Culture surprises in China, yet shock in Hong Kong

China had been on my wish list as a travel destination for quite some time. This summer I realized this dream and travelled through Yunnan, the most diverse province in Southwest China, and ended my journey Hong Kong. At the moment of booking I couldn’t have imagined how tense the situation of the ‘One country - two systems’ would become and what an interesting perspective shift this provided me as an interculturalist. My motto ‘Learn to travel - travel to learn’ proved to be so true again this journey. Let me share my story with you.

A less than ideal experience?

The first glance of China we already received in the preparation phase. As we were planning to travel by high-speed trains we booked our trains online. After a couple of reservations we received an e-mail that warned us ‘Westerners’ for the possible culture shock that could await us: “It is crowded on Chinese trains and train stations can be overwhelming. Most of Chinese parents travel with their children by trains during summer holiday. Children could be very noisy and their parents will not stop them. We understand that encountering these large crowds in a train station or on the platform can really be a culture shock moment for guests from the west. This crowding might lead to you having a less than ideal experience on the train. The truth is most stations in China would almost always be considered crowded by western standards. We hope that in spite of the crowds you were still able to make the most of your experience on China's rails”. I personally wasn’t concerned with getting a culture shock, but was intrigued by this message. Why would a train booking agency send us this? What had been their previous experience with Westerners in this sense? And how crowded would it actually be?

Culture surprise, culture stress and culture shock

As interculturalists we distinguish between culture surprise, culture stress and culture shock. Culture surprises are the stimulating and interesting differences we first notice; culture stress is when one gets overwhelmed and mentally exhausted from too much conscious problem solving (which is normally been done by the autopilot) and culture shock then is the accumulation of tiny adaptive stress that can lead to a deep sense of malaise, experienced in different ways (feelings of tiredness, irritability, emotional instability, homesickness, depression and so on).[1]

No spitting

The cultural surprises I encountered were countless. In my perspective the traffic in cities couldn’t be more fluid. Scooters, bikes, rickshaws, cars, buses, vans etc., all moved like water in a river – thereby not always considering red stopping lights, neither driving on the right, nor waiting for pedestrian crossings – yet slowly and consciously everyone seemed to find its way organically. On the railway stations on the contrary, all was highly regulated, as locks in a canal. Waiting in the ticket and ID line, waiting in the security line, waiting in the waiting room for the set time to enter the platform. And then the announcements: ‘Let’s keep the train environment clean: no littering and spitting in the trains!’. Each four seats had their own garbage bin and a special attendant cleaned the wagons permanently.

Yin and Yang

Opposites seemed to go hand in hand as yin and yang. Security cameras everywhere (even in the smallest restaurants), yet police officers could easily join and enjoy a musical evening in our guesthouse while being on duty. During the celebration of the Torch Festival of the Bai (an ethnic group in Southwest China) we witnessed all the preparations in the temples and were being invited to participate. In the evening the huge torches in the village plazas were put into fire, close to electricity poles and the public, and even young children swayed their burning sticks. Everyone enjoyed the fires and no-one seemed to care about any risk.

Language and internet stress

What could become a bit stressful was of course the language barrier, combined with the internet restrictions that made that Google Translate didn’t work nor that we could download another translation app because Playstore gave a blank page. So back to the pre-internet stage: we communicated with hands and feet, used our dictionary book, wrote down some key sentences in Chinese characters and just experienced what happened. Sometimes we were lucky when young Chinese spoke some English or were handy with their translations apps. Overall we managed; we got the food we liked, we arrived at places we intended to reach etc. People were endlessly friendly and helpful, often kept on speaking Chinese or even writing the characters for us, while we obviously didn’t share the language, and yet we managed to smile and say 谢谢 ‘xièxie’ (thank you).

Hong Kong protests

As expected Hong Kong, due to the recent developments, would be a different story. Not so much in terms of a culture shock but, as one could call it, a shock in political systems. In China we were able to follow the international news (although many Western news sites and newspapers are blocked) so we knew what was going on in Hong Kong. At the same time we realized that this information had been very limited for the Chinese population, and when news was provided it was biased, mainly highlighting the violence, damage and rebellion. Also in our conversations we noticed the immense distance between the ‘Two systems in this so-called One Country’. A 180 degrees different narrative.

We happened to be there in the week that huge protests in the city (the laser light show against the arrests) and in the airport took place. As it turned out we were lucky to catch our flight back home last weekend; at the same time the demonstrators started their sit-in in the arrival hall to show the world the threat on democracy. No one knows how the situation will evolve over the next period of time. In October China will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic. With Mao on all the Chinese Yuan banknotes and with huge statues of the former Chairman all over the country, the difference with Hong Kong is clear; I keep my fingers crossed.

[1] Joseph Shaules (2014) The intercultural mind; connecting culture, cognition and global living.