Weirdnesses

There’s a lot of odd things that happen in China, like most other countries, that are often considered normal, but there are some things that just aren’t normal anywhere.

Here are some oddities I’ve seen or experienced in my time here:

Security

Many people back home have and use several locks on their doors and some are even afraid of their neighbors. Personally, I wouldn’t even consider living somewhere that didn’t have a deadbolt or was on the first floor.

Here in China, though, many people leave their apartment doors open to get a breeze. I’ve seen into so many of my neighbor’s apartments in just a few weeks when I’ve never even caught a glimpse into apartments I’ve lived next to for years.

But, by far, the weirdest thing about security in China is using a blanket to protect a store’s goods after the shopkeeper goes home for the day, but the building is still open because of another store.

But, a close second in weirdness is using a bicycle lock to secure glass doors, which many businesses have in Shenzhen.

Mysteriously Shaking Building

There’s a 20-year-old, 70 story building here in Shenzhen, in Huaqiangbei, a popular electronics market, that one day shook. For about 10 minutes. Then it did it the next day. And then again the day after that. On 3 consecutive days, the building shook for about 10 minutes a day.

As you can imagine, people freaked out. There was running and screaming in the streets. People everywhere fleeing for their lives. The building was closed until they could figure out why it started shaking and how to stop it from doing it again.

The US State Department put out a notice saying that all government employees were banned from going anywhere near the building, easy for them as their nearest consulate is an hour high-speed train ride away, and highly encouraged all other citizens to stay away until there were answers and the building was declared safe.

Two weeks later and all that was said was that there was no damage to the building and they thought it was some kind of minor vibration that was at the exact right frequency for the building to amplify the sway. But they’re still looking and testing.

I doubt they’ll ever announce that there is anything wrong with the building. They may make some kind of modification to ease people’s minds and help prevent the building from swaying again, but I’d be very surprised if, in a couple months, things aren’t back to normal and everyone’s forgotten about it.

Propaganda

Many countries produce and regulate their news media differently. Some believe that the press should be independent, others that there should be state-run media outlets, and everything in between.

China, being very close to a dictatorship, believes that nothing should ever make China look bad for any reason. All official news media is highly censored and officially approved before it is released to the public. All social media is also monitored, controlled, or outright banned.

It’s why they have the Great Firewall of China and you hear about bloggers and journalists being jailed. It’s why Beijing is cracking down on Hong Kong so much and so often.

There can only be one China and anyone that says differently is wrong and, if possible, China will try to make an example of them.

For the Communist Party’s 100th birthday, there are celebrations all over. Everyone is singing the Party’s praises, even my English-language expat e-newspaper, my main source of covid, local, and national news for the day.

It’s also not the first time that they had propaganda in between actual news stories. When the rest of the world was up in arms about the treatment of the Uyghurs in northwestern China, they published an opinion piece from an expat:

I’ve traveled extensively and seen no evidence whatsoever of anything approaching a genocide. There are high security, barbed wire fences and walls in some places. When I asked locals about the security and the restrictions, the only answer I’ve ever heard is: “It’s much safer than it used to be.”

Jerry Grey, on Shenzhen Daily

I’d trust that the extensive security restrictions are for “safety”, wouldn’t you?

With Covid, my coworker always says to add a 0 to any number of cases announced. The airport here had 2 announced cases, the entire district was told to go to the stadium and get tested in a single day. The airport closed all stores and restaurants. The district closed all indoor entertainment, banned eating in restaurants, and large gatherings of people.

Over 2 Covid cases. Seems like a perfectly reasonable reaction, no?

Beijing Bikini

This one is more gross than weird.

By now you should know I’m in Shenzhen where it gets ridiculously hot and humid for 9 months of the year. I’m told it’s a subtropical climate, but all I really know is I walk outside and start to sweat.

Most women wear dresses and skirts with quite a few young women wearing crop tops. Men are often in a t-shirt and pants or shorts. Fairly typical clothes for hot weather.

However, for some inexplicable reason, a lot of men think it’s a good idea to lift their shirts up in public and stand around talking and smoking with their stomachs hanging out. And I do mean hanging. I have yet to see a guy do this that isn’t at least 40 with a beer belly.

Late notice

While I wouldn’t classify this as a weirdness, it is not what I’m used to growing up in America. It has also recently become a big pet peeve of mine.

Anytime anything changes or there’s any differentiation from the norm, I’m told about it as late as possible. Which is less than pleasant when you’d like to plan a vacation, or, hell, even a weekend trip.

Have a make-up class? Let me tell you about it when the child gets here, or, for a regular make-up, not tell you about it at all and hope you recognize the child (with me, that’s not a given) and remember what you’re supposed to be teaching them (also not a given).

New Covid restrictions and everyone needs a test in 3 days? Let’s not tell you about it until the end of the first day of testing. Need more than one? Let’s not tell you about it until someone complains that you haven’t gotten it.

Major (or minor) holiday coming up? We’re not going to tell you about any changes to your work schedule until the very last minute or after you’ve asked about it 3 different times, and then we still might not know anything.

Government planning massive changes to training centers, like the one I work at, and testing out not allowing them to have classes during the summer and winter school vacations? Let’s not decide anything until a couple weeks before summer camps (summer classes) start. Causing all those plans already created and classes sold to be thrown into limbo while we decide exactly what we’re going to do.

But China does have a redeeming quality because of this annoying habit. Everything is planned last minute, so there are some great travel deals to be had, as long as everyone else isn’t trying to travel at the same time (I’m looking at you, Labour Day).

---

What’s a weirdness where you live?

If you have any questions about any of the terms I’ve used, look in the glossary.