What Comes Around Goes Around: A Trip To China

Recently I had the chance to take a trip to China, the country of marvelous wonders and cultures. It wasn’t for a vacation or fun, but for an annual international Model United Nations (MUN) conference. The conference was held in Beijing, inviting students from all over the world.

I had the chance to talk with them, become friends with students from London, Vietnam, Mexico, Barcelona and many other place. I also had the chance to actually have short conversations from time to time about how their school life was. Although making new friends plays a major part in our lives, it wasn’t the reason in being there. The conference content was really what caught my interest. It was just amazing how to see students all over the world represent a country that they’ve never lived or even went to, and talk about politics and the environment. We had Asian people representing U.S.A, France, and many other non-Asian nations, then we had the Caucasians representing Japan, Republic of Korea, and many other Asian nations.

The conference overall was successful, but sometimes we seemed to face the problem of certain delegates being insulted by racist and stereotyping comments. A certain stereotype that we faced was from what difference races like to eat, and how “unique” it was. It seemed as if the delegates (students) in the conference were more focused on what a certain country’s eating habits and skin color were rather than the debate itself. But it seemed quite funny though, I mean imagine a Japanese student representing United Kingdom, accusing Japan for eating whales and not protecting them. Then a certain thought struck my head, the thought of hypocrisy, and asked myself “are you a hypocrite?”. Would all anti-racism and anti-stereotype people have the same thought that I do right now? This is probably why I find myself so interested in seeking for a chance to have a conversation with an anti-racist. Not in order to make myself a better man, but to show to the world that some people really mean it when they say that their against racism and stereotypes. Unlike the Korean racist I had a chance to interview, and proved himself wrong as he said that he wasn’t. I want to have a chance where I can find a companion or friend that would join along with me.

This world is definitely filled with hypocrisy. Jonah Goldberg knew how to put the world in the right way by describing it as “Our fear of hypocrisy is forcing us to live in a world where gluttons are fine, so long as they champion gluttony. “. But I know that in some parts of the world there are many people who really value what they are doing.

Photo Credit to blisspix