Go for Weird

When you live in another country you get used to doing weird things. And eventually those weird things just get normal. But once those things become normal, other things happen that are, hmmm how do I put this? Well, they are weird. You want stories?

I have a blonde streak that goes through my bangs and it desperately needed a touch up. I can cut my own hair, but dieing my own hair is another story, so thankfully there is a girl here who can. So I was at her house and we decided to get it done. Problem, was we didn't have foils, but we did have...plastic bags! Yes, so we went for weird and we used plastic bags. It worked! Not as well as foils would have, but that doesn't matter. 

The other odd things within all of this was what the bleach said. So as I mentioned in my last post Chinese prefer lighter skin and whitening creams are not uncommon. But this bleach said, “Hair and Skin whitening”, at first we thought it was some funny Chinglish. But then the scary thought hit us...what if it was fairly correctly translated? Ahhh!

Other weird things are movies. Movies take on a whole other meaning. When you buy a new movie or if you stream a movie/show skipping, pausing, no English and the like are all common. The longer you live in another country the better you get at guessing. 

Along with guessing comes a certain smile. Everyone gets it. It gets tiring to continually say you don't understand. Especially after awhile the meaning of one sentence doesn't matter if you can understand the rest. So you develop a very polite smile a nod that you hope communicates “Oh yes, wow, very interesting!”, while underneath you are thinking, “I have no idea....”

So living in another country means you go for weird, you hope things come out okay and you learn to laugh at all the bumps along the way.

Culture Differences

There are so many things that make up a culture.  Culture is defined as "the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group". When we live in our own “culture” never experiencing another we don’t realize what “my culture” means.  When you go somewhere new and something surprises you because its different or weird in your eyes, its a form of culture shock.

America.  For me, until I really started to travel, I didn't know we had culture.   I mean we have many cultures, but what is American culture?  I can't define it, but I can give examples and I know we have one.  Unfortunately while writing this blog I've forgotten so many things I've noticed just this week, but I'll make sure to document them for another post in the future.

Example:  We use forks and knives.  Asians use chopsticks.  Indians use hands.   South Americans and Islanders use spoons.  With our multicultural identity for some, this might not surprise.  But it is truly an easy example of culture.  It is a form of our behavior we have learned our ethnic group.

Another example:  In America we want our skin to get as dark as possible.  In Asia, they want their skin to get as light as possible.  This is even seen in what our societies sell... lotions.  Many of ours has darkening agents and many in Asia have whitening agents.  Again this is a learned behavior.  Their is actually some interesting history behind this, but I don't want to bunny trail.  If you are interested in knowing it, comment on this blog post and I'll make sure to tell the story in the next one.

Culture is learned, it is not genetic or ancestral.  When a Chinese baby is adopted by a Chinese family, that baby is Chinese only in heritage, but American in every other way.  Hopefully you know by now, but I'm taking classes online through Washington State University and hoping to double major in Anthropology and Sociology.  Well, in both these subjects we learn about culture, but one class described it this way:  A couple gets stranded on an Island.  The woman knows how to make fires and cook food, so that's what she does.  The man likes to walk and collect berries, so that's what he does.  When they have kids, the man takes their sons with them and teaches them what he does, the woman takes the daughters and teaches them what she does.  The only reason they chose these roles was because they enjoy them.  So generation later the woman still cook and make fires and the men still walk and gather.  But now no one really knows why this is, but its become the culture and if people try to change it, its very strange and feels ridiculous.  A very simple narrative, but one I thought explained culture well. 

I heard a story of an American couple who went to China and lived in a village, disease swept through killing both of them, but leaving a newborn baby.  Another family (Chinese) in the village raised the baby as their own.  He grew up and learned how to walk, talk and act like the villagers.   As an adult he went back to America and it was too weird for him, so he returned to what he knew as his “home”, that being China.

I experience culture everyday, sometimes its new to me and sometimes its normal.  In fact, when I go back to America I often struggle with confusion of whats normal and whats not.

