China Inspiration

Posts about China, 5 of 7.

Inspiration.

This is a different type of post.  I have been mostly posting about what we saw, but I thought it would be good to post a bit about my feelings.  To start, I've shown some of my feelings already in other post, thus I would like to make clear that the things I saw are just different from the way I do thinks, they are funny to me or strange, just like some things I do will seem strange and different to my friends in China.  (I drinking ice water on a cold day and they drinking hot tea on a hot day.)  It does not imply either rightness or wrongness on either side, it is just the way things are.

To start with, I met my wife's extended family and many of her friends.  I will say that they where all very nice, sometime to the extreme and I hope I did not came across too ungrateful.  A lot of time they when out of their way to make me feel welcome.  (I'm not used to having others dish food for me, pour my drinks or having special places to sit.) Now how does this compare with other Chinese (non family/friends)?  Of all my trips to China, I am starting to see a pattern and that is, if they know and/or see you, there is a then an acknowledgement, thus a type of kindness.  (I think an example would show this better.  Crowd getting on a bus, it starts as a line of 1 person then fans out from there.  I was helping my mother-in-law to board the bus and people started to rushed the door.  Everyone payed attention to the door only, but when I tapped on a shoulder and pointed out the fact that my mother-in-law, who does have knee problems, was getting on the bus, those I made contact with stopped and people settled down a bit.  Once she was on the bus, it became a free-for-all again.)

This type of attitude is really bad in cars vs pedestrians.  I found that if I made eye contact with the driver, they tended to stop.  There were probably a few reasons for this, I like to think that it is the eye contact, but it is more likely they see a 6'5" American and thought he does not understand the rules, that he is suppose to get out of the car's way.  I joke that I would leave too big of dent in the car and that is why they stop or slow.  (No one every really stops.)  But in any case, the driving is no more that 25-40kph except for the highways and at that speed they can be safer.  (My wife asked about this and that is the response she got.  I suggested that if they learned to follow some basic traffic rules, they could actually not have so may traffic problems and get to their destination faster.  Maybe it is a good thing I don't speak Chinese. :-)

Now about a different subject.  Pollution.  I think this is kind of a sensitive subject, but to be honest it needs to be talked about.  There really is no concept of environment there.  I saw a lot signs saying 'Respect the Environment', 'Put litter in its Place' and the like, but very few people followed it.  It is very easy just to toss something out a window and let others pick it up and I think that is where the problem comes in.  The labor there is so cheap, people roam the parking lots and streets just picking up litter and/or sweeping dirt from them.  A street sweeper is just that, a person assigned to sweep with a broom, the street for 2 or so block.  (You will find many of them along the highways with their straw brooms.)

This gentleman was obviously not working in the street but he did represent those who did work along the highway.  They all used the same type of brooms.

Is this changing?  I am happy to say that I think it is.  I was talking with a high-schooler, they where learning English and I was teaching him good old American.  (Don't laugh, it is in high demand.  Also be thankful I was not teaching him writing. :-)  Anyway, we saw one stream covered with litter, I was trying to take pictures of the rapids/waterfalls but could not get a good picture.  I was grousing about the litter problem and he did agree, maybe it was because I was pointing it out to him or he did actually see it.  We did see hope, not too far up the stream we saw several people cleaning up the creek/river/waterfall.  They where really making a good effort to get all the trash out.  I also noticed that our conversation started to change and he was seeing things in a slightly different way.  (He almost said something to his dad, when his dad tossed a water bottle out the car window.  Culture norms about correcting elders will be very hard to overcome.)  So I am hopeful because of the kids, not really the young adult generation.

Overall, families are families.  The parents in China are the same as the parents here in the US.  We all want the best for our kids.  There seem to be helicopter parents in China just like here.  There are spoiled kids there and here.  But mostly there seems to be a lot of good parents in both places, it's too bad the spotlight get put on the bad ones most of the time.

I've neglected to say anything about politics.  I think most people deal with it just like the US, there is a government and we will deal with it when we have to, but there tends to be not much we can do about it and we have too much to worry about with our families to let it get in our way.  In the most part the government stays out of people's lives.  They just factor in 'gifts' like we factor in taxes.

So overall, I would say find a tour or group that is willing to travel the back roads and not just go for the shopping experience, unless shopping is your style.

Enjoy.