Don't Look Down - Hua Shan Hike

Formal vs. Informal Interaction written by Wendy Lai and Sara Manana

After 12 hours on a plane we were greeted with the stern faces of border guards; no eye contact, no facial expression, and definitely no “Welcome to China!”... How’s that for a greeting? However, walking on the streets outside of our hotel we were greeted with the flashes of stranger’s cameras, no boundaries, getting pulled around; definitely not the same kind of interactions experienced with the border guards, but definitely a more positive greeting.

                The juxtaposition between formal and informal interactions in China is something we have definitely been dealing with this first week. The more formal interaction can be described as a “group to society” association, in which we are obviously viewed as tourists, the “others”. The airport example was the first of many instances where we have dealt with more formal,, hierarchical exchanges. Another example would be our welcoming to Sino Bright, Beijing’s own BC offshore school. Our interactions there were very formal: the two- handed exchange of business cards, the emphasis on how we as BC student teachers were so revered, and the photographer who followed us around the school for most of the day. Therefore, we as tourists from Canada have also been put on the higher level of the hierarchy, being respected and treated better than many of the locals and, in the case of the school, better than teachers who already work there. However, while at tourist sites such as the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven, the guards surrounding the monuments not only refused, but were aggressive about their position of power and that we could not take pictures of them (the tour guide’s position was “how could you be so naive”). Overall, it seems that formal interactions between our group and society were more widely felt in Beijing, where society is more distinct borders between “us” and “them”; whether we are on the top or bottom of the hierarchy.

                The hierarchy ended in Yangshou where we were treated more as “locals”, as we were dealing on a more person- to – person level, rather  than “group to society”/ us vs. them interactions. Therefore there have been just as many informal moments juxtaposing the formal ones. One of our favourite examples involved dancing with locals in the Temple of Heaven courtyard. Although it was us who intruded on their dancing, instead of being stared at we were welcomed and encouraged to take part in their activities, with no boundaries to cross. In this situation, we were the centre of attention, a magnet for photographs, while taking many pictures of and with the locals at the same time. Plying hacky sack with a group of local guys was a similar experience, an informal interaction in which, although we are clearly tourists, we were treated more like locals, on a more familiar level.

In the end, the juxtaposition of formal vs. informal interaction has had us negotiating the boundaries of “belonging”, and as it is only the beginning of our trip, we know that we’ve only just begun!

"No Obligations, Just Invitations"