Entry details

Curzon
Author

Curzon

Date

November 5th, 2007

Tags

,

Comments

26 Comments so far.
Add yours.

The Awakening

What can they know of England who only England know?

Rudyard Kipling, The English Flag (1890)

“In Israel in the 1970s, finding life exclusively among Jews in a small country claustrophobic, I discovered my Americanness anew.”

Robert D. Kaplan, Imperial Grunts (2005)

The Kipling quote has always rang true with me. I recently read the above Kaplan quote and it expressed the same sentiment in a different way. By living overseas, you discover more about not just the world but also your own country and your own identity.

I’m sure plenty of readers have similar stories to Kipling and Kaplan, and please share your own stories of “awakening” of your own identity or consciousness by living overseas.

Comments to this entry

J
November 5, 2007
9:50 am
I'm a dual-national living in a third country. I've never lived in just one country. This past year in China has made me learn about and, appreciate a lot more my various countries.
Aceface
November 5, 2007
10:42 am
My "awakening" was living in the U.S in the 80's when U.S-Japan relation was in dispute over trade imbalance.Since then reading the works of revisionist Japanologist have become my primal obsession.

After coming back to Japan,defending America become my top agenda when talking to friends,teachers,and colleagues.

So in a way,my personal identity is pretty much tied down to U.S-Japan relation.Any criticism on that I instantly take it as a personal threat.Something I must overcome with great personal effort.
Curzon
November 5, 2007
12:32 pm
So Aceface, did your time in the US make you feel more "Japanese"?
Mihnea Dumitru
November 5, 2007
1:59 pm
My own awakening happened in Canada, having grown up with certain nationalistic, homophobic and sexist preconceptions in Romania, largely the norm of a distinctly conservative, previously-communist nation. It was a wall that simply smacked me in the face, I had no idea where it came from. It took me 2 years to come to terms with who I was, and I have to say that I still don't know where I belong, exactly. But the education received, the ideas instilled in me, about equality, human rights, the protection of minorities.. all of these things were brought over, regardless of the conflicts I had entered into here because of them. Such is life..
The Western Confucian
November 5, 2007
2:06 pm
I'm an American who's spent 12 of the last 14 years abroad, in Chile, Malaysia, and South Korea. There have been many moments of "awakening" as you describe.

In '93, there were visits to the Instituto Chileno-Norteamericano in Santiago for magazines before the Internet and a lecture on Toni Morrison winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. There was also reading "Moby Dick" in Chile, meeting Chilean devotees of Walt Whitman, and commies interetested in the Haymarket Affair and Vermont Secessionism.

In Malaysia in '96, there was an inivation to the embassy and and invitation to the apartment of four Iraqi contracters who called me the "Friendly Enemy." The architct among them gave me as a gift the design he had for his house based on his hero, Frank Lloyd Wright.

In Korea, where to begin? There were idiotic anti-American protests at the university I worked for from '97 to '00 that led me to defend my country vociferously.

More recently, my discovery of paleoconservatism and paleolibertarianism have led me to reject univeralism in political matters and to a deeper devotion to the liberties gained by English-speaking peoples over the last 800 years, which are fast-eroding.
Skippy-san
November 5, 2007
2:21 pm
For me living in Asia has been a real awakening on several levels. As a Hong Kong blogger wrote once, "As much and as foreign as Tokyo was, I felt very at home here". That sums it up for me. Now when I take a trip to the US, I can’t wait to get my ass back to Japan. I used to be excited to come out to California. In LA I loved to go to Santa Monica. In San Diego there were always adventures to be had. Now however they fade in comparison, to the excitement I get when I am Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo or Bangkok. Or for that matter just riding into a small town in northern Japan. There are a lot of reasons for this and its hard to articulate. However a lot of it stems from the things I now value as important and the things that I don’t (anymore).

Lot of reasons for this, too long to write here. But I am so glad I got to live here.
Aceface
November 5, 2007
11:10 pm
Actually I tried to be as "American" as possible when I was there.I have no bad experience being Japanese there.Only I've got nervous when trade issues comes up to the headlines and people ask you "why you guys cheat in trades".

I guess I was lucky to come back before WW2 become huge issues in the 90's.In the 80's there were zero friction with Asian kids and us Japanese.

I came from a liberal family and raised in Kichijyouji in the late 70's and 80's,back then it was(still is) a very liberal/leftist teacher's union strognhold who spends hours on "peace"education in elementary school.Oh yeah I've learned about Nanjing massacre and March 1st movement crushed by mounted Japanese officers in 4th grade,someting doesn't fit into wide spread foreign Japanese hype.

My first WTF american experience was those flag allegiance and anthem singing at class in the morning.Something considered as "nationalistic"back now and then in the land of rising sun.Coming from leftwing background such as myself,it was jawdroppinig experience.

