Living in Nanning, China, for the past four weeks or so has been a good experience. But after living for some years in this part of the world, some of these Asian countries are increasingly looking like different provinces of the same country.

Yes, there are some idiosyncratic differences between the Vietnamese and the Japanese and between the South Koreans and the Chinese and between each of those peoples and the others, but, linguistic particularities aside, those differences are increasingly looking as mild as the differences existing between Texans and Californians or between New Yorkers and Oregonians.

For example, to different degrees, those four countries have authoritarian regimes, their societies have Confucian traditions, their peoples cherish rice and noodles as their daily staples and their physical appearance is strikingly similar.

Of course, this personal perception that I’m expressing here is nothing new. In his masterpiece “Germs, Guns and Steel,” Jarred Diamond already provided ample anthropological evidence of those countries’ common ethnic and traditional roots. But one thing is to read about it and another is to experience it in your own flesh.  

Like many other westerners, I like Asian countries. This may well be because westerners are treated like special people here in Asia, but it may also be because there’s a certain sense of renewal in mingling with peoples who adhere so strongly and sincerely to their culture and traditions, particularly when those cultures and traditions are remarkably different to yours.

There’s freedom of movement here in China, so I intend to visit some of the other provinces in this country sometime in the near future. In the meantime, the province of Guangxi and the city of Nanning have been good to me, just as good as the University of Guangxi, where I’ve been teaching since I got here about a month ago.

And freedom of information? Well, that’s another story and there’s still a lot to be desired in that respect here in China, but at least I can visit the New York Times, The Economist, Foreign Policy and other similar Internet news outlets and magazines on a daily basis unimpeded.

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