Sunday, 11 July 2010
UPSIDE DOWN CHINA
I was enjoying a very fine pizza at HuTong Pizza in HouHai, Beijing this evening when I observed a fascinating truism about modern China...it is upside down!
Sitting next to us was a table consisting of three generations of a Beijingnese family: Grandama, Daughter and her husband, their child, and her friend.
THE GRANDMOTHER was bewildered by the whole experience. She clearly failed to understand why her middle class daughter had brought her down a dirty little side street into an old and run down HuTong to sit on hard wooden chairs to eat a round piece of hard bread with stuff on it. She also clearly was struggling with the concept of a knife and fork (but to be fair, I also prefer my fingers for pizza!)
THE MOTHER was also a little wary, but obviously her husband is a pizza fan so she was going along with the plan. However, the green carton of Kraft Parmesan cheese was a step too far. Why was there something on the table that smells of old socks, and what should she do with it? For advice she turned to her 10 year old...
THE DAUGHTER and her friend were in their element. Clearly knowing immediately that this was cheese, and that this should be sprinkled on top of the pizza, she showed her mum, then deftly picked up a slice of the pizza and popped it in her mouth. All washed down with a glass of iced Coke, clearly this generation knows what it wants, and wants what it likes.
Surely, there has never before been a country that has created such an upside down understanding of the world, nor one where respect appears to go to the youngest, rather than to the oldest. Knowledge is power.
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