A Lesson in Spectacle

June 10, 2010

So I was staying with this South African bloke. He’s a pretty interesting fellow and a very proactive Chinese student as can be seen by his Chinese banter with…well, practically everyone around him. When we go out together he will call “??” [hello] to all whom give him a passing glance–“??” [thanks] in exchange for any services, no matter how trivial. Otherwise he will just start random conversations with people on the street, in restaurants, everywhere—it’s kinda bizarre.

When I am in China, I rarely do this. When I walk down the street I just walk; my goal is to get to the other end. I try to avoid eye contact and stirring about conversation. It’s not that I don’t want to practice my Chinese nor am I anti-social, but rather I’m not one for talking to randoms on the street, I just like to get to the other end and I guess that’s pretty normal. For the most part, it’s just impractical. Unlike in some occasions in Australia (eg. the “hello” acknowledgement), Chinese people just move, particularly in the big cities like Shanghai. Unless you majorly bump into someone it doesn’t really matter, just walk.

Although I am a foreigner, I am still a citizen in this culture and therefore needlessly attracting attention to myself is to quite frankly acknowledge a misguided sense of western arrogance and importance over the Chinese. This guy doesn’t seem to get that. He seems to thinks that he’s chilling with the locals, when in fact, I suspect that they probably think much less of him.

I have an analogy here. I feel that being in China is like living in a zoo. As a foreigner you are a literal exhibition in foreign culture the likes of which many Chinese are unfamiliar with. So naturally, they stare and sometimes ask questions. They’re curious because they’re not really use to it—and that’s quite all right. It can just sometimes be a tad alienating on behalf of us animals, that’s all. For my African friend though, no, he plays the fiddle for them. If living here is akin to being an animal in some form of cultural zoo, then he gladly jumps hoops for their appeasement, and I do not like this.

I don’t want to stand out here. As alien as I may be to some of the locals, I don’t want to turn it into a spectacle. Spinning my appearance and vernacular into an exhibition is only to inflate my western persona, to treat my own identity as a gimmick and avoid the reality of the situation being that I am no different from anyone else here in such regards.

Anyways, I’m leading into an interesting story, keep reading.

So the two of us where in Carrefour last, last Wednesday (Carrefour is a French chain of mega stores) and as we were heading down the escalators to the exit two young girls on the opposite escalator steal a look at us and comment to themselves “??” (handsome guy). Now, I am hardly a ?? but the African guy is about 12 years older than me and admittedly looks to be pre-emptively entering middle age. He’s not ugly, he is a normal dude, but he is hardly a ?? in the eyes of these young 20-something Chinese girls, particularly when standing next to me (I am not one either, but just saying). Upon hearing this comment (????????), he responds with something like “???????? ????” (“I am not handsome, not handsome! You don’t need to say this.”). Everyone on either side of the adjacent escalators turns and looks to see what this buffoon is saying.

My identity as a westerner, as an Australian is not a spectacle. It is quite important to me. Why does China only attract dicks?

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