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The 23-year-old English teacher has been amused, bemused and sometimes confused since moving to Fujian’s provincial capital, a city of about 6.7 million, last August.
She says the city’s relative lack of development and cosmopolitanism are both boons and banes. “Fuzhou offers me the chance to learn about a Chinese city that’s still developing and to meet people who have been exposed to a lot of Western culture but have never really met a Westerner,” she says.
One example of this, she says, is that local bars issue “alien cards” to foreigners that allow them to drink for free, believing overseas patrons’ presence will attract locals.
“I have one that actually entitles me to a free bottle of Absolute Vodka every night,” she says. “Some foreigners here have a whole stack of the things, so it’s possible to go from bar to bar all night and get totally drunk without ever paying a cent.”
Meredith sometimes finds it difficult, she says, to convey who she is to local people.
“I don’t fit their idea of what a Western woman is supposed to be like,” she says, referring to a lack of interest in materialism and fashion.
And she doesn’t understand the passive character of the local people, she adds.
“(Fuzhou residents) never get angry about anything and seem to accept everything as it is, which I don’t agree with,” Meredith says. “I have run into people with more interesting ideas and confrontational viewpoints in Shanghai and Beijing, but not so much here.”
But despite such differences, her relationships with the city’s residents have nonetheless “almost always been pleasant and friendly”, she says.
Her two best friends are a former student who will soon study journalism in the US and her erhu (Chinese fiddle) tutor. “The best thing that’s happened to me here is meeting my erhu teacher, who is the absolute man,” she says.
“Unfortunately, he doesn’t speak English, but that doesn’t stop him from being my favorite person here. Surprisingly enough, my teacher and I are able to communicate pretty well, and I can almost always figure out what he wants me to do.”
While Meredith was able to translate years of violin study into erhu skills, she has begun another, more unusual musical undertaking in Fuzhou — the leaf — as in the kind that grows on trees. If held up to the mouth and blown upon the right way, it can create complex melodies.
Her tutor has given leaf performances around the world, she says, and even played a solo concert accompanied by a Western orchestra in the US.
“I get the feeling that if I actually manage to learn, I might be one of the only Westerners in the world who can do it,” Meredith says.
With her other friends, she shares meals or occasionally goes to KTV. Meredith has also enjoyed visiting rural homes, especially her ex-boyfriend’s grandmother’s house.
“I was going around admiring it, saying how cool it was because it was so small and seemed so old,” she recalls.
“I was admiring how the roof had been built with long slabs of wood so you could see the tiles even from indoors and how the floors were all warped up. I really thought I was in a very ancient house.”
Her boyfriend at the time also talked about how aged the structure was and mentioned his grandmother was considering moving into a new one. When she asked him exactly when the home was built, he told her — “1985”.
She also was intrigued to visit a colleague’s abandoned childhood home constructed of bamboo poles mortared with mud, she says.
Meredith says that like any wild ride, her time in Fuzhou has had its ups and downs, and frustrations and fascinations.
“Living here has really sparked my interest in Chinese culture and given me a real love and respect for China,” she says. “I guess I enjoy complaining, but I’m still happy I came here. This place is quirky, and nothing is ever really what it seems.”
EDITOR's Note: "Home & Away" is a section about the life experiences of expats living outside of the major metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai. If you are such an expat and have an interesting story to share, please send an e-mail to expat@chinadaily.com.cn.
