总重红绿灯 | Stoplight in the Sky

This weekend I had a fantastic, if exhausting experience that combined exposure to the most traditional part of Chinese society with exposure to the overwhelming-ness of its new economy. Sound dull? I’ll list what I brought home:

1x tracksuit

1x Golden luck-pig

10 pairs of socks

50 pairs of cufflinks

2x colorful wigs

1x sprite bottle full of homemade moonshine

1x pair of handmade slippers made by a roommate’s grandmother (her son said she “wove her heart into the threads!” awww!)

Then let’s consider what I did:

Saw police arresting and “deporting” migrant workers who were living in an alley (for info on Chinese migrant worker law, look up the word hukou system).

Ate a fat home-style meal in an alley with a Chinese family, fighting off their strenuous efforts to get me drunk on aforementioned moonshine.

Spent hours and hours walking around the Yiwu international trade center, where they sell (in large batches) an amazing variety of products. I saw people selling: lightbulbs, coffee mugs, hand-powered pig-flashlights, lightning rods, fake flowers, plush toys, inflatable santa clauses, glowing bouncy thingeys, jewelry by the case, cloth by the yard, beer by the gallon, keychains, watches, tracksuits, remote-controlled toy helicopters, headlamps, and so on. The prices were incredible, and I got really excited until I realized I could only buy stuff in enormous batches. I could, for example, buy 200 headlamps at around a dollar apiece- when they get to the states they go for around $35. I think there’s a margin there, eh? I tell you, this place will enrage you when you realize how badly you are getting robbed by US retail prices (of course, their storefront rent is what you are paying for). Anyway. But unfortunately, I don’t have enough friends to justify buying so many headlamps. Might make a funny wedding present, though. Heh heh.

My host was the Chen family. Mr. Chen, a self-made man, owns a small factory (which most people would probably call a sweatshop) in which he makes multicolored hairbands. He does pretty well at this, well enough to put his daughter through college and pay whatever fine they charged him for having a second child, a son, who will also attend. The Chens are delightful. They spent most of the weekend taking us around to visit their friends’ shops, where we were given gifts, gifts, gifts, as you can see from the list above.

The Chens are also a great case study, and I hope to go back when my Chinese is better and do a more in-depth interview with Mr. Chen. Right now the family lives in a very traditional alley outside the modern city center, but they are moving into a condo complex that looks quite sophisticated, albeit with a Chinese sensibility a.k.a. what I would consider kitschy lighting, lots of white marble etc. But the apartment is huge, wired, beautiful . . . and unlike their current housing, air-conditioned.

The night after our monstrous dinner, I played basketball with the guys while the girls practiced dancing. In many places in China, you’ll find stereo’s playing waltz music and the like, and Chinese people come out to swirl around. It’s charming. At the same time, in the background was one of China’s less charming aspects; police dragging off an impoverished rural family in a van for the crime of working in the city without a residence permit.

That night we went and staying in a giant hotel. It was cute; they sent along the little brother to stay with us, and a little cousin to stay with Chen Jia Wen and Ou Yi Lian (female classmates) presumably to ensure propriety. This meant that there were three people in each room for two hard beds. Hardly mattered though; a giant thunderstorm came through and blasted us awake with the loudest lightning I have ever heard; it was so loud and destructive sounding, I had trouble believing it was lighting, it sounded like Yiwu was being bombed. The changing air-pressure caused our door to bang and rattle all night long, making it impossible to sleep, so I woke up and went out to take a look, just in time to see two consecutive lightning strikes detonate a transformer in a big green explosion, which took out the electricity for the sector . . . and our air conditioning. Not a good night’s sleep, to say the least.

Coming up: Tahiti in China: Nanji Island, and the Dragon Pools of Rui’An.