Daily I take a 45-minute bus trip to the school I teach at in Che Feng (pronounced something like chaw fa-ang). The place is an eye-opener in terms of poverty and beauty.
Where I get on is a relatively “posh” area by Chinese standards. Though there is still a lot of poverty there are plenty of flashy cars. As people get on and off the bus the class status of people completely changes. At first it is fairly smartly dressed office workers, but slowly but surely more people in old, disheveled clothes are climbing on. It’s winter and one leather-faced bloke is wearing thin tennis shoes hardened with dried cement from hours of work on building sites, I assume.
Another young man, almost permanently smiley-faced, has nearly half his body missing. His left arm and leg are gone. He is smartly dressed in a suit which clashes with his old, holed sneakers, his left trouser leg and right sleeve both neatly folded up. He asks the bus driver a question in a language I can tell is not Putonghua, Mandarin. It is one of the local dialects, incomprehensible, filled with Tibetan-sounding sing-song. If you have ever heard the Dalai Lama talk you will understand what I mean. The bus driver does not understand him. Ting bu dong. I don’t understand. The young man does not get frustrated; he laughs. His face widens in a grin. There he is, very disabled, unable to communicate with an official in his own country, and he is laughing it off. A fellow passenger understands him and clearly helps the half-man out. Both start nodding in understanding.
I have never received so many pertinent lessons as I have in China. China is like a loud, blustery uncle, often putting me on his knee and wagging a pudgy, soiled finger at me as I receive yet another lesson, or “wake-up call”.
The bus driver starts yelling at some burly farm labourers who are getting on with massive bags. He is speaking rapidly and they are replying rapidly in a mix of Mandarin and the local Suzhou dialect, or at least that is what it sounds like. The driver is definitely a bit pissed off for some reason — something to do with the massive bags the labourers, including tough-skinned women possibly in their sixties, are dragging onto the bus. The peasant folk are all grinning and appear to be both cajoling and soothing the bus driver in their clucky, squawky dialect. He does calm down a bit, though he is still shaking his head. Within a minute or two of the bus doors hissing closed it is clear what the argument is about. The bags are obviously filled with fertilizer. My God, the stench of manure laced with a touch of methane becomes nauseating on the packed bus. Everyone just calmly sits, some half-asleep, apparently unaware of the smell, though there is what sounds like a muttered curse or two coming from the direction of the bus driver. He doesn’t get to hop off the bus the whole day. One labourer calmly strokes the large chicken he is holding in his arm while he stands. I stick my nose into the lapel of my jacket. It doesn’t help much.
China is constantly jarring me out of the box of habitual thinking. The uncertainty of our lives (where will we end up and put down roots? New Zealand? England with our EU passports and the family there?) has had me thinking about fears and how they can gnaw at our lives. I know. I looked at the recent news on the execution of a SA woman, Janice Linden, for apparently smuggling drugs into China. The harrowing images of people waiting for execution at some parade ground, heads hung, handcuffed, eyes lifeless, the officer on duty adjusting the man to be executed’s head for… what? Maximum penetration of the bullet that was soon to come? I read Amanda Sevasti’s and William-Saunders-Meyer’s pieces on Janice Linden’s execution and the commentators, here on Thought Leader, and see both sides. That to execute Janice Linden was wrong. That to execute her was right. I once wrote about a previous execution in China, arguing strongly in favour of China’s decision to execute the man. The nagging fear though is, though I think it is unlikely, what if they were both innocent and had the drugs planted in their suitcases? Janice Linden absolutely pleaded her innocence right up until she had her body adjusted for the lethal injection by the executor. And so the fear develops that someone might plant drugs in my home, in my suitcase. I would be shown no mercy even though I am innocent.
Fear is a horrible thing and is a cancer that has robbed many of us of the joy of life at times. Right now, living in a country that apparently has 55 offences that are punishable by execution is very sobering.
On the use of drugs some Westerners in China can be stupid, extremely rash. I don’t touch drugs at all but I know of several fellow foreigners who do marijuana and even cocaine. One bloke regularly used to smuggle small quantities of dope into Shanghai from Hong Kong in special pens made of some material which fooled the scanners (but surely would not fool a sniffer dog) before he quit smoking weed. These Westerners are not pushing the stuff, which would get them the death penalty, but some even carry their crack around in little snuff boxes on their persons. Why do they have no fear? Or are they so addicted they feel the fear and take the drugs anyway? We Westerners live with too much fear. I could be wrong but I don’t see it in most Chinese people.
