Beauty and the Gooffiness

Chinese culture consists of many things which I haven't encountered before. Before I got here I was suspecting that I will see a very different way of life from the Western way of life. And it is, yes, indeed. In Beijing what immediately cought my attention is the spontaineity of the people and lack of embarassment in expressing their feelings. When we walked around the city with Karen, Michale, Jon, Kevin and Henrik many people were looking at us with open interest: a bunch of long noses ("long nose" is like "gringo" in South America and it describes a Westerner and is so much true - we do have longer noses than the Chinese) visiting their land. The most interesting thing for people was Michael's beard - long and thick and braided into a single braid. Some people were pointing at it (we couldn't understand what they were saying but surely "look at that guy's beard!"), asked if they could touch it, have a photograph with Michael (and the rest of us in some cases) or even asked for autographs. When we were eating at our favorite restaurant across the hostal Leo's Jon read to us from Lonely Planet about what is considered cultural behaviour at table: basically anything is permitted and even welcomed, all the slurping, burping, eating with open mouth (anyone knows how is mlaskanie and cimakanie in English?), dropping food on the table, etc. Anything except sneezing and playing with chopsticks. Chopsticks should not be used for pointing, tapping the table or dishes or random poking in food. Eating is a joyful and communal act according to the Chinese culture so all the food is shared and one can take food from other people's dishes freely. Also, when someone trips and falls everybody laughs and the one who tripped and fell laughes the loudest. What I am saying here is that people in China don't seem to be bound by so many dos and don'ts as the Westerners. When a person trips and falls in, lets say, the US or in Poland the person quickly gathers him or herself up and looks around if anybody has seen it... and if anybody has, it's a reason for embarassment. I think those who live in the countries marked by the idea of a "successful person" with superb manners and perfectly controlable behaviour where the word "embarassment" is used a lot, should visit China and for once stop worring about slurping, burping or farting (yes, indeed, that too doesn't seem such an offense, especially after the lights go out in the train) in public. What a relief... Karen was saying that she doesn't laugh as much in Germany as she does in China. Any goofiness is welcomed in China, you can literally feel the relaxed atmosphere in the air.

Something else happed to me which I consider very interesting. When I was walking alone in Beijing twice a local man came up to me, asked if I spoke English, said "You are very beautiful" and walked away. One person at the internet place said the same thing and asked me if he could paint a picture of me. I said "yes" and suspected that maybe he would want to sell it to me afterwards but no. He drew the picture, thanked me and walked away. The men did not want to talk to me, or ask me to have coffee with them (as it happened in South America); they just wanted to expressed a thought that came to their mind and were not embarassed to do it. (I wonder if anyone will come to me another time and say "You are very ugly.") When it happened the first time I thought "My God, I am beautiful! Someone has actually seen it! Has admired me for once!" I am just kidding... What came to my mind immediately was a thought which came to me when I got a book from Rebis, who published it, entitled "The History of Beauty" by Umberto Eco: it is such a famous book but it really only portrays the history of beauty as seen in the Western culture. The book consists of many beautiful illustrations of famous paintings, old and modern actors and actresses, pop culture idols, etc. but it's only the Western model of beauty. In Africa, I have heard, the word for "a beautiful woman" is "fat bottom." In Poland, before the fashion magazines of the US and Western Europe appeared, a woman was considered beautiful if she had big breasts and big bottom: "a woman should have something to breathe with and to sit on" was the popular saying. Nowadays in the "West" a beauty is a tall and skinny woman whose knees are wider than her thights. In China what is considered beatiful is the fair color of the skin (it seems it's a sign of beauty since the Geishas' faces powdered white; the cramped deformed Chinese feet got out of fashion and wouldn't be considred beautiful now, though). And that is the beauty when it comes to women but what about the cannon of a male beauty? (Maybe in every corner of the world it suffices for a man to be just a little "better looking" than devil?) I think I mentioned this before but whenever people tell me that beauty will save the world I want to ask them: which beauty? Beauty is such a relative thing... The only thing constant I see everywhere I go is compassion. Person's ability of putting himself or herself into someone else's shoes is the only true beauty of a person. But when talking about the physical appearance I would like to say this to all who think there's something not good enough, not beautiful in them, something they don't like in themselves, something that makes them feel not beautiful: you are beautiful by the mere fact the you exist, you are part of the universe and the universe loves you the way it created you. And sometime somewhere, in the far corner of the world, you may even be considered beautfiul by the other mere mortals.

I booked my flight to Llasa for Wednesday morning and I can't wait what cultural delicacies await me there. Not to mention the Tibetan medicine... Next time I will write from Llasa.