Comparing Life in China, My Thoughts
I was recently asked by a friend in China to write in my blog with my view on the comparison of China to the USA。
How is life different, how is it the same? What about culture? Oh, there are many things I thing a person could write about these subjects, given more time and space。
As you might guess, I can only write about the things I saw, and I only see so little of the true culture here and there。
I have friends in China, both native born and those just recently working there, but they are of Chinese heritage, only their upbringing is really in Hong Kong, Malaysia, etc。
First, transportation is different。 The USA, outside of a few very large cities, is primarily a car culture。
Everything revolves around owning an automobile in the USA。 We spend a considerable amount of time each day driving, for me personally that time averages about 50 minutes to 1 hour in my car。
And, almost every adult owns a car, so most families with at least 2 adults have 2 cars。 Some have more than 1 car for each adult。
In southern China, some people certainly own cars, but many more ride mopeds, motorbikes, and bicycles。 Many ride public buses。
So how does that make life different here? Americans are much less patient than many other peoples of the world。 To maximize time, we often combine 1 or 2 things together to save time during the day。
A good example is eating。 We’ve got all that time in the car, mostly with 1 hand free, hey, we can eat while we drive! Hence the popularity of the “drive-thru” here, a concept that seems to me is just now starting to catch on in some places in China。
And food shopping。 If I’m in a car, I should just go ahead and fill that cart up at the market, I can haul it home without any problem。
But if I’m on a motorcycle or the bus, I probably just buy what I can carry, and go to the market more often。 The Chinese way is much healthier, as exhibited by the growing waistlines of most Americans these days。
OK, what about work? It seems that labor intensive manufacturing work has been shifting from the expenisve USA, European, and Japanese labor markets to markets in Central America and Asia for many years now。
As China has opened up more to the West since the 1970’s, a boom in industrial jobs in China has driven a part of the population to move from the smaller towns and villages inland to the more properous industrial areas to find work。
So I have met many people who come from places like Guangxi, Hunan, Sichaun, or any number of other places to work in Guangdong province。
I assume this same thing is happening in many other places too。 This same thing happened in the USA, during primarily the 1940’s and 1950’s, as many people moved off the farms after World War II to find factory work in places like Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, etc。
In both cases, wages are/were generally low, but they were better than the alternative at home。 So it seems that there is an industrial migration underway in China reminisant of 50 years ago here。
This abundance of Chinese labor changes creates a difference in China and USA culture。 In a Chinese restaurant, for instance, it does not seem unusual to have 1 waiter/waitress for each party that comes in for a meal。
This would be impossible in the USA, where you must sometimes go find that person because they may have 10 or 12 tables to care for at the same time。
Same thing when you go into a retail store, for instance a shoe store in Shunde might have 7 clerks for every 1 clerk in the same size store here。
Society in general seems to run at a little more slow and relaxed pace there in China。 Dinner can easily take 2 hours in a restaruant, and relaxing in a tea shop to chat with friends is a common site。
Yet if you look at traffic on the street on any given day, you would assume the place is in a complete chaotic panic! No sense of order can be made of Chinese traffic, drivers, or pedestrians! The first rush hour taxi ride in China for anyone not from Boston (haha) will rank right up there with Space Mountain for thrill ride terror!
Oh, that’s enough for now。
I’d be interested in hearing other views about these things?。
