Imagine a giant stadium, supposedly evoking the spirit of the Olympic games (even though it's a 48 hour train ride from Beijing to the edge of Urumqi). The stadium is full of avid fans of many nationalities cheering their athletes to victory. You have the scantily clad Brazilian women (who were originally supposed to be cast with Ughyur women until the film crew realized that perhaps putting a Muslim woman in a bikini was a *tiny* bit of an issue), the Germans wearing Viking helmets and playing tubas (uh, what?), the Africans playing an assortment of hand drums (this must have been where the guy from Camaroon was cast), the Americans - girls dressed in cheerleader outfits and guys in London polo shirts (again, what?) and sideways baseball caps, and the Han Chinese. Everyone is cheering wildly in their "traditional" dress and custom except for the Chinese who all seem a little lost with no identity. Until suddenly, a Chinese man from high in the rafters looks across the stadium to see his countrymen unable to appropriately cheer for their team. He looks at his bottle of Pepsi, twists the cap, takes a long drink, and leaps off his perch in the nosebleed section, aided by guidewires in a very Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon prolonged and unrealistic flying acrobatic way. He touches off the heads of a German and a Japanese until finally landing gently on the grass of the stadium. Suddenly Pepsi for all of his Chinese compatriots, and they finally have their national identity and enthusiasm to adequately compete with the masses! Hooray for corporate capitalism!
The conversation last night with Eric and Nolan was delightful. Eric is a PhD student at Indiana University in Eurasian studies, and he's here for a year studying Ughyur language, linguistics, and the relationship between minority languages and cultural identity. Nolan has his masters in English education and is finishing a two year sting in Urumqi working as a contractor for the US State Department in their language exchange program. They both had lots of stories to tell about living and working in China, and you can tell that they love Xinjiang, hate the journalistic inaccuracies of how this place is portrayed, and long for the province to maintain its ethnic flair without being too over-run by Han Chinese settlers. From what little I've seen, I think that's going to be a challenge. But that's for another blog post or a personal discussion over beers sometime. I've learned a lot from being here...
The bar we went to is a neat place. It felt like home. I even had a hot toddy upon arrival, which felt really nice to my poor sick throat. The bar is a homey and comfortable place - a grouping of couches at the front with a couple of high def TVs that featured the Russia vs. Spain soccer match. It was well attended late into the night by the local Russians and who I think were possibly Kasakhs cheering for Spain - likely just to rile the Russians. The walls are panneled with oversized bamboo-esque tiles aged with a gold tint, and there are tasteful faux ivory beaded curtains draping the doorways. It's appropriately dimly lit for a nice bar and has a great atmosphere - until the cigarette smokers increase in number, and my sinuses scream for clean air.
One of the owners and the manager were there, and we chatted for a bit about life in China. Sounds frustrating. They're swell enough guys, but they still do everything "the Western way". Even while I was sitting there, they lost their temper a few times with their staff over the placement of plants on the patio and the fact that the tables weren't getting the appropriate condiments for each meal. One of the Chinese gals leaned over and said "he has a very bad temper" about the guy from London. I made a brief cultural observation about the difference between Westerners (emotional) and Chinese (reserved). That turned into a very interesting conversation. She was a sweet gal. The Chinese may not be direct about many things, but they are very direct about personal observations. Such as "You are very beautiful, and you smile alot. But if you smile too much, you will get too many wrinkles". I had a really good laugh at that one :)
I am off to Kashgar at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow morning. I waited until a little late to book my flight, and the only available seats were at 8:35 am. Blech. So I was going to catch a cab until one of our senior colleagues insisted on arranging a hired car from the university motor pool to pick me up at 7 am and take me to the airport. Not necessary, but okay - very nice gesture. But *then* another colleague insisted that poor Yakupjan wake up and meet me to escort me to the airport and make sure I get checked in and off okay. I told him he didn't have to do it, but with a very long face he said "no, I have to or I'll get in trouble." I think I forgot to mention that I'm flying solo on this little excursion. I wanted Yakupjan to accompany me, in part so that I would have an authentic experience with a local companion but also because he's become quite a good friend. Unfortunately he just finished his bachelors and has to stay behind to finish collecting the plethora of bureaucratic red stamps that will make his graduation official. I'm having to make up a teensy white lie to ease my colleagues minds by telling them that I have a car arranged to pick me up in Kashgar and have booked a tour service for my sightseeing. That's partly true, except that I'm taking a recommended shuttle bus from the airport to my hotel and will be hiring a car and guide for an overnight trip to Karakul Lake. Oh well, they won't be there to watch over me, so what they don't know won't annoy me ;)
A final note on time zones. I'm used to doing the mental math when calling folks between time zones back home, but this is ridiculous. The People's Republic officially functions under one time zone for the entire country - from the vast expanse of east to west. But Xinjiang, being an autonomous region, also functions on its own time zone - 2 hours behind Beijing time. It makes sense since we're so far west, and it means that the sun rises and set at times that feel more reasonable. The problem is that the hotel, the airlines, and several of our Han Chinese colleagues function on Beijing time while local offices and the Ughyurs adhere to Xinjiang time. This has been the source of some confusion between me and Yakupjan when he tells me "we'll meet in the lab at 4" when he really means 6 (Beijing time - that's what my watch is set to so that I don't accidentally miss any flights!) but that means that I just ended up sitting around the lab for an hour wondering where everyone was until I realized my mistake. Whoops! Hopefully the hired car shows up in the appropriate time zone tomorrow morning...
More from Kashgar...
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