China...re-take

So unlike an intelligent person going to sleep early, I am still up at 12:30 reading others blogs. I realized Yamato, Matt, et all have returned from Laos and decided to read up on their blogs. Yamato gave a rather terse entry, but Matt wrote up quite a bit. Their trip seemed heavenly, and it got me thinking about China. And I suppose I decided to think back on the good of China. (It really wasn't ALL bad)

One thing that Matt seemed to talk a lot about was the reverence and general kindness of people. I found that kindness and reverence was lacking in China. From the people flat out ignoring pleas of help when we were lost, to the carelessness of people throwing piles of garbage on the great wall. But, there where times were I was amazed at the Chinese people.

Going to the Lama temple I was amazed to see what kind of people where praying with fervor. Many had bought insane amounts of incense to burn at every statue, every shrine etc. They prayed to all four corners and they bowed their heads low in their prayers, making sure to touch their foreheads to the ground. I was rather amazed as many of those who were the most sincere seeming in their prayers were young. Perhaps in their twenties, possibly my own age. I was not sure, but it made me glad to see that the youth was not completely disaffected.

Sadly, the Lama temple itself was steeped in commercialism. The people who came had loads of incense which they bought at inflated prices in the temple. At every step were plaques commemorating this or that, and while there were monks they seemed more prudent to show around big wigs or prevent the crush of foreign and local tourists from taking pictures. Prayers were not said aloud by waiting monks but was instead pre-recorded and blasted from a near by speaker.

Other temples were more of the same. The white-jade Buddha temple was a rather big joke. You had to pay once to get into the actual temple, which was more like an overblown gift shop. Then had to pay again to see the jade Buddha. There instead of a monk praying, was a woman there ready to sell you anointed oils which you could offer up to the statue. It made me feel like I was watching some sort of selling of absolutions.

On the other hand, another rather touching sight was on the great wall. While standing in line amidst garbage and shoving attendants who literally shoved you into the trolley up the wall and literally ripped you out (Sheenae can attest and she was actually flung into a wall!) I saw an extremely elderly couple. They were skinny, aged, and toothless, their faces and especially their teeth bore signs of the hardship of their life. But they could not have been more happy to have been on the wall. They were both full of toothless grins looking around them, almost giddy that they were actually about to ascend the wall. I had no idea what they were saying, but they spoke excitedly to their son. Their son was obviously a success, one of the new rich of China. Unlike his parents who were tanned, and slight he was rather portly and white, he sported a gold watch and a digital camera. He seemed rather proud that he could not only afford to bring his family and parents to the wall but also that he could afford to take them up in style via the trolley.

Mao said that one could only become a true hero after he had climbed the wall, and I'm sure that couples son felt like a hero. Granted the wall itself was a let down, with the crush of people, the obvious disregard for sanitation (walking into on of the fortifications you were instantly smothered by the smell of pee, since toilets were far and few between most seemingly took it upon themselves to pee in the most convenient dark place.) but seeing that couple made me smile.

People often complain that the Japanese are so polite one can never get a feel of their true intention. While this may be true, I felt like the Chinese were so openly rude and seemingly full of contempt for us foreigners that I could not get a feel for ...well anything. I stopped seeing them as simply a different culture, but could only see how rude they were. I really tried my best to see them in a good light, as it's horrible to judge an entire people based on a single experience, but it seemed at each junction of my trip that the people let me down.

Matt's journey seemed to reaffirm his trust in humanity and the innate goodness of people, sadly China has seemingly done the opposite for me. I have never felt that an entire people could be so collectively mean. Even in restaurants and in the hotels the workers seemed to treat you more of a nuisance than a valued costumer. The concierge was especially telling when he brushed us off when we asked him questions, he gave a rather brusque and quite terse answer to our question before sending us off... I then dropped him a rather generous tip in yen. He promptly chased us down, gave us a map and listing of nice restaurants and called a taxi for us. It seemed the only time people were nice was when money was being flashed. In the market people called us friends, till you bartered them down low enough then they would often throw things down in frustration and throw you the product before greedily snatching away your money. Even beggars on the street would come up to you begging "give me money" and would get rather testy with you when you simply ignored them.

But I suppose it's easy for me to judge them from my position of well off child born in a first world country. The people in the markets were obviously intelligent, walking the aisles of rip off goods I heard French, English, Russian, even Spanish spoken by the various sellers. These men and women seemed to be the cream of the crop and yet were reduced to open barter of knock off goods. The Chinese are trying to merely catch up to us, the traffic, the cars, the money the power, they want it all. Maybe they are ready to sacrifice the niceties to get there?

I'm honestly not sure where I am going with this, but I want to believe the Chinese are not that bad... but seeing poster in Beijing warning its citizens not spit in the street, the let children poop in front of others, not to beat your wife in public or leave your children unattended, I just have a hard time giving them slack. I have a hard time looking past the extremely brusque seemingly exploitive people I met and seeing the good in them.

This trip was great in showing me how good it is to be in Japan, but also horrible in showing me how people can be... and worse yet I feel guilty thinking the inevitable "how uncivilized, how backwards" that I now feel about China. This trip did make me reflect a lot, not just about myself but about people and where this world is going today, and it makes me sad...