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Big Smiles and Small Lies: My Trip to the Chinese Countryside
By Sarah Meik, www.eChinacities.com RepostAs a kid in America, I grew up reading the story of The Country Mouse and City Mouse, and about how these two mice cousins experience the differences in each other’s lives. And as a kid in America, I never understood why they told a story about how “country” mice and “city” mice were different. Weren’t they basically the same? I mean, city people and country people are the same, except that city people might have a cool place to go to on Friday nights, and they have to wait in traffic to get there.
Photo: Yoshimai
But in China, there is a difference between the country folk and the city folk, and it goes way beyond just what people do for entertainment. The cities are crowded, polluted and disappointingly similar to life in other developed nations. People drive cars, eat at McDonald’s and shop at Wal-Mart.
But the countryside is…well, it’s the part of China you read about in books. It has water buffalos, straw hats and lion dances. It’s the part of China most foreigners always dream about seeing, but never actually get a chance to during their Xi’an to Shanghai tour. It’s also the place where all the old stereotypes about China are found to be true.
Like the stereotype that the countryside is undeveloped. It’s true. Two lane highways turn into one lane cement roads that are a lot more like wide sidewalks. There is no internet connection, no department stores, no stoplights and most people live in cement-block one-story houses with traditional Chinese roofs. In the neighbourhood I was in, all four houses had large wooden doors, like out of a story book.
Also in the countryside, people still have red Communist pride. Everyone actually displays old Communist propaganda in their homes. While a picture of Mao is rare in the city, the country dwellers love their posters of Communist leaders and display them proudly by draping fabric around them or lighting candles next to them, making their political heroes look more like religious idols.
In the countryside, everyone is tanned. Everyone. Some people almost look black. That might be why urban women are so worried about keeping their skin as white as they can. If their skin looks too dark, they might be mistaken for some migrant bumpkin.
I actually went to the countryside with a co-worker. She had to go home for the weekend and I, an intensely curious foreigner, went with her. I met her tan sister and tan mother, her tan grandmother, and tan father. I hung out a lot with her grandmother, who was in her mid-eighties. She was spunky and hard-working, like most grandmas are. We sat on her bamboo bed (which the family all uses more like a couch in the living room) and she told me stories about her life. I stared down at her feet and noticed that her big toes were normal, but each of her eight smaller toes pointed out. Her feet looked a lot like a photo in a book I had seen about Chinese women who began the process of foot binding, but whose parents quickly unbound their feet mid-way through the process when the Qing Dynasty fell. Their feet were left permanently damaged, but they could walk comfortably and were no longer in pain.
I asked her how her toes became so interesting, and I expected her to divulge some memory of foot binding, but she actually told me her feet were always like this. She quickly followed up by saying that it was a myth that in old China parents used to bind little girls’ feet, and that all stories about bound feet were a lie.
Another token of countryside tradition that I saw was that arranged marriages still take place. This time, the matchmaker was actually the mother of my friend. She had been elected as the “village head,” as my friend explained, and as the Village Head, she was responsible for matching all eligible singles within her circle of influence.
The meeting I saw actually took place in a tiny noodle shop. I watched as a young man, maybe 22, stood as older family members approached him, and inconspicuously handed him red cash and red pockets. I watched as a young woman, sat silently by her mother and smiled each time someone entered the noodle shop.
I later learned that that particular meeting was just the beginning of a courtship that would last another 2 years before they get married. I learned that the money given to the young man was from his family and it was only meant to be saved to purchase a home.
“In China, in the countryside, the man’s family must buy a home for the young couple,” explained my friend. ”That money he was given was just for his house. Maybe over time they will give him more than 10,000 RMB.”
It was certainly an interesting thing to watch, as in my mind I would’ve imagined such a meeting to be dreadful for two young people, being forced to marry someone not of their choosing. But it turned out that for those two, they were very happy and excited for a new part of their life to start. (OK, maybe they were also excited for the money.)
Which is essentially the way I would sum up at least most of what I saw in the countryside. I met people who didn’t have computers or mattresses. I even met people who once had bound feet. But, almost all the people I met seemed to have a sincere smile on their face. It’s like what my country bumpkin nanny always says, “Country people are great and true. You never have to lock your doors in the countryside. We are happy there.”
