Product hauls - shadowed by suits - safety concerns

APRIL 8: Even Pauly would be proud of our trawling efforts today.Photos

For about AU$12 we hauled in the bounty illustrated below, including two bottles of this ether-like 46% alcohol product called "Baijiu". At the supermarket i tried to ask whether orange juice or Coke would go better with this vicious spirit. First i tried placing the alcohol and the Coke together on the counter, and asked, "hao he?", or "good-drink?", and did the same with the alcohol and OJ. The attendant looked confused for a few seconds as i struggled to find a word like "mix". I still hadn't found it when a switch flicked in his head and he enthusiastically motioned turning two bottles upside down like a cocktail barman. I nodded, equally enthusiastically. He shook his head vigorously. I was crestfallen and disbelieving. Just then two Chinese girls from the school walked in and, after a quick assessment of the situation, carefully informed me (verbatim), "In China, you...you cannot do that".


Had a day off today, first day off after teaching 6 days of oil bosses, oil workers and kids. Used it by wandering central Songyuan trying to obtain clothing. The best part about that was getting shadowed by black suits in Songyuan's swankiest department store. I mean, comically shadowed. It started after i was told to stop taking photos. It was blatant: one suit in front of us, he keeps looking sideways to see us in his peripheral. He comes to an exit door, pushes it, half-steps into the stairwell, we walk past and he aborts the manouvre and starts walking along behind us. I only wish i got photos of them.


However, in order to allay some concerns any of the caring folks at home might hold for the safety of a reckless guce under the caring constabulary of an authoritarian superpower best known for its sweatshops and massacring of 'pro-democracy' students, i'd just like to highlight out a few of the larger misconceptions of my own that have been debunked so far. Bearing in mind that all i knew of China before coming here was learned through our faithful media.

1. Taking photos is OK. People are not arrested for taking photos. You don't get arrested for taking photos of polluted rivers, slums, bulldozers, moneymaking, or any aspect of daily life that i've found so far. Perhaps products in a department store.




2. You rarely see po-lice. So far i have only seen them in action once. I saw them break up a fight at a tourist attraction once, but they simply stepped in, restored the peace and didn't arrest anybody. They don't 'patrol', looking for trouble, like in the civilised world. At ground level the general policing situation can only be described as 'hyper-liberal'. You're free to do as you please. Set up a stall on the side of the road and, unlike in Australia, you will not be harrassed or moved on. Get drunk and stumble along the street and you will not be thrown in a paddy-wagon. Speed because you're late (or for any reason, really) and you won't get pulled over. As i mentioned in an email, between Changchun and Songyuan you can drive around the toll gates. I have not yet tried taking photos of the police, mainly because their presence is so unobtrusive. As Ralph can attest, you cannot take photos of police in Australia without risking being arrested. If i get myself arrested in Australia, i will call a rich acquaintance (lawyer). Here i will call a rich acquaintance, Bill (the school boss). As Bill puts it, "You can do anything in China" (provided you are rich or have a rich friend or acquaintence to call). Just like civilised, un-corrupt countries.






3. Criticising the government is OK. Students in my classes have been very keen to debate government policies, and feel quite at liberty to discuss government corruption, censorship(more later) and lack of 'democracy'. These career-minded pen-pushers in a government-owned oil company are quite happy to speak their mind in front of not just me, but each other. But as you'd expect, most of them are pretty adamant that multi-party politics does not equal democracy. You can criticise all you want, and i think the Chinese i've come across so far have been far more politically engaged than Australians or British. Internet forums on the China Daily website - a thread i read this morning that talked about Tiananmen, democracy, sweatshop labour, corruption etc etc, and which included many posts from Chinese and Western critics of China, was publicised and linked as a 'hot talk'. So talk as you please. Just don't challenge the power of the state because they will kill you or throw you in jail. Ringing any bells?




4. When you want to keep invading hordes out, what do you do? You build a giant wall. When you actually want to solve environmental problems, look at what China does. This does involve ignoring the way they create environmental problems but i'm not joking! There are no on/off switches for central heating here. In April the local government simply switched off the whole city's central heating. The two Canadians who just arrived here said that sort of idea would be unthinkable in Canada. Public outcry would prevent it being even suggested. But that's how to get a city to save energy. Not by piss-weak appeals to consumer conscience (e.g. "Beat the Peak"). They've also built the world's biggest hydroelectric dam to generate power, filling gorges and forcing relocations in the process. It gets called an environmental catastrophe but, when completed it will make more renewable energy each year than the whole of Australia (according to 2007 ABS stats.) They coerced over a billion people to only have one child and backed it up with good propaganda. It gets called a human rights violation but now much of the population (a fifth of the world's total) only wants one child. That's how to stop overpopulation. At least they do things properly here, not just fiddle around the edges. Imagine CCP-controlled Perth after the 'hordes' descend - switching off the power grid and forcing everyone to buy solar panels. Stop the yellow menace! Of course, i'm clearly biased because i'm not at risk of picking up any reckless driving charges here. What's 'reckless' in Australia is considered 'aiding the traffic flow' or perhaps even 'saving petrol' here.

How long will this apparently Sinophile disposition last...

- Rant ends -