Why hello fellow collegiettes! I hope Duke has been treating you well! Things are lovely here in the cold but cozy city of Kunming… especially when it comes to seeing reminders of America everywhere I go!
It didn’t surprise me much to find that Chinese women embraced a lot of American fashion, movies, and music. What did interest me was learning that the women here are SO worried about getting tan! It was obvious too; umbrellas not only covered the streets and its people on rainy days, but also materialized on the sunniest of days. Stores actually encouraged this habit, offering trendy, stylish, expensive, and top brand named umbrellas. Psh forget the shoes or the bags (though those sparkly glammed out accessories were also necessary)… better get that cute umbrella. Now I could kind of see why my roommate loves Lady Gaga… she’s as pale as a pearl. Companies even sold MJ-esque pills that helped whiten your skin. So you can probably imagine my surprise as I went from leaving America, where my friends envied my bronzed skin and where slimy guys at Shooters called me “sexy Asian,” to a place where girls AND guys are probably wondering why the hell I let my skin darken.
Another strange but amusing trend I’ve come across since traveling around Kunming has been women’s obsession with high heels. Maybe it’s because I’m from Florida, where bare feet or cute strappy sandals and flip-flops are the norm. Or maybe it’s because Floridians wouldn’t get caught dead wearing heels to the supermarket, that I’m so fascinated by almost every female wearing sparkly ones, furry ones, 8 inch ones, etc. Is it the same in New York? Maybe it’s like Gossip Girl goes Chinese? And these women were persistent as hell: they rocked those heels in the rain, whilst climbing mountains, in the slippery underground cave we visited, and even on the elliptical at the gym! I cringed when I saw that.
Besides following those eye-brow raising trends, every year China also celebrates the mid-Autumn Festival, a holiday that meant cancelled classes, family and friend reunions, and lots of drinking and red faced Asians (myself included). Stores were filled with desserts called “Mooncakes,” a special sweet treat that mirrors the day’s always-full moon. My roommate invited my closest friend Christine (who goes to Vassar College), and myself to a “get-together” out in the campus grounds. We obviously agreed to go. It turned out to be about 15 of her friends sitting in a circle on the grass around Chinese and American snacks and beers that were probably the height of a wine bottle (thank god it was dark because my face glowed red like a Chinese lantern.) We weren’t the only group out on this “quad,” too. There were groups surrounding us everywhere celebrating the holiday. A couple bottles later, we started played a game. After each round, someone was eliminated. When two people lucked out, they had to “do something embarrassing.” So what did the first girl and guy do? They hugged. You’re like, uh-huh, uh-huh, then what?! No but really, they were forced to hug. Everybody in the circle was giggling and trying to get better angles to view this pair hugging it out. Christine and I were giggling for a different reason completely. Later both a girl and guy had to make each other’s noses touch. I’m almost terrified to learn what these students would have thought if they came to America and played the high school version of truth or dare (hell, the middle school version nowadays.) Needless to say, I am closer to understanding why some of my Chinese friends here think American women are crazy sexified and wild… I hate that completely false stereotype, so don’t get me wrong, but I would think that too if I thought hugging was pushing the limit!
My roommate, Kuang Yin, myself, and Christine.
A couple of weekends ago, when we were first adjusting to these unheard of Chinese habits, the language, and the absurd driving, we still remained a bit wary about venturing out into the city via bus or taxi with our laughable Chinese skills. They talk so damn fast here that I wish there were English subtitles floating over everyone’s heads. I feel like I’m going to be way more patient once I return home to work at Epcot, where I come across foreigners from all over the world. Oh how the tables have turned!
Because our uncertainty prevented us from truly exploring what lay beyond our university’s walls, our director created a photo scavenger hunt covering the entirety of Kunming, a fairly large city. My partner in crime, Jesse, and I randomly got two places we had never heard of, written in Chinese: ??? and??.We had no idea what it meant, where to go, or how to get there! After wandering around, getting lost for a period of time, and asking random people how to get to our first location, we finally found ourselves entering this beautiful park. It was almost comparable to the Duke gardens in its serenity, scenery, and its purpose for welcoming families and lovers. Although this was place was stunning, it was our second site that took my breath away!
As our luck would have it, it had started to rain, and of course we didn’t have anything to protect us from the buckets of water that mercilessly hit us. However, luck turned in our favor when Jesse and his eagle eyes noticed a bus with the characters ??on the front! What were the chances! We hopped on the bus and waited until the very last stop. 40 minutes later, we still had absolutely no idea where the hell we were.
After we got off, though, we were greeted by the breathtaking “Golden Temple,” a fortress and hideaway of a previous emperor from the Qing Dynasty, one who lived over a century ago. Upon our entry we were offered to take a trip on this roller coaster-like vehicle up the mountain where the temple was located. Um hell yeah! We paid around 2 U.S. dollars to do so, which included the roller coaster gliding back down the mountain at the end!
This scenic location was overwhelmingly beautiful. It was actually a gigantic park, with tourist sites in the front, such as palaces and temples, and countless gardens in the back. We set our sights on a Buddhist temple, climbed the “Belltower,” which allowed us to see for miles, and saw enchanting artwork. Out of the botanical gardens, we visited the Fruit garden, the Lotus garden, the Cacti Garden, the “grave danger forest of tropical rain” (yeah English translations aren’t China’s forte) garden. I’m telling you ladies, it was absolutely mesmerizing!
Ahhh although we spent 3 hours indulging in the peace and harmony, we didn’t cover even half of the entire place. I didn’t need to do a lot of convincing the other Duke students that they needed to go visit– I mean I also got to sit on a camel for less than one U.S. dollar:
How can you say no to that!?
This is one mighty long blog post, and my excuse is that I didn’t write much for my first one, and so much has happened since then! I still can’t wait to tell you about the food here. And next weekend we are traveling to a hot spring for 3 days! And then of course there are the karaoke bars that every college student is obsessed with here. Ah can’t wait! I hope you have enjoyed the read, and until next time…
Your very tan Chinese friend,
JWOO