Mistaken Identity

When I first arrived in China, I was asked what the biggest culture shock was. You'd think I would say the toilets, the weather (like, they have seasons here. Coming from Southern California, that's just plain strange), or the food, or just how many people there are. But no. It sounds stupid, but the first thing I was shocked by was that, wow, everything is written in Chinese and I have no idea what anything says.

You'd think I would have thought that was a given, but it still does not cease to amaze me. Those little squares, circles, and brush strokes actually mean something, and if I'm in town, I spend most of my time in awe of my utter illiteracy.

The other thing occupying my time in town is usually deciphering strange looks. I just recently figured out that most people have no idea what I am. "She looks Asian, but I can't quite put my finger on what kind." "Are you Chinese or Thai?" ("Neither.") "Hmm, you could be part Chinese" (which is a compliment, I think, as in "you could be part of the greatest people on Earth"). "Thai? Hawaiian? Mexican? Indian?" ("Cold, cold, cold, and colder"). Or if I'm out with my mostly white teacher friends, most Chinese assume that I am their interpreter, since I am the Asian-est. It's quite ironic, actually, since I think I know the absolute least Chinese of anyone in all of China; even if I try to speak it, people look at me as if I am speaking Russian.

So I guess that's another one of the things that shock me the most about living here: everyone's Chinese (duh!), and unless you're some shade of white, you're bound to get a lot of strange looks. Well, no, let me restate that, if you're a cracker, you'll get strange looks, and sometimes even have your picture taken, but if you're some shade between yellow, red, and brown, then you're just plain perplexing to most people outside major cities.

...

But then again, whenever I've traveled anywhere else, I always get mixed up for something other than Filipino. Mexicans think I'm Hawaiian, Hawaiians think I'm Mexican, Peruvians think I'm Chilean, Argentines think I'm Paraguayan, Brazilians think I'm Argentine, and then there's the whole palette of Southeast Asia to choose from (Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, etc). US Americans will get more creative, coming up with amalgamations of Japanese, Spanish (thanks to "Benitez," my last name), and Cambodian, maybe with a hint of Latin American thrown in there. The absolute best was when I was walking through a fish market in Santiago, Chile, and someone asked me if I was Brazilian ("No, pero gracias! Muchas Gracias!!!") So to credit the Chinese, I guess I am pretty confusing looking.

The next time I'm asked (usually as interpreted by a third party, by our taxi driver), I think I will just lie and say I'm Chinese. Or that I'm of African descent. Then I can really start having fun with it.