I used my new card for the first time today. The first woman I requested flatly said no and seemed mildly annoyed that I had approached her. I realized that I may be bothering people, both as a foreigner unable to converse and entering their ‘space’ uninvited. I was trying to be sensitive. Of course this is difficult to do, since I’m guessing at the cultural norms for approaching strangers.
I tried to determine whether or not the person was likely to be receptive while still at a distance. If they were in the middle of conversation with someone, or tending to a child or otherwise occupied, I let it go, even if they were wearing a fascinating t-shirt. I told myself that there would be many more, which there were. After the first encounter, only one of the ten people I approached, declined my request.
This is my first experience of trying to communicate with strangers in China, aside from vendors, cab drivers and wait staff in restaurants. It made me see everyone more individually. It also reminded me of my foreign-ness.
Meanwhile, today I was reading about my great-grandfather, medical missionary Dr. William McClure, originally from Lachute, Quebec, who lived in China 1888-1938. He had learned Chinese (Mandarin) easily and as well as being the mission hospital’s only surgeon, he provided several-month language training and cultural orientations for missionaries – medical and otherwise – in Weihui, Henan province from 1912-1915 (McClure: The China Years, Munroe Scott, 1977. pp. 29). This piece of family history took on a new vibrancy for me today.
