Reflections on Place and Cross-Cultural Encounters

Why did I not see this, or understand this, or find this the last time?

2012-02-16T08:23:00.004+08:00

Last night a friend took me to the equivalent of Hong Kong's Target. It was one subway stop away, right outside the subway escalator. Why did I not know about this before? I lived here for 5 months before and never found it!

Always, the challenge is to be able to explain what you need and have them understand it and then point you in the right direction. This time I was looking for an electric heating pad--translation is an electric blanket, but for your back. And I was looking for a bath mat. One friend directed me to a store in the mall next to our apartment--they had the electric "blankets" but they were way too expensive and complicated. They were more like massage blankets. I looked for a bath mat in everyplace I could think of near by.

Finally last night a friend asked me if I had tried a Japanese department store. A what? Why had I not heard about these?? We took off after dinner at 8:15 p.m. What a discovery! It was like a huge Target in a mall. I could get vitamins there. I could get pens and paper there. I could get a spatula there...I got a bath mat and a desk lamp for a good price. I gave up on the electric heating pad. They don't have the basic, cheap, version.

A couple of observations have arisen out of this experience--I see and understand things this time that I never did grasp last time I lived in Hong Kong. For example, someone showed me the wet market (market with fresh food) just a block away. Last time I literally walked by it multiple times a week without ever noticing. I figures out quickly how the subways work to enable you to just walk across the platform to catch a different subway line. In the US we have to go up the escalator and off to a different platform. In Hong Kong each exchange overlaps at two stops. At the first crossing spot you get off if you are going to go one direction on the other line. At the second crossing spot you get off if you are going the other direction on the other line. Either way you just exit the subway car and walk across the platform to the other side.

Finally, someone showed me the way to the park that I knew was JUST around the corner. It was huge but I couldn't find it before because, as is typical in HK, it is on a hillside and you have to figure out the right level and place to access it. Otherwise it appears hidden.

I've concluded that three factors are at work in my new discoveries. First, distance and then return makes you see things that were too close before--you need distance to focus. Secondly, I have added some new people to my social network this time and their experiences are added to mine. The combination of our local knowledge has helped all of us! Thirdly, having lived here before and acclimated much more quickly, I am not overwhelmed when getting instructions. When my friend said the Japanese department store was at Lok Fu--I knew where that was and how close it was.

Having said all this...there is a pattern of avoidance that comes with living someplace where you don't know the language or culture. You live with what you have because it is too difficult to explain what you want! I have a broken refrigerator shelf but don't want to try to explain this to the main office. I could take it in with me, but I'm not sure they will recognize where it comes from.

I just put it in my cupboard and am living without it. Pick your battles of explanation.

And then there are the milk tea shops. They are everywhere but I never saw them before! They must be new...

The Meaning of the Word "Hike"

2012-02-12T14:48:00.011+08:00

What does the word "hike" mean? A dictionary I consulted said it meant: "to walk a long distance especially for pleasure or exercise." Being an American, it implies to me that it is a long walk in a natural setting with few people, as opposed to walking in a city. And we would understand that you better take water and lunch with you. I don't think an American would say that we take a "hike" through Central Park in NYC. We would instead say that we are going to take a long "walk" through Central Park. In New Zealand, some saying they are going tramping is synonymous with an American saying they are going hiking. It implies walking a long distance for pleasure or exercise in a natural setting with fewer people, where you take your lunch with you to have along the way.

Karis and I went on a church "hike" yesterday. The announcement in the bulletin said it was a "half-day adventure through Phoenix Mountain Forest Park in Shenzhen." Mmmm. Shenzhen is across the border in China and is basically the industrial source region for all our products in the U.S. that say "made in China." I'll write more about Shenzhen at another time...

We were intrigued. It sounded like an adventure. We had one more entry on our visas for China. We wanted to get to know some people from the church we are attending.

As is typical for outings in Hong Kong, the instructions said to meet at a particular exist off the subway line. Karis and I left at 9 a.m. from our apartment in order to be at the appointed place at 10 a.m. We met everyone and got introduced at Exit B of the Tuen Mun Station on the West Rail Line, and set off.

