Poisonous Gyozas

I finally got a second hand TV! I usually leave it on the background hoping it'll help with my Japanese skills or lack thereof.

However, the big news around all of Japan has been the poisonous gyoza (potstickers) that were sold in the big supermarket chain in Japan called COOP (pronounced "cope" although the origin of the name came from Co-op).

These poisonous gyoza are from...China. There are some people here who suspect that somebody in China intentionally put in the poison. A couple of Japanese people who ate the gyoza were hospitalize and they're recalling all the gyozas of a certain brand sold plus 8 other frozen products from that same line.

From my point of view, this incident (whether or not it's true) further fuels the Japanese's distrust of the Chinese. It's sad.

About a month ago, I had to go teach at the local elementary school. That day, I taught all of the 5th graders in the school. The teacher there wanted me to teach the line, "Where are you from?" and use different countries as examples. I used the US, Canada, Italy, France, China, Japan, and Korea as my examples.

The activity I had the students do involved them each having one card of the above mentioned countries. Then, asking each other, "Where are you from?" Their response will be, obviously, "I am from..." and then the name of the country of the card they were holding. After this exchange, they would exchange cards with each other.

I was walking around and participating in the activity when I observed one pair working together. One had the Canada card and one had the China card. After they exchanged their words, the kid holding the Canada made a big fuss because he was going to receive the China card. He moaned as if he was being given the last pick of the candy from a gigantic jar. I think it bothered me a little bit considering I'm Chinese American. Aside from being annoyed by a 10 year old kid, I was also a little intrigued by what his image of China really is.

The entire world has their eyes on China, watching its every move. I think it is a mixture of amazement, doubt, fear, and curiosity. For me, I also feel a bit of pride. I'm not sure what to make of all this, but inevitably, I know that it affects the way people see me.