Initial Chinese Impressions of Americans

Yale-educated Wei-Tai Kwock surrendered his hard-won company and career to fight for our climate, working with Vice President Al Gore for the non-profit Climate Reality Project.  This wasn’t an obvious path. His grandfathers and father were into business and science. They had all fled China when the Communists took over in 1949, his parents coming to the U.S., his paternal grandparents going to the Philliipines . HIs grandparents never set foot in China again. (See Part 1 .)Wei-Tai's father did return, though, as soon as the country started ties with the U.S. (1979), and he took Wei-Tai with him. China was not as Wei-Tai's father remembered. Still, he was proud of the country's accomplishments, and eager to introduce other Americans to it. (See Part 2.)

Wei-Tai also became enchanted with the idea of leading tour groups.  His goal was not only to see the country, but to learn the language.

“I did not grow up speaking Chinese except for yi, er, san, nihaoma (one, two, three, hello.) During my high school years, a friend of my father’s said, ‘Hey, you know, China is going to be a very important country during your lifetime. As a Chinese-American you better be able to speak Chinese. People are going to expect you to speak it. ‘"

Since Wei-Tai  was interested in international relations and saw the vast potential of this one-billion-person country (at that time,) he dove into a Mandarin class at Yale. He discovered that Mandarin “is an extremely difficult language to learn in the United States.  But when I traveled in China, in three weeks my fluency level picked up so much, ‘cause you’re in the environment. You see characters all over the place—from just that daily, hourly reminder of all the characters  I almost made as much progress in three weeks as I did a semester in America."

So, for the next two summers, he took Americans on tours throughout China.

As China had been closed off to the world for 30 years, many Chinese had never seen a westerner. “When we walked down the street, legions of people would be riding bikes, and just staring at us. Even walking up and just following us just to see what we were going to do.  Or to try to say hello.” Wei-Tai was 19 in 1983, but many of his clients were retired. He remembers several Chinese asking, "Are all Americans old and fat?"

Also they’d never seen blonds. “Often Chinese people would come up and ask to touch their hair.  Just cause it was so unusual."

One lady was even approached by some women, asking if they could touch her breasts, as they’d never seen any so large. Said this woman, “We must look like Martians to these people." Wei-Tai emembered China as a sometimes difficult place to live and travel, but definitely innocent and charming.  He said that the hotels varied by city and were pretty smelly by Western standards” in remote areas. (Think squat toilets.) Also, at the time, the planes in circulation were Russian jets and  propeller planes. “One time, when a portly Americana passenger tried to put his seat belt on, the whole thing came off. The stewardess told him it was OK not to wear one."

(To be continued. Next: A Shaky Beginning to Career.)