I'm reading this interesting article on the influx of African immigrants into Guangzhou, China (here) and, having just been there and witnessed it myself, it kind of struck a chord with me. One little event that has stuck with me since my trip (bearing in mind my trip just ended two days ago) was going into a little noodle shop in Guangzhou and seeing a family of four: mum, dad and two little kids. For me it seemed pretty unusual because the mum was Chinese (probably Cantonese, and yes there IS a difference) but dad and the kids looked African. This was especially surprising for me, as you see the white male/Chinese woman combination a lot, but never this.
For the most part (my family included) the Chinese people that I've encountered are quite racist against Africans and people with dark skin. Or if not racist, ignorant at least. So it was a bit unusual. But for me, what made me look twice, three times, more, were the little kids speaking Chinese. I know that it would make sense for them to speak Chinese if they were brought up in China and attended a Chinese school but... I kept looking over and eavesdropping shamelessly, wanting to hear more.
I'm used to seeing/hearing foreigners speak Chinese now of course, but these little kids spoke Chinese like native Chinese children. Of course they were young so they spoke of child-like things and teased each other. It was all simple words and sentences, but if you closed your eyes you would think they were Chinese.
Is it strange that I found this situation so fascinating? It helped that the children were absolutely beautiful. Big eyes, long eyelashes, cute chubby little faces. Mixed babies are just the best.
I guess it's just something that I didn't expect to see in China, and it broke the usual stereotypes of white foreign males and Asian women that you always see around.
*edit*
I just realised that the tone and content of what I wrote doesn't quite match up to the link that I posted. However the link really is interesting! :o)
Showing posts with label travels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travels. Show all posts
Sunday, January 4, 2009
One month more
Any Les Mis fans may or may not get the reference in my title. I've now got that song stuck in my head, I'm thinking of writing some lyrics to go with my current situation, but that takes more motivation than I've got right now. This post is probably a bit out of the usual travel/life in China post that I usually put up here, but my LJ lifeline has been cut again so blog here it is!
I guess now that it's a real countdown/race to the end of my time here, I think I'm appreciating my time here a little more. Or maybe it's because I just came back from travelling around other unfamiliar parts of China and Shanghai seems familiar and home-like now. I've toyed with the idea, on-and-off, of staying here for longer instead of going back home and working, but it keeps coming down to the same thing. It'd just be financially crazy/unviable not to take the job I've got lined up waiting for me and instead living here with no income (I suppose I could find some teaching position in the interim before finding a likely low-paid job here in Shanghai) likely having to keep on living with the G'parents. And all the pro/con lists that I can make in my head don't help. In the end I should ask whether I want to stay or go, but the answer is that I don't really know. I want to stay, I want to go.
Part of me longs for the independence I'll get when I go back. Then I think of having responsibilities, paying bills, working full time. But then I switch back and think it'd be the same here, I'd have to work, but I'd be paid much less in a (most likely) less intellectually satisfying job (and with fewer work perks like flex time and leave days). But then there's family here, and learning Chinese, and all the novelty that comes from living in a new, big city. Versus the friends living in Canberra that I've got and all the usual, cosy haunts that I've got around the 'Berra.
Sometimes in life you get these forks in the road and I know I'm the type of person who, no matter how happy/satisfied I am along my other path, will always wonder what would have happened if only I'd gone the other way. But that's what keeps life interesting, is it not? The endless possibilities, the what might have beens, the what will bes?
I know I'm going back, but it's interesting to speculate on what it could be if I didn't.
***
In other news-worthy items (or not, depending on your perspective) I just got back from travelling in southern China - Guilin, Yangshuo and Guangzhou. While I don't think I got out of the actual travel what most gushing tourists get (various over-awed and excited exclamations of "oh wow isn't the view BREATHTAKING?" and "aren't Chinese minority cultures SOOO fascinating?" Or as one American guy sitting at a table in a small, but touristy restaurant in a village near the Dragon's backbone terraces "this chicken is the best chicken I've ever tasted... it's ruined all chicken for me for LIFE!") it was good to see other parts of China, besides Shanghai and Beijing. I was dragged to a few smaller Chinese towns near Shanghai when I was younger, but I didn't really appreciate them at the time.
