international relations
a story of how being polite should always be high on their list of priorities. especially when interacting with outsiders
I decided, after getting my delicious egg pancakes, that today I would ride my bike to meet daze. usually, because we meet kind of early, I take bus k13 to save time. but the weather is cool from yesterday's rain, and I woke up early and thus had plenty of time.
it's not too short a ride to where we meet -- maybe 30 minutes -- so I have a good amount of time to enjoy the breeze, see the sites, and so on.
right before I arrived, I was stopped at a red light (yes, some people here actually do stop at red lights). an old woman, based on her accent I could tell she wasn't a hangzhou native, was very curious about the strange tall white guy on a public bike. after twenty seconds of uncomfortable swearing, being in the good mood I was, I smiled and did the little head nod so as to say "yo what's up." her face lit up. (think: "oo! the monkey in that cage likes me!")
she was so excited that she went to tell her husband, a real old
guy with only a few teeth. he walked over to me, excited.
"you are very handsome," he said, in perfectly understandable mandarin. "thank you!" I said. "I've seen on tv many times, your people, your women are very beautiful, the men, very handsome. I know because I've seen on tv!"
a very nice thing to say, I thought.
we began discussing Chicago, and how Obama will hopefully do good things for the world (they like him here).
then a huge cloud of smoke came before me. a middle aged guy apparently wanted the attention I was getting, and started blowing smoke toward me and my new friends. no problem, I thought. some Chinese guys don't understand how annoying that is. can't hold it against him.
then this new guy started interrupting my old friend, asking where I was from. I waited til my friend was finished talking, then answered this other guy. "America." he asked where in america. "Chicago," I said, proudly, but irritated that he was obbing me of my time with my new friends.
I continued talking to my friends about why I'm here, and where they're from and why they're here, etc. looking back, it must have been a really long red light. we said polite things about each other's governments, which seems to be common here, and of course threw in the casual anti-bush jokes. then the other guy blew more smoke in my face:
"why do you people love war so much? why do you invade other countries when they're doing fine. let their govenment do it."
what? hey buddy, not all of us approve of the things our governments do. I'm here, as a visitor, trying to make a good relationship. why have you got to go and assume I have such hatred?
anyway, I ignored him. kept talking to my friends, then the light turned green.
comments:
that's not good
The Invincible Blab | May 24 @ 5:06pm