Despite the stereotypes, the prejudices she’d faced, she still works very hard, to help bring about change into this world that we’re currently living in, translated…
In All of These Processes, She’d Started Thinking about How to Change the World, and Had a More Concrete View of Her Own Future Too. She Wants to Become a Doctor for Doctors Without Borders, Believed, that Before the Doctors, All Lives are, Equal………
When the “Southeast Asian Mobile Library” arrived in Taichung, the “First Square Bookstand” that was owned by my friend and I were officially, in business in Taichung, we’d not hollered for the customers to come, we don’t take the bartering either, we offered the services of reading, conversations, tours and the service of trading stories of our lives with one another. On this platform to get acquainted with the world, I’d met Nasha Liang, from Thailand.
Allowing Our Predisposed Beliefs of Thailand Shatter into Pieces
This girl from Bangkok, Thailand, is now, currently, studying, in the medical department of the Pharmacology University of China, the very first time we’d met, it was because I invited her to lecture. But back then, I’d only held limited knowledge of what Thailand was like, and, I’d become, too concerned with: “What, is Thailand like? Elephants, transvestites?” our very first meeting, Nasha said a casual “hi” using Chinese, then, we all went into a American Style restaurant to dine. Do Thais speak Chinese too? Why would she want to study medicine here? And, my original stereotype of what Thailand was like, slowly, dissipated.
After we’d gulfed up the foods, we’d gotten really into conversing, Nasha told me, that she’d attended the United World Colleges for her three years of high school, that there were, an assortment of students that were from all over the world, that every single day, she and her peers would share with one another, the crises, the conditions that their nations of origins were faced with, and, Nasha had gotten involved in Green Peace Organization’s activities multiple times herself, as well as the Amnesty International, along with other volunteer ventures, and had once worked as the team captain for NASA’s environmental group as well. In all of these processes, she’d started, thinking on, how she can change the world, and had a more concrete thought of what she’d wanted to accomplish for her own future. She’d wanted to become a member of Doctors without Borders, believed, that before a doctors, all lives are, created equal.
“You’d started studying abroad since you were in high school, won’t your families worry about you?”, I’d asked her.
not my photograph…
Nasha smiled and replied, “My mom is very kind to me, no matter what I decide, she’d always, have nothing but support for me. In order to give me better resources in education, she’d even given up her post of being a judge, and became an attorney instead (in Thailand, the judges would have to serve in different places every four years).
As Nasha was speaking to me, her eyes shone of that sense of self-confidence. I’d secretly contemplated on my own families, my teachers, as well as the society’s expectations of me, seemed only to be revolved around making better grades, to get into a better college, to get a better job. Back then, did anybody even mention “change the world” as one of our options? Seeing Nasha who was, before me, all of a sudden, I’d felt, emotional.
The Conversations Had Helped Us Want to Understand One Another More
As Nasha was working as an international volunteer, she’d made a lot of friends from Taiwan, because of their kindness and the considerations of how much it costs to get a degree, she’d chosen, to come to Taiwan to study. And still, as she’d arrived here, she’d realized, that some of the things wasn’t exactly like she’d expected.
“Aren’t all people in Thailand elephant riders? Are there, many transvestites there? Is it, easy, to get infected with a parasite, living there?” “All those who’d come to Taiwan from Thailand are working as laborers, you, being able to study here, are you, a princess?” all of these questions had made her experience the other side of Taiwan: discrimination and prejudices.
Hearing up to here, I’d just, wanted to, dig a hole in the ground, and hide in it, because before I met her, I too, held such, outrageous stereotypes too. And still, it was, also because of her, that I’d started, getting curious, of what it is, really like in Thailand, I’d wanted to know, what would be the difference that she’d observed or experienced, between Bangkok and Taiwan.
Nasha told me, that both capitals are very international, but she’d loved Bangkok more, believed, that it was, filled with more life, and was once picked as the Number One Vacation Spot by “Condé Nast”. All of a sudden, I was reminded, that a lot of people believed Taiwan to be Thailand, maybe, it’s not just in the way the two countries were spelled, but also, in the cultural, tourism, and international fronts, Thailand, just like Taiwan, are both, irreplaceable in the world.
Once, the discriminations that Nasha had experienced firsthand in Taiwan had made her upset, someone said to her face, “Your skin is so dark, you’re so ugly, NO guys in Taiwan would ever like you!” it’d made her depressed for her first year here in Taiwan, starting wondering, if she truly was, as ugly, as awful, as the outside world perceived her as. But thankfully, she’d turned her own thoughts around, “What sort of a person I am, I shall decide!”, and ever since, nobody had an influence on how she feels or perceives herself.
And now, Nasha is working alongside us, help education people about the cultures of Southeast Asia, and I know, that in order, to change the stereotypes, the discriminations, only by standing up and starting a discussion on it, can the beliefs of the public have a chance of being altered. In the future, I hoped, that I could be like Nasha, get out of my comfort zone too, to head out on an adventure, so I can, become, closer, to the world.
So, this, would be the influence of this woman has on the other woman, the narrator had learned about the experiences from this girl from Thailand, what she was faced with, and the discriminations she was facing as she’d come here in the earlier days, and, the narrator is now, motivated, to help educate others on the various cultural differences, and bringing, the world closer.
from the newspapers…
Life, the Obstacle Course 