My real "awakening" came years after coming back to Japan and that was during the first gulf war and reading Karel Van Wolfren's "Enigma of the Japanese Powers",but that's another story....
ElamBend
November 6, 2007
1:03 am
I never had an epiphany. Growing up in a very rural area of Northwest Missouri I had to learn early that things were different from the life I knew. The different attitudes and beliefs that came across over media drove that point home. Also, having family that both lived in cities and some that lived in even more rural areas farmed, including some who were materially poorer than my family. Indeed, the biggest cultural shock in my life was not a visit to China with my family when I was 12, but going to the east coast for college and being exposed to the really wealthy for the first time.
I supposed were I really to live overseas for an extended period of time I find all kinds of new epiphanies, but I truly believing growing up in the kind of place I did in the time of mass media and long-distance travel has made it relatively easy for me to live in different settings, mostly because all settings are vastly different to the one in which I grew up.
Curzon
November 6, 2007
2:17 am
Minhea:

It took me 2 years to come to terms with who I was, and I have to say that I still don’t know where I belong, exactly.


That's one curse about living overseas, and I almost feel the same way. If the experience alters the outlook or values that you grew up with, you can ultimately feel that the hometown or country that created those values becomes a more foreign than the country you visited.

To share my own experiences, I first came to live in Japan at age 17 and spent the next ten years equally between Japan and the eastern US, going back and forth between the two and ultimately having trouble deciding where I wanted to be. I felt that I "should" be in the US -- but found that in the balance of things, I was happier in Japan. And as much as I love America, there is something about it that makes it feel like a foreign country that I just don't "get" anymore.
Younghusband
November 6, 2007
3:51 am
My awakening really came when I got back to my rural little town in the mountains. Out of all my family and friends I was the only one who had spent an extended time overseas. Sometimes I had a hard time communicating with them. Once I had left again I started to realize how much international events can affect even the lives of people in a tiny town in the Rockies. That was big for me, and what got me interested in current affairs. I was about 21 at the time... the time of my awakening.
Matt Schiavenza
November 6, 2007
6:54 am
I never feel more American than when I'm in China, where I've spent the last three years. Is the opposite true? Not really- I come from San Francisco, and living in an international city helps soften the blow of reverse culture shock. Still, when family members and friends point out my evolving accent and acquired habits I am reminded how much living overseas has changed me.
Chirol
November 6, 2007
9:15 am
Non-countries like Canada and the Bahamas aside, I first went abroad at 18, to Germany. I spent 2.5 months there and then another 2 traveling in Europe and haven't been the same since.

At first, after suddenly becoming aware of a whole new world, I rejected the US and wished only to go abroad again. Of course, at that time returning to rural North Carolina didn't help. I then moved to Denmark and later Germany for a total of 2 years before returning to the US for one. After, I moved back to Germany where I am now.

The aforementioned Kipling quote rings true to me as well. Through everyday conversations and simple experiences, I've learned time and time again what it means to be American -- our values, ideas about government, culture, society etc.

On the other hand, while travel and life abroad does indeed teach you about your home, too much of it can also alienate you from others who share little or none of your experiences and aren't really aware of what's out there.

Having lived abroad now for almost 4 years, I've never been prouder of the US nor more patriotic and although I hope to spend my entire life constantly visiting or living other countries, there's only one place I'd call home and would like to live in the long run.
ElamBend
November 7, 2007
12:42 am
I love that YH and Chirol are country boys. I've always found it easy to relate to the Mexican guys I meet from little dusty villages to work in big cities like Chicago where I live now.
The unfortunate truth for me is that once I left home I've never quite felt like I fit in anywhere I have lived, definatly not home, but in few of the cities I've lived in. (Chicago included, San Francisco was my favorite, though). So, I've come to see myself as kind of a wild goose, forever on the loose.
The Marmot’s Hole » ‘What can they know of England who only England know?’
November 7, 2007
2:19 am
[...] Over at Coming Anarchy, Curzon has started a discussion on how living overseas can spark an “awakening” of your own identity or consciousness. [...]
strategist
November 7, 2007
7:26 am
Although a New Zealander, I grew up in Malaysia in the late 1960s and early 1970s (my father was in the diplomatic service). So I never had an awakening, as such, but the experience of childhood in another country has left a very deep and life long impression on me. It's not that I feel different from other New Zealanders - except in the sense that I've always had an acute and, I'd like to think, realistic sense of a much wider world, of which NZ is a rather small and unnoticed part. This is often lost on many New Zealanders.

I had an epiphany of sorts much later, after I had returned to New Zealand after a period overseas. I was working in government, and much of my work involved negotiating with Maori, the indigenous Polynesian people of NZ. Early on I saw a map of NZ which only had Maori tribal names listed against tribal territories - it opened my eyes in quite a powerful way to the reality that there is "another country" in NZ, beyond that of European society, an impression that was subsequently confirmed when I learned much about local histories and landmarks from the Maori negotiators I was working with.

