Daily Strangeness

I just got done eating lunch, at which time I was struck once again by something that consistently impresses me here, strange contrasts. I went out to eat at about 12:30, I usually eat a lunch at either 1230 or 1 because just about everyone else on campus like clockwork will eat between 1130 and 1200, giving them ample time for their afternoon nap, a custom I have not been able to adapt to (University lunch time break is 2 hours during winter, 2 and a half when summer rolls around and it becomes so unbearably hot we have no choice but to sleep more.).

The 1230 lunch time assures that I won't be joined for lunch by strangers who see me sitting by myself and come to the conclusion that I am lonely. People say I look sad all the time here. I guess my life would be a lot easier if I could walk around with a huge fake grin on my face all the time. The 1230 lunch time also means that you are going to be eating scraps, since all the restaurants are real small time "hole in the wall" places, and their stock is varied by what is in season, what was at the market that day, and what happened to be popular for lunch that day. The other day I had a bowl of noodles there that had meat, carrots, beansprouts, cabbage, and onion in it, which was fantastic. Today I had a bowl of noodles(same order) with a ton of cabbage, and a little bit of onion. But I actually find the lack of uniformity of the meals to be charming and somewhat comforting, since it shows how real and homey these places are. I find this sort of atmosphere to be more pleasing and healthy for me than the industrial model of restaurants that guarantees my sandwich will be the same every time, and that my interpersonal interaction will be efficient rather than personal.

Regardless, while I was waiting for my food there were very few sounds in the restaurant, there were a few boys talking to each other about class, and the sound of a woman in her thirties chopping spring onions, a little old man stirfrying dishes while yelling out orders to the old woman, who was scurrying about the kitchen organizing dishes and yelling back at the old man. I got my bowl of noodles, and then as I was eating all of the sudden heard bumping base line kick in and heard "Whoa bitch get out the way, get out the way bitch get out the way!!" come blaring out of the kitchen. I was a bit confused and turned to look around at the kitchen and found the thirty something woman chopping spring onions, the little old man stirfrying dishes while yelling out orders to the old woman, who was scurrying about the kitchen organizing dishes. Other than the hot beats, nothing had changed.

I never found out where the music was coming from, I cant imagine that it was really coming from the kitchen, and it doesn't really matter where the music was coming from, its the scene that I find the most interesting. Shades of modern western culture unexpectedly appearing in conservative or traditional looking places, though it will not usually be this drastic of an example, has become relatively commonplace here. It is interesting to see in that it shows the ubiquitousness of American culture, but it also shows something that I find interesting about Chinese culture. That being, the acceptance of the Chinese of noise pollution, or more generally, of other people's nonsense. I can be 99.9%certain that that family in the restaurant dislikes hiphop music. I can be that certain because a majority of the more westernized students dislike American hip-hop. They prefer Chinese "hip-hop," which from what I can tell entails one of the members of a pop band rapping half in English, half in Chinese for about 45 seconds during the middle of a love song. Yet despite the fact that they surely did not like the music, they still just kept on about their way, kept working, almost not even noticing the roar of the music in the background. I don't know how many people have ever worked in an American kitchen before, but I would love to see how a head chef in an American restaurant would react if someone all of the sudden started playing Beijing opera in the window of his work area. For starters, anyone within earshot would more than likely be treated to a memorable string of obscenities, and second, everyone in the restaurant would probably be dissatisfied with their lunch as a result.

