Entry#3 one race

As China is a one race society, most people at least in the north speak Mandarin and only use Standard Chinese to communicate. Although there are minorities, the difference between them and the majority strictly in terms of race is not the same as the difference between blacks and whites or Europeans and Indian people. When I was on the plane to China the person sitting next to me described China exactly as a one race society. Therefore, anyone who isn't Chinese or doesn't look Chinese is a foreigner in their eyes.

Since China does not have a mixed race society like what I am used to in the United States, their culture is much more tied to their race. Therefore someone who does not have the same race as them is someone who is not part of their culture. This makes the expectations that they have for people who do not look like them very low. They for the most part expect most of them to not speak Chinese. They have stereotypes of people from different places from television and movies, and they feel like there is a great barrier between them and anyone else.

I understand how they feel in this regard, because if I were in their position, I would feel the same way. It is for this reason that they are so surprised when someone can even speak Chinese at the low level that I can. What I say is not profound or difficult by any means, but it does represent and reflect the great amount of effort that I've put into being able to say what little I can. I think that from my talking to Chinese people and asking them questions that they really do know that they speak a difficult language. There are so many words and expressions that can only pertain to one thing and nothing else, whereas in English, it is more common for one word to pertain to many situations.

It feels really relaxing in a way to have Chinese people have low expectations of me. In a way they'll always be surprised no matter what I can say. I also feel more relaxed talking to complete strangers than I would if I were in the US. In the US I'm nothing special, but here I'm an anomaly and that makes people much more friendly towards me. It's an interesting manifestation that I didn't expect to occur. I thought at first that they would be a little more mean in a sense and not want to have anything to do with me but quite the opposite has happened. I'll continue to talk and interact with people and see if I can get more reactions and try to exceed their expectations of what I can do even more. It would definitely represent the US really well if I did that and in a sense possibly improve the relations between our two countries.

Explanation of picture:

In this photo, the two men wanted to take a picture with me, because they never see people of my race in China.