Rewind: Breaking Out and Re-Entering

Summary: In the spirit of tradition, my family and I took our annual holiday trip. The destination this year was Korea and Taiwan; not too much to report because it was, in short, a smooth trip that was more about the experience than the sights.

Recently (a month ago) came back from a trip to Korea and Taiwan with the family. There was some concern about my return to Lucknow, but all has been sorted out, and I’m glad to be back.

Some quick thoughts and reactions about the trip (plenty more where these came from):

Overall

• Surprisingly not as much culture shock as one might imagine, though I did miss the sight of cows and the sounds of honking Ambassadors. I did not cherish “fitting in” as much as I thought I would, though that could be because I was with family. The impact of “fitting in” is something you recognize only when you no longer do.
• Language makes a place feel either very foreign or very comfortable. Given all the possible ways we can communicate, we do seem to over-rely on verbal language.
• Meeting up in a foreign place without any ability to contact one another can be a fun adventure! (I still think about everything that could’ve gone wrong but didn’t.)

Korea (Seoul)

• Streets were pristine, even sans trash cans.
• Very limited English-speaking ability by the general public; reminded me of some of my initial frustrations in Lucknow. All in all, however, people were very friendly and tried to help. One guy who gave us directions came back to us a minute after he walked off to correct the information he originally provided.
• Females were very fashionable and wore short skirts and leggings even though it was snowing!
  DMZ (De-Militarized Zone, border between North and South Korea) is surprisingly touristy. Also, apparently there were 4 (of an estimated 20) tunnels found, dug by the North for a surprise attack into Seoul. They discovered one of the tunnels by sticking PVC pipes filled with water in the hills; pressure from explosions during tunnel-digging would cause the water to fly out. I thought this to be exceptionally simple and ingenious.
• Restaurants tend to specialize in one item or “type” of food (similar to what one might encounter in Lucknow’s Chowk), unlike the all-encompassing menus to meet the demands of modern society (e.g., Royal Cafe's Indo-Chinental menu).

Taiwan (Taipei, Kaohsiung)

• I saw some similarities with Indian food that I never noticed before, such as paan, paratha, chiki, and chai.
• There was one time we asked for directions to the nearby metro station and the guy offered to give us a lift. We took it – it was a strange, heartwarming encounter.
• People kept pinpointing us as Hong Kong-ese (based on our Mandarin accents), not just Chinese. Such a refined distinction felt strange, though I guess being “Chinese” is a touchy subject out there.
• New Year celebration at Taipei 101 was surprisingly “clean,” and very well-organized. A free concert with some great stars was involved, and people were sober and just having a good (not “crazy”) time. Much calmer than expected. Getting home was a bit difficult, as they set up some serious crowd-control measures (e.g., restricting entrance to subway stations to ensure the safety of folks ‘down under’).

All in all, it was a good, low-key trip. Makes me think about the “East Asian” (or, more generally, “Asian”) categorization – while it is a Western construct, it’s somewhat appropriate as there were noticeable cultural similarities (perhaps a product of historical invasions and colonization). At the same time, there are also major differences between the cultures, and the distinct national personas get lost in the grouping.

I usually self-identify as Chinese (when the American element is recognized and understood); should I instead be responding with “Asian” or “East Asian” until further questioning, or perhaps jumping to “Hong Kong-ese” before broadening to “Chinese” when people ask where Hong Kong is?