Kiss or not, the stranger from home
-Everlasting Eve
You're not looking at me
Last winter my Japanese friend Murray set up a stall along the Esplanade here to sell his wares. I used to run to see him and sit in the sun together
.
One day I said to Mori, "You know, when I was living in the Sahara Desert, I was almost caught and beaten to death for spying on the local custom of bathing
. Later, someone suspected that it was me, of course, I die not admit it, hard to rely on you Japanese,
hey, smart or not?"
Mori, hearing me say that, pursed her lips in a bad way, put down a necklace she was working on, and held out her hand to me.
While I didn't know what he was up to, I jumped up and gave him a heavy handshake, asking again, "What are you doing?"
"Huh!"
"What do you mean?" I tensed.
"This ...... Whenever I do something less than decent abroad, I occasionally turn into a Chinese mile!"
I was taken aback by this statement from Murray and cursed him out of my mouth, "Ugly Japanese." He kicked at the wooden box
where he was sitting.
At this point Jose also got off work and walked over, and I was still pressing Morrie, "How many times did it change? Say!"
Morrie laughed bitterly and pleaded with Jose, pointing at me and making a face that he couldn't stand.
Josey said slowly, "What's so bad about the Chinese Japanese, if it was me doing something not so good,
I'd tell the bystanders - shh, pay attention! That's not me you're seeing, you're seeing the
nasty guy named Fili who lives in the apartment to my left."
This time it was Morrie's and my turn to laugh our asses off.
Can't be Japanese all the time
When the news came that the government was opening up the country to tourism, I was quietly working on an article for Crown called The Path, and when I opened the paper and found the big news, I just about fainted with joy, and I scribbled
nearly five incoherent missives to my parents in that week. I wrote to Lan Xiaochun twice more, telling her to save up so she could travel with Xiaodoudou on her back, and I wrote
postcards to a lot of friends, all in all, one sentence - come to Europe to see what life is all about!
Because of the letter from the parents agreed to join the tour group to Europe next year, will be in Spain to leave the group to stay with Jose and I get together in January,
This commitment and make me over-excited and serious insomnia, all day long non-stop nagging to Jose: "If mom and dad come you do not perform
badly, beware of me afterward, and you will fight with death! "
This mood persisted for many days, and the piece I was working on, The Path, was thrown away as irrelevant.
This time the Chinese newspaper always mentioned the matter of foreign travel, and I saw many reports about the strange behaviors of the Chinese people after going abroad
I read them carefully, and slowly confirmed them in my mind, and I felt that the things written in the newspaper were true, which aroused my own
new sorrows and old hatreds, and then I read a big newspaper, a tour guide who narrated the "foreign face", which made me shocked and sweated.
This is the first time that I have seen the same thing in my life, and it is the first time that I have seen the same thing in my life.
Thinking that from next year onwards so many of our compatriots will be touring around the world under the name of Chinese, I am in a state of confusion after the joy of
The town is in a state of turmoil, and my thoughts and patriotic feelings are mixing into a turbulent current in my heart
and I have become silent. Whenever you look at Jose, I always pretend to smile easily, and when I open my mouth, the topic of my life
Going to the compatriots abroad, I can not stop talking about what I have heard and seen.
Joseph saw me so worried, very unimpressed, said: "people, is independent, a Chinese does not represent the whole of the
Chinese, you are so worried about compatriots outside the words and deeds, is a disguised insult to them."
"But I am well-founded, I have seen too many times like the newspaper "foreign face" said things, the balance as fair as
heart, is their own compatriots will still wrong them?"
"A few don't count." Jose added.
"A whole regiment of Chinese, a whole regiment, listen up!" I screamed.
I've seen three Chinese study tours*** in Spain, and I've seen more than enough of my friends alone, and the standard is excellent, but the compatriots I'll never forget are the "troupes", and it's enough to get along with them once, and it's only when Jose isn't there that he's able to say the opposite
"The whole group, the whole group, listen carefully! p>
"Can't keep saying you're Japanese!" I sighed.
"How can you say that about your own countrymen?" Jose stormed out.
I was actually overly attached to the honor and disgrace of my country to be so apprehensive; groups traveling abroad are unlikely to have
a deeper understanding of the locals, and other people's impressions of us are superficial. The way we eat, the way we walk, the way we talk, even the look on our faces, can all
be a measure of who we are. I have seen in the past a lot of degrading compatriots behavior if I do not write about it feel
to violate their own conscience, this text may not be pleasing to the eye, even Jose, who can not read the Chinese people are not happy that I write,
my compatriots read it, and what will be the reaction?
