When Michael from Global From Asia wanted to chat to me for his show, how could I possibly refuse? An American who's kicking butt in Shenzhen, married to a Chinese lady, together they are giving others the knowledge and tools to take their business from Asia and make it 'global!' Pop over to his website to listen to the podcast. It's about 35 minutes and we chat about everything from culture shock to finding friends in China and learning how to navigate the Middle Earth that is China. So grab a coffee or stick those head phones in and carry on, carrying on. https://www.globalfromasia.com/to-china-and-back/ … [Read more...]
The Digital Kingdom: Will China be the First Cash-Free Society?
Written by Nicole Webb and Chao Huang, Edited by Nicole Webb Living in China, my purse was usually stuffed with wads of cash. Sadly, not because I was super rich but because I couldn’t use my non-Chinese credit cards in any stores other than those western brands like H & M and Zara (Oh dear, you feel my pain right?). And opening a bank account in China was like pulling teeth, so cash it was all the way. Counterfeit money is a huge problem (almost every cashier slides your notes through a scanner) so the biggest note made in China is 100RMB - which is equivalent to about US$14 - so you can imagine, this makes your wallet even fatter! Mind you, I wasn’t alone in my cash stashing ways; as the first country to introduce paper money in the 11th century, most of the Chinese population have long been cash converts, renowned for carrying briefcases full of cash to buy everything from jewellery to cars, even houses! A few years ago, the New York Times reported a guy showing up to a dealership in China in a beat-up old Honda carrying a black rubbish bag stuffed with cash. He bought a brand new BMW with it. In Xi'an, I heard about stories like this all the time! But it seems that's all changing...with China on track to become the first cashless society! What does that mean and how does that even work? Guest writer, my dear friend and local Chinese, Chao Huang from Xi'an, gives us the low down! A quick question: what do you take with you when you leave your house? Keys, wallet, and your phone, right? And people from China? I can tell you, most of the time, I just take my phone and just like me, there are now millions of people in China enjoying this cash-free life. You may have heard the news that some ardent 'Apple' fans in China sold one of their kidneys (sure, we have two of them - a spare one - so it isn't that big of a deal, is it?) to buy a new iPhone 4 when the revolutionary smart phone first came on the scene, sending fans into a frenzy. Of course not everyone goes to such extreme measures and most of us keep our kidneys and settle for cheaper Chinese brands like XiaoMi, Huawei and Vivo. ;) In February last year statistics showed 1.28 billion mobile phone subscriptions had been registered in China, which means more smartphone users than the US, Brazil and Indonesia, combined. It's an understatement to say that Chinese are now living in the People’s Republic of Digital. And it's no surprise that this year a study found China's smartphone users spent an average of 98 minutes a day using their phone. You might be wondering what we do with our phone given it's no secret we can’t go on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram or Google?! But let me tell you, when the internet censorship Gods handed Chinese lemons, many of the smart and diligent Chinese internet companies made so much lemonade, that most of the Chinese people don't even care about those Western websites. Super app, Taobao, is one -- and if you haven't read Nicole’s article about the company that has changed the way Chinese live, please click here. (Oh and did I tell you, I made 2.6 yuan last week just by putting my un-used money on my Alipay investment account?) Super apps in China have changed our life, blown our minds, and introduced a new era where small change and cash has been left behind. Credit cards weren't brought into China until the mid '80s, so it's fair to say, China has largely bypassed cards....and looks to be going from cash, straight to mobile! Software and gaming giant, Tencent monopolised an entire generation of Internet users in China with its clever multi-use platform WeChat. Not only can you communicate with friends via text messaging and calls, use it as a platform to share moments and pictures but it’s also your Trip Advisor, Amazon and Uber equivalent, and most importantly, your cash card. Alibaba’s Alipay digital wallet has been around since 2004 and easily trounced its US counterpart PayPal. The Alipay Wallet, currently sees 80 million transactions a day. The company has cooperated with a growing number of wet markets selling fruit and veggies, to install a QR code at each stall. What's a QR code? It's a Quick Response code which is a two dimensional