“Stride with purpose” I chanted silently to myself, as I marched through the entrance of Sun Yat-sen University in downtown Guangzhou, China - mercifully hoping it would disguise my pre-conference jitters. I’d slid into China’s third largest city largely unscathed the night before, that is, all bar a 'war of words' with the taxi driver on the way from the airport! I’m unashamedly a little smug, because the 'feud' was in Mandarin. Er hello! Yes, that’s me, speaking in the native tongue about fares, meters and foreigners! (To be fair we were almost equal in the language stakes, given in Guangzhou they generally speak Cantonese, not Mandarin!) Naturally, he’d taken one look at me and put me in that foreign box of naivety about China and the scheming ways of some taxi drivers. With my heavy (for a weekend to be spent in lecture halls) suitcase lugged into the boot, he’d driven about twenty metres up the highway before slowing down and trying to frantically shove a scrap piece of paper through the metal caging at me. I could barely make out the numbers scribbled down in the dark, but could tell it was a high price to pay, in China at least. It was then I noticed the metre was off…not a light to be seen. A little panicked, I looked around in earnest …cars were tooting, weaving erratically around us. It was decidedly going to be all too hard to get out and heave that suitcase up the freeway, in darkness. Puffed out chest, I attempted to say it was too much and simply “not gonna happen mister!” (or words to that effect.) My outer bravado hopefully hiding my inner fear as I calculated the level of risk. Unfamiliar city, unfamiliar destination, random taxi driver! But, I reminded myself, this is China! He started driving, his sheepish laughter putting me at ease a little, all the while he was still trying to negotiate the price on that scrap piece of paper… Eventually he realised he was getting nowhere and this ‘Waiguoren’ wasn’t going to fall for that old chestnut, again! “Can I smoke,” he asked? “Definitely not,” I replied, indignantly! (As he offered me a cigarette, with a wink!) An hour and 20 minutes later (it wasn’t quite the ten minute drive to the university I had anticipated via Google Maps), we'd pretty much driven from one side of the city to the other! It’s suffice to say, we’d become firm friends. I learned he’d never been out of Guangzhou. “What’s Australia like he pressed? Is it like Hong Kong? What about Xi’an?” He’d taken to calling me “Ma fan” the equivalent of “trouble”….which I’ll take as a friendly gesture in this instance….considering we were utterly lost in China’s back streets and I was directing him in bungled Chinese via Google Maps. It was the start of a weekend that both surprised and amused me on many levels; my first and hopefully not my last writers' conference or “Con-Fest” as it’s been dubbed. A mix between a conference and a festival, it certainly was. As I entered the lecture hall - greeted with the universal fluorescent auditorium lighting, flooding rows of flimsy pull-down chairs and tabletops, sloping down to a giant projector screen - I was instantly taken back to the early nineties and those heady university days drifting in and out of intensive lectures (probably hungover to boot!). Surprisingly I was early (and not hungover), so I scanned the empty seats for a suitable place for a ‘newbie’ to park herself….. I watched as people jostled in to the room, many looking jovial and familiar with one another, others almost as wide eyed as me… That awkward reality of finding yourself in a room full of people, yet alone, is a confronting place to be. Thankfully, I was saved from floundering for too long in my own trepidation, when a lovely lady sat next to me and introduced herself. She was from Tasmania, ahh a good ol' Aussie lass. And then another from Indonesia. I immediately felt at ease, until my stomach started rumbling conspicuously (a result of having fled my hotel at the crack of dawn). As all good Aussie mums do, she immediately pulled out an emergency muesli bar from her back pack! A muesli bar, in China - I was chuffed. The conference theme was aptly named 'ideas and realities' and what followed over the next two days was a whirlwind of ideas that came in the shape of lectures, panels, books and mesmerising discussions against a backdrop of ‘made in China’ reality moments. A refreshing flurry of Aussie accents filled the air, along with those from India, Malaysia, Thailand, England and beyond. Seeing the above image flash up on the screen with two books I'm currently (attempting to) read had me feeling like less of an imposter. Immersing myself in all things writing, it felt like I'd been transported into my own version of being a ‘kid in a candy store’. Break time and navigating the squat toilets brought me back to my own reality with a thud. This is still China. Dinner in the university hotel restaurant with chopsticks, cheap red wine and chicken feet had