Monday, January 14, 2008

“Are you a China?”

    Our swearing-in ceremony was Wednesday. Since the eight o'clock news on Thursday, I have had at least 10 people say to me, "hey, didn't I see you on tv?" Unfortunately, the answer is yes. I somehow was first in line to enter the hall, which put me in the first seat in the corner, right smack dab in front of the news camera. Great. What also makes it kinda funny (kinda) is that a few of the PCVs gave speeches in the local languages, and the girl who did the Afrikaans speech was also Asian…and since we all look alike, some people thought it was me giving that speech. Ha, ha. Anyway, there went my fifteen minutes of fame.

    It is weird being Asian-American here. I have had only a few negative experiences related to this, but they have angered and frustrated me so much that whenever I meet a Namibian, I immediately brace myself for some kind of "you don't look American" comment. During my site visit, my boss took me to a neighboring settlement. A group of three little boys came upon me and immediately started yelling, "China! China!" and one of them did a karate chop. I wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him hard. Martial arts movies are really popular here and consequently will be the bane of my existence for the next two years. I also frequently have conversations like this:

Me: Hello, my name is Jennifer. Nice to meet you.

Namibian: Where are you from, Jennifer?

Me: I'm from America.

Namibian: Oh. (pause) Are you from Japan?

This is always followed by a really sarcastic comment going on inside my head, for example, "Are you deaf, you moron?" I mean, why don't they ask the white people where their ancestors came from? In all fairness, though, Namibians don't question my nationality out of any bad intentions. On the news, in the movies, most of anything you see here from America, features mostly white people. Why wouldn't they think that all Americans are white? Also, my 20-year-old host brother, who is a third-year college student, had no idea that China is just one country in this mysterious region of the world called Asia. Nobody ever told him, I guess. Nevertheless, the minute somebody calls me "a China" (which is what they call any Asian person) I am immediately on the defensive. More rants about this are sure to come.

Also, in many towns you can also find "China shops," where you can buy anything and everything imported from China, from hats to jewelry to pots and pans to handbags and blankets and everything in between. The people who own the China shops are from China (you guessed it), and when I went into a China shop a couple weeks ago, a customer asked me the price on an item. She thought I worked there. That really pissed me off. Strangely enough though, when I went into a China shop last week looking for some stuff, I really enjoyed talking to the Chinese people working there. Of course, they asked me if I was Chinese, but I didn't even mind. I don't know why. Maybe because I haven't encountered much ethnic diversity in the past couple months and was happy for a change. Or maybe I was glad to interact with someone who looked a little bit like me. I really don't know. But anyway, China shops are an obvious reason as to why China is pretty much the only known Asian country around here. They aren't called Thailand shops. I know I will continue to be questioned about my nationality in the next two years, and therefore need to just get over it, but I don't see it as something I will ever get used to. But, maybe I will. You never know.

If you're reading this, shoot me an email and let me know what's going on with you! I will post more in the next couple days…take care!

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