My parents-in-law have been impoverished for most of their lives. Both grew up after the Chinese Communist revolution but in the families of former landlords, a group that was discriminated against until the late 70s, especially during the Cultural Revolution. In the 80s, when they were about my age, they lived in a mudbrick house growing crops and raising chickens and geese. Eventually they borrowed money to open a paint shop in their backwater city and they and their children experienced a more urban life for the first time. Business wasn't good though and eventually they retired back to the village. Fortunately with the land requisitioned by the city for a freeway, they were compensated and built a better home for their 60s. My father-in-law was in his mid-60s by the time he left Guangdong province for the first time. Now they're both in their 70s and have made their first international trip to see the world, and be surrounded by another culture for the first time.
So what appeals to these very different eyes? The things that have got the most focus are: Trees, beards, barefoot children, summerwear on cool, windy days, roof tiling, wood used in roles that it would obviously rot in a few years, the reality of someone eating cold cereal in the morning, the windyness of the roads, the lack of people employed to clean the streets, Chinese people who were not Chinese, drinking alcohol after meals, queuing, toilet paper in public toilets and many other things.
Some of these things come as no surprise: barefoot children is something even modern Chinese students are offput by, often assuming them to be poor. But the trees and the interest in wood-made bollards and fencing was out of the blue. Even the trees around our house were astonishing for them let alone the massive trees in Cornwall Park and even more massive in Whakarewarewa Forest Park. And then it occurred to me that despite the village being rural it didn't have much beyond tall thin bamboo in most places. Perhaps it was a historical factor: in an over-populated country which had such periods of poverty and at time starvation, and the tragedy of the commons, all the woody trees would be chopped for building materials and firewood. There are parks with trees but massive trees are few in Guangzhou and Qingyuan. It led to my father-in-law always assuming that some of the non-native trees must have been over 500 years old, when that is an impossibility. He was also queried the wisdom of every wooden part of structures that are exposed to water. The explanation of "treated wood" took some time to be understood. Metal roofing was also mentioned a lot in the early days.
Beards were a surprise, too, although they shouldn't have been. Beards aren't common at all in China, especially for the Han Chinese. In fact I can only think of one Chinese citizen who has proudly and successfully grown a beard. This is not necessarily a matter of ability, although some might struggle more than others. Prior to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, there was a cultural proscription on shaving and there were beards aplenty. Whether it was the connotation that beards belonged only to that era or just a different appraisal of what is handsome or normal, even the most populous country, I'd wager that NZ would have more chin skin surface area covered than the who Han Chinese population. My father-in-law has never had facial hair, apparently. I've shown him the photos of me when I decided to "let it be".
The "Chinese people who were not Chinese" thing was a struggle. If you'd grown up in an essentially monocultural area, where ethnicity is welded onto nationality (even though it certainly shouldn't be the case), an ethnically Han Chinese person must be Chinese. There were lots of comments that required clarification and then there was the example of a Kiwi-Asian university friend we bumped into in Christchurch. She is thoroughly Kiwi (the accent particularly taking the cake) but even with all the previous discussions, they still had to be talked through the logistics of being ethnically Chinese and not being Chinese. (Of course, there are some Kiwis who have trouble understanding the difference between nationality and ethnicity.)
I could go through more but I have to emphasise that it's a great pleasure to have them seeing what life is in another place. My mother-in-law in particular, now unleashed with a camera, has taken to travel here very well. They ask good questions and make great observations. I hope they've gained enough stories to share when they're back in the village, especially at the dinner tables over Chinese new year.
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