Four weeks ago on my plane ride to China, I finished Peter Hessler's River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, a book bought for me by a mentor. The book is Peter's narrative as an American Peace Corps volunteer teaching in Fuling, a remote town in China's Szechuan province. It actually reminded me a lot of my friends Rishi & Paulette who are currently teaching in Japan. Being the first American to live there for so long, he experiences I would say a unique reaction from the Chinese living there, but most importantly he is also able to provide an outsider's perspective on Chinese culture. What happens when you're an outsider? You become more aware, more sensitive to what people accept as day-to-day.
When asked about my childhood, I just say I grew up in China but I lived in America. This means that my childhood experiences are Chinese while my the experiences of my youth are American. I think sometimes this creates a chasm because I've absorbed one culture as a child and absorbed a much different one later on throughout maturity. I believe that childhood memories are more dear to the heart while your adolescent memories determine more the way you live and how your life turns out. Thus when I think of China I think of fondness, of family, and of the past. When I think of America I think of life, career, and future. But moving on, reading this book shocked me because I feel like I identify with the author, who provides an outsider's perspective. Yet, on the flip side, I remember reading a Chinese narrative of life in America and I identify with that too. I don't know if others who've lived a similar life go through this as well, but I feel like I'm always an outsider who is constantly more or less observing a lifestyle rather than living it. I think this is why I'm in love with traveling. Traveling allows me to be myself and shows me that it's okay to be an outsider, because travelers will always be one. This is also why the only people I will ever truly get along with are travelers themselves because they know what it's like, and thus appreciate, to be on the outside.
Sometimes every now and then I do wish I could have been born and had stayed in one place, so I could know what it's like to truly fit in with a normal person's lifestyle. But I know that for the most part I don't think I would have had it any other way. I enjoy the open-mindedness that comes from being dual-cultured and I appreciate how it has made me adaptive to change.
Anyhoo, I'll post up some of my favorite excerpts from the book later. I think you'll enjoy them :)
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Travelers are definitely a different breed of people. It takes a certain love of being a little uneasy about where you fit in with other people. I didn't grow up in a different country like you, but even growing up as a minority, I think it trains you to be a little more observant and adaptable to new things and people.
After meeting lots of people in my life, I've realized that only a few people are truly travelers. Some talk a lot about travel but never make take the steps to go anywhere. Others seem to disappear all the time, even if it's just for a quick road trip. These are the ones who consider the world their playground. The world is big, but it's getting smaller, and the only thing really stopping people from living in it, is fear of being an outsider. But, if you've grown up being an outsider, then the entire world is your home.
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