by Celeste Chia (guest writer, Publications alumnus)
When friends make plans to go overseas together before university starts, their choices are constrained by their budgets, so travel destinations would usually be limited to Asia or Australasia. Popular destinations include Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Bangkok (all wallet-friendly and where females can shop their hearts out); or Batam or Bali for beach vacations. Some people who intend to have a more meaningful overseas experience would probably volunteer and soak in the culture of the poorer parts of Southeast Asia. For me, I decided to take a trip to China. Unsurprisingly, no one else wanted to come along.
Singaporeans generally have negative impressions about China. The things that come to one’s mind when “China” is mentioned probably aren’t pretty- corrupted governance, environmental degradation, individuals and corporations who don’t play fair in the global economic game. China is a country people love to hate. Let’s face it – Singaporeans who try to defend China’s honour are usually students who take China Studies in Chinese (CSC) in their subject combination. However, this is in fact what made me very interested in China, especially after reading many articles in Time magazine that criticise every aspect of the country. While people’s dislike is substantiated, I personally feel that it is fuelled more by blind emotion than concrete reasoning. My PRC friend once told me that I would truly understand China only if I went there, and so, for 11 days in July, I flew to China alone to visit my PRC friends and 4 cities- Suzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing. In sharing the sights I saw in these cities, I hope to debunk certain myths, and declare that China is not as “cheena” as we think she is.
For girls who like to go on little indie adventures like cafe-hopping, China is the place for you. China unexpectedly has a lot of independent cafes, quaint little places with a wooden furnishing you could have a cup of coffee and read a book in. In Suzhou, famed for her canals and dubbed “Venice of the East”, you could dine al-fresco in a cafe by the river and watch boats row past you. These cafes are priced the same as Starbucks, yet each provide a more unique and homely environment with their personal brews. I travelled to China during summertime, with afternoon temperatures ranging from 35 to 39 degrees, so we sought shelter in a different cafe every afternoon in different cities, and with all of them offering free wifi, none of them disappointed.
China’s bookshops are an absolute delight. I consider it my fortune to have my PRC friends be my tour guides in China, because locals know every nook and cranny in the city, places which tourists would usually overlook. In Nanjing, we visited a bookstore by the name of Librairie Avant-Garde. What sets it apart from other bookstores is that it was converted from a parking space, so the whole bookstore is underground. China has the luxury of space – inside the bookstore itself, there was a cafe and many reading areas, ranging from benches to sofas to chairs with tables; and a big consumer market, so imagine a bookstore bigger than Kinokuniya selling only Chinese books! We spent more than 2 hours there, with classic American music (including songs from The Sound of Music) playing from the stereos to enhance the environment, browsing through a wide array of postcards, notebooks, badges and posters.
In fact, China has been disappointedly Westernised. Popular bars that I visited in Shanghai were strongly based on Western concepts, hanging pictures of Marilyn Monroe instead of Meiling Soong. I saw more Coffee Bean and Costa Coffee outlets proliferating tourist spots instead of contemporary tea houses.
To conclude, I would like to employ a GP skill (sorry, can’t resist), which is to contrast points of view in the ISCG perspective. Seeing things from the Individual’s perspective differs widely from how people see it from the Societal/ Country’s perspective. The latter view (what I’d call the macro view) encompasses generalisations and stereotypes, but going to the country itself and seeing certain sights- the micro view- makes you realise the big contrast. On a macro level, China has blatant disregard for the environment. On a micro level, people actually write poems to exhort others not to trample on grass patches. On a macro level, the Chinese seem rude and, for lack of a better word, less civilised. On a micro level, you see people forming neat queues while waiting for the metro train in Shanghai. It is a wonderful thing to travel, and I hope that when you have the chance to do so, you would make more out of the trip than just taking countless photos.
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