Sunday, January 6, 2013

"Be Red And Expert"


I’ve had the honor of guest-posting here several times, but since this is my first official post, I thought maybe a little background about how and why I ended up writing books set in China was in order. So…


My first time in China was 1979. I was twenty years old. This was shortly after the Cultural Revolution, at the beginning of Deng Xiaoping’s opening to the west and economic reforms, and while I was there, China and the US normalized relations—I attended a picnic at the Ming Tombs celebrating this occasion. Leonard Woodcock, the head of the United States Liaison office in Beijing (no ambassador until post-normalization) was there, and we all got little US and China flag pins as mementos. A small crowd of kids from a nearby village gathered to watch. They all wore clothing that was much patched and worn, and either too big or too small for them, and they were nearly as shy as a herd of fauns, scattering if any of us stepped in their direction.

I can’t say that I had culture shock (a term much in vogue in the 70s; does anyone ever use it these days?). Everything was so completely different that I just sort of accepted it and moved on.

                                         (photo from this photo essay)

That was the time when everyone wore blue and green clothing, and when you bought that clothing with coupons, because there was still rationing. A time when there weren’t many restaurants that had survived collectivization and the Cultural Revolution, or many places you could buy much of anything, period.


You accepted that as a foreigner you were going to be watched, by the authorities and by people who had just never seen anyone like you before. You learned “the 3 Ms” from other expats, “Meiyou, Mingtian, Meiguanxi” – “Don’t have,” “Tomorrow,” and “It doesn’t matter.”

You accepted, then railed against, then surrendered to, the Great Wall of Bureaucracy and a system that seemed determined to make everything as difficult as possible. Learned that decisions were often arbitrary, and that “the situation” would change from day to day. That’s just how it was.

I stayed in China six months. I taught Conversational English for a quarter and traveled for a month, mostly during Chunjie, “Spring Festival,” aka Lunar New Year. I vowed never to do that again. In China, this is when everyone is more or less obligated to return home to celebrate with family. This year, Xinhua estimated the number of passenger trips on trains, planes and boats to reach 3.41 billion around the holiday, and while I’m sure there was nowhere near that volume in 1980, it was still pretty hairy. I was on a boat going down the Yangtze during this time, and I watched in wonder as people boarded carrying boxed color TVs and dining room chairs on carry-poles, doors on their heads, just crazy amounts of stuff, and before long our boat looked like we were fleeing an invading army.

Sometimes I was pretty sure that the invader was me. There were so few foreigners in China at the time, and so few of them were Americans. American pop culture had barely begun to penetrate, and it was mostly bootlegged tapes of “Sound of Music” and a weird fondness for “Home on the Range” (a popular choice for the 6 AM morning wakeup medley on Chinese trains, right after “The East Is Red”). All of sudden, there I was, the first American most of the Chinese people I encountered had ever met. The person my students asked about the American Constitution and Bill of Rights; also, “the Disco Dance.” I worried about saying the right thing, about setting a good example.


And I wondered, was the inevitable invasion of American pop culture a good thing? It was like I’d beamed down from the Starship Enterprise (I was a huge Trekkie), and I was violating the Non-Interference Directive just by being there.

Not that I was any kind of Communist. No pictures of Chairman Mao on this kid’s dorm wall. And after spending six months in a place that had been devastated by the Cultural Revolution, I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for utopian movements, or the manipulation of such sentiments by a fratricidal leadership at war with itself.
                  (by photojournalist Li Zhensheng - check out his story!)

I remember leaving China, crossing into the New Territories, on my way to Hong Kong. I remember that the officials at the border, Customs or whatever they were, demanded that we pay some additional exit fee. I can’t remember how much, but it seemed like a lot of money at the time to a student who had only been a “Junior Foreign Expert” and was paid about a third of what the real “Foreign Experts” made, who still needed to buy a plane ticket home.

I was so ticked off. One last bit of b.s. I hadn’t expected, from a system that seemed designed to screw with people, because it could. “I am so glad to be leaving this place!” I told my friend. “I can’t wait to get across that border.”

I remember, when I did, I turned around and looked back at the country I’d just left. We were surrounded by green, out in a No Man’s land of countryside between the People’s Republic and the British crown colony.

You’ll be back.

I swear it was a voice in my head, clear as anything.

No way, I thought. No way.

Score one for the voices in my head.

Lisa—Sunday

27 comments:

  1. Wow. What an amazing experience. I love hearing how the country first seized you. In parts, it reminded me of visting the USSR in 1975 as an 18-year-old American teenager. With my short skirts and platform shoes and blue jeans, I was as alien to them as if, like you, I had beamed down from the Enterprise. I've never forgotten that feeling of "other-ness". And now, you've become intimate with China, and I can hardly wait to hear more!

