China through the Kaleidoscope of a Curious Traveler

You should now pay attention to what I will say: If you are planning a trip to a non-English speaking country, you must type a list of most important words and phrases in a card, laminate it and carry it like a passport. You should include the following words: Hello. Yes. No. Where is the restroom? How much is this? And in my case, I must add: “Do you have diet soda?” And “I do not eat pork!” You do not need to bother with “I do not know Chinese” since your face will scream that statement before even you say it in perhaps an unintelligible accent. I have a business idea for tourism companies: print a list of most needed words and phrases in two languages on the front of T-shirts and sell them in airports nearby related airlines. The tourists could just point at the words and sentences when they needed them. You could even include, “I love you!” or “I am a good American!”

The second day of my trip, I ventured a solo trip to the nearby subway market. It was like two Super Wal-Mart store underground. Lacking the 3Ls haunted me there. I learned that they have not heard the word “diet.” They really did not need diet sodas, yet! They were oblivious to the obese genies lurking in those Cola and Sprite bottles. After I lost my way in the subway super market, unable to ask the direction of the exit that would take me towards my hotel, I was disappointed in myself. As an Americanized person I was considering myself the center of the universe and for a while I blamed the Chinese for not listing the ingredients in English or not including English to their signs. I also blamed them for not understanding my sign language.

Finally, I made it to the hotel. There I would discover two beautiful creatures, two American girls; Maggie and Molly! I entered the elevator and somehow loudly pronounced the word FIVE before pushing the button. It was followed by a loud voice “SIX”. The moment I saw them I struck a conversation and expressed my excitement of seeing other Americans in that town. They were from North Carolina. Maggie was working as a salesperson for an American company that was selling home automation or smart home devices. Molly was a university student and had come for her summer trip and was hoping to make a few bucks by tutoring English to those who could afford it. We met each other in the lobby several more times.

Another day, while walking on a busy side walk I noticed a tall guy with blond hair. I yelled from behind: “Go home Yankee!” He turned back, and upon seeing my face he smiled. Perhaps his facial expression would be different if I looked like a Chinese. He was an American, studying Chinese at Hunan University, while melting in the sweltering heat of Changsha. When I told him that we were there with 18 exchange students who had already studied Mandarin from a Chinese teacher for one year in USA, his eyes opened with happiness. I could not help but remind him the reality: hey these kids are your competition! He woke up and cracked a joke: “let me go to my dorm and study more!” I tried to console him: “do not worry; there are more than a billion Chinese!”

I have never been flag-waving, gun-totting type of a citizen, and I will never be. Nationalism or jingoism has been responsible for the biggest atrocities and wars in the last century. Replacing the religious zeal of medieval era, nationalism has surpassed religious bigotry in terms of producing hate, enemies, evil empires, axis of evil, wars, genocide and appalling atrocities. Nevertheless, my excitement for meeting two Americans among millions of Chinese was the expression of my peaceful, cultural patriotism. You may never know how much you love America and Americans until you move to another country where English is like French and Americans are a rarity. You may never know how lucky you are for being an American citizen until you are stopped by police for your political/religious views or affiliation, as it happened to me in my hometown numerous times.

Chinese Children: the Most Precious Commodity

Back to the “more than a billion Chinese!” Egypt? Pyramids and Nile. France? Eiffel Tower and Wine. Turkey? Blue Mosque and St. Sophia. China? China Wall and Population! China has adopted a one-child policy for decades. This controversial policy has reduced the increase in population. The law does not have much power over the rich who can afford to pay the fine for the second child and those living in countryside. Some rich people avoid the restriction by taking their wives abroad, usually to the US or Europe, to give birth to their second or third children. Still, the impact of one-child policy on the society is huge. The only child gets the whole attention of the family and is luckier than older generations in terms of enjoying prosperity and freedom. Children with no siblings feel lonely, which is bad; but this brings families together with other families, which is good. Many weekend activities are shared by families!

At Lushan International and Experimental School, during the first week of our arrival, I gave three lectures to senior students who were interested in studying abroad. An average class had 60-70 students, about three times the average class we have in Tucson. Another visually outstanding fact was the piles of books towering over each desk. Chinese students appeared to be literally drowning among books which covered the faces of some shorter students. They had little space left on their little desks to use for taking notes. This was just the opposite of what we were experiencing in America. In the beginning of every class, I would ask my secondary and even college students to take out their books, or papers and pens. Almost every teacher in American schools is used to see some students coming to the classroom with neither paper nor pen! So, those Chinese classes had a shocking first impression on me.

