Expats talk about having a China Day which is a day where everything that is wrong about China gets to you and you can only tolerate so much. China Angst is when China strikes the expat as evil. I am feeling both ways as I write this.
We went to Wuxi's European street this afternoon. We walked to Qingshi Road, shopping as we went. Having Tony with us makes things awkward and makes me more than ever want to punch some rude Wuxi people out and so hopefully knocking some sense into them.
On two occasions, Tony was whacked in the head by some stupid person rushing through a crowd not looking where he or she was going. The second time was especially grievous because Tony was made to cry and the lizard rushed off even though my wife had yelled at him without excusing himself. I should have mowed that fucker down but I was still feeling sheepish from having earlier given an old woman a finger and calling her a "F***** O** B*****!" Oh well, next time, I teach a lizard a lesson.... And there will be a next time because that is just the way too many people are here in Wuxi. People walking or driving here are simply ignorant barbarians. I feel sometimes that the country that is the best friend a Burmese general ever had is corrupt and rude to the core. (unfair to the many nice people in China, I know)
Now, about the old lady. Wuxi people have this habit of stopping where logic and reason dictates they should move on. That is, they often stop in a high traffic area and leave people behind them no choice but to shove them out of the way. This happens a lot on escalators where people will stop right at the bottom or more disconcertingly at the top. In the latter situation you would have no choice but to shove them. Now this old lady, a.k.a old bitch, stopped outside the main entrance to the Chen Long or Trust Mart, an area where pedestrian traffic is heavy and moves quickly. My wife knocked into her with the pram. Words were exchanged. I called the woman an F.O.B. and gave her the finger. She was an ugly old thing. It wouldn't have surprised me if she were a Red Guard in the 1960s.
Now I can imagine that the next generation of old farts in the West are going to be boorish But for now, the ones I have seen in Wuxi are among the worst behaved people I have ever seen.
I also gave the finger to a lady making a right turn in her Mazda after she damn near swiped my wife who was pushing a Pram.
The highlight of the afternoon was going to Wuxi's Catholic Church. It is the quietest place to be if you don't go there during a mass. They will ask you to put some money in a collection box but the quiet and peace of mind you get there is worth it. Churches can be sanctuaries.
No comments:
Post a Comment