March 14, 2012
by Paul Stanner
If The Mountain Won’t Come To Mohammed —
By Paul Stanner
Having lived and worked in China for ten years I am acutely aware of how frightening and confusing China can be for those inexperienced foreigners when they visit China or when they come here to work so whenever I’m on vacation and see foreigners or if I happen to see them in whatever town I’m currently residing in I make it a habit to introduce myself to them and offer my assisstance and friendship. This policy goes doubly so for Americans since I am American. Almost universally I am rebuffed with a cold shoulder and quite frequently the attitude seems to be one of scorn and ridicule. I regret that I am forced to inform my American countrymen and women that Americans have a particularly nasty attitude in this regard. They also tend to inject criminal suspicion into their rudeness. As far as I can tell the thinking seems to be that if an American has spent ten years living and working in China he / she must be a criminal. It never seems to occur to them that the Chinese authorities would never allow any criminal into China to teach at their universities. To me this is an incredibly obvious fact that should be readily apparent to any American with half a brain and a junior high school education. I guess it’s one of the mysteries of life why it isn’t. There is the occaisonal exception to this phenomenon of the rude foreigner thankfully.On my most recent vacation to Guangzhou I had the pleasure of meeting one.
I walked into the restaurant I quite frequently eat my evening meal at while in Guangzhou. This restaurant is on Shamian Island in Guangzhou which attracts many lao wai {foreigners } for it’s colonial architecture history and charm and it’s many Western restaurants. As the waiter was escorting me to my table this gentleman invited me to join him. I was shocked since I can count on one hand the number of times that any foreigner from anywhere spoke to me first much less invited me to join them in my ten years of living here. This totally unexpected turn of events held the promise of an intriguing evening of conversation. I accepted his invitation. As we chatted I came to learn that he was a young Canadian man of 70 who hailed originally from Eastern Canada , Toronto if memory serves , who had moved to Western Canada for many years and was now living in Wyoming. He was a lawyer in his younger days but was now a rancher . We chatted about many things but he was particularly interested in my experiences teaching in China and my experiences traveling in China. He specifically wanted to know what Chinese cities I would recommend he visit. Eventually we discussed the topic which is the point of this article , how far America had fallen in 70 years. I found his views right on the money. Speaking to this man was like conversing with a human encyclopedia. After the evening was finished my conversation got me to thinking about this topic.
I don’t know why but my life seems to run counter to what everybody else is experiencing at any given time. More specifically when America is doing well it seems that my personal life is in tatters and vice versa. At the tail end of the 90′s when America generally was doing quite well my personal life was a train wreck. I had endured a few years of homelessness and borderline poverty. I was in dire straits. My problems were economic in nature and were 80% caused by circumstances beyond my control. My field was experiencing severe job contraction. Couple that with the fact that I was reaching Chronologically Advanced status and securing a job was virtually impossible. Also quite honestly about 20 % of my problems were self inflicted. I didn’t make the best career choices when I had the chance. To quote Bush 43 ” When I was young and stupid I was young and stupid.” I had always been a confident and self reliant person and had always managed to pull myself out of past difficulties so I was confident that this situation was only temporary and my abilities would save the day yet again. Trust me when I tell you though that the more chronologically advanced you get the tougher it gets to overcome these sorts of problems. My situation was getting dire indeed and I was beginning to think that maybe I wouldn’t prevale this time. I did what my religion told me to do and turned to my Christian friends for help. They did as they always do and kicked me right in the teeth. It was time for a radical new game plan. I didn’t quite know what that plan was yet but I knew I needed one. God does indeed work in mysterious ways friends. One day while I was sitting in the library checking out the want ads in the local newspapers a magazine caught my eye. I went over to investigate. It was ” Christianity Today ” . I assure you that it’s very unusal for me to be reading any Christian magazine. While I am a Christian I’m not one of those Bible thumping , testimony giving Christians. My faith is between me and God. Looking back on it now I guess it’s really no surprise that She chose this way to speak to me. Sometimes a rap upside the head is exactly the wrong way to handle me. I tend to get defiant and stubborn when that is the approach. Her subtle , gentle way in this regard worked. There was an interesting cover article so I took a break from my job search and read it. It was quite an interesting article so I read another then another and another. I then noticed the ” Christian Employment ” section. I had no clue what ” Christian Employment ” was so I checked it out. The second I saw the ad I knew She was speaking to me. It was an ad to come teach English in China. I had found my new game plan and my way out of my predicament. If the mountain wouldn’t come to Paul then Paul must go to the mountain. I applied for the job and prayed. My prayers were answered. Two weeks later I was in The Land Of Chairman Mao’s Miracle preparing for my fourth career and third childhood and one hell of an adventure. It’s turned out to be the best thing I ever did. Like I said She does indeed work in mysterious and sometimes wondrous ways.
