I haven't forgotten that I have a blog!

Wheee-heee!! After weeks of no access to Blogspot, Youtube, and a host of other popular websites (most notably ones that allow anyone to post anything at any time), I have found a slow and sneaky way into my own blog for editing purposes.

I am not sure whether the other forms of legal crackdowns I have seen in the same period of time are related, but the scene in Zhuhai has changed recently. The police are more visible, and many street activities are more strictly limited. Prior to this, evenings in Tangjia saw the main roads filled with vendors of all sorts: fried tofu, pot stickers, nail clippers, “machine woven” rugs (with the words “machine woven” proudly embroidered in large permanent lettering across the corner) and a hundred other cheap impulse buys were available as far as the eye could see (which, due to the haphazard design of the streets here, is not too far after all). As long as the police are not actively patrolling, this description still holds true, but many nights are now insanely quiet as the customary host of unlicensed street vendors hide away watchfully, ready to pull out their goods the moment the law has turned a 78 degree corner.

When all of this started, I wondered what would happen if the people on the street in Tangjia were “caught”. I asked one girl who always tries to sell me fruit, but all I thought I could understand from her response was that there was some fine that would be levied against usurpers. As I described in an earlier post, day vendors elsewhere in Zhuhai regularly encounter the police, and are simply expected to run (if the police van is in sight) or finish up business and move along (if it is just a lonely policeman standing watch). I had never seen the police enforce vending laws in Tangjia prior to the recent crackdown. Suddenly, everyone has become very, very careful. Lawfully located vendors have begun to place their produce only within their specified bounds, whereas they had previously spilled out into the sidewalk and street with their fruits and veggies. The restaurants no longer lure customers by taking their operation out on the sidewalks... except for one Muslim restaurateur. I saw him pull out his barbecue, fire up, and get yelled at. The police honed in. There was yelling and shoving and one of the women who worked at the restaurant (probably the businessman's wife or mother) got between the barbecuer and the officers. With one hand solidly planted on one cop's chest, she pushed her male counterpart away to keep him out of trouble and wisely directed her yells at him alone (but saved one very evil eye for the policemen). The cops slowly returned to their prior posts, clearly ready to pounce on the next offensive aura emanating from the general direction of the Muslim restaurant.

All of this is not to say that I have felt at all oppressed here. On the contrary, there are many ways that I feel freer in China than anywhere else. Partly it is because I am not culturally bound by hardly anyone's expectations of me. I am not expected to act Chinese by the Chinese people around me (though I am more than duly rewarded when I pull out a Chinese mannerism or two), nor am I bound by many common expectations I would face in the West. With reference to laws, the actions of most Chinese people indicate that the majority of laws are only intermittently enforced and less often abided by. I have often made the mistake of assuming that because people ignore laws on a daily basis, those laws do not exist here. I will say something along the lines of, “In the States, people are not allowed to sell food this way/ drive this way/ hit children that way...” and, while sometimes I am write that laws differ, often I am told that Chinese people are not supposed to do these things either, but, well, tradition is more powerful than law books (until, I guess, one has such a book thrown at them). I can only determine what laws exist by how people change their actions when gangs of policemen begin pacing the streets with the promise of a ride in the police van to any who offend their ranks. The newly donned demeanors of the laypeople at those times seem to be those of temporarily law-abiding citizens. (Ohhh, so those guys are not supposed to be selling those chic Prado bags and Tummy Hilfiqer sweaters? What about the Abibas shoes?) I have never seen police officers' presence change how people drive, but I am assured that there are traffic laws – they just aren't very popular or, probably, understood.

As my final weeks here draw to a close, I try to ignore the fact that I will have to leave. I love it here. I cannot wait to come back. Not just for a quick visit, either. That would be rough. No, I want to live here again. That is the best part of being in a new place is living there, starting to feel like a part of something even if every moment has its own reminder of one's alien identity.

P.S. My method of getting in to my blog does not allow for picture posting. Email me if you want to see some of my latest pics =)