China and the UAE

 

China vs The UAE

I have been thinking about how the UAE and China both feel familiar AND foreign to me sometimes.  They are very different places and yet in some ways China feels more similar to my experience of the US and sometimes the Arabian Gulf did.  Here's how:

China is more similar to the US in that

• the people here wear the same clothes as Americans.  Women can wear short skirts; no one covers her hair.
• they have a strong work ethic.  All people seem to work, not just servants or expats. Emiratis did not have that same sense of drive.
• they look after their own children!  They don't seem to have nannies or servants. Grandparents seem to do childcare, but there are not Phillipina or Sri Lankan nannies everywhere as in the UAE.
• the weather is not so extreme, so there is not that Arab craziness after 10pm when everyone is out because it's only 100F, not 120F.

However the UAE is more similar to the US in that

• we share the same Judeo-Christian-Islamic monotheistic traditions.  We share the same stories about Abraham and Mary.  There is a shared culture going back many thousands of years, whereas China has not been connected to the West in this way.  Being a westerner had a bit of cache in the UAE - there were many expats and they were paid well and there was a history of British colonialism and American oil involvement that was sometimes valued.  In contrast, in China, I feel like a foreigner - as if my culture does not matter that much really.  No one is rude, but there is not the same valuing of western expertise or values.
• more English was spoken as a result and there was more internationalism.
• the food was more similar - more bread    

But in other ways, they are similar to each other

• they both love their children (maybe all human cultures do) 
• well, maybe that's all!

We are in a city here, whereas Al Ain was more suburban so that changes the lifestyle.  We walk here, have no car, and live in an apartment.  In Al Ain, we had a car, we lived in a sort of townhouse with communal pool, and had more expat friends.