If you're anything like me, your first trip to China will be filled with hopes, imaginings and tons of anticipation as to what the place is actually going to be like. You will also have lots of preconceptions, as touched on in an earlier article titled 3 Things I Misunderstood About Chinese People Before I Came to China, some accurate, some false as to what you will find when you eventually get there.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Oscar winning Director Danny Boyle, of Slumdog Millionaire fame is just like me, in that the thing that sums up China the most in his mind is Tiananmen Square. Newspapers in China the day after his arrival were full of reports of how the famous Hollywood director, bedraggled after a flight of more than 10 hours, headed straight from the airport to the infamous Square and gate.

Photo: d'n'c

Photographed in front of the stern portrait of Chairman Mao, Boyle told reporters that “For me, Tiananmen Square is China; this place is the most iconic symbol of the power that is the PRC. I just wanted my first memories and impressions of this country to take place on this Square.”

Whereas my first impressions of Beijing were taking the airport bus and then hauling my suitcase down Xinjiekou on a wet September morning to my university dormitories, I cannot help but feel a certain sympathy for those first childlike feelings of excitement that a first time in China can stir deep down inside.

I had read Wild Swans, watched news reports and read countless articles about China before setting foot in the country, but for me my first trip to Tiananmen Square was magical – my heart did skip a beat. Sure, now when friends and family come to visit I find myself distinctly nonplused about the whole experience and rather annoyed by the endless people trying to sell me paintings, postcards or ‘wanting to practice English.’ But there was a time when being on Tiananmen Square meant I had arrived at the centre of it all.

However, reading Danny Boyles’ comments brought to mind another similar issue, that of the common Expat ideal of ‘The Real China’. Whilst most of us have preconceptions of China and places and things that for us sum up the country, it is very common too for that notion to translate into a ‘some things in China are more Chinese that others’ attitude.

Photo: feldpress

How often have you found yourself thinking, or heard others around you say: “This restaurant is very Chinese”, or “Look at all the designer shops, this isn’t the Real China.” I remember having the feeling myself when I was new to China that my relatively comfortable life in central Beijing with handy Western restaurants, internet, central heating and other foreigners milling around was somehow not ‘Real China’.

Thinking about it now, of course, makes me smile at my naivety. I had come to China with one of the most common preconceptions of them all, that China is totally backward and alien. There are of course very backward parts of the country (see: China’s Poverty Line) and it was those parts that I longed to see as I slurped on my milkshake at Grandma’s Kitchen. The joke is that I missed the whole point of China altogether – that it is a developing country, which means of course that some parts are more developed than others.

The truth behind the ‘Real China’ lie is that everything from Gucci stores to Guizhou villages are both equally part of what makes up the China we find ourselves in today. Perhaps a better way of thinking about it would be to say that they are two sides of the same coin, neither one is more or less valid than the other in speaking for what makes up the PRC.

So the next time you find yourself starring out of a Starbucks window and dreaming of seeing ‘The Real China’, wake up…you’re already there.

If this article has brought back any of the feelings you first had, whether good or bad, when arriving in China, please feel free to leave a comment.

 

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