Great post Curzon.
QuestionMan
November 7, 2007
8:35 am
I wonder how long until Marmot gives up his blue US passport for a green DAEHANMINGOOK one. I think he makes a better Korean then American.
Eddie
November 7, 2007
8:45 am
Serving overseas in Japan for 3 years and visiting foreign countries for a few days at a time in the Navy, I always felt deep shame at being "American" because of the disgraceful attitudes and actions of some of my shipmates and other American tourists.
This feeling has continued since being in America, dealing with a large body of totally uninformed or misinformed people who have little idea of what the world beyond their town or city is like beyond their limited liberal, conservative, religious or ethnic biases and talk loosely of bombing those "Arabs in Iran" or throwing up walls around the country. Looking forward to this feeling going away, but I don't see it happening anytime soon.

The only exception is when I explain America to my HK Chinese fiancee. With her I do my best to be upfront about our failings but unabashedly patriotic and proud of events like the American Revolution, the Civil War, Civil Rights Movement and Pres. Reagan's role in pushing the Soviet Union into the rubbish bin.
Stuhlmann
November 7, 2007
8:50 am
I spent years in the US Army serving over in Germany and married a German woman. Then I got out of the Army and went to work for the German phone company (back when there was only one). This was total immersion - no contact with Americans and no English. After a while, it occurred to me that everyone in the company's cafeteria at lunch look rather the same - almost like a family gathering. This was in sharp contrast to my Army life, which included blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, in addition to whites from a number of European backgrounds. I missed the variety.
Younghusband
November 7, 2007
2:58 pm
bq. I’ve always had an acute and, I’d like to think, realistic sense of a much wider world, of which NZ is a rather small and unnoticed part. This is often lost on many New Zealanders.

You could say the same thing about Canada.
Joel
November 7, 2007
7:32 pm
I grew up in Japan as an American missionary kid and always felt more out of place during our few furloughs in the U.S. than I did in Japan. But after high school in Kobe (where the only Canadian in my obligatory Canadian history class was the teacher--a Saskatchewan Mennonite who was also my German teacher), I "returned" to the U.S. feeling utterly uprooted. I dropped out of college at my Dad's alma mater in Richmond, VA, when the Vietnam-era draft was still on, so I had little choice but to negotiate the best deal I could with the recruiters, which was to go to language school, where I learned Romanian, and was then assigned to a civil affairs unit at Ft Gordon, GA. Fortunately, we never occupied Romania, so I spent my time as the company clerk rather than as a translator/interpreter. By the time I got out of the army, 996 days later, I felt I had finally become an American, after getting to know such a wide variety of my fellow citizens of other classes, regions, and races, thanks to the draft. (However, I wouldn't wish the draft on anyone else. A lot of my agemates lost more than they gained from it.)
Chirol
November 7, 2007
8:06 pm
Elambend: I wouldn't describe myself as a country boy, I actually grew up in a mid sized city almost all my life, albeit near rural areas.

Eddie: What! You aren't ready to bomb the Arabs in Iran? Go to France =) Actually, you should park that cynicism and instead try to explain and educate your people. That's how I deal with it. There's no point arguing with most and with your knowledge, most people wont have much of a response because they realize they just dont know anything.
Sonagi
November 7, 2007
10:57 pm
You'll have a second epiphany when you come back home after a long overseas stay and realize how different life back home feels and how you're a little different from those around you if you resettle in a uncosmopolitan community.
Adrian
November 8, 2007
5:18 am
I lived in Germany (Heidelberg) when I was 7. Other than being relegated to goalie on the soccer team (Americans could only use their hands, apparently), I loved it and didn't want to move back. All throughout school I was able to travel a lot in Europe and Egypt with my parents, and I always enjoyed it. I do feel more American while overseas, both in a good and bad way, but in the same way that I feel more like a New Englander when in Texas, and more like a Bostonian when in Maine, and more like a suburbanite when in Boston.

Generally I think my travel at a young age helped me see the similarities in different cultures and people much more than the differences that a lot of the previous commenters write about. After playing soccer with kids in Germany when I was 7 and kids in Egypt when I was 11, the differences that matter to me was being relegated to goalie in Germany, and being forced to take off my shoes when playing in Egypt (so I didn't have an unfair advantage).
Younghusband
November 9, 2007
4:40 am
"@ElamBend":http://cominganarchy.com/2007/11/05/the-awakening/#comment-380808 I am totally country except for when I am in the country. All the people in my hometown consider me a city boy just because I have absolutely no interest in pickup trucks or hockey. When I went to the big city to study (especially out East) I was always the hick of the group. I still miss the country though. Earlier this year when I was driving from port to port in Japan as a bunker agent I would be in the car for 5-6 hours a day. When I wasn't listening to podcasts or lectures on ancient Rome/economics I was listening to Corb Lund, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Awww yeah!
Sonagi
November 9, 2007
9:07 pm
My awakening really came when I got back to my rural little town in the mountains....a tiny town in the Rockies.


. A good friend of mine is from Red Deer; she remembers fondly summer sunsets at 10PM, 50 below temperatures in the winter, and warming chinooks.
ElamBend
November 11, 2007
4:26 pm
@YH
Your description of yourself could have very well described my life right down the podcast listening habits. What especially hit home was the part of always being the hick in the group in the city and being the city-boy at home.