GoKunming Forums

Kunming sucks the life out of me...

crazy.laowai (242 posts) • 0

How about their crappy version of cheese? Burping, farting, spitting, slurping, gurgling?

BillDan (268 posts) • 0

Blobbles, I can create more than one tirade on each of those topics. But I sense you are being sarcastic and that hurts. I know I seem like I am tittering the brink here but it is the lack of ham I guess. Maybe time to just let it all go. I am not really raging, just bringing up the fact that the emperor has no clothes.

Although, come to think of it...

regarding the issues crazylaowai mentions above and table manners, may I? Please, indulge a bitter old cynic a little more...

Why is it that when I eat a dinner with mostly Chinese people that I sit in mortal fear of doing something wrong... dropping a piece of food back into the plate (either by accident or because I do not eat guts or gristle), or putting my chopstick in the wrong place, or filling the tea in the cup too full, or who knows what, then I have someone telling me in condescending tones "we don't do that in China".Then giving me some lecture about my manners or Chinese tradition.

But (I will give only example then I need to go find the last of my lithium) why does not these attitude apply to other Chinese people? I have absolutely watched Chinese people move food around with chopsticks to get at what they want, but if I say this I get "NO THEY DON"T, we don't do that in China!". I have seen it on dozens of occasions.

Okay, one more example. Had a western buddy who was dating a Chinese friend of my wife's and we were at a dinner and he left a few pieces of corn in the serving dish. Holy sh*t this gal came unglued. "we don't do that in China, it means this and that (I have noticed everything at the table suddenly means something when the foreigner does it). her verbal threader went on for five minutes or more. My buddy blew it off and continued his meal. Okay, he leaves and later she has a new boyfriend and we are all having dinner and this guy spits on the floor of the restaurant several times. Nice healthy spits. And guess what. no one, including the gal, says anything.

My conclusion: it is okay in China to spit on the floor during meals but not to leave four or five pieces of yellow corn on the serving dish.

Okay, that's it. I am done here. I think I need a pizza at Teresa's and then I will be okay.

Sorry to everyone here if I seem bitter and cynical. Go enjoy your huajiao and gutter oil BBQ. I think I should just let it go.

Like a greater mind than mine once said:

"u cannot count on anyone except urself."

I am going out to enjoy the lovely day, as I often do.

BillDan (268 posts) • 0

Blobbles: "People saying "Hello!" to you after you have passed them."

Damn, that is tempting!

blobbles (958 posts) • 0

No no, I wasn't being sarcastic!

Actually, I think its a kind of reverse therapy for anyone that reads it, we all kind of identify with you a little and go "Ha haa, so true!". Maybe the things you say just bother us a little bit and we don't know really how to form them into meaningful thoughts, but you enunciate them so clearly that when we read them we actually feel better! So, in fact, you are doing many lao wai a favour here, letting us privately blow of steam and recognise our own thoughts and feelings on different subjects... though yours are a little more extreme than mine!

blobbles (958 posts) • 0

Hey BillDan, I just came back from Metro and guess what they had! HAM! I was pretty shocked!

Its from Shanghai, labelled "French Ham" and looks like the sort of ham we have for Christmas. At 85 kuai for 3.5kg of the stuff, it doesn't look like too bad of a deal, particularly if you are a big ham eater like yourself. If you want to find it, go to the "Delicatessen" part of the cold section nearby the cheeses. It does have a number of preservatives and what not in it though, not sure if the same as you would get in the west, you might want to check it out.

gaoxing (63 posts) • 0

Here is an update for all of my lovely followers in Kunming and at Salvadors:

I got hired a few months ago as a Customs and Border Protection Officer (haiguan). I am still at the CBP Academy and I am set in graduate in two months.

I plan on taking a week or two of leave after the Academy and heading back to China, possibly Kunming. This time my purpose is to find a wife. I really want to marry a Chinese girl. I can't seem to get rid of my "yellow fever."

Does anyone know if Kunming has a dating/marriage service?

Mark edwards (9 posts) • 0

I'd like to say something from my friend cause she doesn't post here anymore:)
Kunmingnese.yunnannese≠Chinese
In yunnan(maybe also xinjiang or tibet, qinghai)So many people especially less developed ethnic groups haven't been to school,they even dont know how to write their names. So it is easily for you to see some parents let their children pee on the street in front of people. If you have traveled many cities in China, you can feel the big differences. Statisticlly people here are lower educated. Kunming is small compared to bj,sh,hk or the cities on eastern China. Even it's the capital of yunnan province, it just stands in the third level groups, so don't hope more, if it cant give what you prefer, you can change.
Gaoxing: you are kind of better and honest compared to some old foreigners in China who just want to get Chinese girls with money or their tricks, maybe they think every Chinese is SB,we want to say this kind of foreigners are just ugly shits. Maybe they can't get their lovers in theirs countries or they have some ugly histories so they think can get a girl in this way like what people do in Vietnam(buy a wife from the farmers).
If you really fall in love with Chinese ladies. Anyplace you do have the chance to meet your love. At the airport? Durning the travel? From your work? From your daily life! We don't suggest the marriage/date service. Think about the quality of the people they provided.
We wish you a good life and find your true love. And one day you will be one member of this Chinese Family.:)

Mark edwards (9 posts) • 0

what kind of kids? Have you checked? Their parents hold them poop in front of you? People in New York spit and shout loudly on the phone as well.

Related forum threads

Login to post

This thread is locked.