回国纪实
朋友最近回国， 写了一些见闻， 读着觉得有意思， 在这里和大家共同欣赏一下。
I really should have known that China is not a place for a vacation. A
visit to family and the in-laws, yes, but not a place for a vacation.
My feelings for China has always been ambivalent. When I am in Canada,
I dispise those who bash China and the Chinese in front of non-Chinese
people, but I am now a Chinese in China and that gives me the right to
make truthful but negative observations of the country and its great
incredibly resilient people.
I am in China, living in fear. I am fearing breathing the air, for the
smog/air contains undoubtedly vaporised spits and other kind of human
body fluids; I am fearing the washrooms, for the overwhelming foul
smell of human waste and the squatting toilets; I am fearing eating
out, for I know for certain that the vegetables and the meat on the
dirty cutting boards are not washed by those hands, which, by the way,
were not washed after they had held various dirty penises a few
minutes earlier; I am fearing walking in the streets, for losing the
basic dignity when honked and chased around by all kinds of three or
four wheeled motor vehicles.
I will help you understand my fears by disclosing some of my journals
kept while in China.
1. In front of a big busy shopping mall in Beijing:
The picture will contain crowds of people with greasy hairs and sweaty
necks, a sure sign of prolonged lack of bathing and washing. A
fashionable girl in tight jeans is standing casually looking at her
fake Cattier watch. A few feet away sits a pile of two day old vomit
of a drunk, who had shared a half bottle of powerful Chinese spirit
and 7 big bottles of beer with his best buddy, after a lousy screw in
a nearby brothel. 15 feet away from that filthy pile, is a vendor
carrying various sorts of baked foods. Walking pass the baked food
vendor is a man in cheap suits. His head is tilted to the front left,
facing downward to the ground, looking at a spit drop still in mid
air. He looks satisfied with the artful way of spitting that he has
just performed. He walks on. On the shiny metal fence separating the
Mall from the street, leans a peasant looking man in dirty grey
clothing. He is staring at a small pile of cold dog shit. What he is
thinking is unknown.
2. The stink
Beijing really stinks. The foul odour is everywhere. The most
offensive smell is the odour from the sewer at the side of the
streets. The smell is similar to that from a shithole. If you have
never walked by a shit hole, take a walk on the sidewalk in Beijing.
It smells the same.
Also offensive is the smell from all the restaurants and the food
vendors in the streets. Chinese people love greasy and spicy food.
They love it so much that all restaurants compete on the amount of
grease and spices they put in their foods. The result is the
over-whelming smell of grease and spices. It's so overwhelming that I
feel as if I were thrown into a pot filled with these greases and
spices.
Furthermore, the body odours from most people in the street are
offensive. Looking at the heads of the crowds in the streets, I'd
categorize Chinese people into 3 groups – those who have washed their
hairs at least in the last couple of days (5%), those who have not
washed their hairs for at least a week (90%) and those who are bald
(5%). Try riding a bus with them if you like, but I won't recommend
it.
3. Nose picking
Nose picking, even in public, is widely practiced in China. People
casually and smoothly insert their fingers into their noses, then,
after performing a digging motion, take out their fingers and examine
them in a careful but casual manner. The practice this art everywhere
and at all times. I once watched a girl in her mid 30's perform this
art continously while chatting with two friends. Those friends of hers
didn't show any discomfort at the sight.
To be continued..................
