An article in the newspaper yesterday set me thinking. The journalist is a Singaporean, English-educated Chinese lady who is posted to Beijing to cover stories in China. She received all kinds of remarks from friends and colleagues wondering how she would survive there. And rightly so ...
She met so many non-Chinese residents of Beijing who put her Mandarin skills to shame. They could spout of ancient Chinese literature and explain the meanings of terminology that was completely alien to her. She felt more at home in Myanmar (in a previous job assignment) than in China, the home of her ancestors, despite not knowing a word of Burmese.
I feel the same. I love China and the Chinese people. But the country is so vast that one end of China is very different from the other. Cities and rural areas contrast starkly. People's accents and languages differ greatly. "My friend's father was supposedly speaking Mandarin, but I couldn't understand him," my China friend commented.
What's the issue here? Culture. Singapore is located in SE Asia. China is in NE Asia. As different as the 11 nations of SE Asia may be, we really are quite similar, especially those of us who have been colonised by the British. We eat with a fork and spoon, with our rice on a plate. The shades of our skin are very similar. Our features make it sometimes difficult to tell us apart. We can move easily across borders and adapt quite well. Friendly people make all the difference.
Our surroundings have bound us together as one, much more than our ancestral bloodlines. Can I adapt to China? Probably. But it might take longer than adapting in a neighbouring SE Asian country. Culture makes all the difference.
Happy adapting!
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