I just finished the excellent “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star” by Paul Theroux. His chronicles of the trains, cities and people of India, Central Asia, South East Asia and Japan are acerbic, lyrical and entirely engrossing. The book is highly recommended, and though it provided many laughs, I got a particular kick out of his described lack of fondness for China, reproduced below:
China exists in its present form because the Chinese want money. Once, America was like that. Maybe this accounted for my desire to leave. Not revulsion, but the tedium and growing irritation of listening to people express their wish for money, that they’d do anything to make it. Who wants to hear people boasting about their greed and their promiscuity? I left for Japan, reveling in the thought that I was done with China – its factory-blighted landscape, its unbreathable air, its un-budging commissars, and its honking born-again capitalists. Ugly and soulless, China represented the horror of answered prayers, a peasant’s greedy dream of development. I was happy to leave.
I totally felt the same way when I went to China. EVERYTHING was a negotiation. We literally met ONE nice, helpful and not-trying-to-scam-us Chinese person in three weeks of touring.
I’m in no way trying to make a cultural generalization or insulting Chinese people – in fact I think they are an admirable example of diligent and self-sacrificial progress towards… something. But I can completely understand how Theroux felt.
I recently had a business exchange with two different clients from Taiwan.
In one case, the client was constantly trying to negotiate for reduced time and cost of the services provided. However, with regard to the other client, there has been no mention or request for any variation in the time or cost of services. Granted, my experience is limited, but this is true of everyone. I’m sure the experience is magnified when you are actually there, on the ground; especially, as a tourist.