Aug 18, 2010

Not my words - but I wish they were:

“I have a very good education, love cultures from over the world, speak 5 languages and so on, I always combat forms of racism...but since I've lived in HK, I can't help myself feeling this pulsing of hatred towards Chinese when:

- they eat with their mouth open
- belch, burp, fart at any given occasion with an air of satisfaction on their face
- they scurry like little rats for the tiny seat on the metro
- when they try to kill pedestrians while driving cars thru crossings
- celebrate their horrible nationalism at every occasion (Makes me wish Japan won the war!)
- and and and...

Then I discovered Taiwan and I made peace with the "real" Chinese culture.
What I found is that it is the lack of most simple civil manners in HK and on the mainland that make Chinese so revolting. Their lack of humanity as well since they only care about themselves (let's be real the family & children is just an expansion of the self).

I hate Chinese culture simply because in this country focused on material wealth, people have no sense for
- beauty
- love
- or the sacred & spiritual
...and believe that their wealth is the panacea for all their horror.

However, Taiwan shows that there is hope for that Chinese people can become humans again.

This discovery made me understand that I am not racist, moreover it helped point out the flaws in my own character: That I shoulp help people more, that I should create more beauty for all to share.

China is this: It plays a role, the role of the black hole, the anti-humanity, the sum of all human ugliness.

If we recognize this, then China will help us improve ourselves and be ready when we have to help it change

It's really hard finding a place that Chinese people don't use as a toilet

Ummmmmmm, Chinese people poop on the Great Wall. You heard me. So, picture the Great Wall of China in your head - you know those tower things? Well, inside, in the corners of each of those - poop.

The Wall is one of the seven wonders of the world. There are obviously droves of tourists going there but unfortunately for me, most are Chinese. I’d say that 90-95% of visitors to the wall are Chinese (and no, I’m not mistaking Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese for Chinese - I can tell the difference by the way they dress and the condition of their teeth). So, rather than using the public restrooms (the only ones in this whole country) that are located at the base of all of the wall’s access points, Chinese people think it’s ok to go to the bathroom RIGHT ON THE WALL. You’d think that they’d have respect for something that’s so iconic of their culture and country, but no. What the f’ing f is wrong with them? ANIMALS! I’m still haunted by the site and disgusting smell I accidentally encountered when I walked around a corner inside one of the towers and saw a sequined-covered woman squatting. I screamed and ran. Awesome; the most memorable experience of my visit to The Great Wall of China involved shit.

It's really hard surviving the HK and China boarder

Every single thing about crossing the boarder between China and Hong Kong makes me want to slit my wrists. Actually, that’s not true: the Hong Kong side of the boarder is mostly civilized (but only by comparison). The Mainland China side…. Oh my god. Ok, where to start….

The bathrooms:

Hong Kong’s side of the boarder: they’re not very clean (because mainland Chinese idiots use them and litterally shit ALLLLL over the place) but at least they have normal, non-squat toilets and are equipped with toilet paper, soap, paper towels and an army of janitors.

China’s side of the boarder: I ONCE made the mistake of going in and I will never do that again. Horrors. Horrors.

The boarder employees:

Hong Kong’s side of the boarder: Quick, efficient, organized, lots of lanes open and all English-speaking staff.

China’s side of the boarder: Retarded. They only ever have one or two lanes open for Foreigners and their employees are shockingly incompetent, rude and slow - even for Chinese people (which is definitely saying something). Brandon, Josh, Nelly and I always choose which line to stand in based on which line has the least number of black people. Oh my god, it takes a boarder/customs official about ten minutes to clear a black person. Why don’t they at least try to hide their racism like America does?

