Day 31: Its Good To Be Chinese

For those of you Chinese Singaporeans who hate the language and think its uncool, well, you have no idea what you’re losing. You’re losing a huge part of your heritage, your identity and a lot of what it means to be you. As you can see I’m pretty opinionated about this subject, but let’s not go into that on this blog. This is, after all, a travel blog. But today’s highlights (there aren’t many) made me feel glad, for the umpteenth time since coming to Europe, that I’m a Singaporean who can speak pretty decent English and Chinese.

Checked out of the hostel in Madrid and took a long-distance bus to the city of Sevilla, capital of Andalucia in Southern Spain. The bus journey was uneventful but I did meet a Chinese man in his thirties from Fujian who was here on a visit as a labourer. This acquaintance turned out to be pretty useful because the bus was stuck for 2 hours at a service stop along the way, and as he could understand Spanish, he told me the reason why (else the wait would be even more painful for me. Imagine if your bus broke down and no one told you why you’re seated in a non-moving bus for two hours waiting for it to move!)

Rural Spain, as seen from the highway, is pretty ugly and dirty actually. I have to say the English countryside looks better. 1 point for England ;) But sorry, its 100 points for Spain in terms of weather (it hit a high of 24 degrees today! Made me feel like going to the beach), food, people, culture, architecture, night life, etc etc.

I did see bulls (horns included) grazing on farmland though. Which begets the question, why? I don’t think their meat would be particularly tasty, indeed, I think it might be pretty tough and rubbery. So I could only conclude, with my limited stereotypical knowledge of Spain, that they were doomed to a life (or rather, death) in bull-fighting rings.

And there was a particularly scenic part of the trip as the highway meandered through stunning limestone mountaineous formations. I’m reminded of what Daniel said about Spain, that it’s the second-most mountaineous country in Europe. Surprised, huh? According to him, Switzerland is No. 1 and Spain beats France, Austria, Germany and other mountaineous-sounding European countries for second place.

Got to the hostel and checked in. I’m not going to say which hostel it is because this is simply the best hostel I’ve ever stayed in in my entire life. At just a bargain price for 12.90 euros (S$25), this is a secret I want to keep. The hostel looks like a hotel, and even the 4-person room I stayed in has a huge en-suite toilet with shower. The hostel is spacious, well-equipped, comfortable and very, very atmospheric in what I assume to be traditional Sevillian style. Its so nice to just sit here on one of the cushy sofas and type this blog post. As I look around, I suddenly realised that this ‘traditional Sevillian style’ reminded me a lot of Balinese style! Cool! If I come to Sevilla again, I’m definitely staying here; its definitely going to be better and cheaper than most hotels anyway. I hope they accept people over the age of 35; I don’t know when I’m going to have the chance to come to Sevilla again. I would love to come to Spain again soon, but there’s still so much more of the world left to see!

Walked around a part of the old town for a bit at sunset and Sevilla looked gorgeous (though the city was downright dirty and ugly when I first walked from the bus station to the hostel). Lots of locals milling about after work, having drinks and a light pre-dinner snack in cafes and outdoor terraces. I haven’t yet figured out how to classify each eating establishment I see in Spain; there’s the same category of names like restaurante, cafeteria, bar etc, but they somehow mean different things! A cafeteria is not low-class and cheap for example, many of those I’ve seen look pretty posh and expensive.

I was starving by the time I got off the bus, so I had a light pre-dinner McDonalds BBQ Chicken Burger for 1 euro (tasty) and then tried to shop for groceries, but the supermarkets were already closed, so I went to the grocery shops near the hostel. In Spain, 90% of these shops are owned by Chinese people. This is the first time I’ve actually had to buy something from those shops and the owners of both shops I went to were incredibly friendly. I felt so at ease and happy to speak Chinese again, and I could see they were as well. Talked to them briefly and both shops gave me a discount on the stuff I bought, which I felt was terribly nice. I don’t know of any other race that has so many of its people in far-flung corners of the globe, and I’m always happy to see a Chinese person whenever I travel, because its so familiar to see a person of the same race and facial features, who speaks the same language, has the same cultural norms and thinks in a similar manner. Its not the same story in China, but out in the big, wide world, all the Chinese people, Taiwanese, Malaysian, PRC, wherever they’re from, all seem to be looking out for one another and helping each other survive in a foreign land. And giving each other discounts despite being mutually aware that the Spaniards are being charged a much higher price for the same stuff. And that’s what makes me glad to be Chinese – this sense of shared identity.

Its always a question of identity. And I have this stand to make whenever a foreigner I meet asks me whether I identify myself as a Chinese: I am not a China Chinese, I am a Singaporean Chinese. I would never want to be a citizen of China, but I consider my race as Chinese, the same race as the people in China and Taiwan. I’m proud to be Chinese, to speak Chinese and to be yellow-skinned (because I feel a sense of connection too with the Koreans and Japanese I meet on the trip, and can get into hot springs in Japan for free without raising any suspicion, for example!). I deeply disagree with the Chinese government on many issues like human rights and democracy, but I feel a sense of pride when I read reports that say China’s going to overtake Japan soon as the world’s no.2 economy, China is the third nation in the world to launch a manned spacecraft, etc etc stories about China’s rise. I don’t know how other Singaporean Chinese feel, but that’s my two cents worth.