Thoughts on China

Well, I’m in the Memphis Airport, ready to fly to Tallahassee. I figured I’d have to do one last food picture, when I saw that Jim Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Q had an outlet at the airport (and because Northwest Airlines screwed up several times (no surprise there) I got a voucher for $10 at an airport vendor. I paid an extra $10 and got a full slab of ribs…now dat’s good, ya…

OK, well, I started writing a long post earlier, so I’ll copy and paste what I had here. I may go back and refine it later. I don’t have much time at the airport here, so here it is:
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OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Well, I’m writing this as we are climbing to cruise altitude out of Narita Airport in Tokyo. This will be an 11½ hour flight, so I’m glad the computer has a long battery life!

I was going to write about some other aspects of Huangshan, such as the sunrise, etc., but I think the pictures speak better than I could. Since I went to Shanghai after Huangshan, and I’ve already written about there, I thought I’d start a post on my overall impressions of China.

I’ll concentrate on what I was expecting and what I found. I often have been painting a rosy picture because all you seem to hear about China in the American press is the negative stories, be it lead in toys, pollution, tainted dog food, or how China is taking American jobs. Unless you actively go out and learn about China (or read blogs, such as this one), you never hear about the very nice people who are always ready with a nod of the head and a smile. You never hear about the amazing history (except in very hazy generalities) or the horrible things that have been done to the Chinese people over the last 150 years or so, both by foreigners and by their own people. You don’t hear about the amazing landscapes, or the crazy, yet sane traffic in the huge cities that make up “the Golden Rooster”.

I’ll try not to wax poetic here, but just describe some of the things I was expecting and what I found…

1. I thought China would seem a lot more crowded than it did to me. Shanghai, for instance, has over 20 million people! I was expecting something more like the scenes from “Soylent Green”, where Charleton Heston is climbing over people sleeping on the stairs to get to his apartment. Even during the National Day Golden Week (the first week of October) in Beijing, Tiananmen Square was not completely packed and you could be all alone at the Summer Palace simply by walking around the lake on the path less taken. I worked at Disney World for about 3 months (remember that, Jay?) in 1979, and that park seemed much more “crowded” with 100,000 people in them than do the cities in China. I’m not saying that there are not as many people there, just that you don’t see them all at once!

2. There is an interesting dichotomy in China between working together and individuals competing against others. The competition is obvious in many situations, like:

a) The competition to get scores on a test that will get children into college lead to many children never really getting a “childhood” as they study into the night, every night, because if they don’t the neighbor’s child will. This type of competition continues in adult life, causing many people to work long hours and not take vacation for fear that if they don’t, someone else will and they will lose their job. It’s this relentless pressure and competition that causes many Chinese to want to move overseas, not necessarily the government.

b) Lines (queues) don’t form in China, everyone rushes tries to get to the front at once. This happens in traffic, trying to get on a train, etc. Many Westerners consider it rude, but it works out OK, since everyone is doing it.

i. In traffic, for instance, if the first person at a light that turns green doesn’t go, others will simply go around them, even if it means going outside their lane. People going the other direction anticipate this, because they would do the same thing, so they move to the other side of their lane to let it happen. In the US, a line of cars behind the first one would sit there and not move, while honking and/or fuming inside about the driver that didn’t have a clue. Also, in the US, where everyone is supposed to and does follow the traffic rules almost always, if someone doesn’t, there is likely to be an accident because people don’t drive that defensively most of the time. In China, however, people who are driving, riding bicycles and even walking are constantly aware of their surroundings and the actual number of vehicles through a light (in other words, traffic flow efficiency) seems to be much better here than in the US.

ii. In lines, it goes against the element of fairness that we Westerners hold dear (that is, first come, first served). But then again, if there is a queue in the US and someone buts in, there is a huge to do about it. In China, you just hone your skills in getting ahead in line, but only use it when you really need it. In other words, sometimes, this behavior actually allows those who urgently need something to push harder than others to get to the front of the line, allowing the order to change by who needs the thing more. This would not happen in the US, where the sense of fair play dictate that everybody waits their turn, no matter what. Personally, I like the Western queuing better, but I recognize the two systems and can live with either. As long as the ground rules are known, all you have to do is to behave according to them.

The above examples show the extreme self-centeredness of the Chinese. Paradoxically, working together is also prevalent in China. This can be seen in anything from doing morning exercises together in the park, to the lineup inspection and team building moment in front of each restaurant before they open for the day.

The combination of individuality and teamwork can be seen at mealtime, where everyone sits together in a circle and eats from the dishes that are placed in the middle. Everyone is eating individually, yet everyone takes care of each other at the same time. It’s actually pretty cool.

3. Every Chinese person knows at least one English word…”Hello!”. In addition, many Chinese people want to get their picture taken with you. I’ve read several blogs from people that are annoyed by this and the bloggers can really cop an attitude about it. From my perspective, it shows that they are trying to communicate with you in your language, even if they only know one word. I’m not talking about the watch hawkers and other types that hang out at tourist areas waiting to leech off of foreign tourists and use “Hello” as an attention getter (followed by “buy watch” or “buy …”, but rather the average Chinese person who notices you as you are walking down the street and bursts into a spontaneous “Hello!”. I always just smiles and replied “Ni Hao”, showing, which always got more smiles, since we were saying “Hello” to each other in each other’s language. Many times, after I said “Ni Hao”, they would talk to each other in a way that indicated they thought that’s the only Chinese words I know. When this happened, I’d throw in another sentence or two. This generally started a good conversation with an appreciation on their part that I was trying to learn their language. It’s amazing how many Chinese apologized to me for their poor English. I just responded that we were in China, they shouldn’t have to speak good English there! There were very few people who said “Hello!” that were not genuinely warm and friendly after a little further discussion.

4. There were a lot of places where smoking was not allowed and a lot less smoking than I expected. Of course there was quite a bit of smoking, but my expectations were that there would be a lot more than there was. China seems to be where the US was in about the 1970’s, but with a lot of no smoking areas, as well.

5.  Spitting

6. Taxi Drivers

7. Olympics