Whenever is the most dangerous time

(Note: This article was published in Apple Daily, March 25, 2018)

At the end of March, it’s the “hanami” season in Japan. In recent years, during this season, many media outlets have been gearing up, waiting to report on the grand spectacle of Chinese tourists crowding the cherry blossom viewing spots in Nara, Kyoto, Japan. In January of this year, I happened to be working in Kyoto. It was supposed to be the off-season and there were few tourists. However, walking on the Gion Hanami path, what I saw and what I heard gave me the illusion that I was in Ximending or Chaoyang District. During the wettest and coldest time of the year in Kyoto, tourists are still enthusiastic, and when the cherry blossoms begin to bloom, of course it will be even more exciting. The tourists are here, and so are the reporters. What scene are the reporters expecting? Naturally, it is a scene of ignorant tourists climbing trees and breaking branches, shouting loudly, and leaving a piece of garbage on the grass on the river bank. In other words, tourists go to see the flowers, but the media is waiting to see the excitement of the tourists.

Almost without exception, every year when this kind of news comes back, the Internet in mainland China is full of curses. He denounced those indecent behaviors that were photographed as insulting to the country and "disgracing the face of the Chinese people." My old friend Dou Wentao, the most powerful talk show host in mainland China, once talked about this phenomenon on the show. His reaction when he saw this situation was the most interesting: "Once I saw some aunties and uncles shaking... There was a cherry blossom tree, and some people simply climbed up, and everyone was laughing happily. I stood and watched from a distance, and I also started to laugh. I thought to myself: Look at my compatriots, how funny they are! I can quite understand his strange reaction. He was neither angry nor shaking his head in lamentation, but regarded it as a kind of entertainment material, with a kind of indifference and distance from bystanders that had nothing to do with him. Over the years, I have met many so-called uncivilized Chinese tourists, but I never felt that their behavior had anything to do with me. This is not because I don’t identify with my Chinese identity, and I won’t try my best to draw a line with them in this embarrassing situation like some of my Hong Kong friends do. I simply feel that it is their fault that they are not polite and do not understand the rules. I just have to do my duty as a foreign guest. If someone tries to tie their actions to my identity and lump us all into the same category, then I can only say that I’m sorry, but you’re wrong.

Labeling is part of human nature. In order to survive, to quickly grasp everything in the world, and to understand the complex affairs of people, it is difficult to avoid using various visible labels to classify people. However, after the label is attached, it should not be solidified. It must be shaken, reflected, and further divided in various ways. Speaking of Chinese tourists, I have seen too many people who are polite and cautious, know their way around, and always try to quickly grasp and follow the rules of a foreign country. How can they be compared with the most typical "Chinese tourists" presented in the media? equal sign? In other words, I don’t want to be easily labeled by others and think that I only have the identity defined by this label; nor am I willing to easily regard such labels as an iron rule for understanding others. Rather than labeling others, I am more curious about how I label myself.

To give a simple example, I once saw an online food "self-media" writer criticize a famous two-Michelin-star Kappo restaurant in Tokyo. He was not dissatisfied with the family's food, but rather praised it. What made him most unhappy was that the chef had a bad attitude towards him. As soon as he sat down, he took out a camera and placed it on the table. He was immediately criticized because the Itamae wooden table was made of the very valuable Takahara Maki, and people were afraid that his camera would scratch the surface of the wooden table. . In the middle of dinner, the chef was preparing a complicated dish behind the table. The author immediately stood up from his seat, raised his camera, and wanted to capture this rare process. Then he was scolded by the chef and shouted He sat down immediately. Later, the author interpreted everything as the chef was in a bad mood, and maybe someone had taken off one of the three stars he once had. Many people should know that this situation actually involves some common sense and etiquette of dining in Japanese high-end restaurants, and it is not as simple as this author said. But what’s more interesting is the comments under this article. Many people have raised this issue to the level of national dignity, thinking that the famous Japanese chef is simply discriminating against the Chinese.

To be honest, there are always some people in every place who treat tourists with a fixed view of labels. I also encountered various types of discrimination in many places because of my skin color and my language. Like I said before, I can only feel sorry for them. But on the other hand, I have encountered many examples of people who actively turned themselves into targets of discrimination, turning a very simple and practical matter into a problem of ethnic conflict. For example, the large shopping mall near my home has many tourists buying medicines, clothing and other daily necessities. It is overcrowded every weekend. A few months ago, I had my feet crushed by someone dragging my suitcase by hand. Of course I screamed and alerted the careless tourist. Unexpectedly, he started to argue with me. The more he talked, the angrier he became. Finally, he came to a conclusion that we will hear from time to time in Hong Kong today: "Why do you look down on us mainlanders? If it weren't for us, you would have been finished! Don't you Aren't you Chinese? "In fact, things are very simple. There are many people in the mall. If you drag a suitcase, you will inevitably collide with people. You must be careful. If you accidentally bump into someone, just say a simple apology. In Hong Kong, I am often said to be the most typical "Greater China glue". Naturally, I will not look down on mainlanders. I just want to remind this elder brother to be careful. How come things have become such that Hong Kong people look down on mainlanders and Hong Kong people no longer regard themselves as Chinese?

This is just like what we occasionally hear on the news: Chinese tourists sang the national anthem collectively in the waiting room because their flights were wrong and the arrangements of the airline and the airport were not satisfactory to them. Why didn't they immediately arrange a hotel for you to spend the night? Why would you immediately conclude that this is "the most dangerous time for the Chinese nation"? Later, I also read comments from mouthpieces in the official media criticizing the behavior of some tourists who frequently sang the national anthem in groups to protest in other places, saying that this was "kidnapping the country." You are right. This tendency to easily turn an incident that is originally simple in nature into an issue about China's status on the global stage can indeed be described as "kidnapping a country." But why do some people like to "kidnap the country", so much so that your protest against him putting his luggage on your feet has become a sacred issue that concerns the dignity of the country and cannot give way to it?

I suspect it's because these people were kidnapped by the country long before they kidnapped the country. "Country" and "nation" are the most abused adjectives today. As long as anyone has a little international reputation, it must be the fruit of the country's cultivation and the pride of the nation. So on the other hand, if he encounters displeasure outside, it will of course be a humiliation for the country. In other words, "country" and "nation" have become his basic perspective on viewing the world, a pair of glasses that cannot be taken off. It seems that even when a person dines in a foreign restaurant, it is not just him who is eating, but the country. If he encounters a problem that he cannot solve, the next thought that comes to his mind is: "Why doesn't the state care about this kind of thing?" So when I encountered a situation at the airport that I couldn't explain clearly, when the collective mood arose, I could only shout, "Get up! People who don't want to be slaves!" Maybe the country would actually step in to take care of them. Because they are accustomed to believe that the country is too powerful, omnipotent, and omnipresent. There is nothing in the world that it cannot control. Even if there are times when it is beyond our reach, others have to give our country three points. You must know that China today is no longer This is no longer the Manchu Qing Dynasty during the Opium War. Although I can understand the indignation of netizens when they see indecent news about Chinese tourists, I cannot feel this emotion. In my opinion, the person who climbed up the cherry blossom tree and shook its leaves was just an unruly tourist, not the whole of China climbing trees.