To be in someone else’s shoes is the core of what anthropologists prided as their craft. This is how that particular type of social scientists gain a more complete understanding of how other people live their life on a daily basis: you go to stay with them for a while, work when they work, do what
they do, sometimes feel what they feel and maybe even literally put on shoes that they put on. But when those shoes are at least one size smaller AND have heels in the middle rather than at the back like what “normal” shoes usually do, the experience can be quite a balancing act—yes, pun intended.
Yet this was exactly what four McDonnell scholars did to lend a helping hand to the CSSA in celebrating the 2011 Chinese New Year celebration. They put on full blown Chinese costumes and trotted in front of an auditorium jammed packed with people. And they are not even anthropologists themselves! Well, alright, to be precise if you insist, one was, which was me, and only two of us wore the challenging shoes. But really, that was beside the point.
Because what we put on that night highly even mattered. Even though Dor did look nice in his minister outfit and Sassy was real cute in her gege gown. Mine was awesome too if only the hat could stay put on my head rather than keep falling over my eyes which invited the unison ‘oooww’ sounds from the audience, unfailingly every single time! Yet, what was most important was not even the striking fabric ensemble or the fact that Elad looked completely out of place in his, but rather the actuality of why we put them on at the first place. What we attempted to do in those dazzling couture would strike fear in even the bravest of heart: singing in Chinese when any of us barely speak a word of it! But hold, not only that, we were doing that without prior knowledge of the song—so forget practice or rehearsal—and in front of literally hundreds of Chinese audience who could tell in a heartbeat that we were fake.
But faking it was never the goal of the plan, stumbling and looking ridiculous while doing it were. The idea was simple: we would hear a short part of a Chinese song played to us through a headphone and then we got to repeat it for a member of the audience to guess. Yes, it was a game, a real fun one in fact. Even for us, who knew perfectly going in and volunteering would inevitably mean that people would laugh at us, which they did, numerous times.
Yet, surprisingly, despite everything, we did not do that bad. In fact we did quite well, I must say. The audience could guess every single song that we sang! Or murmur or lalala, not important. Before long, we laughed together with the audience, not because we were being the subject of the ridicule, but because we realized that in the laugh there was also appreciation and because of course, at the end of the day, it was only just a game.
But what is life if not a huge game anyway? Go ahead and roll your eyes at this time for the cliché, I don’t mind. But too many heartbreaks have been caused by forgetting that it is and too many atrocities have happened because instead of remembering how fun it would be to experience differences we resort to fear or worse. What is there to be afraid of really? Try it. Put on someone else’s shoes. Granted, they might be inconvenient, you might stumble in them or look completely ridiculous. But in spite of it all, you would at least, and I guarantee you this, have a good laugh along the way.
My imagination of the social activities when I read novels like Jane Eyre’s is realized in the activities held by McDonnell Academy. 
