A Reversed Culture Shock

My trip to China ended with an eleven-hour flight back to Vancouver. We flew first to Hong Kong and then connected our flight to Vancouver. I arrived into Vancouver on 29 March. So as you can see, it’s already been 4 days since I ended my trip. I told myself to release the journal that I kept on the road, but my other half brain told me to hold. Yes, something went wrong here. What I kept in my journal does not match what I expected that I would write.

It seems that my trip to China brought me second cultural shock. I visited China four times since I left the country five years ago. Excluding the last visit, the previous three were either business type or out of family emergency. So, I should I say that this last visit was a real visit. And it brought me a reversed cultural shock, which I tried to deny but failed.

Shock One – Traffic Chaos

Believe it or not, I was pretty scared when crossing the road. It seems that the traffic signals in the city where I stayed didn’t really mean anything. People crossed the road when the red light was on, and so did the drivers. I had to drag my dear wife and my brave boy whenever we went across the roads. “Do as the Romans do!” I told them. The real question is “What happens when the Romans don’t?” I have no answer to that question.

Taking a taxi was another unique experience to me. I never realized it was so unique until I revisited the city. Here in the city that I lived, the drivers (not only the taxi drivers) were the “bravest” and the most --- drivers that I had ever seen. Almost none gave signals when making left and right turns. Miraculously, I didn’t see traffic accidents while I was there.

Shock Two – Sense of Privacy

I don’t mean to say that there was no privacy in China. But, what I experience in a notary public office made me wonder what privacy really meant to many people there. One day, I went into the office. Seeing people revealing their quite personal stories in front of many others made me uncomfortable… “Do as the Romans do” I told myself. So, I waited patiently and tried to avoid the sound coming from the person in front of the line. Then, I sensed that someone was peering through my shoulder and stared at the paper that I was holding. “Do as the Romans do” I murmured quietly. Moments later, my brother came and we discussed at the corner of the office with the documents open on the desk. Almost immediately, I saw a man was staring at the documents. His staring lasted (about 3 minutes) till I politely reminded him that it was a personal document and … My mouth dropped seeing him exploded at me, reminding me that it was a public place and he started just the desk not the document.

This incident made me remember what I went through when I visit doctors while I was living in the city. Whoever visited doctors knew that doctors questioned their patients in front of all the other patients or listeners. Quite embarrassing sometimes, I should admit, when you have to involuntarily take the intimate information of someone else, which you really don’t want to.

Shock Three – No Title

The city that I stayed is well known for having rivers running across the city. It should be a beautiful Venice if people living along the river knew how to restrain themselves from dumping the rubbish into the river. Constantly, I saw through internet of this-and-that type of regulations and by-laws have been implemented to prevent rivers from the pollution. Well, the reality shows a quite different view. Black colored material floating with sickening smells catches people’s eyes once they go across the bridge or walk along the river. One day from my ritual morning exercise, I reported to my brother-in-law of what I just discovered. “I saw a very neat slogan today,” I told my brother-in-law. “It’s about the way to prevent people from polluting the river,” I said. This is how it said: “Whoever dumps on the river should be cursed to be terminated, three generations included!”

Again, this reminded me the time while I stayed in the city. We kept our rooms clean, the inside of course, not the outside.

Note – this journal is totally out of my personal observation and does not reflect the views of this web-site. If you feel upset for what I wrote in this journal, please reply with facts. No personal attacks, please. As I said thousands of times, I am a Chinese, and I have Chinese blood, regardless of where I stay!