Doppelgangers

Before going onto todays topic, theres something I first have to add in relaton to my previous entry about dangerous drivers in China. In the space of two weeks after I wrote that entry there were two serious car accidents involving pedestrians outside our campus, one outside the south gate and one outside the north. I was told that one of the accidents claimed the life of a young child in one, and a student was seriously injured in the other. Last I heard he was in intensive care, and I'm not sure if he made it or not. The details about the accident are a bit sketchy becuase they come from other students who heard it from others ect. But the fact that two serious accidents happened right outside our campus just highlights the real human toll of bad drivers and a lack of road regulations. Anyway, onto todays entry.

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon amongst some of my students over the last year, and this is probably something that happens all over the country. It seems that some pairs or groups of best friends try to make themselves look exactly the same. Now, to many foreigners one Chinese face can be difficult to distinguish from another (God, even I'm Chinse and I still have problems distinguishing!) But the sort of likliness I'm talking here is on a whole different level.

Now this shouldn't come as a surprise to me, as it's well known that asian countries are conformist societies, where individuality is frowned upon and collectivism is the key (although this is slowly changing amongst the youth). But two different pairs of girls  have made themselves look so similar that i can never tell them appart! To start with, they're about the same build, but they'll also dress in a similar fashion, sport the same hairdo and wear the same type of glass frames as their best buddy. Appearance-wise they could almost pass off as twins or sisters, but I'm not sure if they try to replicate each other's characters, since I didn't have the chance to get to know them well enough. I wish I could post id photos from my class database onto this blog to illustrate, but that would be inappropriate. It's funny because China is reknowned for their skill in copying and replication - rip-off rolexes, rip-off designer bags, and now rip-off people!

Personally I haven't seen more than pairs of best friends sporting the same look, but a friend told me she's overheard three girls from the same dorm ask a hairdresser to give them all the same haircut! how strange. I've never noticed this doppleganger behaviour between males though, but perhaps I just haven't stumbled across any yet. 

To a westerner like myself I find this behavour so strange. I can understand people want to follow fashion trends and wear stuff or do their hair the way the celebs are doing it, but completely copying every fashion detail from your best friend? Thats a little too creepy for me. If my best friend in university (or even high school) started to style himself exactly after me, I'd tell him to cut it out, then unfriend him.  It reminds me of that movie 'Single white female'

Surely one of the pairs of friends is taking all their fashion ques from the other, more dominant of the pair. Else how would they decide who to model themselves after when they first become friends? Because if they were both equal partners in this power arrangement, would they meet somewhere in the middle like a negotiation? How would they decide how to change or evolve their taste in fashion over their four years together? Nope, this seems much too complex. There must be one dominant friend and a follower, which if this is the case,  doesn't speak volumes for the follower. The follower could be viewed as someone who does not have a sense of self, or has little self confidence in who they are. But then again, there is another possible explanation to all this.

An overwhelmng majority (like 99%) of all my students who are single children always wished they had a sibbling. So could modeling your appearance after your best friend be some kind of attempt to  experience sibblinghood? Maybe on some sub-conscious level they're trying to play out their fantasty of having that brother or sister they never had. Of course, it's no substitute for spending your whole childhood with a real sibbling and having the same genes, but it's probably the next best thing! Actually  genetically, the next closest thing that some single children have to a sibbling is a cousin. And in fact, you'll find many students will talk about having a 'brother' or 'sister', when actually they are referring to a cousin. However, many of my students have parents who were also caught up in the one-child policy, and thus have no uncles, aunties, and thus no cousins. So for those in this situation, a best friend who you get along swell with and who looks just like you might be the closest you ever get to experiencing sibblinghood.

Then again, perhaps they just want to impersonate each other and take turns skipping class!

Cereal box drivers licences

They say you can judge a country's true development by the way their motorists drive, and if this is the case, then sadly China has a long way to go before it can be considered as developed!

For starters any tom, dick or harry can get their licence here, for a small undisclosed additional 'fee' to the driving examiner. Almost all my students who have taken the exam have told me about this, explaining that if you don't bribe it's extremely hard to pass the driving test. I'd be fascinated to see how a driving instructor or trainer does drive though as I'm yet to see any sane drivers on the roads here, nor have  i seen anything resembling a 3-point turn or reverse parallel park. And how the hell would they conduct the test on the road anyway, when everyone around you is driving like a lunatic? why, if the examinee was to actually follow the rules it would surprise all the other drivers and cause an accident!

I do know though that the standard hand position on the steering wheel is not like the west. Rather than at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions, it's one hand on the horn and the other on your mobile phone, or dangling your cigarette out the side window. And that brings us to one of the funadamental differences in driving etiquette.

Where in the West, a honk means ''f*#k you where did you learn to drive?'' a honk here in China means  '' hello there, coming through'' or ''i'm approaching this intersection and i'm not slowing down for you'' or '' i'm approaching you from behind so don't make any of your erratic swerves as i overtake you at 100km an hour'' .  and for taxi's it means ''hey you look like you need a lift just cause your walking along the footpath'' . So as you can imagine the horning never stops on Chinese roads. In fact, I think it's the most utilized apparatus on the dashboard. Chinese drivers don't need to read their car manuals, just show them where the horn is and they'll know how to drive it.
So car-horns are really built to last in Asia. Or it makes you wonder if poor little car-horns in the West are never given a chance to truely express themselves, to clear their lungs. Destiny unfulfilled. How sad.

Naturally I've seen my fair share of accidents on the roads. Most of them haven't appeared to be serious, but i can never tell as i cruise past. In China i've heard that whenever an accident occurs both drivers will just get out in the middle of the road (leave their cars where they stop and block all other traffic), and have a shouting/screaming competition. Do they debate the finer points of the Chinese road rules? I doubt it. Probably more like who's the shitter driver. The funny thing is, usually they do come to some sort of agreement on comepnsation (so i've been told). Or perhaps whoever was scarrier, had the louder shouting voice, or had the stronger connections to a government official or gansters won the argument. Who knows?

I've also come across the sight of an accident where one lady was just lying on the road, conscious, probably after being hit by a passing car. Of course the car and had already sped off, but the screwed up thing was that nobody was going to her aid. Even after the case of the 2 year old Yue Yue came to light earlier this year, people here still refuse to go to the aid of people in the street, for fear of being later accused and sued for inflicting the injuries by the victim themselves. Sadly it's still happening here, as detailed in this article

http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/videos/surveillance-video-saves-good-samaritan-from-false-accusation.html

Finally, if you thought that staying off the roads means your safe, think again. Here in China most people still drive 电车 or electric motorbikes, and these horrid things can drive along anything, including footpaths, and get into any nook or cranny. What makes them especially deadly is that they hardly make any noise, so you won't hear one approaching or coming up behind you until they're right upon you. And at night it's even worse as riders are fond of keeping the lights turned off (to save power no doubt, because they don't understand the concept of kinetic energy). Just pray that the riders can see you properly and don't make any sudden sideways movements while you're walking along any footpath in China. I was prompted to write this entry as earlier today I came within a whisker of being mowed down by one of these things from behind. My casual padestrian swagger for an instant turned into a quick-step sideways dance to avoid being maimed. After composing myself I looked up to give the rider a dirty look as he drove past, but he had already turned his attention back to typing his text message as he cruised along the service road. This is China.