thinking to myself, ‘Wow, it must just be a really bad day,’” she said. “My friend and I talked about it and she was like, ‘No, you’re just in America now.’”

Planning to return

Though McKelvey is enjoying her time at Elon, she is planning on living in China permanently after graduating, the biggest reason being their growing economy.

“The middle class there is starting to thrive, and their want and need for American brands has skyrocketed,” McKelvey said. “The wealth is really growing there.”

Because of the infatuation Chinese citizens have with Westerners, McKelvey said it is easy for Westerners to take advantage of their growing economy. 

“It’s sad to say, but as a foreigner, you have a bump up in the social class,” she said. “I want to be a part of their growth. Westerners are still a new concept to them and we really stick out. There are only about 1, 2 or 3 million Westerners compared to 1.3 billion Chinese people. We’re just not as prevalent.”

McKelvey spent this past summer in Hong Kong interning in the PR department of a technology company that her two brothers work at. She said Hong Kong is a lot like New York City because it’s expensive to live there and it’s technology oriented. 

“Hong Kong was colonized by Britain, so it is extremely Westernized,” she said. “In Hong Kong you are at a disadvantage if you don’t know English, so it made it easy doing business there this summer during my internship.” 

Since most speak English in Hong Kong, McKelvey is still unsure of if she’ll end up there or mainland China.

“In terms of language and writing and speaking Chinese, I had the benefit of being there young and learning it,” she said. “But I went to an international school, so everything was taught in English.”

McKelvey didn’t learn the Chinese language to the degree she would’ve liked to, so she is minoring in Asian Studies to learn more.

“If there’s one regret my parents should have, it’s not sending me through public schooling when my brain was still a sponge and I could easily learn the language,” she said.

It’s not that McKelvey doesn’t know any Chinese — being there she learned a lot of vocabulary — but she is now using her minor as a chance to learn grammar, which she will integrate once she returns.