Peering into the Precipice

… and vulgarity.

I’m not sure what the situation is like on the ground back home, or in Europe, but my impression from online news and the Daily Show’s regular mockup of mainstream media is that the news on China, and specifically on the Olympics during this month, is too frequently dehumanized. I experienced something similarly when I was back home in Alaska this summer – people I was talking to would ask a few questions about living in China and then the conversation would unexpectedly veer towards a cheapshot on the political situation – generally with a word along the lines of repression thrown in. Sure, there is a lot of good coverage that can be found out there, but it seems like the mainstream, i.e. TV, is following its typical playbook and either latching onto bad news in an oversimplified manner, or altogether ignoring it and doing puff peices. The real China stories of significance seem to get minimal coverage and in it all the viewer is left with not much but crap to ingest and grow their respective China opinion from. And you know the old addage – garbage in, garbage out.

Well, the fact is there is a lot not to like about how thing’s are over here, and there are a lot of journalists doing a bangup job on those topics, but I’ll leave that discussion for many other posts. More importantly, there is a very human side to Beijing that I certainly didn’t feel was well understood by people back home…

The Crude Cabbie

On Saturday I was on my way home from a killer skate session and took a taxi – about a 30 minute ride with traffic. Taking taxis is one of the biggest coin tosses in China – in the sense that half the time you get a complete dud of a cabbie, while the rest of the time you get someone that really perks you up for that ride and provides a unique new prism through which to view China. This time I got lucky, and had a great talk. After a few of the typical questions – Where (are you from), Why (are you in Beijing), How (do you like China), What (is your job), When (did you first get to China), and Who (do you think will win the medal count) – the cabbie, lets call him 师傅 (Shifu – a respectful Chinese term for people work these types of jobs) starting asking me about girls.

Apparently Shifu was a bit of a womanizer. Or a porn fiend, or, likely, both. He asked a few more stock questions for a talkative cabbie – do you think American’s or Chinese are prettier, how many girls have you had, etc. Then he starts expanding on his thoughts on women. “American’s are gorgeous, and have the best tits in the world. Chinese are terrible lovers, except for the few fun girls, but they make up for it by being the tightest – so skill doesn’t matter. And of courage American women are great lovers – they have to be, have you seen how loose they are! …can you please please get me a American girlfriend?” This banter went on for about 25 minutes, and was painfully hilarious the whole time. He was motioning this position, that position, this kind of girl, that kind of girl (hands in front of chest, etc), and on and on. The point of it all isn’t that he’s something incredibly unique or special (although the experience still makes me chuckle), but that the cabbie’s here are like back home – the vary widely and while only half or less provide memorable experiences, they all remind you that they’re just normal people – complaining about a girlfriend or wife, showing off pictures of their new house on their cellphone, asking less typical questions about America, etc.

The Old Photographer

Then, today, we were out skateboarding again on Beijing’s 金融街 (Jinrong Jie – Financial Street, where many banking/insurance headquarter’s are located) when a feeble old Chinese woman approached us and started sputtering through a handful of Chinese/English sentences. Once she got a bit more comfortable her English improved significantly – enough that all of us foreigners were impressed. She was impressed by us skateboarding, commented that it looked pretty dangerous, and asked if she could take pictures for awhile. Apparently she was planning to enter a photo contest where photographers take pictures which highlight how much Beijing has changed in their lifetime. As she must have been older than 60, I’m guessing the change has been immense. She described how she the street we were on, now populated with hotels like the Ritz Carlton and Westin, shops like Louie Vuitton and Gucci, and BMW after Benz after BMW after Bentley rolling up down, had perhaps only a dozen years ago been strict 胡同 (Hutongs – Beijing’s well known, and at times decrepid, back alleyways and open courtyard brick houses with traditional arches that have rapidly dwindled in number). Moreover, she thought the image of 3 foreign skateboarders – from Holland, Switzerland and America, with twice as many Chinese skateboarder’s was especially progressive – something, she said, that would have been unfathomable 10 years prior. She was a sweet old lady and we were kicking ourselves soon after she left for not getting her contact details – hopefully we run into her again (it is her neighborhood, after all) and get a chance to ask how her submission turned out.