We're not deaf
When I returned to China to visit my parents two and a half years ago, my family took me to morning tea, and when I walked into the large, crowded dining room building
, there was an explosion of noise and clamor that almost knocked me over. The neighboring table was occupied by a group of businessmen who were slapping the table and cursing at each other
almost fighting, and in that nerve-wracking noise our family ate in silence, unable to talk to each other
one sentence. When I came out on the street I got angry, my face stiffened, and my father said to me with a long sigh, "Don't be angry, if you have to be angry about
this
kind of thing, is it possible for your body to be healthy?""That's a negative statement." I said with great disbelief.
"Huh, what do you want? Do people who talk too loud in public ****ing places arrest and go to jail?" Big brother said.
"No quiet doesn't serve him." I said.
The whole family laughed so hard my little niece suddenly said, "That's how we do it in kindergarten, no snack for anyone who's loud
."
These things are still regrettable in my mind when I look back on them, how come no one who has been in kindergarten ever goes to a restaurant?
In foreign countries, I have had contact with three travel groups (at that time called study tours), some are indirect friends with the group
to come, once to pull to do bits and pieces of translation, and once is the domestic business community group to come, at that time, I was still in a business magazine
writing, the editor-in-chief told me to go to the hotel to look at the writing of a visit.
The lobby of the hotel is supposed to be a public **** place, and it's not a crime to talk loudly once in a while, but a group of compatriots is always more than 20
persons, and they all "shouted" at each other with a surprisingly loud volume, and the peaceful atmosphere of the four-star hotel was completely
destroyed by the invasion of compatriots, and some of them were reading books or reading newspapers. Some of the other travelers who had been reading books or newspapers could not stand it any longer and most of them gave us a contemptuous and angry look
and left with no other choice.
On one occasion I couldn't stand the embarrassment any longer, so I smiled very carefully and said to a couple of my middle-aged compatriots, "Let's keep our voices down, shall we?" I blushed first as the words came out of my mouth, thinking it was too rude to be rude to people, but the people who were listening didn't have much of a response
at all, the volume of their voices overpowered me too much, and while I wasn't of a very gentle nature, I couldn't just step in and hit someone to tell them to shut up
!
Talking loudly is not a stain on your character, not at all, but in a public ****ing place we become an unwelcome bunch,
everywhere we go everyone looks at us and frowns, and that's not what we want, is it?
Why don't you come prepared
The saying goes that traveling is the most direct way of absorbing knowledge. Nowadays, the world is different from the ancient times
and there is a lot of information about the customs and places of interest in different countries. My personal travel method is to read books and maps
, a rough understanding of the country to go to how the situation, and then go to confirm some of my own, I found that this way to travel
than no concept of a strange country into the chaos of the harvest is much more.
I have met many compatriots who have traveled all over Europe and then come to Spain, and when we talk to them, their impressions of the countries they have traveled to and seen are all very mixed
confusing and they can't tell us what they think, and some of them can't even figure out their geographic location, which is, of course, because of too much traveling and
the inevitable result of too much horse-traveling. However, if you come back to the city after reading a book at home, you can make up for the lack of time spent visiting the city
by making adequate preparations beforehand.
I have heard the gentleman who brought the tour from home call Doreto, the most famous city in Spain, "the countryside," and announce at the hotel:
"Tomorrow we are going on a trip to the countryside, and those who join us are asked to pay fifteen dollars."
What is the "countryside", how many kilometers from Madrid and back, what are the monuments and culture and background, the leader
himself can not say.
Going to the "countryside" back in the compatriots have seen the great painter Griego's home painting, the old city's unparalleled beauty of the architecture
, painted pottery, embedded in the gold craftsmanship of all sorts of touching the scene, but actually do not have any feelings and reactions. I was surprised by this situation, and I think it was a dereliction of duty on the part of the tour guide, who led his flock to a green meadow without explaining to them
-that the grass was rich and should be eaten, but the sheep were also very likely to reply to the shepherd, "We're going to eat the department store, not the grass.
This is only a few of my compatriots who I see as culturally insensitive, and not representative of the rest of the intellectuals I know, which is a definite
statement. Unfortunately, knowledge and wealth do not always go hand in hand, and the rich and wealthy do not always have a family education, and those who can afford to travel with a tour group at great expense tend to be the majority of this group.
