50. Napping is the national ‘sport’ or habit. My
students could nap for China. Everywhere you go, at any time of day, people
will be napping. In the shops – IKEA runs regular announcements stating that
the beds are for display not sleeping in. But its not unknown for grandma’s and
granddads to be left napping in a chair whilst the family shops. People use
restaurants like KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks – all with AC and Wi-Fi as handy
places to nap – you don’t even have to purchase anything. I’ve even had to ask
staff to wake people up and move them so I could sit down with my purchase
–this is done without so much as a murmur of dissent. People nap on bikes, in carts, on the metro actually
anywhere and everywhere is conducive to 40 winks or more. The Chinese teachers have camp beds in
the office for the lunchtime nap.
51. The building workers live onsite, often for
years, until the project is finished in prefabricated rooms with little more
than a bunk bed, basic toilets and outdoor washing facilities.
These are by my school - not being used at the moment.
52. The butchers at the farmer's market carve up
the meat and put it on display without refrigeration and don’t wash their hands
between taking money and cutting meat.
53. How much baijiu is drunk at restaurants at a
meal. I was invited to a dinner with fellow teachers by the parents of one of
my students – they do this hoping we will pay more attention to their kid.
Baijiu is a Chinese spirit akin to vodka and is drunk the same way – by
shots. Do not get misled by the
Chinese calling it ‘White wine’ – its more like diesel. Anyhow at the end of
this meal it was a matter of great joy that we had drunk 6 bottles of said
rotgut. Remember this was probably the very good stuff because the (rich)
parent would want to impress us with his generosity. The trick for drinking
less baijiu - getting the waiter to fill your glass with water instead.
54 How many dishes are ordered
at restaurants - they often end up stacked in layers. When one goes to these
dinners the food – which has been pre-ordered by the host just keeps coming and
coming. All the dishes are shared – unlike in a western restaurant where your
food comes on your plate. This
also happens in private homes during the festivals.
55 Congealed duck blood is a
popular dish together with many other outlandish and unsavoury (in my view)
dishes such as Turtle, 100 year old eggs, chicken fetus on a stick – no I’m not
making it up, chicken feet, duck neck, stinky tofu and so on.
56 Most of the beer
available is around 2.5% alcohol. Snow Beer for example, which, by the way, is
the biggest selling beer in the world, just because it sells the most to the
biggest population in the world, is ubiquitous. But try getting a cold one –
especially in the winter. Shops in
the winter do not have the refrigerator on – why would they its cold outside.
In the summer it seems they want their beer at body temperature – because they
believe to put cold things in ones body will make you ill. Thus even water is
taken warm, in the summer when its plus 30 degrees C and hotter.
57 The is no lower age limit for drinking alcohol.
I was shocked when on a school trip I found my students drinking large bottles
of Rio with their picnic. I took the, by now empty, bottles to the Chinese
teachers in charge and they were bemused by my concern. Also one lunch time, at
the shop over the road from the school, I found one of my students buying two
tins of Harbin (better and stronger than Snow) beer – he told me it was his
lunch time ‘treat’ every day. I’m
afraid I grassed him up to the head teacher because now I knew why he was
always so sleepy in my first class after lunch.
My students lunch time treat - Harbin Beer
58 Someone will dole out cigarettes to the entire
group when they smoke, and it's extremely rude to refuse the cigarette offered
to you. Smoking is de rigueur for most men and at any occasion especially more
so if there are No Smoking signs.
The toilets at any event or public place such as the Mall or shop are
usually full of smoke and guys grabbing a smoke despite the No smoking signs.
At least the smoke masks the stench of the toilets.
59 Cigarettes range in price from 1.5 Yuan to over
1000 Yuan. At any social even such as a formal dinner the host will offer the
smokes, expensive smokes and often by the pack and not individual
cigarettes. At weddings packs of
expensive cigarettes are in the gift bag every guest gets given. The security
guys at my school benefit from this because I take the packs to give to
them.
60 At the hospital its not uncommon to see Doctors
smoking in the hospital corridors. Teachers in my school smoke with no sense
that they are role models for the students.
61 Corporal punishment is still a factor in
Chinese schools. Although I have not seen it happen in my school. I have seen a
student manhandled out of a class by a Chinese teacher.
62 School life is hard in China. Most schools are
boarders; the majority of kids sleep here. The day starts at 6 for breakfast.
They are in the classroom at 7:15am until 9pm at night. The lessons after
dinner are usually for self study (homework) and hobbies etc.
63 Public school tuition in China is expensive –
at my school, a High School the fee is around 80,000 rmb a year (2 Semesters)
(about £8000/$11,333) which is comparable to private school tuition in the West
– that does include boarding but not other extras like food – which is cheap in
the canteen, or bedding, or books, trips etc.
