Qualifying What We know

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

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

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

Responses from Jeanine Standard

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

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

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

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!