My first lecture was an impromptu one: on the importance of critical and creative thinking. I grabbed a plastic drinking water bottle in the classroom and compared it to a clay jar. I called the plastic bottle a technological marvel. I pulled their attention to the structural and design improvements over the clay jar, from the verticals on the lid to the transparency of the container, from the concave ring in the middle to the weight ratio of the container to the water, from its durability to its mass production… And I pulled their attention to a big negative aspect of the plastic bottle: not biodegradable. I told them that anyone who would improve this bottle’s design or make it environmentally friendly would be snapped by a bottle manufacturer. In the second lecture, I compared and contrasted the cultures of both countries. I shared with them the cultural shock I experienced 19 years ago when I immigrated to the US. I could not believe my eyes when I first saw Americans shaving in their cars while driving, or reading magazines in their bathrooms. I talked about the pros and cons of American individualism and the same for Chinese socialism. My third lecture was more pragmatic and practical. It was about how to increase their chances to be accepted by top US universities. I advised them to explore and discover themselves. I told them to choose a scientific field and educate themselves deeper. I gave them hope by informing them that the 70% of graduate students who study engineering or sciences are foreign born. Almost all were very attentive and interested in studying at a US University.

In the end of a lecture, noticing a book cover containing both vertically and horizontally organized Chinese characters, I asked them about the direction of the Chinese writing. (I confess that I did not do my homework before the China trip). My question led me to learn an interesting fact. In ancient times, Chinese used bamboo strips to write. Since they would attach bamboo strips to each other with silk strings, the most reasonable way of writing would be vertical. Writing horizontally would create practical problems in both reading and writing. The direction of adding extra strips and the vertical flexibility of the bamboo surface dictated the direction of old Chinese: vertical!

I have little knowledge of Chinese history, but I noticed that the Chinese students are proud of their history and heritage. A group of students signed a book containing advices from Confucius and presented it to me while highly praising him. On the other hand, unlike Turks or Arabs, Chinese have no problem assuming English or Western nicknames. Every student at the Lushan School had a Western nickname. This identification makes them highly receptive to Western culture, fashion, lifestyle, and Christianity. A student at Hunan University told me that these days it is fashion to conduct graduation ceremonies at church; according to him, about fifty percent of students had no problem with affiliating to Christian church. Surely, joining the bandwagon of the winning world, and getting a share of the pie has its appeal beyond seeking the truth in theology.

Melancholy and Cultural Sensitivity

If television programs are a measure, Chinese people are socially conservative. Surfing the 44 channels in my hotel for days, I never saw prolonged kissing scenes or couples in bed. Though, I saw a few ads about how to make one’s breasts bigger. I did not find a single English channel, but I heard that people could have some English channels such as HBO and CNN through cable. After ten days in China, I started craving English channels; I could even watch the unbalanced and unfair Fox News. At any time, you may find almost one fifth of the channels showing war movies. If you include Karate and violent American movies such as Rambo or Indiana Jones, perhaps the violent movies would fill more than a quarter of the programs. I also noticed plenty of feuding people, sad and crying faces. You may not only see women, but also men crying and sobbing.

I saw a couple of reality shows too. For instance, the one about obstacle competition, where young men and women are expected to pass a series of obstacles in less than two minutes without falling into dirty water... I did not see a sitcom like Everyone Loves Diamond or Sinfilled (don't bother correcting the spelling errors) where people are shepherded through laughing tracks to laugh exactly when the director wants them to. Though Chinese people are politically manipulated more directly than Americans, they are not yet shepherded so directly when to laugh.

My observation about Chinese TV and films is not based on a quantified survey made for a long period of time; thus you should caution against generalizing it.

Our hosts showed sensitivity towards our culture and even my idiosyncratic preferences. For instance, my son's host family together with another host family invited me for a dinner. They first took me to their home, but there I learned that we would meet in a restaurant. When I saw the restaurant, I could not believe it. Learning that I was a Muslim, they had picked a restaurant ran by Muslims adjacent to a big mosque facing the huge stadium and the colossal Ferris wheel. The Restaurant's wall had a huge Arabic calligraphy on a green background testifying to oneness of God, while adding Muhammad's name, which was a violation of strict monotheism expressed in the Quran.  While waiting for the orders, I wanted to visit the mosque. If I met an English speaking Chinese Muslim, I was going to present him/her my recent publication, Quran: a Reformist Translation. I found none there.

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