me chuckling, as those not from this part of the world eyed up the goods with a mix of intrigue and apprehension. The atmosphere was buzzing and I had my first foray into the ‘spoken word’ in the literary world. Outside a television news report, I’d been unaware that writing involved so much air time! One by one, courageous writers stood up, microphone in hand, proudly reading excerpts from their novels, works of non-fiction and poems to the cheers of an enthusiastic crowd. Day Two and we each lost ourselves in discussions of publishers, agents, authors, editors, translations and the reality of being a writer in Asia Pacific today. Rain bucketing down, conference over -- to congratulate ourselves on a successful event, a few of us decided to brave the elements and head back to the hotel of one of my new-found friends before the closing dinner. The girls spied the ubiquitous ‘Chinese foot massage’ sign and it was on…although it was almost off, as my dear Aussie friend tried to pay, there was that undeniable raucous chatter in Chinese, when something is not quite right. I managed to work out that they thought her money was fake. A quick inspection of the notes and their plastic texture a surefire giveaway, the 900 RMB she had withdrawn from the ATM, to her dismay, was all bogus! It was my first encounter with counterfeit money in China but finally the notion of cashiers tediously checking every bill through a machine makes sense. Money problem solved, we found ourselves seated in plush massage chairs lined up in a row. Masseuses in teeny pink hot pants limbering up to tend to our tootsies. Hot tea all round and a rather ‘bloody’ Chinese movie on the tele…we were given a foot massage with the works…shoulders, legs, exfoliation you name it! It’s fair to say the “experience” accelerated the bonding process! Feet tended to, we headed out for the final hurrah…off the crowded Saturday night subway, we found ourselves trapped in a maze of glaringly gaudy Chinese shops, going around and around in circles, desperately searching for an exit that kept leading us straight back to Walmart! It was mildly funny, for awhile. Finally we came across fellow writers and made our escape to a local restaurant specialising in all things unique to Yunnan Province! Living in China, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, so when the restaurant staff began making their way from table to table serenading every body with shots of liquor, it was only mildly absurd! Our bellies full of Chinese fare and a little bit of Dutch Courage, it was time for the ‘spoken word’ in a local Guangzhou watering hole. Hailing taxis is never an easy job for a foreigner in China at the best of times, let alone peak hour in the rain on a Saturday night but somehow we managed to pile into several taxis mid street and made our way to our destination - a dark car park. There we were led down a back alleyway flanked with graffiti stained walls. This was not the China I know. Climbing a dark, concrete stairwell, we found ourselves in a nondescript room, scattered with little other than a few chairs, a stage and a makeshift bar, featuring half a dozen bottles of spirits and a cocktail menu that reminded me of something from the seventies. Down the corridor a jazz bar and a marijuana room were in full swing! White Russian in hand, the spoken word began. I have always assumed writers are shy, retiring types… hiding behind their keyboards, but i’m clearly mistaken… With passion, intense emotions and quite a bit of humour, poems were performed on stage with surprising energy and gusto! Excerpts from clever, witty and daring authors were revealed under the spotlight. I found myself nodding, laughing and quietly stunned. To be honest, the idea of standing on stage reading my own words, scares the bejesus out of me. This was no high school talent show (although they didn’t exactly fill me with confidence either)! I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a room filled with a more diverse group of people, yet at the same time, so many obviously like-minded people. Thoroughly educated, entertained and exhilarated, I knew I’d entered a brave new world filled with ideas and realities…..and this time, it wasn’t China. … [Read more...]
Like a bull in a China shop….
My latest piece as Columnist for Expat Focus If you have a tendency to feel a little on the claustrophobic side, there's every chance you'll find the pulsating energy of Hong Kong suffocating (initially). In fact, even if you don't mind being in a tight squeeze, you're bound to find it a little intense if, like me, you weren't brought up in the 'crush' that is ASIA. Declared one of the most densely populated cities in the world, there are on average 25,900 people, squashed like sardines, into each and every square kilometer. In some areas, there are 92,000 people per square kilometer (phew)! Yep, it's what you might call over-crowded! To read more click here: … [Read more...]
