Here is diary no. 2 from the same fellow, but I doubt you can appreciate this one.
Date: Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:22 pm
Subject: China diaries #2
Best Hosts in the World, The Long-suffering Chinese People
It is hard to know where to start when trying to provide
some general description of a people so racially homogenous
and yet incredibly diverse as the Chinese. I think there is
no generalized "description" that would work. I’ll have to
start with individuals.
I have said that Chinese are hard people; they are that and
much more. Every time I have been here, my hosts have been
gracious to a fault. They will feed you, entertain you and
literally give you the shirt from their back (except in my
case, where I could need 2 of them). I am never left alone
for more than a few hours, whether for fear I might be
lonesome (or even in harm’s way) or to protect their
countrymen from me, I don't know - I have never asked.
This trip, Yuening was my designated guide, chaperone,
clothes washer (there are no laundries here) and social
secretary. I am not allowed to wash and hang my own
clothes to dry (no dryers here, either), go out alone much,
eat at any unsafe place or even pay my own taxi fares.
After the fist day, I gave her 1000 RMB (about $125 USD) to
cover any fares, tickets, admissions, dinners, film
developing, etc. She guarded this like the national
treasury, negotiating everything down to about ½ of its
original (and to me, very reasonable) price . Every time I
tried to buy something she would get in the clerk’s face,
and with pursed lips and stern visage guarantee that ‘this’
Westerner was not to be screwed around with. It worked; I
wasn’t. As we traveled around Nanning and Guanxi province,
often with her daughter Liang Xi, I found out that she was
a teacher of cardiology at the Chinese traditional medicine
hospital and college. I came here and am embarrassed to
find that a doctor has been washing my skivvies for 2
weeks.
I warn you all – be careful of letting your Chinese friends
do things for you! Once they get their foot in that door
you will find yourself barred from doing anything useful
for yourself. Stand firm; insist on doing some things for
yourself. They will bluster, threaten, frighten and
cajole – even cry – be resolute, firm and stand fast; I
dare you to get away with it. I have never been successful
yet; they will not be denied their role as greatest hosts
in the world. It is as if there is someone up there, maybe
the fabled Monkey King, ticking the beads of an abacus for
each gracious deed done, with a minimum necessary to cross
the pearly portal, or whatever serves the Chinese as a
conduit to the after-life. Without the gracious help of my
great hosts, trips to their country would be flavorless,
uninformative, uncomfortable, possibly dangerous and
virtually impossible. |
