at home… in China

It’s all just words. What is being said. And so much more behind it: the thought of what to say, and the decision not to say certain things. Gestures, looks, expressions. Communication.

With people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, it’s only too clear that there will be differences. First of all, in the languages we grew up with and learned to speak; what subjects are considered topics for everyday speech, and which are rather sensitive; to what extent the communication is meant to support a social relationship or to be just the facts.

Intercultural communication has come to be of ever greater importance. Some people marry between cultures; some do international business; most come into some contact with people from other backgrounds. Maybe it has been given too much importance.
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Fewer daughters will raise women’s value

http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/foreign-view/2010-01/501145.html

The Chinese countryside is scattered with posters urging people to remember that “Girls are just as good as boys,” but the surplus of men keeps rising.

According to a study released in April 2009 by the British Medical Journal, currently, 117 boys are born in China for every 100 girls, a rise from earlier figures of 108 to 100.

Gender screening during pregnancy, and follow up abortions, may be illegal, but they’re still common. Traditional thinking has combined with modern tools to create a gender gulf. But what impact will the imbalance have on Chinese culture?

Traditional Chinese society placed higher value on men, and thus sons. It was the sons who would continue the family name, go on working with their parents and support them. This is not just an aspect of Chinese culture, but is common in other societies as well. In fact, when my brother married and took his wife’s family name, some people asked me if I now had to keep mine – at which my mother immediately shook her head.

Women still face the “glass ceiling” in many careers too. Even in school, it is common to assume that men have more aptitude for the “important” subjects such as mathematics and sciences, whereas woman are better in the “soft” subjects such as languages. Often, this even goes to the point where it is thought that men were simply more talented and intelligent.

From actual data, however, we increasingly see that it is, in fact, the girls who study better at school, let alone at university.

Yet, there are still more boys than girls being born, because education isn’t the only value here. The one-child policy is clearly having an effect; families may only value boys a little more than girls, but if they only have one chance, they don’t want to waste it.

Another quality of Chinese social thought is the high value placed on family. A life is seen as incomplete without marriage and children. Typically, parents are also looking for a great match for their child. A potential husband has to be able to care for his wife, while a wife has to be cultivated, a good mother, and preferably pretty.

A part of that traditional thought is also that love takes second stage, at best, after practical considerations. The two potential partners have to be seen as fitting together. Character plays its part in that, but so do material, social status, and ethnic background.

Where does that leave the millions of Chinese men who, by 2020, will not be able to find a Chinese wife? What effect will this have on the culture?

Clearly, something has to give. Most analysts writing about this issue have been somewhat pessimistic, predicting a rise in human trafficking and prostitution, especially the import of foreign women from poorer countries and regions, such as Southeast Asia and eastern Russia, into China. Increasing numbers of young men may also make society more aggressive.

But let’s take a more positive approach. Regard for daughters will probably rise as well, as people recognize that daughters are usually easier than sons to raise into good adults who will learn well, work hard, and not forget about their parents. Most importantly, as the rarer of the sexes, they will have a better shot on the marriage market.

For the men things will get harder: The chances that the woman will have to be a foreigner will be better as there are simply too few Chinese women. The men will have to work particularly hard to attract and keep their partner, whether Chinese or foreign, since the women will have more choice.

The sooner it is realized that it is increasingly better to have a girl than to have a boy, and the sooner the old prejudices against women being educated too highly or reaching too powerful positions are abolished, the better it will be for China.

Women can’t be seen just as producers of the next generation of sons. Culture may change slowly, but the regions of Hong Kong and Taiwan, with similar cultures and traditions, both have low birth-rates and balanced gender ratios. The Chinese mainland clearly has the potential to change fast.

The thing about foreign countries seems to always be, well, that they are foreign, strange – or, once you are able to switch to a point of view that does not have you yourself at its center, that you are the foreigner, the stranger there.
This is the well-clichéd problem behind many issues: from culture shock to society’s acceptance of outsiders (or lack thereof), from the instant mojo of the new hire from far-away great countries to the aura of leprosy that sometimes seems to surround the stranger.

So, what does it take to feel at home; does it make any sense for me to be writing a blog entitled “at home in China”? (I realize one issue with the latter is that I haven’t been the most prolific writer; it’s my unmade new year’s resolution to write regularly.)

Let’s get to two quotidian, and at the same time central, issues first: language and food.

Chances are, when you go to a foreign country, you are and feel like an adult, but you are also rather like a small child. After all, you can’t talk yet. Even having studied the language, you talk differently, in ways that are not quite conventional and probably don’t (immediately) understand all that much. In China, in particular, there are different regional variations of the Chinese language, and even more dialects. Of course, one can still live comfortably in many places, knowing just the basics – if that. Thinking of deeper issues, however, the importance of language returns with a vengeance.

In my case, being here as German teacher, there is way too much contact with languages I already know, and far too little need to go beyond the bare essentials of Chinese. I am working on it, and noticing more and more just how appropriate the Chinese way of learning (which seems to be one of the main impediments to foreign language studies in China) is to the study of the Chinese language. There is a very strong need to sit down and practice writing, review and practice by reciting, go on – and review, then repeat…

The other major issue one encounters more than once-a-day is, of course, food. There is no coming home in a different place if it is not accompanied (or, more likely, preceded) by a liking for the food. In a place like China, this can be particularly striking.

