Staring, Spitting, and Slurping

 My immune system was being seriously challenged after the first week…. what with swapping hot pot spit, lack of sleep, and sharing polluted air with about 22 million new people (many of them snotty nosed kids).  I ended up with an illness of sorts a few days after arrival.  I was turned on to some good Chinese herbs that cleared up the body aches, stuffy/runny nose, and fever within a couple of days. But the peak of feeling really crappy was on New Years Eve and so I ended up staying home and watching movies.  This was actually just fine with me as I’ve never been a big fan of going out on that particular night no matter what country I’m in.  I was, however, presented with the ethical dilemmas of intellectual property rights and obscene amounts of packaging all with the seemingly simple act of watching movies.  DVD ‘rental’ is not really an option here as far as I can see.  (I kept my Netflix streaming account but the selection is limited.) BUYING pirated movies is the norm.  Some are sold in the street but even the DVD stores carry mostly pirated material.  And then there’s the packaging… ugh.  See this photo of The King’s Speech?  

 There is the plastic bag the actual DVD goes in, then the plastic bag slides into that smiley-faced cardboard envelope, that envelope is tucked into the shiny paper sleeve which is then stuffed into the bigger cardboard envelope… all of which then slides into the covering plastic case.  It’s unfathomably excessive.  I struggle with both the pirating and the packaging… but until I find an alternative, as this is my main source of entertainment down here, I will stay off of my soap-box to avoid being a hypocrite.

Ok, on to a few irksome idiosyncrasies that have taken some acclimatizing:

The suburb that I live in, Daxing, is about an hour South of Beijing by subway.  It is pretty removed from the international scene that IS Beijing.  This is both good and bad.  On the positive side, I enjoy a much lower cost of living and get to experience a little more of ‘real’ China.  On the negative side, next to no one here speaks English.  In the heart of Beijing, most everyone, if they do not speak English with some fluency, has at least been educated or exposed to it and can understand and/or speak some common phrases.  To be clear, I didn’t come to China expecting people to speak “my” language.  However, when choosing a teaching job in the Beijing area, it can be much easier to get along on your own without the assistance of a translator if you do actually live in the city, and not out in, what many consider to be, the boondocks.

Most of the people that live in this suburb have rarely see a ‘foreigner’ in person and some of them have never in their lifetime seen any other race but their own… and it shows.  This area, not too long ago, was quite rural.  The development and construction over the past decade or so has transformed the place,  but not necessarily the people.  The stares I get from them are consistent and constant.  It took a little getting used to. If they were looking with kind curiosity, it would be fine… but very few of them are.  The people that I pass on the street that do a double take, and then smile at me… those are the minority.  Even though I’m doing my best to be friendly and keep a smile on my face…it’s like they’re literally jarred out of their world when they see me.  The majority will see me, do a double take and then gawk at me as if I was literally from outer space… or like they’ve seen me on t.v. but not in real life… I really can’t put my finger on the facial expression yet… it’s a mixture of looking surprised, dumbfounded, curious, but (oddly) pissed off and/or frightened.  I’m describing the majority, but not ALL.  Some could care less (or at least act like it) and some are actually friendly.  It’s unlike anything I’ve experienced.  At first it was sort of fun… having hundreds of people giving me that much attention can definitely feed the ego!  But it didn’t take long for it to become annoying.  Especially now after having been here for about 6weeks… I sort of feel like, “Oh come on! Get over it!”  But I quickly remind myself that I’m seeing new people every day.  Even though I’m a ways out of the big city, Daxing still has a population of about 672,000. And it may be THIS person’s very first time seeing a white woman in their town… and this may never go away... at least not during my tenure.  I do my best to be polite and smile, but have learned to just go about my business…….. and let them stare.

Those that are actually friendly will often approach me with a “Hello!” It’s the most common (and obvious) thing people know how to say in English, so they will test it out to make sure they’ve got it right.  The women will inevitably tell me I’m “very beautiful” within about 30 seconds of meeting me, which is also a nice ego boost, but I’ve learned that it doesn’t mean beautiful the way most Americans understand beautiful, it actually means something like, “I like your white skin” or “I envy your whiteness.”   I have been reminded of one of the absurd incongruities of the human experience (or maybe just the female human experience) and it goes back to a basic ‘grass is greener’ symptom of dissatisfaction with our physical selves.  In America, the majority of the white population wants to be darker.  Being tan is more attractive.  Many people will PAY MONEY to subject themselves to cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation to make their skin darker.  But in China, the women don’t want the dark skin they have, they want to be light-skinned because they see THAT as being more attractive.  They will AVOID the sun because it will make them darker. And it is hard to find a skin cream or moisturizer here that does not have a “whitening” agent in it.  I haven’t done the research but I would bet they are cancer-causing concoctions as well.  

If the people here aren’t staring at me, then they’re spitting… not AT me… just anywhere.  I am not intending this to be a “rip-on-the-Chinese-people” section, it is just MY perspective of my acculturating experience.  I was warned about the spitting before coming… but that forewarning did nothing to lessen the disgusting and crude nature of it.  I know that it isn’t intended to be offensive, but it is.  Anyone that knows me knows that I’m far from an uppity, hoity-toity, etiquette-stricken, person… but there are some things… that, well… require significant forbearance.  To not make a disgusted face, or look incredulously at a lot of what goes on, is a daily practice.

I understand some of it.  The air is thick with pollution.  The pollution causes a thickening of the mucus linings as a protection mechanism for the immune system and the people are taught that it’s best to GET IT OUT!  I don’t disagree.  It’s the ‘where and how’ that I take issue with.  Their plan??  Anywhere and anyhow.  You know the sound that accompanies a real good loogie-hocking??  That is a recurrent sound when walking anywhere outdoors.  It is normal practice for men AND women, so not only do I have to WATCH where I walk, I have to LISTEN for where to best walk to avoid stepping in a fresh gob or being caught in the expectorate crossfire.  Grossed out yet??  Yeah, me too.  It’s a whole different way of defensive walking, for sure!  I love to use my iPod on my walk to work because not only do I get to hear some podcasts in English but it also blocks out the disgusting sounds.  It’s quite risky though because I feel partially handicapped in my defense against the projectile spewing with my earbuds blocking the aural clues. 

Maybe I should leave the slurping for another time… but it fits in so nicely here.  I’ll keep it short.  Another shared public experience is eating, and one good part of this (if it's indoors) is that there is no (or very little) throat and nasal clearing. HOWEVER, the spitting is replaced by slurping!  MAJOR slurping!  If you order noodles... it is not considered impolite to slurp them... with great force... in fact, once again it's the norm. Whether it's a casual or very formal dining experience... if there are noodles or soup... there will be slurping.  Compared to the spitting though I feel that this is one that I can tolerate.  After awhile it's really quite amusing.  In fact, I even caught myself slurping a little bit the other day while eating a bowl of noodles.  In the privacy of my own home though, of course.  I'm not ready to take my slurping into public.
If I report that I’ve started spitting… someone please send a plane for me, ok?