The other day when I was waiting in a line for my turn to pay at a local supermarket, I noticed this Asian cashier girl who looked just alike me, but prettier. She had very thick shining black hair, healthy skin tone and bigger bright eyes, all of which I always wished I could have. I felt even more related to her when I saw her name tag saying she was from Tibet, which was right beside my hometown province Sichuan.
Though I have never been to Tibet, I know many Sichuan-born Tibetans, and in my hometown which is an autonomic county of another ethnic minority group called Yi, there are also Tibetan population living. We call our selves Chinese, despite of the ethnic groups, because it’s our nationality. Yesterday I just read the blog of a pop Tibetan singer Alan, who was currently singing and working on her debut album in Japan, expressing her pride as Chinese in a foreign country. This is just so natural for us in China, but only after coming to the U.S. did I realize how hard it was for Americans to accept “Chinese” as a concept of natiaonality. When we say Chinese, we refer to Chinese citizens of all the ethnic groups, however, when Americans mention Chinese, they accenturate the ethnicity, possibly referring to Chinese Malaysian or Chinese Singaporean. This is one of my most surprising discoveries in the U.S., which I believe contributes to the disputes we have with the western world towards ethnic problems of China.
I couldn’t wait to introduce that I was from Sichuan to the Tibetan girl, but when I did, she simply greeted me and looked surprised, having no idea at all why I was so excited. After a while she realized something and said to me “You are from China, right? I was born in India. I have never been to Tibet.” From her age, I could tell that she must be the young generation of Tibetan exiles in 1950s or 1960s.
On my way back, I kept remebering the books about Tibetan I once skimmed over in our library, most of which with a mention of Tibetan Youth Congress and its headquarter in India in the head pages. Later I learnt, it is an organization pursuing the independenc of Tibet, made up of exiled Tibetan youth activists. They don’t agree on nonviolent means, and even began to challenge their soul leader’s advocation of a “Middle Way” that would give Tibetans inside China greater autonomy without a separate state. I think it definitely complicates the problem. Towards separatists, we represent the patriotism and righteousness. But to them, who were born exiles away from their mother land, never had the chance to enjoy any benefit from China, I can’t imagine what is the way out.
