LaoWai - The Bridge between Cultures
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The thought to develop a long termed campaign did I have for the first time when we were walking around for our signing up activity in front of the main entrance of the Forbidden City. There I was talking to a tourist of Germany, a german doctor. I do not remember his name, but it still exists a photography about us when I asked him to sign up to support
Beijing for it´s bid. At first he looked a bit skeptic over our signing up folder but then he answered, I will sign up your folder with a lot of pleasure but I have the feeling , that this is just a matter that will be ended with my signature. Why don´t you ever start something long termed ?
Actually he was right, and it confirmed me already at this moment, that LaoWai could in the very future function like a culture lable . I am sure that there would definately be plenty of subjects to handle this topic, because I am convinced, that naturally the word LaoWai is probably the most intensive point of contact , where the people of China meet the people of the rest of the world. More over I am convinced, that it is for a harmonious understanding between the cultures inevitably necessary, that people come together, communicate, understand each other and respect their differences. But how can it possibly work if even in many languages the address foreigner is regarded as unrespectful or even dismissive. But I think that this challenge does not only concern China but many other cultures. The fact is that in the history foreigners have not only been good for the benefit of a country, and it is true that this fact is saved in the collective memory. Personally I must admit that I as a German have difficulties to accept the German word for laowai “Ausländer” as a friendly address for a foreigner. I would not even be capable passing over my enthusiasm which I have for the Chinese word Laowai to the German word for laowai. But my opinion is , that we in our country with more than 10 million people with migration background, who more or less have arrived in our society, would definitely need a discussion how to receive with the German word Ausländer (foreigner) better feelings. But I think that many cultures have the same problems like for example the Mexicans with their Gringo or the Swiss with their Utländer.
But now back to LaoWai
After the succsessful Olympic campaign I was thinking how our laowai story could go on. I knew that it would not be easy to find something creative and meaningful. But it was very important for me to continue laowai. First of all we developed a new mark with the name LaoWai-The Bridge Between Cultures .
This mark should show LaoWai as a culture bridge between West and East, and it should function like a symbolic bridge between the ordianary people of China and the ordinary people of the Western World. In addition I had finally the intention to speak about the misunderstanding concerning the address laowai. Like this we wanted to mention that the address laowai is regarded by many foreigners as a negative term as it is usually not been used in the presence of foreigners. The bridge on the mark should show the 17 Acre Bridge of the Summerpalace, on which we representative for 12.008 foreigners from more than 120 countries were standing and have shown the people the support for China. After we had created our new mark we had to fill it with contents. But it still lasted more than two months before I had an idea. As the springfestival has a very important meaning for the Chinese almost similar to our cristmas festival in the Western world, I had the idea that we foreigners in Beijing would present the Beijinger´s a little surprise for the New Year .
Representative for all Chinese we wanted to send to more than 10000 govermental and non-governmental organisations new year´s greetings from foreigners who live in Beijing. The content on the cards was the same. But it was for us very important, that they were sent by foreigners who lived in Beijing. Further more a festival should take place where foreigners celebrate together with Chinese. And on a great banner we wish the people of Beijing a happy New Year, that we, the foreigners, celebrate with them together.
I still remember very clearly when I told Paul my plans with the postcards in the mensa of the Language and Culture University . Of course , what I told him was only the draft of a new campaign. As Paul is a very intellectual person and the difference between us is that I am more the creative and practical person, but he is the cautious and theoretic typ of person did we have in the beginnig a fierce discussion. In the end we both came to the conclusion , that we would bring this campaign to an end. The only demand was that the postcards would be sent in a simple envelop. The plan with the envelop made sense .The postcard shouldn´t cause any missunderstandings on the way to the receiver.
Now we had our own campaign and started with our preparations. Thanks goodness we still could ask many of our friends from the olympic campaign for their help. Further more I was already studying on the Financial and Economic university of Beijing, and this was very close to the International Trade Centre and the centre of Beijing. It was very helpful, because we met here many foreigners who liked to send postcards away. The adresses we copied out of the Beijing telephone book. Out of this telephone book the foreigners could choose their desired receiver. Very often we distributed our cards in foreign companies or restaurants where we met many foreigners. Like this we could reach many people of the foreign communities. As this postcard campaign lasted several weeks many media were reporting about our new project. Like this we obtained a lot of attention, and more and more people wanted to take part in our project. I still remember, when I stepped out of the metro station at Yonganli a young Chinese women was asking me, whether I was the foreigner she has seen on TV who had organized the postcard campaign. She asked me if I could also send a postcard to her mother, which I was very willing to do. Specially about these kind of moments I was very glad about, because they showed me , that we had touched the people. But also the replies of many receivers made us very happy, and motivated us to involve as many people as possible.
Slowly the postcard campaign came to an end and now the springfestival was imminent. But there was still our springfestival celebration ahead of us, which we wanted , laowai with Beijingers, to celebrate together. But despite of all the attention we received we couldn´t find a suitable location for our celebration. Because our intention was with a huge banner express our best wishes to all Beijingers to the springfestival. In the end it looked as if the plan with the banner would not work, until a good friend of mine made a suggestion, I should try my best at the administration at the old CCTV television tower in the Yuetan Park . It really was an excellent suggestion . The people from the old CCTV television tower were very open minded and helpful . They did not only offer to us the location for this event but they assisted us in many logistic problems, like the climbers
and many more other things. And in the end we all celebrated together. The last springfestival postcards were passed over by us celebrating laowai´s to the amazed Chinese who were in the Yuetan Park relaxing. Our message on the huge banner , that the laowai´s wish the Beijinger´s a happy New Year was showing up high above the city on the scaffold of the old CCTV television tower. I am very thankful to the people of the CCTV television tower that they have supported us so tremendesly. It would simply not have been a better place for our festival and our springfestival message. Originally the television tower was simply built for the purpose of sending messages and for this he helped us.
The Chinese NewYear arrived two days later. I had the feeling that during this springfestival time Beijing has taken us into their heart . Many friends asked us with whom we were going to celebrate the New Year. Of course the New Year is a very familiar celebration to compare with our Christmas . But never the less the public was very interested where and with whom we , the organizers of the springfestival campaign, are going to celebrate . Like this our Chinese friends with whom we celebrated agreed that a journalist from the Beijing Evening Post stopped by to vist us .
