I was back in the US for a couple of weeks, and I think I experienced some reverse culture shock. There are many things that I found myself getting used to in China, only to come back to the US and be reminded that China really is a totally different place.
One of the biggest differences is in hygiene. I was walking with some friends along the Venice Beach boardwalk, and I spotted a public restroom. While my friends stood slightly aghast at the questionable sanitary conditions of the facilities, I glided in without hesitation. I was (pleasantly) shocked to find that the restroom had a door with a lock. In China, the better of the public facilities have squat toilets with individual stalls and doors, while the less-generous ones are simply a long concrete ditch lined with waist-high stalls without doors, so that people waiting in line stand right next to you and watch as you go about your business. It's awkward, to say the least. There was a normal toilet inside this bathroom at Venice Beach, as opposed to a squat toilet. Even though the floor was wet and strewn with soggy toilet paper, the very existence of toilet paper was a surprise. I had gotten used to carrying around a package of tissues, as everyone in China does, to use in restaurants and restrooms. After I finished using the bathroom, I walked outside to wash my hands. To my amazement, there was a soap dispenser next to each of the metal sinks lined up in a neat row outside of the restrooms.
When I rejoined my friends outside, I realized that I felt cleaner and more comfortable outside than I had in a long time. I wasn't walking through clouds of cigarette smoke all the time--although, it being Venice Beach, we occasionally walked through clouds of another kind of smoke.
I also felt lighter and freer than I had in a long time, although this may have been a purely psychological thing. In China, no matter where I was, who I was with, or what was being said, I always had a feeling that I was being watched and listened in on. Perhaps it was due to the fact that all visitors have to register at the local police precinct when they arrive in China. Or maybe it was because websites like Facebook, YouTube, IMDB, and most blog sites are blocked in China. Or because all media in China is closely monitored and censored to present a uniform and carefully tailored message to the Chinese masses. Probably a combination of all of the above. To be fair, it's not as if there is a noticeably heavier police presence in China, but there are vague indications, like some of the ones I mentioned above, that reminded me that I was no longer in "the land of the free, and home of the brave."
One arena in which China beats the US by far is in food prices. Food in China is extremely cheap. The current exchange rate is about 6.5 RMB per 1 US$. A food item costing 1 RMB in China easily costs at least $1 in the US. I guess I didn't get as much of a direct sticker shock from food prices in the US because the numerical values seemed pretty reasonable and on par with Chinese prices, but when I stopped and did the conversion in my head, I realized that most food costs about 6 times in the US what it would have cost in China. But, this only applies to prepared food prices--dishes in restaurants or snacks sold by street venders, processed foods sold in supermarkets, etc. In terms of raw fruit, produce, and meat, it seems that prices per pound (or kilogram) often equal or exceed US prices. Since most of the population is still living in rural areas and growing their own food, however, the majority of the Chinese population doesn't have to deal with these produce prices. One thing the Communist government has done extremely well in China is to solve the hunger problem. The Socialist revolution made it so that even if, with the modern economy, the disparity between rich and poor is growing exponentially, at least everyone has a place to live and can put food on the table. This is not an achievement that the US can lay claim to, or which the government has come remotely close to.
I'm still scratching my head over why prepared food prices can be so much lower in China. The only answer I can come up with is that labor costs in China are extremely cheap, and since labor costs and other overhead costs factor in to a huge chunk of the costs of prepared foods in the US, China beats the US in this respect. While in China, I couldn't wait to get back to the US and have some delicious Mexican, Italian, Greek, Thai, and Indian food that I was used to having easy access to. While back in the US this time, I reminisced about the cheap, delicious noodles, pastry pockets, dumplings, and stir fry dishes that I had enjoyed in China.
All in all, being back in the US made many features of life in the US and in China stand out in sharp contrast with each other. In my extremely biased opinion, life in the US is still much more comfortable and civilized than life in China. But, I could definitely get used to living in China, as long as I could live in a more urban area for at least part of the time.
I also felt lighter and freer than I had in a long time, although this may have been a purely psychological thing. In China, no matter where I was, who I was with, or what was being said, I always had a feeling that I was being watched and listened in on. Perhaps it was due to the fact that all visitors have to register at the local police precinct when they arrive in China. Or maybe it was because websites like Facebook, YouTube, IMDB, and most blog sites are blocked in China. Or because all media in China is closely monitored and censored to present a uniform and carefully tailored message to the Chinese masses. Probably a combination of all of the above. To be fair, it's not as if there is a noticeably heavier police presence in China, but there are vague indications, like some of the ones I mentioned above, that reminded me that I was no longer in "the land of the free, and home of the brave."
One arena in which China beats the US by far is in food prices. Food in China is extremely cheap. The current exchange rate is about 6.5 RMB per 1 US$. A food item costing 1 RMB in China easily costs at least $1 in the US. I guess I didn't get as much of a direct sticker shock from food prices in the US because the numerical values seemed pretty reasonable and on par with Chinese prices, but when I stopped and did the conversion in my head, I realized that most food costs about 6 times in the US what it would have cost in China. But, this only applies to prepared food prices--dishes in restaurants or snacks sold by street venders, processed foods sold in supermarkets, etc. In terms of raw fruit, produce, and meat, it seems that prices per pound (or kilogram) often equal or exceed US prices. Since most of the population is still living in rural areas and growing their own food, however, the majority of the Chinese population doesn't have to deal with these produce prices. One thing the Communist government has done extremely well in China is to solve the hunger problem. The Socialist revolution made it so that even if, with the modern economy, the disparity between rich and poor is growing exponentially, at least everyone has a place to live and can put food on the table. This is not an achievement that the US can lay claim to, or which the government has come remotely close to.
I'm still scratching my head over why prepared food prices can be so much lower in China. The only answer I can come up with is that labor costs in China are extremely cheap, and since labor costs and other overhead costs factor in to a huge chunk of the costs of prepared foods in the US, China beats the US in this respect. While in China, I couldn't wait to get back to the US and have some delicious Mexican, Italian, Greek, Thai, and Indian food that I was used to having easy access to. While back in the US this time, I reminisced about the cheap, delicious noodles, pastry pockets, dumplings, and stir fry dishes that I had enjoyed in China.
All in all, being back in the US made many features of life in the US and in China stand out in sharp contrast with each other. In my extremely biased opinion, life in the US is still much more comfortable and civilized than life in China. But, I could definitely get used to living in China, as long as I could live in a more urban area for at least part of the time.
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