Nyet

Like most international communities in the world, the common language among Beijing expats is English. Whether you're from the Americas, Europe, Africa, India, Australia, or even South East Asia, English is likely your first or second language - and if its not, you will have a hard time living abroad. Two large groups however have found refuge in numbers and have carved out large neighborhoods in the city for its people of common tongue and customs to dwell, eat, shop, and work together - and no, its not Chinatown. As you might have guested, Beijing's largest foreign populations are also North China's closest neighbors - South Korea and Russia.

Although many Koreans can speak English and Korean society is very modern drawing much influence from the West, the sheer numbers residing in Beijing alone (tens of thousands) makes it easy and convenient to congregate in a cultural comfort zone. In Beijing, a residential area called Wangjing is well known for its overwhelming Korean population and the college town at Wudaokou is sometimes refereed to as Little Korea (given that 40 percent of all foreign students are Korean). Korean people and Korean culture is a huge part of my life here and I will save my experiences and thoughts on that subject for another post.

So lets talk about the Russians. But first, let me make it clear that I find it ignorant to use over simplifications, generalizations, and stereotypes to judge individuals of different religions, sexual orientations, races, nationalities or what-have-you. My attempt to talk about a specific group of people is rooted in personal observation and testimonies of qualified others. Love and Peace.

Russians have it bad. They have a hard time being accepted by others. They can't speak English at all, not even a little, so its difficult for them to share with the rest of the international community. They look like they should be from a developed modern country with a stable economy and relatively large pockets - but they aren't. I personally don't care about how broken your economy is or the thickness of your wallet, but the Chinese do. A country that strives for legitimacy through developing its economy and making money draws admiration from rich America and disregard for poor Russia. A stall girl at the Silk Market, a hot spot for buying fake luxury merchandise for tourists, told me that she hates bargaining with the Russians because they won't buy anything unless it's just barley above the wholesale price. In the business of trade, Russians are considered lihai, or hardcore. From now on, whenever I bargain in Beijing, I tell the girls I'm Russian (in Chinese) to receive a better price. After making the purchase I will confess that I'm American often followed by a playful punch in the arm form a 4 foot girl yelping "Ni pian wo" - You Cheated Me.

The Russian Area is based around Yabao Street with fun Russian restaurants, clubs, shops, and hotels. Last week, I had the pleasure of strolling through this neighborhood West of Ritan Park on my way to a cafe across from the Brazilian Embassy that holds trivia every Tuesday night. Anyway, I felt extremely out of place. All the signs were in Russian, tall blondes with leather boots parading around with garbage bags half full of fake clothing, scary looking Russian truckers (we don't get many truckers from the States over in these parts), shady dim-lite bars with Russian hookers hanging out in the back. But the best part of walking around is to be talked to in Russian by Chinese street vendors, rickshaw drivers, and even beggars.

I would politely respond by saying Nyet, meaning no.