Many Chinese, like the wonderful “peasants” I encounter on the buses, such as the young man missing nearly half his body, seem to just float serenely through life, grinning at nearly everything. Bumping busloads of people have become my teachers.
Dear Rod
I kind of envy you in a way.I am South African chinese.I am western educated and
I know nothing of chinese culture except for what I have heard from my grandparents
and stories our greatgrandparents life experiences in south africa.
I kind of feel disgusted at my fellow south africans atitude towards life and different cultures.
I wish you the best in china and a positive experience.
You kind of a role model to me.
Interesting read Rod, how the Chinese do not have the fear we live with. Maybe living in fear is culturally ingrained in us Westerners.
On principle I beleive no civilised country should have the death penalty. There is sufficient research to show it is no more of a deterrent than a long jail term. There will always be people willing to break the law as your article shows. I beleive the death penaly brutalises society and does more harm than good. There are states that have the death penalty and have higher murder rates than states that don’t.
There will always be people willing to use drugs, legalise them, and provide support to prevent as much drug use/abuse as possible.
“……what if they were both innocent and had the drugs planted in their suitcases? ……” Standard answer is: “that’s what they all say..”
On many of my travels I had my suit cases opened or tampered with the lock. One friend had a camera stolen out of the locked suit case. And many stories like that do the rounds. Johannesburg’s OR Tambo international has a reputation.
If regular theft can happen, regular insertions (drugs, ammunition) can also happen. The Chinese version of “innocent until proven guilty” (if such a mentality exists in the Chinese legal system) becomes an impossibility.
Janice could have bought her life by pleading guilty and getting life in prison instead.
She choose not to take the offer. She might have felt strongly about her innocence or -if gulty- took the better option of the two.
Travel advice when travelling to one of these “drug paranoia” countries: plastic wrap your luggage or travel naked and without luggage, just a credit card and passport in a transparent enveloppe to buy or rent clothing local upon arrival.
Rod, I find these pen pictures of China absolutely fascinating and had hoped that with your on-the-spot insights would comment on the vexed issue of Chinese executions. I have since writing my article heard from a SA government source that it was Linden’s fourth trip to China when she was arrested and that she was being monitored by Interpol and the Chinese authorities from after the very first one.
Whether or not these people were transporting those particular drugs killing them would be wrong. The very idea that it is acceptable to imprison or kill people because they prefer drugs that are arbitrarily illegal is completely preposterous. Even sillier are the alcohol users who proudly declare themselves not drug users. Anyone who uses any drug for anything other than medical necessity is a recreational drug user. End of story.
It’s not only the Chinese system that will punish an innocent person for insisting they have not committed the crime. In countries like the US and UK doing so will get you denied parole because you, according to the authorities, are refusing to show remorse. Look up Bernard Baran. He was one among many wrongfully convicted during the child abuse witch hunts in the 80s, but he has also been kept in jail because he refuses to say he is guilty and sorry. Whatever may be wrong with the legal systems in places like China, Indonesia and so on we cannot accuse them of being unusual in convicting people on weak evidence, bad police investigations and dishonest prosecutors.
The problem with plastic wrap is can you prove your luggage really was wrapped when you left? And will the authorities even care to investigate if they think they have someone they can make an example out of?
Fear in south africa..
swart gevaar……black danger
jood gevaar…….jewish danger
engelse gevaar….english danger
rooi gevaar……russian danger
geel gevaar…..yellow danger
OMG the south africans have a reputation.Its like a mirror…a reflection
Perhaps in our Western societies the border between right and wrong is less clearly delineated than it is in more traditional societies, such as China, and Islamic countries too. That unquestioning and unquestioned obedience to laws gives societies a certain security, and interpretation plays no role. Also, fatalism as an idea is strong in these societies, whereas it is not so in the West. In other words, we resent authority, and we resent not being in control of our fates, which makes life more fearful, because we do not accept control as easily. Perhaps that has something to do with Western creativity, generally absent from more traditional societies. Interesting article, thank you!
Rod, enjoy your glimpses of Chinese life, more please. Am reading a book by Alexandra Harney; The China Price – the true cost of Chinese competitive advantage which is fascinating and horrifying on what goes on in China to keep competative and growing.
