(no subject)
11th January '07. Just said goodbye to Ever Basic, who's going home tomorrow morning. I thought I'd mention this because he's featured here before and he'd otherwise just trail off. Also, I'm sad. I find it really badly arranged, the way Koreans live in Korea.
So he leaves tomorrow morning and in the evening I'll move in, God willing. There'll be broadband access quite soon, landlady willing.
I'm slightly nervous about living alone in an unfamiliar, grotty looking development for the week or so that's in it before I go off travelling. Mind you, that's not because I think anything would happen, but because a couple of Chinese people (especially women) have been all "ooh, be careful" when they knew I was moving. Basically I think Chinese people have an overblown sense of their own country's danger levels. China's a very safe place to live, by global standards, mainly because when you think about it I suppose it's a police state. But people think only China has poverty, criminality, etc. There's sometimes an impression that "outside country" is just ALL spankingly rich and therefore safe, and a general view that China is "just so complicated, you wouldn't understand." They're referring to recent social history, and generally to the crushing last century and a half since the Opium War, when everything came apart. But this clashes with the even stronger conviction that China is the best and indeed the only country in the world. So some Chinese people I've spoken to show a kind of arrogance and insecurity at the same time. I mean, who doesn't, but you know, I think it's interesting. I think it goes hand in hand with any sort of nationalism, because how can you feel secure about a nation? Let me think about this. I'm Irish, love Ireland... check. But not in a "my country's better than yours" way, more because it feels like the Shire. I wouldn't back it in a fist-fight, but I miss it all the more for that.
Anyway, because I'm a bit apprehensive I thought, right, now's the time to talk to the forces that are my most dependable-seeming Chinese friends. That way I can feel a bit safer knowing that there are people living nearby who I could turn to in any untoward event. I rang one guy and he was all "you're moving house? let me help! I'll come around with a peng-peng car [bizarre three-wheeled mini taxis that make a peng-peng noise] and help you move all your stuff." I wasn't actually looking for help but I felt more confident after his readiness to lend a hand. It'll be fine, and it'll be especially nice to have somewhere of my own to go. I like the Teachers, but Teacher Woodchild could do with a bit less to think about and Teacher Order still calls me "shemma negga jiao shemma negga shei negga Kay!" ["That, what's your face, thingy, who? That, what's her name, Kay!"]
I want a pearl milk tea. Wonder if they have banana flavour. Horrible stuff. "Wang guan'r!" ["Web assistant"]... It'd be really funny to shout "shuai ge!" once in my life, but I'm worried that if I did that I wouldn't get any tapioca in the bottom of the tea. Or too much. You hear "hey, pretty girl" all the time, but seriously, does anyone really call servicepeople "shuai ge" ["yo, attractive elder brother"]?
So he leaves tomorrow morning and in the evening I'll move in, God willing. There'll be broadband access quite soon, landlady willing.
I'm slightly nervous about living alone in an unfamiliar, grotty looking development for the week or so that's in it before I go off travelling. Mind you, that's not because I think anything would happen, but because a couple of Chinese people (especially women) have been all "ooh, be careful" when they knew I was moving. Basically I think Chinese people have an overblown sense of their own country's danger levels. China's a very safe place to live, by global standards, mainly because when you think about it I suppose it's a police state. But people think only China has poverty, criminality, etc. There's sometimes an impression that "outside country" is just ALL spankingly rich and therefore safe, and a general view that China is "just so complicated, you wouldn't understand." They're referring to recent social history, and generally to the crushing last century and a half since the Opium War, when everything came apart. But this clashes with the even stronger conviction that China is the best and indeed the only country in the world. So some Chinese people I've spoken to show a kind of arrogance and insecurity at the same time. I mean, who doesn't, but you know, I think it's interesting. I think it goes hand in hand with any sort of nationalism, because how can you feel secure about a nation? Let me think about this. I'm Irish, love Ireland... check. But not in a "my country's better than yours" way, more because it feels like the Shire. I wouldn't back it in a fist-fight, but I miss it all the more for that.
Anyway, because I'm a bit apprehensive I thought, right, now's the time to talk to the forces that are my most dependable-seeming Chinese friends. That way I can feel a bit safer knowing that there are people living nearby who I could turn to in any untoward event. I rang one guy and he was all "you're moving house? let me help! I'll come around with a peng-peng car [bizarre three-wheeled mini taxis that make a peng-peng noise] and help you move all your stuff." I wasn't actually looking for help but I felt more confident after his readiness to lend a hand. It'll be fine, and it'll be especially nice to have somewhere of my own to go. I like the Teachers, but Teacher Woodchild could do with a bit less to think about and Teacher Order still calls me "shemma negga jiao shemma negga shei negga Kay!" ["That, what's your face, thingy, who? That, what's her name, Kay!"]
I want a pearl milk tea. Wonder if they have banana flavour. Horrible stuff. "Wang guan'r!" ["Web assistant"]... It'd be really funny to shout "shuai ge!" once in my life, but I'm worried that if I did that I wouldn't get any tapioca in the bottom of the tea. Or too much. You hear "hey, pretty girl" all the time, but seriously, does anyone really call servicepeople "shuai ge" ["yo, attractive elder brother"]?