Aaron Davidson: Little Moments--Chinatown and Goats
For the first semester of my senior year, I had the opportunity to study abroad at Winchester University in the U.K. I had an incredible time getting to use the public transport infrastructure like the train system to go to various cities and experience a place that was so new and exciting. But what challenged me the most was that while I had mostly expected to focus on the classes that semester, I was surprised by small moments that enriched the incredible humane value of my time abroad. I know that some of the most memorable moments in life are planned but, in the U.K., I really experienced that for myself.
The first incident occurred when I was traveling with an acquaintance to London for a day trip. It was the first time either of us had really traveled far from the university. What impacted me the most was visiting Chinatown and seeing Falun Gong activists. Falun Gong is a religious movement from China that is reportedly persecuted for its beliefs by the Chinese government. It originated around the 90’s in China that emphasizes meditation, slow exercises, and some aspects of moral traditions. I would learn this later, and all I knew when I first saw the activists was that it was a Chinese religious group that had some controversy around it.
My acquaintance and I are walking down the street in Chinatown and immersed ourselves in the ambience. Like everywhere we have visited in London so far, there is a crowd of people bustling about, but here the whole street is uniquely Asian in appearance. Venders and stores have vibrant decorations and even more mundane buildings like banks have an oriental-looking bent with their more curved fonts on the signs.
Red is a consistent color whether on the buildings for paint or the decorations strewn across the paths. I feel an impression of life and happiness even within the constantly moving crowd. I normally get anxious about moving around with so many people, but right now I can go with the flow and really enjoy seeing all the sights of the streets as a colorful blur.
Suddenly, traditional sounding music interrupts my thoughts and I see what the source is. Falun Gong activists are presenting info while others near their board solemnly meditate on the music that creates a stark contrast to the hustle of the rest of the street. The board has bold letters and very graphic imagery of Falun Gong members being tortured, but that is not what I am most drawn too. I have heard reports about their persecution and suffering at the hands of the Chinese government and don’t want to hear bloody stories much on that day.
I realize we are walking up to their booth and feel so concerned about how little I know and yet how powerful the imagery they were presenting was that I barely hear what the activist tells us. She asks us to sign some petitions to get the government to act out to help the oppressed Falun Gong.
I’m not sure about what to do at that moment. While I would later find out some more information about them, I didn’t know much then. What I end up doing is just signing one petition and making sure to not put any identifying information. If something similar happened now I would be more careful about signing my name, but that moment really had me wondering how to deal with my lack of information.
I usually like to make decisions when I have enough context to feel correct and justified in what I am doing. That moment was short and may not have affected the situation much but to me signing a petition like that with so little context left me conflicted. The vivid imagery might have been powerful, but I don’t want to be misled by propaganda in similar situations.
While I still don’t have enough info to make any total judgment on the group, I did later look up more information about them. There does seem to be some truth to the Falun Gong’s claims of persecution but also concerns about cult-like aspects such as adherents getting into medical trouble because they refuse to have modern medicine and instead want traditional medicine. It was a learning experience about trying to stick to what information I have when I consider if I can do something good or useful.
That moment ended up being one of the most memorable incidents of my trip to London. This was surprising since we had planned out some exciting places like a Harry Potter memorabilia shop and the Natural History Museum of London which I was happy about getting to visit. I took a lot of pictures, but I was focused on that point with taking photos of awesome artworks or exhibits that I didn’t get as much of the direct experience that comes with just focusing in on the moment.
But I didn’t need to take any pictures of that moment in Chinatown, and I didn’t think to either. It was an experience that I knew would stick with me. That memory and incident gave me a strong memory that I don’t need any pictures to relive or to get something from.
A similar moment also occurred when I was going on another trip to a city, and I stopped to watch some goats near the beach. This incident was less about reflection and more just a fun moment that stood out from the rest of the day. It was like Chinatown with how I had a stop from what I expected to happen in that day and got a powerful memory from it.
The trip I was going on had some great sites planned out like a historical hotel with some incredible artwork. At this point in the semester, I was doing better with trying to let moments happen and not be so focused on taking photos of everything, but seeing these goats was totally different from anything I could have expected.
I was just walking along the pier after visiting the historical hotel when I saw them. I love visiting zoos or anything like that, but these goats weren’t in an enclosure. I don’t know if they were owned by someone or were sort of like feral goats, but they weren’t concerned by the presence of people on the path right by them at any rate.
I noticed other people walking along the pathway and just glancing at the goats before moving on, but I really wanted to cherish the moment when I knew that I could just be still and watch them calmly eating the grass. I can still recall the light breeze on my face, their hooves shuffling in the grass, and the relative silence of it all being broken by the sound of their chewing.
I got to see some awesome places during my semester at Winchester such as the Natural History Museum in London, and an incredible D-Day Museum with wonderful physical artifacts. I visited a natural history museum that had a butterfly room with a huge number of butterflies fluttering around. But these goats that completely interrupted and took over my day are one of my strongest memories. And I would say that their interruption was equally an awesome moment.
These two moments were connected to me with how emotionally charged they were even though they were unplanned. I expected my biggest memories to come from classes or big historical sites, and while that was also awesome, I didn’t realize before leaving just how much some of the best moments can’t be expected. I am thankful that I got the chance to go study abroad at Winchester University and it was great in ways that I did not expect.
A.J. Davidson is an English Major with an emphasis in professional writing and a Business Administration minor. He was away at Winchester University for a study abroad semester at in the U.K. He expects to graduate in the Spring semester of 2023, and he doesn’t have any concrete job or plan for once he graduates but he knows that his major has helped prepare him for the business world even more than he expected.