Experiencing China

Day 13: The Virtues of Tea and Pizza Hut
Hong Kong

Tea is certainly integral to Chinese dining and culture. Found the following, word for word, on a restaurant place mat in Aberdeen
yesterday, in Chinese and English:

Ten Virtues of Drinking Tea

1. Tea helps sharpening the eyes
2. Tea helps preventing dental cavities
3. Tea helps giving a lift and keeping a cool mind
4. Tea helps replenishing vitamin C
5. Tea helps smoothing urination and preventing calculosis
6. Tea helps improving gastro intestinal functions
7. Tea helps reducing radiation harm
8. Tea helps preventing hypertension
9. Tea helps reducing cholesterols and preventing obesity
10. Tea helps enriching sustenances

Not sure what to make of some these. May be enough to conclude that drinking tea is good for you and beneficial to one's health.
Otherwise I'm a confused on the meaning of several items on the list.

I'm getting excited about returning to the States. I think I've learned much about the Chinese culture, even if I do have much, much
more to understand. Not only am I glad for this in my own, personal development spiritually and culturally, but I hope to continue
learning to relate better to Asian and Asian American friends of mine.

I've recently heard from several Asian American friends of their real frustration with being in an American culture that doesn't affirm them as ethnic Asians. They often feel ostracized, or at the least forgotten, for simply liking particular foods or not sharing certain cultural experiences with a large part of the general population; simple things like what television shows or fast foods they did or did not enjoy as children. One friend in particular mentioned her pain when others near her, even well-intentioned peers, flippantly criticize certain Chinese foods or music, things that she has known in her life since a young age, things that she holds as dear to her heart. It can be painful to hear others call something "weird" if we hold that same something as somehow sacred in our
life.

It simply must be difficult living in a culture that sees you as a minority and therefore potentially abnormal. How does one retain his or
her own culture and ethnicity with pride when everything around them is telling them they are far from the cultural ideal? I pray for
the grace to humbly communicate better with these friends and to comprehend more of their world. And, Lord, may I have the
courage to stumble and step into the angst of embarrassment when ignorant about their culture. I figure it's better to try and relate
and therefore make mistakes than not try at all. I also hope to spend more time with my Chinese friends and share with them about
this trip. How do they feel as Chinese students studying in America?

I'm again aware of my own position as an American. Even here in Hong Kong, if I do not desire to assimilate to the Chinese culture, I
do not need to. The restaurants I know and the English words I speak are all around me. I could, for the most part, easily insulate myself from anything that pushes me out of my comfort zone. So I must be intentional, as I've tried to be with this entire venture in the People's Republic, about trying to empathize with the culture around me as much as it's within my power to do so. And I must continue with this back home.

Ironically, even with all of this in mind, Tony and I took a daylong break from Hong Kong culture; not that we can do that wholly while
still here. For our final day together, Tony and I both wanted to just relax, not go too far out of our ways, especially as we're both
fairly exhausted and I'm not feeling well. And Tony doesn't mind soaking up a few more Western treats before heading back to
Guangzhou. So we ate lunch of Pizza Hut, ordered a Meat Lover's deep-dish pizza, and then read a newspaper, the Hong Kong
Standard. We then serendipitously stumbled upon a movie theater and ended up seeing an American film, Sleepy Hollow, which proved
to be a bit gory but quirky with an interesting story line; suspenseful with surprisingly endearing characters. It had Chinese subtitles.
We thought about going to what would have been a fascinating Hong Kong made film that involved the use of several different
languages including English, Mandarin, French and, if I remember correctly, Japanese, with English and Chinese subtitles, but neither of
us felt like working our brains anymore. Though I'll be the first to eat up new cross-cultural experiences or media, there must be times
of rest if serious culture shock is to be held at bay. And so we're resting culturally, eating what's familiar and doing what we're more
used to doing. Therefore we ate pizza.

Though there is virtue in drinking tea, according to that place mat, and trying the remedies and ways of a new culture, there's also
nothing wrong with enjoying what one is used to, what one knows in their own daily life, be it tea and fried noodles or pizza and
American films. Must find a balance, I guess.

This evening we walked around Tsim Sha Tsui, down near the waterfront of Kowloon Peninsula, took some final nighttime photographs.
We then went to McDonald's, something I don't even do in America, but in keeping with our day of cultural rest this was a logical
finish. According to our tourist street map, Hong Kong has five of the ten busiest McDonald's in the world.

I'm rather achy, weary, head's spinning a bit. I'm nearly tempted to try one of the aromatherapy or acupuncture clinics here in town
that I've seen advertised most everywhere. I do know one guy back in the States, in Wisconsin, who has acupuncture done for his
allergy problems; says it works wonderfully. I'll keep downing extra vitamin C and let the body do its work for now. And soon I'll be
dealing with jetlag. I pray for restored health.

I also pray for insight into how to mentally gather and then relate all I've seen and experienced over the past two weeks.

Mark

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