Anhui Update
Well I got back from my trip to Anhui on Thursday and it went amazingly well. I got some really good interviews with farmers who lived near the town of Yuexi and in Henghe Village – both of which are on Ming Tang Shan (about four hours south of the provincial capital Hefei).
I didn’t know the town and the village where on a mountain until my colleague told me when we were sitting at the McDonald’s at the Hefei train station. Thankfully I’d packed warm clothes as there was snow and we couldn’t get up to Henghe Village on Monday but we succeeded at reaching the mountain on Tuesday.
It was a long trip travel wise – about eight or nine hours by a combination of bus and train each way, but well worth it – I had an amazing time personally and professionally.
One thing that bothered me when I was there though. The farmers I interviewed kept telling me that they didn’t have any culture. They weren’t referring to the 5,000 years of Chinese culture that you hear trotted out everywhere. They meant manners.
Their claim disturbed me because it’s one I have heard Laobaixing (old 100 names – common people) use before. But it’s not true at all. They are some of the friendliest and most hospitable people I know. They could’ve just been being modest but when you tell them that they have manners about five or six times over the course of an hour and they still tell you it’s not true then I tend to think they believe it themselves.
For the rest of what I learned you can wait until my story comes out on April 1st or check out another blog post I did on the trip here.
J.
it seems to me that it’s a common trait in china to push oneself down – saying things like “i am only a simple Chinese” or “i am not a refined person” is something i’ve heard loads of times.
case in point – the responses you see on BBS forums. a thread i read on chinasmack.com a couple days ago was about a woman who was complaining about the quality of bathrooms in china. some of the comments were:
“And you talk about toilet paper! On this point alone, we can determine you are through and through a false Chinese person who thinks oneself is some high class person.”
or:
“Even though our China is both dirty and messy, a thoroughly Chinese person would still not be this disgusted with it. ”
interesting…
jennwong
26 Mar 09 at 11:16 am
Hey Jenn
Definitely interesting. Thanks for the comment.
J.
One-Eyed Panda
26 Mar 09 at 10:04 pm
When someone says ‘??????’ it doesn’t mean they have no culture or manners, it means they believe they are not cultured, as in their level of education is limited and they have little appreciation for things like literature and art.
People in the countryside tend to say this quite often.
Duncan
27 Apr 09 at 3:17 pm