Fast forward four or five years. I am now living an upper middle class lifestyle in China. I have a paid apartment on campus. All of my utilities are paid and I get two paid 7 week vacations a year. Meanwhile back home in America the economy is in tatters.Hundreds of thousands of Americans are unemployed or vastly underemployed and in serious danger of losing their homes. There is no immediate solution in sight.
Everyday I go on Facebook and Google Plus and listen to American’s stories of woe. Everyday I do what my religion tells me to do in these situations. I try to help my American countrymen and women and especially those of my faith. Everyday I am treated with condescension and suspicion by my fellow Americans and everyday my fellow Christians that supposedly know better kick me right in the teeth for my efforts. Some things never change. The excuses are endless and sometimes very creative.I’ll focus on two of the more popular ones. ” I am afraid. China is a Communist country. ” Well that is true enough but it’s only part of the story. The current Chinese are far better capitalists than we are. If you come to China to teach and stay out of their business you’ll be safer than you are in America. It’s bad business you see for foreigners to be assaulted or killed in China. Their government makes it crystal clear to it’s citizens what will happen to them if they do this to a foreigner and particualry an American foreigner. Before you come here the Chinese will tell you exactly how to stay out of trouble. They are basically the four T’s — Tiannenman , Taiwan , Tibet , and The Falun Gong plus no proslytizing. If you come to China with intentions of getting involved in those issues then take my advice and stay home. If you intend to come to China to start a teaching career or get involved in some other career then I would advise that you get a job and hop on the next plane. It will be the best decision you ever made. It will also resolve your American employment problems if you have any. I can’t begin to tell you how insulting and demeaning it is to be constantly denigrated by the members of Generation Gimme like I would knowingly , wantonly endanger any of my American countrymen or women’s safety. I also find it astounding that these folks think I would put my own personal safety in peril. The chutzpah of Generation Gimme knows no limits. The second issue that is most frequently mentioned has to do with convenience. If you can’t accept that China is a developing country that doesn’t have all of the modern conveniences of the West then stay home. Trust me though when I tell you there are ways around the Facebook , Google Plus and Youtube blocks. In all of the big cities you’ll find Western markets where you can get good western food as well as Western restaurants. All of these issues of ” convenience ” can be surmounted if you prepare well before you come to China. Do your homework in other words. It seems to me that not being able to readily buy your Ben And Jerry’s Cherry Garcia is a small price to pay for an upper middle class lifestyle and the adventure of a lifetime in China especially if you are currently suffering economic hardship. But then again adventure and living in another country requires some ” stones ” on the part of the person seeking this solution to their problems. ” Stones ” is something that is in critically short supply in Generation Gimme. ” Why do we need ” stones ” when we have Daddy or Big Brother ?”
Can somebody please tell me when Americans became so soft that we refuse to exploit the opportunities given to us? When did we become so soft that we rely on government to solve all of our problems? People like me and other Americans who have solved our problems the good old fashioned American way of hard work and exploitation of our opportunities should be help up as examples of the best American exceptionalism not viewed with suspicion ridicule and scorn. How far we’ve fallen indeed. From The Greatest Generation to Generation Gimme in seventy years. The soldiers of D Day and Iwo Jima must be turning over in their graves.
STOP your pissing , moaning , bitching , whining , complaining , and blaming everybody and everything else Generation Gimme and find your personal mountain.If it’s good enough for this American to go to the mountain than it’s good enough for you !!
P.S. : If any Westerner especially Americans would like info about coming to China to start a career please feel free to leave a comment on this article.
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