Things You May or May Not Know

about China that is.

I'm going to describe my life in this small poor city, in a very poor province. None of this is exaggerated (I wish I could say it is), and totally honest about everything. This is the REAL China!

My students ask me frequently why I didn't go to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong to teach, and my response has always been the same "I wanted to see the real China" and let me tell you I have and then some!

Now in this case I'm the foreigner, and I know life is not going to be the same as in the West. Even though these things bother me, make me angry, frustrate me, I'm actually in the wrong with my initial reactions. Having said that...... let's take a look at what I'm talking about. When I say 'everyone' read that as the vast majority.

Manners
Now I don't know from my Western viewpoint if Chinese people have any. So far I have yet to see any that I as a foreigner would consider appropriate in pretty much any situation.

Spitting: Yes everyone here spits! I don't mean a little more saliva in your mouth and you spit it out, I'm talking gut reaching, lung cleaning spitting to the point where I want to retch. It doesn't matter if you are young, old, a man, a woman, rich, poor, tall or short, pretty much everyone does this. So when you are walking you have to watch out for people spitting anywhere around you as it could hit you, and you have to watch out where you are walking cause who wants to walk in green phlegm?

I have one student that spits like this in my class, not just once a class, but at least 6-8 times during two 45 min periods. It is really disgusting cause I'm trying to ignore it, but how can you?

Urinating in public: yup, they do! Mostly the male population, but I have witnessed a few young girls do this. According to Chinese, babies (anyone under the age of 3) only urinate water, so it is perfectly safe. Huh?? Children here wear trousers that are split up the front and back to make it easier to use the toilet (I'll post a picture) so children when they want to use the toilet, just squat and go! It doesn't matter if it is in the middle of the supermarket where open fruit and vegetables are (I have witnessed this), it doesn't matter if it is in the middle of a store, it doesn't matter if it is in the train or bus. Children go where they like whenever they like.

I wish I could restrict this to very young children, but I can't. I don't know how many times I've been walking or driving by and witnessed a boy between 4-12 urinating on the side of the road into oncoming traffic. I have once been walking up the front steps to the local department store, and here a boy of 10 was urinating down the stairs towards me.

Children aren't the only ones that do this. I have witness older men, anywhere bewtween 40-75, urinating in public even though the public toilet might be 50 feet away.

Urinating in public, okay you say, better than defecating in public. Well I've also witnessed that as well with children 0-4.

picking their nose: Everyone here does it. Again doesn't matter if you are old, young, male, female, rich or poor, they pick their nose. And even worse than picking their nose is what I call 'snotting' which is where you place one finger on one nostril and blow out whatever is in the other nostril, then repeat on the other side. It is a beautiful sight to see this, and what boggles my mind is after they do this, they then take the tissue out, and wipe their nose. Why didn't they just do that in the first place?

Eating: Chinese people are always eating, seriously! They eat with their mouth open, chewing like a cow or pig which not only is it not pretty to look at, but it isn't pretty to listen to either. Apparently they have never heard of keeping your mouth closed when eating.

What is worse than this you might ask? Well here is something else about eating. When you go to a restaurant and order say a fish, the fish comes whole with all the bones. So what do you do with those bones? You take a piece, suck the fish off the bones, then proceed to spit the bones directly on to the table, or the floor. This goes for any meat as all meat is not deboned. This could be for anything you don't like, so if you have a chili in your mouth, and don't like it, you simply spit it onto the table. No problem!

Picking faces: I witness this when it is hot out as all the students are out with their boyfriends/girlfriends. So basically I see this 15 times in about a 30 feet walk from one end of the sidewalk to the bridge everyday. If a partner sees something on the other partner's face such as a blemish or dirt, they pick at their partner's face until the offensive item is removed. Not only does this go for the face, this also work for the hair. Even looking up their partner's nose.

This action alone reminds me of monkeys! Where monkeys sit with a partner, and remove bugs from each other's fur. This is the same thing, only in human form.


Obsessions
I don't know what men are obsessed about, other than money, but woman here are obsessed about 3 things; beauty, weight, and getting a rich husband.

Their definition of beauty is strange I think. A lot of girls shave off their eyebrows and pencil them in. Too bad they choose such dark colours, and draw the lines very wide. They end up looking rather clown like. Apparently this is supposed to be beautiful.

They also dress like prostitutes, I wish I could lie about this. Think micro shorts, with hot pink nylons, and cowboy boots/5 inch heels, tight tight shirt that they might as well not be wearing it as it's a second skin, mind they are pretty flat it wouldn't show much anyways (everyone wears padded bras). This is supposed to be beautiful.

Weight is another important issue. I don't know how many of my students have an eating disorder because this is 'normal.' I have been out to lunch, and the person might have 3 slivers of meat, a spoonful of soup, 3 pieces of vegetable,and 5 grains of rice then say they are full. They are always on a diet because their roomates have told them they are too fat, or they are trying to look beautiful. I didn't realize skeletons with flesh were beautiful, the things I learn!

Yup someone has come up to their face and told them they are too fat loose weight. I've had my students do this to me as well quite a few times. Now I'm not thin, nor am I particularly fat (okay I could lose about 10-15 lbs), but on my body frame you wouldn't really notice because I'm good at hiding it! I have been told this directly to my face about 10 times, indirectly about 200,000 times from students or people around the University. Don't get me started!

My body frame is a typical Western body frame, I'm not very tall 5' 6.5" (and yes that half an inch does make a difference!), but compared to the people in this city who are on average 5'2" and have body frames that look like 10 yr old Western children even though they are 18-90, I guess I do look huge aka Fat to them. I'm continually 'tisked' at every time I leave my house by students, other teachers, random uni workers, city people walking through the Uni because according to them, I'm FAT. It gets to the point where I don't want to leave to my house.

So being anorexic and looking like a hooker will get you a rich (controlling) husband! No thanks! I'd rather be fat, dress normal, and have a nice partner.

I can go on and on about this topic, but I'm sure you have other things to do other than read this. As I said, none of this is exaggerated. These are some of the reasons I can't wait to get out of here, 2 years of being verbally abused (I do know enough Chinese!) is not what I call good for an impression.

The good thing is, I can leave, most of these people can't!