This scene called to mind another occasion for me over a year ago when I was at a birthday party. We bought a birthday cake for the birthday girl. The cake comes with a special candle, once you light it, it opens up like a flower and plays the tune happy birthday in a really high pitched tone. Cute feature, but the best part is, when you blow out the candle the song keeps playing... and keeps playing... and keeps playing. Within 5 minutes I was already on the brink of insanity, and everyone else was chatting on like nothing was happening. I didn't want to rain on the parade, so I didn't say anything, but I did start drinking some ganbeis with some of the other boys there (sidenote to be discussed later-girls very rarely drink here). After about 20 minutes I finally got up the courage and asked a girl next to me if we could turn it off. She responded to me cheerfully, "I don't think you can!" She didn't even examine it or anything, she didn't care one way or the other whether or not it was on or off. While I was being driven mad by the monotony of the high pitched song, they were completely unaffected. The resolution finally came when after drinking a few more ganbeis, I casually walked over to the candle without anyone paying much attention and ripped the wires out of it. Everyone noticed the music stopping, went silent and looked over at me, there was a moment of confusion, maybe awkwardness, and then everyone began laughing together, saying, "Oh was the music bothering you? hahahaha!!!"

I was blown away, but it explains a lot around here of how Chinese people can feel at ease in this overpopulated environment that most westerners feel to be agitating and stressful. They have become accustomed to it, they are used to the huge population, and used to the inconveniences (or I guess what we consider to be inconveniences)that are associated with it. Some of those inconveniences include the lack of fixed lines when waiting to purchase something, having to deal with sometimes unbearable amounts of noise pollution, having to deal with what seems to be a general impatience in society, yet at the same time having to wait on the road for someone who has stopped their car in front of you to go into a store to buy something quickly or talk to a friend. In all, dealing with a general lack of peace and quiet and privacy. Yet the patience level shown by Chinese for dealing with all of these things in a relatively respectful manner is off the charts, and something I enjoy learning from.

From the restaurant I made my way to the supermarket to buy some tea. When paying for the tea I accepted my money and left, and heard from behind as I was exiting the cashier say exaggeratedly for eveyone to hear, "Xiexie... bu ke qi!!" (Thank you... your welcome). She was very apparently taking a shot at me for not being polite. This was pretty annoying to me for a couple of reasons. One reason is that in general polite language is not as commonly used in Chinese society. This is not to say that the people are not polite, simply that the direct usage of the language is less. I am constantly reminded by friends that it is unneccessary for me to thank them, whenever I am in a restaurant or storing my bicycle in a bicycle parking lot I will thank the employees who will either be bewildered by my politeness(sometimes being embarrassed, or pleased), or say to other friends how much foreigners love to say "thank you." (which is just plain true, I can't get enough of it) if you were to watch an average line at the supermarket you would probably find that 3 to 4 in 10 people would say thank you. The cashier for some reason was picking me out, which most likely would be because I am foreign, though if I were to say that to anyone around here that would be outright denied and another explanation would be quickly offered.

The second reason it is upsetting is even more frustrating. The truth is that my instincts are to say thank you to service workers, I think it is a very good thing to do, yet whenever you go into a store in this area the people are waiting to hear you speak English. If you say something in English they will freak out and yell to their friends, "Did you hear that?!!! I don't understand, hahaha!!" And if you speak to them in Chinese, which is the logical thing to do in China, many people will snicker and say more casually to their friends, "He just said xiexie!!" who also in turn laugh. From these experiences I have a distaste for thanking employees (which is really the worst part) and at the same time some of the employees get upset at me for not thanking them bc they are anticipating me saying it. It's a really common and annoying habit of certain people I have run into, to hear you say something in a foreign language and then laugh to themselves and repeat what you have just said to themselves or their friends, nothing makes you feel more like a disprespected 4 year old child.

But back to the noise pollution thing, I find the general tolerance of noise pollution to be a handy quality for myself since tonight I have been invited to perform a song at a party to welcome all of the new students to the school. Can't wait to let them get a load of my vocal prowess, there will surely be large groups of students in the stands going, "I immediately regret this decision!!" At the request of the school I will be singing a Chinese song, so to all 4 people who voted to help me to decide what song to sing, I am sorry. Luckily the lack of popularity of my blog makes it easy to break my promises. But I still will be recording the nights events in case anything funny happens along the way, as I sing the Wang Li Hong hit, "Wo Men De Ge" (Our song).