barcode with a random pattern of tiny black squares against a white background, capable of holding 300 times more data than a traditional one-dimensional code. Shoppers scan the code with their phones after selecting their goods. The days of plastic buckets and polystyrene boxes filled with cash, lining the pavements are truly on their way out. In a sign of the times, everything from supermarkets to convenient stores, shopping malls, hospitals, restaurants, parking tickets and cabs can now easily be paid by the scan of a smart phone. The fact is, every morning when I go to buy breakfast at the street cart vendor, my 4RMB (US58c) Chinese jian bing (a kind of pancake with vegetables and eggs inside, which is really yummy by the way) I can just scan, beep and walk off with my pancakes! There are even reports of homeless people wearing QR code tags around their necks, so passers-by can easily give them money with a quick scan. A bridesmaid even wore a QR tag to collect gift money from guests at a wedding ceremony! The South China Morning Post reported, "Some restaurants have pinned barcode tags to the chests of waiters, waitresses and even chefs. Customers can scan the code to leave a tip if they are satisfied with service." It sounds like China's started the transition to a cash-free economy faster than anyone could have imagined, but what about those older generations so used to paying with cash? My parents and a large number of their friends (most are in their late 50s or early 60s) all own smart phones and are daily users of WeChat, but say they never use any form of digital payment. And this cultural preference for carrying large sums of cash instead of credit cards has travelled together with the new wealthy class out of China. Chinese tourists are the prime target for pickpockets and muggers because it's known they carry far more cash than visitors from other countries. This reminds me of a childhood memory whenever our family went on holidays, my parents would wrap a red cloth around their money bills and stash them inside their underwear! Today not much has changed, my mum protests, “If you go to any local markets without cash, it’s like going without wearing clothes.” (Which of course you need to stash the cash!) But it looks like she'll have to get used to bearing all, because experts say by 2030 China will be for all intents and purposes, cashless! Stay tuned. This is China. … [Read more...]
Fake Handbags, Frozen Margaritas and More than 50 Shades of Grey: My China Tribe!
My heart was broken. For a moment, it felt like I’d travelled back in time to those heady teenage years when breaking up with a boyfriend turned you into a dramatic, sobbing, pathetic mess, convinced you’d never get over him. But I’m not a teenager and this wasn’t a boyfriend, rather two female friends, who for nearly three years had known my every thought: my every high, every low and pretty much my every waking (and napping) moments. And now it was over. Here we were, our driver waiting patiently, watching on as we squeezed each other tight and called it a day. I went home and sobbed into my husband's arms. Repatriating to Australia, there’s a lot to love about the sunburnt country and I’m relishing in exploring everything again with fresh eyes. Everything old is new. Even my dear friends! (Although they may protest they’re feeling a little older as opposed to newer). There are no shortage of stories about expat life…. some hate it, most love it. Either way, if you're going to survive, you need to find your tribe. And once you find them, it’s hard to fathom life without them. You’re all in the same boat no matter what got you on it, what seas you sailed or which boat you rode in before. The sheer fact that you’ve upped stumps to live in a country that’s not your own is grounds enough for a firm friendship. My first taste of expat-hood was in Hong Kong and while there were thousands upon thousands of us, from all walks of life, drawn to the Emerald City, we had each others backs as we sailed the fragrant harbour. I found my Hong Kong family and we were there for each other through thick and thin. (And still are, I might add.) Then I moved to the middle of China, a place where expats are few and far between and there the real difficulties of going about day to day life emerged. At first I was reluctant to “put myself out there, again!" Hadn’t I just done all that in Hong Kong? I’d found my tribe, I didn’t want to be the single girl desperate for a date. But I quickly realised that attitude wasn’t going to cut it; Xi’an may be home to nine million people, but I could swear I was the only blonde in town. So it began….I scoured Facebook pages (when I could get online) stalked school playgrounds, smiled sheepishly at other mums, “yes, hello, I’m new!” “Can we be friends?” I even went on a blind date, in the hope of meeting someone to bond over coffee and