Notes from American who travelled and now live part of the year in China.
"Eleven years ago, when I first went to China, I actually had no cultural shock. I had traveled in Eastern Europe, the Balkans... as well as France, Greece and Italy. I had been to Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Belize and many Caribbean island nations - each with cultural differences unique and yet relatable to my own. In China I was expecting something more exotic, perhaps. Yet, China struck me as not a 'developing nation' but as a place I needed see before it changed. There was something urgent; an experience come calling!
I have never thought it would all suddenly go away, yet I envisioned machines harvesting the rice-terraces and wheat fields that surrounded Guilin. I flew on Jet aircraft newer than those in the USA. I marveled that Tibetan people would move an entire town so that in would no longer be on the Chinese highway. I saw gold-dredges and huge Dam-building earth-movers in the Himalayan valleys; Oil fields and boom-towns in Xinjiang's and Gansu's deserts... ... we tried to travel and see minority peoples; jungle and snow-capped mountain run-off; Pandas and Snow-leopards; wooden villages and karst peak caves.
The last time I was at our Guilin home, I was disappointed they no longer allowed water-buffalo to travel the street by our house; the night cormorant fishermen's rafts were anchored for "effect" on the Li river cruise; huge flood lights lit the peaks and neon glitzed the bridges of the city; our favorite restaurant had opened a suhi-bar; our neighbor had sold and moved... and we had to put on new exterior window bars and doors to keep the honest people honest! Our 1999 home which once was considered beautiful, was now gray and surrounded by hi-rise condos that blotted out the city's green peaks... guards no longer manned the entry gates and no one paid the electric-bill for the street-lights!
If as you say China and its people are 'falling' to modernization... it may be as fast as our daughter reads about the Revolutionary War and the Industrial Revolution in America. She's 100% Chinese and already 80% average U.S. teen-ager... so, history went in one ear and out the other! She didn't want to watch the Dragon-boat races on the river in Tampa, because they have them in Guilin, and 'who cares?' Wasn't even sure she wanted to return with us in June to visit her aunts, uncles and grand-parents 'cause 'they're old-fashioned and there's nothing much to do'. In fact, the only reason she's going is to buy new clothes and a couple electric guitars!
You are probably right... there may be culture shock for our daughter at least. ..." |