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Oh God... and now those damn westerners will be flooding the nice countryside. As if there weren't too many of them already in cities, or in China in general.
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Hi Jin, nice comment. I guess you now nothing about what western people are doing in China and what's happen on the chinese countryside.
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Piss off Jin. Do you know how many Chinese live abroad? We have opened the door to your people for many years without complaint. Stop being so racist. With a comment as thoughtless as yours one can only assume YOU are from the country.
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Yeah, Jin. Piss off and lick our dandans. Sharkman is right. We welcome Chinese with open arms in the U.S. The campus is crawling with Asians. Even a small village with one traffic light has a Chinese restaurant. I even interpreted at my local hospitals, and every one of the patients is getting free hand outs and benifits from the U.S. government. Is the Chinese government going to give us free handouts? Furthermore, you are on an English website for foreigners and you are speaking English. If you don't like us, quit speaking and writing English, and get off of the English website. You are being a hypocrite.
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Amazing how quickly my fellow westerners jump to their own defence!
And then abuse the poster with intemperate language. Talk about paranoia!
I read this as a 'tongue in cheek' comment.
It so often happens that tourism eventually destroys the very thing the tourists came to see.
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Jin, a fairly stupid reply. For a start you assume that foreigners upon reading this article are going to head into the countryside...and do what? Probably exactly as the writer said, understand and learn your culture, what is wrong in that? When you assume you make and ass out of u and me, think before your write something so negative and unfounded next time.
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Dear Jin,
One look at your countryside and it's 'farmers' should tell you ... you need all the Western help you can get.
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In the past hundred years how many major inventions have come from China? Can't name any? Not surprising. In the same time span can you name the inventions that have come from America? Every major invention has and will always be made in America. Why? Because of intolerant people such as yourself.
Firstly, there is no such thing as an "American race" we all come from somewhere else. Including millions of Chinese, Japanese, Russian, German, African and every other nationality you can think of. Can you even imagine a place where no one no matter where you come from is a foreigner? Throughout history people have flocked to America for a chance at a new and better life.
This desire for "something new" and a break from the old ways where everyone must think and act a certain way has made America the leader of innovation in the modern world. While the Chinese attitude of "tradition" where people don't question anything and feel the need to discriminate against foreign, has put you in the position where you are now. The worlds leading copier of good American ideas.
And for anyone thinking of posting anti American replies, remember how many millions of your people are living in America right now.
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Sorry duke but what has America invented that's of any use to anyone? The Big Mac? Hollywood rom-coms? Unwanted global policing? Oil wars?
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communications satellites, the internet,MRI, , mobile phones. personal computers, pretty much all the electrical appliances in your house, the assembly line. should i go on? is there anything china has done in the past 50 years that ISN'T a copy of western inventions?
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wow earthworm... wow. u r kidding right? names like Einstein, Salk, DeBakey, Carver, Edison, Ford, Gates and about 30 million others... umm, Integrated circuit, artificial heart, oh, and that little thing called an airplane...
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If I tried to list the inventions to come out of America in the last 100 years that the whole world has benefited from, I would run out of space. If you don't believe me look it up on wikipedia. I challenge anyone to find more than ten(that the whole world uses) to come out of China in the last 200 years.
This does not mean that Americans are smarter. It means that unlike here where new ideas are stamped out, where new people are taken advantage of(one price for chinese another for laowai), where being different is shameful and looked down upon. In America we realize that our differences are what make us great. That people, no matter what they look like are just that. People. Welcoming or allowing people from all over the world to live there is what made America the Country it is today.
Being different is a great thing. Edison was different, Gates is different, Jobs is different, Ford was different etc.
The American government is evil. No doubt about it, but there is no denying(look it up) that Americans have made 90%(if not more) of the inventions that have shaped the modern world we all live in.
Or let me put it another way. If America stopped inventing, China would have to continue to make the same old stuff over and over again, because judging by your recent track record, no inventions would originate from here.
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duke, I stand corrected. Apologies.