64 All the students return to school before the
long summer break is finished for a period of military training which entails
being in uniform, getting yelled at by military personal, running around and a
lot of marching in formation yelling those 1,2,3,4 cadences you see the US army
doing when training.
65 Working at a school in China also has its
frustrations public holidays are given by the state but then one day is often
clawed back by having to work the Sunday of the week we start back at school.
66 My usual class size is about 30 students per
class but class periods are only 45 minutes long. Individual attention is
impossible – despite some (paying) parents demanding it.
67 Many students are often unable to read the
blackboard because of poor eyesight and not having glasses or having glasses
but not of the right prescription.
68 My students find it difficult to practice
creative thinking because of the Chinese education systems dependence upon
learning by rote and repetition
69 In the scorching hot summers (over 100 degrees
Fahrenheit/38 degrees Celsius with high levels of humidity), restaurants don't
turn on their air conditioners until customers sat in that private room or do
not have them set low enough so we have to get up and change them ourselves.
70 Shopping Malls with AC are the favourite haunts
of grandma’s looking after the grandkids – they sit in there all day when the
temperatures are high as they either don’t have AC at home or they do but they
do not want to switch it on to save money.
71 As soon as the sun starts to shine again, after
the winter, around the end of March here in Nanjing women start to walk around
with open umbrellas. This is not to protect themselves from heatstroke per se
but more to protect themselves from the sun so their skin wouldn't get tanned.
The mother of a female friend regularly chastises her for looking like a ‘farm
girl’ because she allows her skin to darken and does not use any skin whitening
products which are big business in China (along with plastic cosmetic surgery)
72 Safety regulations are very relaxed – in fact
so relaxed that they seem to be none existent. For example the schools handyman
fixes my light switches with a pair of pliers, a current tester screwdriver and
nothing else, with the current left on. Men work the high-rise buildings with
no evident safety equipment.
Welders weld, on the street, outside their workshops with little or no
protection against arc eye or flying sparks – some facemasks, made of cardboard
or plastic are used, sometimes.
73 It is not uncommon for the whole family to hop
on a moped or scooter, and without helmets. Often the child is on the back, mum
and dad have the helmets, the kids don’t (waste of money).
74 In cars kids are in the front or back seats
never wearing seatbelts, if there is a law, its not enforced
75 It seems to be de –rigueur to ride a
bike/scooter/motorbike or drive a car, lorry, bus whilst using a mobile phone.
76 Pet ownership seems to be hit and miss, whilst
there are many cats and dogs hanging around the streets looking dirty and mangy
they seem to be getting enough to eat.
77 Most of the dogs wear clothes. Winter and
summer. Or if they are not wearing clothes they are being dyed different
colours, especially the poodle type.
78 Fish and birds seem to be popular pets as do
rabbits and mice/hamsters which probably have a short ‘shelf’ life.
79 Groups of men sit around with their caged birds
– giving them the ‘air’ a form of torture it seems to me showing the birds what
life could really be like it they were not serving life imprisonment in a cage
barely big enough to stretch a wing.
80 Even in the city its not that unusual to see a
chicken having a stroll down a road or a lane.
81 In general China is a safe place to be I've
never felt safer from crime. Females of my acquaintance also tell me they feel
safe walking home late at night alone. You do not see Chinese men drinking on
the street, in fact the only time I have seen drunken Chinese men is as they
are helped out of a restaurant after the baiju marathons at dinner – the only drunken brawls I have
seen are western ex pats in western type bars who have gotten totally pissed
western style.
82 Blind Massage is a good option if you want a
massage but cannot differentiate between a good place or a ‘naughty’
place. This is a relatively common
occupation for the blind in China.
I’ve been to my local place a couple of times and the massage is good
and professional.
83 If you really want a ‘naughty’ massage look out
for the shops with the pink curtains and the pink lights – probably with a
couple of women lounging on sofas in the front. Prostitution is illegal in
China but these places are all over the city on the main street towards my
school there must be half a dozen, at least, of them.
84 The kids are still kids in that they have an
innocence about them that a lot of American kids today lack. We often see that
as naivety – they giggle a lot if the discussion touches on sex or relationships. The have a deep love
for their parents which comes out in their writing in a real heartfelt way and
they are not ashamed to read their writing out aloud in the classroom in front
of their peers – something I am sure a 16 or 17 years old typical teenager
would do in the UK or US.
