Thursday, December 18, 2008

Making My Peace With Wal-Mart

When most of us venture overseas, we seek out experiences with foreign cultures that seem most "authentic." More often then not, we associate quaintness with authenticity. A supermarket in Paris just doesn't seem as "authentic" as a vegetable stall in the Latin Quarter, never mind the fact that precious few Parisians do their grocery shopping in a tourist district.

Having spent our fist few days in the third most cosmopolitan city in China (behind only Shanghai and Hong Kong) Nanning somehow seems more Chinese. Yes, it has a population 4x that of San Francisco, but gone are the Gucci stores and the luxury car dealerships that we saw so much of in Beijing. So is this the real China, or is this as false a dichotomy as proclaiming Dallas to be more authentically American than New York?

To help the parents bond with their newly adopted children, and to keep mom and dad from getting cabin fever, Holt planned a number of small trips. Yesterday, we went to a lovely park just outside of town and we spent this morning at a rural village about 50 minutes away. (see attached pictures) For parents who want to pick up local souvenirs, a shopping trip was planned for this afternoon. For those of us wanting to stay closer to the hotel, we were given directions to a children's amusement park that is within walking distance. (see attached picture of Li Na freaking out on her first amusement park ride) And yes, among these outings was a trip to Wal Mart.

As first time parents, we really did not know what to expect from a two year old. We quickly learned that snacks (dry breakfast cereal, raisins, bananas, etc) are the key to calming a cranky child on a long bus ride. We also learned that a 2 year old can go through far more Huggies in a day then we ever dreamed possible. Li Na has a voracious appetite and what she eats and drinks seems to flow through her as effortlessly as one of those dolls whose diapers little girls changed in the 1970's.

I am certain that we could have found Huggies, raisins, bananas, children's DVDs and toddler clothing in lots of different stores throughout Nanning. But there is little chance that all could be found at any single store, save and except for Wal Mart.

Now, as some of you know, I have had my difference with Wal Mart in the past For those who don't know, just Google "Gale Connor" and "Wal Mart" But the three story Wal Mart "Super Store" in central Nanning was a godsend. There, under one roof, we could find pretty much anything we needed for our new infants and toddlers.

This brings me back to the issue of "authenticity." How, one may ask, could a trip to Wal Mart be in any way considered an "authentic" Chinese experience and how authentic a city could Nanning be if it is home to such a store?

In an increasingly urbanized country with a burgeoning middle class, international chains such as Ikea, KFC and Pizza Hut are popping up everywhere. The convenience of one stop shopping, which is what Wal Mart offers since many of the items that it sells can be found for far less money elsewhere, is just as appealing to the Chines middle class as it is to the American middle class. And, just like in America, pretty much everything in Wal Mart is made in China.

In the Nanning Wal Mart, the adoptive parents from the Holt group were the only Occidental faces in a crowd of hundreds of Chinese shoppers. We stood out as aliens, cultural outsiders in this very Chinese shopping experience.

No comments: