Western media often seems to treat China as one huge homogeneous country, one billion Han Chinese who look the same and speak the same language, with the exception of Tibet, and maybe Xinjiang (if it gets mentioned), which seem to have been appended onto the Western frontier. The reality, of course, is quite different, and not only are there huge differences in geography and income, even food culture and languages vary hugely by region.
I’ve often thought of China as a modern-day version of Franco’s Spain, with a patchwork of regions that have distinct languages and cultures, have for some periods of history been independent nations and for other periods united, and which are today held together by an autocratic government terrified that any hint of resistance will cause the whole patchwork to fall apart.
One of the rallying cries of the struggle for regional independence in Spain was, and still is, the protection of local languages — something both concrete enough to be (in theory) politically feasible, and so fundamental to the broader issues of protecting local culture, history and political power. The same thing seems to be happening in China. On one end, Cantonese would be the Catalan of modern China – which I guess means Guangzhou would be Barcelona — and on the other end, Tibetan would be Basque.
As much as I love languages, I can understand that a government afraid of regional independence movements (because it believes its mission is to bring its country glory by making it strong and unified) would want to stamp out, or at least keep to a minimum, any local languages — local languages that give the speakers their own regional cultural identity, distinct from the national cultural identity. And I can also understand that the speakers of those regional languages would want to fight to keep their languages, and their cultural heritage, alive. And as much as I’m not ready to learn Cantonese or Tibetan, I hope that they’re still around in a few decades when I am.
Hi Maria,
I’ve been following your blog every and again and I couldn’t help noticing this post.
I am a Hongkonger spending a year abroad in Spain and I seem to keep spotting similarities between Spain and China, not just in the geographical/linguistic makeup but also in the culture as well. Funnily enough, the same stereotypes apply to Catalans and Cantonese in their respective countries – they are both seen as being very business-oriented and rather wary of central government control.
Hi James,
That’s really interesting — what other cultural similarities between Spain and China did you notice when you were there?
Also, I love the pictures on your blog, especially the ones of the Expo. It looks like it was almost empty when you were there — you must have been really good either at timing your visit or at photographing around the crowds!
Maria
Maria, here are the ones I can think of at the moment:
1) A shared passion for food, and within that a lot of similar dishes;
Personal space is not a priority; the more the merrier
油条 = churros, 豆浆 = horchata, roast pork belly (烧肉) = cuchinillo…
2) A tendency to talk very loudly, especially in public!
3) Political correctness doesn’t exist (actually quite refreshing)
4) Life is strongly based around the family
5) The streets are full of people almost every night
6) Spanish and Chinese people know how to stare
7) A tendency to walk in straight lines
9) Conformist mentality; if I sit on the steps of a church others are bound to follow
10) Business deals are sealed outside the meeting room (preferably over lunch)
I was at the Expo this August, so most of the crowds were taking shelter from the 40-degree heat!
James
Interesting points — and that’s a good point about churros and 油条… coincidence?…