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April 9, 2018

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

So ... guns? An American in China explains

Source: Shanghai Daily | 00:01 UTC+8 April 9, 2018 | Print Edition

BEFORE they open their mouth, I already know the question they’re going to ask. I’ve told them I’m American. I’ve told them I like China because it’s very safe.

And just like clockwork, every time, they will wriggle their eyebrows and ask with a sly grin, “So ... guns?” and I, as the American, will have to provide an answer.

As an expat in China, I’m often asked to contextualize America or represent it in some way. Sometimes this means rattling off answers to random questions like, “How much do houses cost in America?” (I have no idea) or, “Is it true that once you turn 18, your parents ignore you?” (nope), or, “Do you eat hamburgers for breakfast?” (of course not).

Sometimes it means deeper conversations about education styles, or even drawn-out musings on cultural differences.

But then, there are guns.

Many Chinese people that I meet have two visions of America: one, an exciting land of freedom and opportunity; two, a dangerous place where anyone could get shot at any time.

“Don’t you worry about that when you go shopping?” a friend of mine asked. “No,” I said. “It’s not that bad.”

But then again, it’s not that great, either. I doubt that I need to take up space here to list statistics and talk about how something needs to be done, rather than the usual cycle of “remorse and repeat.”

Most living in China are probably already thinking this, and I can say that being American in China when so many mass shootings happen is downright embarrassing.

As I write this, all across America, high schoolers and citizens alike are doing the “March for Our Lives” protest to kick-start better gun legislation, and it’s with fascination and excitement that I watch them do this from China.

And yet, even after all of these years, I still don’t know how to respond to “So ... guns?”

Quite frankly, I don’t think I’m alone.

When Chinese people study or live abroad, they are faced with curious locals asking questions about China. Sometimes the questions are benign: “Do you really eat with chopsticks?” (of course), “Have you eaten snake?” (probably not), or, “Is it true that Pizza Hut is fancy in China?” (yes, depending on your price range).

But what happens when those of us living abroad are asked to contextualize or represent the parts of our countries that we don’t like? What happens when an American asks a Chinese person living abroad, “so ... pollution?” (pollution is not what defines China, it’s just a part of it).

When people ask me “so ... guns?” the question usually comes down to: How do I, as an American, understand something that makes no sense to other countries? How do guns fit into the framework in America, and why is there even a debate about them?

In my first year in Hangzhou, my students asked me about guns on almost a weekly basis. Although I was personally not a gun supporter, I was also keenly aware that as one of the few Americans my students would meet, what I said about guns would stick with them.

I didn’t want my students to walk away thinking that Americans who didn’t think like me were just crazy, or that gun supporters were fundamentally bad people.

I took time to unpack the situation, explaining about how they came to be in the United States to begin with and the Second Amendment, and all that. I told them about my dad, who is a hunter, and has all of the proper licenses and follows all safety precautions.

I talked about how other countries began with laws to outline what was not allowed, whereas America began with a declaration of what was allowed and how this greatly shapes our ideas of freedom and individual rights.

I was patient, because I wanted to represent where I came from. I think any Chinese living abroad would feel the same way, even if they were talking about a piece of their culture they didn’t like.

But then Sandy Hook happened, and then nothing happened in the US as a result.

At a certain point, I stopped sharing my nuanced explanation on what it meant to uphold independent rights, and replaced it with a simple “Yeah. It sucks,” and left it at that.

What more can you really say when faced with something both contentious and sad? More than that, what does it mean to live abroad when sad things are happening in your home country?

I read the news and see another mass shooting, or I see videos of those very high school students marching to change gun laws, and it doesn’t fill me with a clear emotion; rather, I see it like an astronaut looking at the earth from outer space — strange, and yet familiar all the same.

And so I’m writing here, in a Chinese newspaper about things happening in America, fully aware that I’m once again playing the role of Resident American trying to explain her home country when it makes less and less sense to those on the outside.

But I do it for the same reason that Chinese students abroad do it. And I do it in the hope that by getting through the less glamorous parts of America, I can talk about what actually makes it great.

More than this, I do it so that Chinese people can one day experience America in the same way I’ve come to experience China: as a complex place that can’t be summed up in a simple sound bite or news article. Perhaps then, America will mean more than “so ... guns?” and instead mean its Chinese name “美国” or, “beautiful country.”

Hangzhou


 

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