Through The Eyes Of A Foreigner

          As related in China Road: “The bumpity-bumping on a dirt track causes the large watermelon in the luggage rack to fall onto the head of a child. The child lets out a squeal but seems not to be seriously hurt. No one gets angry. No one threatens to sue. Falling watermelons are just an occupational hazard of travel in China” (149). I’ve never had a watermelon fall on my head while traveling here in China, but I’ve felt some of the uncomfortable aspects of traveling in this highly populated country. On our way to institute one evening, along with about fifteen other people, we waited patiently at a bus stop for our bus to arrive. When the bus finally arrived, it appeared to be completely full. (In fact, filled over capacity. This couldn’t be legal in the U.S.) I’m still not sure how we all fit on that bus, nor how the bus doors were able to close, but we kept a positive attitude reminding ourselves: TIC (This is China).

            Coming back from a week off school, we had a twelve hour train ride in hard seats, on a train filled to twice of its capacity with standing passengers. Let’s be honest, no one can stand for that long, especially not for an entire night. Where do all those passengers end up? In the aisles and on the edges of our seats. It was certainly a memorable night, and all that was missing was a falling watermelon.

            “There are times when we’re out, doing whatever needs to be done, and we turn to each other, and it’s clearly written on our faces what we’re about to do. We communicate to each other without words, saying, it’s time to get our “Chinese” on. Then we start forcing our way onto a bus, squeeze ourselves through a crowd, cut to the front of some semi-existent line, slurp down our food, bluntly point out something, or do some other ‘Chinese’ thing.” (Tina’s Blog)

In China, the common people are known colloquially as the 老百姓 (lao bai xing), literally the ‘Old Hundred Names.’ In my short stay here in China, I’ve found that Chinese people look at themselves more collectively than Americans do. It isn’t uncommon for a Chinese person to begin a statement with something to the effect of: “We Chinese people believe…” An American would seem absurd to begin a sentence like that. Who am I to speak for all other Americans? I think it’s interesting how Americans tend to focus more on individuality.

                Talking with many random Chinese people on buses and in the subway, I’ve talked with individuals with many different backgrounds and discussed a wide variety of different topics. One thing that intrigued me at first, was that most Chinese people aren’t really interested in politics. People don’t really care because they aren’t involved in the process. Why should they care? They can’t do anything about it whether they like it or not. Occasionally in local elections there is a ballot, but it doesn’t mean anything, so it isn’t worth filling out anyways.