Seablogger mentioned me in a recent posting.
Funny how right after talking about Chutzpah, a word that you have to think hard about when trying to explain it to Chinese students, I saw an good example on the small Renmin Road bridge near the Wu Ai Jia Yuan Apartments where I live. About eight PM Sunday, I saw two young men, who I had actually seen a week before in the same spot, trying to steal things from passing cyclists. It was immediately obvious what they were trying to do and so it seemed so unbelievable. One of the men tried to run down a cyclist from behind and steal something. The other man had a belt in his hand, which my wife told me, would have been used to whip anyone who tried to fight back. The other time, I had seen them I saw the man try to catch a cyclist two or three times with no success. I was thinking that the man was trying to pickpocket but because he was so open above, it just didn't seem right. Meanwhile, other pedestrians were walking past the men like nothing was out of the ordinary which made it seem all the more audacious.
This morning, I saw a motorist accelerate so he could avoid pedestrians crossing at a designated pedestrian crossing. The motorist honked the horn all the while which in China is their way of putting themselves in the right. He was going so fast that he swerved into the oncoming lane to finally avoid the pedestrians.
That is what I love about China. I have been here three years and I still see things that shock me.
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