Please make sure you pay a small bill
Two of my friends, indirectly and remotely, came to Madrid on a tour with a young couple, both of whom are in the Taiwanese export
business. They called me as soon as they arrived at their hotel, and without a minute's delay I got in my car and went to the hotel where they were staying
When I met them, the hotel was assigning rooms to the group of compatriots, and the gray-haired teahouse carried the couple's
two large suitcases into the room, placing them politely on the shelves. The two friends just kept talking to me, ignoring those who were already standing with their hands hanging down in slight
embarrassment, waiting for a small bill.
I thought they might not have any local money, so I quickly paid the teahouse and thanked him.
"What? And pay the small bill, that's not a good habit." The lady said immediately.
"Just give once for the boxes when you move in, and again when you move out." I said.
"We came with a tour and said everything was all-inclusive, you can't add on extra expenses like that." Instead of thanking me, she
somewhat resented my tone.
I suddenly hated the lady who spoke to me, it is only natural to do as the Romans do, and she was so stubborn that she lost more than
those few dollars in small bills.
I am also a thrifty person, after marriage once a year back to Madrid to go, live in the same hotel, the people who work inside always remember
me, the reason is very simple, I always give a small account when I leave, connecting the threads of life do not forget her, because often trouble people often
is the lady. The small account a **** adds up to a few dozen dollars, in exchange for a completely different attitude.
There are too many compatriots who insist on not paying the small bills, so why should we be slighted on this small matter.
People come to squeeze the fruit
I went to the hotel to pick up my two wives to go to a department store, and in the lobby I met several other compatriots who were going, so we went out into the street in a big group
. On the way, we passed a small store with boxes and rows of brightly painted, colorful fruits
. The compatriots reacted enthusiastically to the sight.
The fat boss with a moustache was sitting in the store, suddenly broke into a group of squealing customers, and even his
This is not the time to face, his fruit has been more than a dozen hands desperately pinched and pinched and picked up, whether it is peach
, apricots, pears or watermelon are not able to escape from that one experienced fingernails.
The boss a moment to come back to his senses, angry a faint, yelling and cursing the mountain door, I quickly told him: "
These pinched us to buy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
The owner, still raging, snapped a melon held in his compatriot's hand, glared and yelled, "
Barbarians!"
I was moved to anger at this, and pulled my compatriot away in a dead faint, saying to this owner on my way out, "You've gone too far, is that how you address a patron
customer?"
He slammed the glass door hard over against my face, and that one was a real grimace, and everyone was spoiled. The two wives asked
me what ugly things that bastard Spaniard had called us, and I told them the truth, and they were hard, and wanted to go back to sparring again, which I naturally refused to do as an interpreter
- that fruit store owner was actually defending himself, which can't be too wrong, and besides, it was me who launched the attack first
We.
Eating or quarreling
I did a little verbal translation work for an expedition, and once the whole group ate dinner, they insisted on pulling me with them
I saw that my compatriots were really sincere, and I gladly agreed to do so because I was overwhelmed by the hospitality.
The second-floor restaurant was not reserved for us Chinese, and there were other guests eating around it. That night for some reason
the whole group got along so harmoniously and intimately that someone suggested a song, which was seconded, and a chorus was sung - "Looking at the Spring Breeze" - with clapping on one side and singing on the other.
One of the songs was "The Spring Breeze".
It is natural for a person to like to sing when he feels happy in his heart, and it is not
too rude to clap and sing even in a restaurant, though it is a very innocent act.
After looking at the spring breeze, two fellow countrymen sitting far away from me, who I don't know, were probably in such a good mood that they jumped up
with a wow, flung their arms around each other and shouted violently in a fistfight.
This sudden noise was like an explosion that horrified the entire restaurant, the two compatriots red-faced screaming and screaming,
Other people initially thought they were arguing, but also saw the arms kept waving, the teahouse are nervous to get together, and wait until they
found that it was not a quarrel, the contempt and amusement of the expression I will never forget.
Guessing is a very interesting game, but it depends on the occasion, and drinking is something that can only be done in private.
After a while, four
week guests have to check out and go, the dying look at us in disgust, there is a foreign guests eyes and I inadvertently met
, I am like a statue of stone with him, surrounded by the guessing shouts are still like amplifying the Dragon Cannon like the ups and downs, this person actually quietly to me
made a very naughty face, I have no sense of humor to react to him. At that time, because of the excessive embarrassment, just feel everything is like
in a dream like unreal, a few almost to shed tears, and then how the meal ended are not very clear, only remember when leaving
one compatriot on the table ashtray to touch the pocket.
That's the only time I've ever watched a compatriot paddle abroad, and it's really an exception and an outlier, so I've made a note of it.
