Our students call the Foreign Teacher's Dormitory "The Panda House" because foreigners in Western China are often treated like pandas: everyone watches your every move and everything you do is interesting. People shout at you to try and get your attention. They take your picture. They watch what you eat and what you buy. And trying to speak Chinese with the locals is often a lost cause because even though you can speak Chinese, you're a panda speaking Chinese. It's like a dog speaking English; maybe you can understand the English, but you can't get past the idea a dog is speaking English. Being treated like a panda can get very tiring and, at times, grating. Some days I just have to go home and close the door. Panda time over!
But here in the countryside, we're not pandas. We're aliens. I've had to ask people to please stop taking pictures after 20 flashes in a row. Lots of shouting, helicoptering attention, intent staring for minutes on end. It's not friendly curiosity, so it's been a challenge dealing with it. I keep reminding myself we are probably the first foreigners they've ever seen in real life and keep a frozen smile on my face.
When I considered the challenges I might face being in the Peace Corps, this wasn't one that crossed my mind. I didn't understand how foreigners are perceived here. (There are reasons for this perception; the history of foreigners coming to China has not always been positive. Google 'Opium Wars' if you want to know more.) But this challenge has forced me to grow a very thick skin. I worry when I come back, I'm going to be a bit more hardened than before. On the other hand, perhaps I was too sensitive before, and a thicker skin is just what I needed to learn from this experience. So if I come home and I'm all mean and stuff, now you know why.
Amazing. Time to put on those Paris Hilton Shades!
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, I have an award for you posted over at my blog.
Hey now you know how all those celebrities feel they put on the cover of People and US. Would it help if you wore a hat? I think you prolly can’t wear a baseball cap but you could wear one of those large hats pheasants in china wear. I can totally see myself posing for cameras if I were there.
ReplyDeleteI just could not imagine this. I am very thin skinned, this might be the trial by fire I would need to toughen up. Glad you are handling things as well as I imagined YOU would.
ReplyDeleteSuz
My Dad has traveled a lot to China for business, and he says that while he is there he constantly hears the people using a Chinese slang word that means 'big nose.' Is it all just curiosity, or do you think there is an element of racism there too? I know I don't understand or know much about the culture, but it seems incredibly rude.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you'll ever get all mean and stuff. You are learning and growing in a way you probably could never have imagined.
ReplyDeleteWow, that sounds like quite the ordeal at times... I don't know how you do it, I think it would freak me the heck out and make me wonder if indeed I looked like a freak.
ReplyDeleteI admire your thick skin :)
Oh wow. Keep your sun glasses on may help with the frozen smile - no? Kinda felt that way when I (as a black girl) when to Vermont and got a lot of unwelcomed attention. Then I realized, I was probably the first black person a lot of younger kids/teens had ever seen up close. I guess it depends on where you go and what people group you are venturing into huh? Hang in there...
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