at home… in China

My life seems to be on tracks recently. Still, nothing unusual there, I’d been commuting to Vienna University for years. Then again, this train journey, I sat down next to a Chinese, and promptly got my  ID checked along with him… I love such situations which people tend to overlook, both when they never go abroad, and when they go abroad and get struck by how different it all is.

Your own country is at least as different. And other places need not feel all that foreign.

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Everybody always knows everything. Sometimes, it seems a precondition for thinking you are grown up that you don’t listen to others anymore. So much of it is not wisdom, but only hearsay.

Case in point: culture contact. Our case: my girlfriend and I have gone to my country of origin, Austria, for the summer. The first day caused a bit of a feeling of alienation – not surprisingly; the food can still be challenging (with a few surprises); but, there is aso quite enough that is enjoyable.

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… recently, and it’s come to feel pretty normal. Even feels rather normal to run an errand by going to Beijing, some 1500 km, 16 hours, on a train. Once again, back to my main interest for this blog: how do you make yourself at home in a strange country. Or, for that matter, in your own, in this world of ours.

After all, only too often, we live as if we were just visiting. Life is short is the attitude, and so people wring as much fun out of it as possible, look for a place that truly feels home, then get bored and start looking for different places, more exciting things, the more perfect partner… I’m sick of it.
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Those Asians. Just a smile, a front put up, a mask. The true feelings are hidden, real opinions seldom expressed. Or so, the common idea about the Far East seems to go.

If it ever was right, it hides the complexity of the present. Or actually, it not only hides, it positively misleads: In daily life, (especially young) people show emotions just as much as anywhere else. Chinese also – although valuing calmness, too – are often highly expressive. Not only that, but there are some things which Chinese will very openly comment on (and which Western people would avoid mentioning so directly).

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A recent post by Adam Daniel Mezei, calling for a culling of “English-language Chinese blogs” has been making me think.

There quite certainly are too many, too personal, non-productive, blogs out there. And not just on China. And not just blogs. Witness (sorry, but the example is too good), online porn. Whether it’s Steve Jobs or the CCP, they will not stop it – there is just too much of an interest.

So, crowd intelligence all too often seems to move towards the least common denominator, the most base of interests. In China affairs, too, I dare say that a post on sex in China is more of a lure than one on perceptions of gender-appropriate behavior; something outrageous is more likely to garner attention than something thoughtful.

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