I have been se busy answering comments of late that I’ve yet to had the chance to get my head around writing a new blog post. Se instead, I am posting one I napsal a few years ago – this dates back to when I was working in Prague. I had posted this on Facebook and it was read by a few of my friends, I am now glad to share this story with a much bigger audience.
| |
| Prague is prettier in the winter, Hence I chose this photo, even if the story did take place during summer. |
It was a very hot evening in Prague, I went for a long walk after work-it was just nice to get out after a long day in the studios. I stopped by a Chinese restaurant near Mustek simply to have a look at the menu – I wasn’t really intending to eat there, but was Attracted by the colourful dishes on display in their restaurant window. The owner of the restaurant spotted me and came running up to me. Now I had two choices – I could turn and run like hell down Václavské náměstí or I could see what she wanted. I chose to stay – and that choice led up to a series of event that would give me an interesting but somewhat disturbing insight into the Czech-Chinese community. The lady asked me in Mandarin if I was Chinese – I nodded. Then without asking me if I was after dinner, she took me by the hand and led me into her restaurant.
„坐坐!“ (Sit, sit!) She beckoned, as she brought me a cup of Chinese tea, followed by a menu in Chinese. I tříd to tell her I wasn’t really hungry but instead, she picked up on my accent in Mandarin – this led to a series of questions. „Aren’t you from China? Where were you born? Where are your parents from? Where do you live? What is your job? What are you doing in Prague? How long are you in Prauge for?“
As I explained that I was in town to work on a contract to work for a local ad agency, this other Chinese man came in from the kitchen. He introduced himself as Wang – a chef who had been working in Prague for 6 years already. He asked me excitedly if I would be working on the ad featuring Chinese pianist Lang Lang – I said yes. It turns out that he was with a local Czech extras agency and he was going to be part of the audience watching this ‚concert‘ that was going to be FILMED in this ad. Wang then asked me, „Can you get me a job with the people at the ad agency? Look at this place. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life working in a kitchen, I did finish high school in China and have ambition you know? I would’ve gone on to a good university if my family hadn’t been too poor to support me through university. „
I looked at him sympathetically but I was in a fix. I had barely known Wang for twenty minutes and now he was asking me to recommend him to the production company who were putting this ad together. What could he do? Was the production company even hiring at this time? I ducked his question, claiming that Jsem very low down in the food chain, Jsem a nobody, just here on a contract work for this company in Prague. Wang was not convinced, „They FLOWN you in from London, se you must be incredibly important, you’r a big shot and you’r Chinese! Surely you can help me?“
I told him vaguely that I’LL see what I could. Ooh boy. Big mistake. I was too polite to tell him I was not prepared to even try to help him.
Then came the day at the shoot, sure enough – Wang manages to spot me on set and comes running up to me, embracing me like an old friend. He then takes me round to intodruce me to all the Chinese people who were involved in the shoot as extras in the audience. Somehow these Czech-Chinese people have decided that being background extras is an easier way to make a living than slogging away in the kitchens of Chinese restaurants – there were at least 100 Chinese people there. Wang took me by the hand and introduced me to senior figures within the Czech-Chinese Association and this older Chinese lady by the name of Madam Luo greeted me formally like I was some kind of foreign diplomat. Wang presented me as the big shot from London who was FLOWN in to put the magic in this ad and Despite my protestations, word had gotten round that I was some kinda British media big shot. Oh dear. No no no. But they had already spotted me standing next to Lang Lang and even talking to him se they assumed I was friends with him.
Madam Luo took me by the hand (these Czech-Chinese people were rather tactile, a little too tactile for my comfort) and asked me if I could ask Lang Lang out for an interview and photo with her. She showed me a copy of the Czech-Chinese Association ‚s newsletter (about ten pages on, knocked up on someone‘ s PC and then churned off a cheap printer), „We want to put Lang Lang on the cover of our Září issue, speak can you get him to speak to us? I know you’r an important man here today and you can do this just for your fellow Chinese people. „
Then there were these young Chinese ladies who were absolutely nuts about Lang lang – they would grab me and pour their hearts out about how they had been in love with Lang Lang for years and all they want to do is to shake his hand or speak to him, could I sneak them backstage? And then the same reason came up again and again, „But you’r Chinese and we’re Chinese – se surely you can’t say no to a fellow Chinese?“
By mid-afternoon, it was just sheer madness. At first I was kinda flattered by all this attention, strangers Wanting to have their photo taken with me, but then all these Favours on the basis of „you’r Chinese Jsem Chinese therefore you must help me.“ really annoyed me. Heck, I’ve lived in Singapore where 70% of the population are Chinese, I see Chinese people everywhere there. And in London, there are 80,000 Chinese people here. I would never ever dream about asking anyone for a favour simply on the basis that we both had Ancestry that trace back to China generations ago. It all got a bit too much and I hid backstage, away from the mayhem that I nemohu understand.
