Similarity and Demarcation
I have numerous fantasies about the western world and grow up with the admiration of the magic of Harry Potter, the detection of Sherlock Holmes, the vicissitudes in Dickens’ novels and the splendor of the architecture. In the twentieth year of my life I finally got the opportunity to study in the Netherlands and embrace the other side of the earth. During the period I have experienced Dutch style education and way of life, and traveled to several neighbor countries. The similarity and demarcation among different countries are the points that impressed me most.
People tend to use words like “romantic” or “liberal” to depict Europe. But recently there are also negative voices which question the safety and supervision in that area. In fact, I keep pretty high expectations and bear fear towards personal security at the same time. However, I find that life in Europe bears much resemblance to life in China. Students go to school and adults go to work. Supermarkets have heaps of goods and shopping malls are crowded on weekend. Trains may be late. Housing rent is a large cost. When I am under much pressure of performance at school and reluctantly abandon my hobbies, I would envy the freedom of European students. But my Dutch friends told me that they also choose business major instead of art or music, which they love a lot, because of the potential for career development and the money issue. The well-known cities, which make efforts to advertise their uniqueness, are inevitably involved in the trend of commercialization with many stands near hot spots for tourists. I was nervous all the time when traveling in so-called risky cities like Paris, yet they are just like other ones, some are even more beautiful, serene and friendly to foreigners. Stereotypes always exist. But it is necessary for us to try to remain impartial if we want to understand a city, a group of people or a kind of civilization.
Besides similarity of life, my journey also witnessed the similarity of humanity. There are elegant couples in Musikverein in Vienna who are absorbed in the symphony. There are tramps in Brussels station who sleep under broken quilts. Mothers of various nationalities have the same tender voice. Kids with different skin colors have the same innocent eyes. Cathedrals, Colosseum, sculptures, streets and bridges are all story tellers who guided me to feel the emotions of people in another part of the world. Bertrand Russell once wrote, “Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. ” Previously “the world” was so far from my own little space, but the feelings changed when I walked on the lands of different countries. Although I didn’t encounter such disasters in Russell’s article , I could think of books I read before, feel more connected to the world and understand a bit of Russell’s unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. We humans all have wishes and shackles, sympathies and sorrows. When I understand myself as a human being, it becomes easier to understand people around me regardless of culture backgrounds.
There is no doubt that every country has its own culture, or label. But from my perspective, the differences cannot be applied to individuals. For instance, most of us regard Germans as diligent and rigorous people. If we randomly pick a German worker, he might still be lazy. During my elective course “Inventing the nation”, Mr. Roode, the professor, laid much emphasis on the word “demarcation”. In his theory, people identify themselves by drawing an invisible line. Usually history plays a significant role in demarcation. History creates national memory and shapes self-images, which can unite and demarcate people. Only when I am surrounded by a totally unfamiliar environment can I understand the sentence written by Ruth Benedict (a quotation by John Dewey)—“The part played by custom in shaping the behavior of the individual as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue over against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the vernacular of his family.” The demarcation reminds me of the identity of being Chinese and reinforces the awareness and recognition of Chinese culture deeply rooted in my heart. After the trend of globalization, it seems that we go back on the way of nationalism. It is crucial to seek common ground while reserving differences.
Fortunately I have the valuable chance to explore my own story with the real western world outside books. The similarity lays the foundation to communicate while the demarcation creates sense of belonging and provides space for different civilizations to prosper. Such experience and changes of mindset will definitely encourage me a lot on the way to become a person of integrity.
