Life and Travel in China

Recently, our friends from a provincial town visited Shenzhen. They came with their daughter (about 4 years old) and niece (8 years old). Their daughter was behaving like an "animal" in the restaurant. She climbed under the table, screamed, grabbed people's shoes, jumped, knocked, and simply went crazy without any attention from her parents. My niece was much calmer and even spoke a lot of English, she wasn't too pushy (children sometimes get too excited when they see a foreigner), and she just talked to me, quite seriously, it turned out that she was a top student in English. When her urchin daughter's behavior exceeded certain limits, her mother drew her attention. Her father said they were raising her "in the Western way." Interesting? This would mean that in the West (that is, in Poland too) children are raised indifferently, without any interest, without stress (as it was put in a certain comedy). Apparently, the Chinese assume that if a child is spoiled, it can be attributed to the Western lifestyle, and that's great because it is worldly!

Today, to my delight, I came across a Polish product and sweets again. I wrote earlier about the Solidarity chocolate box. This time we were in a sweets shop (it's a chain of stores). They are mainly famous for various jellies and typical Chinese delicacies (nuts, sesame). As I was leaving, a small package of chocolates and pralines caught my eye. I didn't guess they were from Poland, because it's a less known brand. We asked the saleswoman and she said it was from Poland. "Lama" pralines, two small packages, approximately PLN 14. It's good to know that they have Polish sweets there. When I'm "hungry" for chocolate, I'll go there.

Returning to the previous thread... I checked these two snack and sweets shops more closely, the same chain. It turned out that in addition to pralines, there are also Polish Terravita chocolates. Quite a reasonable price - about PLN 5. It's strange that there is nothing like this in large supermarkets, and in these small boutiques Polish products have somehow made their way.

In China, various outdoor games/activities are organized during various trips and trips (company, group). Of course, the Chinese love it - joy, madness, screaming, antics. However, if we look at it from our perspective, we can realize the main purpose of these games. Such entertainments have the basic task of grouping and uniting people into one mass. They must feel that a given company, school or tour group is their community and they are part of this community. There has never been a place for individualists in China, it is not appropriate to think independently, you cannot demonstrate any individual characteristics, it is not appropriate to stand out. This is slowly changing, but the government still prefers to unite the people, because a unanimous mass is easier to control.

What is happening now in China can be compared to the times when Deng Xiao Ping took power, there was a certain thaw, relaxation, less repression. The Middle Kingdom is becoming more and more liberal, Chinese people travel all over the world, hundreds of thousands enter Hong Kong or Taiwan every day. They have access to more and more information from the Internet (although many sites are still blocked and slowed down). During the Olympics, China also wanted to show that they are COOL. However, the question arises: what next? More and more freedom, a liberal state, and maybe even free media? Ha, ha... definitely not! Someone will finally bang their fist on the table. The only question is who and when? While the state perfectly controls rural areas and provinces in the interior of China, people live very freely in the cities. There is no sense of repression or strong communist rule here. People go shopping, to discos, they have access to computers and books everywhere, they go on trips all over Asia, they are seemingly free people. Unfortunately, this is only an appearance, because we are all enslaved here in our own way.