| Page Views: 1,256 Last Visit to China: January, 2008 I Live Here | My China Tenure by crewrower - last update: Dec 5, 2008 |
My Time in China - living or visiting | street scene taken from my home in Pudong |
*Beijing (Feb 2001, June-Aug '01, Sept '02-June '03, Sept '03-June '04, July '05, March '06, April '06, Oct '07, April '08, Aug '08)
*Bengbu, Anhui (February 2001-June 2001, May 2005)
*Chongqing (February 2007)
*Dalian (January 2003)
*Guangzhou (June, 2001, September 2002)
*Guizhou Province (February 2007 - Guiyang, Zunyi, many smaller towns)
*Guilin (January 2004)
*Hangzhou (May 2001, October 2005, April 2007, November 2008)
*Haerbin (January 2003)
*Hefei, Anhui (April 2001)
*Hong Kong (June-July 1997, June 1998, May 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
*Kunming (2006, 2007)
*Macau (1997, May 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007)
*Nanning (January 2004, January 2006)
*Nanjing (March 2001, April 2005, March 2007)
*Sanya, Hainan (January 2004, November 2005)
*Shanghai (March 2001, May 2001, October 2003, August 2004-present)
*Shenzhen (June 2001, January 2007)
*Tianjin (May 2004)
*Xi'an (October 2003, December 2006)
*Yunnan (many towns in southeast east) (February 2006, February 2007)
*Taipei, Taiwan (June 1998, June 2000, August 2000)
*Kaohsiung, Taiwan (June-August 2000)
*Taiwan - Tainian, Alishan, Taichung, Kending Beach (Summer 2000) I've also been to lots of other small towns near many of these major cities. |
What it's like living in China AND My China Log It's not easy being a resident in China. It's not hard either. But it takes adjustment, and you have to know that you won't ever fit in. And you have to accept that. Even though I have lived in China for a total of nearly 5 years, I find it difficult to adapt to some of the small things.
I don't like that people cut in lines. I don't like that cars don't stop for pedestrians in intersections even when pedestrians have a green walk sign. I don't like people touching my stuff or commenting about me in public. But I basically have to accept these things. When I get in a fit about them, I just punish myself. You can't change 1.3 billion. It's hard to make close friends here, even if you speak Chinese. You are either Chinese or you aren't.
On the other hand, there are great things about living here. You can live at a better standard than in the West on a similar income. You can get your house cleaned for US$1/hour and eat out all the time.
__________
My China Log, June 2006
I got off the subway near my house at 9:45pm. Upon exiting the gate, I saw a typical Chinese street argument breaking out. I guess the fight had been going on for about 2 minutes or less when I arrived. That's because only 15-20 people had stopped to watch when I showed up.
A Shanghainese woman and a male fruit seller from interior China were shouting at each other, each clinging to what seemed to be the fruitman's metal scales, with an area of the sidewalk of about 4 meters by 3 meters littered with cherries on one half and 'yang mei' (waxberries?) on the other. In the middle of the fruit were two bamboo baskets and a bamboo rod in which to carry the basket on one's shoulder. Apparently this woman had somehow caused the fruitman to drop all his produce and scatter it across the sidewalk.
The argument now was that the fruitman wanted the woman to pay him for the lost fruit. He was asking for 15-20 RMB, but I could not determine if that was the total price he wanted or the price per small basket of fruit that had fallen to the ground (i.e. around RMB 150 or US$20 perhaps; but it was probably just a total of RMB15-20). The woman was adamantly refusing, and was the more ferocious of the two, hitting the man on the shoulder and chest rather hard at several points (he told her to stop doing that at one point and got the 'Chinese man bug eye rage', which did get her to stop hitting him in that instance). The reason I know where the protagonists were from was because the woman yelled everything in Shanghainese, a language unintelligible to me, and the man yelled exclusively in Mandarin, the national language, and the only language he'd be able to use to communicate with her. |
My China Log Entry - June 2006 - continued In China, many fruit sellers measure the weight of fruit with a simple horizontal rod and a weight. I'm not sure why both parties were clutching to this rod, but the fact that two parties were holding tangible property in a dispute is quite common. Otherwise the party that wants to avoid paying an indemnity could simply leave. It's just that it seemed the fruitman wanted the woman to pay, and she was refusing, yet they both held on to his scales. Clearly I was missing something there. In any event, she desperately wanted him to let go of what he was holding and he wanted a payment just as badly
Now, as soon as I started to watch this spectacle I asked myself why I was doing that. Many Chinese people love to rubberneck in these kind of situations, often even moving as close as possible to the belligerents to get 'the best seat in the house'. I have never seen a non-involved bystander intervene to diffuse a situation. But, I rubbernecked along with the swelling crowd for about 5 minutes anyway, and rationalized my behavior to myself as a test of my Chinese, to see if I could understand what had happened before I arrived on the scene of cherries and waxberreis all over the sidewalk.
I couldn't deduce any more than what I've written above. As people gathered around, more and more of the cherries and waxberries were getting crushed under their heels. This is what bothered me the most. While the fruitman and Shanghainese lady were arguing over whether she would pay him $2-$2.50 (I think), much of his fruit was getting inadvertently destroyed by those watching.
For a minute or two, I debated whether I should just pick up the fruitmans several little red baskets and collect the roughly 200-300 cherries and 200-300 waxberries for him. I wondered if I did this if I'd be embarrassed to have everyone watch me, the only foreigner among the crowd of now 100 or so. But, I felt bad for the fruitman who was pleading that he was just trying to make a living and that she should pay for her mistake. So, I started collecting the fruit - and this is what inspired me to write down this story: within 5-10 seconds of me bending over to pick up some cherries, someone in the crowd said "hey look at the foreigner", and immediately about 5 people joined in to help me pick up cherries. 4 meters across the way a couple folks collected the waxberries. Within about 2 minutes, all of the non-crushed fruit had been recollected. I felt almost euphoric that so many people followed my lead to help make the situation better.
The fight continued, but at least the fruit was recollected. At that point there was nothing left for me to do, so I started to walk away. A young woman stopped me and asked in English "excuse me where do you come from". I replied 'mei guo' (USA), smiled, and walked away. I was glad to have been able to do what I'd like to think most Americans and Westerners would have done in a situation like that, and was even happier that the other bystanders helped out to clean up the fruit. For all I know the fight is still going on right now an hour later, but I know the fruitman had to be relieved that most of his fruit was saved. I think much of the fruit would have been crushed by the bystanders otherwise.
The lesson for you - always wash your fruit and vegetables. You really don't know where they've been. |
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 Comments for crewrower about China | | | | |
susanpingu Fri Jan 11, 2008 20:36 UTC
What a life! Happy New Year! I think you did Mei Guo proud that summer of 2006. | DAO Tue Jan 1, 2008 20:28 UTC
HAPPY NEW YEAR. ALL THE VERY BEST FOR 2008! | SLLiew Wed Mar 14, 2007 05:49 UTC
Great introduction of China. Hopefully public spitting in China will be a thing of the past soon :) | Cyncyn Sat Aug 26, 2006 16:32 UTC
what an interesting articles you put it here ! The view of your new house is not bad ! do you like it ? |
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