Lǎowài

Lǎowài:

The Cultural Othering of Multiple Selves

Watched with curiosity & disdain:
I am the Other that is foreign,
a strange monkey not understanding Chinese ways.

I am hordes of barbarians storming the imperial gates
& monks from shrouded mountains far away.

I am the haughty British opium merchant
with paunchy belly & teeth decayed.

I am the village drunkard
seemingly harmless but crazed.

I am an impoverished girl sold into prostitution
so her parents can eat another day.

I am the demented school teacher
whose calligraphy is above disdain.

I am the aging eunuch
whose testicles rot in a cracked porcelain vase.

I'm that which some pray for
while others scorn:
I am each revolution that allows
the old to become transmute into new norms!