Friday, May 10, 2013

Quasi-racist Babies


            There are a few really interesting things that everyone should know about Chinese babies. First of all, they are absolutely adorable. This is probably due to the fact that for ten months of the year they are bundled up in no less than six layers of thick, fluffy clothing. There are few things cuter than a baby waddling along the street, unable to bend over, sit down, or even touch his own nose.
Secondly, babies seem to enjoy a level of freedom above that of all other Chinese citizens. In fact, this freedom seems to extend well into the toddler years depending on where in China you are. The main benefit of this freedom is that babies can go to the bathroom anywhere that they want, anytime that they want. They even wear special crotch-less pants that naturally part when you squat allowing hands-free relief for those who wear them. When you first arrive in China, you might think that it’s silly that with so many people, seats in the train station will be used for holding bags while many people are standing beside them. However, after you see your first score of babies/toddlers who support China’s “Urination Without Discretion" and "Defecation Without Discrimination” policies, you think twice before using the ground as anything but a foothold.
Lastly, as can be seen in the title of this post, Chinese babies grow up as de facto racists. Now, don’t be alarmed and start envisioning little babies swaddled in six layers of KKK winter robes with crotch-slits. Their “racism,” for lack of a better word, is just the natural reaction of shock and horror at seeing a face of a different color, shape, and proportion. Picture seeing the witch from Snow White in real life, when all you’d been exposed to prior to her was eyes of roughly half the size, hair whose spectrum went from naturally black to dyed rotten pumpkin orange, and a nose that seems to be almost 2D when compared with the IMAX-3D schnoz of a caucasian. 
When seeing someone alien, these Chinese babies give reason to believe that the most natural response is fear. Most babies I see for the first time begin to cower, search for mommy, and start crying. Oddly enough, this is the internal response of many “adults” I meet the first time as well.  They are nervous, surprised, and seek the most abrupt/awkward way out of my presence, which is often just averting their eyes and walking away sans valediction.1 Fortunately for me2, there is a baby who pretty much lives at the English department where both of her parents teach. I couldn’t help using this prolonged exposure to a test subject to run some of my own experiments.

1-year old: Test subject #24601 looks at me with glazed over eyes and is curious to the point of being unable to do anything else while I am in its line of sight... including but not limited to blinking.
2-years old - first meeting: For some reason, things changed when the test subject could talk. If she sees me anywhere within ten meters, her face slowly wilts in on itself, and she cries until I back up to an appropriate distance.3
2nd to 24th meeting: Crying and retreating to mommy continue, but the restraining order seems to be lifted a little each time with crying taking place later and later in the interaction.4
25th meeting: Still unwilling to speak in my presence, the subject is willing to tolerate physical contact, (a hand shake).
28th meeting: First words spoken by test subject… “Bye bye.”
30th meeting: Test subject is willing to touch the face she was once afraid of. A situation similar to Tarzan reaching out to touch Jane’s nose, eyes, and hair, confirming that this odd specimen is not an illusion.
31st meeting: Test subject smiles when she sees me and responds to my questions with gestures, (head nods and pointing), yet there is still no verbal back-and-forth.


The development of my relationship with Test Subject #24601 has been an odd parallel to my relationship with many Chinese nationals of all ages. The initial response is either deeply distracting curiosity5 or fear.6 Similar to babies, Chinese adults will be more/less reticent for a first interaction depending on your race or appearance and home it overlaps with what they have experienced so far. After the first interaction, people slowly open up and begin responding to me, but remain somewhat reserved when it come to expressing their own personal viewpoints or feelings. If some feeling is shared, it’s a generalization or the perspective of some absent third party with whom the speaker probably agrees, but not for sure. Unlike with babies, I do however manage to transgress this final barrier and have full conversations with adults here.  As a goal before I leave, I'd like to have a conversation with Test Subject #24601 to set a positive example for Sino-caucasian-alien-infant relations everywhere.


1. I’ve yet to make an adult cry though, they’ve managed to internalize their fear of the alien.

2. Possibly scarring for the baby.

3. My site mate, Shri, who is Indian-American, does not make the baby cry. She stares at him for a few seconds with deep confusion, and after rearranging her universe to accept this odd-featured man, starts smiling. This is the exact response of most Chinese adults to Shri, internal and external response.

4. If I wear sunglasses, the test subject permits me to get closer and holds off crying for longer.

5. Some people, mainly teenage girls and middle-aged men, (don’t ask me why), will bump into others, stop driving, or cut off mid-McDonald’s order while just gazing dumbly at me.

