The Chinese

One of the interesting things about this resort, and apparently a large portion of the resorts here in the Maldives, is that they have been overrun by the Chinese.  It appears that the Maldives in general and Anantara Kihivah specifically is a huge honeymoon destination for young Chinese couples who use all their wedding money to come here, stay for a short period of time, 2-3 days, and return home. 

For the few non-Asians, we are here to relax.  We lounge beside the pool, on the beach, snorkel, dive and generally enjoy all the island has to offer fully exposed in the sun.  The Chinese, though, have an entirely different agenda during their stay in this tropical paradise.

For many Chinese families, the Maldives are a bit of a stretch, so when the young honeymooners are sent to a place like this, they feel an obligation to document the experience through photography and video for their families and friend back home.   This manifests itself with the newlyweds using every available moment to take pictures of virtually everything.  They pose with their cereal at breakfast; they videotape the entire buffet at lunch and dinner simply turns into a photographic bonanza with photos of everything including the silverware and furniture.  We have actually witnessed a couple taking a photo of an empty plate – just the white plate.  Yep!  I’ll bet that slide show will be riveting!  It borders on the absurd, but it is harmless enough and provides a certain level of entertainment to the non-Asian guests.

During the day, it is very common to come across a young Chinese bride in complete wedding get-up standing in the middle of the jungle while her new husband, dressed in shorts and a “Life is Good” T-shirt snaps shots of her in 93-degree heat next to a standard banyan tree.  She poses and does her best to look beautiful all the while trying to keep her overly applied makeup from turning her wedding face into a clown face.  The other day, we came across one such photo shoot where the young bride was posing simply with a run-of-the-mill sign that outlined which villas were ahead. Another slide show through which I am glad I am not obligated to sit. 

The other aspect of all this which is amazing to watch is that these Chinese couples have no desire to actually participate in the many activities that are afforded the guest here.  There are two reasons for this: the first, and most obvious, being that they are too damn busy taking photos of sticks and rocks to show their soon-to-be bored family back in China and the second is that they are really, really adverse to the sun.   The second reason is a distinctly Asian characteristic.  Asians associate beauty with lightness of skin, so while we, Westerners, are splayed out on a chaise lounge soaking up the sun to cancerous levels, the Asians are hiding under umbrellas avoiding even the slightest touch of Earth’s largest star.  Medically, this is a very prudent approach, but if I were so hell-bent on staying out of the sun, I sure as hell would not drop the kind of cabbage it takes to be in the Maldives.  I am thinking Seattle or Finland in December would be a better spot.  I’m just saying.

The combination of the sun-avoidance and obsession with photography makes watching the Chinese an interesting experience.  In order to get the picture they need, they have to put themselves in situations like swimming or snorkeling, but their abhorrence to the sun makes this a serious dilemma.  The compromise is to pretend to do all the fun things the rest of us are actually doing by doing them briefly enough only to capture it on film (or disc).  I watched this afternoon as a young Chinese husband donned a wetsuit, gloves, fins, a mask and a snorkel and ventured to the water’s edge for just long enough for his wife to get the requisite 30 pictures.  After she snapped enough to satisfy the quota, he quickly peeled off the entire ensemble - never actually touching the water.  This is a pretty extreme example, but not unusual.  Usually, they will actually swim around for about a minute or two before climbing out of the water and darting inside to take refuge.   At the pool, young couples arrive, quickly close their umbrellas, take the shot and shuttle back to the shade of their villa in record time.  It is truly aberrant behavior.   

Such is the pace of life here.  Between naps, we watch the Chinese taking photos, avoiding the sun and dressing up in wedding dresses in 95-degree heat.  It is a little funny, a little strange and now, very predictable.