Mind Over Manners and Other Adventures in Shanghai

Normal Behavior?  Depends, doesn't it?

Hello, dear readers and welcome back to this week's Yellow River Chronicles!   This week we are going to yak about adventures in abnormal behavior here in the Big City.   As a preface, many of our readers are world travelers, so it's seems safe to make the statement that everyone, everywhere, does not share the same values or do things the same way.

This is reflected in the culture, religion, laws and "normal" behavior of that particular culture.  For example, even in the United States, what is considered "normal" in the northern Midwest (ice fishing) could be considered, "abnormal" or even "unusual" in most counties in Texas.

The Dragon roll is really good here, sir.

We here at the YRC have observed that there is a link between what people consider to be normal behavior and what they consider to be proper or "good" behavior.  For example, in many Asian countries it is considered proper to remove your shoes before entering a household.  This is standard procedure even in some restaurants.

However, this behavior is not observed in most of Europe, North or South America.   The pre-entry shoe removal is neither right or wrong.  But for example, if on her monthly Sunday visit, Aunt Mable flipped off her practical and comfortable clogs before heading to the living room to annoy the family with her casserole, the family would find it.....odd.  Imagine a dinner party where each couple arrived and kicked off the pumps and penny loafer before tackling the buffet.  It would be...different, yes?

In the interest of world peace and common understanding, the YRC has observed two common western behaviors that are not "normal" here in the 'Hai.  Please Note: It is not our intent to label this as odd or rude.  These behaviors are, in the humble opinion of the YRC staff, simply different, and are as follows:

I'll get it!

1)   The holding of doors for other people to pass through.  Generally, it is every citizen for themselves here in the Hai.   Doors are neither held open to allow others to pass, nor are they held to prevent the door from smashing the person behind you in the nose.  The behavior is universal:  doors are held open for NO ONE, be it people carry large packages, old people trying to get into the elevator, shoppers exiting a store, or the Pope and his entourage, NO ONE gets the door held for them.

2)  The picking up of one's own trash.  It is fairly common to see folks just drop their trash as they are walking down the street.  Shanghai has thousands of street cleaners working constantly to keep things tidy and that's the way things run.  The normal behavior when cleaning out a car, for example, is to take everything unwanted and dump it next to the car.  At fast food restaurants, folk leave their trays at the table as they walk past the clearly labeled trash cans on the way out.  The street sweepers are there to keep things tidy on the street and the clean up staff in the KFC stands ready to clear your  table after you finish your Family Pack.

It all starts so small and innocent.  One busy Saturday afternoon, the YRC staff was headed into a large, high end shopping mall in downtown Shanghai. An older (one might say wizened) Chinese woman was coming through from the other side of the glass doors.  Creatures of habit,  we opened the door and stood aside.


This had the effect of bringing two streams of traffic to a complete halt.  The older Chinese woman stopped to wonder. Why were were opening the door for her?  As she stood there on the outbound side, the folks behind her piled into each other like a set of derailed train cars (note:  NO Chinese train jokes here).

Meanwhile, on the in-bound side, the chair reaction was repeated as the folks behind the bizarre door-opening crazy foreigners confronted the yawning gap of a door being held open for them and hit the brakes.  So, it is now the policy of the YRC staff to ALWAYS open doors on unsuspecting Shanghai residents.  Always looking to help out, yes sir.

However, it is our fear that someday, a photo of us holding open a door will appear on a wanted poster, or an international sign, showing a door being opened and a cross over it as a warning against unsolicited door-opening...

The other behavior we have been practicing is the "Pick Up The Trash".  Basically, walk down a crowded Shanghai street, see a drifting plastic bag or other relatively clean trash item and then pick it up and deposit it in a nearby trash can.  This must be done on the move, step, step, sweep the item, step, step, slam dunk the sucker and keep moving like an NBA guard moving down the sidelines.

It seems to happen in slow motion.  A plastic bag floats down a perfectly clean city street.  All locals avoid it like a tax collector.  Then, time slows as we go into motion.  Music comes up in the background, maybe "I Like to Move It, Move It".

Many eyes on the street turn as the trash is picked up and heads turn to track the movement.  Someone has picked trash up instead of throwing it down? Is it valuable? Are they collecting bags?   Is there something IN the bag?   Are they going to set fire to it?  And then, Ya CHA!, the deed is done, the sinister volunteer street cleaners move on.   Another normal day in the 'Hai. We like to move it, move it.