LAX, Gate 120 to Hong Kong
A few days ago I Skyped with a friend who was hours away from leaving her house toward the airport, where she would leave the States to Andorra for a year to begin her journey as a Fulbright Scholar. Just last night I went to the going-away dinner of a high school friend who will in one week leave for one year in Scotland. Less than two weeks ago I returned to California from an entire summer interning in Washington D.C.
Now, I am waiting in front of Gate 120 at the Tom Bradley International Airport for my 14 hour flight to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, where I will stay until the 10th, when I will begin my Fall semester at Beijing University. Cantonese and Mandarin are spoken all around me and the people come in so many different shapes, sizes, and shades. Right now I am sitting next to two vulgar-tongued Toisan men who remind me of my maternal grandfather and his sons.
It’s so funny how people and places change so quickly and drastically. The people you once knew are not the same. So many people are leaving the country and exploring new horizons—it’s a wonderful thing. Taking a look back now, I can say that there have been a lot of changes in my life as well. It’s difficult to outline them all specifically and in great detail, but what I can point out is that there are things have stayed the same. I am still looking for new ways to improve myself and expand my horizons. I am still eager to remain politically active and socially conscious. I believe that this election year is one of the most important ones in my life and one that I have waited eight years to participate in. I need to get more informed of the propositions in California and it will be a wonderful day when Obama takes his seat at the Oval Office.
There is so much I hope to accomplish during my stay in China. I can hope to achieve all of these things but I know room for flexibility is a necessity. I hope to take in Hong Kong and see new things—since I am going with my mom I will see where that takes me and trust in her in making my time there worthwhile. I am curious to see how the culture and the fashion is there and hopefully leave being able to say—“Hong Kong is…” When I am in Guangzhou and Kaiping, I need to speak to all the folks I will meet there—family friends and relatives and take in everything they have to say. I cannot wait to see where my parents grew up and where my grandparents lived. I need to make sure that this is documented on film.
Being in Beijing will be a trip—not really knowing the language and not really knowing what to expect of the atmosphere there, but it seems like I have been preparing myself. This summer I hung out with a few friends who spoke primarily Mandarin. Just today, I met a few friends of a friend and we had tea together. I didn’t understand most of what they had to say but I could say that I enjoyed their company. Hopefully it will be the same with the Chinese in Beijing and they will be helpful in guiding my language improvement.
When I begin my semester I look forward to meeting new people and improving my Chinese. I think it will be a big challenge and I will try my best not to get sidetracked. I also look forward to improving my awareness of the politics of the world by reading and reeducating myself on gay and lesbian history. One of the biggest impediments to my social and physical advancement has been time-management. I’m usually a terrible time-manger because I don’t like to be hindered or tied-down by a schedule. Hopefully my semester in Beijing will allot me time for self-improvement. I will go to the gym more often and find a work-out buddy to go with. As I have been telling people, when I come back “you won’t recognize me”.
I am especially looking forward to my independent study, fieldwork and a documentary project on how HIV/AIDS affect gay men in Beijing. It is difficult to generalize about the “gay community” but it will be interesting to compare that community in China to the community in the States. It will be a real experience getting to know gay Beijingers and the struggles and accomplishments of their lives given Beijing’s socio-political climate.
I think that I will have a different view than most people going on the same program. I grew up in a suburban Chinatown so I can say that “China” has always been with me—in the stores I frequent and in the people I meet. But this “China” has always been an imagined China. I was four the last time I was there. It will be an experience to get to know China as it is and in that sense I hope better understand myself and my community as a whole.
Liang Jun Jie
0 comments:
Post a Comment