Very Robust Guanxi 101

So I must sound like a broken record when I say I’ve just been so busy that I didn’t have time to write a blog post lately. And yes, I know I promised to write more often – I’m working on it. It’s no matter though, because I was unsure of what I wanted to write about anyways until recently. What I want to touch upon is the notion of civility in China. Speaking in general, you can’t trust the average Chinese person - at least those you don’t know. That’s because every Chinese person is out for their own self-interest and they don’t truly care what happens to you if they don’t know you that is. Take for example this situation that I was in. I was walking down the street to get lunch and I hear screaming. I look around and in front of me there is this little girl being crushed by a table that accidently fell on top of her. All the other Chinese people just kept walking past her minding their own business. Luckily I was there and rushed and picked up the table. That is my own personal example. Danny has plenty of similar examples, but I think you get the picture.

This brings me to something that happened quite recently to me. It was raining outside and it was early on a Saturday morning, I figured most people were asleep so I decided to go out and get something to eat on my own. Once I arrive at the cafeteria, I order food, then sit down and wait for my food to be cooked. Eventually, my order is called so I get up – but I leave my umbrella on the table – I get my food I turn around and my umbrella is gone. Now to be honest, I was simmering with anger. I left my umbrella unattended for maybe a minute at most and someone had the courage to steal it. And of course, the week before Danny was lecturing to us about civility in class so my initial thoughts were damn Chinese Guanxi (relationship) culture.

I finished eating, still angry that I didn’t bring my umbrella with me, and was getting ready to go until one of the cleaning staff came up to me talking in Chinese – so for simplicity, I didn’t really understand what she was saying – she eventually gives up and tells me to follow her; I do, and we walk towards a pillar. At this pillar was my umbrella, apparently she thought someone forgot the umbrella and she set up her own lost and found box. This made me feel good inside. Because for all the rhetoric about how China is corrupt, selfish, etc, it showed me that there are some “good” people in China and that everything must be taken with a grain of salt.

On a different note, I’ve uploaded more pictures to facebook. The pictures continue in album one: China1; and then moves into album two. And think, in less than a week it’ll be Thanksgiving. Even though we’re in China, we’ll still be celebrating. Next post will be on Thanksgiving dinner. Peace.