2 Minnesotans, a Saudi, an Israeli and a Mexican: it’s not a joke, it’s an afterparty
Jun 29, 2009
By Andrea Hunt, www.eChinacities.com
If I have learned anything after being in China a few years, I think it’s the lesson that you can be friends with people with whom you never thought you had anything in common with. It seems that oddly enough, the only thing at times that expats share is the commonality that they aren’t Chinese. While naturally we all have Chinese friends, I think sometimes it can be surprising to us at how many different friends we can have here in China. This is how you get two Minnesotans, a Saudi, an Israeli and a Mexican, among other nationalities, at an after party in Hangzhou.
In the small Chinese town I used to live in called Zhuji, we had a group of 5 American expats and an older Aussie lady with kids our age. Despite the five of us being American, none of us would have ever meet in the USA under any regular circumstances. People always assume that simply because you are from the same country, you have something in common, but everyone knows how fallacious this argument is. We had a hippie, a jock, a stoner philosopher and a wandering escapist; basically, we only shared the same location, yet we ended up becoming close friends. I tend to believe that most of the expats in China are of a certain personality. Usually in some moment of last minute insanity, we chose to pick up our entire lives, leaving everything we knew behind along with all the people we loved, to move to a foreign country of which we know nothing and no one and not a shred of Chinese. It takes a certain kind of person to do this; these are the majority of the expats who come to China so what you end up with are a lot of crazy, impulsive, outgoing, independent people who are more open about other countries because we are all strangers here.
Worldwide there are always clashing cultures, countries, and religions. History is always a factor, as well as worldwide ongoing conflicts. However there are certain instances in China where being an expat in China has removed the sense of judgment people normally possess at home. I think many times in your own country, the reality is that you stick to people and places that you know and therefore you are always in a venue with other like minded individuals while here we are all forced to go to the same events and bars. This makes a huge difference and you can get so many races, cultures, nationalities and sexual orientations all together and see what happens.
Here you find yourself sitting around a table with people literally from 10 different countries and backgrounds and totally different professions and pre-China lives. But here our lives have all come together, albeit for only a short while. You have people from England, Germany, US, Italy, Libya, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Colombia, etc. all getting together to go to a music festival in the middle of China. After a while, you stop noticing how unique it is until you return to your own country and realize everyone at the bar is also from your country.
One of the most interesting cultural experiences I have had in China was in Hangzhou. Hangzhou has a fairly small expat population and a limited variety of venues you can go and hear decent music. We had started out the night at “Maya Bar” with some Israelis who were friends with my Colombian friend in Yiwu. It was Thursday, and “In Club” Hangzhou used to have Latino, Arabic, Indian, Caribbean nights weekly which was truly one of the weirdest, coolest smorgasbord of people you can imagine. They warmed everyone up with a buffet coupled with an open bar to get all these people meshing and dancing more easily. However, as opposed to many of the events in Hangzhou, Thursday night’s “weird cultural combo parties” ended at 2am and everyone had to figure out what to do afterwards. So one night, it was an especially interesting mix of people because a large group of Mexicans were having a “bad fashion” party on the first floor and coming up to dance with everyone else upstairs. I was wandering around in between the two parties marveling at the salsa music one minute and Turkish pop the next followed by Caribbean maraca songs the next. My friend, who was also from Minnesota, and I were with the Spanish speaking-Israelis and the rest of the Mexicans when we met a vivacious Jordanian girl who was studying in Hangzhou. I went outside to use the phone and noticed a guy sitting on bench extremely bored and started talking to him where we established that this was funny because he was Saudi and I was American and not a usual combination at a bar.
Soon the clock struck 2 and they started kicking everyone out, my Minnesotan friend came up with the grand idea that since he had tons of beers at home, we should just get all the Mexicans and go to his house. I invited the Saudi guy and his 2 Moroccan friends along with the Mexican guy and the Jordanian girl. The taxis pulled up and we hopped into a cab only to realize the Spanish speaking Israeli was in it and we had just barged in on his cab, and so I immediately without thinking invited him along forgetting the fact that it is not necessarily wise to try and mix Israelis and Muslims given all the conflicts in the Middle East. But after several beers and cheap “In Club” alcohol you tend to forget these details. I suddenly realized my error, and immediately asked them if it was OK to which the Spanish-speaking Israeli replied, ”but of course, we are neighbors!” So there we were, two taxis filled with enough cultures, religions, and origins to make literally novels of ethnic jokes that start out: so a Mexican, a Minnesotan, a Jew and a Saudi walk into a bar…
For a group of people who before that night didn’t know each other at all, we ended up staying up late into the night talking about everything, practicing the languages we knew and discussing our sentiments on China and our weird experiences, while drinking beer after beer and laughing at each other’s slurred stories. We danced around the apartment to what most of us in China use as a stereo: an iPod and some Chinese market-bought speakers. It’s surprising how you can get a Jordanian girl and an Israeli dancing salsa while an American girl simultaneously teaches the newfound Saudi friend. Yeah, life is weird here in China, and cool at the same time. Where else this would have happened I don’t know, but we ended up walking away from the after party with a new group of friends that I still have to this day three years later.
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Related Links
Shanghai Society: How to Win Friends on the Expat Scene
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Mingtown Garden International Hostel, Hangzhou, Zhejiang
