I have been waiting for the UK tour for ages. That is the very only thing I looked forward to in the “hard times”. After having finished the taxing semester, I could finally head to London and enjoy my vacation. Though the tour is a learning tour, it is still very enjoyable. In this tour, I learnt a lot more about the history and culture of the UK through visiting different museums and, more importantly, getting a taste of life within these two weeks.
Museums are an integral part of our UK tour and I enjoyed visiting most of them very much. One of my favourites is the British Museum. It consists of a great variety of exhibitions, including artifacts collected from all over the world. Unlike some other museums, the British Museum is home to different sorts of exhibitions and people are really able to selectively go to different exhibition halls according their interests and know what they want to know. I spent most of my time on the ancient Egyptian halls. I have been fascinated by ancient Egypt since I watched the Hollywood blockbuster “The Mummy”. Watching Discovery Channel on Television and physically visiting the museum are two very different things. In this tour, I really had a chance to stand in front of the exhibits and study more about them. This was a wonderful experience to me. On one hand, I was totally surprised by the huge and extensive collection of the British Museum. On the other hand, it reminded me of the British imperialism. The name of the museum itself is already a sign of imperialism. It is not a secret that British “robbed” other countries, mainly those in Asia and Africa, of their previous artifacts and put them in the British Museum. It would make sense and less controversial if the Museum was named “ the World Museum ” instead of “the British Museum” when its collections were from all parts of the globe. The idea of British imperialism meant a lot to Chinese due to historical background. Lots of valuables from China were taken away during the war time so there are a lot of exhibits from Chinese in the Museum. When I was visiting the Chinese exhibition hall, I met a group of Chinese tourists. The tour guide used Mandarin with strong Beijing accent to introduce the exhibits to the group. It was ironic that Chinese have to travel to London and study our own history and culture in a foreign country owned museum. It left me speechless when I saw the crowd happily taking pictures in front of the Buddha, ignoring the cruel fact that why it was here. It would be more meaningful if we could think more and see how our own country was being portrayed through the arrangement of the exhibit display, rather than shallowly seeing the museum visit as a free entertainment.
The way locals see or treat Chinese also surprise me. Rumor has it that British look down on Asians such as Chinese due to their “pride”. A friend of mine told me that she came up against racial discrimination when she stayed in Scotland for an exchange programme. But during my stay in London, I found that most of the people were nice. One day I could not find my way to the Natural History Museum when I got out of the South Kensington tube station. I felt completely lost and buried my head in the map. A gentleman kindly came over and asked me if I needed any assistance. I was impressed by his kindness. However, that is not necessarily the case for all British. An officer at the check-in counter of the Heathrow Airport had been very rude to me and my friend. When we demanded for changing seats, she looked annoyed and tried to drive us away by asking us to seek help from another department. Finding that other passengers could do the seat changing at the counters, we went to the lady and argued with her again. She stared at us for a few seconds and reluctantly did the seat changing with her face as long as a fiddle. I was dissatisfied with her unfriendly attitude. At that moment, I finally realized that you really had to use English to fight for your own justice when you were in today’s globalized world. The UK tour not only allowed me to explore London, but it also reminded me of the importance of being an English Major.
Museums are an integral part of our UK tour and I enjoyed visiting most of them very much. One of my favourites is the British Museum. It consists of a great variety of exhibitions, including artifacts collected from all over the world. Unlike some other museums, the British Museum is home to different sorts of exhibitions and people are really able to selectively go to different exhibition halls according their interests and know what they want to know. I spent most of my time on the ancient Egyptian halls. I have been fascinated by ancient Egypt since I watched the Hollywood blockbuster “The Mummy”. Watching Discovery Channel on Television and physically visiting the museum are two very different things. In this tour, I really had a chance to stand in front of the exhibits and study more about them. This was a wonderful experience to me. On one hand, I was totally surprised by the huge and extensive collection of the British Museum. On the other hand, it reminded me of the British imperialism. The name of the museum itself is already a sign of imperialism. It is not a secret that British “robbed” other countries, mainly those in Asia and Africa, of their previous artifacts and put them in the British Museum. It would make sense and less controversial if the Museum was named “ the World Museum ” instead of “the British Museum” when its collections were from all parts of the globe. The idea of British imperialism meant a lot to Chinese due to historical background. Lots of valuables from China were taken away during the war time so there are a lot of exhibits from Chinese in the Museum. When I was visiting the Chinese exhibition hall, I met a group of Chinese tourists. The tour guide used Mandarin with strong Beijing accent to introduce the exhibits to the group. It was ironic that Chinese have to travel to London and study our own history and culture in a foreign country owned museum. It left me speechless when I saw the crowd happily taking pictures in front of the Buddha, ignoring the cruel fact that why it was here. It would be more meaningful if we could think more and see how our own country was being portrayed through the arrangement of the exhibit display, rather than shallowly seeing the museum visit as a free entertainment.
The way locals see or treat Chinese also surprise me. Rumor has it that British look down on Asians such as Chinese due to their “pride”. A friend of mine told me that she came up against racial discrimination when she stayed in Scotland for an exchange programme. But during my stay in London, I found that most of the people were nice. One day I could not find my way to the Natural History Museum when I got out of the South Kensington tube station. I felt completely lost and buried my head in the map. A gentleman kindly came over and asked me if I needed any assistance. I was impressed by his kindness. However, that is not necessarily the case for all British. An officer at the check-in counter of the Heathrow Airport had been very rude to me and my friend. When we demanded for changing seats, she looked annoyed and tried to drive us away by asking us to seek help from another department. Finding that other passengers could do the seat changing at the counters, we went to the lady and argued with her again. She stared at us for a few seconds and reluctantly did the seat changing with her face as long as a fiddle. I was dissatisfied with her unfriendly attitude. At that moment, I finally realized that you really had to use English to fight for your own justice when you were in today’s globalized world. The UK tour not only allowed me to explore London, but it also reminded me of the importance of being an English Major.
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