Much non-Chinese food is hard to come by outside of the bigger cities in China, and when it can be found, it’s very expensive in comparison to normal food.

Tastes are also, of course, noticeably different; Chinese sweets are oftentimes decidedly not-sweet to the European palate, meats on the market are oftentimes so fresh, they could still run (or fly, or jump, or swim) away, and people actually like to see that meat is not grown in a vat – so, of course there are bones (and fish heads, and chicken feet).
Meat is also a more-expensive ingredient, and therefore oftentimes used as more of a spice, cut very small, in as many dishes as possible. The importance is best illustrated by the variety of fake meat dishes one often finds around Buddhist temples. No meat in them, but at least the taste of it – surely, you wouldn’t want to do without that, would you?

Then, there is the issue of the rather peculiar tastes and things one may encounter. Hunan’s chile pepper-laden dishes are not a problem for me, they are a reason I’m here; but, of course, not everyone would concur. At the beginning of my time here, I was decidedly not fond of chou doufu (“stinky tofu”). To the uninitiated, it’s a great dieting method: sniff, and you don’t feel hungry anymore. Except, I recently noticed my mouth watering upon a waft of freshly frying chou doufu…

Lastly (at least for now), there is the matter of conditions and orientations: Speaking as an ecologist and anthropologist, this is particularly fun for it is, in a way, a matter of environment and adaptation; the bread and butter of my disciplines.

As for environment/conditions: living in China makes it obvious that China is, in most respects, still a developing country. Most of the time, the accusations which are leveled at the country don’t play much of a role. Youtube and Facebook are blocked, but basically all news sites can be accessed; you have a one-party government, but usually what counts is that the situation is stable. Still, it is cold now, and of course there is no heating, basically no insulation to the houses; electricity sometimes gives out, and so on…

Not least, the country’s opening has not been far enough back for foreigners to have become a truly normal sight. Thus, and also given that further socio-cultural aspects make for a society that manages to be rather closed and over-accommodating at the same time, one is not usually integrated too well.
Still, it is possible to work with cultural competence, and be made to feel very well at home. The language, of course, is a major influence in this regard.

Personal orientations, in the end, play at least as much of a role as the host societies’ openness: Some (many, actually) expats apparently come to China for the adventure, feel quite at home in the bars, and think they have experienced China; some (maybe) want to be accepted and treated as absolute equals, without any cross looks and comments about the “laowai.”

My personal attitude, maybe due to personal factors, definitely also a side-effect of my professional training, is that there needs to be a second socialization into a host culture, and that – as long as it is open enough for that – it is always possible to reach a point where one is culturally competent enough to be a functioning member of that society. So far, I’m definitely just at the point of being able to take (most) things as they are, go on, and feel at home notwithstanding the downsides and paradoxa there are.

China ist uns sehr nahe gekommen – und doch immer noch wie eine andere Welt.
Zum interkulturellen Verständnis beizutragen wäre in dieser Situation zunehmend wichtig. Das chinesische Verhältnis zu Minderheiten und Ausländern würde darin eine interessante Rolle spielen. Überwiegend aber sind plakative Beschreibungen zu finden. So wie im Standard vom 7.11.2009 berichtet, ist der Fall von Lou Jing, – Chinesin mit afro-amerikanischem Vater, aufgetreten in einer Talent-Show und plötzlich Opfer schlimmster Attacken on-line – ein Paradebeispiel.

Dargestellt wie ein aktueller Anlass für eine nationale Debatte – und, nicht zu vergessen, ein Beispiel dafür wie andere noch mehr Probleme mit Menschen anderer Hautfarbe oder Herkunft haben können – ist es doch so simplifiziert, dass es eine relativ bedeutungslose Anekdote wird.

Schon der Zeitrahmen macht Probleme, war dieser Aufruhr doch schon im August dieses Jahres aktuell und im Laufe des September wieder vergessen. In das Licht der internationalen Öffentlichkeit kam die Sache im wesentlichen dadurch, dass ChinaSmack (www.chinasmack.com, eines der sogenannten “Brücken-Blogs” die Inhalte des chinesischsprachigen Internets ins Englische übersetzen) dieses Thema für interessant genug befand, ausgewählte Kommentare zu präsentieren; erst kürzlich fanden sich Artikel und Kommentare hierzu allerdings in der englischen Presse und dann eben auch im Standard.