From the Tuen Mun Station we caught a double decker bus that took us up and over the mountain and across a long bridge that passes over the Shenzhen Bay. There we departed and went through Hong Kong immigration to leave and through Chinese immigration to enter (yes--one country but two systems). From that border we caught an express bus to the Shenzhen airport. From the Shenzhen airport we caught a local bus that went through industrial areas and whose last stop was the Phoenix Mountain Forest Park--12:30 p.m.

From home to border

From border to park.

The entrance to the mountain park--cement fence in front of rock. Is the rock natural?

As is typical, a huge open plaza, lined with shops on both sides framed the entrance to the park. We started up the mountain. The way up was a stairway--one way. The line of people made their way up. After doing the first part of the mountain stairway, we found ourselves on another flat open plaza where there were buildings and a temple. Incense, people, and firecrackers were abundant. We didn't need our lunch because we went and ate at one of the restaurants :) I think I am seeing a relationship amongst high places, Buddhist temples, and tourism.

The "path"

Karis decided to eat her peanut butter and jelly sandwich but in a culturally appropriate way.

The lion dance

After a good lunch, we joined the line of people going up the rest of the stairway, ending up at a tower that was around 440 meters high. At several points along the way, we saw small establishments that sold snacks and drinks. One of the amazing things along the route were women making there way up in high heels and nice dresses. This made me ponder the question of differences in culturally appropriate clothes for "hikes."

But probably the most interesting thing of the trip was the discovery that many of the wooden handrails and logs for sitting were in fact cement made to look like wood--pseudo nature. And of course, the haze from the industrial pollution was incredible. At one point I asked Karis to feel the bark of a tree for me to see if it was real. I started questioning my own senses.

Pseudo-natural forms. Cement is made from natural products after all.

Back on the street for supper. We had shrink-wrapped dishes to ensure they were clean. I suspect they are washed in the back and then shrink-wrapped with some machine.

We came down the mountain by the "down" path, along with hundreds of others. We reached the bottom plaza to find someone in high heels and a fur coat playing bad mitten. We walked down the street--in China, streets tend to be in a grid pattern and broad unlike crowded Hong Kong--to find a restaurant for supper. Hikes in Hong Kong (and China?) always end with a big Chinese supper at a restaurant.

Sometime before 7 p.m. we headed home. By then it was dark. Karis asked me: "Do you see haze or is that just my imagination?" As you looked out across the street in Shenzhen the haze from the pollution was visible. We took the local bus back to the Shenzhen airport. We took the express bus from the airport back to the border. We went through the Chinese border and then through Hong Kong immigration. From there we all split up, having been able to find buses that went directly back to our individual parts of the city. When we got off the bus I asked Karis: "Does the air seem clearer to you here in Hong Kong?" She looked around seeing the lights in the buildings on the mountain behind our neighborhood and confirmed my sense of reality. We arrived back at home around 10:30 p.m. A hike or a long walk? I can't say. But it was an adventure--good exercise, good fellowship, and interesting time!

Occupy Hong Kong and Domestic Helpers

2012-02-05T14:57:00.005+08:00

No doubt, few have heard of Occupy Hong Kong. It is located on the first floor of a bank building in Central, Hong Kong Island. The bank is built to be open on the street level. Let me say--it is small--a few small tents, a few people and a few signs. Very few people question capitalism in Hong Kong.

On Sundays, all the domestic helpers from abroad "occupy" Central district because it is their day off. They are the visual reminder of the movement of labor as part of global capitalism. The domestics work for around $500 a month, 6 days a week, 24 hours a day. Legally they must live in the houses where they work and may not pick up any extra jobs. They also work on 2 year contracts. The goal is to use their labor but not allow them to establish residency. We interviewed a few on a Sunday and it was clear that they were financially better off by being in Hong Kong, sending money home to the Philippines or Indonesia. But they are legally vulnerable. On Sundays they sit in all the parks and on the sidewalks of the financial district of Hong Kong.

