Ask any one of my Cross Cultural Communication students and they will tell you . . . "Culture is all about people, people are all the same and people are all different." It is the core to our understanding of cultures around the world and can there be anything more fascinating than people? So endlessly diverse in every way imaginable and yet all very much the same. Our trip to Hainan was a chance for us to see yet another fraction of this incredible country's vast cultural landscape. The ocean was beautiful, the seafood was delicious, the weather was perfect but the culture . . . the people made the trip worthwhile.
Case in point. A funeral procession marched by our car. Hundreds of people marching through the street carrying flowers and banners and lighting fire crackers to scare away the evil spirits. All I wanted to do was stare because everything about them was so different. So when I stared what did I see? They were staring at us because everything about us was so different. I guess that kind of makes us the same.
1 comment:
This is great! Love all the pictures.
That's quite a profound statement from your student. It's just as she says and so we have to learn to live together that way with the one glue that can truly bind us.
*insert forest music and voice over: "deeeep thoughts" *
Post a Comment