hair colour woes with. She instantly became one of my tribe. And over those next few years, I needed them from the minute I woke up …to when the sun went down. Mostly to get through the sheer amount of “unusual moments” that occur in any ‘normal’ China day. Whether it’s the fact that your driver drove through a boom gate on the way to school, spilling the entire contents of your bag on the floor and your scorching lemon water on your lap and you didn’t die, or he simply does a weird six point turn in the middle of a busy school street to pick you up, with the car doors swinging wildly open. Or maybe he’s just driven with his hand on the horn for the entire 45 minute ride and your head is going to explode. And don’t even start about those recurring dreams that he speaks English. Or perhaps you woke up to fireworks erupting outside your house and a dozen stray dogs barking furiously and chooks clucking! The power is completely off or maybe your kids are sent home without notice from school due to extreme pollution levels. Or a little American boy at one of the schools has been clocked with a golf club by another kid’s parent in an act of sheer brutality and you can’t fathom the horror of it. Or your hotelier husband is having an equally tough day. So far he’s scolded someone for washing their car parts in the hotel’s water feature and another for spitting in the lobby pot plant and now someone is vacuuming in the middle of a wedding in the grand ball room and he is about to burst a blood vessel. Perhaps you accidentally see a woman squatting over the toilet, door wide open. Enough to scar you for life. All of this, you need to share... or risk being locked in a padded room. Maybe it’s so friggin’ polluted you masked up for the school run and literally sprinted to the classroom and then home again without taking a breath, only to spend another bleak winter’s day indoors, staring wistfully out at the dense, grey haze that has enveloped the city. You need to connect with the tribe to be sure there is still life out there. Perhaps your small person has got yet another nasty bout of croup after a simple cold for the fifth time this winter and you’ve run out drugs. There are no English speaking doctors and if there were they don’t have medication you need. You send a desperate text out and find one of your tribe has extra supplies and gets her driver to bring them over pronto. Or maybe one of your friend’s kids has lice… and there’s no treatment in China, so you dig out your lice saver and meet her in the carpark on a 2 degree morning to hand over the goods. Or your dog just got her period! What now? Maybe it’s visa run time and you need to psyche yourself up to be practically strip searched. Nothing is off limits, when you’re in a city that beats to a different rhythm. We are each others shot of valium in a crisis. Thank you to my best Chinese friend who ordered our pizza, always worked out the bill with the waiter at the end of the night, took us to hospitals, doctors, acupuncturists, called back for our results, made our nail appointments, and translated every text message in their indecipherable characters. Not to mention your daily education about the realities of China and the reasons why… in return we educated you on the wicked ways of the West (maybe to your detriment). To my American friend who wades through her medical drawer to dig out the last sleeping tablet for our long haul flight and has it sent over immediately, oh wait was it the other way around? Who introduced us to Halloween and ThanksGiving and pumpkin pie. In return we gave her Australia Day and Tim Tams. Who took it into her own hands to smuggle me a tamborine from KTV (Karaoke) because what girl doesn’t need her own! And is a Taobao junkie who orders double of everything because she knows you’ll want what she’s having, when a man drives up in a tuk tuk and flings a parcel at your doorstep. When you let her sit on your couch for the entire day watching the hotel’s CNN channel, shouting abuse and crying as we watch Trump become President. We could while away hours in a coffee shop, laughing until our sides split for our weekly sanity check (me often recording the saga - for research of course) until our drivers came and ferried us back to our bubble where we would hibernate from the madness, until next time… safe in the knowledge, we weren’t alone. Or perhaps we’d indulge in $3 midday Margaritas at one of the only western restaurants in town, “Tex Mex” perched at the top of a busy shopping centre where you’d be sure to run into every other expat in town, desperate for a quesadilla! Now, we’ve all spread out to our respective corners of the globe. As Winnie the Pooh said, "Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened." But without them, a little piece of my heart will always be broken. This is China. … [Read more...]
Dear China, Thanks for the Memories!
