It still feels weird to be the only western person in a huge crowd of Chinese people. That feeling of strangeness has not left me yet. I was watching the students sing a 15th anniversary song for the school yesterday and they were dressed in old-style Communist clothes with a red flag behind them. It struck me again that governments can make people feel like enemies, but people are not naturally very different. So many years of fighting Communism and here I am amongst it and it is sort of normal.
I have extremely kind and intelligent co-workers, people trained in mental health in the West, with many ideas very similar to mine. They have assisted me in so many ways here with practical things and with cultural differences. I hope that Chinese students going to the US next year will find similar kindnesses. One girl said she was worried about immigration issues and about guns and discrimination. I feel a little worried for her, too. But then I remember the good Americans I know.
Apparently, we all left Africa 70,000 years ago. We all descend from the same small group of people. Our skin and hair and eye colour evolved differently, our noses look different, we have changed culturally, but we are pretty much the same. When we fight for resources (money, property, jobs, influence) we forget this sometimes and we make others the enemy. I live in these other countries partly so I can't forget it. It forces me not to fall into that unconscious way of responding.
If anybody is different, it is me.
I have extremely kind and intelligent co-workers, people trained in mental health in the West, with many ideas very similar to mine. They have assisted me in so many ways here with practical things and with cultural differences. I hope that Chinese students going to the US next year will find similar kindnesses. One girl said she was worried about immigration issues and about guns and discrimination. I feel a little worried for her, too. But then I remember the good Americans I know.
Apparently, we all left Africa 70,000 years ago. We all descend from the same small group of people. Our skin and hair and eye colour evolved differently, our noses look different, we have changed culturally, but we are pretty much the same. When we fight for resources (money, property, jobs, influence) we forget this sometimes and we make others the enemy. I live in these other countries partly so I can't forget it. It forces me not to fall into that unconscious way of responding.
If anybody is different, it is me.
This is a beautiful post Jen. And a timely reminder of how we are all linked....
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