Every day I woke up in China and there was always a sense of 'anything could happen today'. Maybe it's because I was living in a culture so different to what I was used to for years or maybe it was because it was the first time I'd lived abroad for any extended amount of time. Whatever it was, it was a pretty exciting way to live. I've already written about how my China experience has undone some of my OCD organisation tendencies, leaving me to instead just accept that "because it's China" was an acceptable response when things didn't quite go to plan. In a similar vein, some of the strange and crazy things that happen in China can likewise be justified in the same way.
I had one of my first realisations that China can be quite random to live in at times just a couple months into living in Tianjin. I'd just finished one of my Chinese classes and was walking towards the subway station when I had to double take when I came across a falcon just casually perched on a gate outside a Seven Eleven corner shop. I didn't really even question it. Falcons outside corner shops? Sure China. Sure...
So lets take Tianjin as a key example. It always really amused me that whenever Tianjin was mentioned in Chinese news, it always seemed to be for some bizarre reason. It's not a city that is on many people's radars, despite it being one of the largest cities in the country. Some may be a little more familiar with it in the past year after the tragic chemical explosions that left a huge crater on the outskirts of the city and which caused our mentors to warn us not to let any rain touch our skin for fear of chemical contamination when we first arrived in Beijing for teaching training. Again, not something I expected to have to deal with when I got to China...
Some of the headlines which made me double take about Tianjin included the announcement of Tianjin's plans to open up a cloning factory for animals, 'Fatties eating for free at a Tianjin restaurant' and Tianjin University's degree course offering on lessons of love. Such a random bunch of headlines about the city I lived in which constantly left me thinking "Oh, China!". You just can't make this stuff up.
If it wasn't headlines about my own city that made me ears prick up, it was other strange fads and trends like the Chinese A4 waist challenge, which later became the iPhone 6 legs challenge, and then eventually the 100元 note wrist challenge. To the outside world seem, these types of things could seem absolutely crazy. Of course they did make my jaw drop too but not in such a judgemental spectator type way. I always loved keeping on top of all the viral stories from around the country. Strange and crazy as they seemed, for me, it opened up a new channel and way of understanding China today. There are so many strange yet wonderful things that happen all the time in China and I often have a hard time being able to explain just how different and opposite China can be. But I only see it as a great thing. It's not just amusing for the most part. It's just China...
No comments
Post a Comment