Five Incidents of Local Boorishness

• I took the train home Friday evening. This local man sitting beside had to rest his leg against a pole used by standing passengers. I imagined asking him if he was a peasant.

• I got off that train and was walking home when I came to this intersection where I dutifully waited for the green pedestrian light. It came on and I was halfway across the intersection when a car making a turn gave me a fright. It came straight towards me at a high rate of speed. Instinctually, I pulled down my umbrella and used it as a shield. The car slowed down and went around me. It didn't come close enough so I could pound my fist on it; I was only able to hit it with my umbrella. I had to wonder if the driver was expecting me to yield or if the driver just didn't see me. It was the sort of thing to raise in me a permanent ire at the locals and their drivers and their manners.

• The next morning, I was at the subway station, I laid my bag on the belt going through the X-ray machine. A women, who was behind me rushed ahead of me and stood at the other end of the machine waiting to pick up the bag she had placed behind mine. She was blocking my way. I swore at her. I heard many a foreigner in China complain about this sort of local behavior.

• On a bus ride back in the evening, I sat across from this old woman who was sleeping. She had placed a big bags of vegtables on each of the two seats beside her. Selfish.

• Walking home even later that evening, I saw a man park his SUV at the end of a side street so that it was blocking the sidewalk. An e-biker having to come to a complete stop so she could wedge her way through the narrow gap the SUV had availed her, told off the driver as he stood by his vehicle. I joined in and said "Nice parking asshole!" I don't know if he understood me or even picked up on my tone but it felt good to say this. The man was middle-aged.

• The range of ages of the locals behaving badly was from about 25 to 70.