The open first floor of the bank building, now being occupied by Occupy Hong Kong, is one of the few sheltered places for the domestics to gather on their day off. So on Sundays, the space is shared by Occupy Hong Kong and domestics occupying the financial district. Actually it is more like Occupy Hong Kong has taken space from the domestics. The domestics crowd around the tents, trying to find shelter, with no interest in the meaning of the protest.

Here we have it--young people occcupying a space to protest capitalism; a bank providing shelter for domestics from abroad; the domestics work to send money home to send their young people to school so they can get better jobs; the international domestics are being displaced by the young people protesting the globalization of capitalism.

Doesn't anyone talk to each other?

Qualifying What We know

2012-02-05T14:33:00.003+08:00

David Jaffee, like me, spent time as a Fulbright scholar in Hong Kong. A sociologist, he spent the year observing street life and informal rules of interaction. As he states: "From a sociological perspective, what I found most fascinating were the forms of public behavior of the native population... I was afforded many hours of natural and unobtrusive observation of social life in a wide range of settings."

Being an outsider, but not a tourist or visitor, is an interesting position to be in. One of the public behaviors that Jaffee experienced was that the entire time he was there (10 months), not once did someone come to his assistance when he stood at a crowded street-corner looking at his Hong Kong map. In fact, people seemed to avoid his gaze.

When I returned to Hong Kong this time, I purposefully tested Jaffee's findings. I remembered from last time that I had in fact had someone come help my daughter and me when I was lost in Sham Shui Po, totally disoriented after coming out of the subway. But that was only one instance. I wanted to be more scientific in my analysis! The first several weeks I found myself lost at least three times, standing outside a subway system or on a street corner, trying to get oriented. Every single time someone stopped and helped me. One time someone even walked me to within sight of my destination! Was it the fact I was a woman and was with another woman? Was it our age? But Jaffee is about the same age with even more gray hair! I cannot explain the difference in our experiences. But I do appreciate Jaffee's qualifying in drawing his conclusions:

"From my analyses I would arrive at various interpretations and conclusions, some of which may prove to be quite erroneous."

If only all of us would be more careful at drawing cross-cultural conclusions!

worship, prayer, and Chinese New Year

2012-01-21T12:20:00.001+08:00

John Elwood has been with me that past 3 weeks in China. He reflects on worship, prayer, and Chinese New Year here on his blog:

http://clotheslinereport.blogspot.com/2012/01/happy-chinese-new-year-and-good-luck.html

Fellow traveler, John's blog on Hong Kong

2012-01-09T07:34:00.001+08:00

http://clotheslinereport.blogspot.com/2012/01/twelve-things-i-like-about-hong-kong.html

Responses from Jeanine Standard

2012-01-07T08:35:00.002+08:00

Since it is the year of the dragon I decided that I would try to bring an expandable paper dragon home, to my grandson. While Jan was getting household supplies at the local grocery store I pointed at a dragon on the ceiling to a clerk. A cloud of clerks soon collected all trying to assist me in getting my dragon, nodding their heads up and down. One finally said: display. Another clerk found a package of the last dragon under layers of Chinese New Year decorations.

After this excitement, I got in line to pay for my dragon. I pulled out the Hong Kong money that was the right amount on the register but the check-out person kept saying "card." I assumed she must have meant the octopus card since it seemed to magically get me through all forms of transportation and you can buy things with it. Jan came to my rescue and responded with a "no." The clerk was asking whether I had a "pay-back" card. I gave the clerk my money--she finally took it. She then asked me another question--she totally ignored me and asked Jan--it was whether I needed a bag. This is when I began to identify with being deaf, or being a child.

Initial Transitions

2012-01-05T07:24:00.004+08:00

I am getting settled. It took me no time at all to get cell phones, sim cards, deposit my check in my ALREADY ESTABLISHED bank account, get cash from the cash machine (thankfully I wrote down my pass code before I left last time), go to the grocery store, and get street guides for the students who are with me. And I did this without a guide! Well, almost. I had to have a Chinese friend listen to the first phone message and get the phones activated--I didn't understand the Chinese.

