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Level: Culture Class

Welcome to Amber and Victor’s Chinese Buffet, ChineseClass101’s smorgasbord of Chinese cultural quirks, news, travel, history, and the source of all the tidbits you always wanted to know about China, but had no idea even existed. Amber and Victor will bring a little taste of China to you each week on the Chinese Buffet show.  Load up weekly!

Today’s segment, “The Sweet and the Sour,” is a love/hate rap session about the things we love and at the same time face challenges over in China. Flip sides of the same coin. 

In this episode, we explore the irony of rules in China. In China, rules abound; however, there is a softer side to them. Join Amber and Victor as they explore the “sweet” and the “sour” of the malleability of rules in Chinese society.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 8th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Culture Class . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

19 Responses to “Culture Class #5 - Amber and Victor’s Chinese Buffet: The Sweet and the Sour - Rules in China”

ChineseClass101.com says:

Have you ever gotten into some hot water in China? Tell us your stories.

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MA1942 says:

Amber/ Victor,
enjoying these tidbits on life in china. shuō de hǎo
interested to visit well one large city and one rural city(town) > not more not less
if my choice is Beijing > what would be your first , gut feeling pick for a rural city ? ( no particular interest) and which fall month ?

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蓝大卫 says:

This brought back some interesting memories.
In Xi An, one of the people in the group joked that pedestrians were “targets”,
so we were to take care. :smile: Xi An wasn’t as crowded as east coast cities, so I didn’t experience much of the things the Amber and Victor described.

Queuing in Taiwan seems to be more western, I don’t recall any major annoyances on that subject. In Taiwan, WRT to staring, I *do* recall that my daughter was a subject of curiosity because she is half-Chinese, half-Caucasian. People would snap photographs of her. “啊,她 很漂亮!” I’d often ask about my son with a smile: “我的儿子呢? 他帅马?” (Hey, what about my son? Is he handsome?”

I was surprised how clean Taipei was compared to trips I made earlier. In recent years there has been a big green push. Paper cups were not trashed, but recycled.

Great lesson! Keep them coming Amber and Victor!

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蓝大卫 says:

Amber,

I am disappointed with the loss of freedoms in America. I’ve seen a gradual erosion over the years and it really doesn’t matter which party is in control, the problem is that control is on the rise.

Having said that, I imagine what you see in New York City to a certain extent has been colored by the 9/11 tragedy. What do you think?

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Kevin Ashby says:

My favorite Chinese knockoff in China is the Haiyatt hotel in Chang An. Don’t get me wrong - I love the hotel but that name just kills me.

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lmcjipo says:

Regarding the comment that Amber made about beer drinking in the US street/sidewalk… almost all places in the US (and in Canada) don’t allow this but in one of my favourite US destinations (Las Vegas), it is legal to do this on “the Strip” but not anywhere else. :smile:

Whenever my friends go visit China, a few of them always get a “Rolex” from the street vendors. The last time that I was in NYC, you can also get this in Manhattan (around Chinatown/Canal Street) along with some “LV” handbags.

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Echo says:

@Kevin,

Haha, then I guess you won’t be fond of the name of Kunlun hotel too. This hotel is in the north-east third ring road in Beijing.

–Echo

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Amber says:

@ 蓝大卫,

Yes, because I never lived here pre-9/11 I’m probably not the best judge of that, but it is very strict and there are a lot of rules for sure.

@Kevin Ashby,

That… is hilarious. Love it!

@lmcjipo,

Yes, and you know, i find the prices for knockoffs here are really not much higher than the same thing in China. Crazy!

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Orlando says:

About cutting in line, my own take was that since I am a 6′3″ American, it was harder to cut in line without standing out even more than I already did. Everyone else that cut in line seemed to blend in more.
Another story: I remember a guy who literally put his arms over his head and started running into everyone (think offensive lineman in football) as he battled his way on to the subway in Beijing!

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蓝大卫 says:

I was just reviewing the photos of my trip to Xi An. On knockoff/ripoff that I found particularly amusing was an advertisement for “Abercombif and Titch”.
:lol:

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Renny says:

Did she say weed? Very sorry i didnt hear her well she was Laughing she mention you can drink beer walking down the street & then mention the, wh–? IF so then thats NOT good at all.
One law i find odd is the DVD copyright. now I know that have this in every country But here you can sell crack or molest a child & the
fine is not as much for copying a DVD $250.000 ?!
although i never hear of any one getting in trouble for copying any DVD’s or CD’s

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Shan says:

Why can’t you drink beer on the streets in the USA???

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Shan says:

I heard this story from my mother-in-law: she was in a Chinese restaurant in a Western country (either London or somewhere in Canada), and this foreigner in the next table ordered his food. The waiter who served him immediately shouted his order to the kitchen and added “鬼吃的!” (literally, ghost eating it). If you want to think positively, perhaps the chef will alter his cooking to suit the Western palette! But there are of course rumours of how the chef adds “extra ingredients” (加料)to orders by foreigners. :grin:

Are foreigners still referred to as “洋鬼子” these days?? I think nowadays it’s more “老外”, which is a lot nicer :grin:

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蓝大卫 says:

@Shan

Many years ago I was at a Chinese restaurant in the Midwest with some students from Taiwan. The owner came out to speak with them and was
standing next to me as she spoke. Several times in the conversation she said “洋鬼子” and as she did so I looked up from my rice bowl and simply smiled. It was more fun than making a scene because it really made her nervous. The entire table was in hysterics!

So it seems that there are still some ignorant people out there.

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蓝大卫 says:

@Shan

I think the reason that drinking beer on the streets is prohibited is to reduce the opportunity for public drunkenness. There are similar restrictions in most public parks.

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蓝大卫 says:

@Amber.

Did you hear about the little girl in NYC who was recently selling lemonade at one of the parks? Technically, one does needs a permit, but with a 10 year old kid, I think at least the park cop could’ve simply said, she had to move and come back with a permit. This sort of treatment simply stifles free enterprise!

http://wcbstv.com/local/lemonade.stand.fine.2.1131308.html

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Echo says:

@Shan,

From my experience, I think nobody in the big cities in China will call foreigners 洋鬼子 now. (I don’t have much experience in the villages.)

Very many Chinese people no longer ‘dare’ say anything 不客气 in front of the foreigners on the street, simply because many 老外 have very good Chinese. It is gonna be very embarrassing if you say sth and thought people wouldn’t understand while they actually get back to you with very 地道的(di4dao4 de5) Beijinghua/Shanghaihua/Cantonese. I think most of time when Chinese people staring at a foreigner or saying sth about the foreigner in front of them is because they are curious. They don’t know it could be very annoying sometimes. Now that more and more foreigners have come into China, so people(esp. those in the big cities) have got used to seeing foreigners on the street.

–Echo

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蓝大卫 says:

@Shan, Amber.

Today my family went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk for fun. I noticed a
number of people walking around with open cans of beer: Foster’s, Heiniken, Budweiser (yuk, why would anyone drink *American* beer??!! :smile: )
(Personally, I like Taiwan Beer or TsingDao!!) Perhaps the laws pertaining to drinking beer on the streets is different here in California.

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ChineseClass101.com Blog » Blog Archive » August 2009 Newsletter - Last Chance to Win! DON’T Miss Your Chance to Learn Chinese for Free! says:

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