I think one reason I like living in China is that the Chinese are refreshingly natural in their relationships: you see this all around, in the ready smiles, the way grown women unselfconsciously hold hands with their friends in the street, in the ease with which people look you in the eye. It’s a very refreshing comparison with other places I’ve lived.
Part of it is cultural, I guess; part of it is that I mostly meet ordinary working people (but where does that end? I include the beggars in the street and university lecturers in the spectrum of people I meet every day!). Part of it is also socio-economic, in the sense that the society of the Spectacle* hasn’t established itself in China yet – and I hope that it never does. [*I would include a Wikipedia link, but for some reason Wikipedia has been inaccessible for the last couple of days].Anyway, this morning I went down at 7am to practise Taiji outside my block in Hua Qing Jia Yuan. I normally go to the same spot every day, but this morning there was someone exercising there – one of the many retirees who are often around in theearly morning, doing stretching or qigong. I didn’t think anything of it, and was just going to go somewhere else – but she met my eye, gravely nodded, and moved away herself! I feel rather touched, that after three months of regular practise, I seem to have been accepted, and that that really is “my spot”.
Update, Nov 01: OK< wikipedia is indefinitely blocked by the great Firewall,but there are ways around it. Society of the Spectacle.
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