In some ways Chinese cities are all the same. Lots of tall buildings, all in that kind of ugly Chinese modern architectural style (i.e. with haste overtaking taste as the final say in how it all looks); a bit of foggy smoggy-ness in the skies; the centre of the city having big, wide roads with stores and restaurants and hair dressing salons galore; and the scads of Chinese people busily roaming the streets. But if you look a little closer I think you can see some of the differences too. And that's what makes it interesting.
I think it helped me realise that I'm a bit of a city gal. Nature is nice when it's sunny and beautiful and the birds are chirping (not too loudly, that's just annoying) and you can wear t-shirts and shorts outside, but when it's cold and rainy and you're miserable and gloomy, it's not all it's cracked up to be. I'd rather be inside next to a fire or a heater with a hot drink and a good book than outside roaming the moors to see some foggy greenery and getting all rosy cheeked and red-nosed.
I guess now that it's a real countdown/race to the end of my time here, I think I'm appreciating my time here a little more. Or maybe it's because I just came back from travelling around other unfamiliar parts of China and Shanghai seems familiar and home-like now. I've toyed with the idea, on-and-off, of staying here for longer instead of going back home and working, but it keeps coming down to the same thing. It'd just be financially crazy/unviable not to take the job I've got lined up waiting for me and instead living here with no income (I suppose I could find some teaching position in the interim before finding a likely low-paid job here in Shanghai) likely having to keep on living with the G'parents. And all the pro/con lists that I can make in my head don't help. In the end I should ask whether I want to stay or go, but the answer is that I don't really know. I want to stay, I want to go.
Part of me longs for the independence I'll get when I go back. Then I think of having responsibilities, paying bills, working full time. But then I switch back and think it'd be the same here, I'd have to work, but I'd be paid much less in a (most likely) less intellectually satisfying job (and with fewer work perks like flex time and leave days). But then there's family here, and learning Chinese, and all the novelty that comes from living in a new, big city. Versus the friends living in Canberra that I've got and all the usual, cosy haunts that I've got around the 'Berra.
Sometimes in life you get these forks in the road and I know I'm the type of person who, no matter how happy/satisfied I am along my other path, will always wonder what would have happened if only I'd gone the other way. But that's what keeps life interesting, is it not? The endless possibilities, the what might have beens, the what will bes?
I know I'm going back, but it's interesting to speculate on what it could be if I didn't.
***
In other news-worthy items (or not, depending on your perspective) I just got back from travelling in southern China - Guilin, Yangshuo and Guangzhou. While I don't think I got out of the actual travel what most gushing tourists get (various over-awed and excited exclamations of "oh wow isn't the view BREATHTAKING?" and "aren't Chinese minority cultures SOOO fascinating?" Or as one American guy sitting at a table in a small, but touristy restaurant in a village near the Dragon's backbone terraces "this chicken is the best chicken I've ever tasted... it's ruined all chicken for me for LIFE!") it was good to see other parts of China, besides Shanghai and Beijing. I was dragged to a few smaller Chinese towns near Shanghai when I was younger, but I didn't really appreciate them at the time.
In some ways Chinese cities are all the same. Lots of tall buildings, all in that kind of ugly Chinese modern architectural style (i.e. with haste overtaking taste as the final say in how it all looks); a bit of foggy smoggy-ness in the skies; the centre of the city having big, wide roads with stores and restaurants and hair dressing salons galore; and the scads of Chinese people busily roaming the streets. But if you look a little closer I think you can see some of the differences too. And that's what makes it interesting.