Mind you, interesting theory that: imagine if the US stopped inventing and left it up to China. I'd love to see what they come up with.
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I would love it if new ideas started to originate in China. Unfortunately, with an education system that only teaches students how to memorize and regurgitate onto a test(copy) and a society that pressures everyone to think and act the same way(or be copies of each other). It's little wonder why Chinese industry is based on copies. It's what Chinese people are taught to do almost from birth.
I love China and I love Chinese people. I truly hope that they continue to allow new people and new ideas to thrive in their country, so that they can hopefully get out of this creative funk they have been in for the past few centuries.
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I wasn't expecting my reply to receive so many butthurt comments by those fragile westerners. But what can you expect, they are always the first to claim they are immaculate.
And, oh, repeatedly calling Asians "gooks, chinks, ching ching ling long ting tong", complaining that there are too many Asians on campuses, and always telling us to go back to our country is a sign that your people always welcome us with open arms and warm hearts over there? Puhhlease.
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Well what do you expect when you criticise foreigners on an English website? Sounds like you are the one who is fagile. Just think about your comment next time you go to KFC, or use your Iphone or get into a foreign vehicle. While I do agree some people are racist toward the Chinese that doesn't mean everyone is. Chinese have been living happily in Australia for many years without problems. Our government takes good care of you, providing healthcare and other benefits. You have freedom of speech and can live like any ordinary citizen.
What does your government do for me?....Fuck all!
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Who said immaculate? Who used the term "chink, ching, ling etc"? Who said there were too many Asians on campuses? Who said go back to your country? YOU! No one else. Just what and who are you talking about? Or is this the extent of your debating skills?
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Taking good care of my peopel in Australia? Well, I guess that you've never heard of the Immigration act that discriminated my people into entering "your" country to keep Australia white?
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Even if I agree what Jin says, we don't need to angry with each other. White people will always be racist supremacists, and will never change. We just wasting energy to make them understand that they are children of the devil
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Please, Jin, tell us that you love and live in the countryside and vow to stay there always (that way I will never have to cross paths with you because I certainly won't be there).
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Jin please don't even try to tell me about the laws of my own country. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about and you will only make yourself look even more stupid than you do now.
@mei, you talk about whites being racist. You should be a comedian. Chinese are extremely racist, although to your race it's normal to laugh and poke fun of blacks so you probably don't know better. You call us devils? Well my dear China's beloved Mao Zidong was the biggest devil in history. But I guess you don't know this either because of the propaganda and brainwashing that is rife in China.
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The big difference is that people in China aren't familiar with Black people, and once they personally meet them and talk to them, their fears of the unknown are gone and they realize how friendly they are.
On the other side, whites are just plain racist against anybody that isn't caucasian even if they are familiar with them and lived around them for centuries. Blatant racism against Blacks in Europe and countries that have been stolen by whites (canada, usa, australia, south africa), against mixed South Americans, Arabs. Skinheads, stormfornt, neo-nazis, white supremacy, slavery. Marginalization of Blacks from the educational and professional world after abolition of slavery. Genocide against jews, american natives, canadian natives, australian aborigenes. And, oh yeah, propaganda of the "Yellow Peril" in the white Anglosphere that had laws established to put quotas on people from Asia to emigrated to places like Australia and New Zealand, so that these countries could preserve their "whiteness". Widespread racism and violence targetted at East Indians in Australia.
But you'll also just deny these facts.
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typical chinise response. up there with the if you dont like china leave, "westerners did bad things too!!!" like that makes any bad things chinese do perfectly ok. they love to list all the terrible things done by other countries . but criticize any aspect of chinese culture and they get all offended, and say how dare you talk about China that way you dirty racist foreigner. and by the way to say "whites are plain racists" is in itself a racist comment. and no chinses people dont just like black people when they meet them, they still make jokes. laugh behind their backs and say all kinds of racist comments, go on a chinese website and look for comments on mix asian and black babys to see what chinses really think about black people.
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Yeah, that's probably just as worst as enslaving them, making demonstrations in white pointy masks against them, or just hanging them on trees, like whites did, right?
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