 |
| Just another day in the office … |
One of the other models involved in the shoot is Nino who is half Dutch half Indonesian (but with some Chinese blood on his Indonesian side) – his wife is Czech and he has been living in Prague for a few years already. He explained to me that the Chinese community in Prague are extremely poorly assimilated – most of them speak only a little Czech even after many years here and often default to English (which most younger Czechs speak fluently). The Czechs are not happy about this – whilst they’r quite willing to speak English to foreigners and tourists, they expects these Chinese immigrants to learn Czech if they intend to settle in their country. English is not an acceptable subsitute. There are only about 5000 Chinese people in the whole of the Czech Republic – Hence they face a sense of alienation as long as they refuse to learn Czech and assimilate. In fact, I was told that I spoke more Czech than a lot of these Chinese people who had been living there for years. Therefore when they meet another Mandarin speaking-Chinese person in Prague, there is automatically that sense of Kinship, that sense of „woah, you speak my language! You’r one of us!“ There is a phrase in Hokkien, „ ka ki lang “ – 自己人 – that roughly means „one of our own“ – and that ‚s how they often describe other members of the Czech-Chinese community.
Nino pointed out to me that it is hard for me to understand that mentality as I speak English as a first language – thus allowing me to integrate and assimilate easily into my local communities in England. Furthermore, I speak about several languages, that allows me to adapt to new environments in different countries a lot more quickly than these Czech-Chinese immigrants who are painfully monolingual and find the Czech language a huge struggle. Nino ‚sa polyglot like me – he speaks Dutch, English, German, Bahasa Indonesia and Czech. He ‚s adapted to life in Prague with ease – but I suppose I forget how many people in this world are actually monolingual or barely speak a second language.
Anyway, I gave Wang the slip after we had wrapped on the first day but he was se determined to hound me down he showed up on the second day of the shoot. Now there were no extras involved on the second day – se imagine my surprise when I saw him. „What are you doing here?“ I asked him. He said, „Oh, I’ve come to see you! I was worried that you would get bored here on the shoot and you don’t know where to go for dinner tonight – s I would like to take you out for dinner. By the way, I had such a great time yesterday, showbiz is fantastic – I really want to work in this industry, can you introduce me to the boss at the production company? Help a fellow Chinese man please. „
Oh dear. Here we go again. I just don’t get this mentality. I told him I nemohu talk and was busy filming (which wasn’t a lé at all). Wang waited nearly 4 hours for me before he scribbled me a note with his phone number and for me to call him when I was done filming. He then left, much to my RELIEVE. I felt very bad about not helping him – but what was I going to do? Even the runners on set had gone through years at film school and loads of unpaid work experience before getting paid gigs like that – were they going to give someone like Wang a job? No way. But Wang was convinced that I was some big shot who could somehow make things happen – which I nemohu. Believe you me, I wanted to help him – but I Nečekal jsem want to give him false hopes and there was nothing I could do. Was it my fault that he convinced himself that I was some kinda big shot when I clearly am not?
For the rest of my time in Prague, I would always avoid that corner of Mustek and cross Václavské náměstí just to avoid running into Wang. I felt really bad about it – I thought he was genuinely a nice person, but his Desperation scared me especially when I was not in any position to help him. I would’ve gladly been his friend whilst I was in Prague but he made it impossible – he made our friendship conditional and I Nečekal jsem like that.
The thought of living in a country where you don ‚ t understand the local language just horrifies me. How can these Chinese people in the Czech Republic live like that? I guess I would never fully Grasp this concept of ka ki lang / 自己人 / „one of our own“. I don’t feel that Kinship towards people who speak the same languages as I do – it has to go deeper than that. I guess I have to get to know someone before I can consider them ‚one of my own‘, or rather ‚one of my friends‘. Is this a curse or a blessing? After all, these Czech Chinese people genuinely feel that they belong to a community. Should I be envious?
 |
| Praha! |