Brent
Interesting piece, thank you.
I understand that the Chinese opposition to drugs goes back many centuries.
Perhaps it is most relevant to [so-called] westerners [was Janice Linden a westerner?] today, due to what the Chinese apparently call their “century of Humiliation’ [wikipedia] following the two [so-called] “Opium Wars” won by the British Empire in the 19th century.
These effectively enforced the distribution of drugs [Opium] into China whether they wanted it or not, after the Chinese Government attempted to stop the trade; whereby British [and later American] traders sought to import opium from India into China in exchange for silver and other goods.
Interesting article
Perhaps this “fear” is self created from white supremacy and “priviledge”…especially from the USA.
The bible has the seven deadly sins such as envy,wrath,greed,gluttony,sloth,pride and lust.
It seems the Japanese uniquely had this “fear” too as they invaded China and SE asia in a extremely brutal manner.
I fail to understand why many people try to compare the death penalty with a life sentence. I believe that death penalty in the Chinese situation is nothing but the results of a specific action . The aimof a ddeath penalty is not supposed to be a detterent, but the consequences, it actually means minus one problem. A life term is aimed at isolating one from law abiding citizens permanently,while the death penalty simply means to get rid of the problem. L
Good blog Rod, these insights you bring regarding life in China are fascinating.
@ Richard Most thoughtful and thought-provoking comments, so many clichés get recycled when it comes to the death penalty.
@ benzo Travelling naked is a bit over-the-top, but only using hand luggage completely under your control and shopping for the rest in China or Singapore or wherever would be an option, good excuse for ladies to extend their wardrobes..
@ WSM thanks for the info regarding Linden’s 3 trips to China. All sympathy is lost and any doubt regarding her guilt is gone. The lethal injection was too quick!
Hi Rod
Loved your piece about day to day life there and the people and how they cope and live life. My take on Janice Linden had nothing to do with whether she was guilty or not but rather focused on the decision by the Chinese system to not inform her of her impending execution.
The explanation/excuse put foward was that if all prisoners had been informed when they were to be executed then there would have to be a suicide watch. A bit of a lame excuse really.
Her sisters visited and were not allowed to tell her that her mum had passed away or inform her that she was soon to receive the lethal injection.
It amounts to a summary execution and I have a bit of a problem with a system that dehumanises the prisoner as well as the officials that operate the execution procedures. I have not visited China yet and would value some of your comments on my concerns.
Richard
Hi Richard
Frightening. Yes, once you are in the prison system of China you are dehumanised. I have seen cops catch pickpockets and they are treated like trash from the word go. I saw a young man being taken down to a canal to be photographed (why?) and I have never seen such a corpse-like look on a young man’s face, and yet he was still alive. However, from what I know the USA and SA prison systems are really no better.
A good book to read on the horrors perpetrated in China is that spectacular (?)autobiography, Wild Swans by June Chang, if you haven’t. I tried reading the follow-up, Mao, but couldnt take the horror, brutality and insanity of the unfolding story and put it down. heck I teach children and write poetry etc. I am a softy.
wysiwyg
There was never any yellow danger or Jewish danger to the Afrikaner . They believed the Jews the chosen people of God as written in the Bible; and the yellow people were too small a minority to be any risk at all.
The three dangers were:
The Black danger (overpopulation and swamping by black culture)
The Red Danger (communism and the banning of worship of God)
The Roman Danger (the Roman Catholic Church and the return of religious persecution).
Hi Rod,
Living in China, I too have had similar lessons. I think Chinese citizens do in fact live in fear, but they are not bothered by the daily annoyances that some of us fixate on. Capitalism is doing its best to turn them into critical little self-loathing consumers but they are pretty sensible about things like tolerating the behaviour of others and the presence of other human bodies, with all that this entails. It’s true to say that they treat many things with a mixture of humour and resignation. However, the more privileged you are in China, the more fearful you become of losing that privileged position. This is why the Chinese are the world’s greatest savers (although that is changing); money provides some degree of security in a world where you can’t trust anything (food, water, officials, the air) except your bank balance (or how much is under the bed) and personal relationships. Poorer folk do seem to have more carefree dispositions, but I think all are united in a fear of social instability and a real or imaginary threat of reversion to the horrors of forty years ago…