Back to the subject, I was enjoying the very pleasant spring weather (albeit a month late) and just minding my own business. I noticed in the corner of my eye a man parking his bicycle and among the seven other sections of the bench, choosing the one next to me. He sat, opened his Pepsi, took a drink, and then just stared straight at me. Having a Chinese person (usually an adult male) sit conspicuously close to me while saying nothing and keeping only flittering eye contact is pretty common. I know they want to talk to me, but I'm pretty neutral on beginning the conversation, so I leave it up to them. (There are ~4.1 million people in Changzhou, and ~2 million in the city, but only 2,000 foreigners (according to my advisor) so sitting down next to one of us is a rare opportunity.) As his stare became even more awkward I looked up and he took the bait, and asked me, in stuttering English "what's your name?" I answered, and it only took him three times to understand. I could see he was struggling to say even the most basic phrases, so I just sat there in patience. He was able to ask me next, "which country is yours?", now while I don't pretend to own America, I know that this is a pretty literal translation of the Chinese way to ask where one's from. He did not understand my answer of America, nor the USA, nor the United States of America. I tried saying America as slowly and clearly as I could, but we got nowhere. I could have switched to Chinese, but he was clearly looking to practice his English. Well, he gave up, and asked me, with a thick accent, if I could speak Chinese. I answered yes. (Side note-I say thick accent, because I am blessed to do almost all of my conversations with my students, who have studied standard Mandarin in classes, have all their classes taught in standard Mandarin, have to pass a standard Mandarin test, and usually use it with each other-as they are from areas with many different dialects). This man clearly had not had much instruction on standard Mandarin.
We then had a short discussion, in which he realized that he had known how to say America in English, and just forgot, and then asked me many questions. Most interesting was his question of how long he thought it would take for Chinese people to achieve the American level of wealth. He was very unsatisfied with my answer of a long time but probably never, so he kept asking the question again. I don't have nearly good enough Chinese to explain my answer to him. He also later asked me if I was a "real, real American" as he thought that my eyes and nose did not qualify me to be one. I have no idea what person he is using for as his reference point for the "real, real American" but being white and brown haired I am the most common hair/skin combination among Americans. I didn't even began to explain to him that in America (and many other countries) nationality and ethnicity are two different things. (Side note-with China's huge number of ethnic groups this should be the mindset here, but it definitely isn't). As I was struggling to get some points across to him a campus security guard walked up and started talking with the man. The guard was very kind and patient, and mainly just asked him what the man was doing, where he was from, and kindly suggested he leave. It was a very calm interaction, but the man got up and left. I don't know if some of the store owners told the guard that the man appeared to be bothering me or if they just suggested that he was a migrant worker-and that a lowly migrant worker certainly shouldn't be talking to the esteemed foreign teachers. I'd bet on the latter. Either way, as always, life's full of curveballs in China.
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