transitions
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009by Rob
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Cultural differences are sometimes easy to pick and identify, and at other times you are struck at just how similar we all are across the world despite these differences. To me, Cambodia and Vietnam were strikingly different, but somehow Mongolia has an even more different feel to it. I am sure that most of this comes down to previous experiences and moulding influences – having grown up in Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand, I had an affinity with modern South East Asia, but I am finding the East-West crossroads of Mongolia to be significantly different to anything I have previously experienced.
One of the most striking things here is the strong mixture of both east and west. Mongolian coats are an intriguing and distinctive blend of eastern and western styling. With Mandarin collar, side fastenings and made of either silky Asian-patterned cloth or thick European wool, all tied with a wide sash, they are uniquely Mongolian, but simultaneously an east-west blend.
The markets have similar goods to those in China in many ways, but suddenly the dozen varieties of leafy greens have been replaced by a huge range of dairy products that are almost completely absent further east. Instead of trays of tofu in the markets there are now tables of fermented yoghurt. Instead of rice and noodles, there’s bread – white bread, brown bread, black bread, whole loaves, sliced loaves, bread in plastic, bread unwrapped. And butter too. Twelve varieties in one market stall, ranging in colour from white to pale yellow to bright yellow and even orange, one celebration butter mixed with raisins.
Instead of hawkers walking around with a bamboo basket of fruit or vegetables or rice cakes or pau or postcards or pickled plums or crockery or souvenirs or a tray of cockles or a mini-BBQ of satay sticks, in Mongolia the only things sold on the side of the road are cigarettes, lollipops and boiled sweets; typically sold out of a cardboard box by someone who will probably have, next to them, a household phone hooked up to a cell phone for people to make local calls with. Instead of passing people on the sidewalk eating chicken’s feet or a whole pineapple on a bamboo skewer, every fourth person here has a chuppa-chup stick poking out of their mouth, undoubtedly bought from the cardboard box man.
The national psyche is hard to define, especially for someone who has only been in the country a week! Mongolians apparently have a reputation for being extremely friendly and hospitable. Although the families we have stayed with have been very generous and friendly, we have found Joe Mongol on the street to be unresponsive (and what even seems shifty to us, with eyes darting furtively about as if they are suspicious of anyone and everyone). Gone are the welcoming greetings of Asia.
In the place of shopkeepers urging you to buy their wares, many a time even physically pulling you in to their shop or stall, here are shopkeepers who take some convincing that you would appreciate their service. Even when we went out with a local lady (so we know it’s not just us not knowing the magic words to use), the shopkeepers might take three or four minutes to finish a task at hand before giving you, the customer, any attention. And in a shop that is not self-service, you can’t do anything without their assistance!
Pedestrian etiquette is quite another matter again and takes some getting used to. Gone are the elbow pushing techniques for scrambling through crowds we encountered in China; instead, waking along the sidewalk, we have a continuous string of jarring semi body-slams, despite the fact that there is no crowd and plenty of room. The Chinese hustle from behind, trying to get in front of you. The Mongols walk a straight line up the street and do not take any evasive action at all when on a collision course with a fellow pedestrian, and to a Kiwi, it comes across as particularly aggressive and pushy. However, the body slam is not intentionally menacing or violent in nature….it is just the way they walk, especially the men!
different – similar – transitions – east to west
rayres