I am not a good bully
And touched a kind of compatriot, outside the step by step, always feel foreigners to bully, think all the people have to cheat him possible
, day and night worry about things is to be afraid of losing, this compatriot because of the sake of the weak heart, so live to reveal the full frame, a
a side of the inviolability of the Bronze Wall-like expression, look at the disgusting, he is good to see, but also to see the people of the world. The fact that they are not the best in the world is not a good thing," he said, "but they are the best in the world. What a great Chinese!
A friend came to Madrid alone, and his excessive suspicion of others has made him a monster who can't be happy.
Whenever he pays a bill as little as one or two hundred Taiwan dollars, he has to ask again and again insecurely: "Is it a mistake
? Will you be cheating us? Are you sure? Did the taxi make a detour?"
I was so annoyed by my friend's endless calculations of money that I got on top of him, and the two of them broke up
. I, for one, am not happy, out of money and out of time, fell into a unpleasant, which is really called hurt feelings.
In some old high-rise buildings, the elevator is limited to three people to go in together, once my compatriots because of the words
not pass, squeezing four people, the concierge looked at rushed up to stop, up a fight, one of my compatriots angry at the concierge waved his fist,
pointing to someone else's nose and said: "How, you look down on me. I'll beat you up!"
I desperately tried to explain, but the compatriot wouldn't listen and insisted that the concierge was looking down on us. I explained again, he rushed to me, said I
unpatriotic, I backed up a breath hard to shut his mouth. These four people a surge are squeezed into the elevator with a triumphant smile.
Happy times
My great-uncle, Mr. Hanqing, and my great-uncle were already in their seventies when they came to Spain. I was in the desert at the time and flew all the way back to Madrid to be with them. It was a very pleasant time for these two relatives to be together in Spain.
We *** traveled to many places of interest, the most touched by their appreciation of art and curiosity, aunts and uncles do not grab
purchase foreign goods, do not examine the diet, standing in Madrid by the Plaza de la Sibilius, one by one, humbly want me to explain the statues, architecture
, history, origins... ...Inside the Plato Museum of Art, I asked my great-uncle to sit in a wheelchair because of his advanced age, and my aunt and I pushed him to appreciate one room at a time. This pair of Chinese people, surprisingly, in Spain, the great painter Goyer's
painting under the wandering can not bear to leave. They don't even bake in the winter, in the country is still in the nude painting is not art debate
Today, the eldest uncle's parents especially appreciated is the "duchess of the nude portrait". I met so many compatriots, counting uncle's questions the most
More, he kept asking questions, I kept answering, Spain's rigid history, geography, politics and people's situation all of a sudden came to life
This is the secret of traveling thousands of miles, reading thousands of books. At that time we stayed in a common three-star hotel, not luxury not
great, but I believe that the insights they gained than many compatriots who came to the country to buy Spanish leather goods much more.
One of the taxi drivers said to me, "You Orientals are so comfortable with your modesty, please translate for the two
old men."
My uncle politely replied back to him, "The four seas are one, the sky is far away, and as long as there is an ounce of love present in mankind, the people of that
country are all the same."
This kind of dialog I am happy to translate, really has a spring breeze like moving peace.
There are many such compatriots in the country, so why don't we have more of them!
The third type of contact
I have seen compatriots on the plane to the barefoot stilts high, I have also seen a large number of fishing boat crew on the plane hard to two people squeezed into a seat
Zi, more have seen the plane is taking off, compatriots wait for the air hostess to check out the seatbelt and immediately stood up and ran to the back of the companion armrests
Up slanting. There is also a large group of compatriots to see others call for alcohol, they also called, drink, air hostesses to collect money they
not pay, said I do not know the original is to pay, that one alarmed the whole plane passengers, a good show.
Two years ago I flew with sixteen compatriots from Switzerland back to Taiwan via Hong Kong, these compatriots are full of contract ocean-going fishing boats
fishermen, all the way to Hong Kong, when we are about to board the China flight back to Taipei, a Chinese girl was on the flight to Hong Kong. When we were about to board the China flight back to Taipei, a
middle-aged foreign traveler accidentally tripped from the descending electric staircase, and rolled heavily all the way down, at that time I was sitting in a chair underneath the leaning
staircase, and instinctively let out a cry of alarm, rushed up to catch the tripping person, and it never occurred to me that my compatriots who saw someone else tripping were actually laughing and shouting.
My compatriots, when they saw someone else tripping and falling, were unanimously laughing and shouting, and even applauding vigorously, as excited as if they were watching a circus
upon their arrival.
I bent down to pick up the traveler's bag for him, and pulled his elbow and asked him, "Did you hurt yourself? Move yourself
Look? Are you okay?" The traveler blushed and whispered his thanks and left, and he later boarded the same flight to Taipei, asking him
what was his first impression of us Chinese?