Dear China, I feel like a bit of a traitor just taking off and leaving you like that but rest assured, while I've reached out to greener (fresher) pastures, you will not be forgotten. I want to thank you for taking me into your arms two and a half years ago when I was wide eyed and let’s face it, more than a little petrified as I stood in the rain, peering up at your famous 1300 year old Pagoda, opposite our new home (the hotel), trying to understand its significance. Your world looked anything but familiar to me, and that was (surprisingly) despite having lived in the oriental harbour city of Hong Kong for four years. I smiled through clenched teeth and fought back tears as I tried to stay calm for my excited but nervous three and a half year old, who was yet to comprehend why her old world had been replaced by this new, raw version of the Orient. Back then it felt like English was rarely spoken, even in the confines of the hotel, a conversation was, at best, challenging. I remember finding that one single foreigner working there and clinging to his words like bees to honey. Outside of the hotel bubble, those early months felt like I was treading water, desperately trying to stay afloat. Routine was everything, yet we had none. A trip to two “international” schools set up for those few expats in town and wealthy Chinese had me anxious when I learned five full days in class was the norm for my Small Person, one of the few Westerners on the block. A trip to my local hairdresser for an attempt at colouring my blonde hair had me in tears. Not because I’m vain (ok, maybe a little) but because it was then I realised I was completely alone and had no clue how to communicate my thoughts to a group of people looking at me like I really was an alien. Our first visa run had me in shock as we were shoved this way and that, poked and prodded in full view of a very inquisitive audience. A bizarre visit to the local doctor who asked me for advice on which drugs I needed and then wanted a photo together! It was all indicative of everything we attempted to do in a bid to set up a life in China, in those early days. Back then, I didn’t realise that while you boast the world’s second biggest economy and churn out much of the world’s goods not to mention the world’s most travellers ….. essentially much of you is still developing, still learning and still adapting to life in the 21st Century. I soon found out that you are a nation full of contradictions. Xi’an may have been your capital for 13 dynasties, but her lack of exposure to the modern world meant for the most part, you were still learning much of what the Western world had already conquered. I learned that despite how far you’ve come, authoritarian rule is still your preferred mode of governing. Censorship is par for the course. A quick Google soon confirmed that, as did watching my television go to black regularly, simply because it was something your government wanted to shield us from. Controls over things that involve people’s safety and livelihoods though seem minimal. Smoking is still in force like it’s the 1970’s… when it comes to the roads, rules are few and far between and riding motorbikes without a helmet, with phone and at least three or four passengers (including children) is completely normal. Pollution during those winter months is literally off the radar, at least north of the Yangtze River. When you walk outside and it smells and tastes like an incinerator and pollution levels are '20 times' the healthy limit, you have no choice but to shrug, put your mask on and get on with it -- as much as your head tells you, it’s a ludicrous way to live (and some locals will tell you to "go for a run, it'll strengthen your lungs")! I’ve learned to strategically avoid those small wet patches of spit that litter the ground; and not to bat an eyelid when I see small (and big people) relieving themselves, mid squat in the middle of a busy footpath. Fast forward almost three years and like a toddler emerging into childhood, I can appreciate you’re changing and developing at a rapid pace, perhaps unparalleled in world history. English doesn’t seem as hard to come by, both spoken and written… but perhaps that’s just because I’ve added a little bit of my own Chinese into the mix to help with our communication. Those things that seemed incredibly hard are still incredibly hard, but perhaps our indifference or constant exposure to it, has made it all the more bearable. They are now just "China moments." A city of nine million that had very few restaurants and bars outside those local watering holes overflowing with spicy noodles and bbq skewers now has an abundance of new hotspots of every flavour on every corner. There is an element of the West weaving its way into society, rightly or wrongly and the nouveau riche are dividing classes like never before. Despite the hairdresser telling me I’ve got "farmers hands" one day and am a little “alien” like the next, as he rifles through my shopping bags to see "what she buys", we have become firm friends. That day I cried, clearly still etched firmly in his mind he tells me, as he bids Small Person and I farewell with