Chengdon't

Now, if I may I’d like to to talk about a rather sensitive subject, (or should I say a rather sensitive subject in the West) – the thorny issue of weight.  I’ll be the first to admit that since taking over the editorship I have put on a few pounds.  The late nights and early starts, the lunches with contributors and clients and the lack of any regular life structure to fit an exercise regime around have all taken their toll on my waistband elastic.

On a recent visit back home friends and family were kind enough not to comment on my new-found girth (well, to my face anyway!), but this doesn’t seem to be the way to go for the straight-shooting Chinese.  They prefer to call a fatty a fatty and get it out in the open, even though according to a few of my friends here most Chinese realise that their doing so probably would offend most westerners.

My colleague Xiao He was the first to succumb to temptation when I bumped into him in the corridor last month.  “Hey!” he said cheerfully, stopping to jab a finger into my belly, “you’ve got really fat lately!”

Our new marketing girl also decided to chip in with her two jiao’s worth, and in the middle of our first full conversation she casually dropped in  “by the way, I think you should lose some weight.”  “Why?  I’m perfectly happy the way I am” I lied though gritted teeth. “Why not!” was her earnest but nonetheless irritating reply.

However, the icing on the double-chocolate black forest gateaux came from a rather unlikely source – our estate agent ‘Scott’.  My girlfriend and I recently moved apartments, and after the formalities and squabbles over minor items of furniture with the landlord everyone was preparing to head home.  Suddenly Scott reached into his shiny faux-leather bag and pulled out a Kodak photograph wallet, from which he extracted a series of ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots of chubby Chinese who had attained Bruce Lee-like physiques by taking ‘special’ herbal supplements.  “I think Chinese medicine can help you with your problem”, he whispered.

Needless to say I gave Scott’s remedies a wide birth, instead grudgingly forking out the money for gym membership and dreading the months of treadmill toil that lay ahead of me.  And this got me thinking – maybe in a really strange way the Chinese method of dieting does work?  Playing the shame-game forced me back to gym to stop the comments – perhaps that’s why the Chinese are so thin?  Hmm… on second thoughts probably not! Also in some situations being fat is a sign of wealth and prosperity, so perhaps they were paying me a compliment…?

It’s interesting though to see the change in body shape through the generations here.  Go to any of the numerous fast food outlets in Chinese city centres and it’s not uncommon to see a doting, stick-thing granny or grandpa, a slightly pudgy parent and a rosy, chubby-cheeked child stuffing chips like there’s no tomorrow.  So is this the beginning of the end for the traditional Chinese physique, or will global advances in food education and health mean that China will skip the fatty-food stage and move straight onto the next level?  I guess only time will tell.

Due to a long overdue return home for the holidays, Chengdon’t will be taking a break for a couple of weeks to recharge those blogging batteries.  But never fear! Your favourite mildly-humorous South West China based blog will be back on the 7th of January.  Until then blogwatchers, good luck and good tasty, zaijian!

National stereotypes, don’t you just love ‘em?  From the romantic, cheese-eating French to the brash, war-mongering Yanks, we all secretly love a good pigeonhole for our brothers and sisters from around the world to neatly fit into.

Perhaps it’s a good thing, but the oft-held European view of the binge-drinking, rosbif British has yet to hit these shores.  A lot of Chinese – especially when they first meet me – tend to land on the ‘English gentleman from the foggy city’ (most of the information on the British appears to be gleaned from school textbooks that don’t appear to have been updated since the Clean Air Act was passed).

Oxford Street yesterday?

In a slight aside, the literal Chinese translation for Oliver Twist comes out as ‘Foggy Capital Orphan’, which I think conveys so much more than a clumsy transliteration like ‘ow lee wa ter wiss ter’ ever could.  But I digress…

Apparently the Brits are also all loaded (one stereotype that is definitely misconceived!).  I’ve actually adopted a Polish alter ego for bargaining in shops because I find you get better prices that way.

All this begs the question – is there a uniform Chinese stereotype around the world?  Until fairly recently (at least in Britain anyway) we haven’t had much to build a good solid stereotype on, so we’ve drawn our inspiration from Chinese immigrants and films from Hong Kong, giving us an odd, slightly contradictory stereotype of studious, slightly nerdy high-kicking kung-fu masters.  But as the country opens up and it’s people have more dealings with the world, will this perception change?

One of the main stereotypes that may become obvious to the world is Chinese bluntness.  Although I feel it’s almost too simplistic to say blunt in the “a spade is a spade” kind of way that we perceive the word, it’s fair to say that the Chinese are more straight-talking than the average Brit in areas such as physical appearance and personal finances.

Lydia was one of my favourite students when I taught at Beijing Number 12 School a couple of years ago.  Every lesson she was delighted to see me, every question I asked her hand was up and after every class she had queries for me about the vagaries of the English language.  Towards the end of my tenure I set the class some writing to do, and was wandering around rather aimlessly when I saw Lydia had her hand raised:

“Mr. Herbert, can I ask you a personal question?”

“Of course”, I replied with a slight sense of unease.

“Can I ask, why have you become so fat recently?  Is it because Chinese food is so delicious?”

There are also regional variations within China that almost the entire population (including some of those stereotyped!) agree on.  Beijingers are snobs, Shanghainese only care about money, Chengduers are more ‘relaxed’ (for relaxed read lazy), while Chongqingers are hot-tempered due to the fact they eat so much spicy food.  It seems odd that people try and stereotype a nation of 1.3 billion; it makes more sense for  people to look for similarities in their compatriots rather than differences.

Right – long post!  I’ll sign off now.  Watch out for the new ‘photo of the week’ coming soon, and until next time blogwatchers, good luck and good tasty.  Zaijian!