No Person Is an Island
Finally, it's my turn.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Afternoon,
I was born and raised in Sichuan, a low-lying basin surrounded by mountains, mountains, and more mountains. A place I'd call it "an inland island". The lack of access to the outside provinces, especially in the old days, nurtured the unique "Sichuan personality" that is known to be happy, friendly, and chill...or except that sometimes we are a bit too happy and too chill to care about the outside world.
Last year, I went to Sweden as an exchange student. I thought I finally left the "island", until I found myself trapped on a cultural island that was more difficult to escape.
When I was in Sweden, I encountered many instances of culture shock. For example, I couldn't get used to the fact that in the western culture everyone seems to have the ability to start a random conversation with the strangers and appear perfectly at ease. When I was at social events, I usually wanted to finish my drink in front of me and leave before anyone noticed.
For a while I didn't understand how I can leave my own cultural island to reach theirs, until an intriguing moment at a dinner party.
At the party we were introducing ourselves to each other. And the conversation turned to me, and I realized that I didn’t give myself an English name. What's worse, my Chinese name is so hard for foreigners to pronounce. But just because of that, I was under the spotlight during that dinner party. Everyone of them started to practice my Chinese name again and again and tried to learn the cultural meaning behind it. It seemed that they were so happy to meet a Chinese student with a real Chinese name instead of Peter or Bob. One of them said "I'm glad to learn your real name because that's your culture and that's who you are."
I was touched by her words. I realized that I don't necessarily have to abandon my cultural island in order to connect with theirs. Every culture has its unique beauty. And all we need to do is to preserve our uniqueness while learning to appreciate the beauty of the other cultures.
So, I started to reach out, in the way I knew how. As a vlogger, I used many videos taken in China to answer nagging questions of my western friends about China, such as whether Chinese keyboards have hundreds of keys of Chinese characters; whether Sichuan people keep pandas as pets at home; whether everyone in China is a Kungfu master… Step by step, I'm trying to eliminate the stereotype of China and build more bridges to facilitate the different understanding of cultures.
Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world where everything is interconnected, physically and culturally. The bubble of one's culture should not preclude one from learning about each other for this is what we are here for. I have seen the beauty of my culture and the culture of other nations for which we should learn from each other as long as it is done in the spirit of honesty and respect. No person is an island. Let those words sink in for a second. Let us appreciate each other's culture and let diversity be our strength and guiding light. Thank you.
Thank you very much.