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Shanghai Expat Forum Index » Community Discussion Forums » Chinese Culture Discussions

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karnex420

Raver

Joined: Mar 08, 2004
Posts: 488
Location: Shanghai, China
Status: Offline

Posted: Aug 08, 2004 - 10:12 PM

America has military bases everywhere and it's the Chinese on a quest to control. If China ever does what America is doing She will be hated too.

vespertilia

Reacher

Joined: July 02, 2004
Posts: 233
Location: London,UK
Status: Offline

Posted: Aug 09, 2004 - 10:13 AM

i definitely agree with Andreas, this is lack of basic social skills. at any underground platform there are big writings: let out then go in..but they don't care at all..are trying to step over?they just push u in again...next time i'm gonna serve them with a wok full of bad words..about the cut in thing..they really do it, it happened this morning and i wanted to tell them "**** u, stand in line" but i didn't know the word..

ShanghaiUnderground
StreetBeater

Joined: July 15, 2004
Posts: 2413
Location: Shanghai

Posted: Aug 09, 2004 - 04:52 PM

Quote:

Something to do with lack of basic social skills also.

Perhaps attributed to the culling that took place during the so-called "Cultural Revolution."

_________________
"And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth."

ShanghaiUnderground
StreetBeater

Joined: July 15, 2004
Posts: 2413
Location: Shanghai

Posted: Aug 09, 2004 - 04:53 PM

Quote:

Perhaps attributed to the culling that took place during the so-called "Cultural Revolution."

Which was basically a social and cultural digression on a mass scale.

_________________
"And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth."

YariGuy

LoopKicker

Joined: July 13, 2004
Posts: 874
Location: Puxi
Status: Offline

Posted: Sep 03, 2004 - 04:31 AM

vespertilia wrote:

i wanted to tell them "**** u, stand in line" but i didn't know the word..

You can just say,

"ma2fan2ni3 pai2dui4 hao3ma?"
麻煩你排隊好嗎?

Depending on your tone, it could be polite or not.

I am about to move to Shanghai and I can see this will be one thing that will get my blood pressure way up.

karnex420

Raver

Joined: Mar 08, 2004
Posts: 488
Location: Shanghai, China
Status: Offline

Posted: Sep 03, 2004 - 09:33 AM

I never thought of "Western" subways as nice places during rush hour. I can handle China's little quirks when I'm not exhausted. Just don't copy the "West" and start pulling guns on little old ladies.

Last edited by karnex420 on Oct 02, 2004 - 08:12 AM; edited 2 times in total

Rafael

Squeeker

Joined: Sep 12, 2004
Posts: 17

Status: Offline

Posted: Sep 26, 2004 - 05:59 PM

In my experience, telling people "pai dui!" really does work wonders for individual cutters 90% of the time. People do know that they are doing wrong and will sulk to the back of the line when told. In some cases, they will even smile the smile of a mischievous child.
In one case the offender was amazed that I could even say the words and started complimenting me on my good chinese!
Hard to tell this to a whole crowd of people pushing forward at a train station ticket counter or metro station though.
Besides the spitting, cutting (and its close cousin: pushing forward before letting others out of the metro or bus) is one of the things that irks foreigners most about living in China. Especially Northern Europeans.
And yes, what is appalling, to the point of being amusing, is the race for the subway seats with the man winning over the woman. I think the city of Shanghai could easily sell a DVD of such gems from their security cameras.