It's officially Independence day in America now. Usually I don't care too much about this day as I don't support nationalistic movements or celebrations, even if we are remembering a "great" day in history (no taxation without representation!) that sparked the machine that is America into existence, but I do love excuses to BBQ with friends, sit down with a beer (only my 2nd time being able to do this due to stupid drinking rules in the USA, not that it matters now), or play some football. Sigh, but alas China is not America and customs and laws are different.
A few years ago my friends and I tried to have a BBQ in the park. We bought little grills, all of the goodies, and even brought a table for beer pong. Mid grilling our party was stopped - by the police. We were not noisy or bothering others, but cooking outside was forbidden. In the end we packed up and went home (what else could we do? Argue? Ha)
However, there are 10s of people cooking kabobs on the street. Hypocrisy at it's best - That one's down.
When Chinese have celebrations they don't play sports together, watch movies together, or generally just chill at someone's house. They stage a very formal dinner, not necessarily in the price or dress, but that one person is host and the others are guests. They buy lots of alcohol and too much food, then they eat until they explode and drink until they puke or near it. They go singing kareoke and play various games. They.. well actually that's all I've ever seen anyone do.
That's all great - it's a different way of celebrating things. So why don't I just get a bunch of Americans together? Well we are getting together to eat some burgers - not BBQ ourselves though (if one of us was rich enough to have a BBQ at home that would be nice though). No football either - it's a friday and in a big city after work it's hard to organize.
That is a trade-off living in a big city - there are more people, but there are not a lot of open grassy areas that you can just go and play on. Celebrations tend to be more restaurant / other inside activity oriented. There are plenty of fenced in basketball courts, and some fenced in soccer fields, but just open grassy areas? Not many. Parks in Beijing are a lot different than parks that I'm used to as well - they usually have thick forestry, great for walking (as chinese love to do - walks in the park - walk around the block after eating etc), but not great for kick ass football games.
These are the times I miss home the most. Celebrations are not like the way they were when I was younger, which is very hard to adjust to, especially on days that no one here is celebrating. Culture shock sure lasts a long time. I don't think I'll ever celebrate 4th of July at kareoke though. That just doesn't seem right.
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