Sick and tired of being sick and tired with Chinese People.
Lets just say I am sick and tired of being sick and tired with Chinese people in any sort of business situation. Amy, the chinese girl living at the house that's engaged to Moses, said I couldn't trust certain chinese people and with other stories and things I have heard. Here is the list of chinese people that you can't trust:
1. Tailors - I have a bunch of 1st hand experiences on this
2. Doctors - 1st hand experience
3. BOND - everyday
4. Police - stories
5. Government - its obvious
6. Muslims from the western parts of the country - 1st hand experience
7. China Travel Agency - 1st hand experience
8. Taxi: Motorbike/Car - 1st hand experience
9. Clothes Shops - 1st hand experience
10. DVD/VCD Shops - 1st hand experience
11. Supermarkets - 1st hand experience
12. Many chinese individuals - 1st hand experience
13.
14.
I am sure the list will increase with future dates.
Ok, lets see...about today.
Today was my day off. Went to the suit shop to hopefully pick up my Zhongshan suit. This will be about the 6th time I have had to go there. They don't fix it properly. I told them what needs to be done, when I come back, they either haven't fixed it or its not correct. These people are terrible. I went and got into an hour long arguement with them about the silk shirt still not being cleaned. They removed some stains, but it was still dirty. The collar was still messed up on both shirts. I then got into an arguement about how their pants are still to long in the crotch. Because of that I have a limit range of motion. I want pants that I can do anything in.
About the suit collar: They didnt make it wide enuff, it was uneven, the uneven white silk shirt collar would make this obvious when looked at. I showed them a picture of how its supposed to look and they sort of fixed it. They removed the collar on the shirt and replaced it. What gets me is that this is a very common/old style of chinese clothing, and yet, I know more about it then them. They are tailors, how do they not know how to make the suit properly.
As for the pants: Lets see...from what I can tell all chinese men wear pants that are really long in the crotch and tight in the hips. I dunno why, maybe they are compensating for something. Therefore, when I try and raise my knee or lift my leg to the side, the material catches and it destroys my range of motion. And its not just suit pants, its the same issue I had with the jumpsuit pants. So, a couple days ago I had them fold the waist line over to raise up the crotch, however, it still wasn't what I wanted. So I told them I wanted more. However, the problem is, if they did it over once more, the belt loops would be right on top of the back pockets. It would look horrible. The only thing they could do would be to remake them, and they wont do that unless I pay them more. Horrendous business sense. So, I was telling them what I wanted and they both got upset and said that if I can raise my knee to a certain area, its not his problem. "Um...yes it is. If you want to get paid, it is." Why do the chinese have to be so difficult on everything. Nothing is ever easy. He just doesnt want to do the work of making his customer happy. They told me to bring back a pair of pants that I can do what I am talking about so i said ok. I went home and didn't want to go back till after dinner.
Peter had thrown some steaks on a grill he bought. They were surprisingly good but very chewy. The problem with steaks in this country is that they aren't tender at all. I spent about 2 minutes trying to chew a small bite adequately enough to swallow it. We watched Mad Monster Party. Very bizarre movie. Its an old 50s/60s stop motion made by the same people that made Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman. It is also voiced by Boris Karloff. Phyllis Diller is also in it...
I then asked Echo to call my sifu to find out about any performances during the Chinese New Year.
Feb 6th: Hong Kong
Feb 9th: Shunde
Feb 23rd: ShiQi
Coolness. I will have people to celelbrate with and get some great video. For the 10 days I have to travel between the 10th - 20th, I think I will go to places not to far from here. It will be kool. I have to make up a plan of attack.
Did laundry.
After dinner, went back to the suit shop with my pants that fit and allow a large range of motion. Dealt with them for another hour and a half about how to fix the pants. I still had to deal with them on the collar. I also took my jumpsuit pants back to be redone since they did a half ass job the first time. I told Amy to them that I don't want to hear any refusals, just do what I say. They didn't listen and finally I just got really sick and tired of dealing with their crap and I was like screw it, I can't deal with this junk anymore. Give me my stuff, I am outta here. "Hey Amy, tell them I will never come here again and I will tell all the foreigners not to visit this place." She did. Service sucks here.
Then I went to Lion Dancing. I was late because of the suit shop. It was empty. All the kids were out studying for finals this week. I was taught some more of Hong Quan #2. Then some of the wunderkind there tried showing me the cymbals to the drum beat.
While learning the cymbols, one of the wunderkind, Victor, noticed something in the road. He yelled and a bunch of the chinese guys went outside, I followed to see what the commotion was. There had been an accident. What I saw was a motorscooter laying on its side with its blinkers on next to the 3 foot wide median with bushes. I was still on the side walk and I saw no one. I figured that since the blinkers were on, the owner of the scooter had gotten up to go talk to the authorities, there were some right next door to the Lion Dance Center. So, I went back to the drum to practice on my own. Then I noticed more and more chinese rubberneckers show up and stand around. (the chinese are the biggest gawkers in the world) So I was like, why are they just standing around looking at a knocked over bike. So I went out to look again, and there was a larger group of people by the bike along with some authorities. I got closer to the bike and was able to see over the bushes. There lay the man, unconcious (i think) with a little pool of blood on the cement street underneath his head. From what I could tell, it was still flowing. Off in the distance I heard sirens coming. I don't know how long he had been laying here, it must have been more than 10 minutes. What gets me is that no one, who say the man laying there, did anything to help. For example, check his pulse, look for breathing. They just watched him there. I know I failed in not doing enuff to help and I am upset with that. I came to the wrong assumption. I sure hope this guy pulls through. He wasn't wearing a helmet and he looked as though he was out. He just lay there crumpled.
The medics arrived and I saw one checking the guy and it look as though there were some muscle responses so he was still alive. As I stood there feeling horrible for my inaction, I noticed a few chinese staring at me. As I came up to the accident scene when I first saw the man lying on the street, I noticed a few guys look at me, then get this worried look on their face. They looked at the guy, then back at me, then back at the guy, then back at me. The only thing they could have been thinking is this: "What do I look at: The white foreigner standing next to me or the unconcious man lying in the street with a head wound? I CAN'T DECIDE! AIYA!" Don't think me as inconsiderate to the man hurt, but this is what happened.
I think there about three possibilities of what happened.
1. I noticed his tire lock was laying on the street behind me a few yards. So, its possible, his tired lock slipped down while he was driving and got caught in the spokes of his front wheel causing him to get thrown for it like in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
2. He hit a rock or something in the street that caused him to fly out.
3. His bike tire somehow skidded against the median curb/ or he hit the curb and he was thrown from the bike.
Mind you this guy was thrown about 10 feet from where the bike lay.
I was still amazed that with all these people standing around, no one tried to help. They just stared. I mentioned this to Peter and he thinks that its possible that China does not have the equivalent to the
Good Samaritan Law in Canada and the USA. They prolly didnt want to get involved. Also, the chinese hate anything dirty or that carries germs, so touching another man's bleeding body is a turn off for them. Which I can understand, but thats why we have skin...its a barrier against stuff like that. However, you always must be careful.
The thing is they hate everything dirty and full of germs yet China is unbelievably dirty, the people throw their trash on the ground, in the river, (yes, i know Americans do this too, but not all Americans do it near the amount here) and they are allowed to spit on the dinner table. They also don't have soap in bathrooms to kill germs and they don't offer toilet paper.
Chinese say foreigners can never understand their culture...and they pride themselves on this...which I don't know why....the stuff I can't understand is how can they do such horrendous things.
Good nite.