However, the past few months haven’t been entirely dull. We’ve taken a little time to continue exploring the amazing diversity of China, and I thought I would use the next few blogs to share about our travels to Harbin, Moganshan, and Xiamen. We chose each place because it’s rather unique in China and offers something we hadn’t seen before, and frankly, because each could be visited relatively cheaply! However, looking back, we realize that each of these places has something in common: they were a center of activity for foreigners in China 100 years ago in the 19th century.
With the almost total absence of foreigners in China for several decades in the 20th century, and the stares and whispers of “laowai” (老外, the Chinese term for foreigner) that white faces continue to generate in China today, it’s easy to feel like a trailblazer in an exotic land in contemporary China. To feel that today’s foreigners are the first to try to understand and to live here. But that’s just not true. China has a very long history of engagement with the outside world, and many previous generations of laowai have embarked on the great adventure that is China.
Now, the 19th century laowai have a bad reputation within China today. After all, this was the age of imperialism, and outside nations took advantage of tumultuous conditions within China at the time. This bad reputation is certainly deserved to some extent, though it should be remembered that there were also some 19th century laowai who worked more positively with the Chinese. As proof, Harbin, Moganshan, and Xiamen show that there were at least some positive legacies from the 19th century laowai. Each of these places exists today to some degree because of laowai activities/influence in the 19th century, and today’s locals embrace this legacy and even take pride in their home’s uniqueness because of it. Indeed, there are major efforts underway in each place to preserve the buildings and monuments from this era, indicating that the 19th century laowai must not have been all bad!
I hope that today’s laowai ultimately leave a more positive legacy within China than did the 19th century one, but it’s still fascinating to learn about the adventures of previous generations. I hope you enjoy our little tour of 19th century laowai China!
Harbin: Russia Meets China in the Far East