A couple weeks ago I was with a friend and we had some snacks out.   She's Chinese, I'm American. There was some spicy peanuts that we had just finished, so she put her finger in the container to lick it clean.  I started to laugh cuz it seemed so ridiculous to me.  A little while later there was some peanut butter that was nearly finished.  So I put my finger in it and started to lick it clean, she started to laugh and me because it just seemed so ridiculous.   Then we both laughed, cuz we realized it was just culture.

Take Me To A Place Where They Know My Name

“I been around the world...feeling out of place really feeling strange. Take me to a place where they know my name, cuz I aint met nobody that looks the same...I need my people, my people. Take me to my people.”

Shortly after arriving in Xinjiang and as we start to explore the city of our visit my friend turns to me and says, “Natasha, here you are not special, I think I am special.” It sounds rude, but in part its true. Xinjiang is a Northwest autonomous region of China with a lot of different minority groups, some being Kazakh, Kyrgyzstan, Uighur and Han. That means when I arrived I saw people with my skin color, or at least my skin tone, sometime even blue eyes, light colored hair and people with a bit of plump and curve to them, like me. Living in this country I'm ued to standing out and even enjoy it. But there was something wonderful about going there and when I was by myself so many people would come up to me and start to speak in their native language (many minority groups and certain parts of China speak their local dialects or language other than mandarin). But at the same time it made me feel uncomfortable. Going there showed me how much I've adapted to Chinese lifestyle, going there was definitely some culture shock, but it was also beautiful.

One of the days we were wondering around the city and I could see some men were selling carpets. They saw me and start to wave me over, I know they want to sell carpets, so I start to make the universal sign for money (rubbing your thumb and index finger together) and tell them “Meiyou qian!” (I have no money!) But no matter how many times I said it, they kept waving me over. So I went over. Once I promptly said I couldn't buy anything cuz I had no money, they asked if I was Kazakh. I said no, American. Then the old man who was obviously in charge said, “Well, if you marry Kazakh, you will be Kazakh!” I agreed with him. So he points out his eligible younger friend. I tell them thank you, but I'm not living in that city, so it might make relationships a bit difficult, maybe if I move there I'll consider it.

One of the things that I loved while I was there is the day we walked through the park. There was dancing and lots of it. We were invited it and it was so much fun. In China, many people dance in the park, usually woman who want to get some exercise. But here we had from young to old, men and ladies, even dancing together! And it was also the local style dance which is a bit different than that of other styles. Either way, all I'm trying to say is. It was fun.

Corbon

 I walk down the crowded streets confused and disorientated. What's with the mob of people and the animals being herded down our city streets? On the right and the left you can see yaks, cows, bulls and sheep being auctioned off and bargained for. I joke about buying one to get around the city and find out that they can go from about 10 thousand to 20 thousand yuan (the equivalent of 1585 to 3175 USD), so I guess I wont be doing that. I live in a city and while in some cities around the world herding animals might not be uncommon, here it is. So what is it for? Why are all the road barriers taken down with the cars swerving out of the way of freaked-out, bucking bulls? Its a Chinese Muslim holiday called Corbon.

Its true name is Id al-Qurban, which means “offering sacrifices”. It's common name is Adha. It's the once a year festival of animal sacrifice to atone for sins. There are many different minority groups in China that practice this festival, but the main one in my city is called the Hui People, a minority group that is similar in appearance as the Han Chinese, but mostly Muslim.

Corbon is a four day event that starts on the 10^th day of the 12^th month of the Islamic calendar. For us, that meant two weeks ago. Within the celebrations, you will mostly see men. To tell you the truth, I don't know a lot about this celebration, even after some research, so I can only say what I've seen. And that did not include women. The men swarm the streets to buy an animal. Some even buy theirs ahead of time and keep them for a few days until the celebration. I went by one of the mosques in my city and there were thousands there; inside, in front of and on the street of. I didn't see how they celebrate, but I've heard of dancing, music being played, fireworks and I'm sure meals are probably involved. Again, I don't know how they sacrifice the animals or what they do with all the meat afterwards, but I did see a lot of blood, a lot of skins and the heads were usually burned with a blow torch afterwards, for what reason I'm not sure.

I wish I would have had more time to watch the proceedings, to ask questions and to take pictures, but I was unfortunately busy. There is always next year.