Die Kommentare im chinesischen Internet zeugen tatsächlich von einer gehörigen Portion Unverfrorenheit gegenüber “anderen”. Sie einfach auf Rassismus in China zu schieben macht die Sache jedoch zu einfach: Tatsächlich ist in China eine starke Xenophobie auszumachen, ebenso aber eine große Offenheit und Neugier gegenüber Fremden. Freundliche und bei weitem weniger freundliche Blicke sind an der Tagesordnung; der Ausländer ein sofortiger Anlass für Kommentare. Größe, Gewicht, Farbe von Haut, Haaren, Augen und, ja, auch die große Nase – dies alles wird mit Vorliebe kommentiert, gerade “anderen” gegenüber.
Schwarze Haut, das muss auch gesagt werden, ist stark negativ besetzt – nicht umsonst sind dieselben Cremes die in Europa einen bronzierenden Effekt hätten, in China mit bleichenden Wirkstoffen versehen. Diese Einstellung trifft allerdings nicht nur “farbige”, denn dazu würden Chinesen sich im Zweifelsfall durchaus selbst zählen. “Dunkel” sind auch ganz einfach die Menschen vom Lande, jene die noch nahe der Feldarbeit stehen. Dieses Urteil, selbst in der Form dass dunkle Haut und schlechte Eigenschaften als ganz natürlich zusammen auftretend angesehen werden, fällt über Afrikaner ebenso – und eventuell sogar weniger – als über Minderheiten und auch über Angehörige der Mehrheit der Han-Chinesen.

Im Fall von Lou Jing war es jedoch nicht nur die dunkle Haut, die Aufsehen – und reichlich üble Stimmung – erzeugte. Mindestens ebenso stark wog, dass sie Kind einer außerehelichen Affäre, wenn nicht sogar eines Ehebruchs, mit einem Afro-Amerikaner wäre. Letztere Behauptung ist wohl der Grund für die Klage wegen übler Nachrede; aber schon Sex außerhalb der Ehe ist für eine nicht zu unterschätzende Zahl an Chinesen ein Zeichen für eine moralische Verderbtheit, die online schnell in Rufe mündet, die einen wundern lassen wieso es in China keine Ehrenmorde gibt. (Wobei es Sex außerhalb bzw. vor der Ehe ganz klar auch gibt – aber zumindest ein “Resultat” desselben sollte es nicht geben. Abtreibungen sind schließlich üblich und leicht erhältlich; gerade auf die Frauen wirkt hier starker Druck, Gesicht zu wahren und nicht als unmoralisch dazustehen.)

Online sind zudem auch jene Stimmen am lautesten, die in jeder Beziehung zwischen Chinesen und Ausländern gleich einen Landesverrat wittern. Wenn die historisch-politische Schulbildung, in der gerne die historische nationale Schande der Unterdrückung durch die westlichen Mächte (inklusive Japans) betont wird, in revanchistischer Rede Bahn bricht und sich paart mit – sage man es so krude, wie es online nun einmal geschieht – dem Minderwertigkeitskomplex der durch den Konsum von Internet-Pornos leicht hervorgerufen werden kann, dann sind dabei eben solche Kommentare nicht mehr fern. Daraus allerdings lassen sich eine Portion Rassismus (oder wohl eher anderer Formen von Problemen mit dem/den Fremden) ebenso ablasen, wie zum Beispiel eine kaum vermutete Freiheit der Online-Meinungsäußerung – zumindest wenn es um bestimmte Themen geht. Bedenkt man, wie leicht solche Kommentare auch auf die anerkannten Minderheiten Chinas (und auch auf sozusagen hinterwäldlerische Han-Chinesen) losgelassen werden und welchen Effekt solche Einstellungen leicht auf die viel beschworene nationale Einheit haben könnten, so liegt das wohl nicht nur daran, dass eine “schwarze Chinesin” und abfällige Postings gegen sie kein politisch sensitives Thema sind.

Außerdem, wie Malcolm Moore vom britischen Telegraph letztens feststellte, klingt in der Geschichte auch durch, dass Lou Jing offenbar, vor ihrem zweifelhaften Ruhm, große Akzeptanz erfuhr. Immerhin wuchs sie in Shanghai auf, hat hier die Schule besucht, studiert nun hier – ohne solche Antipathie erfahren zu haben. China hat sicherlich noch einen langen Weg vor sich, bis Fremde und Andersartige überall ohne bohrende Blicke unterwegs sein könnten. Umgekehrt aber kann man sich in diesem Land, trotz allen Starrens, trotz aller verfolgenden “Hello!”- Rufe, sicherer fühlen als ein Asiate, geschweige denn Schwarzer, in so manchen Teilen Europas oder der USA. Dort wird man allerdings, anders als es in so manchen Teilen Chinas noch immer der Fall ist, Ausländer wohl schon öfter gesehen haben. Das Internet als im wesentlichen freier Raum der Meinungsäußerung, das würde man sich öfter stärker kontrolliert wünschen, wo es das nicht ist, und weniger kontrolliert, wo Facebook, YouTube, Twitter der Blockade anheim fallen.
Im Alltag sind Städte wie Shanghai oder Beijing mittlerweile ebenso kosmopolitisch wie Berlin oder Wien – und bis diese wieder hierzu kamen, hat es bekanntlich auch seine Zeit gedauert.

Global Times, Nov. 1, 2009

Update: Later, this article even made it into the Chinese edition (translated, of course – and not by me)… kinda funky.

Chinese and foreign commentators, often at odds with each other, are of one mind when it comes to China’s younger generation.
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