Suzhou's sickos...

I was talking with some friends on the weekend about some of the more unusual "things" we'd seen in Suzhou. The conversation soon degenerated into some of the more 'out-there' things. Here's some I've seen:

Just this Sunday, a guy throwing up out the side of the front passenger seat of a car (while driving). This was down Gang Jiang Jie - the busiest street in the city. It went on for about 4 blocks, until we passed the car, and by that stage there was an incredible amount of spew all over their new BMW...

A while back I saw an old guy - about 60 or 70 years old taking a wizz into a canal, on the same street - in front of everyone. The thing was, he didn't seem to make any effort to be discreet (like going down a few of the steps leading to the water and away from everyone's view) - he just got it out in front of everyone. Everyone, kept going about their business - no problems...

Regularly, we see kids walking around taking a dump, or having a wizz through Chinese designed pants - that are pants for kids with a huge hole at the bottom. Why bother with nappys when you can just let it all out anywhere - and I mean anywhere, with reports of this occurring in supermarkets and shops... Must get cold down there, mind you...

Possibly the best, was one I didn't actually witness - a friend of ours saw a completely naked man on the side of the road selling his wares on a blanket as others do. Apparently, he was just acting normal, and everyone else was too - just totally ignoring the fact that he was just standing there naked. In the West, if you saw this, you'd realise it was probably some sort of dare underway, and secondly you'd probably yell something out to them... but here, you just apparently do that stuff, and you ignore it when you see it...

metal

Metal music - what's it all about? I don't know... Anyway, I've been discussing this a bit on a few forums lately, check this out if you're interested.

turning things off

This photo and the photo from the last post are both from the area within Shanghai known as the French Concession. I don't think there were ever actually many French people living there - but there were Russians and other Europeans once. Anyway, it is heavily European influenced and looks quite beautiful.

One unusual Chinese characteristic very noticeable at my work, is the perceived importance of turning electrical things off to save money. It starts off with things like photocopiers and printers, which are constantly turned off as the Chinese staff walk past them. That's kind of bearable, but it still means that I have to get up and turn the printer on and boot up the computer connected to it nearly everytime I print something - 5 minutes of wasted time...

Then there's the lights - lights are never used, unless its absolutely necessary. At times I'm working away at work in the dark, but if a couple of dollars can be saved by turning lights off then, that seems to be the preferred approach.

But it gets worse. If you leave your desk for 30 minutes or an hour, someone will come along and turn your computer off - even if you have documents up etc. Now in winter, it's really cold - probably no more than about 10 degrees in the office... the Chinese staff will turn on the faulty old airconditioners (that cut out at 18 degrees) to warm the place up (read: blow luke warm air around the room for a short while), and then turn them off again. Probably about two bursts every hour of about 10-15 minutes. Consequently, I wear a heavy millitary jacket, scarf and about 3 layers of clothes at all times in the office. I do take my beannie off just so I look a little less 'outside'...

Everything is about turning stuff on then off... on then off... saving money? Who knows. I tried to find information on the internet about how turning lights on and off and booting computers up 3 or 4 times a day is not good use of energy, but, I don't know if that's still the case - computers have improved a lot in recent years...

So this is just one thing, I think I'll have to live with...

Westerners are all the same

As Morrissey once said on that infamous album by the Smiths, "I was shocked and surprised to discover..." that Asian people think that all Western people look the same, and that they can't tell the difference between us often. Weird heh? Maybe it's a bit of a generalisation (which is something I'm good at dealing with in), but a few Chinese people have now confirmed this. Many Westerners here have made comments to that effect all along, but I kind of didn't believe them. But our young, educated Chinese tutour just this week said to me, "yes, we Chinese people cannot tell Western people apart"...

Of course that raises the Asian stereotype, that all Asian people look the same - same coloured hair, same straight hair (and usually the same style here in China), same colour eyes, similar complexion, almost no variation in their height (ie small), no fat people - everyone is the same build... So then, if Western people range from tiny, thin to tall and obese.... with different complexions, hair colours, styles of hair, different eye colours etc - and to make another generalisation allowing for a lot more individuality through the development of sub-cultures etc (goths, punks, yuppies, 2nd hand clothese buyers, power dressers, indy types etc etc) - which just doesn't seem to be all that much developed here.... then how come Chinese people can't tell us apart??

To put this theory to the test, I borrowed an American friend's swimming membership card complete with photo. I think this guy looks different to me, but would Chinese peopleagree? He's taller, a different build, and I don't know - just looks quite different. Turns out that when I went to use his card, the person barely looked at it. So I got in on his membership... but I don't think my test was conclusive...

more backtracking

This is a photo of Sapporo's airport where we landed a few week's back. It was supposed to be a 3 hour flight, but became 4 hours after we circled for an extra hour, as there was snow on the runway. After we landed, I remember thinking, how the heck did we ever land with all that snow everywhere? The landing was actually really smooth...

After living in China for over 5 months, Japanese people seemed extremely friendly and polite to us. That's not to say that Chinese people are rude, but just that there are some cultural differences involved in welcoming people and serving people etc. Some of it is clearly language based, as the Japanese language has developed with inbuilt words that relay respect and service that are common in everyday situations. Even the way they say 'hai' is very polite and welcoming... Speaking to an Australian who has lived in Japan for 4 years, and an American for 8 years, though, gave a different perspective on Japanese people. They both basically said that they couldn't stand the overwhelming politeness that accompanies any conversation. In fact, it was explained to me that the difference in cultures between willingness to express what people actually think is vastly different in Japan, and that essentially this is the difference - that the extreme friendliness encountered is a cultural and language aspect that actually masks true feelings... interesting...

Anyway, you don't get that here in China, so it was welcomed. The Japanese language also struck us as being really cute sounding, even beautiful. It's more smooth flowing than Chinese and very childlike. In fact, I kept remarking to Nancy and others how it sounds like a kids' language... Of course the Japanese fascination with child like qualities (from the girly pigtails, to the short skirts, and kitschy products) - particularly in women is a whole other story...

Japan and other stuff

I've been offline for sometime due to a week's vacation in Japan, and trouble with accessing the internet. The recent earthquake in Taiwan severed some undersea cables, and since late December, our already slow internet access has gotten much worse. I can't access many sites from Australia or North America at the moment, and if we can they are usually painfully slow at uploading.

Like Nancy said in her blog, many things have happened, and I will try to mention some of these over the next few weeks. We left for Japan on 23 December and stayed until 31 December in Niseko, a ski village on the island of Hokaido. It was lots of fun and very tiring - the good thing about skiing is that it keeps you fit, while you're also relaxing. So we had Christmas together there - it was pretty much just another day, though. We bumped into Tara and Oogs - Tara best friend of Renae - some of you will remember/know her... We made a few other friends there - people we mostly kept bumping into.

New Years was quiet, but we enjoyed a brunch meal at the Suzhou Sheraton. It was astounding the amount of food there...

I'm really feeling more positive about China since returning. Maybe my 6 month culture shock period is drawing to a close. Everyday now it seems I get complimented by Chinese people about how good my Chinese is, which is really satisfying and good for motivation. And I think I'm also getting a lot more comfortable with being stared at, and at being an outsider here...