“This isn’t China”

“Howdy y’all,” our waiter exclaimed as he walked up to our table at Tim’s Barbeque.

His thinly veiled Chinese accent was the only thing that set him apart from the Texas-bred waiters I’d had in Austin just a week earlier, and the walls were decked out in familiar Americana. I ordered a quesadilla, and from the middle of Silk Street in downtown Beijing, I was momentarily transported back home.

I felt somewhat guilty, being only three days into our trip and already tiring of the local cuisine—but my craving for Mexican fare quickly overtook any hesitation. Over dinner we spoke with an American who told us he had come to China looking to make business contacts and learn more about Chinese culture. He hoped to work as a liaison between American companies looking to do business in China, and local factory operators.

As he began to talk about his opinions, though, it became clear that he was not here to learn at all. He had clearly already made up his mind about the people of China and their hopes for their future. He stressed how much the Chinese wished to be like those in the West, and how China was Third World, but on the path to be becoming developed and—if they were lucky—just like the U.S. “This isn’t China,” he said of Beijing.

I wondered why he wasn’t willing to give China credit for the tremendous development that’s taken place here in Beijing. How could he insist on seeing the country only through his Third World stereotypes?

I realized just how different my fellow American’s outlook on China was from my own. In just one week here, I’ve seen a China that’s very different from his: a nation forging a bold new path, with a rekindled pride in its own history.

I found myself struck by the foreignness of my own countryman’s worldview. I realized I didn’t need to travel so far to meet people who saw the world differently—there are plenty of them back home, too.