8: Performance Art & Performed Networks of Relations
>> Wednesday, April 6, 2011 –
aed 813
When I first moved to China, I knew no Chinese. None. My friend had attempted to teach me some simple phrases when I visited for two weeks in 2007, but I was not able to learn to count from 1-10. After 9 months, my Chinese was making some progress. I went to Beijing with two student teachers and I was the sole Chinese speaker---great for my language development!
We went to the Pearl Market to purchase some knock-offs, souvenirs, and other things “made in China.” My strategy---for every Chinese word you drop, the price drops. I wouldn’t use the calculator to talk prices, but spoke the numbers in Chinese. I even tried to argue with a vendor that I should get a cheaper price because I was a Qingdao person! He laughed because, looking at my face, I clearly was not Chinese. But, but, but, I am a teacher. I am a Qingdao person! If only I’d known how to say I live in Qingdao. (I asked my teacher how to say that sentence in my next Chinese class---我住在青岛。)
China is not a melting pot. It is not a salad bowl. It is not any other metaphor for the mixing of nationalities that occurs in the United States. Anyone can be a native Philadelphian, regardless of their skin color. And anyone can become a Philadelphian-transplant if they spend a few years there and consider it their home.
Not so in China. The Chinese will never consider me a Qingdao-person (ren). I will always be an American person.
But in my eyes, my identity is wrapped up in this city I love, in which I live.
I am a Qingdao-ren. 我是青岛人。
This is my city, my home, my everyday life. But like the humans in Rodney’s story, I have invaded someone else’s home. While I try to be conscious of this phenomena when I reach points of cultural frustration, I think there is an art project lurking in the midst of this confusion. Many of my little ones also think they are a China/Qingdao-ren. They were born in Beijing! They’ve spent all 7 years of their life in Qingdao. They speak Chinese. For one blonde-haired Aussie, his older brother is biologically Chinese, adopted by their Australian family. For another student, she is the adopted Chinese, raised by American parents in the US, then China, then the US, then back to China, with an adopted bi-racial brother. Things which are quite confusing to young Third Culture Kids (TCKs).
Whose Qingdao is it? Does it matter? What makes a Qingdao-ren? Can we all be Qingdao-ren? When I (or my type) become Qingdao-ren, do I displace the native Qingdao-ren? Building my fancy restaurants puts food on the plates of the lower class construction workers who could not pay for food in my restaurants, let alone feel comfortable entering the door they built.
For an activity, I imagine taking photos of Qingdao-ren---people who consider Qingdao their home. I would print the photos in a large format, perhaps life-size. Students would navigate the images, asking questions of identity, gender, ethnicity, nationality. Assuming the role of one of the Qingdao-ren, students could write stories about how these Qingdao-ren view various parts of our city (Taidong, Wusi Guangchang, Bailiguangchang, Badaguan, construction near Xianggongzhonglu, apartment complexes in Fushanhou, etc.).
Students could create a map of Qingdao-ren, showing socio-economic (and nationality) divisions by geography. Statistics could be brought together in other graphic ways, particularly to shed light on expat entitlement---the sense of privilege some of our students feel over the local people and their ways. (You might suffer from this too if the only Chinese you interacted with functioned in servant-roles, as your driver, housekeeper, checkout person at the store, and street sweeper.)
Another project could be based on the common needs of all Qingdao-ren---food, water, shelter, clothing, relationships. Each student could photograph the breakfast, lunch, dinner, water, bed, sofa, clothing, family, and friends of a different Qingdao-ren. The images for a single Qingdao-ren could be cropped and displayed in a 3x3 grid, then grouped with other Qingdao-ren. I imagine a photo-mosaic void of faces to create a more universal Qingdao experience, displayed prominently in the school (perhaps in the library, stairwell, or cafeteria). The title of the photo-installation would be
我是青岛人。
Assignment: Read each others’ stories posted in exploration 7 and select 3 stories to use as a springboard for an idea of creating something in your teaching site or everyday environment that calls attention to the everyday scene or routine in a new way.
References:
http://jeremytochina.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-city.html
http://thecultureblend.blogspot.com/2011/04/and-im-both-on-being-chinese-but-not.html
http://rdraughn.blogspot.com/2011/03/7-making-visible.html
http://lmp254.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-7-making-visible-story-part-2.html
http://www.personal.psu.edu/swi100/blogs/s_izzos_aed_813_blog/2011/03/blog-entry-7-making-visible.html
Qingdao Coastline: Melanie VanderWal Read more...