I understood context--when I got the cell phones at the Broadway store I asked if they had sim cards and they said, "no, go to the 7-11." And then I asked the follow-up questions--where was the closest and they said just outside the mall...and I said..."the one by the train station?"...and they said "yes." Whew! We could communicate with minimal knowledge of each others' languages because I had the physical context in my head.

I went to Starbucks and when I placed my order, I understood the question, said in English with a strong Chinese accent, here or to go? I knew what questions to anticipate and what they would sound like.

Now I sit in my apartment, 5 floors above my previous apartment, but laid out exactly the same. I listen to the washing machine run and it sounds like home--a newer version of our old one but the same sequence of sounds.

Yet, my view of Hong Kong is slightly different. It is a more self-conscious view rather than the initial one where you are just blown away by sensory overload! We visited a beautiful Buddhist garden yesterday that was essentially under an overpass. It was like entering another world of quiet and green. But as we curved around the path through the methodically laid out stones, trees, and flowing water, we turned the corner and the bucolic scene became framed by huge high rises set against the mountain side. I thought--yes, that is Hong Kong, a city of extremes that always take you by surprise. I could more self-consciously reflect on the meaning of what I was seeing, as the rest of my group was quickly snapping pictures.

I take the perspective from my apartment as my metaphor of my initial experience of returning to Hong Kong. I am at the top of the building looking down, assessing the lay of the land with a framework already in my mind--I have a sense of what I am looking at from day one. Before I was closer to street level, taking one snapshot at a time, trying to get the lay of the land through single sensory overload moments in particular places. The wonderful thing about any place is that you never fully understand no matter how many snapshots or views from the top of the building. Places are so intricately complex that their mystery is never completely diminished.

Insider and Outsider, Coming and Going

2011-12-29T03:20:00.002+08:00

I have been making my "to do" list for the first day I am back in Hong Kong--Change money at my bank; buy phones and a printer at Broadway; buy street guides at Page One; buy sim cards at the 7-11 for the phones; try my HK bank card in the cash machine to make sure I remember the password; go to one of two local grocery stores to buy some food; get coffee at the Starbucks or Pacific Coffee.

As I anticipate my return to Hong Kong I have been reflecting on the difference between returning to a place I have lived in the US compared to returning to a place I have lived abroad. I have had numerous conversations around this topic and the experience seems to be universal--

When we return to a place where we have lived within our own culture and country, we feel like aliens. One person described it as an "out of body" experience. We feel out of place and somewhat uncomfortable. It should feel like home but it does not.

But when we return to a place that we have lived which is abroad, we return and feel at once at home. There is an incredible level of comfort in knowing where to go and how to do things. I have experienced this again and again. When I lived in Hong Kong before, I would even feel this incredible sense of comfort and "home" after returning to Hong Kong from elsewhere when traveling on the 25E bus from the airport back to my neighborhood, seeing the familiar lights and sights along the route, and knowing where to get off.

Why do we feel like aliens when we return to a place within our culture, but feel like we are home when we experience a return to another culture? Is it the contrast between our expectations related to being an insider versus an outsider? Is it the contrast between an initial adjustment to a different culture and the return which doesn't require such an adjustment in terms of just basic knowledge?

Thoughts? It remains something to ponder as I pack.

The Space Program and Living Abroad Revisited

2011-12-28T05:17:00.002+08:00

We are preparing to return to Hong Kong for six months. It has been 18 months since we returned from Hong Kong from our last time living there. When there before I reflected on the changes in technology that made each time living abroad very different experiences in a blog entry titled: The Space Program and Living Abroad. What has changed in the last 18 months? Karis and I just visited our local public library in our neighborhood to learn how to download library books onto our Kindles. So this time round, we can read library books using our library cards, downloaded from a Grand Rapids library--all while living in Hong Kong. How sweet it is!