Not Made in China….
So I've noticed there's a steady rumbling going on amongst the masses here in Hongkers and every now and then it threatens to erupt into a mighty roar! The dilemma? Hong Kong, for all intents and purposes, belongs to China. Nothing new there you might say -- the metropolis famous for its designer goods and delectable Dim Sum has been a part of the 'motherland' for more than a decade. But it seems the years have done nothing to ease the frustration with these ties which continue to be a bone of contention for Hong Kong natives. I learned early on in my expat adventure, whatever you do… don't call a Hong Kong person 'Chinese.' (Locals are probably not all that keen on me describing their slick, sophisticated city as 'Hongkers' either, but I promise it's all in jest - a colloquial, friendly term for a city I've come to call home.) My local friends tell me they're quite okay with 'Hong Kong-Chinese' but the upshot is, the vast majority of Hong Kong people are reluctant to be lumped in with China, Mainland China that is. You may remember in 1997 the 'hand-over' took place - Hong Kong was essentially reunited with China after 156 years of British rule. With this transfer of power came the promise Hong Kong would keep its western-style freedoms not seen in Mainland China and remain a semi-autonomous state - an SAR (Special Administrative Region). One country, two systems. All sounds pretty good in theory… but 15 years on, that simmering bubble of animosity is reaching bursting point - the relationship between Hong Kong and China skating on thin ice. It seems Hong Kong and Beijing have very different ideas of what being 'part of China' means. New Year's Day, 2013, saw tens of thousands of demonstrators take to Hong Kong streets to protest against the city's leader Leung Chun-ying - elected in July by what many say was a largely pro-Beijing committee. Locals are calling for the Chief Executive to step down amid allegations of corruption and are demanding full democracy for Hong Kong. Around 95 percent of the city's population is ethnically Chinese but Hong Kong is indisputably a place where East meets West. Elements of traditional Chinese culture have long been savoured and mixed with British western influences to shape the energetic city that stands tall before us today. Everything from the law to politics, finance, education, language and food... to the very way of thinking make Hong Kong a unique pocket of culture - something its people are fiercely proud of. Chinese folklore and traditional festivals still reign supreme and everything from lucky numbers to the 12 animals of the zodiac, Feng Shui and Yin and Yang are an inherent part of the community. Don't be fooled into thinking it's all just a bit of hocus-pocus… take the number four for instance - it's considered unlucky because of its similarity to the word 'death' and let me tell you, most buildings do not have a 4th floor or feature the number 4 in their numbering at all. (Just quietly I was a little bit irked to hear this, given both mine and my husband's birthdays fall on the 4th (shame on us) but faith in my lucky number has been restored after reading it was the most auspicious day for weddings on the Chinese calendar this year. Hear! Hear!) And as sure as night becomes day…when it comes to cuisine, Chinese food is as critical to Hong Kong as chopsticks are to eat it. See my previous post: A date with destiny. So where's the love lost in this Chinese love affair? We've all seen or experienced first-hand, friendly rivalry between two countries living in close proximity to each other with cultural similarities. I'm thinking Australia/New Zealand, Canada/America, England/Wales (just don't call one the other or you could feel a swift boot up the backside right)? But this feud goes far deeper than sibling rivalry. Many Hong Kong people say Mainland Chinese are unsophisticated, brash, rude and pushy, on the flip-side Mainlanders say Hong Kongese can be snobby, disrespectful to the motherland, suffer from a superiority complex…and are hostile. In a recent move to abate the locals so-called hostility towards the Mainland, Hong Kong's leader put a stop to Chinese mothers giving birth in Hong Kong. When I was pregnant with Ava in 2011, there was a lot of jostling for a place at the hospital, locals feared they wouldn't get a spot and would be turned away at the last minute. Word on the street was Mainland Chinese were crossing the border and taking valued hospital beds. It wasn't too far from the truth, more than 35,000 woman from the mainland gave birth in Hong Kong that year. Why? Possibly because children born in Hong Kong automatically receive local residency status along with free education for 12 years, medical care at minimal cost and visa-free travel to many foreign countries, as well as the promise of an escape route should times get tough in China. While