There is one really bad part about the Hong Kong side. When you enter and exit Hong Kong you need to wait in the “Foreigner’s line” which means you’re in the same line as Mainland Chinese “people.” That means that you’re going to be cut in front of CONSTANTLY. Chinese people are uncivilized barbarian animals and have zero concept of waiting in line and will do anything including physically elbowing and shoving to get around you. Brandon and I have gotten ruthless and shameless when it comes to stopping “cutters.” We elbow right back at them even if they’re little grandmas and put our arms straight out in front of them. We yell and cause scenes which is TOTALLY offensive in China because of their “saving face” culture. Once, I kept seeing Chinese people walking straight up to the front of the long-ass line and getting right in front. I grabbed two guys by the backs of their shirts and yelled at them! It was soooooooooo satisfying. HAHAHAHAA! The other god-awful thing about having to wait in line with mainlanders is the fact that Chinese people don’t really understand personal space. They’ll LITERALLY LEAN ON YOU. They touch you, they lean their bag on you or put it on your foot, they get so close that you can feel their toxic cat-eating breath on the back of your neck. GOD!!!!!!! This is all made extra worse by the fact that most mainlanders don’t bathe regularly and most definitely have never heard of deodorant. Ohhhh, and then there’s the human excrement - yeah, Mainlanders let their children potty on the ground right there in line. One time Brandon and I saw a lady making her little boy pee into a plastic baggie. We thought she was the most considerate Chinese person that we’d ever seen!!

As if the boarder couldn’t get any worse, Brandon/Josh/Nelly and I once got stranded there on our way into Hong Kong. So, when we go to HK, we’d take a bus from Shunde (the city we lived in) that’d drive us to the boarder and then wait for us to go through customs then the same bus would take us all the way into the city. Of course, our worst nightmare happened - the bus didn’t wait for us. After being stranded for like two hours, without anyone willing to talk to us or help us, we finally paid for another bus (after we paid upfront for the one that left us) to take us to Hong Kong. Awesome. Of course we tracked down the bus company’s office that f’ed us and demanded our money back. After a lot of almost-yelling, the assholes gave us half of our money back for two tickets - but not four. WTF?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!??!?!?!?

It's really hard finding decent rice... in China?

Chinese people suck at… everything. Music, Food, Medicine, Porn, Governing, grooming/bathing, being generous - or caring - or being good stewards of the earth. But what’s one thing that you’d think that they’d be good at? Cooking rice, right?? Well, you’d of course be wrong. Yes, Chinese people eat rice with absolutely every meal but that doesn’t mean that they possess the mental aptitude to do it right. I’d say that Brandon and I had satisfactorily cooked rice less than ten times while living in China. Yes, the other 300 times (I spent ten months in china and ate rice at least once a day) the rice has either been overcooked-mush or was crunchy and undercooked. For a long time I thought that Chinese people ment to cook their rice all wrong but my Chinese coworkers repeatedly would complain about how the rice was cooked whenever we went to restaurants together. So there. It’s not just me.

It's really hard to believe, but the kid lived

So, I discovered that there was a huge, industrial-sized staple sticking out of my classroom’s carpet. I discovered it because one of my students was rolling around on the ground and sliced his leg open. Holy shit - he was gushing blood and screaming. I started cleaning him up with my roll of toilet paper (which I use as my whiteboard eraser) and my TA ran out then back into the class room. She brought with her THE RAG. THE RAG is the source of the death/decay smell that’s coming from our school’s balcony where the school’s sink is at and where the school’s Chinese staff prepare their meals everyday. See, they cook meat for every meal and they use THE RAG to clean up all of the bloody meat messes from their chopping block and to wash their dishes. Since there isn’t any soap out there, nothing is ever properly cleaned and that nasty, disgusting, rag has become absolutely putrid but they just keep using it - day after day after day.

That very rag, it was used to clean up my student’s cut. Why didn’t I stop this? I don’t know - it just happened so fast - I was too in shock - too worried about getting The Plague from the kid’s blood - too excited about telling Brandon about this and about writing this all down. So, it happened, THE RAG was pushed into his cut until all of the bleeding stopped. It then got used to scrub the blood out of the carpet (wow- she got a lot out for not having soap or any cleaning sprays) and then it was rinsed out (still no soap) and left right next to the chopping block to be used for lunch the next day.

One last thing - a few days later I noticed that no one had taken care of the giant staple sticking out of the carpet. I told my bitch-boss to have someone take care of it and no one ever did. I had to pry it out with two pairs of scissors because I‘m sure they would have never did it. It’s really, really, really sad that I’M the one that cares the most about the safety of my Chinese students - because let me tell you….