In the past month, I have been guided in my explorations of China and Japan through the key terms: stereotype, representation, narrative, and direct experience. My goal for the month was to take my direct experience and create my own narrative and attempt to “know” Shanghai and Tokyo. I acknowledged going into this month that I could not make final judgments by the end of this trip because we only get a limited experience from one month and only two weeks each in China and Japan. 

From the time we did have in each country, my preconceptions and understandings of China and Japan were either strengthened or shifted as I got to participate in ethnographic observations. My interactions with locals and the environment gave me a new lens and understanding of perspectives outside of my own. Previously, I only understood these two countries through literature, film, and from what I have heard from peers. During the trip, stereotypes of China as the ancient and historic nation floated around in my mind while stereotypes of Japan as a modern and advanced did the same. Myself and probably many others had a simplistic vision of these countries in their mind, but from my short experience, I was able to dispel some of these preconceptions. 

I participated in a very selective and unique experience as an international student. I did my best to use the language and communicate with the locals in China because I was looking for a “typical” or “representative experience. I became capable of seeing more than one side of China and Japan, in the end. The notion of China being behind in technological advancement cannot be a fact because it is broad and too overarching. Maybe aspects could be true, but I experienced moments of China’s “cashless” society that dispelled that preconception. As for Japan, I or another could compare the one cash example to say that Japan is not as advanced as China. What we use to create stereotypes is selective and narrow because we tend to only look through one narrative experience. Therefore, this one example is not enough to create such a generalization about China or Japan.

By the end of the trip, I did a reanalysis of what my direct experience was. Do I know Shanghai and Tokyo, or do I know what it’s like to be a local? No, I realized and came to terms with my inability to ever have the representative experience because I will always be coming in as a foreigner. I may have learned and experienced aspects of the local’s lives but not fully. My narrative perspective from this month can only be described as an international student tourist. I was not the average tourist, international student, nor was I a local. My experience was not typical, but it allowed me to sightsee, interact, and try to best understand China and Japan apart from stereotypical knowledge I had preconceived. I hope that I can take my observations from this term into the spring semester and further my study of the meanings behind select representations and what I can do with newly acquired knowledge of different cultures’ dialogues and narratives. What does the modern-day narrative mean for the future relations of these countries with each other and with individuals on a smaller scale?