I completely understand the frustration from locals here, you can hardly blame desperate 'mothers to be' for giving it a go can you. For some it's also a chance to side-step China's one-child policy by having their second child 'offshore.' Adding salt to the wound, there have been more howls of protest over proposed curriculums for local schools amid fears of Communist Party brainwashing. To promote greater awareness and identification with the 'Motherland,' China planned to introduce mandatory courses on 'moral and national education' including lessons on Chinese government bodies and the correct etiquette for raising the national flag. The Chinese government says there's nothing controversial about teaching Hong Kong students to appreciate and love the motherland, but it sparked a flurry of criticism during public consultations and has since been revised and delayed. Last weekend I took a 90 minute train ride to Guangzhou, China (where many Hong Kongese originally hail from) the third biggest city behind Beijing and Shanghai. (Just for the record, coming from Hong Kong you still need a visa and pass through customs on arrival and departure.) On the surface it looks pretty much like any other modern city you might visit. State of the art skyscrapers light up the night sky, tree-lined streets are flanked by brand name shops like McDonalds and Starbucks; well known hotels like the Four Seasons, Westin and the Hyatt dot the inner city and taxis buzz around picking up and dropping off people from all walks of life (perhaps in a slightly more hairy fashion). As with Hong Kong, Cantonese is the main language and Dim Sum is naturally top of the menu. But underneath the modern-day exterior, you sense there's a difference. English is limited in both conversation, signage and literature and 'life' is highly regulated. There's no Facebook, no Google or Twitter, no blogging and what you read in the local newspaper is closely monitored by the government. In fact as I write this, hundreds of free-speech protesters have clashed with Communist party supporters in Guangzhou over government censorship. But politics and 'freedom of press' aside, the most common complaint from Hong Kongers is that mainland people "don't understand our culture." Sure, Mainland Chinese push a little more, spit and slurp a little more and don't like to line up, but what is often forgotten is the lack of western civilization most Chinese have experienced in their country. On their turf this behaviour is considered completely normal. You can read more about this here: Chinese Tourist Behaving Badly. More drama prevailed late last year…it all started on the MTR (local train system) a Hong Kong man told a mainland mother, who's child was eating dried noodles and dropped some on the floor, that eating wasn’t allowed on the train. Other Mainland Chinese sitting nearby mocked the Hong Kong man's less-than-perfect Mandarin. He retorted that this was Hong Kong, they should be speaking the language here - Cantonese. A verbal feud broke out and police came in. It made newspapers and television news around the globe and went viral on social network sites. 28 million tourists from the mainland flocked to Hong Kong last year to spend up large. It's fair to say, in recent years, wealthy mainland Chinese have become a welcome lifeline for Hong Kong’s struggling economy, filling hotel rooms and emptying designer stores (their shopping sprees make up one-third of retail sales). Locals say they're depriving them of goods and services - buying up real estate and inflating prices. Even milk formula has at times become scarce in supermarkets. After the 2008 tainted-milk scandal in China, Mainland Chinese crossed the border to stock up on imported formula, stripping shelves and leaving local parents fuming. There is more broad-based anger about the billions of Hong Kong taxpayers' dollars being spent on high-speed rail links and huge bridges to China without any public consultation. Gordon Mathews from the Chinese University of Hong Kong says the greatest fear Hong Kong people have is Hong Kong becoming just one more city in China. "It is the fear of 7 million against 1.3 billion people; it is the fear that Hong Kong will no longer belong to Hong Kongers. It is the fear of colonisation by the mainland." Lets hope this identity crisis isn't a case of 'lost identity' for Hong Kong but rather a 'mid-life' crisis...a renaissance if you like - an opportunity to reconcile yet reclaim that independent spirit that makes this city so deserving of its title - Asia's world city! As China continues to build bridges connecting the motherland to its child, may she remember this great quote from author C. JoyBell C. “I think that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms, allow them to take the subway...let them be better people, let them believe more in themselves.” … [Read more...]