85 In the summer whilst some men will walk around
with no tops on, or with the granddad type ‘wifebeater’ shirts (I believe they
are called) many like to just pull their top up exposing their often nicely
rounded tummy and midriff (a sign of affluence apparently – big tummy means you
have food)
86 You tend to see many employees being marshaled
in military style outside of their place of employment. They are stood in ranks
being given a hectoring speech to do better, work harder before having a group
yell of something stirring and inspiring.
https://www.facebook.com/shanghaiist/videos/10153940669221030/
87 Some Chinese people, and, in particular, it
seems to be the older generations, lack any sense of manners or etiquette. If
you're in someone's way when they want to get out of the metro, expect an elbow
to the ribs. Nobody waits for you
to get off the metro they just barge right in trying for the mythical empty
seat. If you are being served,
even in somewhere like Starbucks, who do enforce a queuing system, people will
think its ok to just come to the front to get their questions answered or make
an order. And of course having a pee or even a poo anywhere they like. In this case the toilets were just the other side of the path.
88 There's also less expected table manners it is
shocking and slightly nauseating if you are not used to it to see people
spitting, or at least dropping food, usually bones, out of their mouths onto
the table, sometimes onto the floor of the restaurant. No one else blinks an eye because they
are all doing it. I have seen a
person at a buffet use the serving spoon to taste the dish and then put the
serving spoon back in the food.
89 Customer service in 'average' places is almost
non-existent. Waiters and waitresses are generally useless and often come
across as brainless. This is often because they are on minimum wage maybe 5 or
6 rmb an hour (50/60 pence/70 cents). But the number of times the order is
wrong is remarkable given that they write it down on their pad. And sometimes
we have double-checked they know what we want it still doesn’t come or its
wrong.
90 Do not expect any logical sequence to ordering
food – especially if you are expecting western style food. If you order a starter, main course and
dessert you might get the dessert first, half the main next, then the starter –
then after you have asked where it is the rest of the main that is now lukewarm
because its probably been sitting on a shelf in the kitchen. If you want a dessert after your meal –
order it after your meal not at the same time. This is probably a consequence of Chinese meals being
structured differently thus food does come out at different times because of
the number of dishes.
91 Chinese people seem to be unaware of their
surroundings or an awareness of the space around them so they seem very
unpredictable in some aspects. For example, people stop dead in the most stupid
of places to check their phone or have a chat without any consideration for
other people – like in doorways, the bottom or top of the escalators of the
metro (lighting a cigarrette is popular here) Many people don't seem to pay
much attention.
92 On bikes and in cars they will, without any
indication change direction or lanes.
They fly out of intersections (especially on bikes/motoelectro bikes)
without as much a glance to the left or right. I think this is why some people
on scooters or bikes continuously honk their horns, as a kind of constant
warning not to make any sudden movements.
93 Convenience of life
In many ways life is more
convenient in China. Technology tends to be adopted at a much faster rate than
in the West, and many of our practices would be seen as outdated by Chinese
people. Alipay and WeChat in particular just make life a lot easier! Buying
online is cheap and the delivery is incredibly fast, usually next day
94 Obsession with foreignness
Many foreign
things, in particular stuff from the US, Europe or Japan and Korea, are treated
with such reverence it makes me kind of uncomfortable. It's not just consumer products, but
also people. It makes me uncomfortable that white people are put on such a
pedestal, and it's very unusual. It's difficult to get used to living in a
country that thinks itself inferior to others. That foreigners get some kind of
instant VIP status. Some banks, for example, wouldn't let me queue up even if I
wanted to queue up to be fair to everyone else.
95 A lot of the old heritage buildings look very
new. During the cultural revolution there was an orgy of destruction carried
out by the Red Guard. Old China is being re-built but its often more Disney
than Dynasty.
96 Piracy is rampant: TV, movies, software,
games, technology knock-offs are
everywhere, clothes, food if you can fake it the Chinese will.
97
China's nouveau-riche often have too much
money and not enough taste. Why
have one Lamborghini when you can have 5?
98 Elderly Chinese seem to be fit, although its
seems that the notion of being elderly starts at about 55.
But you see older
Chinese out on the streets, if still not working because they need to they'll
walk, jog, do Tai Chi, dance in the public spaces, play badminton, play mahjong,
visit friends regularly. People love walking backwards, stretching their back
on trees, clapping their hands whilst walking and hitting their body. Swimming
in the mountain lakes in the winter.
99 The Chinese hang red banners, and/or public
'posters' everywhere. I guess where they once proclaimed the glorious sayings
of Mao Zedong, nowadays its more likely
to be something like 'Freedom, democracy, equality' or more
mundanely 'The 16th Annual
University Sports Day'
100 There are flags everywhere Union Jacks and the
Stars and Stripes are very popular covering everything from electric scooters,
to clothes, mobile phone covers, books, furniture, food even. Of course the Chinese flag is ever
present, every Monday, here at school we have the official flag raising
ceremony.
