I Wanna Be Like You

On Friday a group of my friends went with Aaron and I to Beihai Park.  Beihai Park is one of the better-known parks in Beijing.  Other than the Summer Palace, most are not frequented by tourists.  I really like going to parks because it’s usually so peaceful.  The people are just there to walk around and see the river, lake, tree, statue, etc.  Beihai Park is best known for the Buddhist White Pagoda that stands on the top of the hill.  It overlooks the entire park and can be seen from nearby places.  We didn’t get to spend a lot of time at Beihai, but it was fun, we spent a good 3-4 hours there.  We passed by this circular doorway and had some fun with it.  Circular doorways are ancient Chinese architecture, very recognizable as Chinese as well as aesthetically appealing.  If I was rich, I would have one as my garden entrance.

   

           

Although I have just written about how the Chinese people are hipsters, it doesn’t mean they are exempt from copying.  But let’s be honest, there is no one truly original.  The Chinese often try to copy Westerners.  Some dye their hair, and in the summer, most girls carry umbrellas so they can protect their skin and keep it as pale as possible.  In contrast, girls in Western cultures dye their hair as well.  Maybe not to look like Asians, but for darker hair, and they also try to get their skin as dark as possible; even going to get fake tans to darken their skin.  Comical isn’t it?

Anyway, when we were at Beihai Park, there were a lot of different things to see, a lot of gates and bridges; lots of trees and foliage. There were caves (but we didn’t have time for those) and a lot of paths were left unexplored.  Maybe if we have time we’ll go back.  But it was nice to walk around and see the different things in the park.

   

   

We walked up this really big staircase and at the top there were some gates that welcomed us into another part of the park.  They were beautifully decorated, and hanging from them were these colorful upside down spheres.  My friend Joseph decided that it would be a cool picture to act like it was killing him, so he laid down and my other friend Trenton proceeded to take a picture of him.  Well at the same time, there was a small boy about age eight and a mother walking by.  They thought it was pretty funny; his mom snapped a picture of Joseph, and then her son doing the same thing.

  

Foreigners are kind of like celebrities in China; especially people will light hair and eyes.  It’s pretty entertaining.  Aaron also had a fun experience with Chinese people.  The first week we were in Beijing, we were walking in an underpass, and these people asked him for a picture.  Soon there were swarms of people around they formed a semicircle so escape was near impossible.   I thought it was hilarious so I decided to take a picture of him with this random Chinese citizen too. 

But the lady standing next to me misunderstood and thought I wanted a picture with him.  Imagine their surprise if he kissed me on the cheek or took my hand.  They’d surely think, “Look at this foreigner, so forward with his intentions!” If Aaron and I weren’t with another group of people we probably would have been there all day.  When I think of Chinese people copying others, the song from The Jungle Book always comes to mind.  “Hu-be-do, I wanna be like you!” 

Hipster

The word hipster is derived from the word ‘hip.’  Meaning “having or showing awareness of or involvement in the newest developments or styles.”  However, in modern times, the word hipster is generally used to describe someone who is a trendsetter, without knowing it.  As on of the oldest civilizations on earth, China has a long history of inventing things, most notably paper, gunpowder, printing, and the compass.  There are a number of things that China has invented or influenced the world to do.  For one, there China was the first to export silk.  Europe was exposed to a copious amount of goods including silk, spices, and ceramics among other things.  Another far more reaching trend China started was issuing paper money.  Somewhere between the 8^th and 10^th century, the Song Dynasty succeeded in being the first government in world history to create and issue paper money^[1].  This has affected the entire world.  But seeing as China created paper as well, it’s not hard to believe they also created paper money.  The world would be a very different place if everyone still used coins.  For one, it would be a lot louder.

Indeed, China is a hipster for simply being China.  People have considered the place itself exotic since the 1800s.  As numerous amounts of Chinese immigrated to California to try to catch the Gold Rush, United States citizens were startled by the starch difference.  For example, the food tasted differently, with flavors few had ever tasted.  The appearance was most noticeably unique by the dark hair and diversely shaped eyes.  The Chinese who immigrated back in the Gold Rush times had little if any exposure to Chinese and so many U.S. citizens were openly exposed to their language.  The first Romanization of Mandarin, Wade-Giles, was less accurate compared to the modern pinyin.  The Chinese language itself is also becoming a ‘hip’ thing to learn.  Although the entire world wants to learn English, Chinese is quickly climbing the ladder of ‘most people speaking.’  Already it is the most commonly spoken language according to the Central Intelligence Agency World Fact book; already more than twice the amount of (native) people speak Mandarin Chinese, compared to its predecessors English and Spanish^[2].  S.H.E. a popular Taiwanese group wrote, “People of every skin color/people with hair of every color/what they’re reading, what they’re saying…Chinese is becoming the new trend.”^[3]  Chinese food is becoming a common favorite, especially of the classic ‘take-out’ variety.  Many Westerners are finding themselves fascinated with the Chinese culture and purposefully seek to study specifically the language or work in China.  Further more, styles such as wide rimmed glasses, black hair, and round the clock formal wear have been common.  Just outside of Beijing there is a small town called Shidu.  Although it is small it is a relatively big tourist attraction.  I was in a group of about ten people and we took about 3 hours to climb up and down.  Both ways, we saw astonishing apparitions.  Men in suits, and women wearing dresses and high-heels were climbing up the mountain.  It seemed that most people were dressed for a cocktail party rather than rigorous mountaineering.  And just like hipsters back in the United States, none of them seemed to notice our reactions as we passed by; like it was just the natural thing to do.

P.S. Sorry, I noticed a lot of classy dressed people, but it's hard to discretely take pictures of them, so no pictures this time.

References

1. 1 2013 Semester in Beijing Student Handbook, Dr. Scott Galer
2. CIA World Fact Book https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/print_2098.html
3. S.H.E “中国话” http://asianfanatics.net/forum/topic/390724-she-%26%2320013%3B%26%2322283%3B%26%2335441%3B-zhong-guo-hua-chinese/