I must say
A Spanish friend of mine, Lori, is an extremely beautiful and intelligent Spaniard married to a Chinese husband,
speaking a mouthful of Peking opera that many Chinese can't match, has been to Taiwan three times, and is a senior student at the Mandarin Center of the National Shih Chien University. When she talked to
me about Taiwan, she was beaming with joy, showing her deep love for China.
One day when we were having dinner, she suddenly said, "There's only one thing I can't stand about Taiwan." I asked her what it was
and she said she couldn't talk about it until after dinner, and when I asked her again after dinner, she said, "Guess."
I naturally answered her, "The restroom inside the restaurant."
After that we both stopped talking about it because we had the same opinion of each other and didn't want to vomit our hearts out again.
Mr. Hidden Earth wrote a book called "Essays on European Travel", and three years ago, when Hidden Earth traveled with a group to Europe for tens of days, he mentioned a similar incident in his book.
The compatriots in the same group used the toilet on the plane and didn't flush, and Hidden Earth then went in and saw 10,000 taels of gold, which almost knocked him out
hastily, he quickly did the aftermath of the previous compatriot's visit, but he was also glad that the one who followed him in was him and not a foreigner.
It is a good thing that you are not a foreigner, because it is a good thing that you are not a foreigner, because it is a good thing that you are not a foreigner.
I have personally seen my compatriots urinating in the open on four occasions on Gran Canaria, three times while standing on the deck of a fishing boat and spraying water on the
lively wharf where the traffic was heavy. The other time was on the street, drunk and making a fool of myself in the street.
I didn't actually look away, and each time it was Jose who twisted my neck a little harder and said softly, "Don't look, your compatriots are
convenient."
"How do you know it's a Chinese fishing boat?" I asked quietly as well.
"The flag is flying there!" Jose laughed.
He always laughed, and when I was angry at my own countrymen Jose had to laugh, "Sanmao, you're really honored to be ****ed! So serious ah
! Chinese people really united concern ah!"
This kind of place I have no sense of humor, not at all.
On one occasion we had seven or eight compatriots come to our house, of which I only know one, these compatriots sat for an hour or so, and said goodbye with great
courtesy, and when we sent the guests to the car and then came into the house, we found a lot of dirty wooden shoe prints on the floor, all the way from the restroom to the living room
carpet, I was one step ahead of José, and I opened the restroom door, and I looked down! -My goodness! Liquid
crossed the floor. Turns out they didn't use a flush toilet and had mistakenly used the white porcelain tanks used for washing feet in Europe as a substitute.
Josey wouldn't let me scrub the floor, and sulked off to bring in a bucket of water and a mop himself, fuming and cursing all the while, "Why
? Why?"
I heard him blaming my own people, and got angry again, unreasonably scolding with him:
"In Taiwan, there is no such weird porcelain tank, that's why."
"They just went to the toilet without closing the door, I'm so afraid of you passing by and being embarrassed, don't toilets have doors in Taiwan?" He added.
"Jose, they are the crew of a fishing boat, life on the boat is so hard, of course their behavior will not be too civilized, you--"
Joseph saw me silly up, that is, laugh and let go down.
"All right! The honor***s are here again!" That's how the argument always ends.
We only have a *** with the same name
Writing here Jose came over and asked me what I wrote, I said I wrote some heart not to vomit unhappy true feelings
, wrote some of my personal see compatriots outside the words and deeds.
Again Jose was offended and said, "Can't you write about anything else?"
"But the government has explicitly opened up sightseeing."
"You've only seen a tiny fraction of the Chinese people! How can you write that?"
"A small portion of them are also my compatriots."
"Can't you go back and write the poetic 'The Path'?"
"No. 'The Path' can wait, this one can't."
Love is deep, worry is deep, what I wrote above can happen in every nation, and not only the Chinese, but
I am not the blood of other nations, and what I care most about is still my own compatriots and my country. I implore my fellow countrymen to respect themselves and follow the local customs when traveling outside
and to never neglect the basic manners and etiquette. As for your fluency in foreign languages,
Can you use a knife and fork correctly, and whether your clothes are fashionable and popular, but it's a very minor issue - look at Mr. Lang Jingshan
Mr. Lang Jingshan traveled around the world in a pair of cloth clothes, a pair of shoes, the beauty of that floating how to be the scenery for the Chinese people.
In the country maybe you are you, I am I, on the road rubbing arms and each other no feeling, but when we left
their own homes, please do not forget, we only have a **** the same name - Chinese.