the Tourist's Individualism: Recreation in Travel

A couple of days ago, I went to the Shanghai Expo for the second, and
hopefully, the last time. I wasn't keen to go to begin with and only
went there to help my aunt push my 86-year-old grandmother around in a
wheelchair. My aunt and the rest of my family calls such act
"filial," but seriously, if I was the old person, I would be happiest
if left alone in a quiet environment. The Expo, with all its loud
people, noise, plus the hot weather, would not only be no enjoyment to
an old person, but pose serious health risk from the heat and/or
contracting some contagious disease from the crowd.

Perhaps thats why I still don't get why Chinese people see "multiple
generations under the same roof" as a sign of a happy and fulfilling
family. Wouldn't it be much better for the old person to be with
other old people with similar interests and lifestyles in a retirement
community of some sort? By forcing the younger generations to take
care of the elders through some unwritten traditional code of ethics,
we Chinese have not only limited the happiness of our old people but
also limited that of the younger generations who must in turn keep
pace with the elders and subject themselves to the elders' every whim.

Maybe I am thinking from a very individualistic perspective that true
Chinese people can only consider as selfish. People here seems
convinced that once you decide to let yourself be part of a group
(such as a family), individual happiness must be suppressed to
maintain the coherence and structure of the group. If the group is to
fall apart because of one person, that person is to be labelled as
"selfish" and be the shame of the entire group.

This sort of group-think mentality can be seen outside of family or
workplace associations as well. For example, I am thinking about a
Chinese tour group. When Chinese people, especially from rural areas,
go sightseeing in other parts of China, joining a tour group is the
first choice for many. I believe that this is so because that Chinese
people have no concept of recreation in travel and that they are just
too willing to masochistically subject themselves to the humiliation
of sacrificing the individual for the group.

Whether or not recreation exists in traveling largely depends on the
mentality of the tourists. If travel is all about seeing the sights
and taking pictures for the sake of showing them to the people back
home, then it would not be recreational in any way. Travel would
simply be a regimented movement from sight to sight with little
fanfare in between. However, if recreation is the primary reason for
travel, it would be the feelings of joy, freedom, or
getting-away-from-it-all the tourists get from being on the road.

A wise person once said that "a journey is not about the destination,
but about the journey itself." That is the attitude of recreation in
travel. It is not important if all the major sights are seen or not
if you have the right attitude for travel, i.e. to achieve joy from
traveling rather than to satisfy a certain requirement, whether it be
for "filial" purposes or the goal of seeing everything. As long as
the journey leaves the traveler with no regret and no sorrow, then the
travel is a success no matter what happens in the end.

Now, obviously, people in China don't get that point. And their
goal-oriented mentality gave rise to forced shopping at expensive
souvenir shops and bizarre incidents in which the tourists are content
in being rushed through certain sightseeing spots like cattle being
rushed to the market while standing under the hot sun for more than 5
hours to see something truly insignificant (plenty of both of these in
the Expo). The members of the tour groups cannot resist, because they
cannot bear the humiliation of being labelled as "selfish" and
"nonconforming" in their acts to unwitting destroy the unity of the
tour group.

Humans are biologically selfish for reasons of survival. For
thousands of years, the Chinese civilization has worked hard, with
codes of ethics and family values, to systematically suppress such
natural instincts so that the rulers can more easily subjugate their
subjects. The process have not ended with the current rule of the
CCP. Yet, I must urge my countrymen to start thinking for themselves
in a more natural, logical fashion that maximizes their personal
gratification. Only with more flagrant display of such individualisms
can China truly step into modernity.

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