bear hugs and promises to visit Australia. Those hairy car rides to school no longer have me in a state of shock…. Frank (the driver) and I have settled into a comfortable daily routine. Every morning, come rain, hail, shine (or snow) he waits downstairs, standing at the car door, ready to greet us with a smiley “Zao Shang Hao” (Good Morning), helps to buckle Small Person in as she squirms and fidgets, and off we roar into the morning chaos... Despite never having spoken a word of English bar “Ok” - he quite possibly knows more about us and vice versa than either party would care to. We know he likes to put on the morning talkback shows in Chinese while he fiddles with his beads all the way to school, weaving in and out of tuk tuks, two wheelers, and overcrowded busses, beeping the horn with gusto. We know that after dropping us off, he’ll usually sneak in a cigarette at the bus stop until he sees me coming back and then does a six point turn in the middle of a crowded school street - traffic banks up, while I wait awkwardly at the side of the road, pretending it’s all completely normal. And it is. We have reached an 'unspoken understanding' and perhaps an appreciation of each other. That's evident when my girl draws him a goodbye picture and we give him some new beads. Then there’s the security guards at the school gate that greet me with a big hello and goodbye every day, proudly in their few English words… and once in an unexpected downpour, run out to the car with me holding an umbrella over my head…yet still won't let me inside the school gates unless my I.D is hanging around my neck. My last week in China was no different to the entire two and a half years… unpredictable and challenging! If nothing else China, you are consistent in that nothing is ever straightforward! A book interview with an American-English teacher in the north of the city; a lunch with school mums from China, America and Brazil at a kitsch Chinese restaurant, overflowing with statues, local red wine, a warm drink made from dates, Peking Duck and spicy noodles. All followed by a twenty minute wait in zero temperatures (outside the school gate) and then a regular school pick up that unexpectedly becomes the end of the school term, closing abruptly due to extreme pollution levels! This also unexpectedly makes it my Small Person’s last day, ever, so I'm forever grateful her teacher has the foresight to run out at the eleventh hour and get her a goodbye cake! Then a farewell night out that ended at a “Gentleman’s Club” which isn’t as risqué as you might think! Curious to see what it was all about…we enter the shiny, new establishment (one of many that has sprung up in our local neighbourhood) all in the name of checking out the "competition!" Chandeliers, leather sofas and karaoke (China’s other love). In the spirit of a 'proper' Chinese night out, we find ourselves agreeing to hit up the microphone with a few tunes. A dozen beers are delivered and then... as an added bonus, we're treated to a line up of suitable men of all 'shapes and sizes' to choose from (including the token 'foreigner' who hails from Kazakstan)!! All for ‘company’ we're told…or as we soon find out in between giggles, a university student to sit amongst our group, make strained conversation, drink our beer, smoke cigarettes and sing the odd Chinese pop song! China, you will forever have me bamboozled by your extremes - from the overwhelming poverty that envelopes you, to the ever-increasing number of Rolls Royces cruising the streets; to the intense effort given to academic education yet lack of life guidance; to the seemingly selfish public acts yet incredible acts of kindness, to the strict censorship but overly flexible road rules; the human trafficking and domestic violence but feeling of peace and safety on the streets, to the emphasis on Guanxi (networking) and family but the inability to lose face…and those layers upon layers of ‘bureaucracy!’ China, both your complex and simple personality traits have made it possible for me to love you, yet loathe you - all in the same breath. But just as you’re changing, I hope that I am too. Still fresh out of your grip, it’s too soon to tell how you've changed me. Only time will tell. One thing’s for sure, you’ve taught me to be more open and tolerant and definitely not to sweat the small stuff. I’ve learned that trying to understand cultural differences, nuances and a country’s history is not always easy but it is the key to understanding a nation and every thread that intertwines to makes up the fabric of your society is to be appreciated. Your spirit and strength in overcoming a recent history of oppression and poverty is admirable. As different as China can at times seem from the world in which we know, and as much as that old mantra, ‘survival of the fittest’ still rings true for many of you….there is no mistaking, you have a nation of people only too willing to show an outsider kindness. And that for me, has counted for a lot. (If only someone had told us what's in the tap water sooner!) ;) It's not goodbye, it's see you later! This is China …. and you’ve stolen a little piece of my heart. … [Read more...]