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  2. What a terrific post! You're really going to put me on my game:). Welcome, Lisa...glad you're back (with or without the prodding of the little voices).

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  3. A brave person, Lisa, travelling to China at that time! I spent a week in Taiwan in the 1990s, and THAT was a tremendous culture shock to me THEN, so I can imagine what six months in mainland China in 1979 must have been like. Wow.

    Welcome to a regular 'post' on MIE!

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    1. Howdy, Everett!

      I don't think I am/was particularly brave. It was literally a situation where a high school friend said to me, "Hey, do you want to come with me to visit my parents in China?" (they were in the first group of Americans to teach there since the Revolution), and I said, "Sure! Sounds like fun!" Not a lot of thought to it at all.

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  4. Whoa, Lisa -- I've left Sundays in good hands. In fact, I seem to be forgotten already. How's that cough? Need a week off?

    This is a great post, and a wonderful way to enter the MIE ranks.

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  5. This is great post to enter the mind of an American woman in the 70's. I do think you were brave, and something must have been compelling to make you want to go back. So nice for you and us.

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  6. Lisa, this was a wonderful read. It's your readers' gain that you took that first step.

    A little side note for your edification: my first job out of college was working for the CIA in the China division--during the cultural revolution. Utterly fascinating time. Never did get to go to China at that time, for obvious reasons.

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    1. Okay, Terry, you and I need to have a major debriefing, as it were!

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  7. Thanks for sharing that glimpse into your China time, Lisa.

    And thanks for sharing it fictionally, as well ;)

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  8. A year abroad [regardless of where you start] seems to be a fantastic idea for everyone.

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  9. Fascinating post, Lisa. China is the one place I've always wanted to see but probably never will. Posts like yours help fill in the blanks.

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  10. Great post, Lisa. In 1983, my husband was invited by the government to lecture at hospitals and universities throughout China. I tagged along but officials were none too happy when they discovered I wasn't a doctor. No tourists welcome! I found the country much like what you've described: minders, uniforms, restaurants (ugh!). Only one hotel in Beijing was approved for Westerners to stay. So many stories...

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    1. The restaurants were in general a particular horror. Though there were a few amazing exceptions -- a great restaurant in Guangdong, and an amazing Sichuan feast in Chengdu. The best food we had in Beijing was made by private chefs in peoples' homes.

      Would love to hear more about your experiences, Patricia!

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  11. Terrific post, Lisa! Brings back lots of memories that I won't bore you with here (but one of these days...)

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    1. I doubt very much that I would be bored, Craig!

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  12. I just remember how very odd and funny it was to hear Mandarin coming out of your mouth when you got home that first time.

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  13. But what got you TO China in the first place? Simple curiosity? A need to get out of town? An offer you couldn't refuse from the CIA?!

    Good post and I hope you'll continue your tales about traveling in China for your next up. - Susan

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    1. Howdy, Anonymous Susan,

      As mentioned above, it was pretty much a complete coincidence. I had a high school friend whose parents were part of the first group of Americans to teach in China since the revolution. They went in early '79 (can't remember exactly when). My friend asked me that summer if I would like to go with him to visit them. Not having anything more interesting to do, I said, "sure!" We were just going to go for a couple of weeks, and ended up staying six months.

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  14. An excellent and informative post, Lisa. I want to hear more of your stories as well. I've only made it to Hong Kong in 2000 but it was during New Year's so that was a fabulous four days. I'd love to tour the entire country.

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  15. That was a great glimpse of you and China at a different time. Isn't it fascinating the things that seem like, maybe not no big deal, but not The Thing that's going to shape a life? And then later we realize how much it goes with us everywhere.

    Also, it looks like I've found another great blog to follow.

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  16. Great post, Lisa. You were there at an interesting time. Can't wait to hear more.

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  17. Thanks, everyone, for your comments and for welcoming me in such fine style!

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  18. Excellent post! I love the picture you paint of your experience at that time. Even in the short post, I felt like you took me along for that ride into a foreign country. Wonderful! Can't wait to read more.

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  19. Such a fascinating story told in such beautiful writing. Loved reading this!

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  20. Hi Lisa - welcome aboard, loved your post. I think I actually experiecned culture shock for the first time in over a decade when I visited China for the first time, just under a year ago. It was sort of an upside down culture shock since the China I was expecting was closer to what you describe here than modern day Beijing. Strange.

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