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Wed, 14 Sep 2005
culture: fashion, family, friends, isolation
last night we were hanging out with one of priscilla's students turned friend. she's very sweet, has a gorgeous apartment, and was probably the prettiest and most well-styled chinese person (rare!) i've met on my china travels . the magazine China Vogue came into existence this month, which apparently is regarded as a sign of the maturation of china's fashion scene. the chinese director of vogue said that while chinese people are familiar with "quality" brands, china generally has little sense of a true style. I have to agree. by no means do i expect all chinese people to have style, but even the people that can actually buy expensive clothes still generally look bad to me. i know it's probably some side effect of growing up in OC that has brainwashed me, but i really can't help it. fortunately, i don't think i care quite as much as i'm making it look like i do right now, but i had to at least point it out.
anyway, we were all talking (and priscilla was thankfully translating) about differences between chinese and western people in terms of interactions with strangers. in china, strangers generally don't talk to each other unless there's some specific event that occurred to them simultaneously that would necessitate an initiation of contact. and without a specific reason to initiate a conversation, the one who would initiate the conversation would be considered either acting inappropriately or just plain crazy. for example, if a chinese man were to talk randomly to a girl on the bus, it would be perceived as inappropriate and possibly even perverted. even without the potential gender dynamic issues, chinese people would probably consider a random conversation weird or nuts. but, that's not to say that you wouldn't try to at least say hi or strike up a conversation with, say, your neighbor.
on the other hand, western foreigners in xiamen are perceived as more "open" and any contact, random or otherwise, would be perceived as normal. not sure if that's a xiamen thing or not... western foreigners in xiamen are pretty scant, so perhaps this phenomenon would not be quite the same in a place like beijing or shanghai.
this type of thing is interesting to me because i'm constantly feeling as though social norms in the US are increasingly centered around isolation or gathering based on capitalism. everyone is socialized these days to want their own everything: cars, houses, furniture, broadband internet, mobile phones - you name it some company is trying to sell you an individualized something or other. at the same time, we increasingly regard places like starbucks as the place to meet and hang out, rather than a park or a public space. so, even though westerners may appear more "open", to me that's simply a facade that's been built up over time to deal with the already limited interaction that we're getting on a daily basis. we, as humans, still need to interact, so those few moments we get with strangers are treated with a capitalistic approach (i.e., "what can i get out of this?") and with a face that is not truly reflective of the self. at the same time, it's amazing to me that in a country like china, full of potential random interactions with strangers, there's such a stigma attached to those random dialogues. it seems no culture has overcome the dichotomy between isolation and interactoin.
[/travel/china] permanent link
cathay pacific & some US vs. China transportation observations (not reserving judgment, of course)
for some reason, i always had it in my head that cathay pacific was a luxury-style airline where even economy class had you feasting on a fancy, gourmet meal while being massaged to a soft tissue mass. well, 3 flights later i have to say they're better than most but certainly not the well-pampered existence i had (too willingly) anticipated.
here's a pic of my meal on the 1hr flight from xiamen to hong kong:
an interesting sandwich with pork, green onion and mushrooms, fruit (most notably lychees stuffed with pineapple), and a overly sweet not-quite-juice drink. overall not bad, certainly for a 1hr flight. but not "gourmet" as i had imagined all my life.
in general, my complaints about cathay pacific would include:
which leads me to a point about general differences between chinese and us airlines. on xiamen airlines, it felt like i was really on a nice chinese bus with wings. in xiamen, the buses all have tv screens at the front blaring some stupid advertisement or bad, repetetive music. so, it turns out that xiamen airlines does the same shit. they use the little flip-down screens not for movies or news, but for really bad advertising and music. and they insist in blaring the noise over the main speakers for the whole duration of the flight. not only that, but they leave the cabin lights on the whole time. if i had been trying to sleep, i would have been in hell. at least US flights turn the cabin lights off thus leaving it up to you if you want to sleep or stay awake.
which leads me to the point that cathay pacific tries hard to make you conform to their schedule, while united and continental leave it up to you whether you want to engage with their schedule. cathay pacific not only will turn off the cabin lights when they think you should sleep, but they also make you turn off your individual light even in the event that you would, say, want to read a book. then when they want you to eat, the cabin lights go on and they start making blaring announcements. no sleep for you, buddy!
in contrast, any other western airline will turn off all the lights, let you control your own personal reading light when you see fit, and generally will let you engage with their set meal times when you choose to.
to paraphrase keanu reeves (neo) in matrix 2, the problem for chinese airlines, it seems, is choice.
[/travel/china] permanent link