When Parallel Worlds Collide: A Party of Writers in China
“Stride with purpose” I chanted silently to myself, as I marched through the entrance of Sun Yat-sen University in downtown Guangzhou, China - mercifully hoping it would disguise my pre-conference jitters. I’d slid into China’s third largest city largely unscathed the night before, that is, all bar a 'war of words' with the taxi driver on the way from the airport! I’m unashamedly a little smug, because the 'feud' was in Mandarin. Er hello! Yes, that’s me, speaking in the native tongue about fares, meters and foreigners! (To be fair we were almost equal in the language stakes, given in Guangzhou they generally speak Cantonese, not Mandarin!) Naturally, he’d taken one look at me and put me in that foreign box of naivety about China and the scheming ways of some taxi drivers. With my heavy (for a weekend to be spent in lecture halls) suitcase lugged into the boot, he’d driven about twenty metres up the highway before slowing down and trying to frantically shove a scrap piece of paper through the metal caging at me. I could barely make out the numbers scribbled down in the dark, but could tell it was a high price to pay, in China at least. It was then I noticed the metre was off…not a light to be seen. A little panicked, I looked around in earnest …cars were tooting, weaving erratically around us. It was decidedly going to be all too hard to get out and heave that suitcase up the freeway, in darkness. Puffed out chest, I attempted to say it was too much and simply “not gonna happen mister!” (or words to that effect.) My outer bravado hopefully hiding my inner fear as I calculated the level of risk. Unfamiliar city, unfamiliar destination, random taxi driver! But, I reminded myself, this is China! He started driving, his sheepish laughter putting me at ease a little, all the while he was still trying to negotiate the price on that scrap piece of paper… Eventually he realised he was getting nowhere and this ‘Waiguoren’ wasn’t going to fall for that old chestnut, again! “Can I smoke,” he asked? “Definitely not,” I replied, indignantly! (As he offered me a cigarette, with a wink!) An hour and 20 minutes later (it wasn’t quite the ten minute drive to the university I had anticipated via Google Maps), we'd pretty much driven from one side of the city to the other! It’s suffice to say, we’d become firm friends. I learned he’d never been out of Guangzhou. “What’s Australia like he pressed? Is it like Hong Kong? What about Xi’an?” He’d taken to calling me “Ma fan” the equivalent of “trouble”….which I’ll take as a friendly gesture in this instance….considering we were utterly lost in China’s back streets and I was directing him in bungled Chinese via Google Maps. It was the start of a weekend that both surprised and amused me on many levels; my first and hopefully not my last writers' conference or “Con-Fest” as it’s been dubbed. A mix between a conference and a festival, it certainly was. As I entered the lecture hall - greeted with the universal fluorescent auditorium lighting, flooding rows of flimsy pull-down chairs and tabletops, sloping down to a giant projector screen - I was instantly taken back to the early nineties and those heady university days drifting in and out of intensive lectures (probably hungover to boot!). Surprisingly I was early (and not hungover), so I scanned the empty seats for a suitable place for a ‘newbie’ to park herself….. I watched as people jostled in to the room, many looking jovial and familiar with one another, others almost as wide eyed as me… That awkward reality of finding yourself in a room full of people, yet alone, is a confronting place to be. Thankfully, I was saved from floundering for too long in my own trepidation, when a lovely lady sat next to me and introduced herself. She was from Tasmania, ahh a good ol' Aussie lass. And then another from Indonesia. I immediately felt at ease, until my stomach started rumbling conspicuously (a result of having fled my hotel at the crack of dawn). As all good Aussie mums do, she immediately pulled out an emergency muesli bar from her back pack! A muesli bar, in China - I was chuffed. The conference theme was aptly named 'ideas and realities' and what followed over the next two days was a whirlwind of ideas that came in the shape of lectures, panels, books and mesmerising discussions against a backdrop of ‘made in China’ reality moments. A refreshing flurry of Aussie accents filled the air, along with those from India, Malaysia, Thailand, England and beyond. Seeing the above image flash up on the screen with two books I'm currently (attempting