Get yer' Eye in the Sky!
I've been on a dizzying rollercoaster of planes, trains and automobiles over the past few weeks and after spending a few days in Shanghai and another few back in my home town in Canada, I'm feeling fresh faced and chipper and ready to deal with the many forms of bullshit that come at me in this great adventure called China. Maybe it's just the jet lag and overwhelming sense of exhaustion, but I'm back in Beijing with a new found appreciation of the city I never ever thought I'd admit to feeling.
If only for four days, leaping back into the civilization of a Western country made me feel completely and utterly at a loss, though I do have to admit that I spent some time jay-walking just to feel the thrill of seeing motorists actually stop for me. I was polite to waiters and waitresses in restaurants, I didn't bother trying to jump ahead in the long queues at super markets and I didn't, not even once, have to hear the god awful sound of someone horking up the contents of their lungs onto the pavement. To be honest, everything was so eerily proper and perfect that it almost made me feel like I didn't belong.
I've been bugging the head honchos over at City Weekend to give me a column for ages, and now with this new blog, I'm almost dizzy with power. Log on every few days for new updates on what's happening around the city. There will be gossip, bar experiences, bands that blew my mind, discussions on why Chinese people don't seem to understand how to ride an elevator, and other random things that made me want to punch someone in the throat. Actually, it'll mostly just be about me wanting to punch people in the throat, but as we all know, bitching about China when one loves China is the national past time du jour, yes?
Until next time.... one world, one dream! Viva Beijing! -- Jenn Wong
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I read something on sinocidal the other day that quoted this study which found that Chinese people are are more considerate than Americans (and by extension the West?). So when they push and shove, they know what they're doing but do it anyways.
Maybe the "rush" is an extension of the post-deng xiaopeng "dog eat dog", "race to the top" mentality?
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Steve, I think it's the very fact that people do things that they know are inconsiderate, rude or dishonest yet do it anyways that piss me off so much. I've been trying to chalk the behavior all up to links from the past, but I dont' know how much longer that argument is going to hold up. Bad driving (which is stemmed from inconsiderate behavior) and the plain simple rudeness of many of the Chinese people I encounter en masse (this isn't to say ALL Chinese people are like this) are the two biggest reasons I dislike this country so much. Wiping those behaviors away would make our "China experiences" all the much better.
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Many of you would have heard of collectivism and individualism. China is known to be a collectivist country. I would have thought that the collectivist Chinese would have more regard for their fellow countrymen but I learnt recently that there are 3 tiers of collectivism - They are society, friends, and family. The polite Japanese are collectivist on all three levels and so show at least surface level respect for others. The Chinese, however, are collectivist on only 2 levels - friends and family. In general, courtesy and respect only extends to members of those groups. Might help to explain some of this behaviour.
Of course that still doesn't make it any less frustrating.
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Jay, I've heard this reasoning so many times and hearing it and even understanding it to a certain degree doesn't make it any less frustrating living here! Is it so imperialist to want people in this country to change the way they treat foreigners and each other?
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Welcome to the show Ms. Wong. CW is about to come out with a cover feature on why we love to hate China so much. We'll throw your two cents around w/ muster. I think the question I'd like answered is:
What's the rush or the cause of the 'rush' in China?
With so many people and having spent so many years enduring an ideological push, shouldn't everyone be a little bit more considerate or simply "aware" of others? Is it surface area or density? My sense of most Japanese people is that they are incredibly more sensitive to those around them than Chinese, a country w/ obviously far more wiggle room.