Adventure to China with Smile

Ben in court lady's costume of Qing Dynasty

Benjamin Steuerwalt
Northport High School
Long Island City

You say to me "Ben type one page, that was the foremost and most zestful part of your trip to China." And you know what I will do. I will laugh in your face. Why? Because I don't have one favorite part of China. I was in China, and that right there made me get that spine tingling, heart pumping, feeling that you never know what is about to happen next. I felt I was a part of China. China and I connected. Yes China did show me that Great Wall they have, and yes it was truly astounding. China also brought me to palaces, one for the summer one for the winter, that would have made Bill Gates house look like a shack. China gave me hot, humid, 'sweat so much you can't even smell it anymore' days. China showed me the people. The people that were the sweetest, friendliest people I have ever met. Yes China did show me the Chinese people, who always got us what we wanted, when we didn't even ask for it. The same Chinese people that took time out of their life to learn our language and make us feel at home, although home was thousands of miles away. I wasn't home; I was in China, and that is where I wanted to be.

As was awed and taken aback of Chinas presence, there was something that was in China that had a great American influence. It seemed every Chinese man was doing it, yet it only hit me when three Chinese men started to point and giggle, and talk in Chinese that I heard the words "Ahhh, Ko -- be Bry-ant" pointing to our black man who certainly did have Kobe's moves, but he liked to be called Rayon Piper. Yes it was basketball. Moreover, it was time for us American Boys to show these Chinese who were the masters in basketball -- the American born game. As the week dragged on, I and a couple of guys started to play some pick up games with the Chinese students on their campus court in Beijing University. Destroying each amateur team, we faced. However every time we beat them, all they did was smile, as if they actually played against and had the chance to play against American superstars. We never realized what we were doing until we were finally were asked to play against a Chinese school team. Oh, boy, were we pumped!

We first got the squad together, the Fab five we needed. Those five were the ones who were going to be teaching the Chinese how to make a jump shot and play some solid American Defense. We heard the Chinese had some uniforms, and sponsored from some company called NIKE. Big deal, so they can talk the talk but can they walk the walk? We made our jerseys, out of some white, cheap tank tops, with our nickname on the back, and USA printed on the front. We guzzled down some BOOST energy drink, and were on our way to the courts. A mammoth crowd turned out to be there, in anticipation to see the "Mei guo ren", challenge their "almighty" team. As we got ready, we saw on a chalkboard The Peoples Republic of China versus the Dream Team. It started to hit us. We were the Dream Team. We came all the way around the world to play basketball in China, against a real high school team. We were playing an American game of basketball in China! We gave some presents and handshakes not to mention a couple of autographs to the opposing team and took some snap shots of the two teams combined, without a worry in the world, besides playing some ball. History was on a time-out. No one thought of the "spy plane incident", "communism" versus "capitalism", two different languages or two different cultures. We were brought together by a game we call basketball and for that time right there we were the same.

We all knew the rules and we all knew what we had to do. Same game. Different country. Lets play! The whistle blew and we heard a raucous roar come up from the crowd. We went on to get destroyed by the powerful Chinese. (Who said every Chinese person was small?) We gave a good fight considering we had only five players and the Chinese had ten. It was a highly intense, competitive game, and I was a little annoyed that some team that never saw a basketball, before someone came over with it, beat us. Then when I saw the other team smile, like they always do when they played us, I realized they weren't smiling because they won, they were smiling because they just I played the American team, who played basketball in China with them and probably won't play again with Americans for a long time. Just like us Americans, played a Chinese team who we will probably never play again. I smiled.

I came on this trip to make people smile. At any cost, I wanted people to smile. Whether it being going up to a Chinese man and asking him questions in my very poor Chinese, and have him laugh at my Chinese accent, and my lack of Chinese vocabulary. On the other hand, when I went dancing and showed everyone "Ben's Groove", which eventually every Chinese man and woman were doing by the end of the trip. Here is one, which made everyone smile, me going up to the front of the bus and singing out the tune of Yeliya! It didn't matter that I embarrassed myself. We as a group were a family and family stick together. I felt if one person smiled a day I did my job, and you start to realize no matter where you are in the world and what your culture is, or what tongue you speak of everyone smiles in the same language.