to) read had me feeling like less of an imposter. Immersing myself in all things writing, it felt like I'd been transported into my own version of being a ‘kid in a candy store’. Break time and navigating the squat toilets brought me back to my own reality with a thud. This is still China. Dinner in the university hotel restaurant with chopsticks, cheap red wine and chicken feet had me chuckling, as those not from this part of the world eyed up the goods with a mix of intrigue and apprehension. The atmosphere was buzzing and I had my first foray into the ‘spoken word’ in the literary world. Outside a television news report, I’d been unaware that writing involved so much air time! One by one, courageous writers stood up, microphone in hand, proudly reading excerpts from their novels, works of non-fiction and poems to the cheers of an enthusiastic crowd. Day Two and we each lost ourselves in discussions of publishers, agents, authors, editors, translations and the reality of being a writer in Asia Pacific today. Rain bucketing down, conference over -- to congratulate ourselves on a successful event, a few of us decided to brave the elements and head back to the hotel of one of my new-found friends before the closing dinner. The girls spied the ubiquitous ‘Chinese foot massage’ sign and it was on…although it was almost off, as my dear Aussie friend tried to pay, there was that undeniable raucous chatter in Chinese, when something is not quite right. I managed to work out that they thought her money was fake. A quick inspection of the notes and their plastic texture a surefire giveaway, the 900 RMB she had withdrawn from the ATM, to her dismay, was all bogus! It was my first encounter with counterfeit money in China but finally the notion of cashiers tediously checking every bill through a machine makes sense. Money problem solved, we found ourselves seated in plush massage chairs lined up in a row. Masseuses in teeny pink hot pants limbering up to tend to our tootsies. Hot tea all round and a rather ‘bloody’ Chinese movie on the tele…we were given a foot massage with the works…shoulders, legs, exfoliation you name it! It’s fair to say the “experience” accelerated the bonding process! Feet tended to, we headed out for the final hurrah…off the crowded Saturday night subway, we found ourselves trapped in a maze of glaringly gaudy Chinese shops, going around and around in circles, desperately searching for an exit that kept leading us straight back to Walmart! It was mildly funny, for awhile. Finally we came across fellow writers and made our escape to a local restaurant specialising in all things unique to Yunnan Province! Living in China, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, so when the restaurant staff began making their way from table to table serenading every body with shots of liquor, it was only mildly absurd! Our bellies full of Chinese fare and a little bit of Dutch Courage, it was time for the ‘spoken word’ in a local Guangzhou watering hole. Hailing taxis is never an easy job for a foreigner in China at the best of times, let alone peak hour in the rain on a Saturday night but somehow we managed to pile into several taxis mid street and made our way to our destination - a dark car park. There we were led down a back alleyway flanked with graffiti stained walls. This was not the China I know. Climbing a dark, concrete stairwell, we found ourselves in a nondescript room, scattered with little other than a few chairs, a stage and a makeshift bar, featuring half a dozen bottles of spirits and a cocktail menu that reminded me of something from the seventies. Down the corridor a jazz bar and a marijuana room were in full swing! White Russian in hand, the spoken word began. I have always assumed writers are shy, retiring types… hiding behind their keyboards, but i’m clearly mistaken… With passion, intense emotions and quite a bit of humour, poems were performed on stage with surprising energy and gusto! Excerpts from clever, witty and daring authors were revealed under the spotlight. I found myself nodding, laughing and quietly stunned. To be honest, the idea of standing on stage reading my own words, scares the bejesus out of me. This was no high school talent show (although they didn’t exactly fill me with confidence either)! I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a room filled with a more diverse group of people, yet at the same time, so many obviously like-minded people. Thoroughly educated, entertained and exhilarated, I knew I’d entered a brave new world filled with ideas and realities…..and this time, it wasn’t China. … [Read more...]