6. Mainly restaurant workers, who are trapped behind the counter, seem to experience a claustrophobic panic induced by both my appearance AND the fear of what terrible apocalyptic catastrophe might occur if for some reason I placed my order in English. Normally, once I speak Chinese, the panic subsides and humor takes over or flirtation in the case of female ice-cream vendors.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

The Third Goal


Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) around the world have all kinds of different assignments and face many various challenges. There are a few things however, which are universal among all PCVs, the most fundamental of which is simply called “The Three Goals.” Paraphrased from the Peace Corps website, these goals are as follows…
1: Doing the job you were sent to do. In China, this goal is very explicit – Teach English –  but in other countries, you might be given a job as vague as “provide help for local businesses.” This is the easy goal.
2: Teach the local people about America(ns).  In China, accomplishing this goal is a bit counterintuitive. The chances for cultural dialogue are everywhere.  With so many people to bump into, all of whom know at least one word of English (HELLOOOOOOOOO!) which they excitedly shout at one ear-crushing volume regardless of proximity, I often end up talking to people whom I’d normally just ignore.* At first, these conversations are inspiring, as you feel that you can actually impart some knowledge about America despite a large language gap – “I’m definitely saying some stuff about America, and though I understand little to none of your response, I think that you must be understanding me.” As the language gap shortened, however, I found that my conversation partners were accomplishing the mind-bending task of understanding my words without understanding their meaning. Once I discovered my interlocutors’ reluctance to really listen, I became de-motivated in regards to pursuing goal two through conversation with strangers. What I thought was agreement and recognition of new insight was actually disagreement and repetition of the partisan misinformation broadcasted throughout all of China.** People are extremely willing to inquire after and listen to your first-hand account of American life, but if it contrasts with what they have heard from numerous fourth and fifth-hand sources, they will end up just dismissing what you have said as an outlier.***As a firm believer that actions speak louder than words, I’ve decided to accomplish goal two more through action than by conversation… a difficult task, because it presupposes an observative audience and there is rarely any feedback from the locals. “Wow. I noticed that your phone is set to silent mode and you didn’t answer it in the middle of class. What a respectful and civilized person you are! Where are you from with such great manners?”
3: Teach America(ns) about the country where you serve. I’ve tried to do this on my blog, but often end up digressing into parenthetical, philosophical hyperbole which eventually distracts from any substantial cultural commentary. So, to make sure that it’s been said at least once, here is what I think an American should know about China… 
China is a country divided into drastically different regions with mutually UNintelligible dialects, social classes with a bigger wealth gap than the US, and even multiple Olympic teams (Chinese Taipei a.k.a. Taiwan).**** Therefore, any comments made about China should be qualified by the precise location within China to which one is referring. To that point, my further comments refer to the undeveloped West. There is an extreme misunderstanding and slight mistrust of foreigners/foreign influence propagated both by word of mouth and the current/former “selective” representation of the West in Chinese media. On an individual basis, values such as harmony, respect, and tact are paramount, however, these values are almost undetectable on a societal level, or at least very ironically realized.***** Chinese societal values seem to be somewhat anarchistic. May the loudest, boldest, and most-unwilling-to-consider-the-personal-interests-of-others man win. In brief, the Chinese treat those they know extremely well and don’t seem to bother with the other 1.4 billion… to be fair, that’s a lot of people. The food is fantastic, despite the lack of quality control. The education system is horribly inefficient, but due to the relentless will to study thirteen hours a day, students still end up learning by strict rote memorization slightly more than American students do in the four hours a day they are actually awake for class. Creative and individual thought is rare, whereas a holistic understanding of one’s relationship with his class(mates) is widespread. Development is everywhere, but improvement seems to be (temporarily) relegated to the back burner. Lastly, those who are looking for more information on Chinese interactions should consult the wikipedia article on “emergence.”

One last note on the third goal, the inspiration for this blog post was actually a recent project that I undertook as per the request of my recruiter in Chicago. I put together a video detailing my time in the Peace Corps, and how my daily life has changed since I’ve been here. The video was a huge success, and I got to skype in and talk with some interested Notre Dame students about my experience here. Afterwards, they put my video up on the Peace Corps website with a short article about me and my service.

So there you have it… those are the three goals.******

*One such situation, which has reproduced itself far too many times, is entering a bathroom with doorless stalls and having a local decide to show off his multi-tasking skills by simultaneously smoking a cigarette, texting on his phone, and engaging in cultural dialogue with the foreigner… all the while squatted over a hole defecating.

**Censorship note: Nowadays, Chinese “netizens,” as they are called, can find almost anything they want on the internet, but it requires some shifty digging. The lack of the media freedom seems to only really be present in the active headlining of stories benefitting the CPC and putting down its enemies. Most Chinese feel that they have freedom of the press because they are free to READ almost anything, but can simply not broadcast everything.

            ***To be fair, it's incredibly difficult to understand anything about another culture second hand.  There is no doubt a large percentage of Americans who haven't ever left the country yet think they know what the world's like. Two small windows Americans have to the world are the large number of immigrants and the ethnic centers throughout major cities, neither of which really exist in China, leaving the Chinese at a disadvantage when viewing the West.

****Personal note: I truly believe that this is why China’s propaganda department is desperately trying to focus on its unity, despite the strong desire for separation expressed in Tibet, Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong.

*****Chirony: Every single Chinese person who takes the incredibly bold step to attempt to talk to me, a stranger who speaks a different language, will undoubtedly describe themselves as “shy.” Irony can also be seen as the desire to retain social harmony simply by NEVER addressing the elephant in the room who is in the process of totally annihilating any social harmony – often appearing as the smoker inside the bus, the woman listening to music without headphones on the train, the man cutting in line, the girl answering her phone in the movie theatre, or a child urinating in the vegetable aisle.

******Six asterisks is way too many. I should have stopped at four.