Poate e un pic prea devreme să vorbesc despre asta. Dar, da… după doar două săptămâni în China mă simt discriminat. Pentru un alb cu ochii verzi şi fără accente idiş, chit că român, sentimentul este nou şi, oarecum neaşteptat.
Călătoresc deja de câţiva ani prin Europa. Eticheta de “român” nu este întotdeauna bine văzută, dar de cele mai multe ori e nuanţată de “tânăr”, “student”, “rocket scientist” ş.a.m.d. În China lucrurile sunt diferite. Non-asiaticul este privit fie cu lăcomie, o pradă uşoară pentru negustorimea locală, fie cu superioritate, de vreme ce nu e în stare să pronunţe două cuvinte în mandarină, fie cu politeţea pe care o acorzi unui elefant în magazinul de cristaluri sau cu atenţia şi delicateţea cu care tratezi un copil de 5 ani. Încă nu am ieşit din Shanghai (considerat oricum poarta către Vest a Chinei) şi privirile iscoditoare ale colegilor de înghesuială în metrou sau autobuz, mămoşenia unor chelneri şi batjocura altora imi aduc aminte constant că sunt un străin.
Pe de altă parte am primit un ajutor neaşteptat, complet şi gratuit din partea lui Gu, prietenul lui Mickey, unul din colegii mei de Spacemaster. Am fost plăcut surprins şi încerc să-mi dau seama dacă m-aş fi comportat la fel cum a făcut-o el în circumstanţe asemănătoare.
Caracterul de azi: 木 – mu – copac, lemn. Chiar seamănă cu un copac: rădăcină, trunchi şi ramuri. Cum lemnul e o resursă important, şi caracterul ăsta stă la baza altor câteva sute de alte caractere.
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Maybe it’s a bit too early to talk about it, but yeah… I fell discriminated. For a white male, green eyes, no Yiddish accent, though Romanian, that’s new and unexpected.
I’ve been travelling around Europe for a few years now. The “Romanian” label is not really well seen, but that could be improved by some add-ons like “young”, “student”, “rocket scientist”. China is quite different. The non-Asian is looked upon with greed – an easy target for local merchants. Or superiority – he can’t even speak two words in Mandarin. Or the politeness you show to an elephant in your Bohemian crystal store. Or the attention and care you reserve for 5 years’ old. Shanghai is considered the most open minded city in China and still I can feel the focus of my fellow commoners’ attention coming on me each time I get into a bus or a subway train. That and the embarrassed smiles or mocking grins of waiters remind me constantly that I’m a stranger.
On the other hand, I received an immense and unexpected help from Mickey’s friend Gu. I’m curious if I would have done the same in a similar situation.
Today’s character: 木 – mu – tree, wood. It really looks like a tree: roots, trunk and branches. Wood is really important and the same can be said about this character: it provides the base for a few hundred other characters.
2 comments:
Ala micu' de-i zici tu Gu, practica Qi Gong? Dezvolta morala, Gong De, si naturaletea cumva? :p I enjoyed the post. Ma simt parca as citi Shogun (traditie usor diferita, dar in fine) :p
Hello, old timer, I see you're up to your old tricks again. I am as well. So it's quickshooting, or, better known to yourself, blitz: it's Claire's fault that I see this blog; she doesn't know it; I'm not sure I can prove it; I love Asian Catholics, later on in the series; there is no such thing as discrimination against Romanians, who gives enough of a fuck to do it? - and you shouldn't blame people for whatever humor they get out of foreigners - up until it's criminal, they're just funnying!
On to less random thoughts - I note it's been a while since we last talked, the better part of a year, in point of fact, so I took a ride from this blog to the last blog and revisited our old conversations, it was startling and somewhat gratifying - but it seems I would be taking them up again here, and that I will not do, and it also seems that nowadays the world is much poorer, as regards the blog - I'm almost ready to imagine these words disappearing in some web archive, stifled to death on a lonely server: no voice, no echo, no problem...
But if you do check up on this outdated thing - my computer says it's been months since you last took office as editor-in-chief of your own public diary, play with that word for a while and see what it sounds like, roll it around a little... - do write so I can know what's been happening to you.
Claire says you'll be coming back for the summer, perhaps you'll be less busy then, though hopefully not less employed, I should see you then - some of us are heading back to Germany come the fall, even Claire would like another run at the international, inter-disciplinary, multi-cultural and multi-ambiguous academic rat-race...
I repeat that seeing the old blog again seemed very startling; it seems well enough dead, but oddly preserved - I can't escape the feeling it should be destroyed, that it's avoiding the fate of all things transient by mistake... So are the memories of our older conversations, within or without writing. The whole affair needs some discrimination of its own, quite outside of forgetfulness. But it is not impossible that the modern media, modern mind and modern mendacity have found a way to be joyous about all old things, as if we were immortal.
While we're not yet immortal, or at least confused about it, please write.
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