I think it helped me realise that I'm a bit of a city gal. Nature is nice when it's sunny and beautiful and the birds are chirping (not too loudly, that's just annoying) and you can wear t-shirts and shorts outside, but when it's cold and rainy and you're miserable and gloomy, it's not all it's cracked up to be. I'd rather be inside next to a fire or a heater with a hot drink and a good book than outside roaming the moors to see some foggy greenery and getting all rosy cheeked and red-nosed.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Reading over the old to create the new
A burst of creativity always strikes when you have other things that you should be doing. I will call this "procrastination art". I'd like to think of it as being a real talent, maybe just because I spend so much time doing it that I'd rather consider it a positive activity rather than a pure waste of time.
I realised looking through previous posts that I really did run out of thoughts and time along my travels. Big gaps in places and not wholly satisfying descriptions/narratives/anecdotes of my travels. I think it's hard in this kind of situation because you want to make what you're writing about interesting but without getting so personal that you're revealing too much of yourself. It's got to be more than just a description of what you've done and what you've seen and where you've been. Because that's not interesting and if I was going to just do that then I'd just list places and monuments etc. And what makes it even harder is that you're always pushed for time when you're travelling, so you only have 10 minutes here or 30 minutes there, and you're never quite sure of when you'll next get internet!
So I feel like overall I wish I'd written a little more to remember things by. I have photos too, but I suppose that's not quite the same. Did I manage to get down what I was thinking or feeling at certain times? I think it's important to be able to learn from my experiences. And travelling, particularly travelling solo, is the perfect opportunity to be able to explore thoughts, feelings, ideas that you've had gestating in the deep, dark recesses of your subconscious. You come away from it all knowing more about yourself. Or maybe you come away having figured out something that's niggled at you for a long time.
What did I bring away from all of this? That you can't always plan really far into the future and that's ok. Feelings of instability and insecurity are fine, and not knowing where you might be in 5 years is acceptable too. It'll all come in time, and until it does, there's no point stressing yourself out more by worrying. This is not, however, the same as doing nothing and leaving everything to pure chance/luck/fate/ whatever you want to call it! It's more accepting that you don't know everything right now and that's all right.
This is more of an LJ post than anything else, but lacking the ability to access LJ, I'm left with this. I suppose it's an overshare for a travel blog post but I need to put it somewhere!
I realised looking through previous posts that I really did run out of thoughts and time along my travels. Big gaps in places and not wholly satisfying descriptions/narratives/anecdotes of my travels. I think it's hard in this kind of situation because you want to make what you're writing about interesting but without getting so personal that you're revealing too much of yourself. It's got to be more than just a description of what you've done and what you've seen and where you've been. Because that's not interesting and if I was going to just do that then I'd just list places and monuments etc. And what makes it even harder is that you're always pushed for time when you're travelling, so you only have 10 minutes here or 30 minutes there, and you're never quite sure of when you'll next get internet!
So I feel like overall I wish I'd written a little more to remember things by. I have photos too, but I suppose that's not quite the same. Did I manage to get down what I was thinking or feeling at certain times? I think it's important to be able to learn from my experiences. And travelling, particularly travelling solo, is the perfect opportunity to be able to explore thoughts, feelings, ideas that you've had gestating in the deep, dark recesses of your subconscious. You come away from it all knowing more about yourself. Or maybe you come away having figured out something that's niggled at you for a long time.
What did I bring away from all of this? That you can't always plan really far into the future and that's ok. Feelings of instability and insecurity are fine, and not knowing where you might be in 5 years is acceptable too. It'll all come in time, and until it does, there's no point stressing yourself out more by worrying. This is not, however, the same as doing nothing and leaving everything to pure chance/luck/fate/ whatever you want to call it! It's more accepting that you don't know everything right now and that's all right.
This is more of an LJ post than anything else, but lacking the ability to access LJ, I'm left with this. I suppose it's an overshare for a travel blog post but I need to put it somewhere!
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